September is a historically slow month for Disney Vacation Club direct sales and 2022 was no different. Nevertheless point sales for Disney's Riviera Resort continued to outpace Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.
In the ten years before the pandemic, September was one of the slower times of the year for sales of Disney Vacation Club points. From July 2010 to March 2020 the month of September ranked only ninth in average monthly sales. 2022 seems to be following that pattern as September 2022 has recorded the third fewest points sold so far this year.
In September 2022, 139,015 points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World, the fewest number of points sold in a month since February 2022 when 132,368 points were sold. September’s total is 15.8% less than what sales had averaged over the prior three months and 25.1% less than the 185,530 points that sales had been averaging in 2022.
Sales for Disney’s Riviera Resort were steady, down only 1.5% from the prior month. But sales for Grand Floridian fell 33.7% from August as the resort recorded its lowest monthly total since it resumed sales in March 2022.
Contributing to the softer sales in September was the weak performance of the nine “sold-out” resorts at Walt Disney World. Only 7,283 points were sold for these nine resorts in September 2022. By comparison, in September 2021 those same nine resorts contributed 41,508 points to the monthly total.
The largest deeds sold in September were two 1,000-point deeds for Disney’s Riviera Resort. There were also three other buyers who bought 1,000 points split across multiple deeds, all for Riviera. The largest deeds sold for Grand Floridian were a 700-point deed and a 600-point deed.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — Demand for Grand Floridian was strong when Disney restarted sales in March 2022; it averaged 131,332 points a month in its first three months. Sales slowed over the next three months, averaging 73,325 points a month. In September 2022, 47,722 points were sold for Grand Floridian, the fewest since sales resumed.
Disney has now sold 661,694 points, or 37.2% of the 1,779,822 points that have been assigned to the 202 Resort Studios located in the Big Pine Key Building.
Since Grand Floridian sales resumed, all of the points sold have been drawn from Residential Unit #11, which makes up half of the Big Pine Key Building. Disney has not sold any deeds that were drawn from the residential units located in the original DVC building, nor from Residential Unit #12 - the other half of Big Pine Key - which was declared in June 2022.
In September, new DVC members accounted for the majority of points sold for Grand Floridian. 33,485 of the 47,722 points (70.2%) sold were part of new master contracts. This is a higher percentage than in August 2022, when 62.2% of the points sold were part of new master contracts.
No Fixed Week deeds for Grand Floridian were sold in September. Disney has sold 37 Fixed Week deeds for the new Resort Studios. Similar to other resorts offering the Fixed Week option, the last six weeks are the most popular. 21 of the 37 deeds are for the weeks from around Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve. Since sales resumed, Disney has not sold any Fixed Week deeds for the Deluxe Studios or larger accommodations at the original Grand Floridian DVC building.
On June 10, 2022, Disney declared the remaining 101 Resort Studios for the DVC inventory. All 202 resort studios in the Big Pine Key building are now declared and can be booked using DVC points on any given Use Day.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In September 2022, 84,010 points were sold for Riviera. This monthly total is slightly more than what the resort averaged over the prior 12 months (74,137 points), as well as what it has averaged for the 2022 calendar year (78,539 points).
Disney has now sold 3,249,940 Riviera points, or 48.2%, of the resort’s 6.7 million points. Riviera has averaged 77,910 points in monthly sales, which includes several months in 2020 when sales for all DVC resorts were severely impacted by the COVID pandemic.
New DVC members accounted for the majority of points sold for the Riviera with 53,045 of 84,010 points (63.1%) sold as part of new master contracts. Existing members bought fewer add-on points for the Riviera in September (30,965 points) than in August (32,007 points).
Only one Fixed Week deed was sold for Riviera in September, a standard view two-bedroom villa . Disney has sold 109 Fixed Week deeds for the resort. 66 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for the last six weeks of the year, including 18 deeds for Week #52, which is the most popular week for Fixed Week deeds.
Disney has declared 199 of Riviera’s 341 vacation homes for DVC members to book using points. The declared inventory accounts for about 3,935,177 points, or 58.4% of the resort’s total points.
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.”
