Just weeks before sales of The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort open, direct sales of Disney Vacation Club points fell to one of its lowest levels since the global pandemic in 2020.
In December 2023, 98,161 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts located at World Disney World and The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. It was the fewest number of points sold since February 2023 and the fourth fewest points sold since 2020.
Year over year sales slumped 22% compared to the 126,074 points sold in December 2022, a period in which DVC was not yet marketing a Disneyland destination.
Despite the decline in December, calendar year 2023 was the best year for direct sales since 2011. In 2023, 2,281,500 DVC points were sold, 13.0% more than in 2022 and the most since 2,445,187 points were sold in 2011. Not surprisingly, The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort led all resorts in sales in 2023, accounting for 41.4% of points sold. Disney’s Riveria Resort was second with 25.5%, edging out The Villas at Disneyland Hotel, which accounted for 24.9%.
Several large deeds were sold in December. Grand Floridian and Riviera each had a 1,000-point deed. Riviera also had an 800-point deed and two 600-point deeds. In addition, one member bought 500 Grand Floridian points and 500 Riviera points spread across eight deeds.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In December, Riviera sold 61,150 points. This number is fewer than resort totals for October (69,170 points) and November (70,315), however it was well above the 48,429 points Riviera has averaged in monthly sales in calendar year 2023.
Riviera crossed the 4 million point mark in December and is now at 4,032,653 points, which is 59.8% of the resort’s 6,739,966 points. Since sales started in April 2019 the resort has averaged 71,521 points a month. If Riviera were to maintain that sales pace it would take it three years before it is completely sold out.
No Fixed Week deeds were sold for Riviera in December. Disney has sold 117 Fixed Week deeds for the resort: 97 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for Deluxe Studios, 8 for one-bedroom villas, 9 for two-bedroom villas, and 3 for three-bedroom grand villas.
On December 15, 2023, Disney declared another 32 vacation homes for the Riviera’s DVC inventory. The resort now has 256 of its 341 vacation homes included in its DVC inventory. There are still 85 vacation homes that have not yet been declared and are under the control of Disney. The declared inventory accounts for 5,081,401 points, or 75.4% of the resort’s total points.
The Villas at Disneyland Hotel — In December, 16,805 points were sold for Disneyland Hotel, DVC’s newest resort. December’s sales are only about 1/10th of what was sold in June 2023, the second month that sales were active for the resort. No new resort has had that big of a drop-off in its first year.
Disney has now sold 569,012 points since purchases were first recorded in May 2023. About 17.5% of the resort’s estimated 3,255,992 total points have been sold to the public.
Because the data available from the Orange County (California) Clerk-Recorder’s Office is limited, it is not possible to track some items such as Fixed Week sales. Even the exact number of points sold cannot be measured directly; instead, the number of points can only be estimated based on the Transfer Tax paid on each deed.
The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — Since Disney announced on October 30, 2023 that the Grand Floridian was “sold out” sales have been dropping. After selling over 100,000 points each month from July to October, only 38,556 points were recorded in November and 12,095 points in December.
No Fixed Week deeds were sold for Grand Floridian in December 2023. Disney has sold 58 Fixed Week deeds for the Resort Studios in the Big Pine Key building: 24 deeds for Standard View Resort Studios; 26 deeds for Lake View Resort Studios; and 8 deeds for Theme Park View Resort Studios.
The sales data includes all 11 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World, as well as Disney's Vero Beach Resort, and Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. Point sales data is not available for the Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. The data is compiled from deeds filed by Disney Vacation Development and recorded with the Orange County (FL) Comptroller, the Indian River County (FL) Clerk of Court, and the Beaufort County (SC) Register of Deeds. Thanks to Chris for assisting in the compilation of the sales data.
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Copper Creek Villas, Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl.”
