December UY Challenge

[Coastie]

The last couple of years, it’s been difficult at best to make reservations at our home resort, Boulder Ridge for weeks 1 and 2 of December. Since our UY is December, at the 11 month window, we can’t make any reservation till December 1. Exactly at 0800, I tried to make a reservation for a 2-bdrm for 7 nights and December 1st was not available. I tried again this AM 0800 for December 2, the same result. Just for “data collection” I also tried Copper Creek, same result. It seems people with non-December UY have a slight advantage for December reservations. Just a hunch, I have to wonder if those with reservations are changing daily to add a day…? Any December UY families have similar issues? Any advice from the experts?

 

[bbeagle]

Yes, it looks like you're being foiled by walkers.

With walking, it seems like you would want a use-year 2 months before the earliest you travel. An October use year would be much more advantageous than a December use year in this case.

The only way around this I see until Disney does something about walking:
1) Get a smaller contract with an October use year. One that has enough points for a week in late November. And use that to walk.
2) If you have enough points, borrow enough to walk. Those will be stuck in the previous use year. Then plan to take a vacation at sometime before December with them. Or you have almost a year to try to sell them.
3) Keep watching. Maybe one of those walkers is looking for something later like Christmas week. March right behind them.

We have a December use year, and we have the same problems.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Ive never tried these 2 resorts in Dec w/ my Dec UY. I would be very interested to see if this is the case.

 

[Sandisw]

One of my UYs is December and I use it for my RIV and VGF bookings.

I am fortunate that each of these has more than one view so I am able to get what I want and waitlist or stalk for the less expensive views.

But, BRV and CCV are the most popular in December and it’s tough to get rooms there, and of course, having to wait for Dec 1st doesn’t help.

Hopefully, can use waitlisting and stalking to get them!

 

[juliebee]

I have a December Use Year at Boulder Ridge.... and I feel your pain. It's been the same for me. Extremely popular time of year and the best resort for December, so it becomes cutthroat. Basically your options are to walk a reservation into December or be super lucky to pick up a reservation as the walkers drop early December dates for later December date.

So my advice is to act like grabbing dates is your new job. Go on the website constantly (a couple times an hour) these days looking for December openings and grab single days. You can string them together with member services later.
Or for Dec 2027 read-
https://www.disboards.com/threads/please-explain-walking-like-i-am-5-years-old.3976999/

 

[dez1978]

I am confused. Do you have to wait till your points hit your account for the uy before you can book? We have a Dec UY but travel in Nov generally and I have never run into this problem. But maybe it's because I am not trying to make reservations prior to Dec 1?

 

[zackiedawg]

Definitely sounds like walkers. I just booked my Dec 2 stay at Boardwalk (my home resort) for 12/2/26 - 12/7/26 - my plan was to save some points and go with a Resort view which I rarely do, but I'm staying 1 night longer than I usually do and figured the point savings would be nice - of course despite starting first thing in the morning, Resort view was all gone. Boardwalk doesn't have too many resort views, and walking will usually eat them up that time of year. I then decided to go for Boardwalk view, but they too were gone (3 out of the 5 nights were available) - so I just grabbed the usual Garden/Pool view which is fine.

I don't do the 'walking' thing myself, so I figure the likelihood I'll ever get a resort view at Boardwalk at the 11 month mark for December is about 0.

 

[CarolynFH]

I am confused. Do you have to wait till your points hit your account for the uy before you can book? We have a Dec UY but travel in Nov generally and I have never run into this problem. But maybe it's because I am not trying to make reservations prior to Dec 1?

If they want to use December 2026 UY points to book December 1, 2026, yes, they have to wait for the start of their UY which just happens to be the 11 month date for their desired check-in date.

When you booked for November 2026, did you use December 2025 UY points, or did you borrow December 2026 points?

 

[bbeagle]

I am confused. Do you have to wait till your points hit your account for the uy before you can book? We have a Dec UY but travel in Nov generally and I have never run into this problem. But maybe it's because I am not trying to make reservations prior to Dec 1?

For a December use year, you just received December 2025 points a month ago.... but you can use 2026 and 2027 right now.

You can use December 2026 and borrow December 2027 points as early as NOW if you're booking for December 2, 2026.

It's not the date that you make the reservation, it's the day you actually USE the reservation - that's when the points need to be available.

For example,

You make a reservation for July 4-10, 2026. What use year is that in? December 2025. So you can bank December 2024 points, use December 2025 points and borrow December 2026 points.

You make a reservation for December 2-8, 2026. What use year is that in? December 2026. So you can bank December 2025 points, use December 2026 points and borrow December 2027 points.

You can reserve both of these reservations TODAY. But where the points come from is different.

 

[Maleficent's Dad]

I feel your pain. We've gotten into the habit of going in early December now that no one is in school in our family.
One of our home resorts is the BWV. At 11 months out, at exactly 8 A.M., we try booking a 2 BR. We can always get a "pool view."
That's about it. The resort view category, by far the cheapest point-wise, is never available. The Boardwalk view is rarely available. It's extremely frustrating as I'm confident that people are walking their ressies.

I'd really like it if DVC cracked down on "walkers." Especially the commercial rental folks. But all walking sucks, IMO. It shuts out those who follow the rules. (And yes, I know that someone will come on here and say that walkers aren't technically breaking any rules, but the reality is that they are booking dates that they have no intention of keeping.)

 

[Sandisw]

I am confused. Do you have to wait till your points hit your account for the uy before you can book? We have a Dec UY but travel in Nov generally and I have never run into this problem. But maybe it's because I am not trying to make reservations prior to Dec 1?

They only need to do that so they are not trying to walk over the UY.

It becomes an issue and requires MS to help. So, if you don’t want to deal with that, you need to wait until you can book Dec 1st so you can do it all online.

 

[marmentrout85]

December UY here. Kind of in the same boat, trying to book a split-stay at VGF and BCV, and yes I feel the frustration.

I told myself I will never do this again, but last year I began a walk at the end of November as I heard availability would be an issue in early December at both resorts (was our first time trying to book in December). I guess you could say I "walked" across UYs, in which I had to call MS in order to have a reservation crossing UYs (Nov 29th-Dec 3rd). I had MS simultaneously bank 2024 points into my December 2025 UY to make sure those ('24) points were used for the reservation. Then, once I wanted to move my reservation forward (completely) into December, I called MS to do this once again, banking even more '24 points into December 2025 UY in order to use those 2024 banked pts on the reservation.

All this to say, I WAS successful, BUT it ended up being quite the issue later on....

A few months down the line we ended up changing our GF reservation down to 3 nights instead of 4, and that screwed up our entire points allocation. The system returned a lot of points back into our 2024 UY (even though I already had banked them all) and it was a whole debacle in which I spent around 10 hours on the phone with MS over a series of like 8 calls in order to get the whole thing fixed. I was basically told I probably wouldn't have had the whole issue had I not began that reservation in November and moved it into December.

The hassle wasn't worth it to even try that again for this upcoming year, so as of now I have GF preferred view resort studio booked for this coming December and a 1BR at BCV, and I'm ok with overspending on points a bit compared to what I went through this past year. I have learned my lesson lol.

 

[Coastie]

December UY here. Kind of in the same boat, trying to book a split-stay at VGF and BCV, and yes I feel the frustration.

I told myself I will never do this again, but last year I began a walk at the end of November as I heard availability would be an issue in early December at both resorts (was our first time trying to book in December). I guess you could say I "walked" across UYs, in which I had to call MS in order to have a reservation crossing UYs (Nov 29th-Dec 3rd). I had MS simultaneously bank 2024 points into my December 2025 UY to make sure those ('24) points were used for the reservation. Then, once I wanted to move my reservation forward (completely) into December, I called MS to do this once again, banking even more '24 points into December 2025 UY in order to use those 2024 banked pts on the reservation.

All this to say, I WAS successful, BUT it ended up being quite the issue later on....

A few months down the line we ended up changing our GF reservation down to 3 nights instead of 4, and that screwed up our entire points allocation. The system returned a lot of points back into our 2024 UY (even though I already had banked them all) and it was a whole debacle in which I spent around 10 hours on the phone with MS over a series of like 8 calls in order to get the whole thing fixed. I was basically told I probably wouldn't have had the whole issue had I not began that reservation in November and moved it into December.

The hassle wasn't worth it to even try that again for this upcoming year, so as of now I have GF preferred view resort studio booked for this coming December and a 1BR at BCV, and I'm ok with overspending on points a bit compared to what I went through this past year. I have learned my lesson lol.

Oh-yes, we can relate... we did the same a couple of years earlier and will never do again because of the UY cross-over and issues with banking points. In the end, it did work out, but what a pain!!

 

[mikeuno]

Oh my! we have Dec UY and this now makes sense

 

[mkatsy]

The last couple of years, it’s been difficult at best to make reservations at our home resort, Boulder Ridge for weeks 1 and 2 of December. Since our UY is December, at the 11 month window, we can’t make any reservation till December 1. Exactly at 0800, I tried to make a reservation for a 2-bdrm for 7 nights and December 1st was not available. I tried again this AM 0800 for December 2, the same result. Just for “data collection” I also tried Copper Creek, same result. It seems people with non-December UY have a slight advantage for December reservations. Just a hunch, I have to wonder if those with reservations are changing daily to add a day…? Any December UY families have similar issues? Any advice from the experts?

I have a December UY and bought my BRV in an April UY because we intend to use those points exclusively in November, and I was worried that if we ever had to cancel the points would expire.

 

[Coastie]

We bought back in 2001 and didn't give it a second thought about the December UY. Further, when we joined, there were less than 60K members, while now, a bit of a swag, I think surpassing 250K. It also doesn't help that Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek are THE place to stay during Christmas.

 

[Maleficent's Dad]

We bought back in 2001 and didn't give it a second thought about the December UY. Further, when we joined, there were less than 60K members, while now, a bit of a swag, I think surpassing 250K. It also doesn't help that Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek are THE place to stay during Christmas.

We bought just before you, but have a March UY. Like you've stated, the Wilderness Lodge (both places) is (are) really popular for Christmas, obviously. Reminds me of the BCV and BWV for the F&W Festival. Don't know about your experiences, but when we first bought, we were able to book almost any resort at the 7 month mark. And last minute stays? Not usually a problem. Of course there were fewer resorts back then. And home resorts at 11 months? Anything you wanted was available. DVC was, once upon a time, a very convenient luxury. You didn't have to worry too much about anything. Now it seems, the times have caught up with DVC - and certain people have figured out ways to manipulate the system, if not maximize their profits. Walkers. Renters. Whatever. It's definitely not the same as when we bought. Oh don't get me wrong, we still enjoy the heck out of it. It just takes a lot more work and planning than ever before.

 

[Willow Ufgood]

We inherited a December UY. Mom bought it because she envisioned the family traveling during the first couple of weeks of December. It made sense to travel early in the UY. In case of a cancelation she would have a would have an entire year to use the points.

The first two weeks of December have unfortunately become so difficult to book at BWV. We've reached a point where we have altered our plans to start in November and go into December. That involves contacting member services every time to add the December days.

Walking isn't always an ideal answer for this situation. Banked/borrowed points in the 2024 UY can't be used for the December nights. Current 2024 points have to be banked before the December nights are booked. It takes a lot of thinking to manage a December UY. Our "current" points are for 2025! In a perfect world, we would have a September or October UY. But we work with what we have.

 

[Maleficent's Dad]

@Willow Ufgood , I feel your pain about early December at the Boardwalk. It's so unfair, IMO. We're seasoned veterans with DVC, and since 2000 (at least), early December is ridiculous - at 11 months out! Your December UY makes it even more challenging, unfortunately. I never really thought of the UY being such a detriment before this thread.

We're booked for November 30 - December 7, 2026 at the Boardwalk right now, So I guess I can't complain about too much - in the overall picture, life is good!