dvc members from florida

[mitros]

Is there anyone else out there that lives in florida, is a dvc member ,and has a difficult , if not impossible time of making a short term{1 to 2 months} reservation? It gets worse every year. My opinion has always been that disney is overselling the club. In other words, too many members, not enough resorts. We have been members since the inception of the club in 1991, and each year it gets more difficult to make a short term reservation. When we first bought into the club,we asked just that question and were assured this would not happen. I guess they will say anything to make a sale. Anyway, we no longer recommend that friends join the club as we did in the beginning. In fact, we tell them don't bother.

 

[vernon]

I guess it depends on the time of year you want to go. At peak times you're going to struggle, at less busy times I'd have thought you'd have a decent chance.

I disagree that Disney has over sold the resorts, the membership take up the %age that we were informed about at the beginning. Adding new resorts doesn't alter the fact that the %ages stay the same ( I think 97%). To sell less than that would make the program inefficient as they would have to raise the price in order to cover having empty weeks. I was always aware that the program required either forward planning, or a degree of flexibility in my use of it to make the most of it.

 

[eva]

I think that vernon is right. It does depend on the time of year. It also depends on whether you are open to any resort and have a range of dates. This past May we had no problems extending our stay at OKW in a 1 bedroom only 2 days out. Now if you are trying to get in during the Food and Wine Festival, the first part of December, or during any holiday it is going to be extremely tough getting in after the 7 month window. Have you tried the waitlist? A couple years ago we got on the waitlist for BWV in October for the second week in December and it came through the middle of November. I don't know if that would work anymore since that time of year is very popular now.

 

[Dean]

We live in FL but never go that short of notice. If you were told that you'd have no problems at one to two months, you were promised something by the guide that they could not deliver. At 2 months, the inventory can be rented to anyone , member or not. Once completely sold, it SHOULD be difficult to get anything on that short notice else there are likely to be points not used.

 

[mjackson]

We live in Fla and our profile is one long WDW vacation in DEC and several small weekend trips rest of the year in a studio or 1BR during the off season times. I book regulary on short notice of 3 months or less and usually that means at OKW with a waitlist to BWV or WLV, and knock on wood, we have always gotten our waitlist request. Just last month I booked with a 2 week notice to WLV no waitlist. Good luck with future trips.

 

[RobDoc]

When you joined in 1991, getting short term reservations was not at all difficult. In the last few years, I think the reservation habits of members have begun to change and we are, as a group, booking DVC ressies earlier- which will put more strain on short time reservation abilities. There has certainly been no change in any DVC policy to cause this however.

As already pointed out above, short time reservations are still possible, but may require the use of the wait list and more patience than in the past.

Good Luck!

 

[HookdonWDW]

We live in Alabama, not Florida, but we have gotten in with as little as two day notice this fall.

 

[jmminarik]

Without hard numbers, it's difficult to say the true impact of the VB and HH members as well. I'd tend to think there are more VB and HH members making WDW ressies at 7 months than there are WDW DVC members making HH or VB ressies.

Outside of the holidays (and summer for HH), I'd imagine short notice ressies at VB and HH are more easily obtained because of this. Especially HH in the middle of January or February.

For these reasons alone, I'd be very surprised if there's another DVC build outside of one of the park areas, unless these new resorts didn't have access to WDW resorts, which almost makes buying them pointless. (no pun intended).

-Joe

 

[Scoootch]

We live in Fla. and have called as short of notice as the day before - in fact more than half the time, we call within a week because we go for a day or 2 here and there when the moment hits us(and not always on a weekend). So far the only time we've had any problem has been during ther busier seasons - Food -n- wine in Oct - Nov or around christmas time. The worse we've had happen though is to not get the resort of our first choice or exact unit size we wanted (studio instead of a 1 bdrm or vice-versa) but haven't had any problem getting in somewhere on short notice. I think if you want to book on such short notice though during the busier times, that's to be expected. I think we only didn't get in at all once and that was during the christmas time weeks and we just ended up putting it off for a week or so. So it can be done to book last minute as long as you are willing to be a little flexible.

 

[Cinderelli]

We made ressies for June, 2001 at 2 weeks out. We then made ressies for the Sat - Wed before Thanksgiving 2001 only 1 week out. We stayed at OKW (our home) for the June trip and stayed at VWL for the November trip. Maybe we were just lucky but it sure was nice to be able to nab them with such short notice.

We try to plan ahead (as we are for Spring Break next year), but those spur of the moment trips are wonderful. I hope we can continue to have success in the future.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Jim & Tammy Bakker got in trouble for overselling rooms.
2) I doubt Disney would follow suit.

 

[jimmytammy]

We called at the 10 mos window for our home resort at WLV for this Dec and couldnt get the week we wanted( we got 2nd week of Dec wanted 1st week). I learned from this 1st time calling experiience to call as soon as 11 mos window comes up.

I can understand your point being closer to WDW picking up and going for a quick trip but as time goes on that is probably going to become tougher to get ressies on short notice. Hope things work out for your schedule.

 

[MelissathePooh]

We seldom make our vacation plans more than a few months out - we have rented points a couple of times in the past and never had a problem getting in where we wanted with a 7 month window. When we finally bought our DVC points this past August we didn't figure there would be a problem getting a studio at our home resort of BCV the 3rd week of January (for the weekend). When we called - there was nothing available at all for our dates - nothing at BWV either.

We didn't check on WVL - the point to our January trip is for drinking around World Showcase - so location is pivotal. We ended up taking a spot at OKW (since we've never stayed there before) and waitlisting for BC or BW.

I'm hoping its just a case of BCV being so new and I realize its a great location, but that doesn't explain BWV being full also! OKW is apparently empty during that time. Sometimes its just hard to know that far in advance when you can go!

ps - although we are primary Michigan residents we travel mainly on weekends and ever few months so I felt like I kind of understood the gist of the post.