DVC booking question

[rance]

Hi
Thinking of buying in, but had a question.
If you make a booking at your home resort say 10 months out and then decide to switch to another resort say 6 months out are there any penalties, fees or restrictions to doing this?
Or are you locked inonce you confirm your reservation.

Thanks

 

[arthur06]

No fees or penalties...

 

[CleoPahd]

You can absolutely do this. We just did. Our home resort is Saratoga Springs, but we really wanted to try out the new Bay Lake Tower. We booked at 11 months out to make certain we had a room for our upcoming trip. Then at the 7 month window we switched to Bay Lake. From what I've read on here, lots of people do this all the time.

 

[rance]

great thanks. also is bcv hard to book a studio at 7 months out.we like to travel end of oct. and wondering if i should make that home resort.

 

[erionm]

great thanks. also is bcv hard to book a studio at 7 months out.we like to travel end of oct. and wondering if i should make that home resort.

The part of Oct is during the Food & Wine Festival which could affect availability. Many members have BCV or BWV as home resorts just to be able to book at 11 months for the Food & Wine Festival.

 

[disneynutz]

Availability is a mixed bag at 7 months and under. That's why it's important to buy where you love to stay.

Everything is subject to change with Disney. At one time there wasn't a Food and Wine or Flower and Garden, and those periods at Disney were really slow.

Bill

 

[Sandisw]

great thanks. also is bcv hard to book a studio at 7 months out.we like to travel end of oct. and wondering if i should make that home resort.

From everything that I have read here on the boards (no actual experience), that time of year can be difficult for BCV. If that is where you really want to be during those trips, then I would buy in at BCV.

Now, we are going end of July/beginning of August. We booked our home resort at BLT and at 7 months, was able to get 2 nights switched to a BCV studio. A month later, I wanted to add a 3rd night, and that was also possible.

 

[CarolAnnC]

BCV can be difficult to get into at 7 months for most times of the year. It is one of the smaller DVC resorts, and the proximity to Epcot and DHS is very desirable.

That combined with Food and Wine at Epcot makes the fall very difficult. Also, many like to stay there for the Stormalong Bay access, which is only available to those DVC'ers staying at BCV.

These are the main reasons why I purchased an add on at BCV when the points were first released there.

 

[disneygrandma]

I have a question concerning switching resv's at 7 mos. I thought I had read that MS can not hold a villa while you cancel 1 resv to free up the points for the new one. Is this right? If so, then I would worry that in the time it took to cancel our 1st resv at our home resort, the new resort may no longer be avail. To make matters worse, it might even be possible that the original villa might not be avail then, and we could be left without any rooms.

For those who have "switched" resorts at 7 mos, how was the process done by MS? Did they put your new room on hold? Did they inform you that it might be unavailable after canceling the 1st room? We're thinking about trying BLT on an upcoming trip. The decor is not our taste, so we would want to stay there to see if we would consider adding on. However, we don't want to put our resv at BCV in jeopardy while trying to switch at 7 mos.

We would appreciate hearing from others concerning their experience with this.

Thank you.

 

[Sandisw]

I have a question concerning switching resv's at 7 mos. I thought I had read that MS can not hold a villa while you cancel 1 resv to free up the points for the new one. Is this right? If so, then I would worry that in the time it took to cancel our 1st resv at our home resort, the new resort may no longer be avail. To make matters worse, it might even be possible that the original villa might not be avail then, and we could be left without any rooms.

For those who have "switched" resorts at 7 mos, how was the process done by MS? Did they put your new room on hold? Did they inform you that it might be unavailable after canceling the 1st room? We're thinking about trying BLT on an upcoming trip. The decor is not our taste, so we would want to stay there to see if we would consider adding on. However, we don't want to put our resv at BCV in jeopardy while trying to switch at 7 mos.


Thank you.

It is true that they can't put something on hold and that in small instances (it happend to me), in the time to cancel and re-book, a room can be lost--both the new one and the old one.

However, they do tell you this when there is a risk. Apparently, there are certain things that can be done without risks but others can not. I found this all out last year when I lost my original room. I did get it back in a few days (so it could have been something the CM did), but it was stressful.

This year, when I wanted to make my switch from BLT to BCV for a few nights at 7 months, I asked before hand if there was a risk of losing things and she told me no, there were plenty of rooms of what I wanted for it not to happen.

When I decided to change an additional night at the 6 months, I had her add the night first (had enough points) before cancelling the other one.

 

[MommyBell08]

I was wondering the same thing thanks for the great question.

 

[Gramps 25]

I am not yet an owner but am seriously considering it. For those of you with a good deal of experience, let me ask this: We can never travel during the summer. Our usage will certainly be in early October and then late January to early February. In looking at the chart, my hunch is there is not a great deal of demand for those times. Generally, would booking seven months out be a challenge? We wouldn't be particular about the location.

Thanks for the input.

 

[hakepb]

You cannot really go by the "chart". DVC popular times do not usually mirror WDW popular times, for instance, December is one of the most popular DVC times. And, I actually think Summer is an easier time to book DVC (except BCV where the pool is very popular)

Due to the above mentioned F&W: BCV and BWV are very, very difficult to book in October.

January / February have many peak weeks within a slower month for things like the WDW Marathon, school holiday weekends (MLK)..

There are a lot of overall sucessful stories of booking at the exact 7 month window, and using the waitlist, if necessary. If you are flexible and are OK with different resorts and categories, you will be pretty happy with 7 month booking. If you are super-specific thinking you need a small category like AKV concierge at 7 months to be happy, you would probably be very disapointed with DVC.

 

[Crystal_27]

Generally, would booking seven months out be a challenge? We wouldn't be particular about the location.

Thanks for the input.

If booked right at the 7 month mark, your chances of getting your first choice are obviously better than if you booked at, say, 4 months. AND, what's even better is that since you don't care about the location, you won't really be disappointed if you don't get any one particular resort. I would say that your travel between late January/early Febraury will probably get you a more desireable resort than a request in October, but you never really know with DVC. Remember in October you have Food & Wine and MNSSHP to draw in the crowds. Also, some unsolicited advice: since you don't care where you stay, make sure to look at resale for OKW and SSR as you consider your buy-in options. If you opt for one of those properties you will spend several thousands less than you would if buying at one of the resorts that is within walking distance to a park. Good luck!

 

[disneynutz]

I am not yet an owner but am seriously considering it. For those of you with a good deal of experience, let me ask this: We can never travel during the summer. Our usage will certainly be in early October and then late January to early February. In looking at the chart, my hunch is there is not a great deal of demand for those times. Generally, would booking seven months out be a challenge? We wouldn't be particular about the location.

Thanks for the input.

The reason that you are not particular about the location is because you don't know any better. Been there, done that!

I guarantee you that you will have a favorite resort or two and other resorts that you don't really care for.

You really need to spend some time to experience the different resorts, then buy where you love to stay.

Bill

 

[Deb & Bill]

Hi
Thinking of buying in, but had a question.
If you make a booking at your home resort say 10 months out and then decide to switch to another resort say 6 months out are there any penalties, fees or restrictions to doing this?
Or are you locked inonce you confirm your reservation.

Thanks

No fees or penalties...

However, there might be a penalty. If you reserve a unit at 7 months out that requires fewer points than the original reservation, you might lose those points if (1) you can no longer bank them or (2) they are borrowed and you cannot use them before the end of the year they were borrowed into. You can't "unborrow" points.

We had a reservation once at DVC resort and went on the wait list for a non-home resort. But it would have required fewer points. We would have had to bank our points by a certain time during the wait list period. So we cancelled the wait list prior to our banking deadline so we wouldn't lose those points and we stayed at the original resort.