How to Read a Disney Vacation Club Points Chart: Disney’s Riviera Resort (2023, 2024, 2025) & Bay Lake Tower (2024, 2025)

Posted March 2024

If you’re considering buying membership into Disney Vacation Club (DVC, Disney’s version of a timeshare), it’s important that you understand how to read a points chart. To help you understand possible DVC stays at Disney World, I’ve included the points charts for my home resort, Bay Lake Tower (2024 and 2025) and Disney’s Riviera Resort (2023, 2024, and 2025).

What is a Disney Vacation Club Points Chart?

Each Disney Vacation Club resort has a points chart and the points change slightly from year to year based on the time of year usage. The higher demand times of the year (July) will require more points than lower demand times (September, after school has started).

What is Use Year?

The Use Year varies by DVC owner and can start on any month as it is the time when you receive your annual allotment of vacation points. My Use Year starts on February 1 of this year and ends on January 31 of the next year. The number of points in the annual allotment depends on how many points you purchased when you signed the contract.

In my case, I receive my annual allotment of 160 vacation points every February 1st. Sometimes you can pick when your Use Year begins but it is what is available at time of purchase. If I am not going to use my 160 points this year, I can bank those points to the next Use Year.

What happens to unused DVC points?

If there are remaining DVC points at the end of the Use Year, it will expire. For example, in a February Use Year, unused DVC points expire on January 31 of the following year. The last day to bank unused DVC points for a February Use Year is September 30. If the unused DVC points are not banked by September 30, the remaining DVC points must be used by January 31 or the points will expire.

How does banking DVC points work?

From the beginning of your Use Year, you have (8) full months to bank 100% of your DVC points or any unused DVC points to the next Use Year. In a February Use Year, you can bank unused DVC points up to September 30. From months 9-12 in your Use Year, you cannot bank DVC points. Once the DVC points have been banked, it stays in that Use Year and cannot be reversed back to the original year.

How does borrowing DVC points work?

Borrowing DVC points from the following Use Year must be used in the current Use Year. Borrowed points can be the entire annual allotment or a portion of the annual allotment of the next Use Year. If the DVC reservation is canceled for any reason, the borrowed DVC points cannot be returned to the original future Use Year.

How do you get the most value out of your DVC points?

Use your Disney Vacation Club points only at DVC resorts. The value of your DVC points can be maximized by staying at an older DVC property, such as Old Key West, or staying at Disney properties that are not located at Disney World such as Disney’s Vero Beach Resort and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina. Using DVC points for Disney cruises is not considered a good value.

What is the minimum amount of DVC points you can buy?

At this time, 100 points is the minimum amount of DVC points you can buy. When I first bought into DVC in 2009, the minimum amount of DVC points was 160 points.

Is DVC worth it if you go every other year?

Absolutely! Our family goes every other year as we don’t have enough points to go every year. We only take Disney vacations during the summer and that’s when Disney hotels are the most expensive, like $500 per night and higher. For us, DVC membership is worth it for the Deluxe accommodations and the 7-11 months priority in getting reservations.

We like to go to Disney World for a week that includes the 4th of July. I will price out the number of points required to stay in a 2 Bedroom Villa at Disney’s Riviera Resort for June 30-July 7 in the years 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Points for a 2 BR Villa at Disney’s Riviera Resort in 2023, 2024, 2025

In 2023, we stayed in a 2 Bedroom Villa, Preferred View at Disney’s Riviera Resort from June 30-July 7 for a total 7 nights. As Disney’s Riviera Resort is not my home resort, I have 7 months in advance to make reservations there. Based on the DVC points chart below, the time range for that Travel Period is Feb. 1-15 and June 11-Aug. 31. A 2 Bedroom Villa, Preferred View required 435 points in 2023. If you look in 2024 and 2025 DVC points chart, those exact days for a 2 Bedroom Villa, Preferred View also required 435 points.

How did I get the 435 points to stay at Disney’s Riviera Resort in 2023? I did not use my DVC in 2022 so I banked my annual allotment of 160 points to 2023. Now I have 320 points (160+160) in 2023. I’m not using my DVC points in 2024 so I borrow 115 points from 2024 to be used in 2023. That’s how I got to 435 DVC points in 2023.

I have 45 DVC points remaining in 2024. I must bank the unused points to 2025 by September 30, 2024 or the points will be forfeited.

Points for a 2 BR Villa at Bay Lake Towers in 2024, 2025

As BLT is my home resort, I have 11 months in advance to make my reservations. If I decide to go June 30-July 7, 2025, I could make reservations in late July to early August 2024.

In 2025, I may decide to stay in a 2 Bedroom Villa, Standard View at my home resort, Bay Lake Tower (BLT). That would require 313 DVC points for a Standard View. For the same time range, a 2 BR Villa at BLT, Lake View would cost 351 DVC points; a 2 BR, Magic Kingdom View at BLT would cost 424 DVC points.

As I will bank 45 DVC points from 2024 into 2025, I must use it in 2025. I can add the 45 DVC points to 160 DVC points in 2025 to get 205 DVC points. That’s still not enough for the Standard View room of 313 DVC points. I could borrow 108 DVC points from 2026 to be used in 2025. That’s how I get to 313 DVC points for a 2 BR, Standard View at BLT in 2025. I could borrow 146 DVC points from 2026 to use in 2025 to get the 2 BR, Lake View at BLT. As I only have 160 DVC points every year, I do not have enough DVC points for a 2 BR, Magic Kingdom View at BLT. I could “rent points” to get it but it’s not worth spending the extra money.

As you can see, the DVC points chart changes slightly year to year depending on the number of days, time of year, number of rooms, and type of view. High demand periods will require more DVC points than low demand periods. Of course, there are other DVC resorts where the number of points would be different for a 2 BR villa. Disney will usually release the new DVC points chart of Year 3 in November of Year 1 so that you can plan ahead.

Now that have a basic understanding of a DVC points chart, are you still interested in becoming a DVC member? If you want to stay in a DVC resort without getting into a contract, read my next blog post about renting DVC points at DVC Rental Store.