I'm not very local; 5 hour drive/1 hour flight, and that AP email made me think of selling my VGC points (or at least one of the two contracts) in the days after the announcement. The point of DVC for us was premium place to stay with flexibility to go when we wanted to. In the early years of owning, we lived a 5 hour plane ride away so went once a year for a week in a 2 bedroom, usually in low-points season since the kids weren't in school this was easy. Now the kids are older, we go for a bunch of weekends since we hate summer (esp those point costs!) and can't go during weekdays when there's school and low point times, so we go on weekends in the spring/fall/winter. The Flex Pass was perfect for us, and I hope whatever program replaces it will look similar.
I have no idea what to do with all my 2020 points now that we'll probably only be able to go once a year until they announce the replacement program (likely in 2022 or later). Or all the weekend reservations I have!
Do I want to be tied to going to the VGC if most of my trips will be resort only? I don't mind resort only once a year but ... don't want to be staring at the gates of DLR and not be able to go to the parks. We can't afford to take multiple 2-3 day trips on regular tickets. I'd be okay using my points to stay at the VGC if they have more plentiful ticketed nighttime events, but if they plan on offering more of those they'd need to be announced/ticket sales accomplished 7-11 months ahead of time to be useful to DVC owners which I don't see DLR accomplishing ... ever.
If they don't announce the replacement by our next trip, I'll have to look into selling my VGC reservations and start figuring out where else we'd like to travel.
I think the VGC will be open by May. Greater Sacramento area already moved back into purple, so hotels/timeshares can open again, the O.C. was in purple (or red/orange?) both times they announced the VGC reopening which was cancelled when the numbers started surging. SoCal will get there in the next month or two; as long as California keeps vaccinating the numbers will drop to get back to where it was last June/September/Oct/Nov.
DLR ... that'll take longer since the O.C. has to get to Yellow before it'll happen.