Riviera resort: A thread with a poll / Discussion / Information

What are your top reasons to buy (or not to buy) at RIV?


  • Total voters
    144

kboo

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
People seem to have strong opinions about Riviera (which is why I made the title of the thread so bland). If you bought in, what were the top reasons for buying at RIV (over CCV) (over resale somewhere else)? If you are considering buying RIV, what do you see as the pros and cons? Will you wait for resale contracts to hit the market? Will you wait to see how hard it is to book at 7mo?

Here's some info from @crvetter and @JETSDAD:

Total number of rooms in the resort
Tower Studio: 24
Deluxe Studio: 38
1 Bedroom: 29
2 Bedroom: 90
2 Bedroom Lock-Off: 148
Grand Villa: 12

So far (May 2019), only about 30% of the points have been declared and thus are bookable on points.

Estimated square footage of the units
Tower Studio: 255
Deluxe Studio: 423
1 BR: 813
2 BR: 1246
GV: 2530

To compare: VGF studios are 374 and Poly studios (the largest) are 447.
 
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I just voted. Basically most of your positives are why I’m consider (less incentives because I’m looking at a supplemental contract only). Also not considering the TS since those are going to be walked like crazy so better to set myself up that those are a pleasant surprise to get.

To the contrary of many I like the location being on the Skyliner and more oddly near the amenities of CBR. As long as the Skyliner is running pre and post park hours I am sure I’ll be buying points. This is my current stopping point right now.
 
I just voted. Basically most of your positives are why I’m consider (less incentives because I’m looking at a supplemental contract only). Also not considering the TS since those are going to be walked like crazy so better to set myself up that those are a pleasant surprise to get.

To the contrary of many I like the location being on the Skyliner and more oddly near the amenities of CBR. As long as the Skyliner is running pre and post park hours I am sure I’ll be buying points. This is my current stopping point right now.

Oddly enough, I think our RIV purchase has cured my addonitis as well.

When we bought our first contract at BLT, I was really looking for the best-looking contract at the right price at either BLT, BWV or BCV. We had stayed at BLT and BWV already so we knew what the DVC rooms were like. Turns out the BLT contract was meant to be - offer accepted quickly with almost no haggling (we settled on $1 more per point than my initial offer), passed ROFR in 9 days (!!!!) ... it was such an easy, drama-free process. Ah, those were the days...

After a few more DVC stays, our needs changed - we realized that we were always borrowing points. Our BLT 2019 is almost empty and we've already borrowed from 2020 for VGF. We want to come more often and stay in larger units, and we want to take our parents and other family/friends once in a while. So last year, well before I was focused on RIV, I knew we needed more points, and I was thinking of adding on at BLT ~200 points. But prices started going up and up, we didn't really "need" more points until 2020 or maybe even 2021, so I figured I'd wait for BLT prices to go below $130 and snatch one up. Watching the ROFR thread, it started looking like $145ish was going to be the baseline for BLT. With RIV developer credits at $167 for 200 points, you're really talking about $4400 total to have points earlier, home resort advantage at an EP/HS resort, a new resort, etc etc. Seeing the rooms in person really helped. They are lovely and the open kitchen makes the living room area seem so big.

(Really, if a 200 point BLT contract at the right price point and at the right time had come along before the 1/19 restrictions, and that could have passed ROFR, I probably would have just bought it.)
 
I also thought about seeing the resort when we are there in December, and thinking about buying in then, but getting points now means we extended our Christmas trip and are staying at RIV over New Year's.pixiedust:
 


We recently bought at Copper Creek. Over the last 15 years we have always stayed at the Yacht Club which made the Riviera attractive to us when thinking about purchasing DVC due to the connection to the Skyliner. In the end, the resale restrictions combined with the point chart were a deal breaker for us. We also feel that what made our stays at the Yacht Club so perfect for us (location, location, location) might not be the huge advantage it once was when the Skyliner is operational. We were there last December and every time we waltzed up to the International Gateway entrance with no wait at all we would all look at each other and say, "enjoy this now - this is the last trip we can take advantage of this."
 
We were looking to buy some direct points. We didn’t like the points chart for CCV. We liked the location and gondola access.
 
We bought because of the gondola access to 2 parks, fireworks views, incentives, and the rooms. We bought for $170pp after all incentives were taken into account. We had just purchased VGC points for $165 via resale recently, so an extra $5pp with all the perks for a new resort, 50 years of use, and all the bells and whistles seemed like a no-brainer for us. Sadly, we’ll be selling our BWV soon, but those points served us well while we owned them. :)
 


As of 10:30 am on the 7mo window of opening day ... all rooms at Riviera are gone. Let's see what tomorrow brings...
 
If it weren't for the resale restrictions I definitely would have considered adding on there over VGF where I plan to buy this year. I do think the rooms themselves are nicer at Riviera, but I much prefer the exterior, grounds, and amenities at VGF.
 
If it weren't for the resale restrictions I definitely would have considered adding on there over VGF where I plan to buy this year. I do think the rooms themselves are nicer at Riviera, but I much prefer the exterior, grounds, and amenities at VGF.

VGF isn’t a bad alternative at all. It’s my family’s favorite resort. :goodvibes
 
I've said this on another thread... but I hate CBR enough that I have no desire at all to spend points to have a room looking at that resort. :P I think it looks like a retirement community. And we are big on balcony time.
 
I think the Skyliner will work great and be one of the best methods of WDW travel.
I love being able to watch fireworks from the resort.
I like the theme but not so much a fan of mid-rises/high-rises.
The EP/HS location with a longer contract length is a plus.
The resale restrictions/contract language scared me off completely.
The point charts are also a negative for me, as well as the high MFs. (I think the other resorts will see a big increase too, but my guess is RIV will stay one of the highest MFs at WDW.)
 
I still need to do some calculations but I'm leaning towards buying some Riviera points.

Positives:
- Like the idea of gondola access to 2 parks (including my favorite, Epcot) as well as to the connecting value/moderate resorts. I can see us more willing to hop over to AoA to take some fun photos with the kids and eat at the food court.
- Fireworks views of 2 parks - looking forward to the rooftop restaurant and hope it's one we enjoy as much as California Grill. Would love it if they do a weekend brunch.
- Really like the look of the resort and rooms based on the photos and videos I've seen so far. Also love that the 1BR has 2 Murphy beds - this would allow us to stay in a 1BR for longer with our 2 kids before moving up to 2BRs (not a fan of traditional sofa beds).
- Price - With the credits the price for 50 years at an EP/HS area resort is better than expected. I was leaning towards adding on a BLT resale contract but the cost difference isn't huge compared to Riviera with incentives, and we'd really love to keep an EP/HS area resort in our DVC portfolio for the long term after our BWV contract expires with over a quarter of our points. Who knows what DVC will cost to buy in then...

Negatives:
- Location - I still prefer walking access to EP/HS like we get with BWV. But I don't know that I'll want to pay whatever price for BWV they charge when it expires and gets resold. Right now we're in our 30s with upward trending income, but in 23 years we'll be nearing retirement. There are lots of people who bought 20+ years ago on here saying that they would never buy in at today's prices. I'll probably identify a lot more with that way of thinking in 23 years.
- Don't love how high the point charts are. The upside is that since we can stay in a 1BR for longer due to the 2 Murphy bed setup, we won't need to pay the points for a 2BR for years (we have an infant and a 3 year old).
- Also don't love the resale restrictions. But we would pay cash and don't anticipate needing to sell, and if we really need to sell we could always sell one or more of our other contracts (we currently own BWV, VGF, CCV, and SSR). If we keep Riviera long term we'll still be able to book everywhere with the direct points along with our grandfathered resale points.
- Other - don't like the high MFs but I think that the MFs for the other resorts will increase more than Riviera in the next year or so and it won't seem quite so high in comparison.

So that's where I am right now... at this point I'm thinking the positives outweigh the negatives for us and the negatives aren't the end of the world given our situation.
 
I voted "other" since we have plenty of points already, but I really do like the looks of the resort, the gondolas, and I toured the rooms which are very nice. We own at SSR, and like to stay at VGF. Riviera might become our new favorite, just not a fan of the high rise, seems huge.
 
I still need to do some calculations but I'm leaning towards buying some Riviera points.

Positives:
- Like the idea of gondola access to 2 parks (including my favorite, Epcot) as well as to the connecting value/moderate resorts. I can see us more willing to hop over to AoA to take some fun photos with the kids and eat at the food court.
- Fireworks views of 2 parks - looking forward to the rooftop restaurant and hope it's one we enjoy as much as California Grill. Would love it if they do a weekend brunch.
- Really like the look of the resort and rooms based on the photos and videos I've seen so far. Also love that the 1BR has 2 Murphy beds - this would allow us to stay in a 1BR for longer with our 2 kids before moving up to 2BRs (not a fan of traditional sofa beds).
- Price - With the credits the price for 50 years at an EP/HS area resort is better than expected. I was leaning towards adding on a BLT resale contract but the cost difference isn't huge compared to Riviera with incentives, and we'd really love to keep an EP/HS area resort in our DVC portfolio for the long term after our BWV contract expires with over a quarter of our points. Who knows what DVC will cost to buy in then...

Negatives:
- Location - I still prefer walking access to EP/HS like we get with BWV. But I don't know that I'll want to pay whatever price for BWV they charge when it expires and gets resold. Right now we're in our 30s with upward trending income, but in 23 years we'll be nearing retirement. There are lots of people who bought 20+ years ago on here saying that they would never buy in at today's prices. I'll probably identify a lot more with that way of thinking in 23 years.
- Don't love how high the point charts are. The upside is that since we can stay in a 1BR for longer due to the 2 Murphy bed setup, we won't need to pay the points for a 2BR for years (we have an infant and a 3 year old).
- Also don't love the resale restrictions. But we would pay cash and don't anticipate needing to sell, and if we really need to sell we could always sell one or more of our other contracts (we currently own BWV, VGF, CCV, and SSR). If we keep Riviera long term we'll still be able to book everywhere with the direct points along with our grandfathered resale points.
- Other - don't like the high MFs but I think that the MFs for the other resorts will increase more than Riviera in the next year or so and it won't seem quite so high in comparison.

So that's where I am right now... at this point I'm thinking the positives outweigh the negatives for us and the negatives aren't the end of the world given our situation.
4 of WDW resorts are still in the mid $6 range. RIV is starting around $2 more per point. That would be around a 30% increase for those resorts. I think it’s going to take a few years to get up to RIV. One can hope RIV will go down like CCV did.

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With the credits the price for 50 years at an EP/HS area resort is better than expected. I was leaning towards adding on a BLT resale contract but the cost difference isn't huge compared to Riviera with incentives,

Same here. BLT resale (with trading restrictions) was not a very big difference at the size of the contract we were considering.
 
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Question - I asked this somewhere else but can't remember where:

So there are no rooms for 12/17, the first 2 days that 7mo bookings are open, there's no availability by 9am. DVC hasn't declared all the points yet, so does that mean that there are only a very limited number of rooms that can be booked on points, and the rest have to be booked on cash? Is it possible (or likely or unlikely) that Disney would allow/lend/whatever some of their cash inventory to be booked on points?

In other words, for an un-sold out resort, with all points not yet declared, what is the % of cash to points rooms? Is there any way to figure that out?
 
Question - I asked this somewhere else but can't remember where:

So there are no rooms for 12/17, the first 2 days that 7mo bookings are open, there's no availability by 9am. DVC hasn't declared all the points yet, so does that mean that there are only a very limited number of rooms that can be booked on points, and the rest have to be booked on cash? Is it possible (or likely or unlikely) that Disney would allow/lend/whatever some of their cash inventory to be booked on points?

In other words, for an un-sold out resort, with all points not yet declared, what is the % of cash to points rooms? Is there any way to figure that out?
They only allow rooms that they declared unless they exercise a special clause that allows them to replace say a 1 bedroom with studios that add up to the same point costs; however, for CCV they weren’t exercising it I was told except for the welcome home bookings but previously they were for other resorts. However, each day they only allow 1/365th of the declared points to book each day as that is all that was declared. Here is a post I wrote yesterday on this.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/riviera-how-many-of-each-room.3750140/#post-60623422
 

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