How to switch ressie from resort to another?

[pixie08]

Hi everyone! I am a new DVC member and still just figuiring out the ins and outs and hope you could help. I tried searching but couldn't find exactly what I was asking for.

Dh and I were hoping to head down for a couple of days Columbus day weekend for F&W. Our home is AKV so I was going to book there now. As you can imagine i would love to stay in the EPCOT area so I want to switch my ressie at the 7 month mark. Is this possible? How do I do this if there is availability at BWV or BCV (fingers crossed). TIA

 

[CapeCodFam]

At 7 months from check-out, call member services and ask to switch or waitlist to either BWV or BCV or both. If there's anything open, it's yours. Otherwise, you can be put on a waitlist if anything opens up.

Lots of members want to stay there for the reason you mentioned. It's very popular. But, worth trying for. Best wishes!

 

[Granny]

As you can imagine i would love to stay in the EPCOT area...

I'm sure you can imagine that many DVC owners have this same desire.

Many people buy BCV or BWV contracts specifically to get the 11 month booking advantage for those resorts for F&W. If you think you'll want to go there every few years, you might want to do a smaller add-on at one of those resorts to give you a much better shot at getting a reservation there at that time.

Good luck!

 

[cigar95]

As a potential DVC member who is probably closer to getting in than ever before (suddenly and unexpectedly, my wife is interested), I'd like to take the original question a little further.

Looking at the original scenario, where I have a visit booked at AKV, but I'd like to stay at BCV. Suppose the wait-list process allows me to book one or two nights of my trip at BCV, hoping to eventually get all six. But I don't want to give up my reservation at AKV until I know I have all the nights at BCV. (Does that make sense so far? Is it considered "bad form" to hold nights at two properties while knowing I'm only going to use one of them?)

So suppose at this point I have currently booked six nights at AKV, plus three overlapping nights at BCV. Now a fourth night becomes available at BCV, but I don't have enough current year points to hold both reservations.

Option 1 - borrow points from next year. A bad choice, since they can't be unborrowed, and I already know I'm not going to use both reservations. Borrowing just to hold nights that aren't going to be used is begging for trouble.

Option 2 - if the available BCV nights are contiguous at the beginning or end of my dates, I can cancel *part* of my AKV reservation, and hope that I can eventually pick up the remaining nights at BCV. If not, I'm left with a split stay. Not desirable if we prefer not to move in mid-trip, but workable.

Option 3? I'm sure this scenario has come up before. Is there a way to do this sort of thing gracefully?

Thanks for any thoughts here.

 

[dvcdisney]

As a potential DVC member who is probably closer to getting in than ever before (suddenly and unexpectedly, my wife is interested), I'd like to take the original question a little further.

Looking at the original scenario, where I have a visit booked at AKV, but I'd like to stay at BCV. Suppose the wait-list process allows me to book one or two nights of my trip at BCV, hoping to eventually get all six. But I don't want to give up my reservation at AKV until I know I have all the nights at BCV. (Does that make sense so far? Is it considered "bad form" to hold nights at two properties while knowing I'm only going to use one of them?)

So suppose at this point I have currently booked six nights at AKV, plus three overlapping nights at BCV. Now a fourth night becomes available at BCV, but I don't have enough current year points to hold both reservations.

Option 1 - borrow points from next year. A bad choice, since they can't be unborrowed, and I already know I'm not going to use both reservations. Borrowing just to hold nights that aren't going to be used is begging for trouble.

Option 2 - if the available BCV nights are contiguous at the beginning or end of my dates, I can cancel *part* of my AKV reservation, and hope that I can eventually pick up the remaining nights at BCV. If not, I'm left with a split stay. Not desirable if we prefer not to move in mid-trip, but workable.

Option 3? I'm sure this scenario has come up before. Is there a way to do this sort of thing gracefully?

Thanks for any thoughts here.

I have a suggestion: If you don't want all the stress and hassle of having two ressies and possibly having to borrow, I would keep all my AKV ressies in place. Then at the 7 month mark check to see if it's available for BCV. If not, you can request to be on the waitlist for the WHOLE time, not day by day. That way, if all the dates become available and your next on the waitlist, then it's yours. You wouldn't have to worry about having two ressies for each day. Now this could mean that you may not get it, because it has to wait for all the days to be available at the same time. So this would be a chance you can take. Just a suggestion.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

I just began doing what the OP is suggesting. My DH and I are going for a quick trip in Sept. and I booked at AKV at the 11 month mark and today began the process of switching over to BWV. I am calling day by day and switching. I am fortunate to have over 100 pts left in my 08 use year and he booked using new points then canceled the other night and put the points back in my account. It isn't F & W but MS said to call each morning right at 9am est. I am trying to get a standard studio which is the hardest because of the low points. I have our 1st day transfered to BWV with 3 more to go. Wish me luck! We are excited to stay so close to Epcot. This will be the 1st time visiting Disney for just the two of us since our honeymoon in 1995.

 

[wildernessDad]

Hi everyone! I am a new DVC member and still just figuiring out the ins and outs and hope you could help. I tried searching but couldn't find exactly what I was asking for.

Dh and I were hoping to head down for a couple of days Columbus day weekend for F&W. Our home is AKV so I was going to book there now. As you can imagine i would love to stay in the EPCOT area so I want to switch my ressie at the 7 month mark. Is this possible? How do I do this if there is availability at BWV or BCV (fingers crossed). TIA

You cannot just 'switch' your reservation at the 7-month point. What they would do is check availability at BWV and BCV, and if there is availability, cancel your original reservation if you did not have enough points to make the other reservation and then make the other reservation. I've read that there have been times when the availability vanished from the time it was checked until the time the reservation was attempted, so beware.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

As a potential DVC member who is probably closer to getting in than ever before (suddenly and unexpectedly, my wife is interested), I'd like to take the original question a little further.

Looking at the original scenario, where I have a visit booked at AKV, but I'd like to stay at BCV. Suppose the wait-list process allows me to book one or two nights of my trip at BCV, hoping to eventually get all six. But I don't want to give up my reservation at AKV until I know I have all the nights at BCV. (Does that make sense so far? Is it considered "bad form" to hold nights at two properties while knowing I'm only going to use one of them?)

So suppose at this point I have currently booked six nights at AKV, plus three overlapping nights at BCV. Now a fourth night becomes available at BCV, but I don't have enough current year points to hold both reservations.

Option 1 - borrow points from next year. A bad choice, since they can't be unborrowed, and I already know I'm not going to use both reservations. Borrowing just to hold nights that aren't going to be used is begging for trouble.

Option 2 - if the available BCV nights are contiguous at the beginning or end of my dates, I can cancel *part* of my AKV reservation, and hope that I can eventually pick up the remaining nights at BCV. If not, I'm left with a split stay. Not desirable if we prefer not to move in mid-trip, but workable.

Option 3? I'm sure this scenario has come up before. Is there a way to do this sort of thing gracefully?

Thanks for any thoughts here.

Since you're still in the "thinking about buying" stage, the absolute best advice is to buy where you want to stay most. That way, you have a reservation at the 11 month point to stay in a resort you want to stay in.

At the 7 month point, if you want to try something different, put in the request to change resorts. If you're not going during a popular time, there's a good chance you'll be able to switch without having to worry about the waitlist.

If you do have to go on the waitlist, you need to determine which is more important to you... visiting the resort you want to try, or not having a split stay.

If not having a split stay is important to you, make the request an all-or-none request. If the request comes through, you get to try the resort you wanted. If it doesn't, you still get to stay in your favorite resort -- the one you picked as your home resort.

If the possibility of having a split stay isn't a show stopper, the day-by-day waitlist has a much higer probability of working than the all-or-none. With a day-by-day, they'll grab individual days for you as they become available. With the all-or-none, they won't hold days. If your whole request isn't available at the same time, your request won't come through.

 

[castleri]

Unless the new reservation is in another name the computer system will not let you have two reservations at the same time for the same dates. I was moving reservations last year and the CM said I don't understand why it won't let me book this and then we realized that the reservation I wanted to cancel was still there (in my name) and the system wouldn't let her book the new one with my name for the same dates. I was working with two different contracts so was surprised it happened. I wasn't trying to hold two at once as we were downsizing due to cancellations by family members who decided they couldn't go. Once we cancelled the larger unit there was no problem booking the studio.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Unless the new reservation is in another name the computer system will not let you have two reservations at the same time. I was moving reservations last year and the CM said I don't understand why it won't let me book this and then we realized that the reservation I wanted to cancel was still there and the system wouldn't let her book the new one. I was working with two different contracts so was surprised it happened. I wasn't trying to hold two at once as we were downsizing due to cancellations by family members who decided they couldn't go. Once we cancelled the larger unit there was no problem booking the studio.

I'm not sure why the CM would have had a problem giving you a second reservation -- unless you didn't have enough points to cover both. There's no restriction against having multiple reservations at the same time. You can book as many villas (at as many resorts) at the same time as you have points to cover. People do this all the time when they're brining guests (or renting points) and need more than one villa.
Edit: Sorry, I think I was wrong with this reply. After doing a quick search, it appears the restriction is on having multiple simultaneous reservations all in the same name. You can have multiple reservations for the same time, but you can't have the same names in each villa.

 

[cigar95]

Since you're still in the "thinking about buying" stage, the absolute best advice is to buy where you want to stay most. That way, you have a reservation at the 11 month point to stay in a resort you want to stay in.

That was one of the lessons I read repeatedly from the time I began exploring DVC a few years ago. Makes complete sense.

In my case, I expect the situation will be "buy where my wife wants to stay". Unfortunately, our favorites are different. And buying multiple contracts is probably not feasible, since we're looking for a fairly small "points footprint".

Her favorite is VWL, and mine is BCV. Since our usual visit times don't coincide with Food & wine or Flower & Garden, maybe my chances of getting into BCV at 7 months for January or September are decent.

Thanks as well to those who brought up the prohibition against holding overlapping reservations. It would be easy enough to get around it, but the fact that the prohibition exists in the first place tells me all I need to know.

Also thanks to those who mentioned the two different ways to get waitlisted - a day at a time, or the whole hog. This is something I hadn't been aware of.

I'm guessing that the waitlist is managed by computer. If separate days come available a day at a time, is it possible that it would give me something nutty like Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at one resort, while leaving me with Monday and Wednesday at the other? That would be crazy. Or is it smart enough to start at one end or the other and keep your days grouped?

 

[hellerjw]

We did a similar switch from AKV to VWL at the 7-month mark. I called in and told them what I wanted to do, they checked availability at VWL and made the switch, canceling my AKV ressie in the process.

I stressed many times during the call that I was concerned about giving up my AKV reservation while they attempted to book the VWL one but was told I wouldn't lose my AKV ressie until they could confirm the new VWL ressie.

Whether they can actually put a ressie in a holding state pending a change or the rep was just pulling my chain I don't really know.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I'm guessing that the waitlist is managed by computer. If separate days come available a day at a time, is it possible that it would give me something nutty like Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at one resort, while leaving me with Monday and Wednesday at the other? That would be crazy. Or is it smart enough to start at one end or the other and keep your days grouped?

Day at a time is just that. It doesn't give any consideration of the days in the overall context of the rest of your trip. The scenerio you describe, where you're changing resorts every day is possible.

In some cases, if a single night doesn't come through on a waitlist, it's possible to avoid changing resorts/villas by getting a cash reservation for that night. The inventory of rooms for cash reservations and points reservations come from two different pools. So just because a villa isn't available on the waitlist doesn't mean it isn't available at all.

This might be an interesting poll to start to see how many people have been stuck with an odd day in a reservation because of day-by-day waitlisting. Maybe I'll create one.

 

[dairyqueenmom]

I was able to get my second day, only two more days to go. I have got great CM's who know what they are doing. I love when that happens.

 

[pixie08]

We did a similar switch from AKV to VWL at the 7-month mark. I called in and told them what I wanted to do, they checked availability at VWL and made the switch, canceling my AKV ressie in the process.

I stressed many times during the call that I was concerned about giving up my AKV reservation while they attempted to book the VWL one but was told I wouldn't lose my AKV ressie until they could confirm the new VWL ressie.

Whether they can actually put a ressie in a holding state pending a change or the rep was just pulling my chain I don't really know.

phew...thank you!That is a big relief I was worried ofr a moment but I thought how could they possibly do that? - it would just be poor customer service.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses. DH and I had a real struggle figuring out what to purchase. We are young and just married last year so we really wanted to take advantage of AKV's years plus we really love the resort and all the newer decor and amenities and wouldn't mind always staying there. I did think about purchasing BWV since we were married there it is close to my heart but in the end for many reasons AKV won. We may in the future add on at BWV. I just thought I would give it a try since we would only be there for a few days specifically for f&w but if we can not get BWV or BCV I will be ok with that too!Hey I am just happy whenever I get a trip to Disney