2023 is starting out well for one Disney Vacation Club resort but overall direct sales of DVC points continue to weaken.
Big Pine Key at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
In January 2023, 110,200 Disney Vacation Club points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World. It was the fewest number of points since November 2021 when 97,087 points were sold. January’s sales total was 11.5% less than what was sold in January 2022 and 34.5% less than what sales averaged in the 2022 calendar year.
The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort saw its sales increase 7.1% over December 2022, allowing it to regain the top spot as the leader in sales among the 11 resorts at Walt Disney World. Disney’s Riviera Resort sales fell 24.1% in January compared to the month before, causing it to slip to second place after leading all resorts in sales for the previous six months.
The largest deeds sold in January were two 1,000-point deeds for Grand Floridian purchased by different buyers. A third new buyer bought 1,000 Riviera points, splitting the purchase into five 200-point deeds. The largest deed sold for a ’sold-out’ DVC resort was a 400-point deed for Disney’s Old Key West Resort.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — By November 2022, Grand Floridian point sales were in the midst of an extended slump, having been out-sold by Riviera for five consecutive months. To help boost Grand Floridian sales, Disney changed the incentives offered to DVC buyers, making Grand Floridian slightly less expensive than Riviera. That strategy seems to be working. In December 2022, Grand Floridian reversed its own streak of four consecutive months of declining sales, and in January 2023 it was able to outsell Riviera for the first time since June 2022.
In January 2023, Grand Floridian sold 55,471 points, the second month in a row that sales topped the 50,000-point mark.
Disney has now sold 853,865 points, or 48.0% of the 1,779,822 points that have been assigned to the 202 Resort Studios located in the Big Pine Key Building. Disney must retain at least 2% of the Grand Floridian’s total points, which means that it still has about 890,000 Grand Floridian points it can sell to the general public.
The Big Pine Key building is comprised of two Residential Units, each containing 101 resort studios and the same number of DVC points. Unit 11 was declared for the DVC inventory before sales began and Unit 12 was declared on June 10, 2022. Only Unit 11 was used to support sales for the first eight months. In January 2023, with over 95.0% of Unit 11’s 889,911 points sold, Disney finally began using points from Unit 12 to support sales.
One Fixed Week deed for Grand Floridian was sold in January 2023: a Lake View Resort Studio for week #49. Disney has sold 39 Fixed Week deeds for the new Resort Studios. 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.
Since June 10, 2022, all 202 resort studios in the Big Pine Key building have been declared for the DVC inventory and can be booked using DVC points on any given Use Day.
Disney’s Riviera Resort — After leading all DVC resorts in sales for the previous six months, Riviera slipped to second place, almost 11,000 points behind Grand Floridian. Riviera sold 44,665 points, the fewest number of points since November 2020 when only 42,708 points were sold.
Disney has now sold 3,512,016 Riviera points, or 52.1%, of the resort’s 6,739,966 points.
For the third consecutive month, no Fixed Week deeds were sold. Disney has sold 111 Fixed Week deeds for the resort: 93 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for Deluxe Studios, eight for one-bedroom villas, eight for two-bedroom villas, and two for three-bedroom grand villas.
On December 16, 2022, Disney declared 25 more vacation homes for the DVC inventory, increasing the number of declared vacation homes from 199 to 224. There are still 117 vacation homes that have not yet been declared and are still under the control of Disney. The declared inventory accounts for about 4,458,999 points, or 66.2% of the resort’s total points.
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.”
