AKV: Booking a one bedroom, but waiting on a studio?

[1971DBday]

We will be booking our first DVC stay for June 19th - 28th at our home resort AVK soon- a one bedroom standard view Kidani. We offered a family member to come with us with her three kids and that we would cover 4 nights at a Value Studio. We told her we need to know before the 19th since these rooms can go fast.

Well now she doesn't want to decide until December. I told her the risk was that the room may not be available.

So here are my questions as I am doing my homework:

1. Does Kidani have any value studio rooms? I read in another thread that only Jambo house has this category.
2. If Kidani does have value am I accurate saying booking 6 months before the trip is too late? Are studios a high demand room?
3. If I need to give her some additional points for a standard studio is there still a risk of nothing being available at 6 months out?

This will be our 3rd trip in June and our 12 trip to WDW so I know that crowd levels are getting to about an 8! So I know the resorts are going to be high in demand and this will also be past the 7 month mark for other DVC members to book here as well.

Sorry - frustrated. We wanted to use our bonus February 2013 points to spread a little magic and try to help her get her kids to WDW. I just don't want her to regret her decision.

Any suggestions?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Value studios are only at Jambo. And you will have to be very lucky to get one under 6 months

 

[sara mom]

Values are only at Jambo House.

Values are difficult to get at 10 mos out, so 6 mos out may be almost impossible.

 

[Dean]

Value studios are only at Jambo. And you will have to be very lucky to get one under 6 months

Agreed. Unless one is having to borrow the points, just reserve it now and you can cancel later if you need to. Getting a standard view Kidani studio for late June 6 months out should be no problem.

 

[1971DBday]

Thank you everyone! Okay, so here is what I am thinking and correct me if I am doing it wrong.....

We are sending in our signed contract on Monday. Once everything is complete we have 240 points automatically that they are giving us from February 2013 (February will be our use month).

1. I am going to bank those points for next year.
2. We will then get another set of 240 points in February 2014.
3. I will be using the 240 banked points from Feb. 2013 for our room reservation and an additional 52 from our 2014 points.
4. I will then book a standard studio for our relative using 2014 points. If we need to cancel I need to do it before the 60 day mark so I don't loose the points.
5. If they don't come and I cancel I can bank all remaining points for our 2015 trip in June.

Please let me know if this is all good or if I missed or did something wrong.

 

[Dean]

Thank you everyone! Okay, so here is what I am thinking and correct me if I am doing it wrong.....

We are sending in our signed contract on Monday. Once everything is complete we have 240 points automatically that they are giving us from February 2013 (February will be our use month).

1. I am going to bank those points for next year.
2. We will then get another set of 240 points in February 2014.
3. I will be using the 240 banked points from Feb. 2013 for our room reservation and an additional 52 from our 2014 points.
4. I will then book a standard studio for our relative using 2014 points. If we need to cancel I need to do it before the 60 day mark so I don't loose the points.
5. If they don't come and I cancel I can bank all remaining points for our 2015 trip in June.

Please let me know if this is all good or if I missed or did something wrong.

Just making sure you know you could buy the points resale for a little over half the price.

Yes, you can book the points if you cancel assuming they are the 2014 Feb UY points as you described. If you do not use all the points banked from Feb 2013 to Feb 2014, you could not bank those again.

 

[1971DBday]

Just making sure you know you could buy the points resale for a little over half the price.

Yes, you can book the points if you cancel assuming they are the 2014 Feb UY points as you described. If you do not use all the points banked from Feb 2013 to Feb 2014, you could not bank those again.

Excellent! Our room for 2014 will be 292 points so we will be using the 240 banked points from 2013. So the studio reservation would be 2014 points. I will probably make the reservation via phone and speak directly to a CM and then double check it online.

Thank you again!

 

[Kidanifan08]

[*]I will then book a standard studio for our relative using 2014 points. If we need to cancel I need to do it before the 60 day mark so I don't loose the points.

Please let me know if this is all good or if I missed or did something wrong.

Actually, you have up until 31 days before arrival to cancel the reservation, and those unused points will go back into your account without any restrictions, other than the usual banking rules based on your UY. Of course, I would probably stick with the 60 day mark when you talk to your relatives, so they don't think they can wait until the last minute to cancel.

There is no guarantee that your studios will be near each other, but you can tell MS that you want to add a "traveling together" request, and they are supposed to try to get them as close as possible.

Enjoy your first trip "home". AKV is our home resort, and we love staying there. In fact, we will be there in 12 days!

 

[Kidanifan08]

Excellent! Our room for 2014 will be 292 points so we will be using the 240 banked points from 2013. So the studio reservation would be 2014 points. I will probably make the reservation via phone and speak directly to a CM and then double check it online.

Thank you again!

I would suggest just doing the reservations online. You won't have any trouble getting those room types for that time of the year, and it is really easy (and fun!) to do the reservation online. You can even bank your 2013 point online.

Of course, the "traveling together" request would require you to directly contact MS, but you could do that at any time or probably e-mail the request.

 

[1971DBday]

Actually, you have up until 31 days before arrival to cancel the reservation, and those unused points will go back into your account without any restrictions, other than the usual banking rules based on your UY. Of course, I would probably stick with the 60 day mark when you talk to your relatives, so they don't think they can wait until the last minute to cancel.

There is no guarantee that your studios will be near each other, but you can tell MS that you want to add a "traveling together" request, and they are supposed to try to get them as close as possible.

Enjoy your first trip "home". AKV is our home resort, and we love staying there. In fact, we will be there in 12 days!

I would suggest just doing the reservations online. You won't have any trouble getting those room types for that time of the year, and it is really easy (and fun!) to do the reservation online. You can even bank your 2013 point online.

Of course, the "traveling together" request would require you to directly contact MS, but you could do that at any time or probably e-mail the request.

Thank you so much Kidanifan08! You've been very helpful!!!! We are very excited for our first stay at Kidani and my obsessing has begun. Our relative is still going back and forth on whether to bring her autistic son which if she want to means that now she would need a one bedroom. We are willing to give enough points to cover a studio.

So now I have to investigate if it is possible to give them points and they rent the rest all on the same reservation.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thank you so much Kidanifan08! You've been very helpful!!!! We are very excited for our first stay at Kidani and my obsessing has begun. Our relative is still going back and forth on whether to bring her autistic son which if she want to means that now she would need a one bedroom. We are willing to give enough points to cover a studio.

So now I have to investigate if it is possible to give them points and they rent the rest all on the same reservation.

As in your relative would then have a party of 5?

It can be possible to link reservations across memberships but it will require you and the member that the remainder of the reservation is being rented from to coordinate the linking with MS. However if your relative is not wishing to decide until Dec I see this as being a more difficult situation to arrange.

 

[1971DBday]

As in your relative would then have a party of 5?

It can be possible to link reservations across memberships but it will require you and the member that the remainder of the reservation is being rented from to coordinate the linking with MS. However if your relative is not wishing to decide until Dec I see this as being a more difficult situation to arrange.

It was supposed to be originally 4, but now she wants to bring her Mom and maybe leaver one of the kids home so she can focus on the other two. Her one child she is considering leaving home with a caregiver is still young and severely autistic and partially mentally handicapped. I told her the Studio only covers 4 and she needs to make a choice. I told her the sooner she decides the better chance of getting what she actually needs. If she doesn't make the decision sooner then later she may either have to accept 5 days in WDW and only 4 people in her family can go - or just cancel all together.

Thanks! If she we were to rent through Dave can we link those two reservations or total points to get what she needs?