First week of December no rooms available?

[juxtapose]

My personal opinion is that SWGE is completely overrated. I could be out in left field, but would venture to say the majority of families attending WDW have children who have no knowledge of Star Wars, so SWGE is not a priority for them, and the thought of standing in huge lines with my kid for a ride she has no idea what it is about makes me want to cringe. If they built some land of villians or actual characters with a kid focus < like Toy Story Land or Fantasy Land> I think that would be more of a broader draw, but what do I know. I'm praying that crowds stay low this fall and forces them to give a discount.

Star Wars is pretty big with my kids and their friends. My son is only 3 and lots of kids at his preschool know the characters, same with my 7 year old daughter. Rey is her #1 favorite character ever (way over any princess).

 

[Tonberry]

I know for years early December was touted as one of the best times to go in terms of crowds. Cat's out of the bag now! We went in 2014 and it was awesome. Low crowds and we found plenty of availability. We went again last year, and what a complete difference. It was busier than summer crowds! Add pop warner and a late Thanksgiving, and that makes this early December even worse. Then ROTR announced, and that can't help.

 

[Starwind]

I usually make my resort reservations about one year in advance. I always stay in the first two weeks in December. I started looking in January of 2019 for December 1, 2019, and I couldn't find a completed Pop Century Resort

...

I found out that I can make resort reservations at 499-days. In about 26-days, I can check for my December 2020 resort reservations.

I'm not going to take a chance anymore.

A long time ago, I used to wait for a Disney deal to come out, but not anymore.

Even when a deal comes out, I am out of luck and there is no availability for my nights.

You'll be overlapping with part of our stay !

We now book as far out as possible, so room only at 499 days or thereabouts. It ensures we get the hotel location and room type we want, and although it is rack rate, we book what we would be willing to pay should there be no discounts.

For our trip this fall this strategy has worked well, since SWGE is almost guaranteeing no discounts for our stay, particularly this first week of December which has almost no availability right now [and hasn't for some time].

So, book at 499 days, and then adjust as required later if discounts come out or if you really want to be at a DVC resort and are paying cash. [DVC rooms via Disney only become available in the 9-11 month window].

So for our upcoming trip, we are: AKL-B2B2B Disney Dream-CCV. For the CCV bookend, we initially booked WL Courtyard View at 499 days as that is what we want if for some reason no CCV were available. Then, when CCV became available at 10.5 months out, we changed the reservation online to a CCV Deluxe Studio with Shower.

The two main downsides to booking 499 days out from a reservation standpoint is depending when in the year the trip is relative to when Disney releases room rates for that year, you may have to call to make the reservation, and your initial booking may be based on the current year rates, to be adjusted when they release the new year's rates [which hopefully won't go up a crazy amount]. At least they are more than happy to switch a room only to a package if you end up doing that down the road ;-)

SW

 

[RaySharpton]

You'll be overlapping with part of our stay !

We now book as far out as possible, so room only at 499 days or thereabouts. It ensures we get the hotel location and room type we want, and although it is rack rate, we book what we would be willing to pay should there be no discounts.

For our trip this fall this strategy has worked well, since SWGE is almost guaranteeing no discounts for our stay, particularly this first week of December which has almost no availability right now [and hasn't for some time].

So, book at 499 days, and then adjust as required later if discounts come out or if you really want to be at a DVC resort and are paying cash. [DVC rooms via Disney only become available in the 9-11 month window].

So for our upcoming trip, we are: AKL-B2B2B Disney Dream-CCV. For the CCV bookend, we initially booked WL Courtyard View at 499 days as that is what we want if for some reason no CCV were available. Then, when CCV became available at 10.5 months out, we changed the reservation online to a CCV Deluxe Studio with Shower.

The two main downsides to booking 499 days out from a reservation standpoint is depending when in the year the trip is relative to when Disney releases room rates for that year, you may have to call to make the reservation, and your initial booking may be based on the current year rates, to be adjusted when they release the new year's rates [which hopefully won't go up a crazy amount]. At least they are more than happy to switch a room only to a package if you end up doing that down the road ;-)

SW

Hi, Starwind. Yes, I came to the same conclusion as you about trying to get my Pop Century Resort reservation 499-days, but still no availability, so I guess I will have to wait 10.5 months out, too.

 

[jimandami]

There is also a fairly large anesthesia conference at the YC with a large group of rooms blocked at BC/YC so that affects available there for sure. As of yesterday, they said the block was “almost 100% full.” And they will start overflow books at CSR or sometimes AKL. We last attended this meeting maybe 5-6 years ago and crowds were great, but I do not expect the same this year.

 

[Starwind]

Hi, Starwind. Yes, I came to the same conclusion as you about trying to get my Pop Century Resort reservation 499-days, but still no availability, so I guess I will have to wait 10.5 months out, too.

Keep checking, I've found availability comes and goes quite a lot. Also, I'm not sure they load everything at 499 days out; it could be worth calling back a couple weeks later to check again. Then check again if no luck.

As for cash DVC, they start loading them in at 11 months, but just a few room types at a resort or two, and then slowly load in the rest so that by 10-10.5 months it seems like most things are loaded. Though I have seen it sometimes take until nearly 9 months... motto: keep trying

 

[RaySharpton]

There is also a fairly large anesthesia conference at the YC with a large group of rooms blocked at BC/YC so that affects available there for sure. As of yesterday, they said the block was “almost 100% full.” And they will start overflow books at CSR or sometimes AKL. We last attended this meeting maybe 5-6 years ago and the crowds were great, but I do not expect the same this year.

Hi, jimandami. Thank you for the info. It is always nice to know what's going on. I was told that some groups, probably not your group, will release rooms after a certain date. I used to be a Registered Respiratory Therapist, but I am retired now from Northside Hospital in Atlanta. I finally decided to let my State and AARC credentials to expire in 2020.

Keep checking, I've found availability comes and goes quite a lot. Also, I'm not sure they load everything at 499 days out; it could be worth calling back a couple of weeks later to check again. Then check again if no luck.

As for cash DVC, they start loading them in at 11 months, but just a few room types at a resort or two, and then slowly load in the rest so that by 10-10.5 months it seems like most things are loaded. Though I have seen it sometimes take until nearly 9 months... motto: keep trying

Thanks, Starwind. I will check again. I don't think that I have ever used "cash for DVC" unless you mean adding onto your DVC reservation which I did a couple of years ago. I presume that you can only do that by calling if it was for like one day. I did waitlist the one day that I need at BWV if I can't get a room at Pop Century.

I changed all of my notes from stating from this date to this date to check-in to checkout dates.

I got confused going online trying to put all of my Pop and BWV days together. For Pop, instead of checking out on 12/9, I choose 12/8. I didn't notice until my 180-day restaurant reservations time came up.

I feel like such a dummy.

Now I have been checking back every day online for just one-day reservation.

 

[Starwind]

Hi, jimandami. Thank you for the info. It is always nice to know what's going on. I was told that some groups, probably not your group, will release rooms after a certain date. I used to be a Registered Respiratory Therapist, but I am retired now from Northside Hospital in Atlanta. I finally decided to let my State and AARC credentials to expire in 2020.



Thanks, Starwind. I will check again. I don't think that I have ever used "cash for DVC" unless you mean adding onto your DVC reservation which I did a couple of years ago. I presume that you can only do that by calling if it was for like one day. I did waitlist the one day that I need at BWV if I can't get a room at Pop Century.

I changed all of my notes from stating from this date to this date to check-in to checkout dates.

I got confused going online trying to put all of my Pop and BWV days together. For Pop, instead of checking out on 12/9, I choose 12/8. I didn't notice until my 180-day restaurant reservations time came up.

I feel like such a dummy.

Now I have been checking back every day online for just one-day reservation.

No, actual cash as in general public through WDW website. DVC loads their stuff properly for members They take their time for the general public.

Do you have ANY room booked for the 8 th ? If not, personally if you can I would suggest booking a room you would be ok with [location, type, cost] if neither waitlist or Pop come through, otherwise you run the risk of being roomless that night. Especially now with the second SWGE ride opening Dec 5.

I checked the WDW website and there are accessible rooms available that night at moderates and deluxes. Not a lot of selection, but some. Even the new tower at Coronado Springs !

Good luck on Pop or your waitlist coming through !!

SW