Got reservation at BWV five hours before check in!

[Doctor P]

While driving to Florida on July 17 for our recent DCL cruise we intended to stay in Valdosta, Georgia before heading to DTD for the day and then on to a hotel in Cocoa Beach. Well...we got an earlier start from our first night hotel than we expected and I jokingly said to my wife at about 10:00 am, "Do you think I should call Disney and see if they have any DVC rooms available for tonight?" She said, "Do we have points?" and I said, "We added on in May, so we now have 32 points for this year that are unaccounted for in our vacation plans." She said, "let's give it a try." To make a long story short, I called MS from the car and asked for availability at any resort. The CM put me on hold and came back a few minutes later and said,"all we have available is a one bedroom preferred at Boardwalk Villas, it's 30 points." We decided to take the villa, especially since we had never stayed in a 1 BR and had never stayed at Boardwalk. We ended up driving 975 miles to be able to stay at Disney that night, getting in at about 9:30 pm after 15 hours of driving. We then hung out on the Boardwalk and went to Beaches and Cream, getting back to the room at about midnight. Our room was nice, but much smaller than I expected the 1BR to be. It had a view of the pool and of MGM. BTW, we saw both Illuminations (as we were driving in) and the finale of Fantasmic (from our balcony). The next day we had a relaxed breakfast and went to DTD for about 5 hours before heading off to Cocoa Beach. Morale: never assume you can't get a reservation at the very last moment! Saved some out of pocket cash for a motel, and we had a much more relaxed day before our cruise as a result of being at WDW rather than several hours drive away in Valdosta to start the day.

 

[Disney Doll]

What good luck!!!! And why not use the points if potentially they are going to be lost anyhow, if they are not bankable.

The BWV rooms are smaller than OKW, but what they lack in size, they make up for in location. That's the beauty of the DVC...there's something that pleases everybody!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

About a year ago, we were able to switch from OKW to BWV after we had already arrived on Disney property. I simply went to the front desk and asked if they had space available, the CM on the Front Desk went in back, made a couple of phone calls and got us all switched around. We had a studio overlooking the Boardwalk. Normally wouldn't go to all this trouble, but our son wanted to stay on the Boardwalk, and it was his birthday, so we gave it a try. We were very pleased that Disney was so willing to work with us on making the switch.

 

[PamOKW]

Doctor P, you've got Disneyitis bad. What fun to get something spur of the moment like that!

 

[Doctor P]

I plead guilty, Pam. You know, it was extra magical because we had not really even considered the idea because of how we had timed the trip, and I had not thought of it until I made the original comment to me wife. The funniest thing is that, despite making the reservation in the car, DSD (13 yo) didn't know we were going to WDW to stay until we got on the property. We decided to try to surprise her, and it worked! Very magical to see the look on her face.

 

[Cruelladeville]

975 miles in one day?? When I told my DH, he commented that it's exactly what we would do for a DVC hotel stay, especially at this time in the summer. We've been home for a month, and have major Disney withdrawl. You were so lucky, though, to get a room on five hours notice--that's my dream, a last minute vacation! In the old days, I used to set up an entire Polynesian stay on three days notice, but it's almost unheard of to do that now. congratulations!

 

[CarolA]

I did something like this earlier this year. I decieded around 9 am that I wanted to go to Disney NOW! I had a free plane ticket and called DVC. Got a studio at OKW for Friday and Saturday nights and I was GONE. Then on Saturday I added Sunday!