The cost of a Disney Vacation Club membership is dependent on a few factors. Whether you purchase directly from Disney or on the resale market, you are required to pay yearly maintenance fees on your home resort.
First, you have to purchase points. Unlike most timeshare offerings where you purchase a specific week, Disney gives you a great deal of flexibility by allowing you to buy points that are then redeemed when you want to vacation. The point value of a room can vary depending on the type of room, the resort, and the time of year. For example, if you want a preferred deluxe studio at Saratoga Springs during the month of January for 1 week, it would cost you 97 points. The same room at the same resort over Christmas break will cost you 166 points.
The cost you will pay for those points is also dependent on a few factors. All of the 14 current Disney Vacation Club Resorts have a different value. If you're looking at resale contracts, the aforementioned Saratoga Springs Resort would cost between $97 and $110 per point based on the contract. By contrast, a resale contract at the Grand Floridian Villas can average around $160 per point. The reason your "home resort" is so important though, is that you have a booking window of up to 11-months at your home resort versus 7-months in advance at any other DVC location. For popular resorts (like Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary, Grand Floridian Villas, Polynesian, etc), that 4-month booking window is often the difference between finding a room at the resort you want and not finding that room.
There are two ways to purchase your Disney Vacation Club membership: You can purchase it directly from Disney, or you can purchase it on the resale market.
If you purchase your Disney Vacation Club membership directly from Disney, you can expect to pay anywhere between $160 - $188 per point. That is dependent on the resort you’re interested in purchasing a membership in.
If you are purchasing your Disney Vacation Club membership on the resale market, then prices can vary wildly. A Disney Vacation Club member who is selling their membership can set whatever price-per-point they want. Most reputable timeshare brokers will guide the member towards a price that is both fair for the seller, and a price that Disney will allow. Disney Vacation Club maintains a right of first refusal on all DVC memberships being sold on the resale market. This means, effectively, that if Disney thinks the price someone is charging is too low, they will buy the contract themselves in order to keep price integrity on their product.
The other cost factor associated with ownership are the yearly maintenance fees. Disney Vacation Club owners are charged a maintenance fee based on the number of points they purchase, and those maintenance fees vary by resort. Maintenance fees are used for upgrades, repairs, and maintenance around the property. Here are the current maintenance fees at the various Disney Vacation Club resorts:
- Animal Kingdom Lodge $7.44
- Aulani - $7.86
- Bay Lake Tower - $6.40
- Beach Club - $6.94
- Boardwalk - $7.17
- Grand Californian - $6.27
- Grand Floridian - $6.39
- Hilton Head Island - $8.56
- Old Key West - $7.23
- Polynesian - $6.76
- Saratoga Springs - $6.40
- Vero Beach - $9.48
- WL Boulder Ridge - $7.32
- WL Copper Creek - $7.43
