In the last several weeks, its become apparent the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort is no longer being actively marketed by Disney Vacation Development. Although sales for the Grand Floridian are winding down, DVD sold more points for it than any other resort in April 2015. A total of 224,472 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the month, including 95,923 points for the Grand Floridian.
Overall, direct sales in April 2015 dropped 23.9% compared to March 2015 when 294,902 points were sold. Such monthly fluctuations are not uncommon. Since July 2010, this marks the 26th time in 58 months that monthly sales have increased or decreased by at least 20%.
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Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — In April 2015, 44,582 points were sold for Disney's Polynesian Villas, 41.1% less than the prior month. Since sales started in January 2015, 194,429 points have been sold for this newest of the thirteen Disney Vacation Club resorts, which is about 4.8% of the resort’s 4 million points.
Sales for the Polynesian have been slower than most people expected. It will be interesting to see if Polynesian sales pick up now that DVD is no longer marketing Grand Floridian.
The Polynesian offers buyers the option of a Guaranteed Week deed or the traditional flexible point deed. In April, four Guaranteed Week deeds were sold, bringing to 57 the total number of such deeds sold. Similar to Guaranteed Week sales for the Grand Floridian, the last six weeks are the most popular: 32 of the 57 Guaranteed Week deeds are for the period from Thanksgiving to the New Year’s holiday. Lake View studios have accounted for 28 deeds and Standard View studios have accounted for 21 deeds. Eight Guaranteed Week deeds have been sold for the over-the-water bungalows.
Disney Vacation Development has declared 40.71% of the Polynesian’s total points for the DVC inventory. This means that DVC members cannot book more than 40.71% of the resort on any given Use Day.
Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa -- With 95,923 sold in April 2015 for the Grand Floridian, the resort has sold 2,401,422, or 95.3% of its total points. Since DVD must retain at least 2% of the resort's points, it has less than 69,000 points that can still be sold to the general public.
Guaranteed Week deeds are still available at the Grand Floridian. In April, Disney Vacation Development sold nine Guaranteed Week deeds for the Grand Floridian, bringing to 271 the number of Guaranteed Week deeds that have been sold. 108 of the 271 Guaranteed Week deeds have been for the last six weeks of the calendar year. Weeks #51 #49 are the two most popular weeks at the Grand Floridian, each with 22 Guaranteed Week deeds. The maximum number of guaranteed week deeds — 35% for each week — has not been sold for any accommodation type in any week.
Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas — In April 2015, 401 Aulani deeds containing 64,503 points were sold. In the last 11 months, 735,077 points were sold for Aulani, ranging from a low of 42,463 points in January 2015 and a high of 97,637 points in September 2014. At that rate of sales, it would take until 2024 or 2025 before Aulani is completely sold out.
The sales data includes all nine Disney Vacation Club 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 California 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, the Beaufort County (SC) Register of Deeds, and the Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances.
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”.
