The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) only adds new resorts to its vaunted lineup every 18 months or so. Most of them are expansion villas at existing resorts, which explains the curiosity over Disney’s Riviera Resort. The company built this property exclusively for DVC purposes. The process hasn’t gone seamlessly, though. A lot of intrigue surrounds the hotel, both in the short- and long-term. Here are five questions that need to be answered about Disney’s Riviera Resort.
Have the new DVC rules impacted sales?
Image: DisneyAt the start of 2019, Disney made a shocking announcement about the Riviera. Even though the property wouldn’t even open until December, Disney felt confident enough about its prospects to change the longstanding DVC membership rules.
For no good reason, Disney decided that guests who purchase a resales contract at the Riviera may only exchange their DVC points at the Riviera. The primary tenet of DVC had always been that DVC points work at all DVC properties. Disney’s changed that in a way that doesn’t only punish resales buyers. Anyone who purchases a DVC contract at Riviera directly through Disney will suffer, too, something we’ll discuss in the next section.
What we know for sure is that The Walt Disney Company enjoyed record revenue for fiscal 2019. During a conference call explaining the data, CEO Robert Iger indicated that strong DVC performance contributed to the bottom line. He didn’t specify the Riviera in particular, though.
Image: DisneyThe way that DVC works, Disney sells its “new” properties to anyone. The “sold out” properties may or may not be available, depending on current inventory. In other words, they emphasize sales at one or two hotels at a given time. Currently, the resorts are the Riviera and Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, which is in Hawaii.
Aulani’s been on sale since 2011 for various reasons. Several other hotels have joined the DVC lineup and sold out since then. Meanwhile, the Riviera has been available long enough that we can draw some conclusions about its performance.
Is purchasing a DVC contract here a mistake?
Image: DisneyAnalysts predicted a negative impact on Riviera purchases the moment that Disney announced the rules change. However, we now have proof that it damaged owners.
A few people have made the odd decision to buy points at Riviera then sell the contracts via the resales market. Presumably, they did this to use the points immediately so that they could be among the first guests to stay at the hotel. They’ve paid dearly for this choice, though.
The resales contracts at Riviera reportedly have sold for as little as $100 per point. The customer paid $188 per point for that contract. In simplest terms, they lost $88 per point, which is $8,800 on 100 points. Informed buyers want no part of a contract that’s only good at one DVC resort.
After the alarming resales transactions happened, Disney has offered unusually good incentives to entice consumers to buy at Riviera.
The perception is that initial sales at the property were strong, as many uninformed customers were persuaded to buy. Since then, sales have slowed. Right now, the evidence suggests that the new rules are problematic for DVC. And purchasing a direct contract at the Riviera seems like a poor financial decision.
Is the Disney Skyliner reliable?
Image: DisneyThe third question here may seem tangential to the Riviera, but it’s not. When Disney took property from Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and decided to construct a new luxury property, the company made a choice.
Park officials decided to sell a resort with a Disney Skyliner station as deluxe accommodations. As a reminder, Caribbean Beach is only the Moderate Tier. To Disney, the gondola system as an amenity elevates the value of a hotel. I would certainly agree with this statement, as the monorail resorts enjoy the highest status at Walt Disney World.
Sadly, the Disney Skyliner’s impact was presumptive, though. Park officials expected the system to work smoothly. As you’re all too familiar, the gondolas lost power, stranding guests for three hours. The headline-grabbing situation immediately reduced confidence in the system.
Image: DisneyI’ve ridden the Skyliner since then and thoroughly enjoyed the smooth ride and convenient logistics. Later, I learned after the fact that guests had been trapped for a few minutes at the same time we were onboard. That’s discomforting.
To a larger point, my family had a choice to keep our reservations at Caribbean Beach, ones we’d made because of the Skyliner, or move elsewhere. We switched to Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
I just couldn’t put my wife, who is prone to motion sickness and claustrophobia, in that situation. I presume that a significant number of Disney guests share similar concerns. So, Disney has banked on the Skyliner as a reliable means of transportation.
The Riviera will have tremendous value as long as the company’s right. Since so many ski resorts and mountain cities have functional gondolas, I expect that the Disney Skyliner will become stable long-term. I’m just not as confident about the first year.
How beautiful is the hotel itself?
This conversation has come across a bit negative so far, which isn’t my intention. I try to be fair and honest, as I know how expensive Disney vacations are. I don’t want to mislead guests into spending money on trips that they regret. I want to be clear that I’m not totally down on the Riviera, though. In fact, there’s one undeniable positive here.
By all accounts, the Riviera is a luxury resort that would thrill the Disney family. Lillian and Walt loved their jaunts around Europe during the 1930s, and Roy famously joined his brother for a memorable trip in the mid-30s.
The hotel pays homage to these family vacations with its pristine European style. The one thing that you will never hear anyone say is, “The Riviera Resort isn’t pretty.”
The Spanish/Mediterranean designs on display here are so beautiful that park officials expect plenty of guests to ride the Disney Skyliner just to hang out at the hotel. It’s structured for that purpose, with European sitting lounges. I’ve linked a video that shows some of the hotel, but you’ll found countless others on YouTube. Suffice to say that the hotel is niiiiiiiiiice.
Is the Tower Studio room viable?
This final question is primarily for DVC members, but it’s essential for any couple considering a hotel stay at the Riviera. Disney has introduced a new room type for this hotel. Called the Tower Studio, it only accommodates two guests. I’m not even sure if parents with a small child can stay here.
Obviously, the Tower Studio has a limited target audience, especially by Disney standards. Most rooms are family-friendly by necessity. At the Riviera, couples can escape the outside world and hole up in a 255-square foot hotel room. To some, this sounds delightfully romantic. To others, it’s a real-life recreation of that Tiny House commercial.
Disney’s taking a chance with the Tower Studio. The company believes that DVC members without children will happily cede personal space for a room that costs fewer DVC points. I’m skeptical. Then again, I’m 6’3”.
The prevailing belief among DVC analysts is that Tower Studios will sell so well that only people who own at the Riviera will be able to book. Who is right here? Time will tell. I certainly admire Disney for shakings things up with a daring new approach to a DVC resort, one with new room types and modern logistics.
