How to Maximize Your DVC Contract

You’ve spent thousands of dollars on your Disney Vacation Club membership. Since you work hard for your money, you want that investment to pay off as much as possible. Here are a few tips on how to maximize your DVC contract. 

Avoid High-Point Travel Periods When Possible

You cannot always control your travel dates. Whether you’re a professional or a college student, work or school will determine when you can take a vacation. Similarly, parents of school-aged children must wait until times when school isn’t in session. 

When you study the DVC Points Chart and the various Travel Periods, you’ll realize that Disney assigns DVC Points costs based on this information. So, when you travel during Spring Break, Easter, the summer, or the end-of-year holiday season, you’ll pay more. 

DVC assigns its Travel Periods the same way that Disney establishes its ticket prices. On the most popular travel dates, you must spend the largest amount of DVC Points for the same hotel room. The pricing structure makes perfect sense to Disney, but it’s less than ideal for you.

When possible, you should travel at times when you’ll pay the fewest amount of DVC Points. I realize that many people cannot travel during January, May, or September. However, when you can, you’ll maximize the value of your DVC contract. 

You can stay longer for the same or possibly even fewer points. Alternatively, you can simply save some of your points to Bank for the following Use Year. These possibilities exist when you avoid high-point Travel Periods. When you have no other choice but to visit during popular tourist seasons, you must spend a greater percentage of DVC Points for the same length of a hotel stay. 

Consider Split Stays

Given what I just said, you can understand the importance of choosing the best dates for your visit. When you pick the right week, you’ll maximize your points. There’s an even deeper level to this philosophy, though. 

Some DVC resorts increase their points significantly more on weekend nights than others. So, you can squeeze a bit more value from your DVC Points by employing Split Stays. That’s when you stay at multiple DVC hotels during your Disney vacation. 

Beach Club Villas and Bay Lake Tower

I do split stays regularly, although I’ll be honest with you that it’s not because of the points savings. Personally, I choose Split Stays for the logistics, as I’ll stay at Disney’s Beach Club Villas when I’m spending most of my park time at EPCOT/Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Then, I’ll switch to a monorail resort for the Magic Kingdom portion of my trip. Still, I recommend Split Stays as much for the points value as the logistics. 

Master Waitlists 

Here’s a different aspect of your DVC contract. Your 11-month window allows you to reserve a hotel room at your Home Resort. However, if you’re anything like me, you’ll book most of your reservations at the seven-month window. You’ve bought into the DVC program because it entitles you to book at countless hotels, not just your Home Resort. 

So, you want to maximize the value of your contract by booking all the resorts you want, not just the one where you own your contract. And let’s be honest about the fact that you won’t always be able to reserve the room you want once the seven-month window opens. 

To get the room you want when you want it, you must master the art of the Waitlist, which isn’t easy. However, Waitlists open the forbidden doors of DVC. You can snag reservations at the most popular resorts when you know what you’re doing. Since properties like the monorail resorts typically cost more to make your Home Resort, you’re saving a fortune by mastering Waitlists instead. You don’t have to buy a new contract, but rather learn the system to maximize your contract. 

Take Advantage of Disney Benefits

In late May, tickets went on sale for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. For some, the booking window had only opened a couple of hours before Halloween Night sold out. For others, they had more than a week to book. 

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

That’s a relatively recent philosophical change for Disney, and it’s one that plays to your advantage. Disney sometimes allows guests with existing hotel bookings to reserve after-hours tickets before guests who don’t. With the Halloween party, DVC members had the best opportunity to buy tickets for Halloween Week. 

That’s one of the many benefits that we get for staying at an official Disney resort. Another is Early Theme Park Entry, and a third is Extended Evening Hours. These amenities provide DVC members with exclusive access to the parks at times when they’re otherwise closed to regular guests. When you purchase into the DVC program, you maximize the value of your DVC contract and will enjoy your Disney vacations more, too. 

Access all available Disney Vacation Club resale listings, or learn more about buying and selling with DVC Resale Market.