DVC Resales Changes Explained

The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) recently underwent the latest alteration in membership rules. This announcement officially came on January 7th, when The Walt Disney Company updated some of its membership agreement documents online. Whenever such a policy change occurs, it’s essential to evaluate ramifications. Here’s everything that you need to know about the DVC 2019 membership changes.
What Just Happened?
Disney introduced the DVC program in 1991. Since then, they’ve left the core of the program alone for the most part. Most modifications have been so modest in nature that they barely merit discussion. On a handful of occasions, they’ve done something a bit more dramatic, generally to encourage guests to purchase via direct sales.
Why would they do this? Disney knows that they price DVC points quite high. They’re painfully aware that resales purchases are a better deal. It’s akin to Best Buy vs. a used electronics store. At Best Buy, you must pay full price for a product, while you’ll find the same items for much less at the used store. For example, many people purchase their smartphones at places other than Best Buy or a direct vendor like Sprint. They do so to save a great deal of money.
In the case of DVC, the product is identical whether purchased directly or via resales. You’re buying a real estate interest at a Disney-owned resort. If Disney offered the same amenities to everyone, they’d never make a direct sale since used contracts are so much cheaper. Knowing this, the people in charge of DVC have introduced other rules change to incentivize guests to buy direct more often.
This modification in policy involves upcoming resorts more than current ones. Starting on January 19th, customers who purchase a resales contract will have a slightly different set of membership rules. Don’t worry, though. Your contract will provide you with the standard membership amenities that you’ve had in the past. Your points will work at the 14 current DVC properties, which is what matters the most.
The difference involves future resorts. Starting with Disney’s Riviera Resort, customers who purchase resales contracts at upcoming resorts cannot stay elsewhere. In other words, a contract at the Riviera only entitles you to exchange your points for a hotel stay at the Riviera. Similarly, when Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge opens in 2022, it will work the same way. When you buy a DVC contract here, you may only stay here.
From now on, future resales buyers will face a decision involving purchases. Would they rather stay at one of the post-2018 DVC properties or one of the original 14 DVC resorts? This change isn’t a huge deal at the moment, as the Riviera Resort won’t even open until the fall of 2019. Then, it will only apply to one resort until 2022, when Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge debuts. So, this rule change only impacts one resort for the next three years.
The Precise Language
Disney operates DVC under a business called the Buena Vista Trading Company. This organization has a legal requirement to publish any changes to the membership agreement. This document is called The Buena Vista Trading Company Disclosure Guide. Here is the precise language of the new rule:

“Effective January 19, 2019, only Members who purchase directly from Disney will be able to use their Vacation Points at the 14 existing Disney Vacation Club Resorts or future Resorts—such as Disney’s Riviera Resort or Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge. Resale contracts purchased for the existing 14 Disney Vacation Club Resorts will only be able to exchange Points into those 14 Resorts.
This change does not apply to contracts purchased before January 19, 2019. Contracts gifted to family members will continue to have the same Resort access as before the ownership transfer.
The eligibility rules for Membership Extras and RCI access remain unchanged.
The Buena Vista Trading Company Disclosure Guide has been amended accordingly.”
Evaluating the Changes
Whenever the program’s rules change significantly, everyone tends to overreact, which is understandable. It can feel like a personal attack when Disney reduces the benefits of DVC membership. After weighing the ramifications of this change for a couple of days, however, it seems similar to the last alteration in the Disclosure Guide. It’s more future-based than something problematic right now.
The most recent rules change saw Disney limit amenities to guests lacking DVC Membership Cards. The primary benefit of DVC ownership remained unchanged, though. Guests could still stay at all of the participating DVC villas, the primary benefit of membership. That’s true after the current Disclosure Guide update, too.
What Disney just changed is the membership rights regarding properties that aren’t open yet. The Riviera Resort that debuts in the fall is the first affected DVC resort. Given the nature of resales, it’s unlikely to have a contract become available in 2019, anyway. In other words, the changes won’t take effect for most people until 2020.
The lone exception is potential DVC customers who haven’t bought yet during 2019. Should you buy after January 19th, you’ll have one minor change. You won’t be able to book at the Riviera. Given its perception as an extension to a Moderate Resort, this change is an inconvenience but the antithesis of a deal-breaker. Don’t get me wrong. I expect the Disney’s Riviera Resort to be fabulous. It’s just one of 15 immaculate properties in the DVC lineup, though.
The reality is that Disney can never change the primary benefit of DVC membership since 1991. That’s the exchange of DVC points for hotel stays at Disney’s resorts that feature the most exquisite locations and amenities. Let’s be realistic. If Disney could take away that benefit from anyone, they’d have done so by now.
The corporation consults with lawyers before every change in the DVC program. They’ve apparently received advice that indicates that the core of DVC membership is sacrosanct. From the perspective of a current or potential resales buyer, the core of ownership remains intact.
Think about the situation like this: would you rather stay at a monorail resort or a place near Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort? You see, Disney’s already sold the most exceptional real estate at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The current membership program includes hotels located beside Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Disney California Adventure. The “longest walk” to a North American Disney theme park takes only a few minutes, the distance from Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa to Disneyland’s main entrance.
Since Disney cannot take away these membership rights, they’re testing new ways to sell their higher-priced product, directly purchased DVC contracts. The best tactic that they’ve unearthed is to segment future DVC resorts from current ones, thereby creating a second phase of DVC properties. Owners in the first phase cannot exchange points in the second phase and vice versa.
For people with contracts at the current resorts, this change has surprising benefits. Have you ever worried that you may not book a DVC resort at the seven-month window? This modification of the rules guarantees that no resales buyer at a future resort will compete with you for such bookings. They’re unable to stay at one of the 14 original properties. Before this week, all contract purchases were a form of competition to current members. That’s no longer the case.
The future concern is how the change impacts sales at the Riviera. Informed DVC members may show reluctance to buy direct points for a contract that will have questionable initial value on the resales market. It’s entirely possible that Disney cut off their nose to spite their face here. All we know for sure is that guests who purchase resales cannot stay at the Riviera. If that’s the only sacrifice for saving thousands of dollars for a resales contract, potential buyers have little to fear.
Star Wars Speculation
If anything, this alteration of the rules is important for Star Wars Land-related reasons. The Riviera Resort will have a Disney Skyliner depot, giving it a direct transportation path to the upcoming themed land. Disney likely fears that they’ll get a crushing amount of booking attempts for the resort during the early years of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Along these lines, we already know about Star Wars Hotel, a new resort that Disney will open roughly 18-24 months after the themed land. Should this property receive a DVC presence – and it almost certainly will at some point – the new rules would apply to it.
Disney may have just attempted to future-proof cheap DVC purchases at these two resorts. They understandably expect substantial demand for the Riviera Resort, which offers Skyliner rides straight to Hollywood Studios. It should book quickly during the first couple of years that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is in operation.
The other potential consideration is Star Wars Hotel, which will have a back door into Hollywood Studios right at Star Wars Land. Guests who buy a resales contract there would only be able to stay there, which sounds limiting until you realize that it’s precisely where Star Wars fans would want to be.
Of course, the only people who have speculated about Star Wars Hotel becoming a DVC property are DVC members. Disney probably won’t even consider that move for several years after the resort opens. If they did factor Star Wars Land and Star Wars Hotel into their decision to modify DVC rules, it’s an even more questionable decision.
On the whole, the rules change isn’t fairly described as much ado about nothing. It is something. Disney has modified the membership agreement to lower the value for current and future members. They just haven’t diminished the value much, and the continuing strength of DVC contracts in the resales marketplace suggests that any ripples in pricing will be temporary.