Experiences with last minute reservations

[jdb1232]

Hello, We travel to WDW at least once every year. We have points to spare so I am going to try a last minute reservation when flight specials come up in our area. The window for the trip will be from Feb/Mar/April. It will probably be a short one, two or three days towards the end of the week. Does anyone have experience in making reservations two or three weeks before traveling? We'll take a studio in a pretty much any resort but Saratoga.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Does anyone have experience in making reservations two or three weeks before traveling? We'll take a studio in a pretty much any resort but Saratoga.

Unfortunately, you may encounter problems, 1st. Saratoga & OKW have the biggest inventory to choose from w/ OKW going 1st because of the low point structure, 2nd. Studio's are the 1st to go. I booked 3 weeks ago for 4 days in February, I needed 2 studios and they were only available at Saratoga!

DVC is not a vehicle for last minute vacationing. I normally go Oct, Jun & Aug but I'm tired of the heat so I booked Feb, later than I normally would. I wanted OKW or AKV but ended up w/ SSR which is fine too!

 

[hakepb]

I wound up bumping up a scheduled May trip this year to a last minute April trip. SSR and OKW were the only available resorts.

2010 might have a slightly better chance at getting AKV since Kidani is now open, but you do need to be prepared for getting SSR.

 

[lsutigerita]

This past April my husband and I took a last minute trip. I booked airfare and room on the same day (Wednesday April 15) for a trip arriving Friday April 17. I was able to book a preferred view studio at the BWV.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

The problem I had w/ Feb is that I wanted to check out Monday and all the resorts were booked up for the Sunday except Saratoga!

 

[lsutigerita]

Our check out date was the Monday. We were very fortunate to get our BWV reservation. We like to stay close to Epcot. I just booked a trip last week for next month. The only availability was SSR or OKW. I chose SSR and I am currently waitlisted for BWV or BCV.

 

[dislainey]

Called yesterday looking for a studio for a trip starting 11/18 and the only availabilty was OKW and Saratoga. We choose OKW. Love the large studios!

 

[mickeee]

This past 4th of July we booked a real last minute weekend vacation at SSR. We decided in the morning to fly out that same evening and I got a studio at SSR for 3 nights starting that very day. Oh yeah to top it off the CM even booked us ME. Needless to say it was a great surprise for DD and she lovet it. Way to go disney!

 

[drusba]

Once got BWV prefered for two nights during the week, end of February, when calling only 3 days in advance. Once could not get anything (even SSR) when calling 30 days in advance for three nights during the week in late March (not an Easter week)

 

[eva]

In 2008 I was able to get a 1-bedroom about 3 weeks out for April at SSR. But we had to be flexible. DH was sent on a last minute business trip to Orlando and we decided to add on 4 nights after the trip to take a little vacation. Unfortunately, they had nothing for after his trip. So we lucked out and they had 3 of the 4 nights open before his conference. I called backed a couple of times daily until I was finally able to add the fourth day. We were sweating a bit because we already had airline tickets. But we figured if worse came to worse we would have to pay cash for the 4th night. They had a lot open for cash. Be sure to have a back up if you are buying the flights first.

 

[jdb1232]

Thanks for the info. We travel every year in the fall for a week. We just came back from a week at VWL in a 1BR. The room was great but we decided we didn't need the bigger room, a studio will be fine. So we have extra points to burn. It would be tough financially to book a second trip at going rate airfare. So if we go twice a year the thought was to wait for a last minute special and see what's available. We'll see what happens.