Disney Vacation Club closed 2020 on something of a high note as December direct sales rose significantly compared to November. But the totals still lagged far behind 2019 numbers.
Disney's Riviera Resort
In December 2020, 98,126 points were sold for the 11 Disney Vacation Club resorts located at Walt Disney World.
A year ago such a low monthly sales amount would have been cause for major concern. December 2019 represented an 8-year high with more than 156,000 points sold on the strength of Disney's Riviera Resort. In fact, monthly sales have failed to crack the 100,000 point mark only five times since July 2010. But given the events of the past year, DVC sales must be considered in an entirely different light.
In 2020 only 1,139,695 points were sold, almost a 50% drop compared to the previous year when they moved 2,255,095 points for the eleven Walt Disney World resorts combined. Sales plummeted immediately after the Disney Parks in the United States closed in March 2020. Once the Parks resumed operations in July, sales began to slowly rebound. However, DVC sales averaged only 94,408 points over the last five months of 2020, compared to the 167,442 points monthly sales averaged over the five previous years.
It is anyone’s guess what 2021 might hold in store for direct sales. Reduced theme park crowds, the extended closure of several Disney cash hotels and limited sales center operations has left the market for new sales as soft as ever. Lowering prices--via improved incentives--tends to have a favorable impact on sales numbers. But aside from an appealing promotion launched immediately after the theme parks' reopening, DVC has avoided heavy discounting. In fact, they are on the verge of raising prices on both current resorts and older properties.
DVC's current pricing philosophy, combined with the apparent cancellation of Reflections, a Disney Lakeside Lodge, suggests Disney may be willing to hold firm and hope for a return to normal for travel and tourism in the second half of 2021.
Whatever may happen, DVCNews will continue to post monthly reports on sales for the DVC resorts.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — In December, Riviera sold 61,855 points, which is slightly more than the 56,690 points it had averaged over the previous four months. However, this is a far cry from the 121,869 points it sold a year ago in December 2019.
The resort has sold 1,723,507 points, or about 25.6% of its 6.7 million points. Disney has declared about 2,448,318 points for the DVC inventory, which means that over 700,000 are currently declared but not yet sold.
Four more Fixed Week deeds were sold for Riviera in December. This brings the number of such deeds sold for the resort to 46. Not surprisingly, 39 of the 46 Fixed Week deeds are for studios. The remaining seven deeds are for one one-bedroom, five two-bedrooms, and one grand villa.
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.
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.”
