Built by a DVC Member, for DVC Members

Our Story

Like many DVC members, we started our ownership journey excited about the promise of magical family vacations at Disney resorts. But we quickly discovered that navigating the DVC point system was anything but magical. The official booking tools show you availability at one resort at a time, for one room type at a time. To compare options, you have to open multiple browser tabs, manually calculate point totals, and cross-reference availability calendars.

Worse, we realized we were leaving serious value on the table. The DVC point chart is complex — different resorts charge different point amounts depending on the night of the week, the travel season, and the room category. A five-night trip at one resort might cost 120 points, but splitting those same nights between two resorts could bring the total down to 95 points. That's a 21% savings most members never discover because no one has time to manually check thousands of combinations.

That frustration became the spark for MyDVCPlanner. We built a tool that does what no human can do efficiently: scan every resort, every room type, every possible combination of nights, and rank them all by total point cost. Our split-stay algorithm is the heart of the platform — it tests every possible way to divide your trip across multiple resorts and surfaces the options that save you the most points.

Today MyDVCPlanner is free and open to any DVC member. Whether you have exact dates in mind, a flexible schedule, or just a point budget to work with, the three search modes are designed to help you find the lowest point cost for the trip you want.

How Our Data Works

Transparency matters to us. Here's exactly how MyDVCPlanner works: We collect real DVC availability data approximately once daily by scanning the official Disney inventory system. This data is processed and stored so that our search engine can cross-reference availability with the official DVC point charts. When you search, our algorithm calculates the exact point cost for every eligible resort and room type combination — including split-stay options — and ranks them from cheapest to most expensive.

Because we scan once per day, there can be a lag between when a room is booked (or becomes available) and when our data reflects the change. For the most time-sensitive bookings, we recommend confirming availability on the official DVC member site before booking. Our data is best used for discovery and comparison — finding options you wouldn't have known about — and we're constantly working to improve freshness and accuracy.

Our point charts are sourced directly from Disney's official published charts and are updated every time Disney releases a new chart (typically once per year for each vacation year). We store both the standard point chart rates and daily calculated costs so that our search results are as precise as possible.

Meet the Editor

Who Built This

MyDVCPlanner was created by James Thomas, a DVC member and software engineer who wanted a better way to plan family vacations. After years of manually comparing resort options and missing out on savings that split stays could have provided, the idea for an automated search tool was born. The project started as a personal spreadsheet, evolved into a script, and eventually became the full-featured web application you see today.

MyDVCPlanner is independent — not a corporation. We don't sell DVC contracts, we're not a travel agency, and we have no financial relationship with Disney. The only goal is to help fellow DVC members get more value from their ownership. The site is free to use and supported by advertising revenue, which keeps the tools accessible to every DVC member regardless of contract size.

Editorial Standards

MyDVCPlanner publishes original DVC planning content based on point-chart analysis and resort research. Resort write-ups are practical rather than promotional: who the resort suits, where the point value is strongest, what transportation trade-offs matter, and which room categories are worth comparing before you book. Articles are only marked published once their numbers have been checked against the point charts loaded in our database; anything still awaiting that review is labelled on the page and left out of our index.

We separate opinion from data whenever possible. Availability results come from daily inventory snapshots; point costs come from published DVC point charts; editorial recommendations explain the trade-offs behind the numbers. If a reader notices an outdated point chart, room type, or resort detail, we encourage them to contact us so we can review and correct it.

How We Calculate the Numbers We Publish

Every point total on this site — in the search results and in our articles — is produced the same way: we price each night of a stay individually against the point chart loaded for that vacation year and add the nights together. We never publish an averaged "points per night" figure, because averages hide the weekend and season steps that decide whether a trip fits your budget.

Our case studies show that arithmetic in full so readers can reproduce it in the planner rather than take our word for it: the studio versus 1-bedroom comparison at Animal Kingdom Villas, the 27-point spread across Epcot-area studios, and what 100 points actually buys.

Corrections and Review Policy

Articles carry a named author, a published date and a modified date. When an article covers something time-sensitive — perks, refurbishments, chart changes — and we cannot re-verify it against a current source, we mark it as under editorial review and remove it from our index until it has been checked, rather than leave stale information circulating. Reviewed articles show a "last reviewed" date. Corrections are made in place on the original article.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Disney, Disney Vacation Club, or any of their subsidiaries. Availability shown here is a snapshot and is never a guarantee — see our availability disclaimer for the full statement.