VGC at 7 months - what am I doing wrong?

Sarabi's Cubs · Nov 23, 2015

I've been practicing booking online in the hopes that I can master this by the time my 7 month window opens up. I'm trying to get a 2BR and I see using the availability tool that the dates after the 7 month window are open but the 7 month date books instantly. I log in right at 8am and hit book online and usually get a message that the system is not available so I go on the resort availability tool to try it that way, and by the time it pops up, the date is gone. What am I doing wrong? Any tips?

Laurie

_auroraborealis_ · Nov 23, 2015

People may be walking reservations.

Sarabi's Cubs · Nov 23, 2015

I thought of that. I'm just trying to figure out how to get in there quickly.

Laurie

sunshinemelody · Nov 23, 2015

_auroraborealis_ said:
People may be walking reservations.

I'm not a DVC member, but would like to be one day, but what is a walking reservation?

Sarabi's Cubs · Nov 23, 2015

People will book earlier than they actually need and then drop and add days. For example, if you needed the 8th through the 15th, you could start booking on the 1st through the 8th, then the next day drop the first and add the 9th, and so on and so on until you have all of your dates.

Laurie

supersnoop · Nov 23, 2015

1. Search with the booking tool, not the availability tool
2. Get your search set up before 8am
3. Watch an atomic clock (like http://nist.time.gov) and click the search button at exactly 8am eastern.

Sarabi's Cubs · Nov 23, 2015

supersnoop said:
1. Search with the booking tool, not the availability tool
2. Get your search set up before 8am
3. Watch an atomic clock (like http://nist.time.gov) and click the search button at exactly 8am eastern.

Thanks! For some reason, I thought I had to log in at 8am. I'll try it logging in early and getting all set up and then searching right at 8.

Laurie

zavandor · Nov 23, 2015

I you find the reservation available and it disappear before you can book it, then someone has just been faster than you. If someone was walking a reservation, it would have been unavailable from the beginning.
Competition at 7 months for VGC is fierce. However, if you cannot get the reservation, try creating a WL. I've been lucky to add a night way inside the 7 months window. People do change their plans, so chances to get the reservation are high. Shorter WL are easier to get than longer ones.
Good luck!

KAT4DISNEY · Nov 23, 2015

Sarabi's Cubs said:
Thanks! For some reason, I thought I had to log in at 8am. I'll try it logging in early and getting all set up and then searching right at 8.

Laurie

If you're just logging in right at 8am then you've been placing yourself behind others. Also, keep in mind that VGC only has 24 studios, 24 1BR's and 24 2BR's. You might be competing for a single room or only a couple.

DebbieB · Nov 23, 2015

I booked BWV at the 11 month mark yesterday, I was concerned because October is Food & Wine and rooms have been selling out each day. It was clocking and I was finally able to log in around 7:55am. I went into book online, setup my dates, resort, room type before 8:00. I had time.gov running and when it hit 8:00am, I clicked on the continue button and got the room.

Sarabi's Cubs · Nov 23, 2015

Ok, I've got it now! I just misread something earlier and thought I had to log out and log back in right at 8. This will give me some time to practice before I need to doit for real.

Thanks!

PoohsFan1 · Nov 23, 2015

I definitely agree with supersnoop :thumbsup2

OP the same exact thing happened to me when I was trying to book our 2 bedroom villa for June. I would look every day, for a week, to make sure the dates were opened, but when the day my 7th month opened up, only the first night became unavailable (I had to work at 8am that morning so I had my DH go on line but the system went down and he wasn't able to log in until 20 minutes after it opened up). The next morning I was ready and willing but again only the first night became unavailable (I was becoming really nervous at this point). Finally the next morning I made sure 10 minutes before the online opened up, I was already logged in and had my dates and all of my information in place, I made sure that once the clock turned 8am (Central Time), I was hitting the process button....luckily it worked and I was able to book my week. The funny thing is, later that day I went back in to check to see if there was still availability (yes I am like that :blush:

) and all but 2 of the days were filled up. OP good luck getting what you want.

Editing to change the times that I logged into the system, for some reason I thought it was 7am but it was in fact 8am.

dcfromva · Nov 24, 2015

PoohsFan1 said:
I definitely agree with supersnoop

OP the same exact thing happened to me when I was trying to book our 2 bedroom villa for June. I would look every day, for a week, to make sure the dates were opened, but when the day my 7th month opened up, only the first night became unavailable (I had to work at 8am that morning so I had my DH go on line but the system went down and he wasn't able to log in until 20 minutes after it opened up). The next morning I was ready and willing but again only the first night became unavailable (I was becoming really nervous at this point). Finally the next morning I made sure 10 minutes before the online opened up, I was already logged in and had my dates and all of my information in place, I made sure that once the clock turned 8am (Central Time), I was hitting the process button....luckily it worked and I was able to book my week. The funny thing is, later that day I went back in to check to see if there was still availability (yes I am like that ) and all but 2 of the days were filled up. OP good luck getting what you want.

Editing to change the times that I logged into the system, for some reason I thought it was 7am but it was in fact 8am.

Just to clarify on the timing- the new inventory opens up at 8am Eastern time each day.

madduck · Nov 25, 2015

I've logged in early the last 2 days and the start date was not available to reserve until after 8:00. The first day(3 days ago) that I tried I was able to see the start date and click on it. I tried different computers the last 2 days and it happened both times. Of course at 8:00 after hitting back and trying again it appeared but of course it was too late. Help please.

jvincent16 · Nov 25, 2015

supersnoop said:
1. Search with the booking tool, not the availability tool
2. Get your search set up before 8am
3. Watch an atomic clock (like http://nist.time.gov) and click the search button at exactly 8am eastern.

All you can do is what supersnoop stated and hope for the best. VGC in June @ 7mos is hard. Good luck.

meryll83 · Nov 26, 2015

How is early October at 7 months? Difficult to get?

_auroraborealis_ · Nov 26, 2015

meryll83 said:
How is early October at 7 months? Difficult to get?

This post may be enlightening: http://www.disboards.com/threads/pr...-some-1-bedrooms-vgc-update-10-21-15.3419112/

The basic summary for 7 moths at VGC is every season, you need to be ready at 7:59AM and be very lucky and flexible.

quinnc19 · Nov 26, 2015

The last 2 years I had to book a 1 bedroom instead of the studio I really wanted in mid-June. Last year my WL did come through, however.

skier_pete · Nov 27, 2015

_auroraborealis_ said:
This post may be enlightening: http://www.disboards.com/threads/pr...-some-1-bedrooms-vgc-update-10-21-15.3419112/

The basic summary for 7 moths at VGC is every season, you need to be ready at 7:59AM and be very lucky and flexible.

Hey - you quoted my thread!

But - yeah, from that thread you can easily see that VGC books up almost instantly at the 7-month mark. It's actually fairly open up until that point, but people are always trying to get in. You have to realize, there are a mere 23 lock-off rooms at VGC and another 23 2-bedrooms - even if split into lock-offs, that's 23 studios, and 23 1-bedrooms available at most. There's hardly any room category in all of WDW that restricted (AKV value and Concierge being the only two) and that's for the ENTIRE Disneyland resort. Makes it more understandable why there is so little availability at 7 months!

I wanted to go there in February 2016 - a 1-bedroom even - and I stalked the site everyday of our trip. I even got to the first screen where I HAD the room, and then got kicked out before it would let me go to the "complete booking" screen. I've been stalking the site every since and sitting on wait lists I posted at 7-months but still nothing. It totally sucks because we are taking my mom and I so much wanted her to have the VGC experience. (We ended up getting a single night in a studio on the first night of our 4 days there - so at least we'll get one night there.)

Fortunately, staying "off property" at DLR is not the step-down that it is at WDW. We are staying at Harbor Blvd the other 3 nights, and truthfully we'll be closer to the entrance to DL than we would be staying in the VGC.

_auroraborealis_ · Nov 27, 2015

skier_pete said:
Hey - you quoted my thread!

Why yes! Yes I did.

I think it's useful to point out that for some size/categories/resorts, there's nothing someone is "doing wrong" at 7 months. Inventory is killer. There may not be inventory even to split stay things from the first day of your booking window depending on when the other units were booked and for what lengths-of-stay. VGC isn't Kidani Village, which is thick with studios.

VGC at 7 months - what am I doing wrong?

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