How Renting DVC Points Will Change Your Disney Game

Hello, hello and happy days! I hope you all are having a great week! Today we are talking about the Disney Vacation Club. What it is, how it works, and most importantly how to rent those DVC points. If you are planning a trip to any Disney park renting Disney Vacation Club points is definitely something that you should consider, especially if you are traveling with a larger sized group. Renting vacation points can actually lower your cost of room and board on your trip.

What is the Disney Vacation Club

The Grand Floridian Resort in Disney World

The Disney Vacation Club is a time-share type program offered by Disney which allows you to make a large one time purchase that covers the cost of your hotel at Disney for the next 50 years. When a new hotel or resort is being built, Disney allows individuals to buy into the DVC. The system is point based, where you have a minimum point buy and each night’s stay requires a minimum number of points. As of this writing there is a 100 point minimum buy in, with an average cost of $150 per point. DVC members then pay an annual due that covers admin fees and various costs associated with the DVC upkeep.

The points are renewed in your account each year, and are used to book your hotel stay on a Disney vacation. You’re able to use them at any DVC resort and on any night, however each resort and each night requires a varying number of points. There are also quite a few DVC members who are also trying to book their getaways, so reservations are first come first serve. The biggest perk of the Disney Vacation Club is that you pay once up front (or you can finance the purchase) and have x number of points to use at Disney every year. You can also borrow points from the next year and carry-over points from a previous year, allowing you to roll-up to one big vacation. Unfortunately though, the points do expire after 2 years.

DVC Rooms

Rooms from Disney's Yacht Club Resort in Florida

Another big perk to membership in DVC is that the rooms are larger and nicer than the standard resort rooms. Many of the available rooms are suites, and even the studios come equipped with a small kitchenette that you won’t find in the normal hotel offerings. On our last trip we rented a 2 bedroom villa at the Beach Club resort. It was grandiose and far more space than we needed, but it was such a treat. Our room had a huge balcony that spanned across both bedroom and the main sitting area, it was also equipped with a full kitchen. These features made us feel right at home, and we were able to save money by stocking the fridge with snacks and making our own breakfast.

Here’s Why You Should Be Renting DVC Points

Disney World's Polynesian Bungalows

Disney is expensive, that’s no secret. Even the budget-friendly resorts can get pricey, especially if you have 5 or more people in your group. Then you have to start considering family suites, or multiple rooms, and it can be a headache. Even a single studio style room can rack up if you are trying to book it during the busy season. A standard room at the value resort can cost you over $200 per night, depending on when you visit, a family suite will set you back up to $500! If you want to stay at one of the nicer resorts, you could be looking at $700-$1,000+. It makes the possibility of staying in one of these signature properties seem so far out of reach.
Being able to join the Vacation Club is a great alternative, if you can afford the upfront cost. The points remain for 50 years, but the upfront cost is spread out over a much smaller time frame. Who here has $150,000 dollars to drop on a Disney hotel room? That’s almost as much as my house!! It’s just simply unthinkable for some of us. So how then do normal everyday people like you and I manage to afford staying in one of these swanky upscale resorts?

We Rent DVC Points

One downside of buying into the Disney Vacation Club is that your annual points do expire. With the amount that someone spends to buy those points, they clearly do not want them to go to waste. Unfortunately though, sometimes life just gets in the way and you can’t always make it to the happiest place on earth. Rather than completely losing the value of these beautiful points, many DVC members will rent them out to us ordinary folks helping to make some of our dreams come true.

Cost Comparison

View from the balcony of Animal Kingdom Lodge

I’m not going to lie to you and say renting DVC points is the cheapest way to visit Disney, because it’s not. You can get a room in a value resort and save more money, but these value resorts have some serious downfalls. Generally, they are farther away from the parks than nearly any other resort. The theming is lack luster, the food options are sparse, and the pools are drab in comparison. That’s not to say there’s no reason to stay in a value resort. If you are a parks all day, pack your own snacks, budget conscience guest than the All Star’s are perfect for you! We stayed in All Star Music on our first trip and it was great.

But, if you are looking for some more room, better amenities, and planning to spend some time winding down on your vacation then a moderate or even deluxe resort might be for you. On our last trip we stayed in the Beach Club Villas and it was honestly the most amazing hotel stay I’ve ever had, even with my whole family sharing the suite. We had so much room for everyone to have their own space, there was 2.5 bathrooms, so there was no line to get ready in the morning. I’m an early riser and they’re not, so I was able to get up early and lure them all awake with the smell of bacon and pancakes. When we got back to the room at night, we sat on the balcony and had a cocktail while talking about our day. Not to mention the fact that we could walk to 2 of the 4 parks! It was amazing! You can read more about why I love the Beach Club in this article, but suffice it to say it was worth every penny.

Final Costs

So how many pennies did we spend? The room normally prices in between $1,100 and $1,300 per night. We stayed for 7 nights. But wait! Because, renting DVC points made the average cost for this room is less than $800. That’s a 20-40% savings, just by using this one little trick! I’m not crazy though, I know that $800 a night is still insane, our trip was a special treat that probably won’t happen again. But, you don’t have to stay in a 2 bedroom villa to save money.

Take the Animal Kingdom Lodge for example, this is one of the most reviewed resorts on property. And for good reason! It’s gorgeous! A standard studio style room booked through Disney can cost $500-$750 depending on when you stay. But renting DVC points you’ll spend on average $200-$300. That’s about on par with some of the Value resorts! If you could wake up and see giraffes walking around outside your window for the same cost as the motel 6 style value resorts, why would you not? It just makes sense!

How Do I Rent DVC Points?

Inside the rooms at Disney Beach Club Resort

If you are thinking about renting Disney Vacation Club points there are a lot of options out there. But one of the most reputable and well known is David’s Vacation Club Rentals. The people there are unbelievably helpful and take care of everything from making your reservation to setting up your Dining Plan, if that’s what you want. They are one of the best DVC rental operations out there and I cannot recommend them enough. They also have some of the most competitive pricing, so that definitely helps.

David’s Vacation Club Rentals even has a super handy cost calculator so you can make sure you are getting the best deal. It is easy to use and shows you cost comparisons across all of the available resorts for the time frame you enter. If you want to see how much money you’ll be saving, you can look up rates for the same time frame on Disney’s own website and compare the two. On average you’ll be saving at least 20% but often closer to 50%.

So what are you waiting for?!


Go run your own cost comparison to see for yourself how much money you can save! And if you are having trouble justifying the cost of a moderate or deluxe resort, run a comparison against those you’re still likely to save money or spend almost the same for a much better experience.

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