Hard to Book Rooms

[The Foolish Mortal]

I am hoping someone here can offer some sage advice. I would love to book either a Poly over the water bungalow or one of the lakeside cabins at WL. I never see them available when i check online. Its my (very limited) understanding that those rooms are offered to DVC members first (which I am not one of). So are there any tips for trying to book one of these rooms, other than just getting lucky? I have tried so many different dates, lengths of stay, and number of guests trying to book these rooms over the past year that I have lost track. So if anyone has any good tips, i would greatly appreciate it.

 

[SkyGuy]

I saw a Poly bungalow listed yesterday on one of the DVC points rental sites. I believe it was for several days in September - I *think* it was between $15K and $20K (I want to say 16 or 18 but can’t remember exactly since I was just scrolling past.) So maybe look into renting DVC points.

 

[rdevans_2000]

DVC members likely get first dibs on those and they are in high demand. You can rent points from. DVC member. I am a DVC owner and help people do this every year. I currently have a post in the DVC rental forum on Disboards. Feel free to PM me with the Disboards private conversation utility and we can chat further.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

Thanks. Not really interested in renting DVC points, but the the suggestion is appreciated

 

[Polychrome]

Thanks. Not really interested in renting DVC points, but the the suggestion is appreciated

 

[Best Aunt]

I would try calling Disney to inquire. I am DVC and looked at the calendar and most of August, about half of Sept and most of October are open for DVC booking, but in trying some of those dates on the regular Disney booking site, they came up as not available. I DID find Aug 6th - Aug 12th available for a bungalow when clicking under room only price and a package price. I am not sure why. Good luck !

PP found bungalows for cash for August 6-12 because that is less than 60 days away.

Other people explain this better than I do, but here are the situations where DVC rooms become available for cash bookings through Disneyworld.com or by calling 407-W-DISNEY:

a) Breakage: DVC rooms not booked at 60 days before the reservation date can be given to Disney to use for cash bookings.

b) Use of points for other purposes: If a DVC member uses their points to book a cruise, then those points are converted to rooms which are available to book through Disney for cash.

c) New resorts: When a new DVC resort is opened, availability is released to DVC members a little at a time. The newer the resort, the less availability to be booked with DVC points and the more availability to be booked through Disney for cash. After the resort is fully released to DVC members to book with points, a very small percentage can still be booked through Disney because 100% is not released to DVC members. OP is asking about cash bookings at Poly and WL; those are not new resorts and have been fully released to DVC members to book with points, so only a small percentage remains to be booked through Disney for cash.

 

[hoffse]

Your best bet for securing those specific rooms is renting DVC points 11 months in advance of your trip. There are a few brokers that are recommended and safe to use. You do have to pay in advance and it’s generally nonrefundable so you probably want travel insurance if you go that route. The inventory for DVC is different than the inventory held for Disney cash bookings, and those rooms you want are DVC rooms so DVC members get first dibs.

I’ve gone down the rabbit hole on this because I want to stay in a 2 bedroom next time we go, and I have concluded that DVC rental is the way of the future for my family if we opt to stay on property going forward. We really value the space with kids of different ages (and therefore different bedtimes), we are generally locked into dates because of school schedules, and I have successfully made claims under travel insurance before so I’m comfortable prepaying for DVC and relying on insurance for a true emergency. What I’m not going to do is pay Disney rack rates for multiple rooms at the resorts we want to visit going forward because they have gotten ridiculously expensive for what they are actually offering guests IMO.

Anyway, you may get lucky with something that pops up if a member just happens to book a cruise or something or within 60 days of your trip when unused DVC rooms are released back to Disney for cash bookings as well…. but that’s a total crapshoot. If you are really committed to a specific room type at a specific resort then DVC rental is the best opportunity to secure it.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

On 12/30/22, I happened to check the regular Disney site and found an overwater bungalow available at Poly for our May 12-16 2023 trip. It was available for at least 4 nights.

I booked it as a room only reservation for 2 nights. The cost per night was $3,246 and then went to $3,651.75 with taxes.

The room does not include any Club Level benefits.

I had never seen it available (or even knew the cost), so I jumped on it when I could.

Once I did some research and asked here, I canceled the reservation. The cost of the room was hard to swallow for no Club Level or any other amenities and I couldn’t justify the price for our family.

Good luck. I hope you are able to find it available and that I was able to prepare you for the sticker shock.

 

[Dave006]

Once I did some research and asked here, I canceled the reservation. The cost of the room was hard to swallow for no Club Level or any other amenities and I couldn’t justify the price for our family.

The Bungalows (Poly) and the Cascade Cabins (WL) sleep up to 8 so they are popular with larger groups that split the costs.

Dave

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

So it is sounding like my best shot is just get lucky and probably check 60 days out from a trip and see if anything has come available

 

[gottalovepluto]

So it is sounding like my best shot is just get lucky and probably check 60 days out from a trip and see if anything has come available

I would call Disney today and look for 2024 availability. Sometimes our computers at home give us bad info because of Disney’s crap IT. I would call today because rooms for 2024 cash bookings were just released a couple weeks ago, ideally you would have called on release day but that ship sailed so sooner rather than later in pursuit of the limited cash inventory they might have.

 

[Chuck S]

Here's how DVC works. Those bungalows are owned/controlled by DVC. However, when a DVC member trades their points for venues outside of DVC (cruises, Adv by Disney, etc) DVC accomodations representing those points are turned over to Disney Resort reservations to recoup the cost of the trade out. That is one way DVC accomodations become available to cash guests. Other ways are that Disney retains a percentage of points to use to take a DVC unit out of service for repairs/updates. WHen repairs/updates are not necessary, Disney Resorts will rent unit represented by those points. And lastly, what is called "breakage inventory" when a DVC unit is NOT reserved by members on their points 60 days out, the unit is turned over to Disney Reservations. if the unit has not rented, and a DVC member wants it, sometime it can be recalled by DVC. However, DVC/Disney can estimate in advance the number of breakage inventory units, and make them available in advance of the 60 day mark.

It is a complicated system, but it works. But you may never see a particular unit type available for cash rentals, as Disney and DVC want the units rented, they usually take a mix of units for that purpose...what they think will be most likely to rent.

 

[Anthony1971]

As above your best bet is to call. We own DVC and truthfully the Bungalows are mostly booked for a night or 2 stay here and there as the point value is so high. With that so is the $ cost so it best to call. As explained above DVC is set up in such a way if an owner "trades" points out for a cruise or another timeshare or............ as well as some points are still owned by DVC and some points are lost if an owner does not use them all of this is "sold" to Disney and Disney in turn lists as cash rooms. As far as I am aware there is no known formula of how this works but it is know about the 60 days cash booking which also includes more than above. In other words it is likely Disney just buys X points and may have discretion as to how those points are allocated to sell a room for cash. Short story as I said call with your specific dates and ask as they may be able to reallocate the owned points.
The downside as others have pointed out those rooms do not include Club access and for cash you likely can get a larger suite with club access. With that I will add my 10000% opinion and the reason I stronly suggest calling. If I were Disney and had X points I would allocate to studios as they are much easier to sell.
As far as the cabins they are booked by points far more frequently so that may be much harder to get.
Don't Feel shorted if you can not get one as Disney has many suites in all Deluxe resorts are a lot are FAR nicer... You Tube AKL. Poly, GF, CR suites and you may just change your mind when you hear the price of a Bungalow vs one of the others.

 

[rdevans_2000]

Thanks. Not really interested in renting DVC points, but the the suggestion is appreciated

Understood. Best wishes. Hope you snag the room you want!

 

[CarolynFH]

So it is sounding like my best shot is just get lucky and probably check 60 days out from a trip and see if anything has come available

One thing I haven't seen mentioned above - Disney is a DVC owner too, and the earliest they can book is 11 months from checkin, just like all the other DVC owners. So no need to start checking more than 11 months from your desired trip dates - but as above, availability gets better as the time gets closer.