2B at WL at Christmas?

[cats3mom]

My home resort is Saratoga Springs with an August use year. I would like to get a 2B at Wilderness Lodge for Christmas week 2015. Should I book SSR at my 11-month priority, and try to change to WL when I can book there at 7 months? is there a penalty for changing a reservation? Would I have to cancel the SSR, then book at WL or can I just change the reservation?

This is further confused (to me at least) because I want to use points from my 2014 use year which I will have to bank in March - I think.

 

[chalee94]

My home resort is Saratoga Springs with an August use year. I would like to get a 2B at Wilderness Lodge for Christmas week 2015. Should I book SSR at my 11-month priority, and try to change to WL when I can book there at 7 months? is there a penalty for changing a reservation? Would I have to cancel the SSR, then book at WL or can I just change the reservation?

1) yes, book SSR. VWL is super popular during december and december is super popular in general (probably THE busiest time for DVC bookings). plan to waitlist VWL but make sure you get on the waitlist as soon as the 7 month window opens at 8am that morning.

2) no penalty for changing a reservation.

3) you would have to cancel and rebook (if it were actually available at 7 months out) unless you have enough pts to hold both reservations at the same time.

This is further confused (to me at least) because I want to use points from my 2014 use year which I will have to bank in March - I think.

a dec 2015 stay falls within your aug 2015 UY, so yes, you would have access to banked 2014 UY pts (if any) + current 2015 UY pts + borrowed 2016 UY pts if you need them.

you can bank the 2014 UY pts now if you are certain you won't use them during your 2014 UY.

 

[drusba]

For Christmas week 2012, 2013, and 2014, Four to five nights for a VWL 2BR were shown as full when the seven month window opened for the week. SSR 2BRs for the same week during those years were shown as open at 7 months out. Thus, it may not be necessary to book SSR at 11 months out because it should still be available at 7 months out but safety dictates you should do it anyway to guarantee having "a" reservation. Also, you should likely assume waitlist will be necessary to have a chance at a change to VWL.

To use your Aug 2014 points for a Dec 2015 reservation, you must bank them before doing the initial reservation of SSR or by March 31, 2015, whichever comes first.

 

[cats3mom]

Thank you, chalee94 and drusba, I understand it much better now.