With Resale High is Riviera Direct best option?

djjeff

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 8, 2021
With how high resale is right now, is buying direct at Riviera the best value? 300 points with incentives brings the price down to around $175 per point. Would probably break that up into 2 contracts so I could gift to m kids one day. I am aware of the resale restrictions, we like Riviera, and accept that if we want to sell in the future it may not get top dollar. I hope to use the points many times before that happens! We also thought of Old Key West direct, but I believe transportation will be an issue in the future, plus the 11 month booking window does not factor in as much at OKW so I thought it will be open at 7 months more often than not.

Thoughts? Anyone else thinking how I am?
 
Look at guaranteed weeks. For that many points you could probably break it up into two guaranteed standard studio weeks one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

Doesn’t matter if you ever use the guarantee or not. That’ll make them much more valuable for resale later on.

We are thinking about buying Riviera but with the way the restrictions will likely affect booking, we would only do so with the fixed week guarantee.
 
$175 per point seems like a pretty good price to me. I would probably break it into 2 separate contracts as well. Riviera is a pretty awesome resort and I do believe you will need to own there to be able to book standard rooms if you want to stretch your points. The point chart is not too bad for standard rooms, but it seems to go up pretty fast for preferred. OKW should have pretty decent availability right at 7 months and you can use your Riviera direct points there or anywhere else.
 
I think you’ve thought through all the angles. We have 300 at Riviera and love it. The resale market for it is healthy, IMO ($140-$150,) and with how expensive it is, we’ll have used our points enough within five years of visits for anything after that to be just using maintenance fees.
 


I think it is a great choice! It’s a wonderful resort to have as a home resort $175/pt is really good and you end up with unrestricted points and the blue card for access to membership magic

Smart to break it up into 2 contracts for sale later.

As mentioned, an option is fixed weeks. We did not do that because we never go for 7 nights and it made no sense to buy something we knew we’d be canceling every year anyway.
 
IMO, a direct purchase is a real commitment. I don't know where my family will want to go when we outgrow princess dresses. I would rather buy resale, knowing I can easily sell with minimal loss if I change my mind.

Unless you LOVE RIV and are really in this for decades, I wouldn't choose RIV. Even if those are true, I might still wait for DL tower/VGF2 or wait for the APs to return or buy other direct points, like AKL.
 
Last edited:


This is exactly how we ended up buying Riviera on Friday.
The prices of BLT (which I didn’t love) was going up and up and the price gap was closing in between resale at a property that would fit my family’s needs and Riviera.
Like other have said, I would take the jump into Riviera and split the contract. The guide told be it was and extra $230 to do so.
 
If you don’t need it right this minute, you might consider waiting for VGF to go on sale. It probably will not have the resale restrictions.

I have thought about that. With the demand for that resort, I don't see many incentives offered. Never know
 
We visited Riviera and fell in love with the location, ambiance, room size & Skyliner! The incentives through 8/4 made it a good value for us. 👍

We bought RIV last month and split it into 2 contracts. Same as @Sandisw, a fixed week made 0 sense for us. We are Floridians and only stay 2-5 nights max.

July was a great time for my family to buy a membership, but everyone is on a different journey.

We love 💗 Riviera and hope you find a DVC “home” you love too!
 
I think you’ve thought through all the angles. We have 300 at Riviera and love it. The resale market for it is healthy, IMO ($140-$150,) and with how expensive it is, we’ll have used our points enough within five years of visits for anything after that to be just using maintenance fees.
We already have points at Riviera and Love it. Wanted to add more points. My plan was to purchase resale around March or April after our last visit and touring all the resorts to make the best decision. My plan went out the door as Bay Lake and Poly (the 2 I had focused on had jumped around that time) I know the resale restrictions will lower the price some, but I think the gap will always be fairly close, only hurting if you sell under 5 years. I think this may be the last good incentive with prices rising so much during this promotion.
 
Look at guaranteed weeks. For that many points you could probably break it up into two guaranteed standard studio weeks one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

Doesn’t matter if you ever use the guarantee or not. That’ll make them much more valuable for resale later on.

We are thinking about buying Riviera but with the way the restrictions will likely affect booking, we would only do so with the fixed week guarantee.
The fix week is an interesting route, just don't think it works for my family. But i do see that it would be great in the right scenerio.
 
The fix week is an interesting route, just don't think it works for my family. But i do see that it would be great in the right scenerio.
Even if it doesn’t work for you, and you never use it, I still think it’ll be a great resale hedge should you ever need to sell. Having a deeded right to a standard studio at 12 months is going to be a premium property on the resale market.
 
When we bought Poly in 2015, we bought a fixed week Lake View week 44 studio (think Jersey Week). I told my DW that we may never use it, and almost certainly wouldn’t in the first decade, but it’s an interesting hedge on a 50 yr deed.

We’ve never used it. Yet. But we’re about to start.

Something has happened along the way.

The week in question had an original cost of 153 without the guarantee. With the guarantee premium, we bought 168 points for the guarantee. Now Poly is almost always avail at the 11 month window so even if we wanted that week, we would just cancel at the 11 month window and rebook at 153 points, and bank the 15 point difference,

Except. In the last few years, DVCMC has reallocated Fall points. Currently, after two such reallocations, it now costs 181 points to book my week 44 in a Lake View.

And they don’t look to be finished reallocating the Fall.

But I’ll have it reserved for the next 45 years for 168 points.

It was a hedge that cost me nothing if I didn’t use it. There is only a “10% premium” if you hold the reservation. Otherwise you get full use of the point value. And now, it’s no longer a hedge, but a 13-pt cost savings each year.

All in all, pretty decent bet. And IF we buy RIV, which after staying there seems more likely, it’s the only way we would buy. The resale restrictions need a hedge play to make them palatable for me.

50 yrs is a long time. The original OKW DVC is still only 60% through its contract. What will DVC and RIV look like in 10 yrs? 20? 40?
 
Last edited:
I just bought 250 points split between 2 contracts. They were standard studio weeks 44 and week 1. There was little to no point premium for those weeks. And I agree with the above poster that week 44 will continue to go up in points required to stay. Week 44 is a marathon week, fall, Halloween occ., Diwali occ, and Jersey week. If you are buying RIV look at how many points you want to buy and look at the options for FW 44 and FW 1. (There was one more week that already had the premium removed, but I forget which one, maybe 50?) Will I personally use these weeks, very unlikely, but there is absolutely no down side and possibly a significant upside. Why wouldn't you do that?

Also I was dead set on buying resale, but with current resale prices it made no sense to not do RIV direct.
 
When we bought Poly in 2015, we bought a fixed week Lake View week 44 studio (think Jersey Week). I told my DW that we may never use it, and almost certainly wouldn’t in the first decade, but it’s an interesting hedge on a 50 yr deed.

We’ve never used it. Yet. But we’re about to start.

Something has happened along the way.

The week in question had an original cost of 153 without the guarantee. With the guarantee premium, we bought 168 points for the guarantee. Now Poly is almost always avail at the 11 month window so even if we wanted that week, we would just cancel at the 11 month window and rebook at 153 points, and bank the 15 point difference,

Except. In the last few years, DVCMC has reallocated Fall points. Currently, after two such reallocations, it now costs 181 points to book my week 44 in a Lake View.

And they don’t look to be finished reallocating the Fall.

But I’ll have it reserved for the next 45 years for 168 points.

It was a hedge that cost me nothing if I didn’t use it. There is only a “10% premium” if you hold the reservation. Otherwise you get full use of the point value. And now, it’s no longer a hedge, but a 13-pt cost savings each year.

All in all, pretty decent bet. And IF we buy RIV, which after staying there seems more likely, it’s the only way we would buy. The resale restrictions need a hedge play to make them palatable for me.

50 yrs is a long time. The original OKW DVC is still only 60% through its contract. What will DVC and RIV look like in 10 yrs? 20? 40?
So if you don't want that week you can cancel it at any time and use the points in a regular way? Also how much more do points costs?
 
So if you don't want that week you can cancel it at any time and use the points in a regular way? Also how much more do points costs?
Yes.

The points costs the same - a point is a point, but you have to use 10% more points to book at 12 months. In our case at Poly, the cost to book our week in 2015 was 153 points so the fixed week was 168. We have a 168 point contract - if we take the guaranteed booking at 12 months, it cost 168 points. Or we cancel and have our 168 points. And IF the room is still avail at 11 months, we can rebook for the same number of points it costs everyone else. You only need to pay the premium if the guarantee was needed to secure the room.

So far, we’ve cancelled our 168 point fixed week at Poly each year and used the points. So essentially it’s a 168 point contract. But our week now costs 181 to book. Not only did the “premium” disappear, we will now get the guaranteed week at a 13 point discount. This is because since 2015, DVC has twice reallocated our week to cost more points to book.

And, The Riviera fixed week chart is set and there has been an allocation since then (last year) such the premium has disappeared for a few weeks - as the previous poster suggested.

There really is no downside to a fixed week with the possible exception that it might take a little explaining to sell it if the potential buyer doesn’t understand the product. But. IF standard studios become hard to book because of the resale restrictions, the value of a fixed week will stand out.
 
Last edited:
Until recently, guaranteed weeks didn’t qualify for the current incentive being offered. But even that has gone away as DVC recently began to include guaranteed weeks in its incentives.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!









Top