With the recent park closures and changes to cruises, Disney vacations are a little bit of a tight spot right now (but there’s some extra pixie dust trying to help that!).
Beach Club Resort
While Disney World and Disneyland are shutting their gates along with the rest of the Disney Parks around the world, the Disney Cruise Line is canceling upcoming departures — as a precaution to promote safety for guests and cast members. So, if you’re a Disney Vacation Club Member, what does that mean for your points? Well, we did a little digging and got all the answers for you!
PLEASE NOTE: This post has been updated with additional information released on March 16, 2020, and also more information that followed on March 28th. As a reminder, all Disney World Resort hotels including all Disney Vacation Club properties and Disney’s Vero Beach Resort and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort closed by 5:00 PM on March 20, 2020. Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii also began a temporary closure on March 24th. All of these properties — as of March 27th — are closed “until further notice.”
Since the parks will be closing, Disney Vacation Club reservations will be receiving the same treatment as other guests staying at the resorts.
Disney Vacation Club Sales Kiosk
If members are booked at a Disney World Resort hotel or Disney Beach Resort from March 16th through March 31st, they may “modify or cancel their Disney Resort room reservation or Walt Disney World Travel Company package up to their original check-in date.” However, if they don’t wish to take action, their Disney Vacation Club points will automatically be credited back into their account within 7 days of their original arrival date.
Saratoga Springs Resort
However, one of the coolest parts about the Disney Vacation Club is that you don’t have to be a member to use the points for booking! Through third-party services like David’s Vacation Club Rentals, you can “buy” points from members to make reservations at the resorts.
Animal Kingdom Lodge
While they normally will not give you a refund, guests have stated that these rental agencies are working with them to either get a refund on their vacation or reschedule their trip for a later date with the current situation in the Disney Parks. Buuut, this does mean that guests may not be able to stay at their original Disney Resort of choice, depending on the booking changes.
Disney’s Coronado Springs
As of March 16, Disney provided the following information for Disney Vacation Club members: “As we have shared, Disney Vacation Club has lifted the close-in reservation cancellation restrictions and will return any of your points back as vacation points or reservation points without placing them into holding. In the meantime, all points banking rules remain in place. While we understand the banking policy might create some frustration, please realize that this is in place to ensure that the membership as a whole avoids future inventory constraints.”
As of March 28 (as previous day brought about an extension to the closures “until further notice”), Disney provided the following information for Disney Vacation Club members: “Vacation Points returned due to a cancellation of a resort reservation will not be placed in a holding account and will be returned to the current Use Year. This applies to all reservations checking in within the next 30 days. When a reservation involving Borrowed Points is cancelled, the Borrowed Points will be returned to the Use Year they were borrowed from. This applies to all reservations regardless of arrival date. Please allow up to 15 business days for this process to be completed. Reservation Points returned due to a cancellation of a Disney Collection or a Concierge Collection reservation will be returned as Reservation Points in the current use year.”
Disney also notes that the following existing cancellation rules still apply (as of March 28):
“Reservation Points returned due to a cancellation of a Disney Collection Resort reservation will be returned as Reservation Points to the current Use Year. Reservations made with points Banked from the previous Use Year will be returned as Banked Points to the current Use Year. One-time use Points will be returned to the current Use Year as one-time use Points.”
As of March 31, Disney provided the following information for Disney Vacation Club members:
“Until the decision is made as to when the Resorts will reopen, all reservations scheduled for arrival during the closure time will be automatically cancelled by Disney Vacation Club on a week-by-week basis. Members do not need to cancel the reservation online or contact Member Services.”
“Some Members may have questions about reservation cancellations involving Points that are set to expire soon. At this time, we are evaluating the banking and expiration policy and the use of certain Points impacted by the closures. As a part of our evaluation process, we need to be considerate of the impact any changes could have on future inventory availability for the Membership overall. A decision will be made when we better understand how long COVID-19 will impact our operations.”
Where To Go For More Information
As high call volume to Disney Vacation Club Member Services is anticipated, guests are also encouraged to visit disneyvacationclub.com for general information and asked that contacting Member Services be reserved in the instance that you need assistance with an existing reservation.
Also, DVC has announced that the Disney Files Magazine spring edition will not be released. Rather, the information that it would have contained will be included in the summer edition. Along with the care put into all the reservations around the Disney Parks, we’re so glad to see that Disney Vacation Club members are being prioritized too!
All your Coronavirus questions about the parks have been answered here! Check out everything you need to know!
We will keep updating this post with more information as it develops!
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Are you a Disney Vacation Club Member? And, do you have a vacation planned with Disney soon? Let us know in the comments below!
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Credited how? Into a holding account or something less restrictive?
We have a 5 day trip starting tomorrow at Copper Creek, but I was able to trim the days to check out on Monday and I got my points back on this use year. I then promptly banked the points to 2020, as we have future stays already booked through Christmas. It gave me some more points to work with in 2021. Can’t wait for October 1st 2021, it’s going to be awesome!
I am a DVC member and have reservations for April 7-17th!!! Fingers crossed the parks will be opened by than…
What about people who have a timeshare other than disney and traded into disney?
All this happened the day before and had no time so we packed the wet wipes and rolled the dice.
Any info regarding this situation
What if you’re Disney Club vacation isn’t until the 5th but because Disney has not closed their hotels or Saratoga Springs you are not convinced that all is going to be gone? Being in my 60’s and my husband in his 70’s we are prime targets for this virus?!!!
Are the points placed in “holding” status or simply returned to original use year without the reservation restrictions of the holding status?
I tried unsuccessfully to rebook vacation club stay on Thursday evening. It took three hours of calling before I was able to get call to go through, followed by hour plus of holding for next available vacation club advisor. I had a very short window to rebook before use year ends. It took over one hour with adviser to get rebooked plus cost additional 30 plus points.
Your DVC points are placed back into the use year where they originated from or placed with RCI. If I changed my reservation I MUST complete my travel by July 2020,, which has very very limited availability. I was hoping DVC would placed my points back into the current use year which would’ve given us more flexibility.After speaking DVC again there are hardly any studios left through July 2020.
Thanks!
Points will not go into holding. I got a letter yesterday from Terri Schultz addressed to all members about what will happen. I’m not sure, though, if borrowed points will go back into their prior UY. Banked points will not be extended another year.
Thanks DebC, I cancelled a BC res online and it stated that my points had gone into holding status. Hopefully, that will change.
Letter from Disney stated that points will not go into holding but will go back into use Year they were originally from. This is an issue for me as my use Year ends May 31st. I already have a week booked in April and hope to go to Europe in May unless that is cancelled too. I guess I can use my hotel reservation (against MDs advice) on March 23rd and not be able to go to Parks or just lose the points. Not a good choice for me either way as I am trying to stay at home. I will be 80 in April and have asthma.
Bill, it may take a few days for them to change to non-holding. I read something like seven days.
My points were returned to current use year, which is June 19. So, I have to use them by May 31st of 2020, which I won’t be able to do. Hope they let me bank them. They were likely ironically 2020 points i borrowed.
What about canceling upcoming trips in April? We’re supposed to be going to WDW April 14-24 for the Star Wars race weekend which still hasn’t been cancelled so what happens to our DVC points if we cancel between now & April 14?
Disney needs to close the resorts and Disney Springs for the safety of all Cast members and guests. They should also extend the expiry dates of all points for owners so that they can rebook when things return to normal.
Paul, for specifics, you’ll want to reach out to DVC member services. DVC is still updating its policies as the closures unfold.
Deb C. and Bill: That’s right; Disney is saying 7-10 days.
My wife and I purchased DVC points from a member for a trip in 2 weeks. The DVC member sold us banked points from 2018 and apparently they expire April 1st. Now we are being told that we are simply going to lose our $1700 payment for these points because the resort will be closed and the points will have expired before it re-opens. How is this ok? The reservation was already booked to use the points within the cut off date.
David’s DVC rentals has NOT been working with me to get a refund of the DVC points that I rented for March 15-22 that I had to cancel. David’s has only told me that I have to try to rebook the points before June 1st, which is when the DVC owner’s points expire, and that the DVC owner will not refund my over $2,000 that I paid. I understand the owner’s predicament, and I would hope that Disney could extend these expiration dates, because it’s crazy to rebook for May at this point — the parks might not even be open yet, and who knows what will happen then. It’s unlikely that the medical situation will be any better in May.
I have a trip scheduled for mid April and cannot get our broker (DVC Rental) to even engage on it, saying they are too focused on earlier bookings. I understand capacity constraints but you have to do something to at least let us know when the use year ends and whether our renting member can help us out. My two kids will be heartbroken to not go as scheduled in April, but it certainly seems that we won’t be able to go. I just hope to get assistance booking for the near future.
For folks thinking of renting, this has been a major nightmare. For folks who want to buy and then consider renting, I think the market will be softer as people see how inflexible this can be.
Thanks Sarah
I have a similar issue as Anna, we rented points for a stay in March (everything closed) and we’ve been told we either need to rebook by June 1 (pending availability) – which we cannot do- or hope they can rent to someone else prior to June 1 2020- or we lose the $6700 we paid! We and our two young girls are heartsick and heartbroken!
Owners who used banked points to make reservations for renters have expiration dates on their points. DVC has been allowing people who passed their banking deadline to bank points to end them one more year. BUT, if the points were already banked, they cannot be banked a second time. So if the points are already banked and due to expire at the end of the owner’s use year, that’s the best they can do. They didn’t get any use out of their points and they had to pay annual fees at approximately $7 or more per point. So they are also losing out. At first DVC was not putting points used for these reservations into a Holding Account (meaning the owner had to use these points to book only 60 days out from the reservation). Now DVC is saying that all banking rules will be maintained (so owners cannot bank the points after their banking deadline). Plus holding might apply as well, especially for trips 31 days or more out from happening.
It’s really sad so many people who rented points in good faith are losing money on this. But it’s a risk to book a timeshare to save money. I think renting points is going to not be the suggested mode of saving money in the future. Unless you rent from an individual who is able to take care of you.
Your broker should have kept some of the money they pay the owner and they should refund everything they held back from the owner, plus the portion they kept for helping you with the reservation. If you didn’t purchase travel insurance that allows cancelation for any reason, you might not get another reservation and most of your money not returned. If you did purchase travel insurance that allows cancelation for any reason, you should be able to get 100% of your money back.
I also will agree that renting from an individual owner if far superior to renting from a broker. As a renter of thousands of points, I have ben able to cancel and rebook every reservation that was impacted by this virus . No one has lost a dime renting from me. Brokers are in quite a mess because they are dealing with many owners whose point will expire faily close t the termination of their current canceled trip and there will be N opportunity to book a substitute reservation before the points expire. Another issue is availability over the next few months. Again,individual owners who worked directly with renter were able to quickly reschedule these vacations while there was still availability. Individual owners also have the ability to shift points around to accommodate those cancelled reservation by shifting those cancel points into future reservations and freeing up future points for use by their guests whose vacations were impacted by Disney Closures.
Disney would nit a home run if they allowed previously borrowed points to be returned to the original use year. With only two weeks of cancellations, certainly, the system could accommodate the return of these points to the forward use year.They points were there to begin with and their return would not impact the future inventory any more than if the y were not used a all.
Disney is telling me they are cancelling my March reservation at Beach Club Villas and I will have to forfeit my DVC points since my use year ends March 31st. I asked to reschedule to April and they said they will not allow it. Is this even legal to cancel my reservation due to hotel closure and then force me to forfeit my points? I know they have good reason to close the parks and hotels, but to not accommodate and let me modify my reservation to a later date seems 100% wrong.
I HAVE A RCI EXCHANGE FOR AUGUST 2020 DOES THAT STILL HOLD …WHAT IF THIS VIRUS IS STILL AROUND WHEN DO I CANCEL WHAT HAPPENS TO MY POINTS DO I GET THEM ALL BACK…DO I HAVE TO USE THEM ONLY FOR ANOTHER RCI EXCHANGE…….MY USE MONTH IS AUGUST FIRST TIME I AM USING THE EXCHANGE
PLEASE HELP ME OUT I AM 81 YEARS OLD THANKS PAT CREMINS
Tyler: If your points are April 2018 and banked into April 2019, you cannot bank them again. If they are April 2019 points you have passed your banking deadline and DVC is sticking to banking deadlines. They would have needed to be banked by Nov 30, 2019 to use them during your April 2020 UY. That’s the hazard with using points at the end of your UY.
Patricia: If you used DVC points to schedule that trip via RCI, you probably need to contact MS to see what you need to do. If you used points from another timeshare via RCI, you need to call RCI and ask them how you need to proceed. If you transferred DVC points to RCI, you cannot get them back to use for a DVC reservation.
It’s not the DVC member or the person that bought DVC points fault that the resorts were closed and the booked reservations were canceled. Myself and several other guests followed the guidelines and cut off dates for using these points and for any company to basically say “too bad you lose all your money” is wrong. The $2000 I will lose will not impact me severely financially but it will ensure I do everything in my power to either recover my payment or ensure anyone I know that might be planning a trip to any Disney resort knows what happened and think long and hard before planning their trip.
Just so ya’ll know most insurances have a clause that does not cover pandemics. I did my first rental through David’s and got travel insurance. Already received email from travel insurance that I won’t be able to recoup hotel costs due to closures from COVID. Waiting to hear if possible to adjust April DVC booking and just saw Universal will be closed so Disney is next. Employment situation is changing and would hate to be out that $2000. Don’t think I’ll ever rent points again bc if I’d gone through Disney I would be rebooked already.
This happened to me as well. Y April trip was booked on 2019 points and the points expire May 31. Now I lose them. I think it’s awful that they aren’t making exceptions to this. It’s very disappointing and unacceptable that so many people are losing expiring points due to these circumstances.
What about Disney vacation club members that did not have a reservation. I have over 200 pints expiring end of May, Disney resorts and parks have been shut down since March 20 and still not opened. I’m a last-minute planner, I lost that window to use my points, and I spoke to Disney yesterday and they said there is nothing they can do. They limited my window to use my vacation points, they should at least extend my expiry date to equal length of time the resorts and park were closed. Very bad service and bad business from Disney. That’s not what they promised me when I purchased the points. Very disappointed member.
Rod, it seems, from reader comments, that DVC members have been getting some mixed and (in readers’ opinions) insufficient information. Hopefully it’ll work out, and I wish I had more info to share. We will keep updating when we learn about things for DVC members. Good luck!