Disney Vacation Club Introduces Big Changes to Point Charts for 2021

If you’ve been saving up points for that big family reunion at Walt Disney World, you might want to pay attention. Disney Vacation Club is completely revamping its point charts for 2021, and it might have a serious impact on your vacation plans… though not necessarily in a bad way.

Disney Vacation Club

This adjustment is the latest in a wave of adjustments to how Disney is approaching pricing and scheduling. Currently, Disney uses a seasonal method to keep track of DVC pricing. There are five seasons — Adventure, Choice, Dream, Magic, and Premier — of increasing value.

Want to book a three-bedroom villa at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn? In Adventure Season, which represents January, September, and the first half of December, you’ll pay 561 points. Booking in Premier Season (which represents Spring Break and the winter holidays) will cost you 950 instead. In short, the busier the time of year, the higher the prices, much like date-based ticket pricing.

BoardWalk Inn and & Villas

What’s changing is the number of seasons, as well as which date ranges fall within those categories. Starting with bookings in 2021, there will be seven of these new travel periods, each of increasing cost.  Disney’s dispensed with the cool names, so instead we’ll refer to them by number, from most affordable to most expensive.

  • Tier 1: September 1-19
  • Tier 2: January 1-31, September 20-30, December 1-23
  • Tier 3: May 1 – June 10, October 1 – November 23, November 27 – 30
  • Tier 4 : February 1-15, August 16-31
  • Tier 5: April 11-30, June 11-August 15
  • Tier 6: February 16-28, March 1-27, April 5-10, November 24-26
  • Tier 7: March 28 – April 4, December 24 – 31
Copper Creek Cabins

Overall, the new system maintains a similar pricing structure as before, but with a bit more modularity. Christmas remains the most expensive time to go, while the first weeks of school in September remain the cheapest. However, this also means a shift in prices compared to 2020.  

For instance, if you book the first week of September at the Boardwalk Villas in 2020, it costs you 561 points. In 2021, it will cost you 556 points instead.

Guests who like a January trip aren’t so lucky; they’re seeing a bump from the Adventure Season rate of 556 to the current Choice Season rate of 587, an increase of 31 points. Meanwhile, guests visiting in the second half of April will see their costs drop to 749, for a savings of 51 points.

Needless to say, 2021 will be a bit chaotic for DVC members, especially since we don’t know where the Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser will fit into the DVC program (if at all).

Kidani Village

DVC members should check the official point charts for updates and adjust their plans as needed. One bit of good news, though? These changes only affect Walt Disney World Resorts. Disneyland, Aulani, Vero Beach, and Hilton Head Island are all unaffected.

What are your thoughts on the new point charts? Is this going to mess with your vacation plans? Let us know in the comments!

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Austin Lang is an Orlando local with a love of Disney, puns, and Disney puns. He's been a contributing writer for AllEars since 2019, and has been sharing his quirky view of Disney life ever since.

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8 Replies to “Disney Vacation Club Introduces Big Changes to Point Charts for 2021”

  1. Nice way of treating your dvc members. Bought into this to be able to enjoy time with my growing children that have now become teachers, so now we are forced to travel certain times of the year. Now not only do we have to pay now for airfare and park tickets Dvc is adding a price to make us travel when they want us too. Wish I knew this when I bought our DVC membership. Not truly happy how we are being treated lately.. We as Dvc members pay alot of money yearly (time and time again) to not get treated better.

  2. Just when I’m kicking myself for not going ahead and buying into the DVC program years ago, they come out with YET ANOTHER CHANGE, and remind me how glad I am that I didn’t fall for their game.

  3. …….additionally, this just shows you how Disney can change the rules on DVC members any time and any way they choose and there is nothing you can do about it.

    1. They can’t just change the rules “any way they choose.” The total number of points at any given DVC resort cannot change. So if some times of the year go up, other times must go down so the total number of points required remains the same. This is not new, it’s in the agreement all DVC members sign when they buy in.

      1. They certainly changed the resale rules recently and they certainly raise the maintenance fees often and at will. And I’m sure if I dig into it I could find any number of arbitrary changes made.

      2. but it is changing the rules if you bought in thinking that if you go every year during a busier time, thinking it would be x amount of points only to find out years later that oh you can still go then, but it’s going to cost you more points. It still ruins plans for those that can’t go during the less expensive times. It’s typical and crappy no matter how they try to justify it.

        1. That’s right. But DVC owners bury their heads in the sand about the facts lest they have to admit that they made a not-no-wise expenditure. I mean, they can’t even call it what it is, TIMESHARE. “OH NO, I don’t own a timeshare, I’m a Disney Vacation Club member.” And what makes it worse is when they do understand exactly what it is they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on, they cannot just get rid of it without difficulty and even greater expense. It’s an albatross around their neck for many decades. For those and many other reasons it’s difficult to have an open and honest discussion with DVC owners.

  4. Like Pavlov’s dog, Disney is using both positive and negative reinforcements to achieve a straight line in attendance. This combined with date based tickets will spread the crowds out evenly throughout the year. Good news: the historically obscenely crowded periods will come down some. This is good for those that like to visit at busy times. Bad News: the historically slow periods will now become more crowded. This is bad for those (me) who can’t stand crowds and like to visit at the least crowded times. That &orator week after Labor Day was paradise. But no more.