DVC Buyers Guide: Resale vs. Direct

Once you’ve decided you’re ready to buy into the Disney Vacation Club (DVC), you’ve made the first big decision… but there are several smaller decisions that follow as part of the purchasing process. These decisions can have a big impact on where you can stay when using your membership or how much your membership costs. I’ve laid the questions out below in no particular order because changing the answer on one might substantially impact your answer to another. In aggregate, these answers will dictate how much your membership costs and you’ll be playing around with which combinations of answers fit your budget. Each of these questions has a lot to unpack, so I’ll be covering them one at a time in a series of articles. These questions are:

• Should I buy direct from Disney or buy resale from an existing member?
• Which resort should I buy at?
• How many points should I buy?
• Should I use financing?
• What use year should I buy?

Should I buy direct from Disney or buy resale from an existing member?

A question some won’t even know is an option, when purchasing DVC you can either purchase it from Disney or from an existing member. There are several good reasons to buy from Disney, but there is one great reason to buy resale: price. Resale DVC contracts typically sell anywhere from 20-30% less than Disney’s prices. So why would anyone buy from Disney?

Direct Member Perks

Disney offers a few perks for direct members (often called blue card members because of the old identification cards) to try to compete with resale prices. The value of these perks is subjective, but I will walk through them and how much value you may find in each. It’s also good to be aware that perks are not in any way guaranteed and can (and have) changed. To obtain these benefits you need to not only buy direct from Disney but purchase 150 points direct, a minimum that has been quickly creeping up over the years.

Scheduling Your Genie+ Rides

Genie+ suffers from all the same issues as ILL and more. Just like ILL you need to get up at 7 a.m., though in this case being on or off property doesn’t affect anything. You also have the same issues with the time randomly changing during the process, though it seems a bit more reliable since there is no credit card charge as part of the process. There are still issues with it not taking your other plans into account and getting a time you want is even worse. I plan to go in-depth into these problems as I have a software background and can talk more extensively on the app issues, but overall the user experience is not good.

Genie+ also has the added challenge of taking you out of your trip every two hours. After the first reservation, you will be setting alarms to go off every two hours after the park opens. Whether you are in the middle of a ride or not, you will want to hop on Genie+ right then because everyone else is on the same timer. Regularly I saw availability disappear within five minutes of one of the crucial two hour benchmarks. This is very disruptive and makes enjoying Disney a little bit harder. I doubt they’ll ever change it but I’d much rather they went to a reserve-in-advance system. If sixty or thirty days was too far out, I would much prefer they shortened it to a week than rather went to this same day, throughout the day system.

DVC Members can buy a Sorcerer’s Pass

Before delving into the potential benefits of this perk, I’ll first mention that Walt Disney World currently has suspended the sale of all new annual passes (AP), with no announcements on when they will resume. Until then, this is a non-existent perk if you don’t already have an annual pass. Those with existing APs can renew and make use of this benefit. 

Typically reserved for Florida residents, the Sorcerer Pass is the Disney World annual pass one step down from the Incredi-Pass – the only one available for non-Florida residents. The Sorcerer pass costs $400 less than the Incredi-Pass and $340 less to renew – though it does have a couple of blackout periods where it cannot be used around Christmas and Thanksgiving. So, if you aren’t already a Florida resident, don’t plan on going during those seasonal holidays, and will be going to Walt Disney World at least twice in a year it can be a big savings. For a family of 4 (like us) it amounts to almost $1,200 a year in savings. This perk is the most financially impactful and is the only one that can make up for the price difference between Direct and Resale.

Discount on dining, merchandise, tours, and special events

Generally ranging from 10-20% depending on location or event, direct DVC members will pay less for dining and shopping around Disney property. In addition, tours such as Keys to the Kingdom or Behind the Seeds offer a similar discount. Special events like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween and Very Merry Christmas Parties can be discounted as well. These discounts are nice, but cannot be combined with others. Those with Annual Passes or a Disney Visa will often find that these discounts render the DVC discount moot. From a pure number perspective, it also would take spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to match the added money spent on direct membership.

Access to the Members Lounges at EPCOT and Bay Lake Tower

Set in the glass pyramid of the Imagination Pavilion, the DVC members lounge at EPCOT allows for a quick break from the heat. The lounge has Coke-Your-Way machines as well as small packs of snacks like animal crackers or cheese crackers. At Bay Lake Tower, Top of the World Lounge offers a great fireworks view along with drinks, appetizers, and desserts (for a cost). Previously available to all members since reopening in July 2022, it has become a direct member perk. Both of these areas are nice and can make you feel like an exclusive member at the parks. These aren’t perks that are easily quantified and each member needs to decide for themselves if they’re worth the extra cost.

The ability to exchange DVC points for Disney Cruise Lines, Adventures by Disney, and non-DVC Disney Resorts

Direct members may exchange their points for a number of Disney experiences such as a Disney Cruise or a stay on the Galactic Star Cruiser. Unfortunately, this one of the worst perks available to DVC members. The point cost of all of these exchanges is incredibly high. Many have found that simply renting out their points and spending the cash on these same experiences yields two to three times the value. There are even third party sites that will streamline the process by offering direct exchange of points for these trips. Because of this, the perk is essentially just marketing and not something of real benefit to direct members.

Access to members only cruises

DVC will occasionally charter a Disney Cruise Line cruise for members only. The cruises feature extra DVC events and allows members to meet and vacation with each other. The one downside to these cruises is that typically at least one member must be booked using points which, as discussed above, can often be a poor value. Similar to the lounges, these cruises can feel very exclusive and every member needs to decide for themselves if that’s worth the extra price of direct sales.

Access to member exclusive events such as Moonlight Magic

Moonlight Magic is a special after-hours event where DVC opens a park to just their members, featuring special character meets and some free snacks. Members who are able to attend these events almost universally agree that they are a great benefit. The biggest downside to these events is that they are announced with only a few months lead time. This often means that there is no availability for DVC reservations, and even for those that can travel with such short notice it can be hard to attend. What that means is that while this is a great perk it often comes down to pure luck if you’re able to make use of it.

Other Benefits of Direct

Beyond the advertised perks there are a few other benefits to buying direct over resale that are worth noting.

• Immediate Points
  When buying from Disney the process is extremely quick. Existing members can have points within days of purchasing a new contract from Disney. New members take a bit more time to get set up in the system, but the process is still much faster than the several months that resale can take. Additionally, when buying resale, contracts may have unused points from the previous year, and can also have points from the current year or even next year already spent. When buying from Disney you always receive full points for the year you’re purchasing (even though your dues will be pro-rated).
  
• Contract Flexibility
  When buying resale you must buy an existing contract, which means you’re limited to what is currently up for sale. While shopping for contracts you may not find the resort you want, for the number of points you want, and the use year you want. Disney, however, can generally issue contracts for whatever combination you’d like. They even have the ability to split your purchase into multiple contracts, beneficial if you eventually sell because smaller contracts sell better (though you do have to pay separate closing costs for each contract).
  
• The Blue Card
  While it may feel frivolous or vain, some like to view Direct Membership as a more exclusive club than just being a DVC member. This was a bit more common when there were physical membership cards with direct members having blue cards and resale having white. Just like all DVC members feel a little special owning a piece of Disney, some find the exclusivity of direct membership even more appealing. As with many of the perks, each member needs to weigh if that’s worth several thousand dollars to them.

In Conclusion

The decision to buy direct or resale generally involves weighing a clear financial cost against several intangible, much more subjective considerations. Every member needs to make the decision for themselves, but I’d strongly encourage you to at least do the research. Once you’ve decided on some of the other items around buying DVC, talk to a DVC guide at Disney for direct pricing and compare to what’s available on resale sites such as DVCResaleMarket or DVCStore.

— Dave