chances???

[Dean]

In fact can someone give me a good idea of a use year when you know you will travel in the summer. We are thinking April Use Year. That way if we have to cancel summer plans we can bank or move to the winter/spring dates. Our Deadline will be Nov 30th right? If for some reason we book for Dec and have to cancel I know my kids will always have extended days off in Feb. So we can always fit in a trip in Feb. Does this sound reasonable?

June is best for summer but April is good as well.

 

[Cmbar]

You can't book a non-DVC stay during the last four months. You can book it during the first eight months of your UY for anytime during the UY. That includes anything non-DVC. So if you are in the last four months of your UY (too late to bank anything) you'll either have to book a DVC stay or lose your points.

It may be hard to get a reservation in Nov for February. But if you cancel far enough out, you might be able to get that Feb reservation.

Oh I have a headache

Basically you are telling me that the last four months of my use year are useless!! Since I would have to bank and therefore definitely could not go in the last four months or I would be at the mercy of whether there is any availability in the last four months at a DVC resort as I will not be able to book at say Port Orleans with my points. And you also are telling me that February, (who wants to go to Disney in Feb?) is crowded for DVC. Is there ever a time that is not crowded for DVC??? Any months???

I am starting to think renting on the DVC boards is the better way to go since to me it is obvious that the Renting is the reason everything is crowded. Everyone blames it on SSR, but I tell you three years ago, very few people rented. I kinda hope the spreading out of the points helps to even out the reservations and maybe renting wont be such a good deal. I bet in years past, people either lost or banked their points for better trips the following years. Sorry to sound so negative, but I can't help it. The more I learn the more discouraged I get.

Again.... Headache

 

[Starr W.]

Deb & Bill, Does this mean you can't stay at a non-DVC resort during that last four months of your use year or only that you have to book a non DVC resort by that time. So basically your banking deadline is the same as your deadline to book outside of DVC. Does that include booking a Cruise or trading out to RCI or just the Disney non-dvc resorts?? Thanks

Wow there is a lot more rules than I thought. This is staring to get difficult. My DH will be ticked if we buy this and have to loose our points each year if we have to change up plan. For us Use year will be important.

In fact can someone give me a good idea of a use year when you know you will travel in the summer. We are thinking April Use Year. That way if we have to cancel summer plans we can bank or move to the winter/spring dates. Our Deadline will be Nov 30th right? If for some reason we book for Dec and have to cancel I know my kids will always have extended days off in Feb. So we can always fit in a trip in Feb. Does this sound reasonable?

Actually DVC is pretty easy for a point system compared to some of the others out there.

We have an Oct UY, which works well as we go at Thanksgiving/MLK weekend/and Easter with our Vero Beach points. My banking deadline in in May, so it works out well for us.

Our guide suggested that for our schedule(darn kids and school) that an Oct UY would work well for us, since our main use of points is Thanksgiving.

You need to be able to plan to make DVC work, our guide told us if you can only really plan 7 months out DVC might not be for you. And this was 3 yrs ago before AKV/BLT and SSR sold out.

 

[circhead]

The only time I have had trouble getting reservations is for F&W. I even got Christmas week 1 year less than a month ahead.
Mostly there are rooms available for DVC members just not always at your home resort. My home resort is VWL but I prefer BCV and I usually have luck getting a room there. Of course I live in the northeast and try to plan my trips when the south is in school, my kids are all grown now so it's mostly adult trips. Yeh!

 

[tjkraz]

I'm not convinced things will continue to get worse in terms of booking non-Home resorts.

SSR has been fully built-out for nearly 2 years now (June or July '07) and I really haven't seen any evidence that owners there were pulled strongly to their Home resort in the early years of ownership. Many people seemed ready and willing to book elsewhere with their very first reservation. (We actually couldn't get SSR for our first stay and had to do BWV Preferred instead. )

Throughout much of 2007 and 2008 DVC was marketing Developer's Points (and double Developer's Points) which could be used at any resort. That was making the 7 month competition even worse for a good 12-18 month period.

The waitlist changes may also help. With DVC eliminating the ability for folks to get on the waitlist for a dozen different resort/room class combinations, it should increase the overall odds of success.

And then there's the reallocation which can only help bookings. If we agree that the reallocation was at least partially motivated by too many people using points for weekday stays, come 2010 some people will find their points don't go as far as they used to and/or overall patterns will immediately begin to change (shifting more members to the currently under-utilized weekends, which opens up more weekdays.)

If we want to label SSR and OKW as the least-desired DVCs, as of 2007 those two represented about 65% of all DVC rooms at Walt Disney World. By the end of this year when AKV and BLT are open, SSR and OKW will be down to 45% of all rooms at WDW.

We Internet folk have already been privy to all of the booking tricks and secrets for years. Not much room for our patterns to change.

Other members would have to make independent changes to their booking habits--in great numbers--in order for all of us to begin to feel the impact. This is hardly scientific but whenever I speak to other members during our stays, they rarely voice any booking frustration which suggests they are inclined to alter past practices. They aren't racing to the phone at 9am exactly 11 months out or "walking" reservations or booking their Home at 11 and switching at 7 mos. They simply call when plans are finalized and the most appealing option available. Go figure!

 

[Dean]

I'm not convinced things will continue to get worse in terms of booking non-Home resorts.

SSR has been fully built-out for nearly 2 years now (June or July '07) and I really haven't seen any evidence that owners there were pulled strongly to their Home resort in the early years of ownership. Many people seemed ready and willing to book elsewhere with their very first reservation. (We actually couldn't get SSR for our first stay and had to do BWV Preferred instead. )

To a degree. While it's been built, it's not been sold out so it's the points, not the buildings. And I'd agree that as a group SSR owners do not seem to have been as tied to their resort as some would like to think, I do feel there has been a significant group that wanted to stay there early in their ownership as well as the fact that SSR was about all that was available for their first reservation. The point was it's gotten worse and will likely cont to do so for about another 2-3 years. No doubt it's already gotten significantly more difficult to reserve at 7 months than it was 3 or 4 years ago and even 2 years ago.

 

[jamie&Greg]

TJKraz - Awesome point!! What I was thinking but couldn't say!