DVC 11month/7month question

[jtwibih]

Hello

We are looking at buying a resale contract hopefully by the end of the year and I have a quick question about the booking window. I know that we should buy at a resort that we are willing to stay every time in case availability is non-existant at other resorts. However I wanted to know if it is possible to reserve a week at the 11 month window at my home resort and then check availability at another at the 7 month window. Can I cancel my original reservation and book the new one at that point?

Thanks

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Yes you can. Disney does not have any penalty or charge for doing that until you reach 30 days before check in when holding restrictions could start kicking in. At that time if point requirements were not equal but were less for what you wanted to switch to then the extra points would go into holding but you still would not lose them.

At busy DVC times you can run the risk of canceling your home resort reservation and in the time you try and book the new one both could potentially be taken and you end up with neither and looking for something else. The good thing is that at most times of the year the largest resort (SSR) will have availability to fall back on but it's all still a risk to keep in mind.

 

[sleepydog25]

Yes you can. Disney does not have any penalty or charge for doing that until you reach 30 days before check in when holding restrictions could start kicking in. At that time if point requirements were not equal but were less for what you wanted to switch to then the extra points would go into holding but you still would not lose them.

At busy DVC times you can run the risk of canceling your home resort reservation and in the time you try and book the new one both could potentially be taken and you end up with neither and looking for something else. The good thing is that at most times of the year the largest resort (SSR) will have availability to fall back on but it's all still a risk to keep in mind.

What Kathy said. She implied but didn't directly state how the process works. In order to book your 7-month reservation, you first have to cancel the 11-month one. Though that works in the far majority of cases, you will find stories of those who attempted the switch only to lose both. When we want a resort at 7 months and it's not available, we go on a waitlist. We've had good success with waitlisting, and you don't run the risk of losing your original stay.

 

[Dean]

What Kathy said. She implied but didn't directly state how the process works. In order to book your 7-month reservation, you first have to cancel the 11-month one. Though that works in the far majority of cases, you will find stories of those who attempted the switch only to lose both. When we want a resort at 7 months and it's not available, we go on a waitlist. We've had good success with waitlisting, and you don't run the risk of losing your original stay.

One approach to having points at a single resort (? cheaper resort) is to have enough points to book both the home resort and reserve/wait list any new options separately. There could be downsides in terms of costs but it really only takes maybe an extra 10-20% points to use this method and if one buys in with a loaded contract, it may be no more points at all.

 

[jtwibih]

One approach to having points at a single resort (? cheaper resort) is to have enough points to book both the home resort and reserve/wait list any new options separately. There could be downsides in terms of costs but it really only takes maybe an extra 10-20% points to use this method and if one buys in with a loaded contract, it may be no more points at all.

So are you saying that if I want to do the wait list option, I would need to have enough points to book both?

 

[paults]

If you do a WL just tell MS to use pts from your first ressie for your second, if you need more tell them what to use, if you have any left over from the switch just do what you can with them. ((bank if able) or use for another ressie.

 

[Dean]

So are you saying that if I want to do the wait list option, I would need to have enough points to book both?

No, but I am saying it gives you more options and more chances of success. Lets say you're booked at SSR for 7 nights and want BWV but only 6 nights are available at BWV. If you only have enough points for the single reservation and WL, your chances of success are fairly low. ALL 7 nights have to both be available at one time AND make it to matching on the WL. Since it's well documented that people often see things online they are wait listed for, the chances of all 7 nights surviving a few hours until the WL is worked is not great. However, lets say you had more points to put in play for that time, even if they weren't extra but weren't in use at the time. Then you would have additional options that would improve your chances of long term success. Maybe only 3 nights are available now or even 1 or several nights but with skips in between, you could keep the SSR options AND book the isolated BWV nights then just wait listing a day or 2 rather than the entire 7 night reservation. This option also works when you have a high demand contract and a lower demand contract by booking the high demand at 11 months then booking any days available at 7 months with the cheaper contract. You might get what you want with the simple option and not with this options but I'd put your chances of success with this method over just wait listing 7 nights as somewhere around 100 times more likely to yield a complete reservation (rough guess).

The amount of points needed and the economics involved vary greatly. For a single trip per year that's always the same unit size and length, it could require around double the points and likely not be worth it unless one were anticipating needed more points down the line. If one could get ahead on points roughly a year with say a loaded contract up front or varying needs different years, it really might not require any extra points or very few using banking and reallocating. I would try to avoid using this method with much borrowing though. Certainly DVC could change the rules in such a way that would impact this option somewhat so one would need to consider that. My view is that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and that would have impact on this approach as would cancelation fees.

 

[CarolMN]

....(snip)....... My view is that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and that would have impact on this approach as would cancelation fees.

Apologize for taking this a bit off topic.

IMO, canceling and rebooking would have little adverse effect on losing the original reservation (and ending up with nothing) unless the waitlist process is changed to one that checks each cancellation against the waitlists in real time. I don't see any appetite on DVC's part to changing the waitlist process as it currently exists.

FWIW, I think the possibility of losing an existing reservation when MS completes a cancel/rebook or modification transaction to be very low (virtually zero). I haven't read of it happening for quite a long time. For online booking, it probably does happen enough to be a concern for the more popular times & booking categories.

 

[Dean]

Apologize for taking this a bit off topic.

IMO, canceling and rebooking would have little adverse effect on losing the original reservation (and ending up with nothing) unless the waitlist process is changed to one that checks each cancellation against the waitlists in real time. I don't see any appetite on DVC's part to changing the waitlist process as it currently exists.

FWIW, I think the possibility of losing an existing reservation when MS completes a cancel/rebook or modification transaction to be very low (virtually zero). I haven't read of it happening for quite a long time. For online booking, it probably does happen enough to be a concern for the more popular times & booking categories.

Specific to this discussion, a number of people have reported losing a reservation during the rebooking process, however, I was simply pointing out that there are a number of things that could change that could affect the options I mentioned. Specific to the quote, there's both the real and perceived risk. For example, if you wanted to cancel a day, I feel one should have to cancel and rebook. DVC has changed the WL in the past and it's likely they will again in the future, it's simply the nature of such systems.