UPDATE – 10/1/20: We’ve learned today that waivers being received from DVC have reverted back to the previous verbiage suggesting that the Riviera resale restrictions remain unchanged.
A recent verbiage change in Disney Vacation Club resale documents today is raising some eyebrows over on the DVC Fan Facebook Group and DISboards regarding the future of the resale restrictions that plague Disney’s Riviera Resort.
In reaching out to our good friend Jerry Sydow at DVCStore.com, we’ve learned that the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) waiver language received from Disney Vacation Club before yesterday contained the following verbiage:
“As of March 21, 2011, you will not be able to use the vacation points associated with this Ownership Interest to make reservations for the Concierge or Disney Collection options such as Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, or select Disney resorts. Further, as of April 4, 2016, you will not have access to other Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits (also known as Membership Extras) such as Member discounts on dining, shopping, Member-exclusive events, and certain special Member offers. Do not purchase your Ownership Interest in reliance on access to or the ability to transfer these Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits. 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.“
The waivers now state the following as of September 29th, 2020, with some important differences highlighted:
“As of March 21, 2011, you will not be able to use the vacation points associated with this Ownership Interest to make reservations for the Concierge or Disney Collection options such as Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, or select Disney resorts. Further, as of April 4, 2016, you will not have access to other Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits (also known as Membership Extras) such as Member discounts on dining, shopping, Member-exclusive events, and certain special Member offers. Do not purchase your Ownership Interest in reliance on access to or the ability to transfer these Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits. Effective January 19, 2019, only Members who purchase directly from Disney will be able to use their Vacation Points at the 16 existing Disney Vacation Club Resorts or future Resorts—such as Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge. Resale contracts purchased for the existing 16 Disney Vacation Club Resorts will only be able to exchange Points into those 16 Disney Vacation Club Resorts.“
This new change has been confirmed by multiple members with recent resale purchases, as well as several resale brokers.
While no official statement from Disney Vacation Club has been issued regarding this change, it is hard not to get a little excited by the language and what it may mean. Our interpretation would be that unless this is an error, it implies that DVC is lifting previous resale restrictions related to Disney’s Riviera Resort. The language and restriction had previously limited resale points purchased after January 19th, 2019, to all resorts EXCEPT for Riviera and future resorts. Based on the new verbiage, these resale contracts and points could now be used at one of “the existing 16 Disney Vacation Club Resorts”. It remains to be seen what this could also mean for the restrictions surrounding resale Riviera contracts’ as well.
Of additional interest is the mention of Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, which looked to be canceled – as well as the differentiation between Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani Village.
This change is currently not reflected when attempting to book with a resale contract that has been affected by the current restrictions. Also, based on reports from numerous owners who have reached out to their Disney Vacation Club sales guides, they are not yet internally aware of any change related to the resale restriction.
Maybe we are reading too much into this, but only time will tell! With Disney’s fiscal year beginning October 4th, we may learn more very soon…
Stay tuned to DVC Fan, the DVC Fan Facebook Group, and The DIS for more information as it becomes available!
Also, let us know in the comments your thoughts on what this verbiage change means and how it may affect Riviera’s resale restrictions! Would you purchase Riviera if these restrictions were lifted?
FINGERS CROSSED!!!!! With all of the bad news the last few days, this would be so nice.
I think this sounds promising but nothing concrete to confirm it. If it doesn’t get announced for Disney’s new financial year on 4th Oct then it can be put in the rumour bin.
Great article, Paul. Keep em coming! Okay. I’ll bite. I have three conspiracy theories:
1). Someone knew of an impending layoff and KNEW this typo is both binding yet would certainly be overlooked. Rogue employee?
2). DVC is getting absolutely smoked by resale and their hand is pushed to do this. Probably Pete’s theory.
3). And this is my theory, when you point share with other resorts, it allows maintenance pooling of fees and funds across resorts. DVD probably does not want to float a 35-40% sold property (with potentially darker days ahead), and wants other sold out resorts/points to help the cause. For example, my AKV 2020 contract cannot stay at this resort, and THOUSANDS of new contracts are similar- but this resort is <40% sold and legacy memberships are becoming scarcer and scarcer. It’s a money grab, and it does tangibly benefit us in DVC – win/win.