What is Disney Vacation Club?

Disney Vacation Club, also known as DVC, is Disney’s version of a timeshare. In order to become a member you must purchase a deeded real estate contract at one of 17 Disney resort hotels. The resort you choose to purchase a contract at will become your home resort. Your contract will consist of a chosen number of DVC points, used to book rooms at these 17 properties, that will be allocated annually based on your Use Year. You do not have to purchase a specific week of travel like many other timeshares. If you want to purchase a fixed week that may be an option but most members don’t. Each resort has an expiration year ranging from 2042-2075. Unlike most timeshares, Disney’s is based off of 50-year contracts and does not continue in perpetuity. If you choose to purchase a contract at one of the original resorts your expiriation year will be 2042. You are not purchasing 50 years from the date you decide to become an owner; you are purchasing however many years are left on your resort of choice. The size of your contract (number of annual points) will vary based on where you plan to stay, what time of year you plan to travel, what size accommodations you prefer, and most importantly, your budget. DVC resorts have villa-style accommodations that include studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom options. There are some other unique accommodations like beach cottages at Vero Beach, over-water bungalows at the Polynesian, and cabins at both the Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wilderness (the cabins at these two resorts are very different from one another) but for most guests and most trips, the choice will come down to a studio, one bedroom, or two bedroom villa. Studios have a small fridge or beverage cooler, a coffee pot, and sleep either 4 or 5 guests (not all resorts have studios that can accommodate 5 so larger families will want to be aware of their options). Beginning at one-bedroom villas, a full kitchen and in-villa laundry are provided. Each resort has a point chart that is published annually and is divided into travel seasons. Before you purchase a Disney Vacation Club contract, it is very important to review the point charts of the resorts you are interested in staying at. There may be minor changes to the points cost of a room during a given season over time as Disney Vacation Club is allowed to redistribute points year over year but the total number of points across all room categories and seasons cannot be changed. Looking at the points charts for 2026, let’s say you chose to buy a contract at Saratoga Springs and you want to stay for one week in a standard view studio each year. If you can travel in the low season (September), you only need 73 points to accomplish this goal. If, however, you plan to travel during Easter week or the week between Christmas and New Year’s, you need 155 points. What if you are a travel party of 6 or more and can only fit in a two-bedroom? You would be looking at 203 points for a week in the lowest season and 406 points in the highest.

Can’t I just book a hotel room with cash at these hotels?

Of course you can! Rooms are available to book with cash through Disney’s website at all 16 of these properties. Some of these resorts have traditional hotel rooms and suites in addition to the DVC villas and some are strictly villas. Even if a hotel only has DVC villa accommodations, Disney maintains a percentage of points at each resort even once they are sold out so they can offer them as cash bookings. Additionally, if Disney forecloses on a contract, if a member trades their points in for a cruise or an exchange with another timeshare program, or if the resort is still in active sales and there are plenty of unsold points, Disney will make rooms available to the public for cash. DVC villa availability for the public is variable. I performed a few searches at different times of year, 5, 6, 7, and 11 months from now. The most widely available DVC room type was a studio with a few one bedrooms and an occasional two bedroom available. The available resorts varied as well but if you are flexible on where you stay, there’s a good chance you will find some kind of DVC room available. If you have a specific villa type at a specific resort that you want for every trip, DVC might be right for you.

How much does Disney Vacation Club cost?

Disney Vacation club contracts can be purchased either directly from Disney or via a broker on the resale market when an existing member decides to sell theirs. New members must purchase a minimum of 100 points directly from Disney. The cost for a 100 point contract direct from Disney (as of January 2025) falls between $15k and $31k. Disney does offer incentives on resorts that are still in active sales (currently Aulani, Riviera, Villas at Disneyland Hotel, Fort Wilderness Cabins, and The Polynesian) and occasionally on sold out resorts (Disney often buys back resale contracts and sells them direct so most resorts are never fully sold out) but not at the 100 point level. If you are purchasing 150 points or more, you may be eligible for some savings. In order to be eligible for Membership Extras, you must accrue a total of 150 direct points. There are several resale broker websites where you can find contracts for sale. You can find contracts as small as 25 points available (only early resorts will have these small contracts, Disney raised the minimum buy-in over time to 50 points, then 75, and now it sits at 100). The cost will vary widely based on contract size and resort of choice. Generally, you can expect to save 30% vs a direct purchase, sometimes less, and sometimes much more. I’ve browsed one of the largest and most popular broker’s site and at time of writing, the least expensive contract is $3,708 for 43 points at Vero Beach and the most expensive is $148,721 for 800 points at The Polynesian. This particular broker has 506 active listings at this time. You’re likely to find a contract to suit your needs that falls between these two extremes. Much like the traditional real estate market, the resale market for DVC changes based upon supply and demand and is effected by the overall economic climate as well.

The initial contract purchase, whether direct or resale, is not the only cost involved with DVC. Annual Dues are an ongoing expense and they tend to increase each year. I would say the average rate of increase is 4% annually. There may be some years where your dues don’t change much at all, and others when there is a larger jump. The dues are set as a per point cost and are different for each of the resorts. The dues range from $7.60-$14.30 per point. Annual dues will cost you much more in the long run than your initial contract price will. It’s very important to consider the dues cost when choosing your home resort.

Why would I buy direct when I can save 30% on the resale market?

Excellent question! There are some differences between the two types of contracs. Years ago, Disney treated direct and resale contracts exactly the same (boy do I wish I had been in the market for points then!). Since January 2019, some changes have been implemented. Most importantly, if you purchase a resale contract at one of the 14 resorts that existed prior to this change (known as “The Original 14”), you may use them at any one of those resorts, of course following the booking rules of home vs non-home resort. You may not use these points to book rooms at any of the 3 newest resorts (Riviera, Villas at Disneyland Hotel, and Fort Wilderness Cabins) or any new resorts that Disney introduces in the future. Disney has added new DVC rooms and even an entire new tower hotel to exisiting resorts since 2019 and those points were sold as part of the original resorts so there are no restrictions for resale points. If you choose to purchase a resale contract at one of the 3 newest resorts, you may only use the points at that particular resort and no others. Even still, resale can be a great deal at one of these properties if you know you always want to stay there anyhow. The other difference is that resale members (or direct members with less than 150 points) are not eligible for membership extras. in my opinion, these extras are not valuable enough to choose direct over resale if you are otherwise content with a resale contract. That being said, my family did purchase our points directly from Disney. We wanted to be able to book at Riviera because we had a feeling we would love it there (and we do!) and we wanted flexible points that could be used to book at any resort, current and future. If we find ourselves adding on more points in the future, we will strongly consider a resale contract. It would probably take an irresistible resort that we want the home-resort booking advantage for, or an incredible incentive offer to make us choose direct next time. Since we already have some direct points, we have flexibility to book with those points wherever we want and are eligible for extras. Restricted points would be fine for our next purchase since we would still have our choice of 14 great properties.