How often do you stay at your home resort?

[WDWLODGE]

Hello,

We just started looking at resales and we are finding that our preferred resort(VWL) is a hard one to get. Our vacation style is to go to WDW one a year. We like to start planning our next trip before we take the currently booked trip. We would plan on staying at the VWL every other year or every 3 years. The other years we would like to try the other resorts. We usually travel in May or Sept. through Early December, avoiding any busy holidays. I've read that October and early December are busy DVC times.

1. Are there any other times of the year other than October and Early December that are busy for DVC?
2. Are there any resorts that are hard to book 7 months out regardless of the time of the year?
3. How often do you stay at resorts other than your home resort?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[chalee94]

1. Are there any other times of the year other than October and Early December that are busy for DVC?
2. Are there any resorts that are hard to book 7 months out regardless of the time of the year?
3. How often do you stay at resorts other than your home resort?

1. sure. thanksgiving through new years' is all pretty busy to one degree or another. OTOH, i would think may and sept (not counting food and wine) would be good times to try other resorts...(i'd still call the morning that the 7 month window opens, though.)

2. VWL and BCV are smaller resorts (look at the stickied DVC resource thread to get a sense of the number of villas) so they can be tough, regardless. also, value and club level villas at AKV and standard view villas at BLT and BWV are fairly limited in number and can be tough to get at the 7 month window (while savanna view villas at AKV and nonboardwalk preferred view villas at BWV and lake view villas at BLT can be a little easier to get.)

3. i almost always book OKW at 10-11 months out. then if i want to try something else, i'll try to switch at 7 months out...but even if i get shut out and my waitlist never comes through (which has happened a couple of times in 7 or so years of ownership), then i've got a spot onsite at wdw at OKW and that's not bad at all...

 

[disneynutz]

We bought where we wanted to stay every year and have stayed at all of them except Aulani and VGF. VGF is this December and Aulani is in 2015.

We will use VGF and VWL for our MK stays and BWV for our Epcot and DHS stays.

Bill

 

[Sandisw]

We own BLT and BWV and stay there every trip..I bought there because I love being so close to the parks. DH and I will someday probably try out SSR because of the location to DTD and now that we will be doing more adult trips, it would make sense, but not worried about owning there to get it just due to the size...

 

[bighoo93]

We just started looking at resales and we are finding that our preferred resort(VWL) is a hard one to get. Our vacation style is to go to WDW one a year. We like to start planning our next trip before we take the currently booked trip. We would plan on staying at the VWL every other year or every 3 years. The other years we would like to try the other resorts. We usually travel in May or Sept. through Early December, avoiding any busy holidays. I've read that October and early December are busy DVC times.

I know this isn't one of your three questions, but relatively speaking, VWL is one of the easier resorts to book at the 7 month mark. As always, this varies based on time of year and room type. But even in, say, late this past September and January, when some other resorts started to get a little difficult to grab, you could still get the room of your choice at VWL.

If you are having difficulty finding VWL points, consider buying points at your next favorite resort, perhaps one like BLT or BWV, where the home booking advantage is always in play. Alternatively, if you just want to try different resorts and your timing can be flexible, go for the best value (probably SSR). At the 7 month mark, all points have the same utility. Some just cost less.

 

[drusba]

Hello,

We just started looking at resales and we are finding that our preferred resort(VWL) is a hard one to get. Our vacation style is to go to WDW one a year. We like to start planning our next trip before we take the currently booked trip. We would plan on staying at the VWL every other year or every 3 years. The other years we would like to try the other resorts. We usually travel in May or Sept. through Early December, avoiding any busy holidays. I've read that October and early December are busy DVC times.

1. Are there any other times of the year other than October and Early December that are busy for DVC?
2. Are there any resorts that are hard to book 7 months out regardless of the time of the year?
3. How often do you stay at resorts other than your home resort?

Thanks,
Bill

1. End of Sep through Marathon weekend in Jan is highest demand quarter for DVC. During that period, week before week Thanksgiving is in, third week of Dec, and time between Jan 3 and Wednesday before Marathon weekend are your easiest weeks to find something at 7 months out at a near park resort. VWL tends to be open 7 months out more often than not during that quarter until Thanksgiving time, other near park resorts are difficult to get Oct to mid-Nov. Few days around Thanksgiving are very difficult, then first week of Dec (DVCs highest demand week of the year) is virtually impossible for near park resorts, and near to impossible are second week of Dec and Dec 23 to Jan 2, unless looking for 1BR for which chances are better.

During rest of year, just after Marathon weekend in Jan to last few days of Sep, it is generally easy to get a near park resort at 7 months out, even for the holidays during that period except a BCV studio might be gone a couple of times during some holidays. VWL is usually open 7 months out all during that period.

2. AKV concierge and value, BLT standard view, BWV boardwalk and standard view, BWV GV's, and OKW GV's near Hospitality House are very often gone before the 7 month window opens much of the year, although you can sometimes find AKV value or BWV standard and boardwalk view in Sep with some chances in May. VGF is obviously an unknown but I suspect studios there will also be difficult at 7 months out year round once a significant portion is sold.

3. We tend to stick with home resorts but have two of them, BWV and AKV. We have also stayed at BLT, BCV, and OKW (once each). I have relatives that sometimes go with us who usually want either OKW or SSR Congress Park.

 

[Minniesgal]

I found late August really busy this year. We tried to change our AKV reservation at a couple of days after 7 months and it was fully booked.

We love split stays so will always have some time at our home resort AKV. Ideally a minimum of 4 nights although this year we are only managing 2

 

[Muhlenberg]

We stay at our home resort every 3 or 4 trips. We don't have a desire to stay at all the resorts, at least as of right now, but have tried most of the ones that we do. There are times that booking at home resort is necessary, because it's almost impossible to get somewhere else. One of those times is early December. We want to try various places with our big family trips, and for this coming December we ended up booking a grand villa. Our last big family trip was at Kidani (AKV is home), but wanted something a little different. Next up, though, is AKV again.

We bought DVC to try other resorts, but are perfectly happy if we can only stay at AKV. Love the animals! And even with owning there, it does NOT guarantee getting a Value room the first week of December when booking at 11 months.

You SHOULD be fine buying elsewhere, as long as you know that you might not be able to switch at 7 months into your resort of preference.

 

[VrBchJ]

I almost always stay at my "Homes," BWV and BLT. I really like to walk to the three parks. On my 8 day trips I often will do 4 days at each. I love AKV and enjoy staying there. I've stayed at all the WDW resorts (except VGF, of course.) But I prefer my two home resorts and am always happy to stay at either of them. And I'm so glad that I have BWV for Food and Wine and have them both for 1st two weeks of Dec. That's when I always do a split stay.

 

[EMILAYLAY93]

Our home resort is VWL, but we have never stayed there since buying 3 years ago. It is our favorite resort, but we have had difficulty getting reservations when we need them, even at 11 months. We usually go during the holidays or during the summer.

We are a family who doesn't want to move resorts in the middle of our reservation so we have stayed at AKV Kidani, Saratoga, and OKW so far. I have found that in order to get the exact dates we need, we need to be flexible with the resort. If I were you, I would still buy at the resort I most want to stay at.

Crossing my fingers that we will be able to stay for the first time at our home resort early January 2014.

 

[automaticsoap]

My plan is only to stay at my home resorts of BWV and VGF. While I am interested in trying out the other resorts, I picked my home resorts based on my personal preferences and can't see myself choosing others over them if they are available. Maybe this just means I need to increase the number of trips I go on...

 

[sanibel93]

I own at OKW for the last 4 years and have only stayed there. We like the points it takes to stay in the 2 bedroom and GV. We aslo like the laid bad atmosphere after a couple of long days at the parks when we need a break.

 

[Geomom]

Our resale is OKW...our favorite resort is actually BWV, but we were going for the cheapest Disney property when we bought. We have only stayed at OKW once so far, have had a pretty easy time getting BWV in February and April. At 6.5 months, I was only able to get 3 days in a row at VWL for mid-late August so we're doing a split stay with AKV Jambo. We amazingly got BCV during flower and garden festival right at the 7 mth mark for this past April vacation.

So...as long as it's not the busy period, booking right at 7 months should generally get you another resort, but it may not be your first choice. I always go into this with a list of my top 3 choices for this trip.

The 3 resorts with the most availability are OKW, SSR and AKV--so those should be the easiest to get into at 7 months.

Busy DVC times of year: all the holidays--Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year's as well as all of Food and Wine festival and I think the Marathon weekends tend to fill up as well.

 

[bwvBound]

1. Are there any other times of the year other than October and Early December that are busy for DVC?
2. Are there any resorts that are hard to book 7 months out regardless of the time of the year?
3. How often do you stay at resorts other than your home resort?

1. Consider that some locations have different high occupancy patterns. Hilton Head and Vero might be difficult to book in Summer? I sometimes read that Spring Break can also create a rush of reservations for WDW?

2. Grand Cal is tough year round.

3. 99% of my DVC reservations are "other than my home resort." This is partly due to geography: Grand Cal wasn't even a spec on the planning sheet when we purchased DVC. We've enjoyed two stays YTD for a total of 7 nights with another reservation on the books.

 

[spruce]

We generally stay at our home resorts, okw, bwv, and bwv. Usually booking during the 11 month window. On short notice short trips we take what we can get and prefer this order; bwv or bcv, akl savanna or okw, wlv, blt, ssv. We'll do split stays during longer stays too.

 

[TagsMissy]

See my responses

Hello,


1. Are there any other times of the year other than October and Early December that are busy for DVC? Any/all holidays would be busy... marathons and any sort of special events
2. Are there any resorts that are hard to book 7 months out regardless of the time of the year? BLT, BWV, GCA, BCV and while not open yet to full booking we all know GFV will be
3. How often do you stay at resorts other than your home resort? We take longer trips to WDW so we tend to do split stays of ~5 nights * 2 resorts. With one of the resorts to date always being BLT, my home resort

Thanks,
Bill

 

[htmlkid]

Never been to my home resort yet lol

 

[dansamy]

We spend most of our trips at AKV, which is one of our homes. This Sept will be our first trip to BLT, our other home.

 

[DVC Mike]

We tend to stay exclusively at our home resorts and always book 11 months in advance.

 

[dvcdisney]

We've stayed at 2 of our home resorts many times (BCV and AKV). We also own at Vero but we've yet to stay there.

We've stayed at non-home resorts - BWV and VWL many times. I've never had an issue booking at either of these at 7 mths during Spring Break or Summer. I also didn't have any trouble booking BLT at 7 mths when we stayed there once. We don't really like the resort so we haven't stayed there since. I didn't have any trouble booking OKW either but, again, we only stayed there once since we had family join us and points were less for a 2 bedroom.

We don't have any desire to stay at SSR. We would like to someday go to Vero and HH.

We are booked for this summer at Aulani and VGC.

I'm sure one day I'd like to try VGF, but no rush.

I understand that you'd prefer to buy at VWL, but if there is none available, you may consider another resort. Honestly, it's my "fall back" resort. If I can't get into the ones I want at 7 mths, I can always book VWL. AKV is similar to some people, but I bought into the resort because I wanted to have the 11 mths to book the 1 bedroom value rooms which are very few. Otherwise, there is always room there.