Led by the strong demand for The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, Disney has sold almost 1.5 million Disney Vacation Club points in the last six months for resorts at Walt Disney World and new The Villas at Disneyland Hotel.
The Villas at Disneyland Hotel
In September 2023, 274,177 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts located at World Disney World and The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. With the recent surge in sales, Disney has now sold 1,495,113 points for these 12 DVC resorts, the most points sold in any six-month period in the 13 years that DVCNews has tracked direct sales. In addition, September was the fifth consecutive month that DVC sales exceeded the 200,000-point mark, another record.
The Grand Floridian, Disney’s Riviera Resort, and Villas at Disneyland Hotel accounted for 95.6% of the points sold in September. In a distant fourth place was Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa with 3,585 points. The largest deeds sold in September were two 1,000-point deeds, one each for Grand Floridian and Disneyland Hotel. The largest deed sold for Riviera was a 500-point deed.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — Grand Floridian had its best month since sales resumed in March 2022. In September 2023, 180,536 points were sold for the resort, topping the 177,819 points Disney sold for Grand Floridian in April 2022.
Disney has sold 1,585,894 of the 1,779,822 points (89.1%) allotted to the 202 Resort Studios located in the Big Pine Key building. It still has about 190,000 Grand Floridian points it can sell to the general public. If October’s sales are as impressive as September, then Grand Floridian may reach its “sold out” status in November.
Seven Fixed Week deeds were sold for Grand Floridian in September 2023, bringing to 52 the number of such deeds it has sold for the new Resort Studios. Disney has sold 19 Fixed Week deeds for Standard View Resort Studios, 26 Fixed Week deeds for Lake View Resort Studios, and 7 Fixed Week deeds for Theme Park View Resort Studios.
In September Disney reacquired eight Grand Floridian deeds, all of which were from residential units in the original Grand Floridian DVC building. These deeds were not foreclosure actions but were likely Disney exercising its Right of First Refusal on resale transactions. The eight deeds contained 1,210 points and were reacquired for prices ranging from $112.67 to $140.00 a point with a weighted average of $118.35 a point.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In September, Riviera sold 49,781 points. It has not exceeded the 50,000-point mark since December 2022 when 58,839 points were sold.
Disney has sold 3,843,068 Riviera points, or 57.0%, of the resort’s 6,739,966 points. It still has about 2.75 million Riviera points that can be sold to the general public.
One Fixed Week deed was sold for Riviera in September. Disney has sold 115 Fixed Week deeds for the resort: 95 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.
Disney has declared 224 of Riviera’s 341 vacation homes for the DVC inventory. There are still 117 vacation homes that have not yet been declared and are under the control of Disney. The declared inventory accounts for about 4,458,999 points, or 66.2% of the resort’s total points.
The Villas at Disneyland Hotel — In September, 31,660 points were sold for Disneyland Hotel, DVC’s newest resort. It is the fewest number of points to be sold for the resort in its brief five month history. Sales for the resort averaged 134,692 points in its first three months but have averaged only 41,666 points over the last two months.
Disney has sold 487,407 points in the five months that sales have been ongoing, about 15.0% of the resort’s estimated 3,255,992 total points.
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 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.”
