Earlier this year, DVC re-launched their Magical Beginnings program which might make buying DVC direct instead of buying DVC resale more appealing! Let’s look at the program and history!

DVC has ran this promotion off and on for years now, but what is really interesting in 2023 is how much Disney is paying for the DVC points.

Here’s how it works: Anyone (New OR Existing Members) who is buying at least 150 points directly from Disney can “sell back” their first Use Year’s points to Disney for $22 per point. When you buy direct from Disney, you will receive the “Current Use Year’s” Points that are already available.

For example, if in July of 2023 you buy Riviera direct from Disney with a December Use Year, you would be given the December 2022 Use Year points (The points that are good from Dec 1, 2022 – Nov 30, 2023) upon closing and then you would get your next allotment of points on Dec 1, 2023 which would be good until Nov 30, 2024.

With Magical Beginnings, you would SELL BACK that first set of points (The 2022 Use Year points that are good from Dec 1, 2022 – Nov 30, 2023) for $22/pt to Disney.

Another example: If in July of 2023 you buy Riviera direct from Disney with a June Use Year, you would be given the June 2023 points that are good from June 1, 2023 – May 31, 2024. (The June 2022 points that would be good from June 1, 2022 – May 31 2023 would already be expired!).

In this example, with DVC Magical Beginnings you would sell back the June 2023 points for $22/pt to Disney, which might be much less appealing since you won’t be getting your next allocation of points until June 1, 2024.

If you choose to do Magical Beginnings, it is NOT a discount that is directly applied to your total cost. Instead, you will still be expected to make full payment to Disney Vacation Club for your contract, and then you will see the points removed from your account within about a week. After your paperwork is filed with the county (which is typically about a week after you have closed and made final payment) Disney will mail you a check for the Magical Beginnings payment.

This means you should expect that from the time you make your payment for your DVC Direct contract, it will take about 4 weeks to have a check from Disney.

This applies to ALL DVC Resorts, but there is a bit of a catch with the Villas at DisneyLand Hotel.

Because Villas at DisneyLand Hotel (VDH) doesn’t open its doors until 2023, there are no 2022 points to receive. This isn’t a big deal for new members. New members can just set their Use Year to Feb (or any other month that has already passed), so they instantly have points. However, if you are an EXISTING DVC member and you are adding on points, DVC will typically force you to have the same Use Year as your existing contract.

So, this means that if you are an EXISTING member with a Use Year of December, Disney is going to want you to also have a Use Year of December for your Villas at DisneyLand Hotel points, too. Because 2022 points don’t exist for VDH, you wouldn’t actually receive any points when you buy your contract. Your first set of points won’t be allocated until Dec 1, 2023 and they will be good until Nov 30, 2024.

All of this means that if you are an existing DVC Member, with a December Use Year, and you want to buy VDH Direct, you cannot take advantage of Magical Beginnings because you don’t have any first year points to sell back.

To drive this very confusing topic home, here are a few more examples:

If in July of 2023 you buy DLH DVC points with a February Use Year, you will get the February 2023 points that are good from Feb 1, 2023 – Jan 31, 2024 upon closing. You would get your next allotment of points on February 1, 2024 that expire January 31, 2025.

If you chose to do Magical Beginnings with this purchase, you would sell your Feb 2023 points (That expire Jan 31, 2024) back to Disney for $22/pt.

And one last example: If in July 2023 you buy DLH DVC points with a December Use Year, you will NOT GET ANY POINTS at closing, and are NOT eligible for Magical Beginnings.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, this is a strategy that Disney Vacation Club has used in the past, as recently as 2021. What is really interesting about the program’s re-launch in 2023 is how much Disney is paying. In 2021, Disney was only paying $10/point to buy back your first year of points. Now in 2023, they are offering $22 per point!

That’s entirely up to you! Some families LOVE having a “double” amount of points in their first year so they can start out as DVC owners with a big trip! However, if a big trip isn’t in the future, and/or the price of buying DVC direct is already a bit of a stretch, at $22 per point, taking advantage of the Magical Beginnings program can significantly lower your up front cost!

Remember: All that is happening behind the scenes is Disney is basically just “renting back” the points from you for one year for a fee of $22/point paid to you. You can rent your points out anytime yourself or through a broker. The going rate for renting points through a broker is ~18-$19 per point which isn’t quite as strong as the $22/point from Disney with Magical Beginnings.

DVC Magical Beginnings is a really great program if you are already planning to buy DVC Direct instead of buying DVC Resale. However, because you can rent out DVC points you have purchased either Direct OR on resale yourself through a broker, Magical Beginnings isn’t enough alone to make bake buying direct make sense.

For Buying DVC Direct vs Buying DVC Resale at the time of this writing in August 2023, my opinion and strong advice is:

• If you are buying at Grand Floridian, strongly consider buying direct. With the current direct incentives (including Magical Beginnings) and the high price of DVC Resale for Grand Floridian, buying Grand Floridian direct from Disney likely makes sense.
• If you are buying at Villas at DisneyLand Hotel, you currently have no option than but to buy direct. As of the time of this writing, no DVC Resale listings for VDH have been posted (Plug: You can sign up for a DVC price alert notification on our site for any resort, point amount, use year, or price. Setup an alert to be the first to know when a DisneyLand Hotel listing hits the market!). It is yet to be seen how much VDH will sell for direct. On one hand, the resale restrictions might lower the value (as they have with Riviera). On the other hand, the only other DisneyLand resort, Villas at Grand Californian, commands the highest resale rates of any resort.
• If you are buying at Riviera, you have to really consider the Resale Restrictions and value of “Membership Extras” of buying DVC direct for you and your family. Specifically, if you will take advantage of the ability to buy the Sorcerer Pass, or if you are REALLY interested in REGULARLY staying at resorts other than Riviera, buying Riviera direct MIGHT make the most sense. I personally believe that you should buy where you want to stay, and the resale restrictions forcing down the price of a Riviera contract on the resale market make buying Riviera Resale one of the best values around.
• For all other home resorts, buying DVC Resale is BY FAR the best value. Remember that you can search DVC Resale Listings from every single broker, all in one place from our DVC Listings page!