changing reservations

[LadyLuck24]

I just purchased a BWV resale contract and I'm waiting for my membership number. It's been 10 days since I closed, so I was planning to call Monday to see if I have the points in my account yet. I'm interested to see what the member website looks like and getting to learn the ins and out of the system.

We are planning our first DVC stay next August but weren't going to stay at BWV. We are going to try to get a BCV 1BR at the 7 month mark.

1) Do you tend to book your home resort so you're guaranteed of at least having a reservation, then changing it at the 7 month mark? Or do you just wait til 7 months and try to book where you want to stay?

2) If you do book at your home resort then switch, what are the logistics of that? Do you have to drop the whole original reservation first before you can look and see availability at the place you want to stay? Do you make the reservation day-by-day, where you drop a day at your home reservation and replace it with the desired place?

 

[Ben E N]

I am also new to the system, but here is what my plan is:
1. Book at home resort at 11 months, careful to not borrow extra points that i may not need when switching resorts. Home resort is BLT, so 7 days there is equal to about 8 days at a place like BCC.

2. At 7 months, check for availability elsewhere. Use 2 browser method to switch the whole reservation over. If it is over 7 days long, only cancel the first 7 at BLT upfront. Move the other days as they become available, or be ok with splitting the reservation if necessary.

If anyone with more experience finds a flaw in this approach, I would also appreciate the feedback.

 

[rcchello]

I am a member from when there was only one resort. What I do is check the availability thread and see if there will be a resort available at the 7 month point that I like and, if there is, I just wait for the 7 month point. That way there is no hassle and no fuss. The more resorts you are willing to stay at the more likely this approach works.

If the availability thread says nothing available or very thin availability, I will make a reservation at my home resort and then look at availability as the 7 month point approaches.

 

[Marionnette]

I just purchased a BWV resale contract and I'm waiting for my membership number. It's been 10 days since I closed, so I was planning to call Monday to see if I have the points in my account yet. I'm interested to see what the member website looks like and getting to learn the ins and out of the system.

We are planning our first DVC stay next August but weren't going to stay at BWV. We are going to try to get a BCV 1BR at the 7 month mark.

1) Do you tend to book your home resort so you're guaranteed of at least having a reservation, then changing it at the 7 month mark? Or do you just wait til 7 months and try to book where you want to stay?

2) If you do book at your home resort then switch, what are the logistics of that? Do you have to drop the whole original reservation first before you can look and see availability at the place you want to stay? Do you make the reservation day-by-day, where you drop a day at your home reservation and replace it with the desired place?

Welcome Home (well.. almost there)!

I've always booked my home resort first and then IF I want to make a change at 7 months, I start to check availability on the website about a week prior to the start of my 7-month booking window. If there are already holes in availability during the week that I want, I know that being online at 8 AM at the 7-month mark will be futile. Depending on how much I really want to try the other resort, I will set up a wait list at 7 months for the 1 or 2 nights at a time and then call MS to modify the reservation at my home resort if the wait list(s) come through. Of course, that requires having enough points available to hold two concurrent reservations!

If there is availability, I use the two-browser method (use the search function to find a description of the process) and I cancel the reservation at my home resort while booking the new resort.

FWIW, BWV is also one of my home resorts and I love it there! BCV has SAB going for it, but none of the BCV villas can beat the boardwalk view, IMO. I would not be disappointed if I could not stay at another resort.