Incentives and new pricing winter/spring 2025

[Girlstar30]

I did the math and riv long term is still the better direct deal than these akv incentives. I'm going to hold out until the summer deals, maybe I'll be screwing myself over even further but I'm willing to take the risk

 

[muppets3d]

Personally I feel like DVC would benefit from fresh leadership. Perhaps the entire WDC, but let's just start with the topic at hand.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I did the math and riv long term is still the better direct deal than these akv incentives. I'm going to hold out until the summer deals, maybe I'll be screwing myself over even further but I'm willing to take the risk

What use year are you hoping for? That will likely help you decide whether you should potentially wait or not. And yes, if you will never ever ever sell, Riviera probably is the better call.

 

[Girlstar30]

What use year are you hoping for? That will likely help you decide whether you should potentially wait or not. And yes, if you will never ever ever sell, Riviera probably is the better call.

My pending BLT is February so if all goes well, then February! Is that good for a potential wait? I'm on day 17 of ROFR, any day now Disney, not counting the days or anything...

 

[Littlelulu01]

I was hopeful for better incentives. I think I’m able to switch my purchase yesterday to some additional points and take advantage of the previous offer because I purchased yesterday and have not closed yet.

I’m west coast and imo ability to use points anywhere is even more critical.

I have grandfathered Subsidized Aulani points but they’re never enough. I can’t bring myself to purchase direct Aulani knowing how much the savings is for resale Aulani not to mention the maintenance fee compared to our subsidized points.

But more importantly i can’t bring myself to purchase resale anywhere because i need those points to book at Disneyland Villas. We have some Disneyland Hotel villas points and a fixed week at Rivera, our very favorite resort.

The cabins are honestly looking like my best option. If we get 150 I can get price down to $165 pp with the d23, magical beginnings and using the incentives that expired yesterday.

I love the mk area and kick myself for not purchasing ccv when they were first on sale. I know the mfs are high but The wilderness cabins being so much less per night compared to most other one bedroom choices make them seem more reasonable. I’m just trying to figure out which is the best choice for favorite weeks. If the cabins happen to be part of lakeside lodge I’d guess they might become pretty difficult to book so figure I might as well get a fixed week.

I’ve never regretted our Rivera, Aulani or Disneyland villas purchases and I know they all had negatives regarding value and resale. Aulani and Rivera points were a fantastic savings. Disneyland villas will take longer to pay for themselves but are on track to do so by year 7 or 8.

Oh decisions.

 

[Genie+]

…
I'm feeling at least moderately okay about my purchase last month. I normally visit late Feb/early Mar each year for a week or so. For this year's trip, I have a one-night rental at RIV before moving to my OKW exchange. I've never stayed at RIV before, and that night was originally designed to be a "kick the tires" visit. If I liked it, I'd buy a Fixed Week 9 with a Feb UY in a studio there.

When this base price increase was announced, it occurred to me that if I did the same thing before the end of January, I'd get a (potentially) lower sales price, plus an extra year of points. I was already planning to bank all of my 2025 UY for this new purchase, because my 2025 trip is already booked, so the 2024 points were pure gravy. I sent them off to the Magical Beginnings maw rather than try to rent them myself. All told, I ended up saving about 12% by buying two months earlier.

I sure hope I like it there!

Welcome Home! I have a feeling you’ll very much enjoy it.

After giving it some thought, I decided that if I was spending five figures on this anyway, I was going to do it in a way that did not require compromises, beause I no longer had to. And from a dollars-and-cents perspective, the thing I bought was about the dumbest possible choice. And I'm super happy about it, because I had the cash.

My thoughts were similar about the large expense and compromise.

Buying into DVC is committing a large stack of cash on the buy-in, dues and those future trips. If this was to be an investment in our happiness, the upfront and overall cost mattered but wasn’t everything. I also valued our likelihood to remain satisfied and the experience of using those points.

At first we thought direct would never make sense, but then a tolerable price came along at the right time. It’s been 2 years now and no regrets. The perks ended up more useful than expected. That’s been the cherry on top. The price we’re paying for the rooms we’re getting… the overall experience and convenience… so far has all been worth it. Hope you have a great trip!

 

[atthebeachclub]

My pending BLT is February so if all goes well, then February! Is that good for a potential wait? I'm on day 17 of ROFR, any day now Disney, not counting the days or anything...

Shoot; if you want February, end of January was a better time to buy. At this point I would be in no hurry unless you need the points soon.

 

[Lorana]

That might be an accurate calculation, but it's easy to misinterpret. That's an average of years of ownership for those who have completed a sale. The denominator does not include those who have never sold. Including those folks would make it a materially higher average number of years, who knows maybe even double. And it's a number that can just keep getting bigger over time if the number of holders outweighs the sales activity. Another issue is it's looking at the contract level. If I sell you a contract I'm still a DVC owner since I have more than one.

This. I have sold some contracts, usually to buy other contracts.

For example, when we first started, I wanted SSR for SAP points and wanted the low buy-in of HHI resale.
Over time, however, I realized I'd rather own at the resorts I want for that 11-month booking window, and I didn't like the HHI dues. Also, I reconsidered owning 2042 resorts now that they are 17 years remaining. So we bought some VGC and RIV direct, sold our SSR and HHI, sold our VGC resale to swap for direct (so we had the option of VDH at 7 months), and sold our one resale BRV contract (but kept the direct one). So I'm still an owner, but some of those contracts I owned less than 10 years.

 

[Lorana]

So I just got a call from my guide, as I had been asking about better incentives on PVB before the prices went up.
He left a message stating that there is a $1000 off Disney Visa offer, and that Magical Beginnings is being offered for PVB right now. He didn't say if there is a welcome home offer, but I can ask.

I am also going on the Treasure on Saturday and intend to see if there is any additional onboard incentive. I am not necessarily expecting one, but maybe there will be something.

 

[atthebeachclub]

@Lorana if your guide provides you the Visa PDF link for pricing, can you please share?

 

[Girlstar30]

I was hopeful for better incentives. I think I’m able to switch my purchase yesterday to some additional points and take advantage of the previous offer because I purchased yesterday and have not closed yet.

I’m west coast and imo ability to use points anywhere is even more critical.

I have grandfathered Subsidized Aulani points but they’re never enough. I can’t bring myself to purchase direct Aulani knowing how much the savings is for resale Aulani not to mention the maintenance fee compared to our subsidized points.

But more importantly i can’t bring myself to purchase resale anywhere because i need those points to book at Disneyland Villas. We have some Disneyland Hotel villas points and a fixed week at Rivera, our very favorite resort.

The cabins are honestly looking like my best option. If we get 150 I can get price down to $165 pp with the d23, magical beginnings and using the incentives that expired yesterday.

I love the mk area and kick myself for not purchasing ccv when they were first on sale. I know the mfs are high but The wilderness cabins being so much less per night compared to most other one bedroom choices make them seem more reasonable. I’m just trying to figure out which is the best choice for favorite weeks. If the cabins happen to be part of lakeside lodge I’d guess they might become pretty difficult to book so figure I might as well get a fixed week.

I’ve never regretted our Rivera, Aulani or Disneyland villas purchases and I know they all had negatives regarding value and resale. Aulani and Rivera points were a fantastic savings. Disneyland villas will take longer to pay for themselves but are on track to do so by year 7 or 8.

Oh decisions.

You sound like me

 

[RivGirl]

So I just got a call from my guide, as I had been asking about better incentives on PVB before the prices went up.
He left a message stating that there is a $1000 off Disney Visa offer, and that Magical Beginnings is being offered for PVB right now. He didn't say if there is a welcome home offer, but I can ask.

I am also going on the Treasure on Saturday and intend to see if there is any additional onboard incentive. I am not necessarily expecting one, but maybe there will be something.

Well that’s intriguing…I’m closing on a Riv purchase begun last week, and my guide reached out to me today to confirm that yesterday’s price was indeed better than today’s, so there’s no reason to re-draw the contract. But I can’t find anything on the web about the Visa offer, and he didn’t mention it either. Although in my case (150 points, direct, new member) it looks like today’s price would still be $50 more than yesterday’s even if there were a $1000 Visa offer to apply. Ha!

 

[Girlstar30]

Shoot; if you want February, end of January was a better time to buy. At this point I would be in no hurry unless you need the points soon.

I know i missed the boat, but I guess at least I have the flexibility to wait until next January

 

[atthebeachclub]

I know i missed the boat, but I guess at least I have the flexibility to wait until next January

No big deal; I’ve missed a lot of boats; eventually another comes along.

 

[Patmcpsu]

The cabins are honestly looking like my best option. If we get 150 I can get price down to $165 pp with the d23, magical beginnings and using the incentives that expired yesterday.

The risk with the cabins is that their resale value can potentially be disastrous. Like selling-for-negative-dollars disastrous.

If the cabins are merge with Lakeside Lodge, the resale points would become on par with the Riviera. That's the best case scenario.

Worst case, the cabins don't merge with Lakeside Lodge, and you have to find a resale buyer who is content with sky high maintenance fees and being restricted to the cabins.

As far as resale value goes, you would be praying for a lifeboat to save you.

 

[DVCsloth]

Disney may be banking on people renting hotel rooms and dvc rooms at Riviera and Polynesian. I don’t know for sure but I would guess that Riv, Poly and even the cabins will do pretty good as cash stays.

 

[MagicDVC]

Disney may be banking on people renting hotel rooms and dvc rooms at Riviera and Polynesian. I don’t know for sure but I would guess that Riv, Poly and even the cabins will do pretty good as cash stays.

This is probably why Disney is not trying to sell quickly. They make the most money by continually renting the rooms. If people stop renting, they can add a higher incentive to sell the DVC points.

 

[Brian Noble]

I don't see why people think Disney is unhappy with the pace of sales, or think they are suddenly relying on cash rentals in ways they've not done before. For 2024, sales were within 4% of the average across the past ten non-pandemic years. (So, excluding 2020 and 2021). Given the lagging recovery of consumer sentiment over the same period (http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/charts.html) that strikes me as just fine.

It could be better, but I don't think there is any panic, or even anything more than mild concern, at 215 Celebration Place.

 

[Brian Noble]

In particular, the idea that Disney does better by renting the rooms rather than selling them seems odd given that they built timeshares and not hotels.

 

[tx911]

So I just got a call from my guide, as I had been asking about better incentives on PVB before the prices went up.
He left a message stating that there is a $1000 off Disney Visa offer, and that Magical Beginnings is being offered for PVB right now. He didn't say if there is a welcome home offer, but I can ask.

I am also going on the Treasure on Saturday and intend to see if there is any additional onboard incentive. I am not necessarily expecting one, but maybe there will be something.

So there is currently a $1000 Disney Visa offer as well as a $500 D23 Gold offer?