Disney Vacation Club Members to Find African Adventure in New Time-share Resort
Members
Will Own a Piece of the Magic Near Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
-- Disney Vacation Club is developing a new time-share resort on Walt Disney World
property to meet ongoing strong demand for its unique vacation-ownership program.
Disney's
Animal Kingdom Villas will be located at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, which readers
of Travel & Leisure Family magazine recently honored with the No. 4 spot on their
list of the 50 greatest family resorts in the United States and Canada.
"We continue
to see strong demand from families who want to build a lifetime of unforgettable
memories by vacationing in ways they never dreamed possible," said Jim Lewis, president
of Disney Vacation Club. "I am delighted to announce that our members will have yet
another place to call home with Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas. This begins another
exciting new era for Disney Vacation Club as we continue to explore future destination
possibilities both domestically and internationally."
The Disney Vacation Club accommodations
will feature intricate African-inspired details and home-like amenities, and most
will offer sweeping views of an expanded savanna inhabited by a variety of African
animals. Members who call this resort "home" will live their very own true-life adventure
in a setting inspired by the intrepid explorers and historic expeditions of 19th
century Africa.
Walt Disney Imagineers are designing the new village of Vacation
Homes to feel curiously at home in the natural world. The architectural style will
evoke the look of a thatched-roof, hewn-timber structure that will appear to emerge
organically from the land beneath it, drifting in and out of view from lush landscapes
like a giraffe hiding in the tall grasses of the savanna. Add authentic artwork,
imaginative architectural details and Disney's world-class brand of storytelling,
and the result will be an immersive village unlike any other.
These new accommodations
are scheduled for development in phases with an anticipated opening beginning fall
2007, with completion scheduled for spring 2009. The project's first phase will include
134 remodeled accommodations on the fifth and sixth floors of the existing Disney's
Animal Kingdom Lodge building, and subsequent phases will include the construction
of 324 Vacation Homes in a new building on the resort property, for a total of 458
Vacation Homes.
The highly anticipated project also calls for construction of a new
table-service restaurant, themed pool and water-play area, fitness center, merchandise
shop, sports-and-recreation facilities and more.
Disney Vacation Club, now celebrating
its milestone 15th anniversary, is an innovative time-share program that lets families
enjoy flexibility and savings on future vacations at Disney destinations and more
than 500 other popular vacation sites around the world. Since 2000, Disney Vacation
Club membership has doubled to include more than 300,000 individuals from more than
100 countries and every U.S. State.
Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas will be the eighth
Disney Vacation Club Resort, joining five others at the Walt Disney World Resort,
one in Vero Beach, Fla., and one in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Disney Vacation Club
has sold out of memberships at its first six resorts, and sales remain ahead of schedule
at its seventh property, Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, which opened in
May 2004 near the Downtown Disney area at the Walt Disney World Resort.
