DVC reservation question

[Beth Singleton]

Hello! My husband and I are considering a DVC resale. How hard is it to get the reservations that you want at the 11 month or 7 month mark? Do you feel like you have to settle for less than you want? It seems like everyone is on a wait list. We would be traveling in late August most of the time. Thanks in advance for the advice

 

[_auroraborealis_]

At 11 months, you generally have a very good chance at your home resort, with some caveats:

• AKV Value goes quick.
• AKV Club Level goes even quicker.
• BWV Standard Studios can go very quickly, especially during Food & Wine and Flower & Garden.
• The first week in December demands you book home resort as soon as you can.

Late August is not a high-demand time of year, and save for a few room types, you should be able to try different resorts at 7 months. The resorts you may not get, or only get a day here and there, are those aforementioned AKV value/Club (Standard and Savannah, you will get at 7), BWV Standard (Pool/Garden at 7 is achievable), Grand Floridian studios (have to be lucky) and Grand Californian (just too small a resort).

 

[lovin'fl]

The toughest time for DVC is late Sept through early Jan...with F&W, run Disney, MNSSHP, MVMCP, Jersey week, Xmas decor, holidays...and a cheaper point time.
The toughest room types are studios since everyone wants to save points. And there are certain room categories that are tough, like AKV club level.

So August isn't too bad.

And the 11-8 month mark isn't too bad...unless you're wanting certain things like say an AKV club level room or a BWV standard view studio during F&W...3BR GV at HHI for July 4th...etc.

And we, personally, have gotten every east coast DVC resort (except VGF and POLY but we haven't tried for those yet) with our OKW points. We may have to tweak dates or take choice number 2 or take a different room type or category. And it has been getting harder as they add more and more DVC resorts/points to the system. I feel like all the new folks paying top dollar for the new resorts direct, they only by small contracts and want to stretch their points so they may be doing 7 month resies at non-home resorts (since Poly and VGF take a lot of points). They may do their first trip at their home resort but then they switch out to save points after that...just my theory.

 

[BillPA]

The wait list are typically those that try to switch at 7 months, or those that just can't book at 11 months due to vacation scheduling or plans change. DVC busy times are not the same as park busy times.

 

[ColonialMouse]

I think the concern over difficulty of getting reservations is a bit overstated----though I understand the frustration if you can't get the reservation you want. It's those specific rooms and specifically Fall, or trying to get things in short (3-4 month) timeframe that are challenging. We've also made trips in late August (school starts after labor day) and always been able to get what we want. We've stayed at BLT in August and late January with 7-month reservations. In fact we just added on at BLT but made a reservation for next April using 7 month points b/c it worked out better with our plans. Now that was for a lake view 2BR lock-off. Standard would have required 11-month

Bruce

 

[crisi]

Right now there is a lot of waitlist chatter because we are moving into the highest demand quarter - when a lot of people do end up on the waitlist. The majority of them did not book right at eleven months or are trying to switch into a high demand room. A few cases (the ones listed above) may have gotten booked right at eleven months and still not freed up.

 

[disneynutz]

If you just want to make a reservation at your favorite resort and get what you want, buy where you love to stay.

If you want to take chances, play the waitlist game, pray that to have good luck, buy somewhere else.

Competition at 7 months continues to be more of a challenge and with each contract sold, another family could be added to the 7 month rush.

Bill

 

[Beth Singleton]

Thank you all for your responses! I appreciate your insight.

Does anyone know if you purchase points from two different resorts, can you book either one at the 11 month mark?

Also, have any of you purchased resale? Any issues? Who did you buy from?

Thanks!

 

[BillPA]

If you buy 2 resorts, you will have 11 month booking only at each resort. You can not combine points for a reservation until the 7 month window.

 

[davedmaine]

Well said by Bill. It does seem that it's becoming more and more difficult to book at 7 months. If you do your research, you'll see many, many, MANY complaints of people who bought at an inexpensive resort only to realize they cannot book at their favorite resort at 7 months. i.e. We enjoy F&W so we purchased BWV and we've never had a problem booking it. Had we bought elsewhere and tried to book at BWV at 7 months during F&W, not likely going to happen. And resale, resale, resale.

 

[CMNJ]

Hello! My husband and I are considering a DVC resale. How hard is it to get the reservations that you want at the 11 month or 7 month mark? Do you feel like you have to settle for less than you want? It seems like everyone is on a wait list. We would be traveling in late August most of the time. Thanks in advance for the advice

I think the biggest thing is expectations. If you buy a resort you have no interest in staying at or will feel like you are settling if you have to stay at then it probably isn't a great idea to buy DVC there. We have only been members since the beginning of 2015 but we've considered DVC a few times in the past. At the time we passed for a couple reasons but a main factor was the home resort being sold direct at the time (didn't know about the resale market back then). We didn't want SSR or AKL as our home resort. SSR is a nice resort but to us it lacked the main draw of DVC (walking distance to MK or Epcot/DHS). Since we planned to stay mainly in studios SSR wasn't really better (for us) than Port Orleans. So we wound up buying BWV because we would be happy staying there. We have stayed at BLT and Poly as well (using our points) and are open to staying at other resorts but would be unhappy being "stuck" at SSR on a regular basis. Others like SSR and so it is a good fit as a home resort. They save money and can often trade out but aren't unhappy if/when they can't.

 

[bumbershoot]

It seems like everyone is on a wait list.

Well, that's because there are posts about being on the wait list. If we made a post titled "who is NOT on a wait list" you'd see those people. I'd be on it; I've never been on a wait list.

If you buy a resort you have no interest in staying at or will feel like you are settling if you have to stay at then it probably isn't a great idea to buy DVC there.

Agreed.

the main draw of DVC (walking distance to MK or Epcot/DHS).

And right there it shows why answers to "where to buy" are hard, because it literally never even occurred to me that *walking distance to 3 parks* is any sort of draw for *DVC*. It's definitely not my reasoning! I mean, heck, even though the Bay Lake studio was nice for Princess (and will be next year too), but we actually love OKW and SSR simply because of the resorts themselves. Too bad we bought (direct and with a loan!) Bay Lake back in '09!

 

[CMNJ]

And right there it shows why answers to "where to buy" are hard, because it literally never even occurred to me that *walking distance to 3 parks* is any sort of draw for *DVC*. It's definitely not my reasoning! I mean, heck, even though the Bay Lake studio was nice for Princess (and will be next year too), but we actually love OKW and SSR simply because of the resorts themselves. Too bad we bought (direct and with a loan!) Bay Lake back in '09!

Very true everyone has their favorite resorts. DVC is often touted as a way to stay at Disney's deluxe resorts for much less (generally the cost of a moderate). To us that always equated to being right by a park as those are the deluxe resorts we are interested in frequenting. For many the draw is having a villa to cook in and enough space to house the family all together (rather than having to book multiple hotel rooms and worry about getting connecting rooms). SSR and OKW are very pretty resorts and with convenient parking so I can see the draw for others. We don't drive (or rent a car) so bus rides with multiple bus stops for every park is tiresome as are the long walks to the main area (carousel in SSR for instance). The spread out design of those resorts can be appealing for many but to us (staying in studios) they just seem like another moderate resort (with 1 and 2 bedroom villas) . There's nothing wrong with them we just wouldn't haven't made the financial commitment with DVC to stay there for the next 30 years if we could pay cash for an "equivalent" room (studio vs hotel room at a moderate) with no commitment. OP you need to consider what resorts appeal to you because as you can see we all have different tastes in resorts, lol. If being at Disney staying in any DVC villa makes you happy then buy whatever you can afford. However if you know you don't like a resort and wouldn't be happy there consider then I wouldn't buy there. Right now the majority of the year easily allows for 7 month bookings but in 10 years that could change (just look at all the posts from long term owners about how much booking patterns have changed over time). At the end of the day all we really own is a certain percentage of our home resort. If that doesn't make you happy (staying there if you can't trade out) I don't know if I would buy.

 

[ton80]

We have gone every year since 2005 right after school gets out in the Northeast (mid to late Jun). Never had a problem booking BCV,BWV resorts, which we like the most,once the 7 month window opens up. We have been SSR owners since 2005.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Buy at a resort that you wouldn't mind staying at if you couldn't change your reservation to a non-home resort at seven months out. Don't buy Aulani, Vero Beach or Hilton Head Island if you want to go mainly to the theme parks. Buy Aulani if you want to go to Hawaii most of the time. Buy VB if your plans are to hit VB most of the time. Buy HHI if that is where you want to spend most of your vacations.

If you can't book your vacation until less than seven months out, you may be disappointed if you decide you want to go Sept through January. Those times can be hard to get at seven months out, especially BWV and BCV. If you want GFV, you'll need to own there and be ready to book at studio exactly at 11 months out. Lots of member bought GFV for the studios and there aren't many of them. The rest of the villas at GFV require a lot of points. Don't buy Polynesian if you want one bedrooms. There are none.