How realistic will this be?

[rjthkids]

Hello all! Been a long time since I have posted.

We own at SSR and we have always stayed there, booking at the 11 month window. We've never had an issue doing this.

This time, we would like to go right after New Years 2010 (a first for us, we've always gone in October). We would also like to attempt to stay at Bay Lake Towers, which would be the first time we haven't stayed at our home resort and we would need to book in the 7 month window.

I need some experienced DVCers to let me know how possible they think that would be. I was looking at the January 2009 unavailable dates and it looks like January is a busy time, but I have no idea *when* those reservations were made--- 11 month window? 7 month window?

I get the sense that BLT will also be a popular resort to book at, but I was hoping with it being so new to the scene that they haven't sold out the inventory yet, therefore there won't be as many people who can book in the 11 month window.

Any thoughts on whether or not it's worth the bother? My husband and I are the proud parents of a very large, very young crew and if it is going to be a crisis of impossible machinations then truthfully we can just stay at SSR and save ourselves some aggravation. If there's a realistic shot that I could call and make a day-by-day reservation and have a reasonable chance of that working, then I'll give it whirl. With so many littles (are youngest two will be two) it would be fantastic to be on the monorail, but again, I'm not going to die if it's too hard. I'm thinking we would have a problem booking at SSR at the 7 month window if we needed to do that instead.

Any wisdom for me? And I'm sorry in advance if a variation of this question gets asked nine million times a day. I appreciate those of you with the wisdom to answer this question nine million times a day having the patience to share with me!

 

[DMKEDM]

Since booking for BLT just opened for owners two weeks ago and for everyone else yesterday, it's impossible to know or even "educatedly guess" about availability for this coming January...too soon to tell about demand for those villas at that time, and availability will be "funky" this year in that villas are being declared in stages into inventory so there's no telling how many of the total will be available to book...that could be either good (new units will open up each time Disney declares more units into inventory) or bad (fewer than the total number may mean more demand and less supply)...but given there's no "history" yet, it's just impossible to predict...

But having said that, January--if you arrive after the Christmas-New Year's "rush", and avoid Marathon weekend and MLK weekend, is usually more available than lots of other times...

One possibility you might want to consider: make your SSR reservations "now", within the 11-7 month window and then at 7 months try to switch over...either it'll work (with or without acceptable waitlisting) or it won't--but either way you'll have a villa you're happy with...

Good luck to you!

 

[rjthkids]

Thanks for the info DM. I appreciate it. I don't know if I want to risk the unknown. We're all about simplicity here, lol.

Thanks too on the advice about weeks to go.... I didn't realize there was a marathon there in January! I will definitely be trying to avoid that!

 

[DMKEDM]

We wound up at Disney during Marathon weekend a couple of years ago, without knowing about it ahead of time...it was actually really fun...we got to see the racers a couple of times and the parks were not overwhelmingly crowded (although hotel and villa space was pretty well sold out/booked up)...so long as you have your accommodations reserved, you probably either won't notice any uptick in activity due to the Marathons (there are two races; as I recall, one was early Friday morning and the other early Saturday morning--but it could have been Sat-Sun; just don't remember all that clearly), or you'll enjoy watching it pass you by as you go about your touring...

Anyway, have fun whatever you decide to do...

 

[Mickeyfollowers]

We go the third week of Jan. just about every year. We own at SSR and always change at the 7 mt window. We like staying at the BWV or BCV, because you can walk or ride the boat to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. This past Jan we booked a two br villa at BWV and no problems. For Jan 2010 it is going to be a just me and my husband, hoping there will be no problem getting in at AKL at the 7 mt window. Sept 2010 we are hoping to stay at BLT.

 

[mom3sonstt]

We wound up at Disney during Marathon weekend a couple of years ago, without knowing about it ahead of time...it was actually really fun...we got to see the racers a couple of times.

We did too - it was maybe 4 or 5 years ago and would have probably been in Sept/Oct since that is when we used to typically go. But we went early to MGM (when it was still MGM ), were hurrying to get from the bus to the gate and here came a long strung out pack of runners.....well let me just say that hubby is a notoriously impatient person so standing there so close to the entrance but not able to go in because cast members were holding us back until there was a significant gap in the runners - well it wasn't a good start to the day for him And as luck would have it while we were out there we missed the park opening and rope drop and had to wait a couple extra minutes for a first ride I of course, had to hear about it the rest of the trip

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Just an FYI since it sounds like you may not know but you cannot do day by day booking any longer. It was changed so now you can book up to 7 days from your check in date so you'll know right away if you can get your whole stay, assuming it's a week or less. If you're staying longer than 7 days then you can call day by day to try and get additional days.

There's probably a good chance that you'll be able to get a lakeview. I'd be very doubtful about MK view.

 

[rjthkids]

Just an FYI since it sounds like you may not know but you cannot do day by day booking any longer. It was changed so now you can book up to 7 days from your check in date so you'll know right away if you can get your whole stay, assuming it's a week or less. If you're staying longer than 7 days then you can call day by day to try and get additional days.

There's probably a good chance that you'll be able to get a lakeview. I'd be very doubtful about MK view.

Good to know, I didn't realize that. We are staying for two weeks, so essentially I can book the first week, then call back and book the second week?

I'm not worried about an MK view. We want to be there for the monorail access , and I'd actually would rather not spend the extra points on the view if I can help it.

Thanks so much.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Good to know, I didn't realize that. We are staying for two weeks, so essentially I can book the first week, then call back and book the second week?

I'm not worried about an MK view. We want to be there for the monorail access , and I'd actually would rather not spend the extra points on the view if I can help it.

Thanks so much.

Your welcome! After getting your first 7 days you should be able to call back the next day and book day 8, then the next day and book day 9 etc. or else call back 1 week after booking your first week and try to book the full second week. Since you're doing a 7 month booking it is possible that you could run into a day or two along the way that is already sold out to BLT owners so I wouldn't cancel the whole SSR reservation if you do get the first week. I'd only cancel off the days that had been rebooked at BLT as you get your new ressie although I would believe there would be availability re-book at SSR if you did run into a snag in your BLT booking.

Good luck!