are they ever full

[mort1331]

I know that there are times that are very busy, 1st week Dec, xmas etc. but is there any time that there is no room of any catagory, view,size that is not available? Just curious, thanks.

 

[DebbieB]

I know that there are times that are very busy, 1st week Dec, xmas etc. but is there any time that there is no room of any catagory, view,size that is not available? Just curious, thanks.

I had it happen to me once. I wanted a Sunday night in mid-October about 3 weeks ahead. Nothing, any resort, any room size. I ended up using points for Port Orleans French Quarter, before there was a fee. I had a business trip to Orlando and wanted to get there a day early and spend time at Food & Wine.

 

[drusba]

If the question is whether such a time exists at 7 months out, the answer is no. SSR is always open seven months out and even at others you can at least find an odd night here and there even in the highest possible demand times. If the question is whether there is ever a time when it is impossible to get a DVC room using points beyond the seven month window, the answer is yes. When you get to only a one month out, I have seen a few times I have checked (for first week of Dec, Christmas week, first week of April) that there was in fact nothing available, not even an odd night here and there for an SSR room.

If the question is whether there is actually a time when every room is occupied, I would doubt that because there are usually some rooms out of service at any given time and rooms for which Disney has the exclusive right to rent that sometimes go empty.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

For booking on points? Yes, I've seen that with Marathon weekend Friday in January. Also the 3rd week in Oct. Those just happened to be times I was trying to get something and couldn't so I don't know about other times when I haven't been looking.

 

[mort1331]

cool, so rare, and usually only at last minute. I usually book 4-5months out so thats good, not worried about which resort and home is ssr so all is good, thanks all

 

[RoosMama]

I'm not a DVC member, but I have been trying to rent points from David's for BLT, and apparently there are absolutely no 1 bed standard view the week of Christmas.

 

[Meggysmum]

I couldn't find any room in any DVC resort on New years Eve just gone at 5 months out. I didn't expect there to be one but ever hopeful I tried! I could get days either side at OKW or SSR but nothing on the night itself.

As it happens we booked AoA which was a great hit with the family and then moved to OKW on New years day.

 

[crisi]

A few years ago there were threads four five and six months out with people complaining that there was NO availability. But you don't really know when people self report what they mean. They may mean "no availability for what I want"

Also the closer you get and the more nights you stay the more likely it is that the availability will be scattered. You might have to move during your stay. There might be a studio at SSR for two night, then a one bedroom at VAKL for two nights, then back to a studio for the last night over at OKW.

The times it's likely to happen are October through December and over times like the marathon (which brings in lots of DVCers).

 

[spiceycat]

BCV and BLT still will run out of rooms before 5th or sometimes the 7th month time.

standard view BWV also has this tendency.

SSR is the biggest of the DVC resort - so you can generally find something there.

 

[Bell30012]

Our first time staying after becoming an owner was at OKW. Upon arrival we found there was "no room at the inn". It was Christmas week and we were booked in a studio. Someone apparently didn't leave. There were no reservations to be had. It took some doing but they finally found us a 1 Bedroom.

 

[chalee94]

it's a points-based timeshare.

if there are empty rooms at the DVC resorts tonight, that means somebody's points were lost into the ether without being used...

 

[gdrj]

it's a points-based timeshare.

if there are empty rooms at the DVC resorts tonight, that means somebody's points were lost into the ether without being used...

Not accurate. I'll leave others to explain

 

[drusba]

Our first time staying after becoming an owner was at OKW. Upon arrival we found there was "no room at the inn". It was Christmas week and we were booked in a studio. Someone apparently didn't leave. There were no reservations to be had. It took some doing but they finally found us a 1 Bedroom.

I had that experience one Easter week long time ago when doing a regular Disney reservation. We had booked Port Orleans and showed up about 7 in the evening and they had no rooms. I stood there in shock and said they gotta have a room somewhere. They did about 20 minutes of looking which actually also included some phone calls, continuously coming up with nothing anywhere. Finally they hit something and offered a room. I tried to act real disappointed by saying my heart had been set on Port Orleans when they offered us a room for no extra charge at the Grand Floridian.

 

[chalee94]

Not accurate. I'll leave others to explain

if you have more to contribute to the conversation than smug eye-rolls, i'd be curious to hear it...

 

[crisi]

Not accurate. I'll leave others to explain

It is actually pretty accurate.

Disney sells enough points to have the resort something like 95% occupied. The remaining 5% is not owned by members and is held for maintenance.

Points that aren't sold aren't owned by members and aren't bookable to members on points.

Points used for trading options are sold in order to pay for those options, and not available to members.

So on any given night, the rooms available to members are only the rooms that have been sold to members and not used to trade out. There might be a room that has been held for maintenance that they can pull out in an emergency, but sometimes they've already used that room. In a resort with a few hundred rooms, its pretty much a given that one of them is currently in a condition of limited liveability. (Toilet broke, air conditioning is out, carpet in BAD need of cleaning) - so they don't book to the gills (usually), but darn close, and they aren't going to give you that room because, well, what if someone's toilet breaks.

That means if there is a room available on points the day of, someone isn't using their points.

Now, there are a lot of reasons that happens, everything from "we got suddenly ill" to "we had twenty points left over and it wasn't worth doing anything with them. Timeshares often go unused.

 

[RayJay]

It is actually pretty accurate.

Disney sells enough points to have the resort something like 95% occupied. The remaining 5% is not owned by members and is held for maintenance.

Points that aren't sold aren't owned by members and aren't bookable to members on points.

Points used for trading options are sold in order to pay for those options, and not available to members.

So on any given night, the rooms available to members are only the rooms that have been sold to members and not used to trade out. There might be a room that has been held for maintenance that they can pull out in an emergency, but sometimes they've already used that room. In a resort with a few hundred rooms, its pretty much a given that one of them is currently in a condition of limited liveability. (Toilet broke, air conditioning is out, carpet in BAD need of cleaning) - so they don't book to the gills (usually), but darn close, and they aren't going to give you that room because, well, what if someone's toilet breaks.

That means if there is a room available on points the day of, someone isn't using their points.

Now, there are a lot of reasons that happens, everything from "we got suddenly ill" to "we had twenty points left over and it wasn't worth doing anything with them. Timeshares often go unused.

I often wondered about this, was at Saratoga for this past xmas and new year's and it sure didn't seem like the resort was full.

RayJay

 

[BigDogger]

Do you think because SS is under a partial rehab on some rooms there may be more in the maintenance pool?

 

[crisi]

Do you think because SS is under a partial rehab on some rooms there may be more in the maintenance pool?

Possibly.

There are also a lot of rooms owned by DVD. All those foreclosures. Disney is sitting on them.

And its hard to tell when a resort is "full" I've been at BWV during F&W and I know that place is full to the gills - but you really can't tell because people stagger their days. You don't see your neighbors unless they are going to the parks or coming back at the same time you are.

Sometimes the pools are really full and that can be a clue, but December doesn't tend to be that time of year.

 

[csharpwv]

Actually, points based timeshares are harder to fill to capacity due to members NOT being locked into a time of year that they have to use their ownership AND the fact that there are resorts like SSR that members who own there rarely ever STAY there. So that leaves a ton of inventory open to be booked by people that do not own there.

For timeshare resorts that are WEEK based, if the owner isn't there that week, they didn't trade out, and didn't rent it out - the room/unit will sit empty that entire week.

Points based timeshares can't work in areas that have really high and really low seasons.

For a Ski resort in a very remote location that isn't a four season resort in and of itself, summer weeks aren't hard to come by - same for beach locations in the winter.

The time it takes (11 months/7 Months) to get a resort booked up says a lot about what the resort offers, and what what people are looking for in a resort.

I think part of the reason why OKW and SSR do not stay booked up is that the resorts are HUGE and not very pedestrian friendly. Both resorts are really made for guests that drive - we learned our lesson with staying at Jambo House....HORRIBLE for folks that use their cars on a daily basis.

However, OKW was AMAZING! We were parked no more than 11 yards from our villa door!

I swear our room at AKV-Jambo was over 2 miles from the car - it took FOREVER to get to and from the car.

Boardwalk is another resort that isn't great for folks that use their car.

SO, as far as points VS weekly ownership - both resort types have their benefits - but for a destination like WDW, it would not have worked well for weekly ownership!

 

[gdrj]

if you have more to contribute to the conversation than smug eye-rolls, i'd be curious to hear it...

Didn't realize they were smug eyes... and maybe I'm wrong but here is my rationale.

1-If I own at BWV (each Disney Vacation CLub location is a different entity)
If I own 150 points

In year 1 I use 100 points I bank 50
Year 2 I use 200 points

However in year 1 I went during Premier Season 5 days
Year 2 I went 20 days in Adventure Season.

The following year I go to Bay Lake use zero days at my home resort but use all 150 pts.

1 year I spend 5 days. the next year I use 10 days next year zero days at my home resort and lets jets say the next year I bank all 150 and use 300 point the next year.

In this scenerio I have used all points for various number of days and also room size without losing points.

So while the resort may not be filled I still have not lost points.

I am not saying that people do not lose points but I don't believe it is accurate to say that if it is not full they people have lost points.

Again if I'm wrong thats ok. no offense meant with the emoticons...