In June 2022, buyers still preferred Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa over Disney's Riviera Resort, however the margin grew thinner as total Disney Vacation Club point sales declined.
In June 2022, 158,204 points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts at Walt Disney World. This is the fourth best month for direct sales since the start of the pandemic in April 2020. This also represents a 5.8% increase over the average sales over the last 12 months.
Although sales in June were relatively strong when compared to the last two years, Disney has not sustained the higher volumes that greeted the March 2022 launch of point sales for the Grand Floridian's Resort Studios. Fueled by demand for these new accommodations, direct sales averaged over 244,000 points in March, April, and May 2022, the best three-month period for sales since June to August 2013 when direct sales averaged over 271,000 points. But in June, sales for Grand Floridian points decreased 26.2% compared to May, contributing to a decline of 12.0% in monthly sales.
Another factor contributing to softening direct sales in June is the low demand for Disney’s Old Key West Resort and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. One year ago, in June 2021, Old Key West and Saratoga Springs sold 20,342 and 16,547 points, respectively. Recently, Disney raised the price for both resorts to $200 a point, which makes them about the same price as Grand Floridian and Disney’s Riviera Resort. Not surprisingly, sales for the two older destinations plummeted: In June 2022, Old Key West sold only 2,355 points and Saratoga Springs sold 2,037 points, an all-time low for that resort.
The largest deed sold in June was a 1,000-point deed for Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The next largest deed was a 850-point deed for Grand Floridian.
Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — 73,886 points were sold for Grand Floridian in June 2022, the fewest number of points since sales resumed in March 2022. Disney has now sold 467,882 points, or 26.3% of the 1,779,822 points that have been assigned to the 202 Resort Studios located in the Big Pine Key building.
So far, 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.
Disney sold 9 VGF Fixed Week deeds in June, bringing to 34 the number of such deeds sold for the new Resort Studios. Ten of the Fixed Week deeds have been for Standard View Resort Studios, 19 for Lake View Resort Studios, and 5 for Theme Park Resort Studios.
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 June 2022, 68,185 points were sold for Riviera, a 15.0% increase over the 59,282 points sold in May but 7.4% less than the 73,643 points the resort has averaged over the previous 12 month period.
Disney has sold 3,000,410 points, or 44.5%, of Riviera’s 6.7 million points. The resort has averaged 77,449 points in monthly sales, which includes several months in 2020 when sales for all DVC resorts were severely impacted by the COVID pandemic.
Last month, Riviera sold slightly more new master contract deeds (203 deeds) than Grand Floridian (178 deeds). In May, the reverse was true with Grand Floridian outselling Riviera 210 to 188 master contracts. Usually, master contracts are sold to new DVC members but existing members will buy a new master contract if they want a different Use Year or ownership titling.
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.
Four Fixed Week deeds were sold for Riviera in June. Disney has sold 106 Fixed Week deeds at the resort. 65 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for the last six weeks of the year, including 17 deeds for Week #52, which is the most popular week for Fixed Week deeds.
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.”
