CAN WE change from 2 bed to 1 bed villa?

[emmamc252]

My sister and her partner are now unlikely to be able to come on our vacation in november.
Does anyone know if we will be able to phone up and change our 2 bedroom villa at AKL to a 1 bedroom. I know the apartemnts are basically "lock offs" so this would just mean disney had a studio spare, but would they let us do this??

I phoned before to ask if there was any availability for an extra few nights before our original date ANYWHERE and there was only 1 night here or there, just no availability! said we could go on a wait list.
But this now has me worried that they won't let us just change toa 1 bedroom apartment.
We all contribute to the cost of the points, with my sisters "contribution" now missing it would mean an extra cost of about £400 for my husband and I which we would struggle to afford, especially when its for nothing. My sisters insurance will cover any "accomodation costs of hers" but not sure how this would work if we are still using the apartment? Don't know how it works with a timeshare anyway. (they aren't coming because her dad (not mine we are half sisters) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, we all have annual trip insurance so it shouldn't be a problem for her to claim, but just don't know how it works when some of us are still going, will she still get her portion of the accomodation costs back or how does this work???

confused and now worried too!!!1

 

[DVCconvert]

But this now has me worried that they won't let us just change toa 1 bedroom apartment.


You don't say how you're booked (DVC points or cash) but...I would not worry about this, but make the call and change now - or as soon as you know you won't need the extra room. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

[emmamc252]

we paid with my mums \dvc points, 328 points used. she has borrowed some from next year, and used all of this years, if we change to a 1 bed will she loose all of these?
thats why we were going to make it longer but no availability, living in the uk we arent able to go twice a year and our use year ends in febuary

 

[DVCconvert]

we paid with my mums \dvc points, 328 points used. she has borrowed some from next year, and used all of this years, if we change to a 1 bed will she loose all of these?

The borrowed points can't be returned to their orginal use year, but if you need a smaller room and can't extend your stay - you maybe able to pay for this stay using the borrowed points first - then if there are leftover points from the current use year, they could be banked into next year.

if your UY is Feb you'd need to make this change before the end of this month to avoid the 4 month mark.

 

[icydog]

we paid with my mums \dvc points, 328 points used. she has borrowed some from next year, and used all of this years, if we change to a 1 bed will she loose all of these?
thats why we were going to make it longer but no availability, living in the uk we arent able to go twice a year and our use year ends in febuary

If your reservation is for next March or later and you used 2012 points you are fine. But I suspecting this is not the case. Disney is pretty forgiving. If the cast member who answers the phone can't do it ask for a manager to call you back. If you offer to send a letter from the doctor explaining the circumstances they'll probaly let you slide. You only have until the end of Sept to bank those points so waste no time. Call today! Good luck. I hope everything works out for you, your sister and your mom..

 

[bobbiwoz]

It's not that easy, they won't just let you drop off the studio portion. The sooner you decide the better and get on a waitlist for a 1 bedroom anywhere.

What can be done, depending on use year, is that the borrowed points can be used for the 1 bedroom, and if there is still time to bank, the current use year points can be banked. If not possible, then all I can think of your DM doing is to try to rent those points for a new reservation.

Are these points in a March UY?

March UY has Oct. 31 banking deadline
February UY has a Sept. 30 banking deadline

 

[Deb & Bill]

You are pretty much stuck with the two bedroom villa. No availability means no availability. You booked a two bedroom villa, not a one bedroom and studio.

If you borrowed points, those will expire at the end of February (or January depending on your Use Year) unless you use them. You have until the end of October to bank the current year points if you cancel the reservation with the understanding that you have a March UY. Otherswise you have a few more days this month to bank them or they will all expire at the end of January (with a February use year).

The only way your sister is going to get any of her money back is to cancel the reservation totally. Not just her part of it which you can't do anyway.

 

[Dean]

My sister and her partner are now unlikely to be able to come on our vacation in november.
Does anyone know if we will be able to phone up and change our 2 bedroom villa at AKL to a 1 bedroom. I know the apartemnts are basically "lock offs" so this would just mean disney had a studio spare, but would they let us do this??

I phoned before to ask if there was any availability for an extra few nights before our original date ANYWHERE and there was only 1 night here or there, just no availability! said we could go on a wait list.
But this now has me worried that they won't let us just change toa 1 bedroom apartment.
We all contribute to the cost of the points, with my sisters "contribution" now missing it would mean an extra cost of about £400 for my husband and I which we would struggle to afford, especially when its for nothing. My sisters insurance will cover any "accomodation costs of hers" but not sure how this would work if we are still using the apartment? Don't know how it works with a timeshare anyway. (they aren't coming because her dad (not mine we are half sisters) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, we all have annual trip insurance so it shouldn't be a problem for her to claim, but just don't know how it works when some of us are still going, will she still get her portion of the accomodation costs back or how does this work???

confused and now worried too!!!1

It'd be a cancelation and rebooking. You can't separate off a portion even if you have a lockoff booked.

 

[dzorn]

It'd be a cancelation and rebooking. You can't separate off a portion even if you have a lockoff booked.

I was able to do just that for a trip we had during presidents week a few year ago. We had a two bed lock off and MS modified it to a 1 bed.

I was pretty new to DVC then and when I called they said no, but I e-mailed and explained I did not understand the reasoning behind the policy.

If I kept my 2 bed it would not change the wait list for the 1-bedroom at all since I was willing to keep it. But if they let me change to a 1 bedroom it would make someone on the studio wait list very happy.

I'm going with it was pixie dust for me and someone who go their studio waitlist.

Denise in MI

 

[Deb & Bill]

I was able to do just that for a trip we had during presidents week a few year ago. We had a two bed lock off and MS modified it to a 1 bed.

I was pretty new to DVC then and when I called they said no, but I e-mailed and explained I did not understand the reasoning behind the policy.

If I kept my 2 bed it would not change the wait list for the 1-bedroom at all since I was willing to keep it. But if they let me change to a 1 bedroom it would make someone on the studio wait list very happy.

I'm going with it was pixie dust for me and someone who go their studio waitlist.

Denise in MI

You were extremely lucky. And what they did wasn't really fair to anyone on the waitlist for a two bedroom villa. Or a one bedroom villa for that matter.

But when was DVC ever fair???

 

[Peggy Sue]

Although not documented, DVC member services usually extends 1 change outside of the rules per membership. We had a similar situation back in 1998 where I had to cancel our entire reservation outside of our banking window due to an illness. MS allowed us to cancel and bank the points into the next use year. We were advised this was a 1 time only assist outside of the system rules. I think if you state your case and then ask if a supervisor can help you they might extend this option to you. DVC was much smaller when back in 1998 and I don't know if they still do this, but I have seen many posts from fellow DVC members acknowledging that they also had a 1 time change outside of the DVC rules.

As for trip insurance, it doesn't hurt to contact the insurance company and advise how room costs were being split between the two families. Given that you are using points, I don't know if the insurance company would recognize a "per point" value ..but again, if you don't ask, you'll never know. I'm sure travel insurance has many instances where they are working with claims that include a time share for the room and perhaps they have some rules already in place for dealing with these types of canceled reservations.

Good luck, hope thinks work out for you.

 

[Dean]

I was able to do just that for a trip we had during presidents week a few year ago. We had a two bed lock off and MS modified it to a 1 bed.

I was pretty new to DVC then and when I called they said no, but I e-mailed and explained I did not understand the reasoning behind the policy.

If I kept my 2 bed it would not change the wait list for the 1-bedroom at all since I was willing to keep it. But if they let me change to a 1 bedroom it would make someone on the studio wait list very happy.

I'm going with it was pixie dust for me and someone who go their studio waitlist.

Denise in MI

It's likely around the time of your email that they had a 1 BR available.

 

[dzorn]

It's likely around the time of your email that they had a 1 BR available.

Nope they mentioned it in the e-mail. Specifically said since I had a lock off they were able to modify it to a 1-bedroom. If I had had a dedicated it would not have been possible.

Still going with pixie dust for the fairly new member. I really had no change on the wait list as I was willing to keep the 2 bedroom so neither the 2 bed wait list would have changed or the 1-bed wait list would have changed if I kept the 2 bed room.

Densie in MI

 

[msabol01]

I recently had a 2 bedroom lockout and was able to drop the studio despite there being no 1 bedroom availability. I do feel a bit guilty now since I wasn't aware that was not within the rules. I simply asked if I could change to a 1 bdrm and was told there was no availability and asked if can't you just remove the lockout studio to which the cm said,"oh yeah I will just do that."

So now I am thinking I unintentionally took advantage of a cm who didn't know the rules.

 

[Dean]

Nope they mentioned it in the e-mail. Specifically said since I had a lock off they were able to modify it to a 1-bedroom. If I had had a dedicated it would not have been possible.

Still going with pixie dust for the fairly new member. I really had no change on the wait list as I was willing to keep the 2 bedroom so neither the 2 bed wait list would have changed or the 1-bed wait list would have changed if I kept the 2 bed room.

Densie in MI

This was outside policy so if that's the case,you did get lucky.

 

[emmamc252]

Hi!!!
Just wanted to give an update.
we phoned this morning and the CM said NO you cannot split a 2 bedroom into a 1 and a studio and just keep the studio. Had like no availability anywhere so we were gutted.
She put us on the wait list for a studio somewhere else but we left the 2 bed at AKL "just incase."

Rang and told my mum and she said theres no point keeping the 2bed because we won't use all those points, she would rather bank the ones she can to next year and either claim off the insurance for the rest or sell them if we can't get in.

SO I phoned back, and said we would like to cancel our reservation and bank the points we could until next year,
cast member asked why so I explained, said we assumed we could split down to a 1 bed and a studio but apparently not,
she says, "can you hold for 1 minute mam?"

erm yes I can!!!

comes back on, "thats no problem Mam, we can let you have the studio, that will be 126 points."

errrr thanks!!!

literally less than an hour apart!!! you would think they had a set policy but apprently not!!!

 

[Chuck S]

You were very lucky, it is very much against policy.

 

[Sammie]

It is always possible that as Dean stated earlier that a cancellation occurred so that a studio opened up.