When it comes to Disney exercising their ROFR again, we need to look at the bigger picture of Disney Vacation Club's direct sales. While we can argue until we are blue in the face whether Disney's Riviera Resort is selling well, what can't be argued is that Riviera is not selling as well as they had hoped it would. That being the case, the current pandemic has allowed them to re-evaluate their sales technique. Instead of a preview center, DVC now has Villas available in each Disney Vacation Club property that you can tour throughout Walt Disney World.
So imagine for a minute that you are touring a Cascade Cabin at
Copper Creek or a Grand Villa at the Grand Floridian as your first ever exposure to DVC. You are then given another resort option to purchase, but it is not the one you fell in love with and see you and your family staying at for the next 40-50 years. What are a few more thousand dollars to get that sold-out resort and that vacation dream you want? I believe this is exactly the line of thinking Disney wants people to have moving forward. They will still get plenty of people who opt to purchase the shiny new Riviera Resort due to price or liking its looks more, but why not appeal to the others and make money off those points that they can scoop up and repackage for double what they paid to get them? I think what we are seeing is a cultural shift in how DVC does business, and it is a move many of us have been surprised hasn't occured sooner.