It is just me....

[Tinkerdreams]

I know I'm new to DVC and have yet to make a ressie. However, I'm just not getting this day to day calling to book. I did speak with MS and banked my points since we won't be going until Dec 08. I asked her if it was recommended to book day by day or was it a big deal to call when my last check in day was to book the whole trip. She STRONGLY recommended I call day to day due to December being very popular with DVC during that time (Dec 6 - 13, 2008), which I am planning to do.

What I don't understand is why would you have people call every single day and tie up phone lines and have to have numerous employees taking calls from the same people every day for X amount of days versus 1 call to book the entire vacation at the BEGINNING of the 11 or 7 month window?

I would think a large corporation such as Disney would want to be cost effective. This just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but maybe someone can clue me in to what I'm NOT getting.

 

[Granny]

I know I'm new to DVC and have yet to make a ressie. However, I'm just not getting this day to day calling to book. I did speak with MS and banked my points since we won't be going until Dec 08. I asked her if it was recommended to book day by day or was it a big deal to call when my last check in day was to book the whole trip. She STRONGLY recommended I call day to day due to December being very popular with DVC during that time (Dec 6 - 13, 2008), which I am planning to do.

What I don't understand is why would you have people call every single day and tie up phone lines and have to have numerous employees taking calls from the same people every day for X amount of days versus 1 call to book the entire vacation at the BEGINNING of the 11 or 7 month window?

I would think a large corporation such as Disney would want to be cost effective. This just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but maybe someone can clue me in to what I'm NOT getting.

I think what you are not getting is how DVC reservations work. You can book your home resorts up to 11 months prior to check out.

Let's say you want to book December 20-27. Thousands of other members also like WDW at Christmas, and many of those reservations will overlap yours. So as an example, someone else wants to go to WDW December 19-26. If everyone calls only at the end, they would call on November 26 the previous year and book their reservation, which happens to include all but one of the days on your reservation.

Multiply that by thousands of members and you see that when you call, the only night that might be available is the last one since that's the only one that you are on equal footing for regarding the reservation.

There have been a lot of threads proposing that people should be able to call 11 monhts from the beginning of their reservation and make the entire reservation. But that too could easily be abused and unfair.

The current system is fair, and flexible. I haven't heard another alternative described that would be as fair and flexible as the current one.

Personally, the flexibility of DVC is a huge part of what I like about it. And I am never in favor of anything that results in a reduction in fairness of the system.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

OK, but let me give you this scenario. Our check in date will be Dec 6 with check out on Dec 13. So it goes like this:

Call Jan 7 and book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 8 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 9 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 10 book a 2BR - guess what, there are none available, we only have 1BR and studios.
Jan 11 book 2BR - OK
Jan 12 book 2BR - none available and there is only studios available
Jan 13 book 2BR - OK

So basically what do you do - move your 8 guests into the 1BR? I'm not going to book a 1BR AND a studio just for the one night. Also what do you do when there are only studios - book 2 studios?

If you could book at the Beginning of the trip at 11 or 7 months out, you would not have this potential scenario.

 

[Granny]

Sorry about that. Somehow the system double posted.

OK, but let me give you this scenario. Our check in date will be Dec 6 with check out on Dec 13. So it goes like this:

Call Jan 7 and book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 8 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 9 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 10 book a 2BR - guess what, there are none available, we only have 1BR and studios.
Jan 11 book 2BR - OK
Jan 12 book 2BR - none available and there is only studios available
Jan 13 book 2BR - OK

So basically what do you do - move your 8 guests into the 1BR? I'm not going to book a 1BR AND a studio just for the one night. Also what do you do when there are only studios - book 2 studios?

If you could book at the Beginning of the trip at 11 or 7 months out, you would not have this potential scenario

You can avoid that by booking at the end of the trip as well. I don't want to bore you with the scams people could do if you could book at the beginning of a trip, but it would be easy (especially for those with many points) to block you out from any of the days even if they don't intend to stay those days.

I tried to search for a fairly recent thread debating this but the search function kept coming back with "no results".

 

[rwcmath]

I think Doc had something like that happen regarding a HHI GV.called first thing in the morning, but had an issue regarding where the points were coming from and voila, the GV was booked. Waitlist came through for him, though.

OP, your home is SSR, I cannot imagine the scenerio you describe happening there, especially 11 months out. You also mention that you are new. I own at BWV and was scared that it would happen to me. We wanted a few standard view rooms in December. I fretted because I didn't have enough points to book everyone in preferred view. Well, it all worked out, and I hope
it will work out for you.

rc

 

[Dean]

OK, but let me give you this scenario. Our check in date will be Dec 6 with check out on Dec 13. So it goes like this:

Call Jan 7 and book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 8 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 9 book a 2BR - all OK
Jan 10 book a 2BR - guess what, there are none available, we only have 1BR and studios.
Jan 11 book 2BR - OK
Jan 12 book 2BR - none available and there is only studios available
Jan 13 book 2BR - OK

So basically what do you do - move your 8 guests into the 1BR? I'm not going to book a 1BR AND a studio just for the one night. Also what do you do when there are only studios - book 2 studios?

If you could book at the Beginning of the trip at 11 or 7 months out, you would not have this potential scenario.

This is exactlly the reason you do call day by day. Your chances of getting the reservations you want are MUCH higher and the chances of having orphaned days as you describe are much less. And if you do have orphaned days, you'll be much higher on the wait list that if you were calling a few days later. As noted, this is the way the system is set up. If you don't want to call day be day, your choice, but your chances of success will be much lower during busier times.

 

[CarolMN]

If you own at OKW or SSR, you do not need to call day by day at 11 months except possibly if you want a GV.

You do not need to call day by day at 11 months for the BWV unless you want a standard view or a guaranteed boardwalk view or you want to stay the week of Christmas - New Year's Day.

You do not need to call day by day at 11 months for BCV unless you want a dedicated 2 bedroom with two queen beds in the second bedroom or want to stay Christmas week..

You don't need to call day by day at 11 months for VWL unless you want to stay Christmas week.

We don't really have enough experience to predict AKV, but it looks like day by day at 11 months is only necessary if you want something in the concierge or value category.

Other than what I listed above, you can safely make one call for your vacation as long as you call as soon as the 11 month window opens. It is possible (but not very likely) that you may have to waitlist for a day or two of your reservation.

If you have to wait for the 7 month mark, it's a whole new (and different) ballgame!