The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a segment of The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying a real estate interest in a DVC resort via a flexible points-based membership system. There are an estimated 220,000 club members. History The first Disney Vacation Club property, known as the Disney Vacation Club Resort (later renamed Disney's Old Key West Resort in January 1996), opened on December 20, 1991 at Walt Disney World. In 1991, Disney had registered its time share plan with the state of Hawaii but did not establish an escrow agreement with Hawaii at the time of its creation. This allowed Disney to advertise its time share company in the state but did not allow for sales. On January 17, 1992, Disney Vacation Club was incorporated as Disney Vacation Development, Inc. On March 30, 1993 Disney Vacation Development Inc announced plans for a 440-unit time-share resort 95 miles south-east of Walt Disney World in Florida with ground breaking on July 28, 1994. This resort hotel, today known as Disney's Vero Beach Resort, opened on October 1, 1995, as the Vacation Club Resort at Vero Beach, Florida. Disney would then open Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort just five months later on March 1, 1996 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas opened its first phase in 2007 at $17,000 for a membership. By September 17, 2008, Disney Vacation Development had two new time share properties being built, Bay Lake Tower and Treehouse Villas in Orlando at existing Disney park hotels and both were to open in 2009. Bay Tower was expect for its timeshares to open at $18,000. On October 3, 2007, Disney announced it would open its latest Disney Vacation Club resort on 21 acres it had purchased in Ko Olina Resort, Honolulu/Oahu, with building slated to begin in 2008 with completion in 2011. The resort would offer both DVC units as well as standard hotel rooms for guests of the resort. With the announcement, DVC filed its remaining paperwork to allow its timeshare units to be sold in Hawaii. Three top executives were fired for selling 460 Ko Olina timeshare units for what were deemed unprofitable prices. The Hawaii resort opened as Aulani on August 28, 2011. In early 2011