I am having crow for dinner

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Borrowing points seem easy...I am guessing if you have banked points they would should as the current use year points? Anyone have banked points to look at that ? I only have some transferred points but don't see them on the computer system but it may be the best disney produced web interface I have seen....

Here are some screen shots that show what both banked and borrowed points look like on the point selection screens.

You select which contracts you want to take points from. You can also tell it the order of the contracts -- where to take points from first. But what you can't do is tell it the order of the type of points you want it to use.


Here's a screen shot that show my three contracts. I can select which of the 3 I want to pull points from.

Once I've selected the two contracts with points, I can use the arrow keys to move them up and down in the list to indicate which contract to pull points from first.

When you've selected contracts with sufficient points, you can click on the link at the bottom of the page to see a demo of how it will allocate the points. Here's the demo for the two contracts selected above...

So in that example, the 120 points needed for my reservation would be taken as 75 banked points on my BCV contract, then 45 banked points from my BLT contract.


Going back to my original contract list, if I decide I'd rather borrow some points and use only my BCV contract, I unclick the BLT contract and hit the borrow botton on the BCV contract. The borrow transaction looks like this:

The 23 borrowed points now show in the total points available for the use year.

And the booking demo shows how the points will be taken.

Note that borrowing isn't finalized until you actually confirm the booking. There's an undo button that allows you to reverse the borrowing so long as you haven't actually completed the booking yet.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

And to your list I would add a log off button on online booking pages.

I've been using the "Change search" or "Start a new search" buttons for that. It cancels whatever you have open and takes you back to a screen that has the main web site menu at the top.

 

[jekjones1558]

I've been using the "Change search" or "Start a new search" buttons for that. It cancels whatever you have open and takes you back to a screen that has the main web site menu at the top.

But when I do that I am still logged in.

 

[mouseaider]

I am a huge fan of the online system.

We have a trip to Aulani coming in just 89 days and we had an Island View Studio booked and when I went to play around with the new online booking system, I saw that a Pool View Studio was available for our dates and it was only a total of 14 more points.

I called MS and made the change. Thank you DVC was bringing this new system on line!

 

[DisneyMama21]

I think the professional productivity of DVC members is about to take a hit! How many of us will be doing hypothetical availability searches over the next few weeks just to satisfy our curiosity regarding room/resort availability?

Um, me, me, me!!! I'm going to have to get really good at quickly minimizing screens when someone walks by!

 

[SusieBea]

I was not at all hopeful that online booking would be a benefit. I dislike the clunky navigation of the DVC Member Website (which seems to value fun graphics over utility) and thought that the online booking would likely be just as clunky. Well, I was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. It is easy to navigate and includes things like waitlist management that have been completely lacking until now. I am having a huge serving of crow for dinner.

I agree. I'll be dining with you.

 

[CarolMN]

Jean - IMO, there won't be enough crow to go around, no matter how much you cooked, LOL. I could name lots of posters who should be sitting there at the table with you (including me).

Bird of Prey Dave - Thanks for the screen shots and explanations, very interesting as well as helpful.

FWIW, I think there will be more capability rolled out in time. I am glad they seem to be doing it in an orderly manner.

 

[jekjones1558]

Jean - IMO, there won't be enough crow to go around, no matter how much you cooked, LOL. I could name lots of posters who should be sitting there at the table with you (including me).

Bird of Prey Dave - Thanks for the screen shots and explanations, very interesting as well as helpful.

FWIW, I think there will be more capability rolled out in time. I am glad they seem to be doing it in an orderly manner.

I also had crow for breakfast this morning. I had emailed Member Satisfaction about another issue and they called me this morning. I shared with them that I had been skeptical that the online booking would be worthwhile because I do not care for the DVC Member Website but that I was impressed with the navigability of the online booking system. The MS person was very grateful to hear the positive feedback. He said they get very little positive feedback and they have not heard from members regarding the online system. He said that there were a lot of people who gave input in creating it and he would pass along the overall good impression. I did tell him that there are a few things that could be tweaked but that I assumed those things would happen over time and he agreed.

 

[pmcpmc]

Hopefully in a few days the newness will wear off and only those truly wanting to book will be using it.

Honestly unless someone plans to book; checking availability for months out that they can not yet book due to 7 month window is an exercise in futility and waste of the system.

Until one can actually book, no one is going to know for sure that a room is or isn't available.

30secs to get in right now
must be all these newbies trying it out

 

[bookwormde]

I must say that by every indication the site was built by someone other than the regular sites are since it is clearly based on functionallity and not the normal Disney show.

Maybe they finally figured out that you make it work and then add window dressing.

bookwormde

 

[bumbershoot]

It is no use to us whatsoever as there is no facility to book or check availability of accessible rooms and if people can book online before MS opens we have no chance of getting into popular resorts unless there is something in the system to prevent accessible accommodation showing up in searches and being bookable as a regular room.

I am waiting for a response from MS on how this is being handled but once again we feel like second class citizens as far as DVC is concerned

Looking at your sig, I see just one DVC villa stay. I wonder if what you are concerned about is something that you've actually experienced; that by booking with MS you're actually selecting from a certain inventory of accessible rooms?

From my opposite experience -not booking an accessible room and being given once, twice, simply because it was an available room- it didn't *seem* to be a situation where they had a totally separate inventory of accessible rooms. Rather, it seemed to be a request situation. The first time it happened, we were checking in around 7pm; they didn't even HAVE a non-accessible room open, so it seemed they were never planning on giving me a non-accessible room, they were always planning on giving me an accessible room. (or they had given away whatever room I'd been slated for)

 

[NWmom]

I talked with member services about booking an accessible room.

We are kind of borderline as we don't need the HA facilities, just the first floor at OKW when we stay there.

We don't want to take an HA room away from someone that needs what is inside the room. Roll in showers/ wider clearances etc. We just need hubby to not have to climb the stairs to get to the room. (He has a HA placard for the car though)

What member services said was that HA rooms have to be entered differently through MS.

I kind of got the impression to just book our room online as soon as posssible and then call MS to have them add/change whatever needed to be done to guarantee the HA room.

She did say that they assign HA rooms randomly only after they use all non HA rooms. That you were not really in competition for the same rooms, but that it helped to book them sooner.

Not exactly reassuring, but better than before for us in what we learned.

 

[Chuck S]

If you need an accessible room, yes, MS will block it for you.

My Mom's situation was very similar to yours, we needed a first floor room because of her hip replacements and heart valve problems, but did not need a fully HA room. In all the years that she and I traveled together, I only was unable to get a first floor room one time.

If a first floor non-HA room works for you, go ahead and book but be sure to note the first floor as a medical request with Member Services. Medical requests tend to get some priority over non-Medical requests, even if HA is not needed.

 

[BeccaG]

I must say that by every indication the site was built by someone other than the regular sites are since it is clearly based on functionallity and not the normal Disney show.

Maybe they finally figured out that you make it work and then add window dressing.

bookwormde

Agreed!

 

[tfc3rid]

Also, I was at Aulani last week and if you go to Vacation Center and look at the Current Trip you are on, your Resort Account $$ information is on your reservation...