Booking nights 8-12 of a vacation

[Cinderella94]

Today is my 7 month mark, so I can log on and book the first 7 nights at 8:00 AM. I understand that I’ll need to book the rest of the nights (8-12) one day at a time over the phone. It makes me nervous that the phone lines don’t open until 9:00 AM. I don’t suppose there’s a way I could book each night at 8:00 online and then call when they open at 9:00 to have them linked or something like that? What do others do in this scenario?

Thank you!!

 

[CarolMN]

I'd just wait until 9 AM & call. The only people you would be competing against are those who own at that resort. Most (if not all) of them will have already booked and not interested in what you want. Risk is minimal and that way MS can just modify the reservation you already have.

If you book and then call to combine, it's more complicated for MS (but can be done). If you are really nervous about getting the last nights, go ahead and book individually online and then when you have all nights secured, you can call (or email) MS and ask to have them all combined into one reservation. Be sure you are booking the exact same thing and list the same guests.

 

[DenLo]

You could book them online at 8:00 am and even wait until you have all of the additional dates to call Member Services and ask them to combine them into a single reservation, that is if you are able to get the same resort and room type with the same guests on each reservation. Depending on the resort, I do either way. If I was trying for VGF, I'd book online. However, if I was going for a large resort like SSR, AKV (not value or Club Level), BWV (not standard view), or OKW (not Hospitality House) I probably just call MS at 9:00.

 

[Marionnette]

To book each day online, you would have to wait until the 7-month window opened for each of those nights (8-12). If you already have the nights of 1-7 booked, you can call when the 7-month window opens for night #2 to add night #8 and so on. If I was trying to make sure that I got a continuous stay at a resort that might get booked up at 7 months, I would not wait just so that I didn't have to call MS. I'd be on the phne every day booking that next night.

 

[Orsino]

I think it might be helpful to your worries to think about what has to happen for you to NOT get what you want assuming you get nights 1-7 already.

(1) All the other rooms in the category you want have to book up for Night 7 as well.
(2) All those other bookings also need to want Night 8, all of them.
(3) The inventory for your booking category needs to be reduced for some reason. In other words the number of rooms available for Night 8 needs to be at least one less than what is available for Night 7.

The chances of both (2) and (3) happening are quite small.

If you are super paranoid about it, call every morning for Nights 8-12.
If you recognize that the chances of not getting 8-12 are basically nil, call 5 days after you booked 1-7 and add on the rest of the stay.

What you could do is look at the RAT and see if Night 7 is available. If it is, then you know with reasonably high certainty that Night 8 is not in danger of getting booked any time soon (To book Night 8, the owner must also book Night 7). If you see Night 7 is booked, then go ahead and call MS to add as many days as possible, then check the RAT to see if your last booked day sells out and repeat as necessary until you get what you want.

Edited to add: OOOPS!

Oh Sorry. I completely messed that up. I missed that you were talking about booking at 7 months. In that case, calling everyday is the only thing you can do. Since 7 months can get dicey, I would consider a split stay as well, especially with a long stay.

 

[BillPA]

Do you have your home resort booked for the 12 days?

 

[Cinderella94]

Do you have your home resort booked for the 12 days?

Thanks for all the replies, everyone! And to answer this question- no, this is for an Aulani trip .

 

[BillPA]

So you're looking for Jan 5 or 6 for 12 nights? I think you will be fine, that is not a super busy time there. Good luck and have a great trip.

 

[zavandor]

(1) All the other rooms in the category you want have to book up for Night 7 as well.
(2) All those other bookings also need to want Night 8, all of them.
(3) The inventory for your booking category needs to be reduced for some reason. In other words the number of rooms available for Night 8 needs to be at least one less than what is available for Night 7.

The chances of both (2) and (3) happening are quite small.

This is true at 11 months. 3 can happen only if a room is scheduled to be put out of service for maintenance. But it's not that unusual at 7 months.
Let's say you're booking a stay that ends during race week end during a low DVC season, like the princess half. Friday to Sun are in very high request and often book at 11 months. Previous nights are much easier to book for non resort owners and there may be a lot of people who booked them hoping to get into the race nights. There might be only one free room (or very limited availability) to be booked at 7 months and you're competing with anyone who has booked the preceding week. At 11 months I wouldn't call until day #7 to extend my stay, at 7 months I'd call daily.
Almost everyone who is competing will have to call at 9:00am so everyone is on the same grounds. But there's a chance of:
- an owner booking online between 8 to 9, but he had 4 months to book it, it's really sadism to wait 8:30 at 7 months
- someone booking a week online who wants to book nights #2 to #8 and nights #2 to #7 are still available.