2024 Disney Vacation Club Buying Guide
Our Disney Vacation Club Buying Guide for 2024 covers best & worst home resorts, buying DVC directly vs. resale, how to use points, pros & cons of joining, membership perks & more. We share our story of why we joined, and also answer frequently asked questions. (Updated December 26, 2023.)
Although we are DVC members, we weigh the benefits and drawbacks of joining. In other words, this isn’t a sales pitch for Disney Vacation Club. The fact is, DVC is not right for everyone. So, rather than presenting the kind of emotional and rosy marketing message you’ll hear from a DVC guide trying to make a sale, we’ll present a more balanced perspective here.
Let’s start with a little background. Disney Vacation Club is Disney’s twist on the traditional timeshare concept, and Disney advertises it as a way to save money on future vacations at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond. There are currently 16 Disney Vacation Club resorts, with several more projects in development in both Florida and California.
Speaking of which, it’s probably worth delving into some recent developments before getting down to the basics. The Villas at Disneyland Hotel is the newest Disney Vacation Club resort and the second addition at Disneyland Resort. That tower is a huge addition to the DVC portfolio for the California parks, where Disney Vacation Club is incredibly popular, but also has significant supply constraints at the Grand Californian. We’ve already stayed in the tower–check out our look at the new rooms in the Villas at Disneyland Hotel.
Next up, there are two projects at Walt Disney World. The first of these is the New DVC Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which is currently under construction and is currently slated to open in late 2024 at Walt Disney World. Based on the incredibly quick pace with which that expansion is being built, there’s no reason to believe it’ll be delayed.
Second, there’s the Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort – A Disney Vacation Club Resort. Work has not yet started on this, but these are slated to open in Summer 2024–before the Poly tower. The explanation for that is the new cabins being pre-fabricated off-site and installed unit-by-unit, not built on location. So the turnaround time could be a matter of months from start to finish.
Against this backdrop of new developments, Disney Vacation Club Sales Are Slumping. Well, sort of. The tides have been turning and we expect recent trends to continue in 2024. In a nutshell, what you need to know is that direct sales volume increased significantly in the second half of the year and the end result is that 2023 will end up being DVC’s best year ever for direct sales.
Part of this is that Disney Vacation Club has more for sale right now than ever in its history. Disney’s Riviera Resort and Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World, Villas at Disneyland Resort in California, and Aulani in Hawaii all were active properties–and everything but Aulani was still pretty new–this year. So part of it is a numbers game with a lot of different options for a variety of buyers, whether they want a home resort in Florida, California, or Hawaii.
This isn’t to diminish DVC’s success. It has been quite the comeback story in the second half of the year as compared to the first half and late last year. No matter how you try to ‘explain away’ the success–be it with more for sale or better incentives–you’ll still come up short. Direct sales of Disney Vacation Club have improved due to greater demand and other improvements.
Honestly, at this point we’d expect d2024 to once again break this year’s sales record for Disney Vacation Club direct sales. Although Grand Floridian will be off the table (since it sold out), added to the mix will be the Cabins at Fort Wilderness and Polynesian Villas. Both of those are likely to sell incredibly well. Sales for the Poly in particular will be like shooting fish in a barrel–Walt Disney World fans absolutely adore that resort. It’s even more popular than the very popular Grand Floridian.
With more of the Polynesian’s sales likely to fall in 2025 and all of the above-referenced resorts also still being available, our early bet would be that 2025 will also break the record for direct sales. Meaning that we’re talking about 3 consecutive years of record-breaking numbers. Of course, a lot could change between now and then with Disney and the economy as a whole, so we’re probably getting ahead of ourselves!
This isn’t us blindly cheering on Disney Vacation Club and encouraging you to buy now before sales stats get even hotter and prices increase. To the contrary, there has actually been a divergence between direct and resale numbers, and we usually recommend the latter.
The resale market has been on a downward slide since prices peaked in April 2022. There was one stretch when prices declined for 11 consecutive months, but that streak was broken this spring. Nevertheless, prices have continued to trend downward, with a few ups in the general descent. Overall, resale prices are down over 25% from their peak, and there’s no indication they’ve bottomed out yet.
The explanations for this are multifaceted, including higher baselines coming out of the pandemic when pent-up demand was high and people were putting stimulus money towards DVC contracts. Think of that as pent-up demand for Disney Vacation Club, which artificially elevated prices in 2021-2022, meaning that what we’re seeing now is a correction or return to normal.
That’s not the entire explanation, though. There has also been an influx of inventory, with an increased number of listings among the various sellers. Part of this likely stems from DVC disillusionment–guest service declined, Annual Pass sales were suspended, and Disney has been embroiled in various controversies and seen its brand reputation decline. All of these are likely contributing factors.
The big one, though, is that Disney has not been exercising its right of first refusal (ROFR) over the past year-plus. For those unfamiliar with the term, ROFR is the option Disney Vacation Club has to step into the shoes of the buyer and purchase the property themselves at the terms agreed upon by the seller and original buyer in resale market transactions. Disney can elect to purchase (or not) during a review of every pending DVC transaction.
With few exceptions, Disney has largely declined to exercise ROFR since September 2022. For those reasons discussed in that ‘slumping sales’ article, Disney Vacation Club pausing ROFR is a big deal. The moral of the story is that 2024 will be a great time to join DVC via resale. The market is currently finding a price floor, and we’d expect resale prices to continue to decrease.
With the Polynesian Villas, Cabins at Fort Wilderness, and likelihood of Reflections Lakeside Lodge after that, we do not expect DVC to resume exercising ROFR to any meaningful degree in 2024. Barring a sudden surge in resale demand (unlikely), this should mean that prices continue to drop.
As with anything, it’s exceedingly difficult to time the market. Given the totality of the circumstances (both with DVC and the broader economy), the coming year might present a golden window of opportunity–much like the Great Recession offered us back when we joined DVC!
In other news, Disney Vacation Club also has released its 2024-2025 DVC Resort Refurbishments & Construction Timeline. That covers what’s happening with the aforementioned towers being built at Disneyland Hotel and the Polynesian, as well as a half-dozen room renovation and expansion projects at other existing resorts.
Disney’s Riviera Resort is the newest DVC resort, having debuted 3 years ago. Its main selling point is a Skyliner station providing gondola access to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Check out our Disney’s Riviera Resort Review for thoughts on the resort as a whole. You should also be aware of the restriction for resale buyers at Disney’s Riviera Resort if you’re considering buying there via the secondary market or directly from Disney.
In addition to that standalone property, there are new Resort Studios at the Grand Floridian. We love these new rooms, which were converted from standard Grand Floridian hotel inventory. They aren’t typical DVC villas, which is a definite drawback for some, but everything from the details to the design to luxuriousness of the new rooms is exceptional. Much better than the ‘old’ GF rooms they replaced!
When it comes to pricing, Disney Vacation Club last increased the base price for all actively-selling resorts from $207 to $217 per point almost one year ago. That number is actually higher for the aforementioned Villas at Disneyland Hotel ($230 per point), but various incentives can reduce that price to around or even below the $217 rate, depending upon how many points are purchased.
Disney Vacation Club has announced another price increase on actively selling properties set to take effect on January 30, 2024. This move is not the least bit surprising–DVC typically increases prices around the start of each calendar year. In any case, here’s how prices will change:
- Villas at Disneyland Hotel – $239 (previously $230)
- Disney’s Riviera Resort – $225 (previously $217)
- Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas in Ko Olina, Hawaii – $225 (previously $217)
Pricing has not yet been released for the Cabins at Fort Wilderness or new tower at the Polynesian. Sales are expected to start for the cabins by Spring 2024 and for the Poly tower by late Summer 2024. New incentives for the above-listed resorts will likely roll out in Winter 2024, too.
As hinted at above, there is an alternative to paying the skyrocketing prices from Disney Vacation Club directly. Since you’re purchasing a real estate interest, DVC can be bought and resold on the secondary market, similar to a house. As of the time of publication, the average per point price is ~$115 (and trending downward). In other words, you can save considerably by purchasing DVC via resale!
This may sound too good to be true, but it is. That’s in large part because the vast majority of buyers have no clue that resale is even an option. Disney relies on an emotional sales pitch, uninformed buyers, and the aforementioned restrictions in an attempt to minimize the resale market. It’s a surprisingly effective strategy (few companies can tug on the heartstrings like Disney!)–so if you’re reading this, you already have a huge advantage over the majority of buyers who don’t do their homework!
Similar circumstances existed when we bought into DVC back during the Great Recession, and we couldn’t be happier with our decision to take the plunge then. We paid considerably less than today’s prices–or even the costs shortly after we joined and the economy began recovering.
For our part, we’ve been waiting to add-on DVC points for several years now. We are now waiting to see what happens next, with the expectation that mid-to-late 2024 might be the sweet spot. (Even though the tides are already turning, we think the buyer’s market will only get better next year via resale.) This is not to say history will repeat itself completely, or even that DVC is right for you. That’s what we’ll try to help you figure out through the rest of this guide, though!
With the ‘current events’ addressed, let’s turn to the threshold question: whether buying into Disney Vacation Club is actually a good idea for your family? Maybe you’ve recently taken a Disney Vacation Club tour or heard a sales pitch and are now wondering if it’s really as great as that it sounds.
The good news is that saving money with DVC is still possible. The bad news is that it’s not nearly as easy as Disney Vacation Club reps might lead you to believe. From a purely economic perspective, Disney Vacation Club won’t make sense for a lot of people.
Even if it doesn’t make sound fiscal sense, there are other compelling reasons for you to make the purchase. If your main motivation for buying an interest in Disney Vacation Club is to save money, whether it’s a good deal for you depends of your party size, resort tier preference, and how often you’ll visit Walt Disney World.
It’s also worth noting that Disney Vacation Club is a pre-paid vacation plan, which differs slightly from the traditional definition of a timeshare. In the strictest sense, Disney Vacation Club can be viewed as an asset, but not a tangible one. This is an important distinction to some people, but it doesn’t matter to a lot of people.
With that said, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of buying into Disney Vacation Club, and what you should think about before you decide whether to make the purchase…
Is Disney Vacation Club A Good Fit?
Accommodations Preferences – This is the threshold question, because if you’re (voluntarily) a Values and Moderates type person, Disney Vacation Club may never make financial sense for you. However, it can be a difficult question to answer, because it’s tough to anticipate your vacationing habits in the future. If you only roll Deluxe, and anticipate demanding posh accommodations in the future, Disney Vacation Club might be right for you.
Where DVC makes even more sense is for those who have kids or anticipate soon having kids, and are tired of sleeping in the same small quarters with them at a Moderate Resort. Disney Vacation Club, and its one-bedroom units and larger, may be right for you as it gives you the option to separate yourself from the kids at night. If you’re frequently booking the Art of Animation Family Suites, DVC is a great–nicer–alternative. Similarly, if you have to book two or more rooms at a Value or Moderate, it might be for you.
If you are a commando park tourer who primarily books All Star Sports, find the Value Resorts acceptable, and you stay up until all hours of the night and get up for rope drop daily, Disney Vacation Club may not be a good option for you. This is for two reasons.
First, the initial cost of Disney Vacation Club plus the cost of the annual maintenance fees will be higher than the sum of the yearly cost of a room at a Value Resort over the life of the Disney Vacation Club contract. This assumes reasonable price increases and accounts for the time value of money.
Second, because you simply don’t need one of the vacation-home style rooms offered by Disney Vacation Club. If you’re a no-frills or ‘bottom line’ traveler who just wants a place to shower, sleep, and will barely spend any time in your hotel room, it’s highly unlikely that DVC is for you.
With that said, even if you do presently stay at Value Resorts, after one stay at a Disney Vacation Club resort, you may be hooked. For many people, it’s one of those, “I didn’t realize what I was missing until I tried it” scenarios. Our first stay at the BoardWalk Villas definitely made it tough for us to stay in Value accommodations again.
If you’re not sure whether Disney Vacation Club accommodations will be a good fit, rent Disney Vacation Club points. There are a number of sites from which you can rent points, and they offer a cheap way to ‘get your feet wet’ with DVC, so to speak. You can also book Deluxe Villas from Disney directly, although this isn’t as cost-effective.
A final consideration in terms of accommodations: Disney Vacation Club still might not be right for you if you can’t stand the idea of MouseKeeping not cleaning your room daily. To us, this is such a minor, unimportant thing, but it bears mentioning. Conversely, if you like the idea of being able to do your laundry, prepare a meal in your in-room kitchen, or enjoy a whole host of other “home-away-from-home” amenities, Disney Vacation Club may be right for you.
Advance Planning – If you can’t regularly plan your vacations 7 months or more in advance, and Saratoga Springs Resort and Old Key West Resort, which are typically the two resorts that fill up last, aren’t acceptable resorts to you, then Disney Vacation Club may not be right for you.
During various times of year, popular Disney Vacation Club resorts fill up quickly. In fact, during the Christmas season, it can be difficult to get even Saratoga and Old Key West inside of 7 months. If you can plan more than 7 months in advance, DVC is probably a good fit.
One thing we recommend doing before buying into Disney Vacation Club is doing some sample Disney Vacation Club availability searches to get an idea of how far in advance you’d need to book to secure the resort you want. This can also be helpful in determining which home resort is right for you.
Disney Vacationing Frequency – Thanks to the banking and borrowing system, it isn’t necessary to take a Disney vacation every year. However, to make DVC a pragmatic option, you pretty much must visit WDW or DLR once every two or three years.
Using DVC points for non-DVC vacations offers terrible value. Since many DVC contracts expire in 2054 (contracts for Disney’s Riviera Resort will expire on January 31, 2070), you better hope the Mouse won’t break your heart anytime soon. Although if he does, selling your contract on the resale market is an option, and thanks to Disney’s Right of First Refusal, contracts retain a somewhat inflated value on the resale market.
Even this isn’t a hard rule. A lot of Disney Vacation Club owners who aren’t able to use their annual allotment of points safely rent them out through point-rental businesses. Rather than using the exchanges for other vacations, you will always come out ahead by renting out your Disney Vacation Club points and paying out of pocket for whatever the other thing is. The amount owners can make through point rental is usually more than enough to pay for accommodations elsewhere!
Interval International & Point Exchanges – Disney Vacation Club touts the ability of members to use Interval International exchanges for access to thousands of resorts in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Caribbean, and beyond, with a portfolio including resorts from Marriott, Sheraton, Hyatt, and Westin.
In addition, DVC Members are able to use their points for National Geographic Expeditions, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, and even stays at Shanghai Disney Resort. These options are great…in theory. However, in actuality, trading DVC points into these exchanges is not a smart use of points. Let me repeat that again because this is pretty much the opposite of what you’ll hear from DVC reps: don’t use Disney Vacation Club points anywhere but at DVC resorts.
We won’t belabor the point too much here since this is something covered in exhaustive detail in our Best & Worst Uses of Disney Vacation Club Points, but using DVC points on any of the various “Collections” or anything other than DVC is a bad idea. Being able to use points elsewhere is an illusory Membership Extra–a selling point touted by salespeople that has no actual value. Always has been, always will be.
This applies even to other Disney destination. You should never use Disney Vacation Club points for Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, the international parks, etc. Simply put, using DVC points at non-DVC resorts is also a poor use of points. If you buy into Disney Vacation Club thinking that you might cash-in your Disney Vacation Club points for any of these options every once in a while, you are going to have a difficult time getting adequate value out of your membership.
One reader recently emailed me, indicating that she saved $15,000 by canceling her direct purchase at the Polynesian Bungalows and instead purchasing the same number of points via resale after reading this article. $15,000. That’s a serious amount of money, especially given that one of the main reasons DVC reps are able to convince people to purchase directly from Disney is the “perk” of using the points on Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, or otherwise outside of the Disney Vacation Club resorts. It’s not an actual perk if you shouldn’t or won’t use it. Save the money and pass on the value-less perk.
Actual Membership Perks – Disney Vacation Club Members get discounts on Annual Passes for Walt Disney World. There are several Members-Only DVC pins, events, a small magazine mailed to members, and other offerings throughout the year as well. In our Top 10 Disney Vacation Club Member Perks post, we discuss all of our favorites.
One perk not mentioned in that article is free parking. Walt Disney World now charges regular guests for parking. However, Disney Vacation Club members will not pay for parking at Deluxe Villa Resorts, regardless of whether they booked with points or cash. That’s a potential savings of $24/night for guests who drive, so it’s a pretty big benefit.
It is important to note that none of these perks are contractual rights, so Disney is free to terminate or reduce these benefits at any time. A “Membership Magic” promotion runs from time to time that gives Disney Vacation Club members discounts on Disneyland and Walt Disney World Annual Passes. Disney Vacation Club members may also purchase a Tables in Wonderland card or the Disney Dining Plan, the latter of which returns in 2024!
These Membership Perks are no longer available to those who purchase their contracts via the resale market. Unlike the restriction on using the non-DVC resort collections mentioned above, this is potentially a big deal. If you intend upon purchasing Annual Passes with the DVC discount, this can eliminate a $100-200 per person, per year savings. In our post covering the “new math” for buying Disney Vacation Club direct v. resale, we analyze prospective buyers should do given this change.
Hard Economics
It’s important to note from the outset that all of the monetary considerations below assume that you are purchasing Disney Vacation Club via the resale market. This is the ‘best case scenario’ and definitely the way to buy into DVC given the presently high prices direct from Disney. The incentives Disney offers for direct-from-Disney DVC purchases rarely make sense.
If you are savvy with your money and saving it is your paramount concern, you should almost always purchase from the resale market. Before making a purchase, you crunch the numbers to determine what your vacation costs would be for the next 40 years if you do purchase DVC and if you don’t.
Since these numbers will vary widely for everyone researching the matter (based on party size, at which type of resort you’d prefer to stay, etc.), it’s difficult for me to offer sample calculations here. Instead, I’ll offer a few important considerations to make sure you take into account when doing the math.
Total Cost – When you’re looking at DVC, it’s tempting to just consider the initial, total purchase price and not pay much attention to Maintenance Fees. This is a mistake, as Maintenance Fees end up costing more over time at every resort, and can make a significant difference when comparing resorts.
We highly recommend using figuring out the total cost of DVC over the life of your contract, which is pretty easy thanks to DVC Pro Plan’s free calculator. Then do similar math for your current room expenses. However, this is not where your calculations should end, due to two very important things (see below) that the calculator overlooks…
Financing Disney Vacation Club – Not factored into the calculator is financing. Whether you have to finance Disney Vacation Club is an incredibly important question and definitely shouldn’t be glossed over. If you have to finance your Disney Vacation Club purchase, a lot of potential savings are wiped out by the interest you pay on the purchase.
Interest will vary from purchaser to purchaser, but it’s a very important consideration. Unless the intangible reasons that will be discussed below strongly apply to you, we usually advise anyone considering a purchase of Disney Vacation Club who would have to finance it NOT to make the purchase.
Time Value of Money – Another thing unaccounted for by the calculator. If you don’t have to finance your purchase, Disney Vacation Club should look a lot more appealing, but there still is a pitfall. In doing the math, time value of money is the most frequently overlooked aspect of any equation when people are crunching the numbers on Disney Vacation Club. Time-value of money is the principle that money at the present time is worth more than the same amount in the future due to its earning capacity over the course of time.
To illustrate this principle, imagine you have $1 today. If you invest that dollar today in something with a 6% yearly rate of return, and let it sit for 20 years, at the end of that 20 year period, that dollar is worth $3.21. Since you’re paying for all of your future Disney Vacation Club vacations up front as opposed to when they are incurred, large portions of the initial investment in Disney Vacation Club could be invested in other ways (with a similar return on investment rate, if not better) if you were instead paying for your room each year as you vacationed.
The calculations here can be pretty complex given that you can’t take that entire initial investment and perform a time value of money calculation on it to determine what it would be worth in 10, 20, or even 40 years, as you would be paying out portions of that initial investment each year for your hotel stays.
That said, by even doing rough math here, you should get a pretty good idea of the “actual” cost of Disney Vacation Club. Now, if you have suitcases full of one-hundred dollar bills sitting under your bed that you wouldn’t invest anyway, maybe this is not a consideration for you. Use this Time Value of Money (TVM) Calculator to see how it makes a difference.
Home Resort – If you’re interested in maximizing the economics of Disney Vacation Club, it’s very wise to purchase a contract with a home resort that expires in 2054 or later. When we first started crunching numbers over a decade ago, Saratoga Springs Resort was the very clear winner.
The arguments in favor of Saratoga Springs Resort are threefold. First, it frequently has the lowest per-point cost of any of the Walt Disney World-based resorts. Second, even when other resorts are lower in per-point costs, they’re higher in per-point maintenance costs, which is more important than the initial cost-difference.
During the intervening years, a number of other resorts have opened that are more expensive but have even later expiration dates. Disney’s Riviera Resort and the Villas at Disneyland Hotel expire in 2070 and 2074, respectively. That’s 16 and 20 more years than Saratoga Springs at this point, so amortizing those higher up-front costs over the life of the contract can mean they end up being cheaper on a per year basis.
So in other words–don’t overlook expiration dates. Some of the oldest Disney Vacation Club resorts have less than 20 years of life now, and those are (finally) starting to come down in price as a result. At the other end of the spectrum, many newer resorts have 30-50 years, which is pretty lengthy by comparison.
You should never overlook maintenance fee costs, as over time, you will pay more in maintenance fees than the actual contract cost itself. That $.20 to $2 difference per point in maintenance fees may not seem like much now, but over time, it really adds up. It may be tempting to buy at Aulani, Hilton Head, or Vero Beach, but consider the maintenance fees before doing that.
You also need to keep in mind that your home resort is where you have an 11-month window. This is of no value whatsoever at Saratoga Springs, whereas it’s incredibly valuable at any of the monorail loop or EPCOT-area resorts.
Copper Creek at Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian, and Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary all hit this ‘sweet spot’ of desirable location, lower maintenance fees, and longer contract durations (later expiration dates). While these are not the cheapest contracts on the resale market, the price premiums are not bad considering all of the above. (They are better than, for example, the Polynesian or Grand Californian.)
Although we opted for Saratoga Springs Resort as our home resort when we purchased Disney Vacation Club, things have changed since then. If we were doing it all over again, we’d probably buy at the Grand Floridian, BLT, or Copper Creek. In fact, that’s precisely our plan–to target one of those three resorts–the next time we add-0n.
Locking In Your Vacation Costs – One of the huge benefits of Disney Vacation Club is locking in prices for future vacations. In other words, you know up front what your vacations will cost for the next forty years or so (depending on the expiration date of your DVC contract).
This is something you can’t accurately predict without DVC, but one thing you can predict is that room prices directly from Disney will increase. In fact, since we purchased Disney Vacation Club–and even since we first published this article–rack rates at Walt Disney World have skyrocketed, far outpacing Disney Vacation Club maintenance fees.
Depending on how dramatically these prices increase, you could realize significant savings by purchasing Disney Vacation Club. When performing your calculations, make sure to account for this yearly increase in room rates you’d be paying if booking a room from Disney each year rather than using your DVC membership.
Non-Economic Considerations
Okay, I wrote up a lot of “stuff” above, and it’s funny to think that one sentence can wipe away all of that, but it very well might. That sentence is, “will owning Disney Vacation Club increase my quality of life?” If the answer to this question is yes, all of the economic considerations in the world may very well be meaningless. It may be a good idea to purchase DVC anyway.
If things, such as the “Welcome Home” doormats, Disney Files Magazine showing up in your mailbox, going to bed at night knowing your vacations are partially paid in advance for the next 40-some years, the “forced vacation” aspect, owning a piece of the Magic, or being able to share trips with friends and family in awesome and unique accommodations are a big deal to you or will make you happier, then you might want to disregard everything I’ve written above.
As with everything in life, “happiness” is that ace-up-the-sleeve trump card that can render everything else meaningless. Quite simply, you can’t put a price tag on happiness and peace of mind.
Try Before You Buy!
We highly recommend trying Disney Vacation Club before you buy to see if it’s right for you. You can either do this by booking a Deluxe Villa directly from Disney or by renting Disney Vacation Club points. We highly recommend renting Disney Vacation Club points, as you will save considerably over booking directly from Disney (typical savings over even a discounted Deluxe Villa price are around 50%) and you will get the true “Owner” experience.
Check out our Guide to Renting Disney Vacation Club Points if you want more information about the process! For renting points, there are a few options. The most popular and least expensive option is renting points from David’s Vacation Club Rentals, which specializes in DVC points rentals.
This is actually another place where you might want to stop and do the math. Not to see if renting is cheaper than booking through Disney (it unquestionably is), but to see if renting Disney Vacation Club points for all of your trips is a better option than buying Disney Vacation Club points. We know a lot of people who go this route year in and year out because it provides great savings without locking them into an actual contract. It is something to give serious thought, and you might be surprised just how attractive renting, rather than buying, can be!
I Want To Purchase DVC, What’s Next?
Home Resort – If saving money is the impetus behind the purchase, and you’ve crunched the numbers and think it can be done, this is a no-brainer—you buy into Saratoga Springs via resale.
If money is a concern, but you have a definite resort preference, you should buy where you want to stay. If you won’t be happy unless you are able to stay at the Beach Club Villas every trip, you should purchase points there. This is especially true with the popular and small resorts, such as the Beach Club Villas, which are difficult to book at the 7 months mark throughout much of the year.
At the bare minimum, your home resort should be somewhere you wouldn’t mind staying—because you just might have to stay there during busier seasons where other resorts are booked at the 7 month mark. If you are not sure which resort might be the one you want to call “home,” read our article ranking the Disney Vacation Club resorts.
Start Watching The Resale Listings – There are several sites that can assist you in purchasing Disney Vacation Club via the resale market. The most popular ones include ResalesDVC.com, DVC Resale Market, The Timeshare Store, and DVCByResale.com, and I’ve mostly heard positives about each.
Figure out what you want, whether your contract needs to be ‘loaded’ and start making reasonable offers on contracts. Another resource to use for searching Disney Vacation Club resale listings is DVCFinder.com. It’s basically a search engine of active listings on the main DVC resale sites.
Research, Research, Research! – This post is aimed at whether you should buy Disney Vacation Club. Once you’ve made the decision, you need to understand various aspects of ownership. With regard to those things, this post barely scratches the surface. You might have seen passing references to the “7 month window” above. Do you know what that is? Do you understand terms such as “banking,” “borrowing,” “ROFR,” or “use year,” just to name a few terms?
Disney Vacation Club practically has its own lexicon, and it’s important to fully understand the product before you buy. I spent two years reading and posting on the MouseOwners.com forums before we made our purchase. It’s worth hanging around there or the other sites mentioned above before making a purchase. The members there can impart far more wisdom on you than I ever can. Many of them are true experts.
Our Story
We are Disney Vacation Club owners, and the economics work well for us even though we don’t have a larger party or a demand for always staying in Deluxe Resorts. We save money with DVC, but more importantly, owning makes us happy, which is the paramount consideration. We reviewed these same factors when contemplating a DVC purchase. Ultimately, we decided it was right for us. After doing the math every which way, we determined that buying a Saratoga Springs Resort contract was what we needed.
Our circumstances were a bit different than the norm, though. For our honeymoon, we wanted to stay at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, or Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Unfortunately, for the busy summer season, we couldn’t get much of a discount on any of these rooms. We found that if we purchased a modest contract, we could bank & borrow enough points to use for our 10-day honeymoon. In comparison to paying out of pocket for a stay at the BoardWalk for our honeymoon, buying the DVC contract outright on the resale market provided a very short break-even number of years.
With the math working out well, it was an easy decision, as the hotel stay would have no residual value, whereas the DVC contract would be useful for years. Plus, as Annual Passholders, the DVC membership would save us over $250 per year total for our Disneyland and Walt Disney World APs, which comes close to covering our dues. On top of that, we have access to a variety of member perks including lounges, special events, and more. Those are all hardly make or break, but they’re nice bonuses that make us feel valued as members.
While our touring style of staying out late and getting up early doesn’t really necessitate DVC accommodations presently, but we won’t keep up this pace forever. When we slow down, I’m sure the amenities DVC offers will be vital. In the meantime, we still enjoy the nicer room and resort every once in a while. The math worked for us, and so too did it increase our happiness. There are few pieces of mail I look forward to more than the Disney Files magazine, and hearing “Welcome Home” from the Cast Member at the front desk of our resort gives me an ear-to-ear grin every time. It may not work for everyone, but it certainly works for us. Hopefully this guide helps you determine whether it works for you!
Looking to plan a trip using your Disney Vacation Club points? Make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide and Disneyland Trip Planning Guide. We also have an Aulani Trip Planning Guide for those of you using your points in Hawaii! For updates on Disney Parks including the latest news, discount information, and tips, sign up for our free newsletter!
Your Thoughts?
A lot of you reading this are probably either members who stumbled upon it while looking for Disney Vacation Club content, or prospective buyers weighing their purchase? What do you all think about Disney Vacation Club? Owners, are you happy with your purchase? Potential owners, how does this article impact your decision to buy? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Are there any property taxes with dvc? Is that part of maintenance fees?
Yes. It’s part of the annual dues cost that you see listed.
Tom,
If you buy DVC through a resale, on one of your other posts, that brought me here, you mentioned that it was possible to transfer benefits as if you purchased direct from Disney. Can you provide me a link to read more about how this is achieved? Also, does DVC membership automatically come with a DVC member card?
Tha I you and GREAT INFORMATION.
My husband and I bought into DVC 2017; and we are feeling as though there are not many benefits to being a member. We are finding more aggravation than it’s worth. Visiting WDW is now a hassle and when visiting parks you can’t even ride a ride in which you want. My husband states that it was better going to a keyosk to get fast passes then you were able to ride the rides more instead of three at each visit. We are disappointed all around. How could anything about DVC be better? Please give me some reasons. We want this to work.
Probably the biggest benefit is you are basically locking in for 50 years of vacations at 2017 pricing. As you can see even since 2017, pricing has steadily increased. Unless you can live with All Star type accommodations and/or do not care to stay on property, then DVC makes sense. We were lucky when we bought resale in 2006 that we did not have to borrow any money for the purchase. If you had to finance it, then you need to do a cost analysis to see if it is really worth it for you over the long haul. Next up comes the various discounts available to DVC members such as special tours, retail, dining and park tickets.
I would disagree with you husband on the kiosks as more time was spent lining up for those than in some attraction lines. Once you get a handle on the MyDisEx app, you will find you can actually get on more attractions than before.
Finally the expanded vacation options DVC allows you can be quite impressive with some planning. RCI etc. are wonderful ways to do things other than the parks on the coasts. One of the first things we did before kids when we bought DVC was take an Alaskan Cruise with the points. This was before Disney sailed to Alaska. We felt that trip alone pretty much justified the DVC purchase.
Now as of 2019, would we buy into it today? Absolutely not. Why? Initial costs are too high and we could not afford it. Unfortunately our salaries have not kept up with Disney’s price increases.
What about willing your points? Does the entirety of a direct purchase contract have to be passed on to one child or can I split it between two.
I’m a new DVC member and we bought 100 points at Polynesian in Oct. 2017 directly from Disney. Since we live in CA, the DVC rep tried hard to get us to buy Aulani but I didn’t want to buy if there were no parks around. Honestly still not sure why Polynesian was available in 2017 but figured it was best value if we decided to sell or rent out our points. Since we go to DLR or WDW only every 2-3 years, we planned to just bank our points for the length/room type we want. But I am super confused by the changes DVC announced and everyone seems way more versed in the ins and outs than I am.
I just need some basic questions answered…since we own 100 blue card DVC points, if I buy more points on the resale market, can I still use them combined with my original points? Can I use both my direct and resale points combined at the 11 month window?
If you buy more Poly resale with the same use year, then yes. They will match up member number under one member and you can use both direct and resale at 11 months.
Hi Jeremy, thanks for replying. So I can’t buy any other resort’s resale points except for Poly? That’s too bad because we were looking at a 50 point resale with the use year we needed but it was at Copper Creek. We were hoping to combine our direct buy points with the resale points for a longer stay and/or bigger room to use at other DVC resorts besides Poly. Well that sucks then!! Anyways thanks for info.
You can buy resale anywhere. Just the 11 month window is for that specific resort. So if you have Poly already and buy 50 resale at Boulder, then your Poly points can be used at 11 months for Poly and your Boulder at 11 months for Boulder. Then at 7 months you could try to wait list Poly with your Boulder points. Or just book both at 11 months and don’t worry about waitlist but stay at 2 different resorts.
Last trip I divided my time at Bay Lake Tower and Animal Kingdom Lodge -Kidani. Actually makes for a nice stay to break it up.
Hope that helps. A lot of people have a lot of different resorts. Matching up Use Year is more important. Because with same Use Year (even if you have 5 different resorts) then all of your points are under one DVC log in. With a different use year you actually end up with a different member number/acct which makes it a little tougher to manage for most people.
Tom,
Great informative article. My question is that the last few years my family (4 of us) have received the free dining plan and subsequently have booked the bounce book free dining. We usually go in August as my wife is a teacher and this is usually the time that works best. We looked into the DVC on our last trip. We have gotten spoiled and like to stay at the lower end deluxe hotels. How much do you think the free dining should influence our decision as whether or not to buy in and how much longer, in your opinion, do you see Disney offering the free dining. This is a very big saving and added expense if we join. Thanks for any advice!
I think there two other very important questions to consider when deciding on DVC.
First, are you CERTAIN that you want virtually all of your vacations to be at WDW for the next several decades? The reason Disney built DVC was to incent you to visit – often – and over many, many years. As our kids have grown, some of them have cooled to the Disney vacation, despite how much they absolutely loved it when they were younger. As prices for admission, food, experiences, etc. continue to go up, is it possible you won’t find value – even if you can afford it? It’s also a whole lotta walking. Are you thinking it will make as much sense when your 70 as it did when you were 40?
Second, are you considering future economic uncertainty. Bad and expensive stuff happens in a life. We all know that. Job loss. Medical expenses. Taking care of aging parents. College for the kids. Funding your own retirement. And on and on. Yes, I know that you can rent or re-sell, and that can help. But, nothing saves more money than NOT GOING AT ALL when economic times are a little tough. If you don’t own DVC, you can do something inexpensive for vacations for a while. Go back if and when you can afford it again.
Summary, I speak only for myself, and others feel differently. My thinking is simply this: I’m trying to save money for my retirement while also working hard to lessen my fixed and recurring living expenses. I see no wisdom in takong a chunk of my retirement money and purchasing DVC membership. I don’t want to have recurring expenses for maintenance. I do want to have the flexibility of not needing to go the WDW (I absolutely love the place!) every two to three years or the hassle of renting my points. To me, the best of both worlds is to rent DVC points from. I’ve done it and it saved me money.
Yeah maybe but here’s the thing, you cannot take your money with you. Time and time again we have seen families so worried about having money in the future and not enjoying what they have today, only to die at an early age. And then the money is left to the remaining spouse and children with zero memories of anything. You can’t live life like that.
Rent as you have said as it works for you. For us, we bought in 2006 when the prices were $85/point and we did not have to take a loan to purchase. We had no children yet. Fast forward to today and it was an excellent investment. We have not only done WDW trips but used the points to cruise Alaska way before Disney was up there with their own ships.
Now could we today afford the $180/point they are asking? Absolutely not!
Yes….. my husband’s father passed unexpectedly at age 59. His mom said, we were saving all of this money for WHAT exactly? Really put things in perspective for my husband. We now have a nice balance of spending on vacations and saving.
We bought into DVC in 2003 when the prices were lower. A couple of years ago I added on 25 points thru resale. It was confusing me at least, to keep up with two memberships and two different use year ends. So I sold my $25 points two years later, made $500 off of that and kept my 150. I will add more points on when the time is right but only thru DVC. Since I am a current member, it is easier. We love the Deluxe resorts. Never was a value resort kind of person. More like a moderate resort person and they are now too expensive to stay at. Last year we went 6 times and the rooms along wold have cost over $5500. I pay $1000 a year annual dues, so definitely worth it for us. We will eventually go on a cruise or stay at a DVC resort in another state, but for now, just Disney World and we are happy with that.
A tertiary perk of owning DVC is that by purchasing an AP at a discounted rate, I also save money by not having to pay for Memory Maker. All our pictures are included in the price of the AP.
Wow that’s awesome I had no idea – thank you for the info. I don’t currently get APs because I don’t go frequently enough to justify but if that ever changes it’s nice to know memory Maker is included
Hey Tom,
Big fan of all you do so thank you.
We bought resale market and just got past ROFR at Boulder Ridge. As a family of 5, it is in our best interest. We saved almost $17,000. Thank you!
Tom, love this in-depth article. We purchased our first DVC contract through the resale market and bought at Bay Lake Tower for exactly the reasons you mentioned above. We compared Saratoga Springs and Bay Lake and settled on Bay Lake. We then added a small amount of points at Copper Creek direct to go ahead and get the annual pass holder discounts and other perks we knew we would use. We were just down there last week and did the whole DVC presentation as my brother and his spouse are looking into purchasing. I couldn’t believe how the price per point direct at all the different resorts has gone up! Glad we purchased when we did. It works for us and we have been many times now on our points and have taken many family members. We bought first contract back in 2016 and we keep saying we are so glad we made the decision we did to buy!!!!
How many points do you have? What was the small amount you added on ? There’s a minimum right? Thanks! We bought Boulder Ridge since we needed deluxe to sleep 5.
I am interested in buying a smaller (100-150) size contract, and going to Disney about every year to two years, though concenred about availability. We have flexability in when we go, though we prefer after Thanksgiving, late Feb / early March, or even Mid May. My fear is that the studio, basic rooms, are not available for booking, even at the 11mo window. We typically can book out as far as 2 years, and can adjust accordingly when needed. But I do not want to be stuck in larger, more expensive rooms. From what I am hearing, DVC is expanding, and building lots of the larger floorplans, and selling the space and points to accomodate them, but everyone buying the points uses them for the smaller rooms. From DVC members – is it as hard as they say at the 11mo mark to get home resort? Would consider home resorts such as BLT, AKL, and possibly Saratoga to get in the door, or others, though not Poly or GF, exept to perhaps stay at one year.
11 month home resort if booking right at 11 months is rarely a problem. After Saratoga and Old Key, Animal kingdom is usually the most widely available at 7 months in my experiences. But if you are booking at 11 months, I’d say almost never a problem. If anything a particular room type of view might be unavailable, but you will be most likely to stay at your resort. I’ve also had good luck booking one resort and then waitlisting a non home resort.
My concern would be not able to get the basic room, and having to get a 1/2/3 bedroom, and we do not need that (right now, in a few years perhaps). love the AK, and being able to relax, though the Bay Lake Tower and being able to walk over to the Kingdom is a great perk.
I understand. I was talking about studio availability. That’s what we have gotten. 11 month you’d definitely get a studio. Could be possible to not get the view you want. For example there is a small inventory of Animal Kingdom Value studios value view. these are less points than standard. These have mostly no balconies and no view at all (1st floor looking at a shrub ). Also Bay Lake standard view studios go quick because they are cheaper and there aren’t many but no problem at 11 months getting a lake view or theme studio at 11 months. Those views you can easily get less than 11 months easily.
Jeremy, thank you! I could look at a brick wall and be fine with it if I can walk out the door and be where I want to relax – that really helps us decide.. now just need to figure out which resort and buy year! Leaning on AKL and BLT.. LOVE Animal Kingdom, and the grounds – we go there to relax. The tower for the convenience though….
My wife and I purchased back in 2001 and increased our points in 2010. My sons were 4 at the time of our first purchase and it was the greatest investment we have ever made. Now, the price per points was more than half of today’s. So, you do need to take that into consideration.
The number ONE piece of advise I can give anyone purchasing into DVC is to make sure your contract is separated into much smaller point contracts if buying directly. Preferably, into 50 point each. If buying resale, try to find multiple smaller contracts to purchase.
Four 50 point contracts give the same benefit of 200 points (when at same resort), yet when the day comes to sell you will get much more in terms of price per point and a much quicker sale. Also, since contracts can not be separated, if you want to will points/contracts to family members after passing, having multiple contracts makes this possible. My Bay Lake Tower contract will expire in 2060. While I hope to be alive and kicking at Disney, I will be over 90. I might want to give my sons the contract much earlier for their children to enjoy. I can’t separate a 160 point contract. So, only one can receive.
We recently visited a DVC sales center and almost bought at Riveria. At the last minute I became very nervous about it because I’ve never been in a Skyliner (Gondola) at Disney and I’m not quite sure if I’ll love it. We ultimately went with a monorail resort because easy transportation is key for us.
We have two friends who own at Saratoga and spend many, many calls trying to get DVC rooms at other more desirable DVC resorts. Despite the savings I didn’t want to be stuck at Saratoga each visit.
I’d say you made the right decision!
Riviera is something that might make sense to own…eventually. I’d rather see it in person first, and see what resale prices look like. I could see these points being an absolute bargain via resale in 3-4 years.
Where did you end up buying?
This is very Orlando focus and leads me to believe that the California option is not a good deal.
Grand Californian is a great DVC property to own. However, you’re paying a significant premium for it at this point, so in order to justify owning there as your home resort, it needs to be where you’ll want to stay the vast majority of the time.
By contrast, we wouldn’t consider owning at Aulani, Vero Beach, or Hilton Head. Grand Cali is the one non-WDW location that actually makes a ton of sense!
Your reviews on DVC led me to buy almost two years ago. I was leaning SSR but a rare subsidized Vero contract appeared and I bought it. It was a gamble. But it paid off for a couple reasons so far. It is an ultra rare extra subsidized dues contract ($1 less than published subsidized Vero rates ). We stayed at Kidani Savannah 6 nights and BLT 1 last November and enjoyed Vero a ton last month. (So much that we want to go back to Vero again and again). Also as you said in your recent update , I’ve seen more and more options at the 7 month mark. Bay Lake and Polynesian are becoming regularly available much of the year. And I’ve occasionally seen Copper and Grand Floridian ! Anyways I love your articles. You are my favorite source of all things Disney. (FYI I’m 39 and first went in 2016 and got hooked. Poly in 2016 via discount , Beach in 2017 via rental. Bay Lake 1 night and Kidani 6 in 2018. Vero last month. )
Hi Tom,
This is such a helpful article. Thank you for writing this. May I ask whey you wouldn’t consider owning at the Aulani? We live in California so Hawaii makes the most sense to us as we go to Hawaii more often than Florida.
Intelligent and thoughtfully put together. Thank you.
Is it true that now if you buy from resale you only have access to that particular resort? Because that would basically kill any desire I have for resale. I’d like to have resort flexibility.
Hello, the way I understand it is this. If you buy Riviera Resort resale you will only be able to book at Riviera and newer locations. If you buy Saratoga Springs or BLT or any of the pre-Riviera properties resale you can book any of the other pre-Riviera properties at the 7 month window but you cannot book Riviera or newer. You can book home resort at 11 months.
I really like the idea, and the advantage of having a deluxe resort for low season for a cheaper price in the long run but the thing that scares me the most is the annual fees. Sure they are affordable now, but what will the cost be 40 years from now for example? It doubles every ten years so i can potentially be looking at 300-400 dollars a month in fees for 150 points. It’ll be a second mortgage payment in time for retirement.
The idea for us was that we did not need to borrow the money to make the purchase. Having done that in 2004, we have reaped the benefits of essentially buying vacations for 50 years. We have done cruises and various things at great prices. Now would I buy into it at today’s asking prices? NOT A CHANCE!
We will actually selling our DVC Saratoga points after our next and last stay next month. We’re done with DVC. Twice now, we’ve tried to book reservations for the DVC Afterhours events at both Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. In BOTH cases, we got into the queue within seconds of the reservation window opening. Within 10-15 minutes, reservations were closed and the message was coming up that the event was full. The queue numbers hadn’t even gone down 1000 people. EPCOT is huge and can hold tens of thousands of people but they were saying it was full after 15 minutes and less than 1000 reservations booked. This is happening because guests staying at hotels get to book first before general DVC members. While this may be a nice perk for people staying at a Disney hotel, it seems incredibly unfair to people like me who have spent thousands on this DVC membership. We are basically being forced to have to pay more money to stay at a Disney hotel in order to use our membership we’ve already paid for. And to make matters worse, Disney refuses to offer these events on more days.
Why can’t they offer these afterhours events on multiple days where DVC members can attend 1 single day only allowing others to go on other days? And they keep building more and more DVC resorts and adding more and more members but not adding more event nights. So they are trying stuff more people into the same events. And for this reason, they fill up so fast that you basically can’t reserve the events unless you are extremely lucky or paying hundreds to stay at a Disney hotel.
Even though we bought from Disney, as it turns out, we have the same benefits as if we had bought resale points because we can’t book the extra events anyway. Why keep paying for a membership we can’t use?
We’re done with it. No reason to keep paying the annual dues and monthly payment on our financed points. We’re better off just saving up money and paying cash for our vacations which then allow us to go and stay anywhere any time!
I’m not a DVC member but, am thinking about joining. So, I’m confused about the after hours event. I can’t book and stray at my own DVC resort for the after hours event. I have to book and pay cash for a Disney Hotel room in order to get the perk of booking the after hours event before the general DVC members can???
I know members staying at Disney hotels get to book before guests that are not staying there. Whether or not DVC members staying at a DVC Hotel or their own home resort get to book before regular Disney hotel guests or not, I am not sure.
Booking the Moonlight Magic events has definitely been frustrating, with a lot of members being shut out.
With that said, your comment is misleading. Non-DVC members are not able to book Moonlight Magic. Members with on-site reservations that coincide with event dates get a priority booking window. DVC members without reservations are thereafter able to book what’s left about a week later.
As for stuffing more people into fewer events, Moonlight Magic just started a few years ago, and has expanded significantly to more dates and parks since then.
This page covers the event dates, booking windows, and ‘rules’ for the event at Animal Kingdom: https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/discounts-perks-offers/member-events/moonlight-magic-disneys-animal-kingdom/
I worded that response differently. I meant that DVC guests staying at Disney hotels get to book before general DVC guests not staying at a Disney hotel. The one thing I wasn’t sure about was whether or not DVC guests have to stay at a DVC hotel and if so, do they have to be staying with points or can they be staying at any Disney hotel paying cash as long as they are a DVC member and still be able to book the moonlight magic events early? That, I am not sure of.
Thanks for clearing that up!
Trying to decide if DVC is right for us and if we can afford it monthly or not? Need someone to crunch some numbers for us. My daughter is 15 now and we go every other year. Not sure yet? Enjoyed your article, gave me more to think about.
Buy a smaller contract and bank and borrow. Ro
Buy a smaller contract and bank and borrow.
Your best bet is what everyone is saying–small contracts.
Use the DVC point charts to see the cost of a studio room for a week; pick the resort you see yourself visiting the most frequently, and the time period you usually vacation. Then get a contract close to that amount of points.
For example, AKL is my favorite resort, and the one we’re most likely to stay at frequently. We like to visit late gall/early winter (Adventure/Choice season). We usually stay 6 nights. So for us, we’d need 74 points to stay in a standard view studio during the more expensive season (Choice) for six days.
We ended up getting lucking and getting a 35pt and 50pt contract from the same seller for AKL. For us, this is the perfect amount. It’s enough for us to book a studio for 6 nights at most resorts once per year, usually with a handful of points leftover to bank. If we do a vacation every 2-3 years, we have enough points to bump us to a savannah view room or a 1-br villa for six nights.
So think about the types of vacations you see yourself having, and try to plan your points around that. Would also recommend not buying contracts above 100pts, as it is easier to scale back your points and resell in the future. You will get a higher price per point at resale than selling a huge contract.
Thank you! It was really helpful reading all the way through and as you said research and know the product will help me to clear my mind and make the right decision.