Is DVC for me? How much does a Disney World Room Cost?
Part one of a four-part series comparing Disney Vacation Club membership with a current Disney vacation
Buying a DVC vacation contract is expensive, but so is a "cash" room at a Walt Disney World vacation resort. Guests at a non-DVC hotel can pay as little as $100/night or over $4,000/night, depending on the accommodation and time of year.
Disney breaks down its hotel rooms into four categories: Value, Moderate, Deluxe, and DVC Villas. Value Rooms are the cheapest. Guests here can pay as little as $100/night for certain seasons at the All-Star Resorts. Most of these rooms sleep four adults, but Art of Animation Resort offers family suites that will sleep up to six. These rooms are more expensive, with an average rate of $600/night.
The Moderate rooms are larger than the value ones. These rooms will average around $350-$400/night. There are some suites or club-level rooms at Coronado Springs that will cost over $1,000/night, but most of the accommodations are in the lower tier of pricing.
Deluxe Rooms are the best rooms that Disney offers, along with the service that these room classifications require. This category's rooms typically start at $600-$800/night, with some club level and suites costing over $4,000/night.
DVC Villas can be in stand-alone resorts such as Riviera, Saratoga Springs, and Old Key West or part of a Deluxe hotel such as Polynesian, Boulder Ridge, and Copper Creek. This chapter gives you some idea of what this kind of lodging will cost, and then we can start comparing the cost of being a DVC member.
The primary comparison members make when deciding whether to buy a DVC membership contract or not is how this compares to current Disney World accommodations. If your vacation typically includes one of the Deluxe Resorts, then there is good news, you'll probably save money by becoming a DVC member. You'll find your payback will only require a few visits. If you typically stay at a moderate resort and go every year or two, you will probably save money, but it may be a few years before you break even. In the meantime, you traded in moderate rooms for a villa with some of the best accommodations on site. For value accommodations, DVC may not be the perfect fit for you. You may not be able to justify strictly on an economic analysis.
Advantages For Staying On-Site At Walt Disney World
For many years Disney made it a priority to ensure that its resort guests are kept inside the Disney bubble. Since 2005, they offered guests free transportation via Magical Express from the airport and a no-touch luggage service that allowed them to walk off the plane and get on a bus to the resort. They also provided on-site guests with early booking of dining and fast passes and one hour of additional time at a theme park for most days. The on-site guest perks are changing, and at this writing, the situation is still fluid and may be subject to change.
In 2020, because of the Covid situation in Florida, many of these advantages were removed or at least modified. Disney eliminated the baggage handling of Magical Express in 2020. Guests were required to pick up their luggage, but free transportation to/from the airport was still offered. In January 2021, Disney announced that Magical Express would be eliminated in 2022. It also revealed that "Extra Magic Hours" at one park every day will be replaced by opening all Disneyworld theme parks 30 minutes early for on-site guests.
In August 2021, Disney announced its new Genie plus app, requiring a $15/day at Walt Disney World and $20/day at Disneyland Park to secure a fast pass reservation. Guests at Walt Disney World has the advantage over others as they get to book their reservations at 7:00 a.m., while off-site guests must wait until 8:00 a.m.
In the past, dining reservations could begin at 180 days from the start of a guest's vacation stay and for the next ten days, while everyone else was limited to 180 days. Disney changed the reservation policy during Covid to start dining reservations at 60 days. However, on-site vacationers still have the advantage of making them at this time for the entire stay. Before Covid, Disney would offer various dining plans to guests staying on-site if you wanted to have an all-inclusive vacation. These will most likely come back, but for now, dining plans are suspended.
What Does A Disney World Room Cost For Non-DVC Members?
Disney World Hotel charges start with a base amount (rack rate), and then additional costs are added for other guests in the room (usually above two) and parking fees.Disney World sets its maximum room prices for every accommodation type in a resort for every day of the year. This is called the Rack Rate. Depending on remaining availability and seasonal promotions, Walt Disney World may offer discounts to this rate, so calculating a room cost may be allusive at times. Also, Disney may only provide discounts for a set amount of time or a set group of rooms.
Tax Rates
DVC members do not pay sales tax on their stays. Guest paying cash at a Disney resort pay sales tax. Most Disney Resorts are located in Orange County and pay a tax of 12.5%. This is made up of a 6.5% sales tax + a 6% hotel tax. All-Star Movies, Music, and Sports are located in Osceola County and pay 13.5% tax. This tax is made up of a 7.5% sales tax + 6% hotel tax.
Additional Guest Fees
Disney room rates are typically based on two adults (18 and over). If you have more adults than two in a room, Disney will charge a fee per night. For value hotels its $15/guest/night, for moderate $25/guests/night and for Deluxe its $35/guest/night. DVC members staying on points at a DVC resort do not pay any additional guest fees.
Maximum Occupancy
Disney rooms are rated for maximum occupancy. Most rooms with two queen beds are rated for no more than four in a room, and king rooms are rated for no more than two. Children over three count in the maximum occupancy rate of a room. A single child in a crib does not count toward the maximum number of people in a room.
DVC Financial Model
Owning a piece of Disney is both a financial and emotional experience. While potential owners want to ensure that their decision will be financially rewarding, a big part has nothing to do with finances. Vacationing at Disney for many means happy times, family togetherness, and memories that you'll always treasure. You know that your vacations are partially paid for the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, and you get to stay in some of the best accommodations that Disney offers. For those people, the decision to own a DVC contract may be 50% financial and 50% emotional. In this series we wipe away all the emotion and get down to looking at just the financial modeling.
The financial model was one of the first things I developed when looking at the Disney Vacation Club. The model runs in excel, so you'll need to have a software copy of the program. The model is designed so you can see how your current Walt Disney World vacation cost compares to a Disney Vacation Club membership. The model includes daily hotel rates for over 200 room choices at Walt Disney World and point schedules for every DVC accommodation. DVC Field Guide readers can provide their own scenarios that make sense for them and see how it compares financially. This model is found at https://www.dvcfieldguide.com/dvc-purchase-model.
Great care has gone into making this financial model representative of the real world, but you should use this only as a guide. I make no guarantees that the information is 100% correct. Disney can change the hotel rates or the policies from time to time; however, this is unusual. Disney does discount room rates based on availability, seasonal promotions, or regional discounts. The model allows you to factor these into your analysis. The hotel rack rates in the model were taken from the website www.mousesavers.com. Please visit this site as you will find a lot of information to save you money on your Disney World vacation.
DVC Field Guide
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The DVC Field Guide is a comprehensive work devoted to helping you answer the question, Is the Disney Vacation Club for me? If you've already decided to become a DVC member, this guide can help you maximize your membership and make your vacations even better.