The shift in Disney Vacation Development’s marketing focus to Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows and away from the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is reflected in this month’s direct sales data. In May 2015, sales for the Polynesian jumped 34.0% compared to the previous month, but sales for the Grand Floridian declined by 61.1%. Overall, direct sales in May dropped to 169,377 points, 24.5% less than in April 2015 when 224,472 points were sold.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — In May 2015, 59,752 points were sold for the Polynesian, a 34.0% increase over the prior month. A total of 254,181 Polynesian points have been sold, about 6.3% of the resort’s 4 million points.
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Five Guaranteed Week deeds were sold for the Polynesian in May, bringing to 62 the number of Guaranteed Week deeds sold so far. More than half of the deeds — 35 — are for the last six weeks of the year. Lake View studios have accounted for 29 deeds and Standard View studios have accounted for 23 deeds. Ten Guaranteed Week deeds have been sold for the over-the-water bungalows.
Disney Vacation Development has declared 10 bungalows and 142 studios for the DVC inventory, which accounts for 40.71% of the resort's total points. There are still 218 studios and 10 more bungalows that have not yet been declared and are controlled by DVD.
Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa -- In the previous 23 months that Disney Vacation Development had been selling the Grand Floridian, sales averaged 104,595 points and no month had less than 63,610 points. In May 2015, only 37,322 points were sold, further evidence that DVD is no longer focusing its marketing efforts on the Grand Floridian.
DVD has sold 97.7% of the Grand Floridian’s 2,470,384 points. Since DVD must retain at least 2% of the Grand Floridian’ points for itself, it still has about 32,000 points that can be sold to the general public.
The number of Grand Floridian points not yet sold for each Use Year varies significantly. The December Use Year has the greatest number of points remaining (18,712 points), while the September Use Year has the fewest number of points remaining (3,862 points).
One Guaranteed Week deed was sold in May, bringing to 272 the number of Guaranteed Week deeds that have been sold for the resort. 108 of the 272 Guaranteed Week deeds have been for the last six weeks of the calendar year, with weeks #49 and #51 being the most popular. There are five weeks — #5, #8, #9, #16, and #34 — for which no Guaranteed Week deeds have been sold.
Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas — In May 2015, 358 Aulani deeds containing 57,154 points were sold. Over the last 12 months, 792,231 points were sold for Aulani, an average of 66,019 points a month.
Aulani averages more points per deed than the other resorts. In May, Aulani averaged 159.6 points per deed, the Grand Floridian 152.3 points per deed and while the Polynesian 128.8 points per deed.
The sales data includes all nine DVC resorts at Walt Disney World, as well as Disney's Vero Beach Resort, Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, and Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas. Point sales data is not available for the Villas at Disney's Grand California 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, the Beaufort County (SC) Register of Deeds, and the Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances.
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl”.
