Availability reality at non home resort 7 months out

[jrieder]

I bought at SSR for the value and price per point. I don't plan to spend all my time there. I plan to stay only in studios as I have a small family, at Animal, Beach Club, and Board Walk. In August will I be able to find a availability at these resorts for a studio. Just trying to properly set my expectations.

Thank you everyone for the guidance.

 

[intamin]

Generally the summer months June-August are pretty easy to book. Beach Club and BoardWalk are probably hard year round.. you may be able to grab a couple nights here and there occasionally but I wouldn't count on consistently booking those 2 as they're some of the hardest to book with studios being the most popular room category because you guessed it how cheap they are relative to the other room types. The only way to consistently book either of those resorts is to own there. Animal Kingdom should be pretty easy to book with SSR at 7 months.

 

[BamaGuy44]

AK Lodge, won't be a problem. Beach club studio is one of the hardest ones for non owners to book at 7 months, especially in the Fall. August you might get lucky right at 7 months on the dot but not great odds usually. Boardwalk studios are pretty tough as well. Standard view and boardwalk view basically impossible at 7 months. Garden/pool view is a better shot. People have had some luck with wait lists on these since there are a lot of them.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Jwaire]

Boardwalk is going under hard refurb this fall until next Summer. So, I’d rule that one out.

 

[Minniesgal]

April to August is pretty easy to book outside of that it’s hard. Beach club is always hard to book it’s tiny

 

[Sammie]

You can find them but you have to be on computer right at the 7 month mark. August will be easier than other months. You might have to wait list Beach Club.

 

[Straulin]

BCV and BWV are the best resorts for access to the Epcot festivals. The Food and Wine is the big draw and it begins at the end of July through Sometime in November. That makes it hard. Both BCV and BWV are currently doing refurbs so it might be better next year.

 

[CarolMN]

You can find some historical data on availability here:

https://www.dvcfieldguide.com/availability-tables

 

[Sandisw]

I think getting AKV won’t be an issue as there are a lot of rooms. But, the other two will be more difficult but BWV has the better chance of the two.

I would be prepared that as we get closer to the expiration of those resorts, it might become harder. The good part is that you can use waitlists and stalking do the website to try and get them. And, if you have some flexibility in dares within the whole month of August, that will help!

 

[Cybertruck]

I bought at SSR for the value and price per point. I don't plan to spend all my time there. I plan to stay only in studios as I have a small family, at Animal, Beach Club, and Board Walk. In August will I be able to find a availability at these resorts for a studio. Just trying to properly set my expectations.

Thank you everyone for the guidance.

Welcome Home! I agree with everything said above but… As a fellow SSR owner I use my SAP points mostly at other resorts. We are never disappointed with our stays SSR but we like variety.

Our situation was different in the early days we only stayed in 2 bedrooms with the size of our family but have stayed at BWV and BCV many times. As empty nesters now we take both family and non-family trips. Studios are the hardest rooms to get at both these resorts.

Just this morning Headless Horseman posted their BCV waitlist came through for Christmas week. Book a stay at the 11-month mark at SSR and get up early at the 7-month mark and see what happens. Finally wait list alternative resorts. You are staying at the happiest place in the world and dreams do come true!

 

[thelionqueen]

As others have mentioned, BCV & BWV studios are some of the hardest to book. Honestly I wouldn’t expect to ever get them if you plan on keeping expectations reality based. You should t have an issue at AKV with the exception of standard studios & concierge. Always expect to stay where you own, hope to get lucky at 7 months but realize the hard to get results (2 of your 3) are unlikely right now & will only get harder

 

[RoseGold]

I have a lot of SSR and have never even been there. High point count rooms will be no problem, like Poly or AKL savanna or VGF2. The cheaper rooms will be harder to book: BC, BW, AK standard or value.

VGF2 added a lot of high point studios and made this even easier, and it wasn't hard before VGF2.

AK savanna is a good room that you should be able to book most of the time.

BC is very hard, but I've had waitlists fill several times. If you book in two day segments, maybe you get lucky.

 

[zavandor]

August has become the slowest time for DVC. It used to be September, but the cheapest point charts start to convince a few more people to brave heat and humidity. Especially late August, there was a lot of availability this year.
However, who.knows what's happen in the future, if the reallocate again and make August cheaper, it might become more popular.

 

[Genie+]

Savannah View at AKV is the most reliable of the 3 resorts listed. That should remain one of the easiest trades overall.

BLT lake view ranks well for 7 month availability, it’s right behind the big 3 AKV SSR OKW.

The more flexibility you have the better. Looking 7 months out for your preferred options anytime in August likely finds more opportunities than being bound to a certain week.

BW and BC are hard, maybe hardest in the system. Chances improve for BWV garden/pool view or split stay. Typically it takes some finagling. Like you find 3 or 4 days, hold them and book a split stay, then stalk and waitlist to possibly get the whole week (or full dates you want). But you’d need to be willing to accept the split stay if it fails. Say you hold SSR 3 days and BCV 4 days. As months go by with stalk/waitlist, the other SSR day(s) could fill. So what people do if they have enough points is book the full dates for SSR - split in to 2 reservations - along with the 4 days BCV. This would only be to avoid the possibility of split stay.

Split stays exponentially increase trading ability to near park resorts. EP resorts are easiest finding just a few days and pairing the remaining days with an MK resort is not hard if any will do. If any combo BW/BC split with BLT/Poly/VGF/WL is acceptable the likelihood shoots up. This is popular because it has advantage beyond being feasible. HS/EP park days from Crescent Lake area, MK/AK from 7 Seas Lagoon area.

 

[sndral]

It’s very much a numbers & time of year game, how many studios does the resort have - the more studios the easier to get one at 7 months, how many points will the view category cost - the higher the point cost the easier to get at 7 months, and how popular is the time of year - food & wine for BC & BWV being a very popular time of year, for ex..
BC has 110 studios, BWV has 246 studios - the vast majority in the pool/garden view category, AKV has 297 studios - however, w/in AKV Jambo house is tougher to get than Kidani, 128 of AKV’s studios are in Jambo & 5 of those are club & 18 are value & both those categories are almost always booked at 11 months.
Best to book one of your home resort - SSR’s 432 studios so you have a place to stay & then modify to whatever you find open at 7 months.

 

[jrieder]

It’s very much a numbers & time of year game, how many studios does the resort have - the more studios the easier to get one at 7 months, how many points will the view category cost - the higher the point cost the easier to get at 7 months, and how popular is the time of year - food & wine for BC & BWV being a very popular time of year, for ex..
BC has 110 studios, BWV has 246 studios - the vast majority in the pool/garden view category, AKV has 297 studios - however, w/in AKV Jambo house is tougher to get than Kidani, 128 of AKV’s studios are in Jambo & 5 of those are club & 18 are value & both those categories are almost always booked at 11 months.
Best to book one of your home resort - SSR’s 432 studios so you have a place to stay & then modify to whatever you find open at 7 months.

Good advice...so book SSR as a backup and can cancel if needed correct?

 

[jrieder]

Good advice...so book SSR as a backup and can cancel if needed correct?

Does it matter if I am using banked points?

 

[Sandisw]

Does it matter if I am using banked points?

Banked points must be used during the UY you move them into.

So, unless you want to lose them, you’d be going regardless of what resort you can get elsewhere. Cancelling more than 31 days prior to the trip will save points not yet banked, which you could bank forward.

It is always wise to book your home resort during the home resort period and then seeing what is there at 7 months.

It’s wise to go into this expecting SSR abs hoping for the best at the other places. Nothing is ever impossible and number of nights matters. But , two of the three resorts you hope to stay at…and it sounds like regularly…are very popular, even in August and as I mentioned earlier, as we get closer to expiration, I think you are going to see more owners stay put there.

I also think it’s possible we will see them do some amending to home resort period for those owners of 2042 to give them as much time to use up those last 5 years worth of points.

 

[tx911]

Book your home resort at the 11 month window to secure at least some place to stay during your desired vacation days.

Then, once you hit the 7 month window, you can try modifying your reservation by changing to a different resort, if available. If none of your choices is available, you always can fall back on your home resort that you already booked at 11 months.

Banked points have to be spent in the use year they were banked in to. In other words, I don't think they can be "banked again" into the subsequent use year. If you cancel your reservation completely, keep this in mind so that you don't lose the points entirely.

Also, if you were to cancel inside of 31 days from your reservation start date, those points would be put into a Holding Account, and must be spent within 60 days in that same use year.

In general, you will find good availability at resorts with lots of inventory (e.g. AKL) and/or at less busy times of year. The 1BR Villa, being the least efficient way to use points (i.e. same capacity as a studio but much more expensive), is easier to get at 7 months than studios. Resorts with a crap ton of studio inventory like SSR and AKL will generally have something available at 7 months.

The Availability tables referenced above are useful.

 

[tom1944]

Banked points must be used during the UY you move them into.

So, unless you want to lose them, you’d be going regardless of what resort you can get elsewhere. Cancelling more than 31 days prior to the trip will save points not yet banked, which you could bank forward.

It is always wise to book your home resort during the home resort period and then seeing what is there at 7 months.

It’s wise to go into this expecting SSR abs hoping for the best at the other places. Nothing is ever impossible and number of nights matters. But , two of the three resorts you hope to stay at…and it sounds like regularly…are very popular, even in August and as I mentioned earlier, as we get closer to expiration, I think you are going to see more owners stay put there.

I also think it’s possible we will see them do some amending to home resort period for those owners of 2042 to give them as much time to use up those last 5 years worth of points.

We just got back from our first trip and are planning for next year.

We enjoyed BLT and plan to stay again. We are extending our stay from a week to 8-10 days and also staying at a second resort.

Following some previous recommendations I would book 2 reservations at SSR with the idea that one would be modified at 7 months.

I would have to borrow from my August 2025 points unless I purchase a second contract by then which is unlikely.
Do I have that process correct?