Disney Vacation Club
Updated March 2023
Disney Vacation Club or DVC as it is known, is Disney’s version of a Timeshare - But don’t let that worry you, its nothing like the time share schemes of yester year.
DVC is a points based system. Each year you get an allocation of points.
Our contract is a 175 point Old Key West Direct contract expiring in 2057.
Don’t worry about what all that means right now, I’ll explain it piece by piece.
What is a point and how do I use them?
Each point is a form of currency used to value one night in a certain room at a DVC resort.
For example a Deluxe Studio at Old Key West (OKW for short) averages 12 points per night.
Some Deluxe Studios cost more points per night at different resorts, some are less. A 1 bedroom apartment is typically double the price of a Studio and a 2 bedroom is even more points, but then you are getting more beds and space for those points.
What is Old Key West?
Old Key West (OKW for short) is the original Disney Vacation Resort in Walt Disney World. It is now one of sixteen DVC resorts spread out across America and as a DVC member you can use your points to stay at any of them.
Why did you pick 175 points and what do you mean it expires in 2057?
Our contract is 175 points. This means each year we get 175 points to spend on rooms at DVC.
We typically stay for 14 nights, so 12 points per night for 14 nights equals 168 points. 175 points therefore gives us a few extra that we can use to stay at other resorts should we want to.
Our contract expires in 2057. This means we get 175 points ever year until 2057. At that point our contract ends, no more points, no more stays, but by then we will be 76 and 72 years old and would have had 35 years of holidays.
Other resorts have their own expiry date, so its important to check this before purchasing a DVC contract.
Think of DVC as paying for your next 35 years of holidays in advance at todays prices, rather than paying each year and watching the price rise each year. We only have to pay for our flights, the hotel part of our stay is already paid for.
So can you only stay at Old Key West?
No, Old Key West is what’s called our Home Resort. This means a couple of things.
We can book a stay at Old Key West 11 months out from the first day of our stay, this is important because we can only book 7 months out at all the other resorts.
We pay dues (an annual maintenance fee) on Old Key West. This is based on a fee per point, so the more points you own, the more dues you would pay.
When do you get your points each year?
Our contract has a December Use Year. This means each December 1st, our 175 points renew. Different contracts have different Use Years (month when points drop).
So you can’t book your holiday until December when your points drop?
No, just because my points drop into our account in December, we can still book up to 11 months out for our Home Resort and 7 months out for all other resorts.
As long as the points would be in your account by the first day of your stay, then you can book it.
What type of rooms are there?
DVC rooms include -
Deluxe Studios
1 Bedroom apartments
1 Bedroom Lock-Offs
2 Bedroom apartments
Grand Villas
Deluxe Studio
Include a bedroom with either one King size bed, two Queen size beds or a bed and a sofa bed. They include a kitchenette area with a coffee machine and fridge and a bathroom with a shower or bath.
1 Bedroom Apartment
Include an actual separate bedroom and living area. The bedroom may have either a King Size bed or two Queens.
The living area will have a sofa bed and a proper size kitchen and dining area as well as laundry facilities.
1 beds are very popular because of the extra space and the laundry facilities, which aren’t included in the studios.
1 Bedroom Lock-Off
The stranger in the room (see what I did there) is the 1 Bedrrom Lock-Off. This highly sought after room is actually a 1 bedroom with a studio attached.
Ideal for an extended family trip, parents and kids can stay in the 1 bedroom apartment, while Nan & Grandad can have their own studio space, complete with a lockable interconnecting door and their own front door.
2 bedroom apartment
This similar apartment to a 1 bedroom features an additional bedroom and on-suite bathroom, allowing for an ever bigger party of Disney fans.
Grand Villa
These typically 3 bedroom apartments, are spread over two floors.
They are effectively a house.
They have multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, a large living area and full size kitchen with a dining table big enough to seat everyone.
And when we say everyone, we’re talking up to 12 people!
They are huge! But they also cost the most points per night, so they ain’t cheap.
What if you have points left over or you don’t have enough?
So here’s the clever bit. We can bank or borrow points from different years.
Say we want to go in 2024, but we don’t have enough points. We can borrow from our 2025 allotment.
Like wise if we wanted to save our points from 2023 to use in 2024, we could bank them.
We could even do a combination of both banking and borrowing, so if we wanted a mega holiday in 2024 we could bank 175 from 2023, borrow 175 from 2025 and combine those with our 2024 points.
Disney even allow us to purchase a one off 25 extra points per year if we were still short.
Now we have a total of 550 points!
Grand Villa here we come.
Ok, so you’ve got your points and you’ve stayed at Old Key West, where next?
Well there are 15 other DVC resorts we could explore (some we’ve already stayed at).
Have a look at our ‘Disney Resort Hotels’ page to find about the different types of hotels at Walt Disney World.
You can also follow our blog posts as we review the resorts as we stay in them.
