Has there been a change in how the points are assigned for a reservation?

[gr8ful]

That is what I would do when I know I have to book two rooms and we don’t have flexibility with dates.

Thank you, much appreciated!

 

[sndral]

Thank you for this thread! I am trying to learn about walking a reservation and this has helped.

I would appreciate your advice on the best way to book multiple rooms at VGF for a Feb 2026 trip. This our
home resort, so we plan to book at 11 months. The travel party consists of my wife and I, and our son, daughter-in-law, and four grandkids.

We hope to book a 7-day stay in a deluxe studio for us and a 2 BR villa for our family. I am concerned with my ability to book two rooms the morning the 11-month window opens, so I am thinking of booking the 2 BR the day before and then modifying the beginning and ending dates the following day.

So, if we wanted to book a studio and a 2 BR at VGF for Feb 8 - 14, 2026:
1. At 8 a.m. on March 7, 2025 book the 2 BR for Feb 7 - 14, 2026
2. At 8 a.m. on March 8, 2025 book the deluxe studio for the correct dates of Feb 8 - 14, 2026
3. Modify the 2 BR reservation to the real dates (Feb 8 - 14)

Is this the best plan?

Sorry for asking such a basic question; first time booking multiple rooms and attempting to walk a reservation.
These things make me nervous.

I am grateful for any input you can provide.

I just booked a similar combo at the VGF this morning. I had been checking availability daily for a couple of weeks & based on what I saw I was not concerned about availability w/ a 2 br. dedicated resort view villa, but I did see signs that the deluxe resort view studios were being walked which also impacted resort view lock off 2 br.s.
I thought about walking the studio, but opted not to & to just take my chances when the booking window opened figuring worst case scenario I could upgrade it to a preferred view deluxe studio since I had enough points to do so.
I was able to get both villas .
It’s possible the week of 2/8-14, may be more popular than my first week of Feb. reservation was due to some school’s winter break schedules.
Good luck.

 

[gr8ful]

I just booked a similar combo at the VGF this morning. I had been checking availability daily for a couple of weeks & based on what I saw I was not concerned about availability w/ a 2 br. dedicated resort view villa, but I did see signs that the deluxe resort view studios were being walked which also impacted resort view lock off 2 br.s.
I thought about walking the studio, but opted not to & to just take my chances when the booking window opened figuring worst case scenario I could upgrade it to a preferred view deluxe studio since I had enough points to do so.
I was able to get both villas .
It’s possible the week of 2/8-14, may be more popular than my first week of Feb. reservation was due to some school’s winter break schedules.
Good luck.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Happy for you that you were able to book your preferred room choices! Your situation is even more similar to ours in that we are also willing to book preferred views for both rooms. So perhaps we don’t need to be as concerned? At this point I am leaning toward booking the 2 BR a day early and then modifying it to ensure the kids get to experience a stay at VGF. My wife and I stayed there for the first time in January and loved it.

 

[sndral]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Happy for you that you were able to book your preferred room choices! Your situation is even more similar to ours in that we are also willing to book preferred views for both rooms. So perhaps we don’t need to be as concerned? At this point I am leaning toward booking the 2 BR a day early and then modifying it to ensure the kids get to experience a stay at VGF. My wife and I stayed there for the first time in January and loved it.

We’re checking out the day you check in - maybe you’ll get our villas .
Your thought to walk the 2 br. one day sounds like an anxiety reducing option & I’m all for that, I’ve owned DVC for a decade + & despite being experienced w/ booking, getting 2 villas at the same time was new & a bit stressful to me.
I did have the names, phone numbers, addresses & emails for the adults in my brother’s family & the kid’s ages written out on a list so that I could enter all that info. as I went through the booking for the 2 br.. The system holds the villa for you while you type in all of that info., so I like to take care of entering it while booking.

 

[gr8ful]

We’re checking out the day you check in - maybe you’ll get our villas .
Your thought to walk the 2 br. one day sounds like an anxiety reducing option & I’m all for that, I’ve owned DVC for a decade + & despite being experienced w/ booking, getting 2 villas at the same time was new & a bit stressful to me.
I did have the names, phone numbers, addresses & emails for the adults in my brother’s family & the kid’s ages written out on a list so that I could enter all that info. as I went through the booking for the 2 br.. The system holds the villa for you while you type in all of that info., so I like to take care of entering it while booking.

Good booking tips, thanks! This is only our fourth DVC reservation and the third made online so the advice is appreciated.

We’d be honored to be assigned the villas you vacate!

 

[gr8ful]

We’re checking out the day you check in - maybe you’ll get our villas .
Your thought to walk the 2 br. one day sounds like an anxiety reducing option & I’m all for that, I’ve owned DVC for a decade + & despite being experienced w/ booking, getting 2 villas at the same time was new & a bit stressful to me.
I did have the names, phone numbers, addresses & emails for the adults in my brother’s family & the kid’s ages written out on a list so that I could enter all that info. as I went through the booking for the 2 br.. The system holds the villa for you while you type in all of that info., so I like to take care of entering it while booking.

We ended up following your lead and took our chances booking both rooms today (opening of 11 month window). No problem
getting Resort View for both the 2BR and the Deluxe Studio.

Your advice was very helpful. Thanks again!

 

[sndral]

We ended up following your lead and took our chances booking both rooms today (opening of 11 month window). No problem
getting Resort View for both the 2BR and the Deluxe Studio.

Your advice was very helpful. Thanks again!

You’re welcome, I’m so pleased you got your villas .

 

[gr8ful]

You’re welcome, I’m so pleased you got your villas .

Thanks, we are very excited! DW and I had a wonderful time there on our recent trip (just us), but nothing beats being at WDW with the family.

Our first trip with them was in 2024, which was also our very first DVC trip. Even though VGF is our home resort, we stayed at BLT because they wanted to be able to back from MK for naps. (That never happened the entire week we were there.) So, they are very much looking forward to staying at VGF this time.

 

[MeridaMonkey]

Just to confirm, even if the padlock is there MS can re-allocate which points are used for a reservation?

I’m using both of my contracts for a stay in October (CCV direct and BLT resale)…my CCV direct points are being used for a back-up reservation at a FW cabin while my BLT resale points are used to build the reservation for my first choice (Poly deluxe studio). I have a padlock on my Poly res as of this morning.

Once I have all of the nights I want at Poly (only missing one night so I’m hopeful my waitlist will pan out soon), I want to drop the FW cabin res to free up my CCV points and then modify the Poly reservation to use those CCV points. Since the padlock is already on my Poly res, MS can make that point swap for me, correct? All reservations were made at the 7 month mark (and neither resort booked is a home resort anyway), so there’s no booking window issues.

Thank you!!

 

[eticketplease]

Just to confirm, even if the padlock is there MS can re-allocate which points are used for a reservation?

I’m using both of my contracts for a stay in October (CCV direct and BLT resale)…my CCV direct points are being used for a back-up reservation at a FW cabin while my BLT resale points are used to build the reservation for my first choice (Poly deluxe studio). I have a padlock on my Poly res as of this morning.

Once I have all of the nights I want at Poly (only missing one night so I’m hopeful my waitlist will pan out soon), I want to drop the FW cabin res to free up my CCV points and then modify the Poly reservation to use those CCV points. Since the padlock is already on my Poly res, MS can make that point swap for me, correct? All reservations were made at the 7 month mark (and neither resort booked is a home resort anyway), so there’s no booking window issues.

Thank you!!

I believe they can but is there a reason you want to do this?
I would want to hold on to the direct points since they can be booked anywhere unless you wanted more BLT for a standard at the 11 month window.

 

[MeridaMonkey]

I believe they can but is there a reason you want to do this?
I would want to hold on to the direct points since they can be booked anywhere unless you wanted more BLT for a standard at the 11 month window.

This . My family and I have plans for our BLT points in 2026 to book at BLT right at 11 months so the goal is to have those completely freed up once I’m done playing the 3D chess that is the 7 month DVC booking window