First week of December no rooms available?

[dmagru]

I have been traveling to WDW for over 30 years. Never have I ever tried to look at room rates on there site with no rooms or packages available. I was trying to get reservations for December 6 to 10. Since doing the Disney Cruise from December 2 to 6. Wanted to add a couple days on after the cruise and see the Merry Christmas party over a Magic Kingdom. My cart had a saved previous search that would not expire until November. When I went to purchase it said no rooms and eliminated my saved cart. Would Disney be holding back rooms for later release. Just looking for thoughts.

 

[vacationer1954]

With RotR opening "later this year", there are probably some families who delayed their fall trips into the late fall.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I see rooms available for those dates at CCV, OKW and BWV. WDW is not going to allow you to save a room in your cart indefinitely. You can, however, typically put rooms on 3 day holds, but you have to go through the check-out process in order to do this.

 

[tsme]

I called yesterday for that week and was told there there was nothing at BC, YC, & only a 1 bedroom villa standard view at BWI. I was disappointed.

 

[Elle23]

Pop Warner is the first weekend in December. My guess is the lack of availability might have something to do with that.

 

[DebbieB]

I’ve been going around that time since 1998. Rooms are always booked up, it’s a popular time to stay onsite. Pop Warner takes a lot of values and moderates. Park crowds aren’t bad.

 

[Staren]

I had this same trouble when I went to book my December trip. Even for club level rooms there was very little availability for the first week of December. Ended up moving the trip back by a week to the second week of December. I'll be there Dec. 7-15. I'm lucky that I have the ability to do that right now. I managed to find a room that I will enjoy, but it took some hunting. It wasn't my first choice resort, but one that has been on my short list.

This year especially I think it's a combination of factors keeping WDW booked up for early December. As was mentioned already, it's a popular time. People who want to take a vacation before the holiday madness really gets started, and Pop Warner kids and their families. Plus this year you have the people who booked awhile ago expecting December to be nearer to the Galaxy's Edge opening, and the people who booked after the opening date announcement hoping to get there in early days but after the opening crowds.

 

[focusondisney]

The Epcot resorts have been pretty booked up for months. I agree GE probably has something to do with it. Those resorts will make getting to DS pretty easy, even if it means walking. Plus Thanksgiving is late this year, meaning there is one less week between thanksgiving & Christmas. The following week seems to have more available rooms. But that brings you within days of Christmas, so many people may not want to travel that week.

 

[tazzgonzo]

I created an account on here because of this. This is a very bizarre situation in that, as of 72 hrs ago there were several options in that first week. I should know as I was constantly modifying my existing reservation and “upgrading” and “downgrading” obsessively, depending on how I felt about my overall vacation budget.

I was driving my partner nuts as I’d upgrade from pop century to port Orleans: French quarter to beach club, then down to Coronado springs, etc. we finally settled on a split stay: first part at beach club and the second (dec 5th-7th) at boardwalk villas.

I had been looking for different options for that split stay up until Wednesday night. Then suddenly on Thursday morning all other options were gone.

The disappearance of resort options coincided with the premium magic band upgrade options being back in stock so I assumed maybe people were booking reservations just to get them and then cancelling.

But that’s dumb, right?

The other theory was that pop warner starts on dec 6th so maybe whoever is in charge of organizing accommodations for the event suddenly booked all the rooms that were needed, thus taking out all the resorts between 5th-7th.

Maybe.

But SOMETHING did happen within the past 72 hours that made all options suddenly disappear.

Maybe insider knowledge got leaked for the opening date of the second galaxy’s edge ride? I dunno. It’s so bizarre

 

[RaySharpton]

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 reservation with all of my days in a row. I had to pick and chose nights until I got all of the nights that I needed. They had to be the same type or level of the room.

Then I had Disney combine all of those reservations into one.

This trip I am doing a split stay between Pop and BWV. I made a mistake and checked out of Pop one day early. I found this out at the 180-day mark with I was making my ADRs.

I just need one day.

I have been trying every day and night since then and I have found no availability at Pop for that one night or at any of the other Values.

I'll keep trying.

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.

It is frustrating for me and I am sure for others.

Disney tells me to wait until the resort reservation cancellation policy kicks in for large groups, but that is a guessing game.

 

[buckeye130]

I'm right there with you really confused about the first week of December. We have an existing package reservation 11/29-12/7 but I know I am going to need to change it because we are now APs and we may want to switch resorts. When trying to determine what options are to change there is literally ZERO rooms showing except for an occasional cabin at copper creek. I can play around with dates and can book any other week this year, including during Christmas, So I know it has nothing to do at all with Galaxy's Edge. I think for some reason these rooms are all strangely booked all of a sudden or Disney has blocked them for some reason. Super frustrating.

 

[Pamela M]

I had this same trouble when I went to book my December trip. Even for club level rooms there was very little availability for the first week of December. Ended up moving the trip back by a week to the second week of December. I'll be there Dec. 7-15. I'm lucky that I have the ability to do that right now. I managed to find a room that I will enjoy, but it took some hunting. It wasn't my first choice resort, but one that has been on my short list.

This year especially I think it's a combination of factors keeping WDW booked up for early December. As was mentioned already, it's a popular time. People who want to take a vacation before the holiday madness really gets started, and Pop Warner kids and their families. Plus this year you have the people who booked awhile ago expecting December to be nearer to the Galaxy's Edge opening, and the people who booked after the opening date announcement hoping to get there in early days but after the opening crowds.

I'll be there the same time 6-14th! I haven't been to WDW in 16 years! I go to DL reguarly and I felt really silly booking my package back in January but now I'm so glad I did!

 

[soccermom54]

I booked FQ months ago for the 1st week in December. I had a feeling WDW would be really busy this holiday season. So glad DH and I have a room!

 

[buckeye130]

I created an account on here because of this. This is a very bizarre situation in that, as of 72 hrs ago there were several options in that first week. I should know as I was constantly modifying my existing reservation and “upgrading” and “downgrading” obsessively, depending on how I felt about my overall vacation budget.

I was driving my partner nuts as I’d upgrade from pop century to port Orleans: French quarter to beach club, then down to Coronado springs, etc. we finally settled on a split stay: first part at beach club and the second (dec 5th-7th) at boardwalk villas.

I had been looking for different options for that split stay up until Wednesday night. Then suddenly on Thursday morning all other options were gone.

The disappearance of resort options coincided with the premium magic band upgrade options being back in stock so I assumed maybe people were booking reservations just to get them and then cancelling.

But that’s dumb, right?

The other theory was that pop warner starts on dec 6th so maybe whoever is in charge of organizing accommodations for the event suddenly booked all the rooms that were needed, thus taking out all the resorts between 5th-7th.

Maybe.

But SOMETHING did happen within the past 72 hours that made all options suddenly disappear.

Maybe insider knowledge got leaked for the opening date of the second galaxy’s edge ride? I dunno. It’s so bizarre

Ok, so after yesterday's announcement of Rise of Resistence on 12/5, I feel like Disney is/was doing something funny with room availability during this week in anticipation of this...

 

[tazzgonzo]

Ok, so after yesterday's announcement of Rise of Resistence on 12/5, I feel like Disney is/was doing something funny with room availability during this week in anticipation of this...

Ha! You’re right but I thought it was just people canceling their trips because of the announcements to avoid the rush

 

[buckeye130]

Ha! You’re right but I thought it was just people canceling their trips because of the announcements to avoid the rush

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.

 

[RangerPooh]

It's going to be a busy period. Pop Warner is during that time frame. Then you have ROTR that's opening to add to the congestion.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

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.

Completely off topic but I totally agree. I feel like Disney is missing an enormous market in not utilizing their Villains throughout the Parks and Resorts. Goodness, there’s enough material there to have entire Park dedicated to them let alone a land in an existing park.

And the following is already established and will be for future generations.

This is one I’ll never understand.

 

[vacationer1954]

My personal opinion is that SWGE is completely overrated.

I'm going to wait until I visit SWGE before I form an opinion about it.

 

[focusondisney]

. 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,

You could be right. I have a few family members who are real SW fans, they are in their 30’s, with no kids. But none of my relatives who do have kids have any interest in Star Wars movies, let alone theme park rides.