Is Disney Vacation Club Worth It? - NerdWallet (2024)

The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is The Walt Disney Co.’s own sort of timeshare program. But unlike traditional timeshares, where owners commit to one property and sometimes specific dates each year, Disney Vacation Club owners buy points which can be redeemed across any eligible resorts — as well as for other types of trips around the world.

There are plenty of both pros and cons of DVC, but one thing is for certain: DVC is neither simple nor cheap. Upfront costs are at least $32,550 this year, not including one-time closing costs and recurring annual dues (that increase in cost over time).

While the initial costs are high, it’s the ongoing costs that can be challenging. Joining DVC commits you to a contract, which is typically 50 years from the construction date of the building you bought into.

But for people who navigate the system and vacation at Disney often, DVC can turn out to be more valuable than paying cash prices for rooms as you go. Plus, membership entails many additional benefits, ranging from admission to members-only events to the peace of mind that you have magical vacations locked in for years ahead.

To join, you purchase a real estate interest at one of nearly 20 DVC resorts, most of which are located at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Properties include European-inspired Disney's Riviera Resort and the Victorian-style villas of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Other eligible properties can be found throughout the country, including Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina and Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii.

Your purchased real estate interest is attached to a specific property, also called your home resort. When joining, you also select the number of Vacation Points you receive annually — minimum 150 — which can be spent on accommodations at your home resort or other eligible properties any night of the year (as long as rooms are available).

Rates start at 6 Vacation Points per night, and members receive a fresh batch of points every year. Note that you cannot change your home resort.

Becoming an owner of Disney timeshare rentals isn’t cheap.

Upfront costs

As of 2023, Disney sells Vacation Points for $217 each. To join, you must purchase a minimum of 150 points (that’s at least $32,550).

Disney charges closing costs, which vary depending on the home resort. For example, closing costs for 150 Vacation Points at the Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are $851.84 in 2023.

Annual DVC membership dues

There are also ongoing annual dues, which vary based on the home resort and the number of Vacation Points you’ve bought. In 2023, monthly dues for the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are $91.75 for 150 points (that’s $1,101 annually).

And annual dues typically increase every year. In 2023, the lowest dues increase was under 2%; however, the majority of resorts saw dues increases of more than 5%, and some increased in excess of 8%. A 4% or 5% increase might not feel like much on its own, but — after compounding every year for decades — it can be quite painful.

Take Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, which saw a 4.64% increase in dues in 2023 versus 2022. Assuming this same increase every year and considering the power of compound interest, 2023’s annual dues of $1,101 can escalate quickly.

These same dues will cost you about $7,000 annually by 2064 (the year that contracts expire at this property).

Don’t be caught off guard when annual dues that you thought were around $1,000 balloon to many times that much.

Other costs to account for

The lodging you book through DVC comprises only a fraction of vacation costs. While there are plenty of free things to do at Disney World, you’ll likely end up paying for tickets, food and souvenirs, plus transportation expenses like airfare or gasoline.

The program also charges a handful of additional expenses:

Members’ lifetime costs will vary depending on several factors, but let’s consider the example at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa mentioned above.

Say you bought into The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa as your home resort, joined this year and purchased the minimum 150 required Vacation Points. Assuming you keep your contract until it expires in 2064, here’s an estimate of how much you should expect to pay over your membership.

At the end of your contract, you’ll have paid an average of nearly $4,000 per year for 41 future years of 150 annual DVC Vacation Points.

Actually calculating how much a single DVC Vacation Point is worth is incredibly complicated — so much so that Disney won’t even tell you their value. Its website gives what feels like the legalese version of a shrug when you ask it what your points are worth.

But NerdWallet took on the challenge of calculating the value of a Vacation Point.

Our estimates find that for someone buying into the program today, a single DVC Vacation Point is valued between $13 and $34, depending on how you run the numbers.

A short-term estimate

One way to consider the value of a Vacation Point is to calculate the years left on the contract plus the annual dues. In this case, you could say a Vacation Point is worth between $13.13 and $14.71.

But these numbers don’t tell the whole story, as they’re based on 2023’s annual dues with the assumption that dues never increase — which is about as unlikely as a flying elephant.

Consequently, this estimate can be shortsighted. Since members are committing to a decades-long contract with inevitable annual dues increases, the average cost per point will likely increase once annual dues increases are factored in.

However, if you were to resell your contract before dues increase exponentially, this estimate could become more likely. But that assumes you resell your contract at a value similar to what you paid for it — which is unlikely.

Here’s how we came up with those numbers.

A long-term estimate

A long-term, more conservative view accounts for the cost of DVC Vacation Points over the contract’s lifetime and includes projected annual dues increases.

Upon averaging a Vacation Point’s worth over its lifetime when accounting for dues increases, the value ends up between $30.67 and $33.88 per point.

It’s impossible to predict exact annual due increases, but Disney’s fine print estimates assume an annual increase of 4.5%, so we’ll use that figure, too.

Of course, hotel room rates also typically increase, so don’t be alarmed that points “cost” more decades from now — as future cash prices will likely be higher, too.

Here’s how we arrived at these figures.

The current cost to buy a Vacation Point a la carte: $22

There’s an even simpler way to estimate the cost of points, and that’s by pegging it to each Vacation Point’s outright cost. Disney currently allows members to buy one-time-use Vacation Points at $22 each.

So is DVC membership a smart buy? It depends both on your perception of a point’s cost — and then how you spend them.

Let's consider real-world redemptions using NerdWallet's short-term ($14 each) and long-term ($32 each) estimates.

Using Vacation Points at official DVC resorts — a great deal

Here are some examples of actual redemptions in 2023 across three DVC resorts based on a one-night booking for Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

Even at the conservative end of NerdWallet’s estimates, you always come out ahead when you book the above properties using DVC points versus cash.

Given NerdWallet’s estimates, here’s how much you save by booking these sample DVC resorts as a DVC member using points versus booking with cash (as you’d have to do if you didn’t have any DVC points to your name).

Using Vacation Points to book other trips — a bad deal

Something like 75% savings on a studio at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas — Kidani Village through DVC feels pretty unbeatable.

But using points at Disney properties that aren’t designated DVC resorts makes for an extremely bad deal.

Beyond just a brutal exchange rate, Disney also charges a $95 transaction fee for bookings, making a bad deal even worse. Here’s how much more you pay when you hand over points versus if you had just paid in cash.

Most of your vacations are to Disneyland or Disney World

There are so many DVC resorts at Walt Disney World that you could visit every year for more than a decade and stay at a different resort each time. For those who truly visit Walt Disney World every year, DVC is an entirely reasonable proposition.

You prioritize big, luxurious rooms at top-tier properties

If you’d otherwise pay cash for stays at DVC resorts, then it’s true that DVC can offer significant savings compared to cash rates. For those who’d otherwise pay for those larger rooms anyway (which typically entail kitchen and laundry), then DVC can be worthwhile.

You’ll commit long enough to break even on upfront costs

Most of DVC’s savings don’t manifest for many years after joining. Even Disney’s fine print acknowledges that the estimated 50% savings don’t even begin until approximately six to 14 years after purchase.

Take an honest look at your stage in life and whether you’ll still vacation like this 20 years from now.

You can afford to pay the upfront costs (mostly) in full

You can finance your DVC stake, but even if you get approved for an interest rate on the low end (Disney’s fixed interest rates go as low as 10% annual percentage rate for a 10-year loan), that’s still money owed in interest.

You snag a discount

While the going rate is $217 per point in 2023, discounts and promotions are frequently offered through Disney’s Savings page.

You’re confident you’ll maximize your membership (or get close to it)

DVC can be a great deal for people who maximize their membership. That means holding onto it long term, using every single point allotted and always spending points at actual DVC properties.

After all, NerdWallet found redemptions at discounts in excess of 50% versus cash rates. But redemptions outside DVC properties offer inferior points value.

However, if you don’t use every single Vacation Point you’re allotted over the term of the contract, then the deal becomes worse.

Perhaps you receive 150 points each year. But if you book 10 nights in a 14-point room, then you’ve only spent 140 of them. DVC points expire, and if you can’t bank them for the next year, then you’ve experienced the DVC equivalent of losing spare change (but more expensive).

Your perception of “savings” assumes the cash price is fair

Redemptions at DVC properties can often offer well over 50% savings compared to cash prices as we saw in some of our examples. However, take a hard look at whether you consider those reasonable cash prices anyway.

A $2,100 two-bedroom villa at Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina for $870 in Vacation Points might feel like the deal of the century (that’s effectively 59% off). But consider if it's otherwise reasonable to pay that much cash out of pocket for just one night of lodging.

You don’t want to invest that money elsewhere

There’s also that opportunity cost of putting that money to work now, rather than prepaying for vacations decades from now. For what it’s worth, $30,000 invested today with a 6% rate of return would be worth about $350,000 in 41 years from now.

Like most timeshare programs, DVC is not an investment. Consider it a prepaid vacation.

Only the most frequent Disney vacationers will see significant financial benefit from joining DVC. And even still, the high upfront costs coupled with future uncertainty still pose a challenge.

If you lose your job, you’ve found yourself with unanticipated bills or your financial situation otherwise changes, you’re stuck making monthly payments. If you become ill or injured, or maybe you just lose your Disney passion, you’re still saddled with your DVC membership. No amount of numerical calculations can account for scenarios like that.

That said, there can be real, positive psychological benefits to knowing you have Disney vacations locked in on a regular basis. Making monthly payments toward dues might actually better help you budget.

And other membership benefits — like discounts, lounge access and special events — could be valuable to you. After all, many of the benefits from DVC membership may manifest in ways that money can’t buy.

(Top photo courtesy of Walt Disney World)