For those with fixed/guaranteed weeks . . .

[Anthony Vito]

When does the reservation appear in the Member Dashboard? We just purchased earlier this year, and it was too late to get our fixed week reservation for this year. We bought for the week after Thanksgiving, which is 11/29 next year. This means the 11-month window is later this month. I'm assuming it will show up before then? Since it will be the first time, I want to make sure there are no issues and everything works right, but don't want to find out something wasn't put through correctly AFTER all the rooms book up with regular 11-month bookings.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You should see it within the next 7-10 days.

 

[Spartan86]

I don’t own a fixed week. Curious is the “automatic reservation“ a generic/shell reservation that you modify for number of guests, names etc?

 

[striker1064]

We also own a guaranteed week, a run Disney event week for Wine and Dine. Our 11 month window for our week opened today but the reservation isn't appearing on our dashboard and the points haven't been taken.

Apparently, the GWs are ordinarily booked well before the 11 month window, but there's an issue with the bookings right now. MS told me our room was being held for us until the issue was resolved. Hopefully, it will be fixed by the time yours comes around later this month, but it it isn't booked, that might be why.

 

[Yinn]

I was told that guaranteed rooms are seperate stock and there's a room allocated for every guaranteed reservation. There's a team that goes through and reviews and allocates at the 11-mo mark (within the week); unless those points were used for other things or a request is made to cancel the reservation.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

You should get an email saying "We can't wait to see you". You will think, "wait, I haven't made any reservations". Then you will realize that this is your GW. It should appear BEFORE the 11 month booking window, which for Thanksgiving, would be late December.

If you haven't received it by a couple of days before your 11 month window, call Member Services.

If you have "borrowed" any points from the use year (and the specific contract) that contains your GW, you will not get the GW for that year. Because you have already opted to turn the GW into points and spend them that way.

Once your 11 month window comes around, if there is availability, you can cancel your GW and book it the regular way.

 

[crvetter]

I will also add that Thanksgiving floats between the 46th and 47th week of the year. So your week is static (counting Sundays from the beginning of the year), not relative to Thanksgiving; so depending on if you bought 48 or 47 you could actually be covering Thanksgiving week or 2 weeks after some years and the other years be 1 week after. 75% of the time Thanksgiving is week 47 though. It was odd if you bought week 47 for GW you could get Thanksgiving 75% of the time cheaper (by a fair margin) because DVC actually didn't realize this when they set the GW charts so the year they created them Thanksgiving was week 46 thus that GW was more money and week 47 (the more prominent week) was less money (for usually using more than the 10% buffer points you bought, actually DVC has to cover any shortage over that 10%). Now for Riviera it is the opposite 47 is more points and 46 is less, since Thanksgiving was week 47 when they created those charts.

The only dynamic weeks that were sold for CCV (and stopped with Riviera) was for the race weekends (3 of them, Marathon, Star Wars, and Food/Wine). I tried hard to get a week always pegged to Thanksgiving and my question went all the way to the top and even there they thought Thanksgiving always occurred in the same static week. I was assured by week 46 and I would always get Thanksgiving Week until I pointed this out and they told me not to buy under the assumption I would always have Thanksgiving.

 

[sethschroeder]

I will also add that Thanksgiving floats between the 46th and 47th week of the year. So your week is static (counting Sundays from the beginning of the year), not relative to Thanksgiving; so depending on if you bought 48 or 47 you could actually be covering Thanksgiving week or 2 weeks after some years and the other years be 1 week after. 75% of the time Thanksgiving is week 47 though. It was odd if you bought week 47 for GW you could get Thanksgiving 75% of the time cheaper (by a fair margin) because DVC actually didn't realize this when they set the GW charts so the year they created them Thanksgiving was week 46 thus that GW was more money and week 47 (the more prominent week) was less money (for usually using more than the 10% buffer points you bought, actually DVC has to cover any shortage over that 10%). Now for Riviera it is the opposite 47 is more points and 46 is less, since Thanksgiving was week 47 when they created those charts.

The only dynamic weeks that were sold for CCV (and stopped with Riviera) was for the race weekends (3 of them, Marathon, Star Wars, and Food/Wine). I tried hard to get a week always pegged to Thanksgiving and my question went all the way to the top and even there they thought Thanksgiving always occurred in the same static week. I was assured by week 46 and I would always get Thanksgiving Week until I pointed this out and they told me not to buy under the assumption I would always have Thanksgiving.

Can you modify a guaranteed week? The reason I ask is could you take your week 46 and make it a week 47 via walking? Or is it locked and can only be cancelled for you to book something else?

 

[crvetter]

Can you modify a guaranteed week? The reason I ask is could you take your week 46 and make it a week 47 via walking? Or is it locked and can only be cancelled for you to book something else?

When I asked they told me to modify the guaranteed reservation you essentially had to cancel it. That the only modifications could be to the guests essentially. The rules do specifically state this restriction.

The only other thing to note is those with RunDisney events can modify ever so slightly. But it’s pretty limited.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Can you modify a guaranteed week? The reason I ask is could you take your week 46 and make it a week 47 via walking? Or is it locked and can only be cancelled for you to book something else?

You need to cancel completely to get all the points you've actually purchased - the extra 10%. And you need to call in to do that as I understand otherwise it would just return the points actually required for the week. Then once cancelled the points can be used like any other points.

 

[sethschroeder]

You need to cancel completely to get all the points you've actually purchased - the extra 10%. And you need to call in to do that as I understand otherwise it would just return the points actually required for the week. Then once cancelled the points can be used like any other points.

I am thinking less about the premium of 10% extra points and more so about being able to move the reservation one week.

Have to be honest the guaranteed week was one of the draws of RIV for me personally. Ultimately decided to stick with BWV and purchased resale for now simply because all the amazing stays at BW we have had both on the Resort and Villas sides.

 

[striker1064]

When I asked they told me to modify the guaranteed reservation you essentially had to cancel it. That the only modifications could be to the guests essentially. The rules do specifically state this restriction.

The only other thing to note is those with RunDisney events can modify ever so slightly. But it’s pretty limited.

For our RunDisney week it doesn't even let me cancel it online, I have to call to do that too. But I see it shows the number of points used as the usual number for the week and not including the +10%, so that's probably why a call is required (to get all the points back).

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Our fixed reservation showed up approx 12 months ahead. We saw it around December 5, 2018 for this years reservation starting Dec. 8.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Ok, I was wrong. I still don’t have the 2020 reservation yet. But we are currently using the 2019 reservation. I’m thinking it has to be 12 months from the end of the reservation.

 

[Anthony Vito]

I will also add that Thanksgiving floats between the 46th and 47th week of the year. So your week is static (counting Sundays from the beginning of the year), not relative to Thanksgiving; so depending on if you bought 48 or 47 you could actually be covering Thanksgiving week or 2 weeks after some years and the other years be 1 week after. 75% of the time Thanksgiving is week 47 though. It was odd if you bought week 47 for GW you could get Thanksgiving 75% of the time cheaper (by a fair margin) because DVC actually didn't realize this when they set the GW charts so the year they created them Thanksgiving was week 46 thus that GW was more money and week 47 (the more prominent week) was less money (for usually using more than the 10% buffer points you bought, actually DVC has to cover any shortage over that 10%). Now for Riviera it is the opposite 47 is more points and 46 is less, since Thanksgiving was week 47 when they created those charts.

The only dynamic weeks that were sold for CCV (and stopped with Riviera) was for the race weekends (3 of them, Marathon, Star Wars, and Food/Wine). I tried hard to get a week always pegged to Thanksgiving and my question went all the way to the top and even there they thought Thanksgiving always occurred in the same static week. I was assured by week 46 and I would always get Thanksgiving Week until I pointed this out and they told me not to buy under the assumption I would always have Thanksgiving.

We have a Week 48 guaranteed week. I had calculated multiple years out to see if we always fell the week after Thanksgiving and thought that to be the case. After reading your post I looked much further out, and I saw that Thanksgiving will fall on week 46 about 4 times in the next 40 years (2029, 2035, 2046, 2057) - so I didn't realize there will be a few times we'll be two weeks after Thanksgiving.

 

[crvetter]

We have a Week 48 guaranteed week. I had calculated multiple years out to see if we always fell the week after Thanksgiving and thought that to be the case. After reading your post I looked much further out, and I saw that Thanksgiving will fall on week 46 about 4 times in the next 40 years (2029, 2035, 2046, 2057) - so I didn't realize there will be a few times we'll be two weeks after Thanksgiving.

Yeah it is a minor chance of happening but it actually just struck a cord that DVC wasn't even really aware of what they were selling, even super high up management (which is where I had conversations about this). CCV's fixed week for Thanksgiving week (or most prominent) was very cheap (and looks even cheaper after the 2021 point charts) since they were selling week 46 as Thanksgiving.

Pretty sure this only happens when the First Sunday of the Year is 1/7.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Slighly off topic, but I think CCV's fixed weeks Thanksgiving thru week 49 seem ro have been sold at a bargain.

I will be curious to see the prices for Riviera's fixed weeks and the points upcharge.

 

[LënuSëkahsëni]

I have a guaranteed runDisney event week for marathon weekend. Last year I received a call about 12 months out asking if I was planning to use my guaranteed week. I believe it showed up in the system right around the 11 month mark and required Member Services to make any modification including number of guest

Can you modify a guaranteed week? The reason I ask is could you take your week 46 and make it a week 47 via walking? Or is it locked and can only be cancelled for you to book something else?

I'm pretty sure the call to Member Services it to prevent walking (modifying a reservation). They would essentially cancel the reservation, and then you could create a new reservation if it was available.

 

[crvetter]

I'm pretty sure the call to Member Services it to prevent walking (modifying a reservation). They would essentially cancel the reservation, and then you could create a new reservation if it was available.

Guaranteed Weeks have to be used in the Sunday to Sunday window. If you want to modify them in any way (remove days from the beginning and/or end) you have to cancel the entire GW and book the room just like every other owner. So GW owners can not walk.

There is a small exception those that own (like you) a GW for a runDisney event may change the check-in or check-out day as long as the new date range includes the runDisney event you bought for. And if you modify the GW you have to pay the prevailing point cost (i.e. don't get the locked in point cost the GW provides).

 

[Anthony Vito]

So the 11-month booking window opens up for us tomorrow. I'm debating whether to call Member Services or just trust that it will get done correctly. It was mentioned above that the guaranteed week rooms are taken out of stock, which would make sense, since we have a contract that explicitly states they have to give us that room. So if they screw up and rent out how to stop at those rooms, I have to believe that they'd have to do something for us. By the same token, I'm thinking whether I should try to get on first thing tomorrow morning and take a shot at getting the reservation anyway (which I know was a longshot - very reason we went with a guaranteed week). If somehow I was able to get it that way, I'd save myself 11 points.