Are Grand Villas easier or more difficult to get at 7 month mark?

[disgrits]

Specifically OKW reservation for January (Marathon time frame). Thanks in advance.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

OKW GV near Hospitality House is an 11-month booking 365 days per year. There will be holes in any given week year round.

The other GV will be missing multiple days for Marathon by 10 months. The low points and large size make them extremely popular amongst owners of OKW points many of whom bought OKW to book GVs.

Summer is really the only time getting a week in an OKW GV without home resort points is a realistic dream. For marathon, even with OKW points many members get blocked out and have to drop to booking 2 2BR units.

 

[mom2missmous]

OKW GV near Hospitality House is an 11-month booking 365 days per year. There will be holes in any given week year round.

The other GV will be missing multiple days for Marathon by 10 months. The low points and large size make them extremely popular amongst owners of OKW points many of whom bought OKW to book GVs.

Summer is really the only time getting a week in an OKW GV without home resort points is a realistic dream. For marathon, even with OKW points many members get blocked out and have to drop to booking 2 2BR units.

We got 5 consecutive days for September in a grand villa- granted not our first choice of dates but hey as non-owners of this resort (home is BCV) we are grateful for what we got!

 

[drusba]

Marathon weekend in Jan, Thurs to Sun, is one of the highest DVC demand times of the year for the WDW DVC resorts (makes Sep time mentioned above look like a slow off-season), and you should not expect to be able to get an OKW GV at 7-months out for that time.

And be aware that when marathon weekend was last Jan 4-7 in 2018, and Jan 1 was a Monday, and thus you had the additional high demand from those still using rooms in that week for the holiday break, every DVC room at every WDW resort, including 1BRs, was missing at least two and most three to four of the nights from Jan 3 through Jan 6 at 7-months out from Jan 3.

In other words, if you actually intend to go at that time and own a WDW DVC resort, you should likely make reservations now at your home resort for the room or rooms needed and then wait to see if any chance exists for a change at 7-months out.

 

[crisi]

Grand Villas - especially the low point Grand Villas - tend to be difficult to get at seven months. Marathon weekend - you'd have to be really lucky. The last time we booked a GV I missed the eleven month window by a week and had to do some work to complete the reservation (it was BWV and that trip was the end of August - not a high demand time of year)

 

[TammiMcMan]

Not DVC owners so we’d be paying cash, but already nervous about being able to book a grand Villa for check in on Thanksgiving 2024 and the week following.

 

[holden]

We've gotten a GV Jambo at 7 months out.

 

[crisi]

Not DVC owners so we’d be paying cash, but already nervous about being able to book a grand Villa for check in on Thanksgiving 2024 and the week following.

That is really unlikely. GV are almost never available through CRO, and are almost certainly not likely to be deposited for Thanksgiving. Make other plans.

 

[TammiMcMan]

That is really unlikely. GV are almost never available through CRO, and are almost certainly not likely to be deposited for Thanksgiving. Make other plans.

We have a plan B thank you. Hoping to pull off a little miracle though for all of us to be in a grand Villa. I know we have to try and go through a DVC rental site and not CRO.

 

[crisi]

We have a plan B thank you. Hoping to pull off a little miracle though for all of us to be in a grand Villa. I know we have to try and go through a DVC rental site and not CRO.

You won't get it through a rental site. You'll want to find a private owner about twelve months in advance who is really willing to work with you. Its possible that it will be walked and it will simply be impossible, but there is a slim chance that if you find yourself an owner really willing to go the extra mile, you might get lucky. Your best bet will be SSR where there are more Grand Villas, so find an SSR owner who can book right at eleven months - or is even willing to walk. And offer to pay them a bonus, its likely to be more work than just renting their points to someone who wants an easy to get reservation. If that doesn't work, its possible that someone will have made a spec rental for a Grand Villa for the week you want and you'll be able to find one of those - but spec rentals usually go for a lot more.

 

[TammiMcMan]

You won't get it through a rental site. You'll want to find a private owner about twelve months in advance who is really willing to work with you. Its possible that it will be walked and it will simply be impossible, but there is a slim chance that if you find yourself an owner really willing to go the extra mile, you might get lucky. Your best bet will be SSR where there are more Grand Villas, so find an SSR owner who can book right at eleven months - or is even willing to walk. And offer to pay them a bonus, its likely to be more work than just renting their points to someone who wants an easy to get reservation. If that doesn't work, its possible that someone will have made a spec rental for a Grand Villa for the week you want and you'll be able to find one of those - but spec rentals usually go for a lot more.

Thanks for your insight.

 

[PinkPixel]

Not DVC owners so we’d be paying cash, but already nervous about being able to book a grand Villa for check in on Thanksgiving 2024 and the week following.

I’ve never seen a GV for cash, I’m not an owner and check cash bookings a lot last couple of years.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Ugh, maybe I’m using the wrong terminology. I meant “cash” in terms of having to go through the DVC Rental site I see advertised on the boards. Am I still looking at the impossible?

 

[crisi]

Ugh, maybe I’m using the wrong terminology. I meant “cash” in terms of having to go through the DVC Rental site I see advertised on the boards. Am I still looking at the impossible?

You are looking for the unlikely. Not impossible. Just not likely. Rooms for that period go fast, there aren't a lot of Grand Villas, they are popular during holidays when people want to take large family trips, Grand Villas are a special kind of rental, you'll need an owner who wants to rent out a LOT of points, and most owners just don't rent that many out. Owners also like easy rentals - they can rent their points with little bother the first nine months of the year - so the last three months, when availability is tight especially for a room type that's difficult to get, won't get a lot of owners too interested - which is why I suggested offering a bonus.

 

[drusba]

Ugh, maybe I’m using the wrong terminology. I meant “cash” in terms of having to go through the DVC Rental site I see advertised on the boards. Am I still looking at the impossible?

Note that you will have a dual availability problem for getting a GV to start Thanksgiving 2024 and continue into the week after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving will be Nov 28 in 2024, meaning Dec 1 will be on the Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving. For many years, the first week of December has been THE highest DVC demand week of the year. Thansgiving is actually only the fourth highest demand week. Christmas week is second, and second week of Dec is third.

Your best chance for a GV will be to find a member, possibly through one of the rental agencies, to potentially do a reservation in the 11-month window. Rental agencies, like DVC Rental Store, a sponsor of this site, do list requests for Grand Villas. You have an availability issue because of time desired, but if you get a request in by 11-months out, the chances are that at least SSR, and possibly AKV Kidani and OKW GVs will stay avaialble for some time after the 11-month window opens. SSR is usually the one whose GVs book full after all others have filled, e.g., for first week of Dec, they are usually still avaiable even at 10 months out. (And SSR recenltly went through a major refurb that has left the rooms, including GVs, more impressive than they ever were before, and, unlike most GVs at OKW, you do not have to walk up a lot of stairs to get to a GV, as all the buildings at SSR have elevators.) Just be aware that the issue you may face may not just be availability but finding anyone with enough points to rent to reserve a GV for multiple days.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Thank you all for your responses. Definitely gives me a lot to think about. Dream family trip was going to be grand Villa at the GF, but I’ll also look at SSR and AKV as well as keeping my option for booking a few resort rooms instead.

 

[tim494]

Got a GV at Boardwalk last Thanksgiving <7 months out. Had to stalk/stitch it together and WL came through for the final night. The entire 4 nights was never available to grab at once.

Final night came through right at 35 days when somebody canceled last minute. Prevented us from having a split stay.

 

[RoseGold]

Marathon is very early this year, like on NYE, so very tough this year.

 

[crisi]

Got a GV at Boardwalk last Thanksgiving <7 months out. Had to stalk/stitch it together and WL came through for the final night. The entire 4 nights was never available to grab at once.

Final night came through right at 35 days when somebody canceled last minute. Prevented us from having a split stay.

That can work for members, but isn't at all likely to work for renters.

 

[crisi]

Thank you all for your responses. Definitely gives me a lot to think about. Dream family trip was going to be grand Villa at the GF, but I’ll also look at SSR and AKV as well as keeping my option for booking a few resort rooms instead.

Booking a few rooms is my general recommendation even to owners. A Grand Villa can be a lot of togetherness, especially once you get more than three adult couples and kids. We've done it a few times - once with just our nuclear family of four (a family trip was planned, but there was a death in the family, and it ended up being just us), once with friends and then my youngest who was sixteen at the time and a friend (so six of us). But when I booked my big family trip of ten of us, we did two two bedrooms - one for my family of four (with plans to add my sister and a guest if she changed her mind and chose to come) and one for my other sister/brother in law and two kids and my parents - her kids were young, so my parents were there to help. Spending a week in a room with my brother in law is not vacation. Spending a week watching other people parent there kids in close quarters drives me batty (and it isn't that I'm a perfect parent).

Also remember that the more people involved, the more likely plans will change. Make sure you aren't holding the bag on expensive and non-refundable DVC reservations to have someone cancel due to health/finances/other commitments. In addition to the trip we took with four of us in a Grand Villa due to my brother in law passing, we had to postpone the other trip for nearly three years while my sister had a baby/got cancer/went through chemo/ and then had recovered enough for a trip. Some people on the board haven't been so "lucky" with excuses - their guests have just flaked out.