I suspect Riviera must not be selling as well as they hoped it would

[Drewferin]

I suggest everybody start the slow drip of complaining openly to guides. This may work in time if sales aren't very good they are forced to eliminate the restrictions.

 

[TexasChick123]

I suggest everybody start the slow drip of complaining openly to guides. This may work in time if sales aren't very good they are forced to eliminate the restrictions.

Just out of curiosity, what is your guide’s response when you tell him/her that you’d buy right then if the resale restriction went away?

When I told mine that I would’ve bought more without the restrictions, she told me she would make a note of it and inform the appropriate people of my feedback.

 

[Drewferin]

My guide got uncomfortable and started to ramble. I cut him off and told him Disney is a for profit company I get it but devaluing the product your trying to sell is completely short sided. I told him nobody ever expects: losing a job, divorce, death in the family, etc... I told him when life happens DVC doesn't need to take advantage of members. Moral high ground cant be argued with very much. Guide indicated they are getting pressure about new restrictions.

 

[Bing Showei]

Just out of curiosity, what is your guide’s response when you tell him/her that you’d buy right then if the resale restriction went away?

When I told mine that I would’ve bought more without the restrictions, she told me she would make a note of it and inform the appropriate people of my feedback.

I had told my guide, when we first met in 2017, that as soon as Riviera is selling to reach out. Since then, we've been in touch several times. Once to close on a small direct purchase and multiple other times to chat about all things Disney timeshare in general and she has always been wonderful to speak with.

When the restrictions were announced earlier this year, I had a long conversation with her, was still considering buying, but then backed out and sent her a long email lamenting the decision for Disney to go this way. My guide forwarded my email to her team lead and said she understood. It doesn't help that a name I passed along to her ended up buying in and that sales apparently have been great the first two weeks. The last conversation she had, she pointed these two things out and suggested that the restrictions seem to have very little impact on sales.

I don't think it's going to matter much that there are some of us who would buy in if not for [insert grievances here]. There are a **** ton of people who will buy in anyway. As kboo astutely pointed out in another thread, the change probably has very little meaning to someone buying in for the first time. If I were a new buyer and could afford it, Riviera would be a no-brainer. Disney conveniently jacked up the prices on their legacy resort to obscene, arbitrary prices to make Riviera look like a bargain. New buyers are the primary target here.

As for those of us in the DISboards circles holding out, we're probably not the target and a very small minority. The facebook pages are rife with people celebrating the restrictions and their new add-on.

 

[summerw]

We're considering becoming members. All the posts I'd seen said that the minimum buy-in for new members at the Poly was 100 points, but when I called on Wednesday, a guide told me I could buy 75, so maybe they lowered if for multiple resorts?

 

[OUjenny21]

I was all ready to buy Riviera and just got my contract yesterday in the mail... but now I am second guessing. So much in this thing is SO VAGUE. It's like I can't even tell what I am buying into and what it may or may not look like in 6 months...

 

[10CJ]

As for those of us in the DISboards circles holding out, we're probably not the target and a very small minority. The facebook pages are rife with people celebrating the restrictions and their new add-on.

I don’t understand why anyone who owns there would celebrate these restrictions. It seems like this will make availability worse at Riviera eventually.

 

[CarolMN]

It definitely feels like they’re shooting themselves in the foot with the resale restriction. Yes, I bought anyway, but I bought less than I would have without the restriction to mitigate risk.

Also, the boards are filled with people who say they’d buy RR direct if the restriction was removed. Do they really not realize that the resale restriction was more a deterrent than a selling point? I, for one, have no plans to use my RR points anywhere except RR. I bought direct because the incentives were good, and I like what I’ve seen about the resort. The fact that I can use these points elsewhere at 7 months isn’t all that appealing when paying direct prices.

I don't think they thought this through, either.

IMO, they've reduced the pool of willing buyers by a significant amount. Normally, I wouldn't buy DVC at all without assuming a zero resale value - that's what I assumed when we first bought back in 1999 and that assumption has served us much better than expected. However, I won't accept that assumption now (20 years later) because there is zero chance that we'll even be alive when the Riviera contracts expire. We'd plan to sell within 5 years or so. Given that time frame, it's unlikely that we'd even come close to breaking even, so renting or even paying cash for Riviera stays is a better option. I'd have accepted a "no-trade" to the L14 restriction, but can't get past the resale restriction that will probably result in a reduced value on the resale market.

OTOH, perhaps I am not giving them credit and they really are thinking more long term. Perhaps it's more about overall long-term profitability for the Corporation and not just maximizing the DVD silo. If so, selling quickly isn't the primary goal. ( )

 

[carli_h]

I was told this week I could buy 75 points direct on Saratoga as new to DVC, so it’s not just Riviera.

 

[TexasChick123]

I was all ready to buy Riviera and just got my contract yesterday in the mail... but now I am second guessing. So much in this thing is SO VAGUE. It's like I can't even tell what I am buying into and what it may or may not look like in 6 months...

I went back and forth for days and gave myself a headache. You’re buying points at Riviera which give you a jump on non-owners for booking. That’s it. They change rules all of the time, but they can’t change that. Perks come and go, new resorts may be a part of a new system that no current owners can trade into, etc. All they guarantee is your home resort priority period with points for 50 years. Think of it like as just a timeshare and then decide if you want to buy in. That’s really all any of them are anyway.

 

[OUjenny21]

I just called and spoke with my DVC guide who sent me to quality assurance. I talked with them in length and after a while he couldn't really ease my concerns... he seemed to understand what I was saying and what my reservations were. I told him I had been ready to buy but after reading the incredibly vague contract and with all the resale stipulations, it had me second guessing buying in. I told him ultimately I felt like the direction of DVC was sort of uncertain in this moment and I may decide to wait and purchase after watching where this goes for another year or so. We can hope enough people are deterred by resale restrictions that they lift them.

 

[summerw]

I had told my guide, when we first met in 2017, that as soon as Riviera is selling to reach out. Since then, we've been in touch several times. Once to close on a small direct purchase and multiple other times to chat about all things Disney timeshare in general and she has always been wonderful to speak with.

When the restrictions were announced earlier this year, I had a long conversation with her, was still considering buying, but then backed out and sent her a long email lamenting the decision for Disney to go this way. My guide forwarded my email to her team lead and said she understood. It doesn't help that a name I passed along to her ended up buying in and that sales apparently have been great the first two weeks. The last conversation she had, she pointed these two things out and suggested that the restrictions seem to have very little impact on sales.

I don't think it's going to matter much that there are some of us who would buy in if not for [insert grievances here]. There are a **** ton of people who will buy in anyway. As kboo astutely pointed out in another thread, the change probably has very little meaning to someone buying in for the first time. If I were a new buyer and could afford it, Riviera would be a no-brainer. Disney conveniently jacked up the prices on their legacy resort to obscene, arbitrary prices to make Riviera look like a bargain. New buyers are the primary target here.

As for those of us in the DISboards circles holding out, we're probably not the target and a very small minority. The facebook pages are rife with people celebrating the restrictions and their new add-on.

I don’t understand why anyone who owns there would celebrate these restrictions. It seems like this will make availability worse at Riviera eventually.

Me neither. Can someone explain to me how you could look at it as a good thing? Unless you're an owner at the original 14 and are glad resales won't have access to those. But I don't get new Riviera owners being happy.

 

[OUjenny21]

I went back and forth for days and gave myself a headache. You’re buying points at Riviera which give you a jump on non-owners for booking. That’s it. They change rules all of the time, but they can’t change that. Perks come and go, new resorts may be a part of a new system that no current owners can trade into, etc. All they guarantee is your home resort priority period with points for 50 years. Think of it like as just a timeshare and then decide if you want to buy in. That’s really all any of them are anyway.

That's exactly what I have done today. It's supposed to be joyful and exciting... and instead I'm finally buying in and feel like it is such an unknown. I think I have decided to hold off and watch for a year. I'm under contract for resale Polynesian so I will at least have that if it makes it through ROFR.

 

[Bing Showei]

I just called and spoke with my DVC guide who sent me to quality assurance. I talked with them in length and after a while he couldn't really ease my concerns... he seemed to understand what I was saying and what my reservations were. I told him I had been ready to buy but after reading the incredibly vague contract and with all the resale stipulations, it had me second guessing buying in. I told him ultimately I felt like the direction of DVC was sort of uncertain in this moment and I may decide to wait and purchase after watching where this goes for another year or so. We can hope enough people are deterred by resale restrictions that they lift them.

If CCV was any indication, the incentives are unlikely to go away forever.

Over the 2 years it took to sell out CCV, prices were raised twice. It went from $176 to $182 about 10 months after it started selling, and then went up again from $182 to 188 about 12 months later. All told, over 2 years, it went up all of $12 dollars.

But ignoring the direct price, and looking at the $/pt cost of a contract over that same 2-year period, factoring in incentives (does not include closing costs), there was not a ton of variance, and at one point, about 19 months into sales, the prices were dropped significantly.

175 points
$166.00/point (Apr, 2017)
$166.49/point (Jun, 2017)
$164.86/point (Feb, 2018)
$170.57/point (May, 2018)
$163.14/point (Nov, 2018)
$173.71/point (Feb, 2019)
$172.29/point (Mar, 2019)
$180.86/point (Apr, 2019)

250 points
$160.00/point (Apr, 2017)
$162.96/point (Jun, 2017)
$162.00/point (Feb, 2018)
$168.00/point (May, 2018)
$162.40/point (Nov, 2018)
$172.00/point (Feb, 2019)
$171.00/point (Mar, 2019)
$180.00/point (Apr, 2019)

300 points
$160.17/point (Apr, 2017)
$162.46/point (Jun, 2017)
$160.33/point (Feb, 2018)
$165.33/point (May, 2018)
$160.67/point (Nov, 2018)
$171.33/point (Feb, 2019)
$169.50/point (Mar, 2019)
$178.00/point (Apr, 2019)

Not that past results guarantees future performance, but given all the unknown variables with the new restrictions, and the sheer magnitude of the resort it may not hurt (as much) to wait it out a little, as it's unlikely to sell out as quickly as CCV.

 

[TexasChick123]

That's exactly what I have done today. It's supposed to be joyful and exciting... and instead I'm finally buying in and feel like it is such an unknown. I think I have decided to hold off and watch for a year. I'm under contract for resale Polynesian so I will at least have that if it makes it through ROFR.

I’m in a different position because we already owned at resorts with most of the perks before buying RIV. I know the value won’t go to $0, but it is even goes to 50%, and I just had to get out of it in a few years, getting back 50% after taking a lot of vacations is ok with me. I don’t love it, but timeshares aren’t an investment. They’re really just pre-paying for vacations. They are an investment in my family’s ability to stay in a very nice resort connected to a theme park though. . FWIW, I’d probably sell some of my resale points that I didn’t pay direct prices for before I sold any direct resort. I’d at least have a shot at making money off of it in the near-term. Direct pricing makes it take longer to break even at every resort.

 

[TexasChick123]

Me neither. Can someone explain to me how you could look at it as a good thing? Unless you're an owner at the original 14 and are glad resales won't have access to those. But I don't get new Riviera owners being happy.

There’s no reason to be happy about the restriction. It sucks.

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

I suggest everybody start the slow drip of complaining openly to guides. This may work in time if sales aren't very good they are forced to eliminate the restrictions.

Or, if you get the survey, let them know that way. That's what I did.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

It's never been 100 minimum as far as I know. I went last week and the gal again told us it was a 75 point minimum. It sounds to me like he gave you the wrong information, and left you the VM saying "they're now making the minimum 75" to cover his own mistake. I too would have bought more direct without resale restrictions.

I feel like I did read the 100 pt minimum somewhere from DVC for the newest resorts. Definitely Riviera. But SSR and maybe OKW were kept at 75. I really thought that a few places reported about the 100 pt minimum.

 

[cvjw]

DVC just sent the marketing material for purchasing Rivera to my 8 year old niece! Maybe sales are slow if they need to entice pre-teens to buy in

 

[Drewferin]

DVC just sent the marketing material for purchasing Rivera to my 8 year old niece! Maybe sales are slow if they need to entice pre-teens to buy in

Tell her to buy in using the link so we can see the first resale RIV hit the market