Disney appears to be concentrating it marketing efforts on its two newest Disney Vacation Club resorts, while demand for the other “sold-out” resorts has dropped to historically low levels.
Big Pine Key at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
In August 2022, 167,839 points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World. This represents a slight decline of 0.7% compared to July 2022, but a 9.8% gain over the average of the previous 12 months.
Disney’s Riviera Resort and the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa continued to dominate sales. They accounted for 93.7% of direct points sold in August, marking the fourth consecutive month that those two resorts accounted for more than 88% of monthly sales. Only 10,629 points were sold for the nine “sold-out” resorts in August 2022, well below the 35,278 points those resorts averaged in monthly sales over the previous 12 months. In 2019, the two main resorts being marketed (Riviera and Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge) never accounted for more than 87.4% in monthly sales.
The largest deeds sold in August were two 1,000-point deeds for Grand Floridian and a single 700-point deed for Riviera.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — 71,924 points were sold for Grand Floridian in August 2022, the fewest since sales resumed in March 2022. Disney has now sold 613,972 points, or 34.5% of the 1,779,822 points that have been assigned to the 202 Resort Studios located in the Big Pine Key Building. Should Grand Floridian continue to match its most recent 3-month average of 73,325 points, the resort will remain in active sales until at least November 2023.
Since sales resumed, all of the points sold have been drawn from Residential Unit #11, which makes up half of Big Pine Key. Disney has not sold any deeds that were drawn from the residential units located in the original DVC building, nor from Residential Unit #12 - the other half of the Big Pine Key building - which was declared in June 2022.
In August, new DVC members accounted for the majority of points sold for the Grand Floridian. 44,651 of the 71,824 points (62.2%) sold were part of new master contracts. This is a lower percentage than in July 2022, when 67.2% of the points sold were part of master contracts.
Two Fixed Week deeds for Grand Floridian were sold in August. Disney has sold 37 Fixed Week deeds for the new Resort Studios. Similar to other resorts offering the Fixed Week option, the last six weeks of the year are the most popular. 21 of the 37 deeds are for the weeks from around Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve. Since sales resumed, Disney has not sold any Fixed Week deeds for the Deluxe Studios or larger accommodations at the original Grand Floridian DVC building.
On June 10, 2022, Disney declared the remaining 101 Resort Studios for the DVC inventory. All 202 resort studios in the Big Pine Key building are now declared and can be booked using DVC points on any given Use Day.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In August 2022, 85,286 points were sold for Riviera, the third largest amount since August 2021. Since selling only 9,255 points in July 2020 during the depth of the pandemic, Riviera has since rebounded and has averaged 70,072 points in monthly sales in the last two years.
Since sales for Riviera started in April 2019, Disney has sold 3,166,430 points, or 47.0%, of the resort’s 6.7 million points. Riviera has averaged 77,761 points in monthly sales, which includes several months in 2020 when sales for all DVC resorts were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At its current pace, Riviera points would remain available for purchase at least through the end of 2025.
New DVC members accounted for the majority of points sold for the Riviera with 53,279 of 85,286 points (62.5%) sold as part of new master contracts. Existing members bought fewer add-on points for the Riviera in August (32,007 points) then in July (35,045 points).
Two Fixed Week deeds were sold in August. Disney has sold 108 Fixed Week deeds for the resorts. 66 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for the last six weeks of the year, including 18 deeds for Week #52, which is the most popular week for Fixed Week deeds.
Disney has declared 180 of Riviera’s 341 vacation homes for DVC members to book using points. The declared inventory accounts for about 3,605,940 points, or 53.5% of the resort’s total points. Disney has sold almost 88% of the points it has declared for Riviera; thus, another declaration will likely be made for the resort in the next few weeks.
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.”
