With sales starting up for Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows’ new Island Tower villas, direct sales of Disney Vacation Club points recorded its best month in a year.
Surprising sales numbers for Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort
On October 1, 2024, existing Disney Vacation Club members were given first chance at buying DVC points for villas at the new Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows. The response was strong enough to push overall sales to 221,308 points, its best month since October 2023 when 221,997 points were sold for the 12 DVC resorts located at World Disney World and The Villas at Disneyland Hotel.
Disney’s Riviera Resort led all resorts in sales in October with 77,809 points while the Polynesian was a close second with 73,527 points. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort captured third place with 24,640 points, the third consecutive month that the resort’s sales topped the 20,000-point mark. The last time Saratoga Springs sold 20,000 points for three months in a row was back in February to April 2012.
All DVC resorts recorded some sales in October except The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. Disney has not sold a deed for Grand Floridian since May 2024.
The largest single deed sold in October was a 1,000-point deed for Saratoga Springs. The next largest single deeds were a 750-point deed for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas, a 700-point Polynesian deed, and a 600-point Riviera deed. The largest multiple deed purchased was 570 points split between a 250-point Riviera deed and two 160-point deeds for the Polynesian.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In October, 77,809 points were sold for the Riviera, the third month in a row that sales declined since 109,353 points were sold in July 2024.
Disney has sold 4,852,659 Riviera points, about 72.0% of the resort’s 6,739,966 total points. It has averaged 73,420 points in monthly sales, which includes several months in 2020 when DVC sales were markedly depressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. If future Riviera sales maintain that pace, it will be less than 24 months before the resort is completely sold out.
Three Fixed Week deeds for Standard View Deluxe Studios were sold at Riviera in October. Two of the deeds were for week 7 and one was for week 42 Disney has sold 135 Fixed Week deeds for the resort with Standard View Deluxe Studios (76 deeds) and Preferred View Deluxe Studios (39 deeds) being the most popular accommodation types.
On October 17, 2024, Disney added 25 vacation homes to the DVC inventory at Riviera resort, increasing the number of declared vacation homes from 269 to 294. There are still 47 vacation homes that have not yet been declared and are still under the control of Disney. The DVC inventory now accounts for 5,817,509 points, or 86.3% of the Riviera’s 6,7 million total points.
The Villas at Disneyland Hotel — In October, approximately 20,530 points were sold for Disneyland Hotel. Disney has now sold 801,254 points, about 24.6% of the resort’s estimated 3,255,992 total points.
Please note that an adjustment has been made to the number of points sold for Disneyland Hotel for September 2024. Some Disneyland Hotel deeds recorded in early October 2024 were erroneously included in September’s sales data. The correct sales data for September was 105 deeds and 19,405 points rather than the 110 deeds and 20,205 points originally reported.
It is difficult to estimate when the Disneyland Hotel may sell out. The resort is averaging 44,514 points in monthly sales, which would suggest it will take about 54 months before the resort is completely sold out. But over the last 12 months Disneyland Hotel has averaged only 23,403 points a month, which suggests it would take about 102 months before it is sold out.
The number of points sold for the Disneyland Hotel can only be estimated. The data available from the Orange County (California) Clerk-Recorder’s Office is limited and the exact number of points sold cannot be compiled directly; instead, the number of points can only be estimated based on the Transfer Tax paid on each deed.
The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort — In October, 5,410 points were sold for The Cabins at Fort Wilderness, DVC’s newest resort. Disney has now sold 57,317 points for the Cabins, which is about 2.1% of the resort’s estimated 2,780,943 total points.
No Fixed Week deeds were sold for The Cabins at Fort Wilderness in September. However, in October Disney filed documents to correct errors on five previously filed deeds to show that the original deeds should have included the Fixed Week option. With these corrections the Cabins have sold 12 Fixed Week deeds. Six of the 12 deeds are for week #43, which starts on October 27 in calendar year 2024.
Disney has declared 63 cabins for the DVC inventory. DVC members will be able to book using points up to 63 cabins on any given Use Day. There are still another 300 cabins that have not yet been declared. Disney will be able to use these 300 cabins for cash rentals or any other purpose it desires.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — Sales for the Polynesian resumed on October 1, 2024 to existing DVC members and the first deeds were recorded on October 15 by the Orange County Comptroller. 73,527 points were recorded in half a month for the resort. 73,327 of those points were drawn from Residential Units that are located at the Island Tower. One 200-point deed was drawn from a Residential Unit located in the original Polynesian longhouses.
The 73,527 points sold in half a month in October is more than the 61,050 points Disney sold for the Polynesian in its first full month of sales back in February 2015.
Disney has not confirmed how many points will be allocated to the 222 vacation homes that make up the new Island Tower addition to the Polynesian Resort. However, we do know that the 40 vacation homes initially declared at the Island Tower account for 666,819 points. Therefore, October’s sales would account for 14.2% of the declared inventory at the Island Tower.
Eight Fixed Week deeds were sold for accommodations at the Island Tower spread out over seven different weeks. Standard View Tower Studios were the most popular with three Fixed Week deeds.
The sales data includes all 12 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 from dvc.market 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.”
