Fixed Week Question

[J-Dog]

So, we just bought a FW at Riviera, and am finding that I have all kinds of questions. Questions that I probably should have thought of beforehand...

Anyway, my latest question (which is more theoretical than anything, really) - in this scenario, let's say that I have an October UY, and a Week 47 FW. I know that the FW is generally automatically reserved about 12 mo. prior to the reservation, since they need to made prior to the 11-month window opening. So, what happens if I make a reservation for, say, Christmas 2022 in July 2022? Since Christmas is past the UY, the 2022 points would be available for Christmas 2022, BUT the FW automatic reservation won't be made until Late November 2022 for week 47 of 2023, right?

So, can I make that Christmas 2022 reservation in July 2022 - and the system will just realize that the points are already used and not make the automatic reservation that year at all, OR can I NOT make the reservation in July 2022 because I need to wait until after the automatic reservation is made in November 2022, because I need to opt-out of it before I can book anything else?

Does that even make sense, LOL!?!

Thanks very much for any help. If you can figure out my rambling...

 

[J-Dog]

EDIT: Now that I'm reading my own post, I'm realizing that the 2023 UY points would be available for week 47 2023 at that point, so maybe it would work and still have the 2023 FW, because it's past the next UY?

I'm confused.... Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Thanks again. Sorry....

 

[RoseGold]

It's not like your points are "released" on Day 1 of the UY or you can't book until day 1. They just are used for things in that UY.

Your 2023 FW will come from 2023 points. If you already used the 2023 points, the system won't do it. You might be able to borrow 2024 points into it and get them to manually book 2023 it at 11.5 months, I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed in the contract -- but I don't think anyone has tried that yet. This would be an interesting phone call with MS.

 

[J-Dog]

It's not like your points are "released" on Day 1 of the UY or you can't book until day 1. They just are used for things in that UY.

Your 2023 FW will come from 2023 points. If you already used the 2023 points, the system won't do it. You might be able to borrow 2024 points into it and get them to manually book 2023 it at 11.5 months, I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed in the contract -- but I don't think anyone has tried that yet. This would be an interesting phone call with MS.

Okay thanks! That's what I wanted to know.

 

[Sandisw]

It's not like your points are "released" on Day 1 of the UY or you can't book until day 1. They just are used for things in that UY.

Your 2023 FW will come from 2023 points. If you already used the 2023 points, the system won't do it. You might be able to borrow 2024 points into it and get them to manually book 2023 it at 11.5 months, I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed in the contract -- but I don't think anyone has tried that yet. This would be an interesting phone call with MS.

You can not borrow points for a FW. You can’t even use banked points for a FW.

If you use your points allocated for a FW for something else, you loose the ability to have your FW. Here are the rules.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

You can not borrow points for a FW. You can’t even use banked points for a FW.

If you use your points allocated for a FW for something else, you loose the ability to have your FW. Here are the rules.

View attachment 630047

Plus you can’t even add on extra days to that reservation. Needs to be a separate reservation. Please correct me if I am wrong on that.

 

[Lorana]

Plus you can’t even add on extra days to that reservation. Needs to be a separate reservation. Please correct me if I am wrong on that.

That is correct. No modifications (beyond changing names) allowed, with the exception of a runDisney FW where you can switch the check-in day to a day other than Sunday.

 

[Sandisw]

To add, all the rules, including what I posted are found in the Home Resort Rules and Regulations document that is located on the website.

 

[jillt2ph]

I have week 48 in a preferred studio at Riviera (October UY). Purchased in Sept 2020, so Nov 2021 was first chance to use it. However we "slipped through the cracks" and our reservation was not booked. I called in January 2021 and Member Services had to do some behind the scenes work to book it for us because there was already no availability. In the end we cashed it in and used our points at a different resort, with some left over to bank. Will probably do the same for 2022. But the reservation did show on my dashboard 12 months out, so I was happy to see that!

 

[J-Dog]

You can not borrow points for a FW. You can’t even use banked points for a FW.

If you use your points allocated for a FW for something else, you loose the ability to have your FW. Here are the rules.

View attachment 630047

Thanks to every one for the advice.

I guess, the TL;DR version of my question was: if I book a reservation prior to my automatic GW reservation, does that just negate the automatic reservation for the year. It sounds like the answer is "yes".

 

[J-Dog]

I have week 48 in a preferred studio at Riviera (October UY). Purchased in Sept 2020, so Nov 2021 was first chance to use it. However we "slipped through the cracks" and our reservation was not booked. I called in January 2021 and Member Services had to do some behind the scenes work to book it for us because there was already no availability. In the end we cashed it in and used our points at a different resort, with some left over to bank. Will probably do the same for 2022. But the reservation did show on my dashboard 12 months out, so I was happy to see that!

So, did your GW reservation happen automatically like it should have for November 2022? That should have happened 3-4 weeks ago.

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks to every one for the advice.

I guess, the TL;DR version of my question was: if I book a reservation prior to my automatic GW reservation, does that just negate the automatic reservation for the year. It sounds like the answer is "yes".

Correct. If the points are used when they go to fill it, then it simply can not be booked.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If you did happen to have a situation where you booked something with points that would be used for the fixed week then you can and of course the fixed week won't be reserved. You may borrow and you may used banked points from that "fixed" week if you have cancelled the previous year reservation and banked the points. Once the points have been used to reserve the week however then you would need to call in to have the week cancelled and points returned before you'd be able to use them as regular points for different dates (or could be the same if you wished) or for a different resort.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I have week 48 in a preferred studio at Riviera (October UY). Purchased in Sept 2020, so Nov 2021 was first chance to use it. However we "slipped through the cracks" and our reservation was not booked. I called in January 2021 and Member Services had to do some behind the scenes work to book it for us because there was already no availability. In the end we cashed it in and used our points at a different resort, with some left over to bank. Will probably do the same for 2022. But the reservation did show on my dashboard 12 months out, so I was happy to see that!

The last couple of years have gotten to be a jumble for my DVC but I think it was our 2020 fixed week reservation that "fell thru the cracks" and wasn't reserved. It was a year that several others reported the same thing and could have been 2019. I wasn't going to use it anyway so it didn't end up being an issue but was concerning and I'll check at 12 months from now on. 2021 was booked as it should have been and 2022 has been reserve as it should have been although I believe I will be cancelling it and just use the points.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You can not borrow points for a FW. You can’t even use banked points for a FW.

If you use your points allocated for a FW for something else, you loose the ability to have your FW. Here are the rules.

View attachment 630047

To be clear - this is only if the fixed week reservation has already been booked by DVC. If it hasn't been reserved then the points are sitting there in a contract and can be banked or borrowed depending on what you are looking to do.

 

[jillt2ph]

So, did your GW reservation happen automatically like it should have for November 2022? That should have happened 3-4 weeks ago.

Yes, I am happy to say it showed on my Dashboard at the 12 month mark.

 

[jillt2ph]

The last couple of years have gotten to be a jumble for my DVC but I think it was our 2020 fixed week reservation that "fell thru the cracks" and wasn't reserved. It was a year that several others reported the same thing and could have been 2019. I wasn't going to use it anyway so it didn't end up being an issue but was concerning and I'll check at 12 months from now on. 2021 was booked as it should have been and 2022 has been reserve as it should have been although I believe I will be cancelling it and just use the points.

Honestly, right now we enjoy doing split stays to make it easier to focus on the specific parks. That is why we have been cashing ours in. We needed 147 points to purchase our fixed week, but because of incentives it was cheaper to purchase 150. So for now it is basically just a 150 point contract. In the future, we will be quite content to just spend the whole week at Riviera

 

[Sandisw]

To be clear - this is only if the fixed week reservation has already been booked by DVC. If it hasn't been reserved then the points are sitting there in a contract and can be banked or borrowed depending on what you are looking to do.

Sorry. I was not clear. I was referring to banked and borrowed points sitting in your account.

Even if you have those, they will not use them to book the fixed week. It must be the current UY points.

One would not be allowed to bank 2021 points from other contracts at the same resort and then use those to book the fixed week in 2022.

But, you are correct that if you want to bank or borrow points instead of having the fixed week, it doesn’t prohibit that.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Sorry. I was not clear. I was referring to banked and borrowed points sitting in your account.

Even if you have those, they will not use them to book the fixed week. It must be the current UY points.

One would not be allowed to bank 2021 points from other contracts at the same resort and then use those to book the fixed week in 2022.

But, you are correct that if you want to bank or borrow points instead of having the fixed week, it doesn’t prohibit that.

Correct.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Honestly, right now we enjoy doing split stays to make it easier to focus on the specific parks. That is why we have been cashing ours in. We needed 147 points to purchase our fixed week, but because of incentives it was cheaper to purchase 150. So for now it is basically just a 150 point contract. In the future, we will be quite content to just spend the whole week at Riviera

Mine also has been using more points than would otherwise be required but it's gotten a little closer than when it was purchased and by 2023 the week will be higher if it were to just be booked on points vs using the fixed week. At that point I will also probably use the week vs cancel.