Your Guide to Disney Vacation Club Availability

Did you know that attendance at Disney theme parks has been lackluster this summer? One reason for this decline in attendance is the sky-high ticket prices associated with the parks.

Anyone who’s ever had a Disney vacation knows how costly they can get. One way you can save money on your vacation while exploring the many parks and resorts Disney offers is through Disney Vacation Club.

However, there’s currently a problem with this program: Disney Vacation Club availability. So how does availability work with DVC? And how do you improve the chances of getting the Disney Vacation Club resort that you want with your points?

This guide will walk you through these questions and more so you can have the perfect vacation.

How Does Disney Vacation Club Availability Work?

Let’s say you have some DVC points that you want to use. You search for your favorite resort and try to book a room. However, even though you’re doing it months in advance there are no rooms available.

Why is this? Well, to understand, we need to break down how DVC resort availability works. Often, we think of a Disney Vacation Club as a single resort.

However, the reality is that there are two distinct resorts within each resort. The first one can be thought of as the timeshare resort for owners. The other is the Deluxe Villa resort.

The timeshare aspect of the resort can be reserved using Disney Vacation Club points. However, the Deluxe Villa part of the resort doesn’t use points, but rather cash.

Both aspects of these resorts pull from separate room inventories. This helps explain why on the DVC member website there might be no rooms available at the resort you want.

But, when you go on the Disney World website it says there are rooms available. Sadly, availability is becoming a huge problem for DVC members outside of their home resorts.

However, it’s not impossible to book a stay at an outside resort. You just need to understand the factors that affect availability and strategies for improving your chances.

What Factors Affect Availability?

Like most vacation spots, weather and typical vacations are the biggest factors when it comes to availability. In resorts found within Florida, the weather tends to be fairly consistent year-round, with some mildly poor days in winter.

However, other resorts might have longer rain seasons that lead to higher availability levels. If you want to go to Disney World in Florida, your best chance is to go during Winter.

It’s also important to pay attention to events occurring in the resort. Food and Wine, plus a myriad of other events, cause an increase in bookings that lead to little availability. Our advice for finding availability?

Look for what was available last year. Because the weather and events tend to follow a predictive pattern you can use this information to help determine what time of the year has the best availability for the resort you want.

How to Improve Your Chances of Getting the DVC Resort You Want

Even if you are looking at last year’s data, there’s still likely to be little availability if you’re trying to book at a popular DVC location. So is there any way to increase your chances of getting it?

Getting a DVC resort outside your home resort can be quite hard, especially if it’s well-loved. That being said, there are some things you can do to improve your odds. Let’s take a look.

1. Use Availability Tools

There are plenty of available tools online that you can use when planning your vacation. These allow you to quickly scout out good times of the year when availability for resorts reaches a specific high.

If you want to get the resort of your dreams, you’ll likely need to spend a lot of time on these tools.

However, remember that the more experience you have using them and the point system, the more efficient you’ll be in the future. So don’t stress out if it takes you a couple of years to get the hang of them.

2. Purchase Resale vs. DVC Direct

There’s a lot of debate in the Disney Vacation Club about whether it’s better to purchase DVC resale vs direct. There are pros and cons for both options. However, when it comes to higher availability, resale is usually the way to go. Why?

Because when you purchase your DVC directly from Disney, you’re going to be dealing with the limited selection of rooms they offer. And, due to a variety of factors, these contracts tend to be confined to Disney’s newest resorts.

Now, if you want to stay at these resorts, you can purchase them directly. However, the resale market when it comes to DVC tends to have a far wider range of options for you to choose from.

You can purchase both small and large point contacts from just about any Disney resort location in the world. That’s not an option when you purchase direct.

3. Buy Where You Want to Stay

This is one of the first things you’ll hear when you start researching Disney Vacation Club ownership. However, it’s essential advice. Don’t purchase a contract at a resort you dislike with the hopes of using your points elsewhere.

As you can see, availability nightmares can make it impossible to ever get a booking. Instead, make your home resort someplace you love. That way you can take advantage of the increased availability that it offers you.

Appreciate Learning About Disney Vacation Club Availability? Keep Exploring

We hope this guide helped you learn more about Disney Vacation Club availability. As you can see, DVC availability will continue to be a problem until the Disney Vacation Club program decides to build more space at individual resorts instead of simply more resort locations.

So, until that happens, follow the advice in this guide to maximize your chances of getting the Disney vacation that you want. Want more vacation topics like this one?

Keep exploring our website to find more advice that can help you have the perfect holiday.