Even with some points being lost - that seems to be a relatively small number if I understand correctly what they are doing - there seems to be an impending problems of too many points and not enough room availability to use them in. And, of course, the longer closures persist the worse the issue becomes.
I'm curious to see how Disney deals with it. Having unsold inventory available to be used by current DVC points holder will provide some flexibility - not sure how much Riveria has unsold, but that's something there. Opening up non-DVC rooms as potential extra booking options (as studios) would help with the inventory for DVC while cushioning some of the (potential) decreased demand from cash guests. I wonder if they will offer cruises at a significant points discount as an incentive to provide an option for DVC members and to help fill ships when/if that type of tourism returns.
There are two pools of points: Those that expire before the resorts re-open and those that don't expire but were used for reservations during the closed period.
Obviously, the unexpired points are saved and can be used for reservations going forward (once open again). Disney has made the decision that those with April and June use years who used expiring points for reservations during the closure period will also get those points back and be able to use them within 6-12 months, depending on what year the points are from.
This means that at least 2+ and probably 3+ months of full occupancy are suddenly shifted forward into future months, also generally at full occupancy (since the DVC system is designed to have resorts at full occupancy). In order to free up availability for the increased demand, they have cut in half the number of points that could be borrowed from future Use Years for bookings during the 2020 Use Years (which runs through calendar 2021).
This means that people who rely on borrowed points for the vacations won't be able to do that, so they're not happy. However, they aren't losing their points (because they can either alter their plans to use less points or delay their trips and bank their points into the future).
Each day, week, month a DVC resort is closed compounds the point pressure on future availability.
I still don't understand why Disney can't make cash rooms available for the cost of studio points to alleviate some of that pressure, but others say it can't be done "because two different departments" or "real estate/timeshare laws" but nobody has pointed to a policy or law to back that up. I would think somebody in charge of both departments could say "do it" but I'm just a guy on the internet, so what do I know.
It's generally not a good use of points to cruise, but they could adjust point charts there, too. Or, as could be the case in our situation, if it's a "Use 'em or lose 'em" scenario, I'd use my points on a cruise. But then again, I didn't buy DVC as a financial investment. I bought it as a pre-paid vacation. Presumably if I'm happy with my points usage, I'm good. Some in the DVC community think that's a stupid approach, but again, I'm just a guy on the internet. And so are they (or gals).
