DVCNews June Direct Sales article - Direct Sales Continue to Trend Upward in June 2024

[CastAStone]

Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort — In June 2024 5,351 points were sold for The Cabins at Fort Wilderness, DVC’s newest resort. Disney has now sold 35,502 points for The Cabins, which is about 1.3% of the resort’s estimated 2,780,943 total points.”

July isn’t selling any better, I peeked the other day.

Who is buying these 2042 resorts at direct pricing?

WILD.

There’s no math that exists that can justify adding on at BCV. BRV if you squint maybe you can make a case for a small add on to stay in studios in the summer?

Something I learned here though is that some people literally couldn’t possibly care less if their DVC contract saves them money. They WANT it. Like how some people want a $30000 watch.

And so,

Here's a curious one... there is someone on these boards who said they bought VGC direct around May/June and the sale was not in the report last month, and it's not there this month either.

DVCNews never reports VGC sales. Hasn’t in all the years I’ve followed their tracking. They don’t do Aulani either.

 

[byurick]

July isn’t selling any better, I peeked the other day.

WILD.

There’s no math that exists that can justify adding on at BCV. BRV if you squint maybe you can make a case for a small add on to stay in studios in the summer?

Something I learned here though is that some people literally couldn’t possibly care less if their DVC contract saves them money. They WANT it. Like how some people want a $30000 watch.

And so,

DVCNews never reports VGC sales. Hasn’t in all the years I’ve followed their tracking. They don’t do Aulani either.

Would love to know the reasoning behind the BRV direct add on comment, you have my attention.

 

[kilik64]

So at current rate RIV will sell out late 2026/early 2027, so looking like around 8+ years to sell out.

Anyone know the prior longest time to sell out a WDW resort? Even with 12m points to sell, I'd bet SSR didn't take this long?

 

[Brian Noble]

Something I learned here though is that some people literally couldn’t possibly care less if their DVC contract saves them money. They WANT it. Like how some people want a $30000 watch.

An acquaintance over on TUG used to sell Hyatt timeshares on Key West. One thing he often says: "It's a TOY. You are buying a TOY. Treat it like a TOY."

And, despite the fact that I tend to be a dollars-and-cents person when it comes to timeshares, there is a lot of merit in that perspective.

 

[VGCgroupie]

There’s no math that exists that can justify adding on at BCV. BRV if you squint maybe you can make a case for a small add on to stay in studios in the summer?

Even for that buying direct is bonkers. Resale is another story if you love the resort.

Something I learned here though is that some people literally couldn’t possibly care less if their DVC contract saves them money. They WANT it. Like how some people want a $30000 watch.

I can see why Disney added resort restrictions, tbh the direct benefits are seriously lacking especially when you can get half of those benefits by having a Disney Visa or better yet a Disney Debit. For large families the AP savings could make it worth it (but not for a 2042 resort direct purchase, actually Id say only a resort w/ incentives would be possibly worth it) The only reason I am going to buy direct it to stay at restricted resorts. All the other stuff doesn't make buying direct worth it at all. Was figuring out what direct benefits I could get at an upcoming Aulani trip and it's basically nothing. Im not there on a Monday and trip isnt within welcome home weeks so that leaves me with discounts most of which I can get with my Visa.

DVCNews never reports VGC sales. Hasn’t in all the years I’ve followed their tracking. They don’t do Aulani either.

Ha! Well thats the reason then. I would've keep looking each month and had no idea since its on the chart.

 

[stat]

Even for that buying direct is bonkers. Resale is another story if you love the resort.

I can see why Disney added resort restrictions, tbh the direct benefits are seriously lacking especially when you can get half of those benefits by having a Disney Visa or better yet a Disney Debit. For large families the AP savings could make it worth it (but not for a 2042 resort direct purchase, actually Id say only a resort w/ incentives would be possibly worth it) The only reason I am going to buy direct it to stay at restricted resorts. All the other stuff doesn't make buying direct worth it at all. Was figuring out what direct benefits I could get at an upcoming Aulani trip and it's basically nothing. Im not there on a Monday and trip isnt within welcome home weeks so that leaves me with discounts most of which I can get with my Visa.

Ha! Well thats the reason then. I would've keep looking each month and had no idea since its on the chart.

Um, you forgot about free popcorn bucket refills and sparkly pool bracelets!! Total game changers.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Um, you forgot about free popcorn bucket refills and sparkly pool bracelets!! Total game changers.

Take my money!

 

[maui22]

So at current rate RIV will sell out late 2026/early 2027, so looking like around 8+ years to sell out.

Anyone know the prior longest time to sell out a WDW resort? Even with 12m points to sell, I'd bet SSR didn't take this long?

SSR first started selling in fall of 2003. It first achieved "sold out" in July of 2008. They added THV (which opened in 2009) and that re-opened sales. Achieved sold out status again in February 2012. (Great recession and the foreclosures that happened afterwards severely hampered sales).

https://dvcnews.com/resorts/saratoga-springs/news-94078/1872-saratoga-springs-sold-out

Considering what people were doing in 2007-2008, opening Kidani, THV, BLT, and GCV in 2009 was pretty bad timing. That added roughly 12 million points when foreclosures were just starting to bring back thousands of contracts. No surprise it took several years of big incentives to sell out all 4 properties.

NOTE: I remember @tjkraz posting that SSR's first couple phases sold faster than BLT was selling. The problem was SSR kept seeing additional phase after phase.

 

[Economouse]

I know that OKW direct is 2057, I was looking at BCV, BRV, and BWV.

I would kind of give a pass to people adding on 25 points because they want the points right away and in their use year…. but still….

Let’s take BWV at $240pp. With 17 years left that’s $14pp. Add on the dues of $8-$9 and you are at $22-$23pp for the remainder of the contract.

You can rent points pretty easily for $18-$20…. without paying a huge amount of upfront cash!

Or you can buy resale for $112pp (per board sponsor), which gets you down to around $15pp!

For every 50 points you would save $6400 in upfront costs + $256 in interest every year. Over 17 years that would be nearly $12,500!

I say this as someone who purchased a 55 point BWV contract this year…it’s amazing how much they are still charging for the 2042s direct ….

Maybe direct just has some really good salesmen and women?

I agree, I don't understand these buyers, but that's the DVC market for you.

 

[kilik64]

Yea what's also baffling about it, is if you are getting points at BCV and BWV, there's a high probability that is the only place you plan to stay with those points, might as well get resale since the restrictions wont mean one iota to you in that case.

Maybe that blue card fomo was super intense, but still seems crazy to go that way about getting one.

 

[CastAStone]

So at current rate RIV will sell out late 2026/early 2027, so looking like around 8+ years to sell out.

Anyone know the prior longest time to sell out a WDW resort? Even with 12m points to sell, I'd bet SSR didn't take this long?

It’s not a totally fair comparison. The resale market is so much bigger now and with DVCRM sponsoring every conceivable DVC resource, resale sucks up so much DVC ecosystem oxygen. Direct inevitably is slower just because of the era.

I do bet they eventually gas Riviera one last time and sell 6 months of points in 8-10 weeks.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...t-sales-continue-to-trend-upward-in-june-2024

Wil Lovato put out a new article on DVCNews.com for June's direct sales information.

Are these stats only on contracts that closed? Like if you set up 90-day payment are they still included, or not until whenever the last payment goes through?

 

[CastAStone]

Would love to know the reasoning behind the BRV direct add on comment, you have my attention.

Sure. So a studio in the summer is 16 points on a weeknight. For most of the summer the cheapest WL hotel room night is $564 after tax. The value there is therefore $35.25 per point at full rack rate.

If the room is on sale for 30% off, which it typically is in the summer, you get $24.68 per point.

If you straight line $215/17 years + $8.68 in dues you get a cost of $21.32 per point which is a small savings even vs the sale price.

Of course, if you use a discount rate of even 3.5%, that evaporates, and you get $25.24 in cost per point. Which is why I say you have to squint.

BRV villas are priced higher than WL rooms but I think for most people that’s the wrong comparison.

At the end of the day renting points at WL is typically $20-$22 / point so I’d suggest just doing that.

 

[CastAStone]

Are these stats only on contrats that closed? Like if you set up 90-day payment are they still included, or not until whenever the last payment goes through?

When the last payment goes through, plus 1-2 weeks.

 

[Brian Noble]

It’s not a totally fair comparison.

And it also doesn't matter.

The only thing that matters is whether or not sales are meeting internal expectations on a quarter-to-quarter basis. And those sales are not entirely denominated by points--they are denominated by some combination of price-per-point and total points sold.

Selling more points at any cost is not a good thing---DVC does not want to sell them too quickly, because it means they sold them too cheaply. But, they also don't want to carry the inventory for too long, because the longer they carry the inventory, the longer it takes to recycle the development capital.

The Very Online DVC Community breathlessly interprets every tiny change in points sold as this vastly monumental signal that This Is Bad, or That Is Good. But, unless some of us happen to personally know people in the upper ranks of DVC Management, none of us knows whether it is "good" or not.

 

[tjkraz]

NOTE: I remember @tjkraz posting that SSR's first couple phases sold faster than BLT was selling. The problem was SSR kept seeing additional phase after phase.

Plus the prices were very similar, but BLT (objectively) held much greater appeal. It's almost impossible to put in terms that can be fully appreciated today. It took nearly 20 years for DVC to open its first monorail resort. Poly and GF were once viewed as destinations that may be completely unobtainable to DVC.

Also SSR's early sales were bolstered by the longer contract. If memory serves, BCV and the final remnants of BWV were selling for $84 or $85 per point back around 2002. BCV opened in '02, but by virtue of clinging to the 2042 end date, owners will only receive a maximum of 40 years' worth of points.

SSR debuted at $79 per point for a full 50 years. Unless you were a BCV die-hard, it was easy to justify the lower cost AND 25% more years of SSR.

 

[BeachClub2014]

There’s no math that exists that can justify adding on at BCV. BRV if you squint maybe you can make a case for a small add on to stay in studios in the summer?

Even for that buying direct is bonkers. Resale is another story if you love the resort.

All the other stuff doesn't make buying direct worth it at all.

Um, you forgot about free popcorn bucket refills and sparkly pool bracelets!! Total game changers.

Maybe that blue card fomo was super intense, but still seems crazy to go that way about getting one.

It can be fun to question the wisdom of how others spend their money, and that happens often here on the Dis. I'd offer, though, that as much shade as we sometimes throw on folks who may spend differently than some of us might, there's a whole world of non-DVC'ers out there who question our sanity for buying a Disney timeshare at all. Spend some time reading the "How much have you spent on DVC" thread, and you'll see some relatively large numbers.

 

[stat]

It can be fun to question the wisdom of how others spend their money, and that happens often here on the Dis. I'd offer, though, that as much shade as we sometimes throw on folks who may spend differently than some of us might, there's a whole world of non-DVC'ers out there who question our sanity for buying a Disney timeshare at all. Spend some time reading the "How much have you spent on DVC" thread, and you'll see some relatively large numbers.

Agreed. I'll add that while I was joining in the fun to joke about some of the more trivial benefits of buying direct, I personally decided to buy my last set of points direct since I did ultimately view them as worth the extra money.

I went with Riviera, and in my opinion the decision to spend what I estimate to be ~$6000 extra over resale was worth it. Gaining the ability to book at restricted resorts, discounts that are better or more numerous than my Visa, $2000 off Annual Passes for my family once or twice in my future, the lounges, Moonlight Magic, that Aulani reception, the extra years on the contract, and, yes, the popcorn and those darn sparkly bands... I wanted it all emotionally but also felt like it was worth the money.

 

[BeachClub2014]

I went with Riviera, and in my opinion the decision to spend what I estimate to be ~$6000 extra over resale was worth it. Gaining the ability to book at restricted resorts, discounts that are better or more numerous than my Visa, $2000 off Annual Passes for my family once or twice in my future, the lounges, Moonlight Magic, that Aulani reception, the extra years on the contract, and, yes, the popcorn and those darn sparkly bands... I wanted it all emotionally but also felt like it was worth the money.

I get it. We've bought both resale and direct over the years. We bought Riviera, restrictions and all, because we love the resort and love staying there. We bought Beach Club and Old Key West for the same reasons. We were comfortable with what we spent on each. We probably could have saved a few dollars if we shopped harder or negotiated better, but we did what we did, have no regrets, and enjoy the use of our points and time spent with the family.

 

[CastAStone]

SSR debuted at $79 per point for a full 50 years. Unless you were a BCV die-hard, it was easy to justify the lower cost AND 25% more years of SSR.

They just flat out didnt overlap very long either, only a few months IIRC.