First Riviera Rooms Declared into Timeshare Association Written by Tim Krasniewski. February 25 2019 Posted in Riviera Resort News

Disney Vacation Club has made its first declaration into the association for Disney's Riviera Resort, revealing new information about the resort including number of villas available to owners at its launch.

As it moves closer and closer to the start of sales, Disney Vacation Club has filed a series of documents with the Orange County Comptroller. Among them is the first declaration, adding a series of rooms from the new resort into its timeshare association.

This first declaration includes all villas on the 5th floor along with the westernmost wing of both the 6th and 7th floors. Combined, the Units included in this first declaration feature the following guest rooms:

9 Two-Person Tower Studio villas

8 Dedicated Deluxe Studio villas

7 Dedicated One Bedroom villas

18 Dedicated Two Bedroom villas

23 Lockoff Two Bedroom villas

4 Three Bedroom Grand Villas

(Note villa counts updated from prior posting)

These declarations are made periodically throughout the sales process as the timeshare property is gradually sold to owners. When Disney Vacation Club begins accepting reservations for Riviera, expect that owners will be able to use points to book a maximum of 18 Dedicated Two Bedroom Villas per night, 9 Tower Studios and so forth. The remainder of the resort--which is estimated at a total of 300 rooms--is not immediately part of the timeshare association and therefore cannot be booked using points. Additional villas will be added to the member inventory as points are sold in the coming years.

Despite the fact that this first declaration lists rooms on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors of the resort, owners booking with their points will not be restricted to those phyical villas. Resort staff has the flexibility to place members in any available villa throughout the property which matches their reservation type.

The Declaration of Condominium does not contain full resort point charts. However it does confirm the existence of "Standard" and "Preferred" views for the Studio, One Bedroom and Two Bedroom villas. Tower Studios and Grand Villas do not appear to have any point differential for different views.

Tower Studios are located in the circular portion of the building and most rooms should generally face in the direction of either Epcot or Disney's Hollywood Studios. Grand Villas all face toward Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort to the south. They may have a side view of Disney's Hollywood Studios but Epcot will not be visible.

As with prior DVC resorts, this declaration also lists "maximum reallocation" values which are linked to a potential "'leveling' of all seasons." We interpret these values to be an annualized average point cost, should all seasons and weekday/weekend differentials be eliminated. The values listed for Disney's Riviera Resort are as follows:

Tower Studio: 15 points

Deluxe Studio, Standard View: 20 points

Deluxe Studio, Preferred View: 24 points

One Bedroom, Standard View: 40 points

One Bedroom, Preferred View: 47 points

Two Bedroom, Standard View: 54 points

Two Bedroom, Preferred View: 65 points

Grand Villa: 134 points

These values are not minimums or maximums and do little to foreshadow the exact makeup of the eventual point chart. However, it is worth noting that these are similar to the "maximum reallocation" values stated in Declarations for the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Grand Floridian lists the Deluxe Studio maximum realllocation value at 22 points per night with no view differential, a number right between the 20 and 24 points listed here for Riviera. Grand Floridian's other stated values are 45 points per night for One Bedroom, 61 for a Two Bedroom villa and 147 per Grand Villa night.

Given the similarities between these two resort, we expect the point charts for Disney's Riviera Resort to be very similar to the Grand Floridian villas with Standard View Deluxe Studio rooms starting around 16-17 points per weeknight in Adventure Season and increasing accordingly. Note that is purely conjecture on our part. But for those who are wondering where the Riviera point values are likely to land, it looks far more comparable to Grand Floridian rather than lower priced properties like Disney's Old Key West Resort or the recent Copper Creek Villas & Cabins.

Also of note: buyers will be able to purchase Guaranteed Week contracts for Disney's Riviera Resort. The Guaranteed Week option allows buyers to lock-in a specific week for their vacation annually. Buyers are typically required to purchase 10% more points than indicated by the chart in exchange for a commitment that the points owned will be sufficient to book that specific room & week until the end of the contract regardless of future changes to the point chart. Owners can also opt out of the Guaranteed Week and have the full number of points purchased (including the 10% premium) deposited to their account for use toward any other reservations per normal program guidelines.

We will have more on Disney's Riviera Resort as details continue to emerge.

Thanks to Wil Lovato for contibutions to this story!

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