Availability Jan. 2-8?

[nboicepardee]

Hi everyone,
We have a reservation at SSR for January 2009, but thought we might try for BCV and if not available for VWL. We would be checking in Friday, Jan. 2 and checking out Thursday, Jan. 8th. We are looking for a 2 bedroom. Has anyone had luck (or bad luck!) with those dates, etc.? Thank you!
Natalie

 

[kayla87]

At this point, you may have called and found out availability. I have a 2 bedroom at VWL for Jan 4-10 (called day by day), and I'd say it will be hit and miss making a complete reservation there without waitlisting. Good luck at BCV.

 

[nboicepardee]

I actually called this week and got a 2 bedroom at VWL from Jan. 3-9. I asked about BCV, but if I remember they only had one night available. I don't care enough to waitlist! We are thinking about driving from Rochester, NY (am I crazy, or what?!) so we will have some flexibility. If we decide we want another night, we can just add any room at another DVC resort or pay cash at a value or mod for the night. For one night, I am also open to staying off sight if needed. I am so glad you got your reservation! We have been wanting to check out VWL! I love the proximity to MK. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[kayla87]

Our vacations must be just enough past New Year's crowds to open up availability. Although park attendance drops dramatically, I was afraid DVC demand wouldn't. Good news about your luck with VWL!

Airline prices are going up day by day it seems. I'm glad we got our tickets sooner than later, or we might have had to consider an awful 14 hour drive.

 

[nboicepardee]

We have some flexibility with which week we travel in January. Our annual passes expire Jan. 24th, so we would need to leave by that day. Are any of the other weeks slower than the week of Jan. 3-9? We could also travel Jan. 10-17 or Jan. 17-24. I know we are running into marathon and MLK with both of those weeks and with the first week you have the end of New Year's travelers. We went the last week of January last year, and the crowds were very manageable. Crowds are the most critical piece for me. We will only drive if we go the first week of January because my husband will already be off the entire week before and we can take it slow on the way down and do some other visiting.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[mickeywho?]

We have some flexibility with which week we travel in January. Our annual passes expire Jan. 24th, so we would need to leave by that day. Are any of the other weeks slower than the week of Jan. 3-9? We could also travel Jan. 10-17 or Jan. 17-24. I know we are running into marathon and MLK with both of those weeks and with the first week you have the end of New Year's travelers. We went the last week of January last year, and the crowds were very manageable. Crowds are the most critical piece for me. We will only drive if we go the first week of January because my husband will already be off the entire week before and we can take it slow on the way down and do some other visiting.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Do you drive down? We're in Oakville, ON and are planning on going down the last week but were worried about bad driving conditions this time of year..

 

[nboicepardee]

We have never driven before, but that is definitely a consideration. Bad weather could make that drive really dreadful! We do have some flexibility on the way down because we are taking several days to get there. The more I think about it, flying is probably far less painful (we have 2 children). Airfare has been so expensive when I have looked. I thought driving might be a fun adventure to have as a family and we could do some visiting on the way down. Flying is so unpleasant these days, especially with kids.

 

[mickeywho?]

We're on the fence. Jetblue's direct flight from Buffalo is just over $100 each way - not too bad a price. Our kids love Jetblue because of the tvs! But driving would mean we could pack what we want - shop to fill the car - and leave in our own time. We check in on Sunday so we could leave Friday after school or earlier while watching the weather. In good weather it's a 24 hour drive - but we actally like long car trips. I wonder how long it would take with winter driving conditions - maybe 30 hours?

 

[kayla87]

I know we are running into marathon and MLK with both of those weeks and with the first week you have the end of New Year's travelers.

I think MLK weekend is worse than marathon weekend. Haven't looked at a crowd chart for this weekend in particular, but my advice would be avoid MLK.

I haven't recently checked it, but there is a January in Disney thread in this forum, and someone in there mentioned the marathon didn't affect park crowd levels too badly.

Also, park crowd charts show the New Years crowd leaving around the time you are getting there, so that shouldn't be a problem (except the 3rd).

Even flying you have to consider bad weather. DH is worried we might be grounded trying to leave, or won't be able to get back.

 

[nboicepardee]

I wouldn't mind not being able to get back for a while!

 

[tiggerrr]

We have some flexibility with which week we travel in January. Our annual passes expire Jan. 24th, so we would need to leave by that day. Are any of the other weeks slower than the week of Jan. 3-9? We could also travel Jan. 10-17 or Jan. 17-24. I know we are running into marathon and MLK with both of those weeks and with the first week you have the end of New Year's travelers. We went the last week of January last year, and the crowds were very manageable. Crowds are the most critical piece for me. We will only drive if we go the first week of January because my husband will already be off the entire week before and we can take it slow on the way down and do some other visiting.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

I just booked 2br at VWL today for 3rd to 8th. No availability on the 2nd and none on the 9th to 11th either (probably because of the marathon). We'll move to SSR on the 8th for the rest of our trip. In answer to your other question, as to alternative times, I think that the weekends are going to be your problems for most of January rather than the weeks. The first weekend will still have leftover crowds from new years (2-4), the second weekend is the marathon (9-11) and the third is MLK (16-19). In all those cases, the small resorts like VWL and BCV are going to be full.

I think both of the first two weeks are fine to travel, but wholeheartedly agree with other posters that you probably want to be gone by MLK weekend.

 

[Goofy DVC]

Booked at BCV right at seven months for a 2BR. We had no problem getting Jan. 4th-Jan.8th. Had to waitlist for the night of the 8th.

 

[PIERCEDRN]

Lots of waitlists for the 8th due to the Marathon, but there were a ton of options for us. We were looking for value only rooms so we couldn't get bwv standard or AKV value without moving on the 8th.
BWV and BCV was available that whole Sun-Fri... I guess no one swims in Jan. so less of a draw that week.
Needless to say, if we can get super-hard ressies like BWV standard view and AKV value, you will do fine if you are willing to pay "full points".
Call ASAP, we just released a BWV value 1br, you can have ours.
BOB