Thanks! When I called a couple of months ago to find out when the earliest I could book would be, it was explained that it worked like ADRs... If I called 499 from my arrival date, I could book my whole trip. This makes sense of it all now! The CM I spoke with this time said to call back in a couple of weeks to see if the rooms had opened up and never once mentioned 499 days. Looks like I'll be calling back today instead!
Honestly, I feel kind of silly that I didn't figure that out on my own...
I guess since I got different info from different CMs each time I called, it was all sort of just running together in my mind. Thanks again!