On October 30, 2023, Disney announced that The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort was “sold out.” As sales for this popular resort come to a close, direct sales of Disney Vacation Club points dropped about 19% from the previous month.
In October 2023, 221,997 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts located at World Disney World and The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. This was the sixth consecutive month that overall sales easily exceeded the 200,000-point mark.
Without considering Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, calendar year 2023 is turning out be a good year for direct sales. With two months still to go in the year, Disney has already sold more points in 2023 (2,043,173 points) than in all of 2022 (2,038,485 points). If direct sales for all resorts average about 119,000 points in November and December then Disney will record its best year for DVC salessince 2011 when 2,467,550 points were sold.
Grand Floridian, Disney’s Riviera Resort, and Disneyland Hotel accounted for 94.0% of the points sold in October. Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa was in fourth place with 3,401 points. Disney's Old Key West Resort, which has averaged over 5,500 points per month over the last three years, sold only 495 points in October. That is the fewest number of points sold for that resort since 150 points were sold in June 2020 during the Covid pandemic.
Several large deeds were sold in October, including a 1,000-point deed for Disneyland Hotel and a 900-point deed for Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. But the largest deed was a single 2,000-point deed for Disney’s Riviera Resort.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — Grand Floridian sold 106,440 points in October. In the 20 months the resort has been actively marketed, it has sold 1,692,609 points, all for residential units in the Big Pine Key building. The resort has averaged 84,630 points a month with a high of 180,536 points in September 2023 and a low of 38,147 points in November 2022.
Although Disney considers Grand Floridian to be “sold out” it doesn’t mean that there are no more points available to be purchased from Disney. Disney frequently reacquires deeds through foreclosures, exercising its Right of First Refusal on resale transactions, and even direct buybacks. In October, it reacquired nine Grand Floridian deeds containing 1,245 points. Points reacquired are often resold by Disney.
Two Fixed Week deeds were sold for Grand Floridian in October 2023, bringing to 54 the number of such deeds it has sold for the new Resort Studios. These 54 deeds account for 11,037 points. Week #49 is the most popular week with nine deeds sold and Week #52 is second with seven deeds sold.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In October, Riviera sold 69,170 points, its best month since 78,665 points were sold in November 2022
Disney has sold 3,909,468 Riviera points, or 58.0%, of the resort’s 6,739,966 points. The resort has averaged 71,732 points a month since sales were first recorded in April 2019. If Riviera were to maintain that sales pace it would take it 37 months before it was completely sold out.
One Fixed Week deed was sold for Riviera in October. Disney has sold 116 Fixed Week deeds for the resort: 96 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 the resort'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.
Villas at Disneyland Hotel — In October, 33,017 points were sold for Disneyland Hotel, DVC’s newest resort. After averaging 134,692 points in its first three months, the resort has averaged 38,783 points in the subsequent three months.
Disney has now sold 520,424 points in the six months that sales have been ongoing, about 16.0% 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.
Due to technical issues, sales for Disney’s Vero Beach Resort and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort are not included in this month’s chart. They will be updated next month.
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.”
