I really miss having an 'equal' shot at getting my reservations

[PMDR59]

Exactly. Really, there is no difference between walking a reservation and calling day by day the old way. Instead of calling day by day 7/11 months out, now you just call day by day 7/11+7days out and walk the reservation. It doesn't change anyone's ability to put in the effort to get what they want by calling day by day, but it does allow a lot of people to make just one call if they have their week set.

Let go of the moral apprehension to walking reservations. It is allowed by the rules that we all play by. Nobody is getting more of an upperhand than anyone else, cause anyone can do it. Just think of the booking window now being 7/11+7days out

I think u posted as I was typing lol....... at least I am not alone in my thinking that there is no difference between the old and new system when it comes to getting around the booking rules.

Personally I would never call day by day. I simply do not have the time. MS is open very inconvienant hours for me. And my job does not allow for personal calls throughout the day. I have enough personal stuff to do on my lunch hour without adding calling MS to my list

 

[Deb & Bill]

...Personally I would never call day by day. I simply do not have the time. MS is open very inconvienant hours for me. And my job does not allow for personal calls throughout the day. I have enough personal stuff to do on my lunch hour without adding calling MS to my list

Your choice.

 

[UConnJack]

Sorry.....Just still not really seeing the difference. Circumventing the "rules" just because the system allows it makes it unfair for everyone.

Your not circumventing the rules, your playing within the rules.

Really, if we are talking "fair", why is it more "fair" that someone who wants to check in the same date as me can make reservations before me simple because their trip is one day shorter than mine?

It may be a PITA, but calling day by day before, or day by day now to walk the reservation is actually the only "fair" way to do it IMHO. DVC isn't stupid, they know what people do and it is within their intent of the rules. Like I said before, walking a reservation day by day is really no different than before, but it must be easier for DVC to manage this way.

 

[McCrae]

MS please bring back day by day booking!!!

IMO this would be terrible.

For most DVC bookings this will not be an issue.

Asking people to call every day to make a reservation is not practical.

Additionally it would lead to more demand at member services to deal with calls which will lead to an increase in dues.

 

[Deb & Bill]

IMO this would be terrible.

For most DVC bookings this will not be an issue.

Asking people to call every day to make a reservation is not practical.

Additionally it would lead to more demand at member services to deal with calls which will lead to an increase in dues.

There was never a requirement to book every day individually. You could book 11 months out from check out day. They moved it from your check OUT day to your check IN day.

And if you want a longer stay than 7 nights, you still have to call every day to add the extra days to make sure you get them.

 

[jamn]

Excellent idea.

I walked my AKV concierge reservation for next March (and then ended up cancelling completely). For concierge, I would definitely walk the ressie to get what you want in the future.

What does walking a ressie mean? How do you do that?

 

[robinb]

Once again, since DVC changed to the 'book for 7 days' method, I was unable to book my first request at 9 AM at 11 mos. at my home resort. - and this was for the end of Sept - a very slow time.
Well, I did want AKV concierge and I know how difficult it is, but it still upsets me that others are able to book rooms ahead of others. I just miss being able to book day by day and having the same shot at the room I want! OK OK just needed to vent.

I got frozen out of AKV Concierge this year too due to the new rule. I think it stinks. Next time I'm just going to "walk" my reservation to ensure that I get what I want.

 

[robinb]

BUT....If you walk a reservation, you are still calling daily to change it one day at a time.

No, because your "walking" reservation blocks the room for check-ins all the way until your walking check-out date. So, you are essentially "holding" the room for you until your actual check-in date starts. As long as you cancel/extend before the 11-month window opens for your current walking check-out date you are fine.

 

[BeccaG]

I joined DVC after the switch to 7-day booking. However, I can't imagine having to call every day to add an additional day to my trip if it goes back to the old way. What a pain that must have been!

For example, I will hit the 11 month mark while at WDW (the 2nd day of my trip.) I will be calling on the 2nd day of my vacation at 9am to book that next trip. I would be really annoyed if I had to call every single day (for the length of my current vacation) in order to book the next vacation under the old system.

I agree that walking a reservation is a fairly large loophole. Not sure how Disney can eliminate this without causing additional problems.

You wouldn't have to call day by day, just some of us did to increase the chance of getting hard to book reservations. You just called 11 months from you check out date. Just like you don't have to walk now...if you are concerned about it, then you do.

 

[TisBit]

I joined DVC after the switch to 7-day booking. However, I can't imagine having to call every day to add an additional day to my trip if it goes back to the old way. What a pain that must have been!

For example, I will hit the 11 month mark while at WDW (the 2nd day of my trip.) I will be calling on the 2nd day of my vacation at 9am to book that next trip. I would be really annoyed if I had to call every single day (for the length of my current vacation) in order to book the next vacation under the old system.

I agree that walking a reservation is a fairly large loophole. Not sure how Disney can eliminate this without causing additional problems.

Calling day to day was a pain and was becoming very frequent, even for non-busy times. It was very much being pushed by many as being the only way to book your reservation. People on the west coast felt they were being treated unfairly because of the time differences and how they had to wake up at crazy hours to call right at 9 am, etc.

In fact there were far more posts back then of people not being able to get through at 9 am to book their stay and all the rooms being gone when they did call. It was quite a mess then, much more than now IMHO.

As for the loophole, it has been brought to DVC's attention this loophole, especially right after it was implemented. There is a simple rule that could eliminate walking which was suggested, that was basically not to allow any changes to a reservation for 10-14 days after booking, this would prevent anyone from walking, but really wouldn't affect 99% of owners who are not trying to walk their reservation. DVC chose not implement any rules to prevent walking, probably to appease people that felt they "needed" an advantage, etc.

Again, just my opinion, but I think walking reservations has caused more problems than it has solved. People that walk reservations tie up rooms that they don't need, sometimes preventing someone who is not "walking" their reservation to not get the room they do need. That person is discouraged because they couldn't book and sometimes won't waitlist or will change their dates hoping to get the room....

As far as fairness, I feel that it is pretty fair that guests who arrive first should be able to pick their room and keep that reservations intact. With the day by day bookings, there were a lot more piecemeal reservations out there. So in the OP's situation, they might have gotten Concierge on day 1 and 2, missed day 3 and 4 and got day 5. What ended up happening was there were waitlist for the missing dates from multiple people and it was more or less a stalemate on waitlist.

 

[gkrykewy]

Additionally it would lead to more demand at member services to deal with calls which will lead to an increase in dues.

Not only that, think of all that paper and postage for all those day by day reservations over the years! At least there are email confirmations now.

Re:walking, it's not really a "choice" for most of us, Deb & Bill. If you're not retired or a homemaker, it's really just not an option.

Now I personally would feel ridiculous doing it, and that is a choice, but that doesn't negate the practicality issues. Hopefully they close this loophole at some point, though I haven't had any problems getting my choice of reservations lately.

 

[ssawka]

I am a fairly new DVC member, so I have not tried to do it the "old way", but the idea of having to call each day to add another day seems like a huge PITA. What they should do is keep it the way it is now, but any change to your dates should be considered the same as canceling a reservation and creating a new one. That means that if you are adding a day on the end of the reservation, you would need to cancel your whole reservation and if there is a waitlist those people would be moved up. That would eliminate "walking the reservation". The problem with this idea is that I don't think the waitlists are real-time, meaning I don't think the waitlist process is automatically triggered by the reservation system.

 

[LIFERBABE]

I am a fairly new DVC member, so I have not tried to do it the "old way", but the idea of having to call each day to add another day seems like a huge PITA. What they should do is keep it the way it is now, but any change to your dates should be considered the same as canceling a reservation and creating a new one. That means that if you are adding a day on the end of the reservation, you would need to cancel your whole reservation and if there is a waitlist those people would be moved up. That would eliminate "walking the reservation". The problem with this idea is that I don't think the waitlists are real-time, meaning I don't think the waitlist process is automatically triggered by the reservation system.

No one would do that. I would just add a separate night and link them together.
I dont want to lose the flexibility of DVC because someone cant get 1 of 5 units available. We all knew Club level was gonna be a crap shoot and though I empathize with those not getting what they want at exactly 11 months, getting it was never guaranteed in the first place.
It's ok to come here and vent but when the flexibility of the program is lost, the complaints will be off the charts!

 

[Simba's Mom]

So wouldnt this be what eveyone is calling "walking a reservation" because calling a day at a time the old way and adding 1 day each time was also beating the system since you were supposed to call for booking 11/7 months from your check-out day. Now u have to call a day at a time to beat the system and walk a reservation.

Sorry.....Just still not really seeing the difference. Circumventing the "rules" just because the system allows it makes it unfair for everyone.

I used to think it was a kind of "shady" thing to do, but I read a post recently where the poster said that this method was actually recommended to them by MS. It kind of bothers me if, indeed, MS CMs are recommending that people circumvent the rules. And if it meant me not getting a desired reservation at 11 months, I'd be VERY

 

[robinb]

I used to think it was a kind of "shady" thing to do, but I read a post recently where the poster said that this method was actually recommended to them by MS. It kind of bothers me if, indeed, MS CMs are recommending that people circumvent the rules. And if it meant me not getting a desired reservation at 11 months, I'd be VERY

That's exactly how I felt when I called MS exactly 11 months before my check-in date, right when they opened, got through immediately and there was NO availability for a Concierge Studio. I had to use some of my precious banked AKV points for another resort.

 

[McCrae]

There was never a requirement to book every day individually. You could book 11 months out from check out day. They moved it from your check OUT day to your check IN day.

And if you want a longer stay than 7 nights, you still have to call every day to add the extra days to make sure you get them.

The most sensible change in the current reservation system would be to allow people to book as many nights as they want. The seven night limit does not make sense, especially going forward as Disney increases it's number of overseas members.

People coming from overseas are much more likely to stay more than 7 nights. It's not very fair or customer friendly not allowing them to book in one go their entire length of stay.

Other timeshares allow you to book more than one week at a time, why not Disney?


The current restrictions are not efficient and are costing every DVC member extra in annual dues.

 

[bobbiwoz]

The most sensible change in the current reservation system would be to allow people to book as many nights as they want. The seven night limit does not make sense, especially going forward as Disney increases it's number of overseas members.

People coming from overseas are much more likely to stay more than 7 nights. It's not very fair or customer friendly not allowing them to book in one go their entire length of stay.

Other timeshares allow you to book more than one week at a time, why not Disney?


The current restrictions are not efficient and are costing every DVC member extra in annual dues.

This could certainly be abused by people with lots of points. Let's book 3 weeks, at 11 months, and then in a little while, cancel the first 2 weeks. At least you don't need lots of points to walk! However, I would like to see Disney rein in walking by having some sort of penalty for cancelling. I know people do add on and subtract legitimately due to air fares, and other stuff. So, I don't have the answer, but I don't like the practice of walking and I've let MS know this many many times. Up to this point, I have not personally been hurt by walking, but do consider it unfair.

Bobbi

 

[Inkmahm]

Not only that, think of all that paper and postage for all those day by day reservations over the years! At least there are email confirmations now.

Re:walking, it's not really a "choice" for most of us, Deb & Bill. If you're not retired or a homemaker, it's really just not an option.

Now I personally would feel ridiculous doing it, and that is a choice, but that doesn't negate the practicality issues. Hopefully they close this loophole at some point, though I haven't had any problems getting my choice of reservations lately.

They certainly did NOT send a confirmation for every day in a day by day reservation. You told the CM you were adding a day to a reservation in progress each day and at the end of the reservtion, THEN they sent a confirmation for the whole thing.

Walking doesn't take more time than a regular reservation. If you call a week in advance and then call a week later to walk the reservation, you have the reservation you want. Two calls instead of one.

 

[McCrae]

This could certainly be abused by people with lots of points. Let's book 3 weeks, at 11 months, and then in a little while, cancel the first 2 weeks. At least you don't need lots of points to walk! However, I would like to see Disney rein in walking by having some sort of penalty for cancelling. I know people do add on and subtract legitimately due to air fares, and other stuff. So, I don't have the answer, but I don't like the practice of walking and I've let MS know this many many times. Up to this point, I have not personally been hurt by walking, but do consider it unfair.

Bobbi

If you have the points you should be able to do what you want with them.

People can do and do make changes to reservations, it's no different in principle if you have 100 points our a 1000.

You should be able in one go to make a reservation at the 11 month window which will use all of your points.

Under the current systen people with fewer points have more flexibility than people with more points. That's wrong!

Btw I dont have a 1000 points..

 

[bjakmom]

OP again. . . some very good points being made - and I think which system you prefer is, of course, based on past experience and perspective.
I want to clarify that by 'equal' I mean that under the old system availability for every DVC room and category opened up for every member at exactly the same time (9AM at 11 or 7 mos) - so if you wanted to make the effort to call day-by-day and try to secure your room, you could, and no room was ever prebooked ahead of that day - if the room was not available then someone just beat you in line that AM - I have no problem with that. If you preferred to make one call and get your whole reservation in one room category all at once, you called on the check-out day. I did this for many years (especially for early Dec boardwalk view) and MS never mentioned that it was even slightly bending the rules - in fact I would always tell them that I would be adding day by day and they would gladly hold sending out a written reservation until my res was completed. They obviously had a place to note this for the next CM. If you got days 1,2,and 3 and then day 4 was unavailable - you always had the option to call on the date of check out and book whatever was available for your entire stay - at least you got to try, though. I did not use the word "fair" shot, as I fully realize and accept that everyone who has the room booked that I was trying for booked it "fairly" under the new system - even if someone walked it - the system allows it.
I was just a bit irked that DVC kept telling us this would not happen when we expressed our concerns when they switched the system. When I bought DVC it was knowing that I had the same shot at booking a particular room as every other member. I do worry that as DVC becomes bigger and bigger that it will become more difficult at both 11 and 7 mos.
I know they can change all kinds of rules - I just dont have to like it- maybe our waitlist will come through and, if not, maybe we'll be lucky enough to switch to BLT at 7 mos. - still hoping for AKV club (is there a smilie with it's finger's crossed?)