How quickly to book for November?

[brightspark]

Hi,
Dh and I are planning on travelling to WDW in November (24th - Dec 3rd) with my sister. Due to not having unlimited points and not wanting to pay a fortune in airfares this seems the best time to go and still enjoy the christmas bits of WDW which my sis and I have never done before.

Our home resort is SSR but we don't have quite enough points for this and are therefore thinking of staying at OKW. Trouble is that although we could book SSR now, we can't book OKW for until April I think.

The question is this... do you think that we are likely to be able to get a reservation (2 studios) for November (just after thanksgiving) if we leave booking until end of April, or do you think we should try and trade some SSR points with someone for some OKW points?

What would you do and why?

We don't want to leave it too long before booking flights as they are expensive enough and we don't want them to go shooting up again making our trip too expensive to carry through!

Thanks for your help

 

[kimpossible]

I would book the rooms at your home resort now. Then switch at the 7 month window just to be safe.

 

[crisi]

I'd book as many nights as you can at SSR now, plan to switch in April (I think you'll do fine at OKW, but you may need to use the waitlist) and plan on staying one night on cash as a backup plan to be able to make airfare plans when you want and stay the length you want. Either use the SSR cash discount, or book a different resort. We were slightly short on points for the vacation I wanted to take last trip and booked one night at the Animal Kingdom - which was really nice. Lots of DVCers book their first night offsite or in a Value.

 

[Cruelladeville]

I decided to retire last summer, and a week later--BAM!--I was a retired lady with unlimited time on my hands, and no longer did I have to go to Disney on school vacations. So I decided to go down for Thanksgiving, and the week after. I had to waitlist for Thanksgiving vacation, but I eventually got it all. I ended up staying at SSR, and it was very nice, although the week after turned out to be cloudy and rainy.

Now, to your question about what you should do: I would use my points to rent Thanksgiving week at your home resort--NOW--and as many nights after that as you can. Then, I would borrow the points from next year to finish my ressie, or, if that isn't an option, I would rent points for the other nights you need. At the very least, you could get a cash discount for the nights that you have to use cash. I wouldn't wait for OKW at the 7 month window. Thanksgiving is one of those times when you need to use your 11 month window, so get moving on that TODAY!

 

[brightspark]

I would book the rooms at your home resort now. Then switch at the 7 month window just to be safe.

Hi thanks to all for this information. We have 158 points left from next years quota - we have a dec use year (we used a lot on this trip because we didn't think we'd be able to go again and now our situation has changed) so we don't have enough points to do 2 rooms at SSR. We could book one room for that time...

We haven't ever done anything other than use our points... how do you swap them? Is there a penalty for this... or is it free as long as you do it well in advance (eg the 7 month mark?) and can you swap 9 days in one room at ssr for 9 nights in a different number of rooms at OKW?

Thanks again for your help

 

[Figment2]

Brightspark - you state you have 158 points left in "next year's quota." I, too, have a Dec. use year. Do you mean Dec. 2007 or Dec. 2008? Since the December stay crosses into your "new" use year, you can borrow 2008 points for your stay.

Cyn

 

[brightspark]

Brightspark - you state you have 158 points left in "next year's quota." I, too, have a Dec. use year. Do you mean Dec. 2007 or Dec. 2008? Since the December stay crosses into your "new" use year, you can borrow 2008 points for your stay.

Cyn

It's so confusing having a use year that starts in december. We have used our use year 2006 points (which go from dec 06 - 07) and have 158 of our points from use year 2007 (07-08)... so yes we could use our points from use year 2008, but when can we book using them.. we would be out there before they use year started.

We are pretty new to this.. so it's still a bit confusing

 

[castleri]

I believe you can borrow the 2008 points for reservations after Dec 1 2007 so you would have them for the Dec dates. Of course if you can switch at 7 months make sure they use the ones you borrowed first so you would be able to bank the extra ones from 2007 into 2008. Youo can book now for SSR as far as I know.

 

[Figment2]

Brightspark - you can book SSR now and use the 12/08 points for Dec. 1,
2nd & 3rd.

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago.

Cyn

 

[Deb & Bill]

Your OKW reservation will probably use fewer points than a SSR reservation. Make sure you don't borrow for your reservation, because you can't unborrow those points when you don't need as many. And you will want to check your banking deadlines because you might have points let to bank after making the OKW reservation.