Advice on booking Boardwalk villas

[islandbeachnut]

Hi all,

As a newbie to DVC, I have a quick question. We bought at Boardwalk for the ability to book the SV rooms. If booking at 11 months out, should we book day by day or just book the whole 10 days at once (using the check-out date as the 11 month mark) ?

I guess it also depends on time of year, but let's just say we wanted to book F & W for 2007 - as an example. We'd never do Christmas week! What do ya'll think?

 

[sap1227]

For the F&W (or any other really popular time) I would do Day by Day especially for a Standard view.

Christy

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

HI
I own at BCV and we had no problems booking for the F & W festival, actually we were able to upgrade to a 2 bedroom sometime between the 11 & 7 month time. But if you are concerned book day by day

 

[jekjones1558]

I tried to book 2 - 1 bedroom BW view rooms for the first week of Dec. at 11 months from checkout. I could not get some of the days. Using the waitlist I have 1 room for the week but still am short 2 days for the other room. Interestingly I was able to book a standard view (which I did until such time as the BW view comes through). This is the first time I have had this problem but will do day-by-day for that week in the future.

 

[LisaS]

There are not very many standard view villas. So if you are booking a stay for a popular time, you should definitely book day by day. The same applies if you are trying to book a boardwalk view villa.

Good luck!!

 

[NMW]

I was advised (by MS) to book day-by day for both 1st week of Dec and F&W for boardwalk view and standard view to make sure I didn't have to switch rooms.

 

[Lora]

I've always booked standard view and have never had to call day by day at 11 mos. even during F & W. I've only had trouble getting standard some time after the 11 mo. booking time.

 

[Granny]

You indicate that you purchased BWV for the ability to get SV rooms, so obviously they are important to you.

I'd book day by day for that time of year. It's easy to do and worth the peace of mind.

 

[islandbeachnut]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I knew I could rely on you guys. Looks like I'll be booking day by day!!

 

[ToddnLiz]

Please excuse my ignorance, but if you own at BWV (which we are currently on the waitlist for) then why would you need to book (I assume that when you book the room you guaranteed the room at that point - is this not right?) the room day-by-day instead of just booking it for the entire time of your stay? We plan to book most of our stays during the F&W festival and I assumed I could just call up at 10 or 11 months out and book the whole stay (6-7 days)? I guess I also need to ask what the day-by-day booking is exactly and when it is used? Thanks.

Todd

 

[byoung]

Had no problem booking Oct or Dec this year at the 11 month. Did not do day buy day. I booked a studio.

 

[Dean]

Please excuse my ignorance, but if you own at BWV (which we are currently on the waitlist for) then why would you need to book (I assume that when you book the room you guaranteed the room at that point - is this not right?) the room day-by-day instead of just booking it for the entire time of your stay? We plan to book most of our stays during the F&W festival and I assumed I could just call up at 10 or 11 months out and book the whole stay (6-7 days)? I guess I also need to ask what the day-by-day booking is exactly and when it is used? Thanks.

Todd

With DVC, you can only book any day 11 months out. Thus to book a full week at a time, you need to let 6 days go by with other people booking those units in the interim. Thus when you call, the units may not be available that would have been had you called each day.

 

[Granny]

Please excuse my ignorance, but if you own at BWV (which we are currently on the waitlist for) then why would you need to book (I assume that when you book the room you guaranteed the room at that point - is this not right?) the room day-by-day instead of just booking it for the entire time of your stay? We plan to book most of our stays during the F&W festival and I assumed I could just call up at 10 or 11 months out and book the whole stay (6-7 days)? I guess I also need to ask what the day-by-day booking is exactly and when it is used? Thanks.

Todd

Todd...Dean explained the "risk" associated with booking the entire trip at once. Given that you plan to call at 11 months out (I wouldn't wait for 10 months), you have a good chance of getting the reservation, especially if you're not wanting Standard View or even Boardwalk View Preferred reservations.

At that point you are only competing with other BWV owners for the reservation. But it seems that F&W continues to grow in popularity, especially among DVC owners and especially at BWV and BCV because of their proximity to EPCOT.

Booking day by day is the practice of calling 11 months before the day after check-in and reserving that first night, and telling MS you will be staying for X number of days. You then call back each day and add a day to the reservation, which links the individual days. When you're done, you have one confirmation for the entire stay.

It's just a way of reducing the risk. At some point, as MS continues to counsel members to do this, it might even be competitive for doing the day by day reservations!

 

[LisaS]

Had no problem booking Oct or Dec this year at the 11 month. Did not do day by day. I booked a studio.

Could you clarify whether you booked a standard view studio without booking day by day? Thanks!

 

[ToddnLiz]

Dean and Granny,

Thanks for the explanations - they certainly cleared up my confusion over the issue. I can understand now why it might become important to book day-by-day.

Todd