In November 2017, 181,440 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the 10 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World, a total which is nearly identical to sales for the same resorts in October 2017.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows led all resorts in sales with 85,500 points sold in November. However, there are indications that Disney may have transitioned the Polynesian into the unofficial “sold out” category. Disney is not actively advertising discounts for the resort and there are reports that points for some Use Years — most notably August and September — are in short supply.
2017 is on pace to be the best year for direct sales in six years. Year-to-date, Disney has sold 2,092,421 points for the Walt Disney World resorts, an average of 190,220 points per month. In 2011, when it was actively selling Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas, and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Disney sold 2,445,187 points, an average of 203,766 per month.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — The Polynesian sold 85,500 points In October 2017, which was well below the 127,858 points the resort has been averaging in 2017. The slowdown in Polynesian sales is another indicator that Disney is shifting its marketing emphasis away from it and to the Copper Creek Villas & Cabins.
The Polynesian has sold 3,693,201 points, or 91.6% of its 4,032,720 total points. This includes 13,243 points that have been reacquired by Disney through buybacks, foreclosures, and exercising its Right of First Refusal on third-party resale transactions.
Disney must retain at least 2% of the Polynesian’s total points for itself, leaving it with about 258,865 points remaining that can be sold to the general public. However, since there are hundreds of transactions containing tens of thousands of points that are awaiting closure, Disney has far fewer than that amount of points left in its inventory.
Disney may have a very limited supply of Polynesian points available in some of the eight Use Years. As of the end of November, Disney had the following number of points remaining in each Use Year:
The number of unsold points for each Use Year includes the 2% that Disney must retain for itself. However, there is no requirement that the 2% holdback must be applied for each Use Year. Thus, it is not possible to know exactly how many points Disney actually has left to sell in each Use Year.
The Polynesian has only one Residential Unit (#84) containing 39,448 points that has not yet been assigned to a Use Year. Even if Disney assigns Unit #84 to the August or September Use Year, Disney may not have enough points to satisfy all members who wish to add on points in one of those Use Years.
Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge — In November 2017, the resort sold 71,287 points, its second best month since sales began to be recorded in April 2017. Copper Creek has sold 445,376 points, which is about 13.4% of its 3,321,954 total points.
Disney has declared 48 of Copper Creek’s 184 vacation homes for the DVC inventory. In terms of points, the 48 declared vacation homes account for about 1,021,430 (30.7%) of the resort’s 3,321,966 points. As Disney sells more points for Copper Creek, it will declare more vacation homes for the DVC inventory.
The sales data includes all nine DVC 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 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.
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.”
