Are the Days of Walking a DVC Reservation Numbered?

[DanCali]

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.

That means is that it's easier to make the club rooms more expensive without much impact on points for other room types.

If club rooms were more expensive then I suspect (i) any rentals (and underlying reservations) you see for those types of rooms would go away, and (ii) they would become a "one and done" experience for many owners, allowing other owners get their shot too.

I find the delta between savanna and club too low to deter people, including myself, from trying for that "upgrade" (even with the 40% chance of getting the pool view). If the club level cost as much as a standard view 1BR, I'd probably think twice about it and go for the 1BR at Kidani with the 2 bathrooms and 5-person capacity (or just get the cheaper studio and splurge on dining at Boma and Jiko)

 

[Genie+]

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.

That’s the chronology I followed too. I listed the 2 republished years first, before mentioning the switch to 7 Seasons in between.

2019: 1BR issue caused need to republish 2020 point chart
2020: Change to 7 seasons on 2021 point chart
2021: Base year holiday shenanigans caused the need to republish 2022 point chart.

^… at least I think that is right?

 

[JackosinDIS]

I

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.

Spot on. We would be furious! (In a very polite and apologetic way of course )

 

[Cyberc1978]

UK owners would likely speak up if DVC suggested reverting back to original booking.

That would assume that DVC suggests anything before doing it.

What’s not to say that in ie 3 months we all get a notification message when we sign in and it reads that by x date a new and improved way of booking starts.

Then we can all whine and maybe they listen as with the point charts but then again maybe they won’t.

 

[Tatebeck]

That means is that it's easier to make the club rooms more expensive without much impact on points for other room types.

If club rooms were more expensive then I suspect (i) any rentals (and underlying reservations) you see for those types of rooms would go away, and (ii) they would become a "one and done" experience for many owners, allowing other owners get their shot too.

I find the delta between savanna and club too low to deter people, including myself, from trying for that "upgrade" (even with the 40% chance of getting the pool view). If the club level cost as much as a standard view 1BR, I'd probably think twice about it and go for the 1BR at Kidani with the 2 bathrooms and 5-person capacity (or just get the cheaper studio and splurge on dining at Boma and Jiko)

Yep, if they are able to, then raising the point cost of value studio rooms to 1 pt below standard rooms, and raising the cost of the club rooms to around the cost of a std 1 br, (and then very slightly lowering the cost of studio std and/or savannah view), then the problem may just take care of itself, at least at that resort.

Edit: Or something I just thought about, if they renamed the value rooms to duo rooms, dropped the extra bed and limited capacity to 2 guests instead of 4. Not sure if they are able to lower guest capacity like that though? Haven't they added capacity to some rooms before? Maybe they haven't and I'm misremembering that

 

[JOLT]

That means is that it's easier to make the club rooms more expensive without much impact on points for other room types.

If club rooms were more expensive then I suspect (i) any rentals (and underlying reservations) you see for those types of rooms would go away, and (ii) they would become a "one and done" experience for many owners, allowing other owners get their shot too.

I find the delta between savanna and club too low to deter people, including myself, from trying for that "upgrade" (even with the 40% chance of getting the pool view). If the club level cost as much as a standard view 1BR, I'd probably think twice about it and go for the 1BR at Kidani with the 2 bathrooms and 5-person capacity (or just get the cheaper studio and splurge on dining at Boma and Jiko)

Thats crazy talk why bump up club level to be a one and done level? If you have AKL points and you cant get club level you are not putting in any effort.

 

[Genie+]

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.

Good question lol

But it shows, we cannot really trust they won't mess things up again.
I'd rather keep walking, thank you.

The way it looks to me is the cat is out of the bag with walking. If DVC came back and said we took a deep look and it just isn’t causing enough negative impact to warrant change, I’d accept that. Not from a place of trust, more from a place of knowing their data and statistics is much better than any of us could ever compile. It’s so opaque from our side. I’m not yet convinced it’s only a slight negative impact. If I need to start walking, so be it. Then my friend will too. And we’ll get familiar enough to just make it a habit. Because that’s what’s happening now. More signs of walking, more jumping aboard. Once you learn the mechanics, why not just walk anything that poses even the smallest risk of having hiccups in availability. Leading to more signs of walking… etc

 

[Genie+]

That would assume that DVC suggests anything before doing it.

What’s not to say that in ie 3 months we all get a notification message when we sign in and it reads that by x date a new and improved way of booking starts.

Then we can all whine and maybe they listen as with the point charts but then again maybe they won’t.

Can anyone remember the last thing DVC did that didn’t result in whining haha

I should add… it does seem when it a legitimate gripe then DVC corrects

 

[Sandisw]

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.

Per DVC, many owners complained about it…obviously you couldn’t walk, but you had to do day by day if you didn’t want to be behind.

I agree though that I think they will be focused on updated rental rules and enforcement and that this will be left alone.

There was definitely a different message from them on the importance of each one.

Renting they are actively dealing with…walking they are open to considering rule changes assuming they can do so in a way that is a good thing.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

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.

Short trips did not have an advantage. Absolutely zero.

 

[Sandisw]

Good question lol


The way it looks to me is the cat is out of the bag with walking. If DVC came back and said we took a deep look and it just isn’t causing enough negative impact to warrant change, I’d accept that. Not from a place of trust, more from a place of knowing their data and statistics is much better than any of us could ever compile. It’s so opaque from our side. I’m not yet convinced it’s only a slight negative impact. If I need to start walking, so be it. Then my friend will too. And we’ll get familiar enough to just make it a habit. Because that’s what’s happening now. More signs of walking, more jumping aboard. Once you learn the mechanics, why not just walk anything that poses even the smallest risk of having hiccups in availability. Leading to more signs of walking… etc

Not necessarily. Many of us know about it and simply don’t do it because we don’t mind following behind and doing a little extra work!

 

[JackosinDIS]

Short trips did not have an advantage. Absolutely zero.

I think they did…
Let’s say each morning on any given day you have a 50% chance of getting a room (for simplicity, you can insert any percentage value here).
An owner who wants a 1 night trip has a 50% chance of getting their full trip booked.
An owner who wants a 2 night trip must call day one @ 50 % chance and must also get their room on day 2 - 50%x50%=25%

I’d call that a disadvantage?

You might argue that the owner who want 2 nights can just wait until both are available and book at the same time, but that is still a statistical disadvantage as the chances of one or more of those nights being booked before the 2 nights are available is higher than the chances of one night be booked.

 

[Nabas]

Yes we’ve seen this with Oct and Nov. That season has been raised significantly and demand has since eased up.

As a BWV owner I thought it was a good move cutting the 9pt nights since they increased the amount of 10 and 11pt nights. So now there’s 30 weeks to choose from for the lowest weeknight studio. Seemed like a good compromise all in all.

Yeah, at the moment, I'm leaning towards changing the point charts so that the rooms most commonly walked are less desirable.

Make it a 1-point difference between (for example) BWV-Standard and BWV-Garden/Water view, and the BWV-Standard View room become a lot less appealing.

The summer of 2025 is a great example. I noticed that the much cheaper (4-point difference) Sunday-to-Thursday night BWV-Standard Studios were mostly booked at 11 months, but BWV-Standard Studios remained available most weekends (2-point difference) at 11 months.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I think they did…
Let’s say each morning on any given day you have a 50% chance of getting a room (for simplicity, you can insert any percentage value here).
An owner who wants a 1 night trip has a 50% chance of getting their full trip booked.
An owner who wants a 2 night trip must call day one @ 50 % chance and must also get their room on day 2 - 50%x50%=25%

I’d call that a disadvantage?

You might argue that the owner who want 2 nights can just wait until both are available and book at the same time, but that is still a statistical disadvantage as the chances of one or more of those nights being booked before the 2 nights are available is higher than the chances of one night be booked.

That’s like saying if black comes in 10 times in a row, red has a better chance of coming in on the 11th.

You have the exact same chance as everyone else each day. No more, no less.

 

[Disneyepcot]

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.

And a lot more people NOT upset about it than those posting on this thread.
I suppose the walkers need to squeak more so I made this post.
Also , I was just able to get a 4 night, 9 point SV room at BWV in September that someone had canceled. There are work arounds for finding what you are looking for.

 

[JackosinDIS]

That’s like saying if black comes in 10 times in a row, red has a better chance of coming in on the 11th

No, that’s not what I’m saying.
I’m saying that you have a better chance of getting 1 black than 2 or more blacks in a row. The individual chances of any one spin are the same, but once you start to aggregate spins the chances of getting a number of the same outcomes in succession diminish.

 

[Nabas]

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.

Since there are only 5 AKV-Club Studios, Disney would have to make these a lot more expensive (i.e. points per night) to curb walking.

There are only 5 AKV-Club One-Bedrooms, but at double the points, these are a heck of a lot easier to book than the AKV-Club Studios.

Looking at November 2025, I see no nights available for AKV-Club Studios but count 16 out of 19 nights available for AKV-Club One-Bedrooms. For the month of October 2025, there are no AKV-Club Studios but 17 out of 31 nights available for AKV-Club One-Bedrooms.

My point is, if Disney makes AKV-Club Studios much more expensive, these are going to become easier to book.

Just make the more desirable category of rooms more expensive, and DVC members will balance out demand.

 

[zavandor]

That’s like saying if black comes in 10 times in a row, red has a better chance of coming in on the 11th.

You have the exact same chance as everyone else each day. No more, no less.

Have you bought back into DVC? If you're still not a member, that explains why you like booking from checkout day: because you don't have to use it

 

[Tatebeck]

That’s like saying if black comes in 10 times in a row, red has a better chance of coming in on the 11th.

You have the exact same chance as everyone else each day. No more, no less.

Because rooms are limited and taken out of inventory, it would be more like each time black is bet upon, a black number is removed from the roulette wheel for the next spin. You may now have the same chances as rolling black as everyone else does on the next spin, but not as high of a chance for the previous spin, where someone else started first

 

[Nabas]

Thats crazy talk why bump up club level to be a one and done level? If you have AKL points and you cant get club level you are not putting in any effort.

What?

Currently, there are no AKV-Club Studio rooms available for the next 11 months and 2 days.

You cannot book something if it's completely unavailable.

Yeah, maybe if you check multiple times a day and have complete flexibility on your dates, then you might be able to get lucky and snag a night or two. That's how we did it. "Gee hon, I guess we're going to AKV Club Level in the middle of the week next August."