Seven month bookings are now available for Disney's Riviera Resort. Do you have any hope of getting the room you want?
(Note: Images used in this story were captured at 11:00am on Friday, May 17. Availability is always subject to change.)
Disney's Riviera Resort is scheduled to open on Monday, December 16, 2019. As such, Disney Vacation Club members can now use points from the other fourteen resorts to book a stay at Riviera, up to 7 months prior to arrival.
Early buyers had more time to secure reservations with their points. The number of owners is quite small at this stage, however members only have access to a fraction of the resort's villas. So what should non-owners expect when trying to book Riviera? Let's go through it room-by-room:
Tower Studio
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two person Tower Studio is already proving popular among owners. More than half of the January dates are booked, along with a handful in February. Right now 8 consecutive nights are available in December from the 23rd to the 30th. The Tower Studio is obviously not suitable for large family gatherings during popular vacation times. But with only about two dozen of these rooms available, it is likely they will operate at maximum capacity on most nights.
Deluxe Studio
Standard View
Preferred View
Riviera owners are already gravitating toward the cheaper Standard View Studio rooms. Aside from December 16-17, which are bookable by all DVC members, 17 nights are filled in the Standard View rooms between December 2019 - February 2020. By comparison, only one night--New Year's Day--has zero availability in the Preferred View.
One Bedroom Villa
Standard View
Preferred View
Owners did fill the Standard View One Bedroom villas on December 30 and 31, but all other nights rooms remain available for booking. One noteworthy fact: the Preferred View One Bedroom is the only Riviera accommodation which did not promptly fill with non-owners for the night of December 17. More than 3 hours after Riviera availability opened at for that night 8:00am on May 17, at least one villa remained available.
Dedicated Two Bedroom Villa
Standard View
Preferred View
Similar to the One Bedroom Villas, the dedicated Two Bedroom Villas are not yet being filled by Riviera owners prior to opening of the 7-month window. Just one night--January 1--is fully booked in a Standard View room. Other nights appear destined to remain available as the 7-month window continues to expand.
Grand Villa
Finally, that brings us to the three bedroom Grand Villas. Four of these rooms are available for member stays as of the resort opening. Six of the first seven nights are already booked, though all other nights in December, January and February are not yet at maximum capacity. It is impossible to tell exactly how many rooms remain vacant on a given night--many nights there could be just one Grand Villa still available...or all four of the villas may be unoccupied.
New Disney Vacation Club resorts tend to be the easiest to book while they are still in active sales. While still selling, the number of rooms available for member stays is higher than the respective number of owners. After a resort is "sold out" availability and ownership reaches equilibrium. The larger number of owners booking 8-11 months prior to arrival leaves fewer rooms for non-owners at 7 months.
For the best odds of securing a reservation at any non-Home resort, members are encouraged to search online beginning at 8:00am eastern exactly 7 months prior to the desired arrival date.
