Changing a Disney Vacation Club Resort reservation

[Bobump]

Situation:
Suppose in November you book with your points a 2br @ Boardwalk from Aug 1 to Aug 15. Because your whole family (7) are coming. Then in early May you find out family is only coming for 1 week. Thus you would only need th 2 br for 1 week and a Studio for the rest of the time. What happens to the extra points that you had applied to this vacation that you now do not need to use. Where do they go ? Do you lose them or do you just have them replaced in your account. I am a newbie and in past have stayed at Dolphin and just added or deleted rooms as needed. I have bought almost 500 points in the past 6 months resale.

Situatuion 2:
We go for New Years also and was wondering if you booked a larger room and then had to downsize because someone could not go, how hard is this to accomplish.


Situation 3:

Home resort is Boardwalk but you have set days for vacation, thus you want to insure you have a place. But would like to try another resort. How do you attempt this?

Thanks in Advance
To All Who Can Help

 

[manning]

In all situations you can cancel reservations without penalty (they go back into your account in the same status they were when you used them) more than 30 days from check-in. If you cancel 1-30 days from check-in the points used for the ressie goes into the "holding account". You have to use them before the end of your use year and can only make ressies no more than 60 days from arrival.

situation 2: It depends on availablity. You will have to cancel the ressie you have and rebook the smaller room.

Situation 3: You make ressie at the available resort and waitlist the resort you want. You are removed from the waitlist 7 days from requested check-in. After that I think you have to call day by day. You can have ressies at more than one resort if you have enough points. If you do, you can take the days at the desired resort as they become available. Otherwise you will have to cancel days at the standby resort as you book the desired resort.

Holding account: You can only book within 60 days of arrival and can book only at DVC resorts if you are booking within 60 days from the end of your use year.

Don't show up on check-in date you lose your points. Also if you leave early all the points used for the ressie are considered used.

 

[PamOKW]

Just a comment on wait list. It's true that the wait list ends at 7 days. But, you also have to call at the 30 day mark to let them know you want to stay on the wait list.

 

[Dean]

First, any change of unit size equates to a cancellation and rebooking. That means if there is no availability you will lose those days. Even if you have a lockoff, you can't just cancel one side because it's viewed as not fair to the other members. Of course if there is availability, no problem. If you do change a reservation and have points left over try to make sure the points you free up are bankable and do so if applicable. You can always cancel days off the beginning or end of a reservation. And while it's more tricky, you can usually cancel days in the middle as well. This covers both situation 1 and 2.

#3. Simply make the 11 month reservation at your home resort and at 7 months out try to change to your desired option. There are several ways to attempt this that I won't go into here. If there is no availability for some or all the days, you can go on the wait list, also with several options including accepting one day at a time or waiting to see if it all becomes available at once. The waitlist is actually wiped out at 30 days and restarted. As I understand it, you don't keep your place in line but a new line is formed. At 7 days no more wait list so call several times a day if need be and you can even check availability when you check in.