DVC Update: Perks Minimum Increased, Christmas Availability, 2021 Point Surplus
There have been some interesting Disney Vacation Club developments, so we thought we’d cover the latest news from Walt Disney World and beyond in this DVC update. We’ll focus on the most recent restriction, its ramifications, future availability, and whether we think now is a good time to buy–or if you should wait.
The main news is that Disney Vacation Club has increased the number of direct-purchase points an owner must buy to be eligible for Membership Magic perks. To obtain a Disney Vacation Club Membership Card, Members must accumulate a total of at least 125 Vacation Points purchased directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc.
The eligibility for Membership Magic perks was first introduced four years ago, albeit without a point threshold. That led to many members purchasing via resale and adding on small contracts of 25 or 50 minutes to sidestep the rule. Two years later, a minimum of 75 points was added. Then last year, that was bumped up to 100 points.
DVC Members who purchase the minimum number of points directly from Disney are issued a blue member ID card. This card gives members access to dining, shopping, and Annual Pass discounts. It also allows members to attend the Moonlight Magic after-hours events and visit the Imagination Lounge at EPCOT.
The 125-point minimum applies only to new buyers. None of this is retroactive, meaning that anyone already in possession of a blue membership card is grandfathered in. That’s true regardless of how they purchased their DVC membership or how many points they own.
As for why this is happening, it depends upon who you ask. Disney Vacation Club will tell you that it’s to offer those who purchase directly a “premium advantage.” It also somehow supposedly benefits existing members, as Disney claims that it helps address booking challenges with popular room categories. It theoretically results in fewer small contracts being sold, meaning fewer members competing for the same rooms.
I don’t follow their logic. Even assuming what DVC is contending is true, it doesn’t change the total number of points–just how they’re allocated. You could use tortured logic to advance the argument that those with more points are more likely to book the Polynesian Bungalows (rather than those sitting empty on some nights), but that simply shifts capacity allocations around, and does not change the total supply of points.
Let’s call it what it actually is: a protectionist attempt to reverse the trend of declining direct sales. While numbers have rebounded since bottoming out during Walt Disney World’s closure, fall monthly point sales are still nowhere near their peaks earlier this year and late last.
This change is motivated by Disney’s desire to offer a “premium advantage” to direct buyers or alleviate inventory woes for existing members to the same extent that my love for Country Bear Jamboree is motivated by the color trends or Spirit Jerseys. Which is to say, in no way whatsoever.
Regardless of what Disney might claim, the sole motivation for this–and every other restriction DVC has implemented in the last ~5 years–is to nudge people away from the resale market and towards buying directly from Disney. If a contract bought on the resale market is perceived as inferior or makes potential buyers think they’ll be “second class members,” some of those people will buy direct instead. It’s no longer a purely economic decision or an apples to apples comparison. Disney’s rationale for doing this is that simple.
It’s also worth noting that, contrary to Disney’s claims, this restriction actually hurts current owners. While no one buys with the intent of later having to sell, the reality is that it does happen quite frequently. If this move is successful in pushing people away from the resale market, that means fewer buyers there, and thus, reduced prices if/when you go to sell.
We’re grandfathered in and almost certainly will never sell our membership given that we write a blog covering the Disney parks. To the contrary, we’re likely to purchase more points when the market is right. (Unlike the Dow, the DVC resale market is absolutely one you can time.) Given all of that, we’re the rare, unintended beneficiary of the change: those interested in purchasing via resale who don’t care at all about the lack of perks attached to those contracts.
However, if we were contemplating joining Disney Vacation Club today for the first time, this change would not have the desired effect on us. We enjoy the Membership Magic perks, but no amount of mental gymnastics or fuzzy math would get us to the point that those are worth more than the thousands of dollars we’d save by purchasing via resale. Like anyone else, we are swayed by benefits and status, but the main point of DVC is to save money. That goal is better served buying resale.
With that said, we would absolutely not buy Disney Vacation Club at the moment, whether directly or via resale. As we’ve noted a few times over the last several months, there’s ample reason for the rational buyer to hit the pause button on a new Disney Vacation Club purchase.
We first broached this topic back in the spring–before any resorts had even reopened–in our Disney Vacation Club’s Point Pool Problem commentary. That delved into how one ripple effect of the closure will be reduced room availability once the parks reopened. In short, there’s a surplus of outstanding points flooding the market. At some point once demand picks back up, this will result in a shortage of rooms.
This very much remains an ongoing issue, albeit one we did not foresee the full extent of at the time. For one, we didn’t anticipate Aulani (the single biggest point problem prior to this) staying closed for so long. Even when it does reopen next month, the practical reality is that travel to Oahu is still prohibitive for most members, and that’s even before the possibility that Hawaii’s restrictions tighten back up.
Second, even now with the Disney Vacation Club resorts having reopened at Walt Disney World, fewer members are attempting to use points through early 2021. There are a number of reason this is happening, and it’s a safe bet that owners will continue postponing trips even beyond Spring 2021.
This is borne out by random availability searches we did this morning, with several resorts having a ton of availability for the next three months. Not every resort is as bad as Animal Kingdom Lodge, Old Key West, Polynesian, or Saratoga Springs, but most have availability for roughly half of the holiday season. That’s something that would never happen for Christmas-time this close to travel dates during normal times.
This compounds the problem of points not being used during the closure, and means a disproportionate number of members will be trying to use their points later in 2021 or bank points and try again in 2022. So many members are putting off trips right now, but will be forced to use or lose those points down the road. The room options simply are not going to exist for many of these people, leading to tons of lost points.
Fearing this exact scenario, we’ve already made more bookings than normal for this year (and into early 2021) in an attempt to exhaust next year’s allotment of points before the demand surge. We’ve also repeatedly recommended those reading do the same. It may not seem like much of an issue right now given the ample availability, but the ample availability right now is exactly what’s going to make it such a big issue down the road.
New buyers are going to be faced with these exact same challenges, which is precisely why we don’t recommend buying right now. Stay on the sidelines, watch this all play out from afar, and see what happens next.
It’s probably a stretch to predict that the coming availability woes in 2021 and 2022 will lead to many current Disney Vacation Club members getting fed up and dumping their contracts on the resale market, but that’s certainly a possibility.
Between that and lagging recessionary effects on the economy as a whole, our view is that a wait and see approach is far more pragmatic than jumping at Disney’s current incentive or even taking the plunge via resale.
In the meantime, there’s also the reality that there has never been a better time to rent Disney Vacation Club points from a money-saving perspective. The major rental companies have tons (literally thousands) of confirmed reservations at deep discounts, which further tips the scales in favor of renting v. buying right now.
We aren’t in the market for that either, but if we were, we’d wait until the absolute last minute when discounts are best and cancellation risks are lowest–then book a confirmed reservation. (Given ongoing uncertainty, we’d caution against renting points far in advance right now. A lot of people got burned by the closure; there’s minimal upside and considerable downside to booking far out so long as availability and confirmed reservations are high.)
Ultimately, that’s what you need to know, along with where we stand on all of this. There’s obviously appeal in buying directly from Disney to be a “full” DVC member. There’s also something to be said for instant gratification over waiting to see how things shake out. Part of joining Disney Vacation Club is undeniably the emotional pull.
However, we’d caution against allowing emotions and sentimentality to totally override logic, patience, economics, and a grounded risk assessment. If you join Disney Vacation Club right now, you might end up buying your way into problems and frustration that could be avoided by simply waiting a year or so, and “trying” via the overstocked rental market in the meantime.
Thinking about joining DVC? First be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. This covers the pros & cons, resale v. direct, how much money you’ll save, and other important things to know before taking the plunge. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” and rent points from DVC Rental Store. If you are convinced a membership is for you, check out the discounted options at DVC Resale Market. Planning a Walt Disney World trip? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you plan on purchasing Disney Vacation Club points in the near future, or are you waiting to see how things shake out? Does the latest perks requirement push you towards direct or resale? If you’re already a DVC member, are you concerned about inventory shortfalls in 2021 and 2022, or do you think our concerns are overblown? Think DVC will try to fix the point pool problem? Any other reasons you would or would not purchase right now? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
August 18, 2021. AS a dvc member always looking for info like this. It’s been frustrating to be a member with loosing points, banking into RCI, and booking a reservation for middle of November 2021. Thought it would be safe and we might feel good about going away. Not so. But our banking window is closed and we’re going to be forced into RCI again. Do you hear from other members? IF you do can you please tell me where to look. Thank you
I wish you would date stamp your entries. But lots to think about in this one.
Once again, Tom, your photos are phenomenal. Great writing too. This is an enjoyable site to visit. Thanks!
Given Disneyland and Aulani’s issues with closures and travel restrictions, respectively, and since points may be harder and harder to use at WDW in 2021, makes me suspect a lot of people are going to want to book cruises with their excess points even though that is not a good value just because there is nothing else to book. Which could also be contributing to the reason Disney is restricting magical benefits like cruise booking on points to grandfathered in folks and new direct buyers with higher points.
We have lots of DVC points (most bought resale thanks to you) and have planned two WDW DVC trips in 2021 and one Aulani in order to make use of our points before the rush. You are right; there is going to be a terrible availability problem. Worse than ever before. We also have Grand California points. What the heck are they going to do about the mess in California? We have an April 2021 DVC stay booked now in hopes that Disneyland will be open by then.
I’m not sure what the negotiating power of buying from Disney is for DVC (I’m still very new to all of this…and have let Disney just take my money in the past), but does that have any bearing on buying into DVC now? Is there anything that can be negotiated better now, than when the market is hot?
Nope. They don’t even have FP+ to give out. Now if you are talking resale, lots of negotiating to do. Direct? Nah.
Hi Tom,
My brother gifted me his DVC to Saratoga back in July. We started the process with American Title co. and I’m still waiting on Disney with the end result. I can’t believe it is taking so long. The title co. was finished with it in the beginning of September and it was recorded with the county at the end of September. I hope my brothers points don’t get lost in the transfer. Reading this I hope I’m not making a mistake and because I am receiving the gifting and not buying, Disney doesn’t get over on us? Would really like to book a trip soon â€â™€ï¸ Thanks
Your problem is probably the lack of staff at DVC sales and administration. It’s taking a lot longer to complete sales because of so many employees on furlough.
The DVC rental market right now is great, but a total bummer for those who plan way in advance! We booked our upcoming November 2020 trip in December 2019 (renting points); we booked at the first possible date to score the coveted Bay Lake Tower. But now we are stuck with a non-refundable stay that costs more than it would be if we booked right now. And the same is true of our our annual January marathon trip (now-canceled), we always rent points for Kidani Village. Even disney has discounts that are making us cringe that we planned and paid in advance.
Thanks for the information
This article is perfect for where we are at. We have often looked at buying from Disney direct or resale and favor the Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, or Polynesian as a home resort. We live in Florida so are already annual pass members anyway and often go to Disney for a few weekends a year usually in Fall/Spring (we avoid in the summer).
I understand that there is an anticipated glut of points out there and concerns for unit availability for the next 1-2 years. I’ve seen several units up for resale that have already used up their 2020/2021 points and are offering better pricing because of this.
1) Would this be a time where purchase of such a unit may make sense?
2) Let’s say someone buys 125 points directly from Disney and 50-100 points from the resale market for the same property. Call all the points (175-225) be used toward adventures by Disney or Cruises or just the 125 points bought directly from Disney?
Again, thank you for the really informative article and have a great day!!
You can only use the directly purchased points for anything outside of DVC resorts (other than Riviera) unless they are grandfathered points (we bought most of our points directly in 1997, 2000 and one small resale in 2000). You cannot use resale Riviera points anywhere but Riviera now. Even so, you can purchase lodging on the DCL for a lot less than the number of points needed for a cruise. Adv by Disney is another point hog. Just pay for cash anything outside of DVC resorts. Trading points for these Disney trips outside of DVC gives you a return of less than the annual fees you pay on the points. So you ultimately lose money on those trades. Then if you need to cancel the trip, you can no longer use those points for DVC stays since they were converted to Reservation Points which can only be used for non-DVC Disney trips.
Don’t plan on booking trips last minute with DVC. We have four more trips booked with our Sept 2020 points already and will book our Oct 2021 trip next month at 11 months out. We’re SW Floridians.
There is already a crunch for later 2021 bookings. Just setup a booking for my home resort at the 11 month booking window and units were already getting harder to book a week. 1 bedrooms were gone, and much of the 2 bedrooms were also unavailable. DVC has already had a pointscapacity issues before CV19, but now it’s getting crazy.
Thanks for this and absolutely agree with a lot of your assessment, especially currently buying direct vs resale. Thanks for always posting updates and thoughts 🙂
Hi Tom! Curious about your most recent thoughts on attendance the week after Thanksgiving. We had plans to stay at CBR but one member of our party decided not to go so we switched to Pop Century this morning. I was surprised that there was so much availability for multiple resorts 30 days out! Thanks for any insight and sorry if you’ve covered this and I missed it.
Tom, thanks for writing this. I am curious if selling a DVC now would make sense. We have two contracts, both for Boulder Ridge with small number of points (25 and 30), December use year. One of them has banked points for next year, which we will likely not use. The other one (30 points) has points coming December 2021 (which we could bank). In addition, my wife and I prefer the Poly, so I am curious if selling one or both of them now and waiting to buy into the Poly later may make more sense. Thoughts?
You couldn’t bank Dec 2021 points until Dec 2021. Then they would be good from Dec 1, 2022 through Nov 30, 2023.