Are the Days of Walking a DVC Reservation Numbered?

[dcfromva]

I don’t want any changes in the flexibility to be necessary, nor do I want to risk undesirable consequences.

The length of this thread should tell you that there are a lot of owners that view walking as a problem.

So what is the better solution? That the people that don’t like walking just ignore it and deal with it, or that the people that have such a burning desire to get a leg up on their fellow owners stop doing it?

We both know that they will never voluntarily stop doing it, which is why we are in a situation where we are talking about potential changes that none of us are going to like.

There are 981 posts (so far on this thread) The only thing is --most of this thread consists of the same people discussing it. As Sandiw noted, not everyone thinks something needs to be done. So, I worry that it becomes a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[VGCgroupie]

This thread is so hot and fast moving I keep not getting notifications for it since I am not commenting on it. No big deal though, I have so many other things I could be/should be doing.

 

[muppets3d]

That's what I meant, even if I didn't say that explicitly. It just emphasizes what I suggested.

Make standard/club/(theme park?) rooms more pricy, and make lake/preferred/savanna views less pricy - walking will be substantially mitigated.

There are far more standard rooms than there are club rooms so I don’t know that you can do enough balancing with those two room types to make a meaningful difference.

 

[tx911]

There are 981 posts (so far on this thread) The only thing is --most of this thread consists of the same people discussing it. As Sandiw noted, not everyone thinks something needs to be done. So, I worry that it becomes a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

If this is on DVC’s radar, which it is, there’s a lot more people upset about it than those posting on this thread.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Ok so I did not read through all 50 pages of this thread so forgive me I this has already been discussed. Walking is the consequence of the change they made to the reservation system to allow booking forward from the latest date. (11 months + 6 nights).
Why can't we just go back to the old ways and not be able to book forward. I live on the west coast and got up early every day for 2 weeks to call into MS and book my next day. It was a small price to pay to make sure I got what I wanted.

Allowing any booking forward, even 1 day, will encourage walking.

Any other system would not be viewed as fair. Things like charging to modify reservations ("only the rich can walk"). Canceling a reservation if deleting days at the start of a reservation. Etc.

A lottery system is also non-starter. That idea should be DOA.

I probably have 30 posts earlier in this thread supporting just that.

 

[RickNJane]

They never had a day by day rule. The rule was book your trip from check out cs check in

What people started to do to ensure they got all their days was book day by day to make sure when check out came, the initial days they wanted were not gone.

So, it was basically owners working around the intended rule to make sure they got the trip.

For example, if you wanted a November 10 to 17th, your window opened Dec 17th for all those nights.

But that risked that some of those dates would be gone. So, instead of waiting until the 17th, they’d call December 10th to book November 10th, etc.

No one was walking…but if you didn’t play the day by day game, you might end up with missing days in your trip.

Ok I stand corrected as to check out vs check in. Memory is the first to go and I can't remember the second one!

However, I do stand by what I said. In the old days we did day by day and it worked for us. You could roll the dice and book all at once, but you may not get all your days. I think I remember (HA) hearing that the current system was put in place to help mitigate the number of calls MS was getting. With online reservations, I don't think that goal applies anymore. I would like to see a return to the old ways.

That being said, I really think walking won't be such a huge issue if they can crack down on commercial renters. So I would take a two step process. Deal with the commercials and then see if walking is a huge deal or not.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Personally, I can put up with walkers because I love the flexibility of modifying our reservations. But I'm also not trying to get some of the high demand rooms like AKL value.

 

[tx911]

I probably have 30 posts earlier in this thread supporting just that.

There are 30 posts on this thread supporting just about every different viewpoint

 

[RickNJane]

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…
Go back to the old way of booking —> walking eliminated.

Ok So I went back and read these posts. I TOTALLY AGREE. Go back to the way it was. No More Issue.

 

[Genie+]

To clarify, no one is suggesting the lottery is a good solution or think they'll implement it. It's hell and won't happen. It's just an example of the very worst scenario.
The question is: is walking such a problem that you are willing to live with the consequences, whatever happens?
I don't.

The lottery is the boogeyman. “Is that what you want? Be careful what you wish for. You really want to risk losing your home priority (not really true though it gets framed that way)?” Lol.

Is walking such a problem? …to risk living with whatever consequences? The walking problem is the unreasonable lead time or accept that higher demand rooms may as well not exist. Hard room/dates have a lower chance - but that chance gets much lower if you don’t walk.

I’m already living with the consequences of walking. Personally I don’t need to keep adjusting our 11m bookings over and over pushing out the 11 months. I already don’t have full flexibility to change our trip dates after the 11 months window closes, which happens pretty darn quick!

The question for DVC (if they decided to address walking) is what is a reasonable amount of flexibility for moving checkin day when it still holds home priority advantage over other bookings.

DVC has made a few mistakes in the past, like the 1BR lockoff premium you mentioned and helped lead a change. Followed by another greedy error causing them to yet again need to republish point charts. In between, for 2021 chart, a big change happened that did not end up reversed: the move to 7 seasons, because that was overall reasonable for the membership. Given this recent history I think DVC stays cautious about shenanigans in their favor because the risk owners pool their brainpower and expose them.

 

[Orsino]

Disney won't even implement a lottery where it would be straightforward and a clear improvement over the status quo (virtual queues). I don't see them attempting a lottery for DVC rooms.

 

[davidhr]

It’s amazing to me some of the suggestions being made to “solve” something by creating other issues.

It’s like this extreme example: A lot of people die in car crashes every day. If we ban cars, the problem will be solved!

Of course, now we have the problem of a lot of people not being able to travel easily. But it’s a great solution for those that don’t need a car.

PS: it’s an extreme example. No need to point it out

 

[Tatebeck]

It’s amazing to me some of the suggestions being made to “solve” something by creating other issues.

It’s like this extreme example: A lot of people die in car crashes every day. If we ban cars, the problem will be solved!

Of course, now we have the problem of a lot of people not being able to travel easily. But it’s a great solution for those that don’t need a car.

PS: it’s an extreme example. No need to point it out

If DVC = Driving a car in this example, I don't think it makes sense. Nobody is calling for DVC to be dissolved

Walking a reservation would be like reckless driving or speeding. It gets you what you want, but others may be inconvenienced and are unhappy about it, even though they could do the same thing if they wanted to.

And then they definitely have done things like require seatbelts, airbags, setting speed limits, giving speeding and reckless driving tickets, etc. to help curb speeding and reckless driving and/or it's bad effects.

 

[zavandor]

The lottery is the boogeyman. “Is that what you want? Be careful what you wish for. You really want to risk losing your home priority (not really true though it gets framed that way)?” Lol.

Is walking such a problem? …to risk living with whatever consequences? The walking problem is the unreasonable lead time or accept that higher demand rooms may as well not exist. Hard room/dates have a lower chance - but that chance gets much lower if you don’t walk.

I’m already living with the consequences of walking. Personally I don’t need to keep adjusting our 11m bookings over and over pushing out the 11 months. I already don’t have full flexibility to change our trip dates after the 11 months window closes, which happens pretty darn quick!

The question for DVC (if they decided to address walking) is what is a reasonable amount of flexibility for moving checkin day when it still holds home priority advantage over other bookings.

DVC has made a few mistakes in the past, like the 1BR lockoff premium you mentioned and helped lead a change. Followed by another greedy error causing them to yet again need to republish point charts. In between, for 2021 chart, a big change happened that did not end up reversed: the move to 7 seasons, because that was overall reasonable for the membership. Given this recent history I think DVC stays cautious about shenanigans in their favor because the risk owners pool their brainpower and expose them.

Actually they reverted the point charts also after they created the 7 seasons. Because putting March and April in different seasons caused the point charts to be inflated depending on when Easter fell. They rolled back after members complained.
Again, DVC made a change that would have caused more breakage. Did they change to 7 seasons with the specific purpose of inflating the charts, was it just a nice bonus or where they oblivious of the consequences? You decide.
But it shows, we cannot really trust they won't mess things up again.
I'd rather keep walking, thank you.

 

[JOLT]

If DVC = Driving a car in this example, I don't think it makes sense. Nobody is calling for DVC to be dissolved

Walking a reservation would be like reckless driving or speeding. It gets you what you want, but others may be inconvenienced and are unhappy about it, even though they could do the same thing if they wanted to.

And then they definitely have done things like require seatbelts, airbags, setting speed limits, giving speeding and reckless driving tickets, etc. to help curb speeding and reckless driving and/or it's bad effects.

I would say walking is more like a backed up exit and you drive all the way up to the front and cut in.

 

[JOLT]

Actually they reverted the point charts also after they created the 7 seasons. Because putting March and April in different seasons caused the point charts to be inflated depending on when Easter fell. They rolled back after members complained.
Again, DVC made a change that would have caused more breakage. Did they change to 7 seasons with the specific purpose of inflating the charts, was it just a nice bonus or where they oblivious of the consequences? You decide.
But it shows, we cannot really trust they won't mess things up again.
I'd rather keep walking, thank you.

that was a fun call with Yvonne explaining how it would make most years have a bunch of extra points.

 

[Tatebeck]

I would say walking is more like a backed up exit and you drive all the way up to the front and cut in.

That's a pretty good choice as well, and may fall under reckless driving

 

[zavandor]

that was a fun call with Yvonne explaining how it would make most years have a bunch of extra points.

Did you talk with her too? With one of us she played dumb. I had to explain it all over too (or you did if I talked with her first).

 

[JOLT]

Did you talk with her too? With one of us she played dumb. I had to explain it all over too (or you did if I talked with her first).

yea she randomly called me after I sent an email with all the graphs on how much extra points each year with Easter's move.

 

[Genie+]

UK owners would likely speak up if DVC suggested reverting back to original booking. They particularly did not like the old system. International travel tends to be longer trips than domestic. That old system put them at a major disadvantage. Shorter trips got first dibs on the inventory. A 14 or 21 day trip was a sad proposition once all the shorter trips in the timeframe were able to book first.

(This may just be coincidence) the booking system change came around the US recession and while GBP was way up over the dollar and alot of UK folks were buying into DVC.)

Anyway, it would be the 3rd blow this year. First was change to LLMP which blocked them out of advanced reservations, then MMB+ blocking them. Tell them their long trips will be at a disadvantage again - ‍ no thanks.