After three consecutive months of increased activity, April direct sales of Disney Vacation Club points came in 30% lower than the first quarter average.
Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
In April 2018, 155,694 DVC points were sold for the 10 DVC resorts located at Walt Disney World, well below the 225,603 points sales have averaged January through March.
Despite the slowdown in sales this month, sales in 2018 are still ahead of last year’s pace. Disney is averaging 208,126 points a month in 2018, a 12.0% increase over the average for the first four months of 2017.
The number of 25-point deeds purchased is beginning to drop. In April, only forty-five 25-point deeds were sold. By comparison, 418 25-point deeds were sold in the first three months of 2018, including 186 such deeds in March 2018.
Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge — In April 2018, 126,569 DVC points were sold for Copper Creek, the fourth consecutive month that sales have topped the 100,000 point mark. The resort has now sold 32.1% of its 3.321,966 total points.
Disney reacquired its first Copper Creek deed in April. It bought back at full price a 275-point deed that it had originally sold in October 2017. So far, no Copper Creek deed has been foreclosed by Disney, nor has it exercised its right of first refusal on resale transactions involving Copper Creek deeds.
Since sales began for Copper Creek, the resort has averaged 81.989 points a month. At that rate, it would take about 27 months, or until July 2020, before Copper Creek is completely sold out. However, in the four months since it became the focus of Disney’s marketing efforts, Copper Creek’s monthly sales average has jumped to 138,158 points. If sales continued at that higher pace, the resort would be sold out in about 16 months, or by August 2019.
For the third consecutive month, Disney declared more inventory at Copper Creek that can be used by members booking with points. On April 13, 2018, Disney declared 12 more vacation homes at the resort, bringing to 82 the number of vacation homes placed in the DVC inventory. In terms of points, Disney has now declared 1,669,880 points, or 50.3% of Copper Creeks total points. This means that on any given Use Day Members can book up to 50.3% of the resort using points. As Disney sells more points for Copper Creek, it will declare more vacation homes for the DVC inventory.
One Guaranteed Week deed was sold for Copper Creek in April 2018. Since sales began, 18 Guaranteed Week deeds have been sold accounting for only 0.23% of the resort's points.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — Disney sold only 6,566 Polynesian points in April 2018. More points were actually sold for Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa (7,990) than for the Polynesian.
Disney also reacquired 4,227 Polynesian points through foreclosure proceedings and by exercising its Right of First Refusal on third-party resale transactions. Although Disney still has about 20,000 Polynesian points in its inventory that it can sell to the general public, the majority of these points have probably already been committed to sales and are awaiting closing.
The sales data includes all 10 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 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.
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.”
