How far out

[TheBigErn]

How far can you book a room only reservation? Does it matter if it's a vacation club room?

 

[Farro]

499 days (I think from check OUT date? but not sure as I remember being confused...) overr the phone for hotel stays, not sure about DVC.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

DVC owners can book their home resort 11 months out and other resort 7 months out. If you are booking with cash through WDW, DVC resort availability really fluctuates between those timeframes depending on which resort you are interested in. Are you renting points?

 

[TheBigErn]

DVC owners can book their home resort 11 months out and other resort 7 months out. If you are booking with cash through WDW, DVC resort availability really fluctuates between those timeframes depending on which resort you are interested in. Are you renting points?

Maybe my question wasn't clear. I'm not asking about using points. I'm talking about booking a room directly on the Disney website, whether its at the regular resort or a vacation club part of the resort.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Maybe my question wasn't clear. I'm not asking about using points. I'm talking about booking a room directly on the Disney website, whether its at the regular resort or a vacation club part of the resort.

If you want to book directly on the Disney website, you can book until December 2020 at this point. If you actually go to the website, you will see how far out you can book. If you call in, you can book up to 499 days in advance for a regular resort room (room-only at this point as 2021 packages won't be released until summer 2020).

If you are trying to book a room, through Disney, that is part of DVC, you will need to start checking availability at the 11 month mark and keep checking from there (unless you are looking to book Riviera which may have more cash reservations at this point as it only started selling recently). At DVC resorts, as I mentioned, owners get first dibs at the 11 month mark at their home resort and can then also book at their non-home resort 7 months prior. For example, if you check exactly 11 months from now, only Riviera shows up. If you check 10 months from now, more DVC resorts are available.

No matter what, you will not be able to book anything online past December 2020 until packages are released next summer. If you are trying to book for 2021, you need to call in, but, again, can't book past the 499 day mark.

If you let us know your dates and which resort you are interested in, perhaps we can guide you a little better. Otherwise, if you simply go to the website and look at the booking calendar, you can see how far out you can book.

 

[TheBigErn]

If you want to book directly on the Disney website, you can book until December 2020 at this point. If you actually go to the website, you will see how far out you can book. If you call in, you can book up to 499 days in advance for a regular resort room (room-only at this point as 2021 packages won't be released until summer 2020).

If you are trying to book a room, through Disney, that is part of DVC, you will need to start checking availability at the 11 month mark and keep checking from there (unless you are looking to book Riviera which may have more cash reservations at this point as it only started selling recently). At DVC resorts, as I mentioned, owners get first dibs at the 11 month mark at their home resort and can then also book at their non-home resort 7 months prior. For example, if you check exactly 11 months from now, only Riviera shows up. If you check 10 months from now, more DVC resorts are available.

No matter what, you will not be able to book anything online past December 2020 until packages are released next summer. If you are trying to book for 2021, you need to call in, but, again, can't book past the 499 day mark.

If you let us know your dates and which resort you are interested in, perhaps we can guide you a little better. Otherwise, if you simply go to the website and look at the booking calendar, you can see how far out you can book.

That's the answer I was looking for. I knew there was a way to book further out than December...the call in. Thanks.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Even Disney cannot offer a DVC unit more than 11 months out, save possibly at Riviera right now.

 

[Lynne M]

I just want to clarify how DVC inventory works for those reading along.

It's not really true that members get first crack at DVC rooms, and then the general public can book them. The room inventory that's owned by the members is completely separate, and cannot be booked by the general public. That accounts for 90%-ish of the room inventory at any fully-sold* DVC resort.

Disney retains ownership of 10%-ish of the room inventory at each DVC resort. That's what you'll see on the regular DVC resort-booking site. But - Disney may not be offering all of those rooms for booking right away. They sometimes hold some back if they're doing renovations or major maintenance on a resort, in case they need to swap out some rooms for member bookings.

Now, there are some very specific situations where you'll see rooms from the member inventory show up as available for general public reservations. If members exchange out of the DVC system and use points for cruises, ABD, etc, a room/rooms of comparable value gets transferred over for cash reservations, and the money received is used to recoup the cost of the member's exchange. That's not real common; most members use their points for DVC resorts. Also, any DVC member inventory rooms that are still unreserved at 60 days out get transferred over for cash reservations, and funds from those bookings come back to the membership. If I'm remembering correctly, those rooms can be pulled back to DVC member inventory if a member wants to book them within that 60-day window.

To boil all that down in practical terms

1. Only a relatively small percentage of DVC resort rooms ever become available to the general public.

2. These rooms start appearing around 11 months out, and can be added at any point after that. If you want to book DVC through Disney, start looking at 11 months and if you don't see what you want, keep checking back.

3. Don't expect to see certain highly-sought-after DVC room types available for cash reservations. For example, BWV grand villas or standard view, or AKV club level. It can happen, it has happened, but it's very uncommon for those rooms to turn up.

*as @_auroraborealis_ mentioned, resorts that are not yet fully sold to members (like Riviera) often have more rooms available to the general public. This is because Disney owns the entire room inventory when the resort first goes up for sale, and that slowly dwindles as members buy into the resort and more and more rooms get declared into member inventory.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

And for sold-out resorts, even with Dinsey having control of 2-10%+ of the points, they can't use those points to "book" units to send to cash reservations in advance of other point owners.

 

[DVC_HK]

I just want to clarify how DVC inventory works for those reading along.

It's not really true that members get first crack at DVC rooms, and then the general public can book them. The room inventory that's owned by the members is completely separate, and cannot be booked by the general public. That accounts for 90%-ish of the room inventory at any fully-sold* DVC resort.

Disney retains ownership of 10%-ish of the room inventory at each DVC resort. That's what you'll see on the regular DVC resort-booking site. But - Disney may not be offering all of those rooms for booking right away. They sometimes hold some back if they're doing renovations or major maintenance on a resort, in case they need to swap out some rooms for member bookings.

Now, there are some very specific situations where you'll see rooms from the member inventory show up as available for general public reservations. If members exchange out of the DVC system and use points for cruises, ABD, etc, a room/rooms of comparable value gets transferred over for cash reservations, and the money received is used to recoup the cost of the member's exchange. That's not real common; most members use their points for DVC resorts. Also, any DVC member inventory rooms that are still unreserved at 60 days out get transferred over for cash reservations, and funds from those bookings come back to the membership. If I'm remembering correctly, those rooms can be pulled back to DVC member inventory if a member wants to book them within that 60-day window.

To boil all that down in practical terms

1. Only a relatively small percentage of DVC resort rooms ever become available to the general public.

2. These rooms start appearing around 11 months out, and can be added at any point after that. If you want to book DVC through Disney, start looking at 11 months and if you don't see what you want, keep checking back.

3. Don't expect to see certain highly-sought-after DVC room types available for cash reservations. For example, BWV grand villas or standard view, or AKV club level. It can happen, it has happened, but it's very uncommon for those rooms to turn up.

*as @_auroraborealis_ mentioned, resorts that are not yet fully sold to members (like Riviera) often have more rooms available to the general public. This is because Disney owns the entire room inventory when the resort first goes up for sale, and that slowly dwindles as members buy into the resort and more and more rooms get declared into member inventory.

So going back to the whole Disney owning a part of the resort. We have been told OKW,SSR,and now RIV will be only DVC members when fully bought out. How does that work or was it just smoke and mirrors from our rep?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

So going back to the whole Disney owning a part of the resort. We have been told OKW,SSR,and now RIV will be only DVC members when fully bought out. How does that work or was it just smoke and mirrors from our rep?

Every DVC unit is represented by points. Even at OKW, SSR and RIV, Disney are required by law to own at least 2% of those points. They also own 2% of the points in each DVC condo association at resorts "shared" with cash hotels.

They also gain control of additional points through member trades.

No DVC resort is ever "only DVC members" due to cash bookings made on "rented" reservations through Disney itself. Disney is booking those units with points Disney owns, then renting them for cash. It's no different than a DVC rental agency in a sense, ssave that it is in-house.

 

[Denise W]

I think what they meant was those are the only DVC resorts that are DVC only, i.e. there is no hotel portion attached to the resort.
Denise

 

[TheBigErn]

Wow did this discussion go far afield of my original question.

 

[Lynne M]

So going back to the whole Disney owning a part of the resort. We have been told OKW,SSR,and now RIV will be only DVC members when fully bought out. How does that work or was it just smoke and mirrors from our rep?

Your rep meant that all of the rooms in those resorts will be DVC units, studios and villas, as opposed to those resorts that are a mix of “regular” hotel rooms and villas, like WL/BRV/CC, BWV/BWI, BC, BCV, etc.

There are no members-only DVC resorts.

 

[DVC_HK]

Every DVC unit is represented by points. Even at OKW, SSR and RIV, Disney are required by law to own at least 2% of those points. They also own 2% of the points in each DVC condo association at resorts "shared" with cash hotels.

They also gain control of additional points through member trades.

No DVC resort is ever "only DVC members" due to cash bookings made on "rented" reservations through Disney itself. Disney is booking those units with points Disney owns, then renting them for cash. It's no different than a DVC rental agency in a sense, ssave that it is in-house.

I got ya now. So technically it is points only but not really

 

[DVC_HK]

Your rep meant that all of the rooms in those resorts will be DVC units, studios and villas, as opposed to those resorts that are a mix of “regular” hotel rooms and villas, like WL/BRV/CC, BWV/BWI, BC, BCV, etc.

There are no members-only DVC resorts.

Thank y’all for the clear up! Now we just need them to declare some more rooms

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Thank y’all for the clear up! Now we just need them to declare some more rooms

Because of how declarations and point sales work, declaration doesn't really open up more availability.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Some inventory on the Disney Reservation Center for DVC units may also come from units that represent the points a member trades to DVC for non-DVC Disney trips, like Adv by Disney, the Disney Cruise Line or booking a Disney hotel room instead of a DVC unit. So a member trades points for a non-DVC stay and DVC rents out a unit that represents those points for cash to pay for the member's stay.