Help a dork figure out a 11 month reservation thingy

[jemiaule]

Yay, thanks for looking. I figure if you are reading this you either want to help a dork (that would be me!) or point and laugh at a dork (um, let's say that is someone else not me!).

I am trying to figure out the whole 11 month window/day by day reservation dealio and could use some assistance to make sure I do not screw things up.

We are trying to pull together a big get together next November for my mom and her brothers, sister, assorted other family members and want to do a Grand Villa. Personally I think we should do two 2 bedrooms so no one kills each other; but I digress....

The dates we are looking at are November 26th thru December 1st. Using the day by day strategy I should have started calling in yesterday (the 27th) correct?

Now when I call tomorrow (the 29th) I should be able to book the first 3 days right? I would ask for 11/26, 27, 28. I can't ask for the 29th yet can I?

Ok, you all still with me? How do I link up all these day by day reservations once I (hopefully) get all my days?


And...last question I promise...if all these people turn into flakes at what point can I cancel my reservation without losing my points or having them go into a holding account?

Thanks in advance for all the help,
Your Friendly Neighborhood dork

 

[Chuck S]

Yes, your booking dates are correct. You can book the 26th, 27th and 28th of November 2007 on December 29th, 2006.

Be sure to tell the member services rep that you will be booking day by day, and they will leave the reservation open the in computer system and issue the confirmation under one reservation number when you are finished.

For you to avoid having points in holding, you need to cancel the reservation at least 31 days prior to your check-in date. I don;t have a calendar in front of me, but I'll estimate October 23rd or 24th of 2007. Those points will then be put into the current use year. Normal banking provisions apply. And any points you borrowed from the following use year for the reservation can not be banked, they will expire at the end of the current use year.

 

[LisaS]

Yes, you could have booked the first night of your trip (11/26) on Dec 27th. So if you are calling for the first time on Dec 29th, you will be able to book the first three nights: 1/26, 11/27 and 11/28. When you make that call, tell MS you are booking day-by-day. They will ask you for your real departure date and will make a note to delay sending your confirmation until all nights of your stay are booked. On Sat Dec 30th, you will call MS again and tell them you want to modify an existing day-by-day reservation to add the night of 11/29. I expect MS will be closed on Mon Jan 1st so your next call will be made on Tue Jan 2nd and you will again modify your reservation to add on your remaining nights. During that call MS will notice that your reservation is now complete and should tell you that they will send out your confirmation. If they don't mention this, then just remind them.

Once you are done, you have just one reservation so there is nothing to "link", unless you booked some of the nights using a different master contract.

Your deadline to cancel to avoid your points going into holding is 31 days prior to check-in. At 30 days to 1 day prior to check-in, you still get your points back but they go into the holding account. If you cancel on your check-in day, you lose the points.

Your banking deadlines are also a concern. If you cancel 31 days or more prior to check-in you get the points back but if at that point you are in the last 2 months of your UY, then you cannot bank any of those points and would need to use them prior to the end of your UY. Similarly if you are using any banked or borrowed points for this trip and cancel 31 or more days prior to check-in, those banked or borrowed points stay in UY into which they were banked/borrowed. So you will need to use them for something else prior to the end of your UY.

Hope this helps!

 

[jemiaule]

Thanks you two! Glad to hear I had the basics down on this.

The points I am going to use for this are from our 2006 UY that I had banked. Since I have to use them this year I am just not goign to worry if people flake. My mom just said those who still go we will just have PLENTY of room to hide from each other if that happens.

Since I am being pesky question girl could someone point me to Grand Gathering info. There will be 12 of us and I believe I read there are Grand Gathering events you can do for parties of 8 or more.

 

[Caskbill]

We presume you're booking at your home resort and therefore know about the 11/7 month windows.

For planning purposes, feel free to download my DVC-Planner program. (See link below). It's free. Select your resort, click your dates on the calendar, and go to the reports section and you can see your day-by-day booking windows.

 

[Tinkaroo]

I hope your reservations are going smoothly! Your questions have actually helped me tremendously, as I'm getting ready to make a similar reservation next week!

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post another question here for the experts, in light of Lisa's comments.

In my own situation, I am banking all of my 2006, using my 2007 (Oct. UY), and borrowing all of my 2008 points to do a reservation for 3 units for my entire family next year.

If we have to cancel because of a death or something dramatic and awful like that, I know that my 2006 and 2008 points would remain in my '07 UY, and would have to be used for a reservation by the end of Sept. 08. However, would it be possible to take my 2007 UY points that are put back into my account, and bank them into 2008?

 

[Chuck S]

I hope your reservations are going smoothly! Your questions have actually helped me tremendously, as I'm getting ready to make a similar reservation next week!

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post another question here for the experts, in light of Lisa's comments.

In my own situation, I am banking all of my 2006, using my 2007 (Oct. UY), and borrowing all of my 2008 points to do a reservation for 3 units for my entire family next year.

If we have to cancel because of a death or something dramatic and awful like that, I know that my 2006 and 2008 points would remain in my '07 UY, and would have to be used for a reservation by the end of Sept. 08. However, would it be possible to take my 2007 UY points that are put back into my account, and bank them into 2008?

As long as you are within the proper banking windows, yes.

 

[RobDoc]

...
If we have to cancel because of a death or something dramatic and awful like that, I know that my 2006 and 2008 points would remain in my '07 UY, and would have to be used for a reservation by the end of Sept. 08. However, would it be possible to take my 2007 UY points that are put back into my account, and bank them into 2008?

Yes, you should be able to do that. If you know which components of your reservation are most likely to be cancelled , I'd reserve those using the 2007 points. Ohterwise, MS will need to reallocate your points to use the banked/borrowed points and free up the current points so they may be banked.

Enjoy!

 

[jemiaule]

We presume you're booking at your home resort and therefore know about the 11/7 month windows.

Yup - yup! Bought at my favorite resort just for this purpose.

For planning purposes, feel free to download my DVC-Planner program. (See link below). It's free. Select your resort, click your dates on the calendar, and go to the reports section and you can see your day-by-day booking windows.

I wish I could but it is PC only and I am on a Mac.

 

[Inkmahm]

I hope your reservations are going smoothly! Your questions have actually helped me tremendously, as I'm getting ready to make a similar reservation next week!

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post another question here for the experts, in light of Lisa's comments.

In my own situation, I am banking all of my 2006, using my 2007 (Oct. UY), and borrowing all of my 2008 points to do a reservation for 3 units for my entire family next year.

If we have to cancel because of a death or something dramatic and awful like that, I know that my 2006 and 2008 points would remain in my '07 UY, and would have to be used for a reservation by the end of Sept. 08. However, would it be possible to take my 2007 UY points that are put back into my account, and bank them into 2008?

Excellent question, as I'm doing the same thing next week for a large family gathering in Dec 2007. I'm using 3 years worth of points to set this trip up and will be really irritated if I end up with a problem with my husband's family flaking on me. It's good to know my 2007 points could be banked to 2008 so I have some protection...

 

[jemiaule]

OMG...so I call my mom and tell her I got our first few days of the reservation. I set up to get a Grand Gathering number, checking into DDP, etc. Insert much excitement here.

Mom then says "well I thought we were all going to do Hawaii (They have this two week vacation there we have to use by August) with all the family and WDW would just be us" (meaning my family of 4 and her & dad).

Gawd, we had just discussed this last night - so obviously one of us was confused. I refuse to comment on who (mom!)

I let her know - "you work out with your brothers and sister what you want to do for absolutely sure and just let me know. If you all decide to do Hawaii I am still keeping the GV and will invite some friends to join us too".

I figure I have these points banked from 2006 that I have to use, I can only make one trip next year so why not blow it on the GV with friends too if part of the family decides to do something different.

Ah, family drama...love it!

 

[FreeTime]

OMG...so I call my mom and tell her I got our first few days of the reservation. I set up to get a Grand Gathering number, checking into DDP, etc. Insert much excitement here.

Mom then says "well I thought we were all going to do Hawaii (They have this two week vacation there we have to use by August) with all the family and WDW would just be us" (meaning my family of 4 and her & dad).

Gawd, we had just discussed this last night - so obviously one of us was confused. I refuse to comment on who (mom!)

I let her know - "you work out with your brothers and sister what you want to do for absolutely sure and just let me know. If you all decide to do Hawaii I am still keeping the GV and will invite some friends to join us too".

I figure I have these points banked from 2006 that I have to use, I can only make one trip next year so why not blow it on the GV with friends too if part of the family decides to do something different.

Ah, family drama...love it!

Good luck! I have had the same thing happen to me. We discuss plans, I make them, and then I get the "Oh, that isn't going to work!" Go and make the best of it without them! Enjoy!