Let's revisit the "new" booking rules

[wdrl]

I'm happy to hear this - happy for you, Bobbi!


Perhaps the only real problems will be the AKV concierge, BLT MK view GVs and SSR's THVs. Leaning towards that conclusion for any booking category that has 7 or less units (such as the MK view GV or the BWV GV).

I'd add the new AKV Standard View Grand Villas to this list. There are confirmed reports that there will only be two GVs with Standard Views.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

FWIW, I hated the change to the new system, but have to admit I have since changed my mind.

I agree. I argued long and hard on these Baords about the inherant problems with the new system, but I have been very happy with it. -- Suzanne

 

[bobbiwoz]

Congratulations Bobbi and good luck with getting the 1st!

Now, would your DH have preferred to call by day by day or did he like the one call?

I hope your experience will be the norm.

Kat, all I can say is YEAH!

We stayed at BWV, standard studio for NYE in 2008. The fireworks on the 30th in the MK and then in Epcot on the 31st were the most amazing I have ever seen. The ability to walk home after the Epcot display was so wonderful, I just "knew" that I would want to do it many times, and then I opened my mouth and invited our DS/family I was very strung out with worry that I wouldn't get it.

No, this was better than day by day...one call and we have it all booked. I'll give you that!!!, no need to duck!!!!!

Bobbi

 

[DISNEY FIX]

Kat, all I can say is YEAH!

Congrats Bobbi

We stayed at BWV, standard studio for NYE in 2008. The fireworks on the 30th in the MK and then in Epcot on the 31st were the most amazing I have ever seen. The ability to walk home after the Epcot display was so wonderful, I just "knew" that I would want to do it many times, and then I opened my mouth and invited our DS/family I was very strung out with worry that I wouldn't get it.

You are one of the reasons we will try NYE sooner or later.

No, this was better than day by day...one call and we have it all booked. I'll give you that!!!, no need to duck!!!!!

Bobbi

I agree with that, you know where you stand right then and there.

 

[keishashadow]

Blow me over with a feather. DH called this morning and we got our first choice, 2 bedroom standard view BWV December 28 for 4 nights! We didn't have enough BWV points to book January 1, so we'll try at 7 months or if not, just leave it at that.


Bobbi

nice to hear a success story

 

[dianeschlicht]

My main concern is the negative impact on members if DVC decides to stop walking. Will they institute a fee for changes to a reservation? Prohibit dropping days? Stop the ability to add a day to the initial reservation until the 11 month window opens? Eliminate all changes - i.e., make all changes a cancelation and rebook, thus possibly losing the reservation to a waitlist?

I can argue for any or all of those things, but all would have a negative impact on a subset of members.

Carol, I agree that any changes they might make to stop walking will negatively effect members. It seems ALL the "enhancements" they make to the membership effects at least some percentage of the membership that way.

FWIW, I hated the change to the new system, but have to admit I have since changed my mind. I still think the old system was more fair, but the new system isn't really resulting in wide spread inequities and definitely requires less calls

I have to agree that booking (if you can do it with one call on your first available day to call) is easier with this system, but the unfairness of it is what I can't get past. Maybe that's because one of the rooms I am interested in would be one effected by the walking. I've pretty much decided I don't HAVE to have concierge anymore though if I can't get it.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Kat, all I can say is YEAH!

We stayed at BWV, standard studio for NYE in 2008. The fireworks on the 30th in the MK and then in Epcot on the 31st were the most amazing I have ever seen. The ability to walk home after the Epcot display was so wonderful, I just "knew" that I would want to do it many times, and then I opened my mouth and invited our DS/family I was very strung out with worry that I wouldn't get it.

No, this was better than day by day...one call and we have it all booked. I'll give you that!!!, no need to duck!!!!!

Bobbi

Whew - I get to stand up straight!

The more I hear about New Years the more I think I'll have to do it one year. The miracle won't be getting the room in my case - the real miracle will be getting DH to agree to go to! lol

 

[dclfun]

That's probably the one benefit to DBD--the fact that not everyone was aware of it. In a sense it's ironic that some refer to DBD as the "fairer" of the two systems. Not sure how it can be called "fair" when not all members were equally informed of the ability to book day-by-day.

Nevertheless, you can bet that number of members booking day-by-day was steadily increasing. Odds of success may have historically been high but they would only drop as more and more members became aware of the ability to book DBD and new members were made aware of it on Day One via forums like this.

There were already reports of people having DBD difficulties for things like AKV Concierge and OKW Grand Villas. The same would be true of BLT MK and Standard views, AKV Grand Villas, BWV Standard View, BCV Two Bedrooms with 2 Queens, etc.

Ultimately DBD would leave more and more members with gaps in their trips and member costs would continue to escalate to handle the more frequent room cleanings and increased phone traffic at Member Services.



No, but you can waitlist the first day and call back on Day Two to try and book the rest of the trip.

Day-by-day bookings had become so commonplace that people were using it for even mundane reservations which could be obtained months into the booking window. At least with the current system the only people making multiple calls are those who can't get their first night on the first call.

One of the common threads here seems to be the sentiment that "I always got what I wanted booking day-by-day, therefore it must be the better system." Frankly I think we're kidding ourselves by assuming that DBD bookings would yield the same level of success in 2010 and beyond as they did in 2005.

Yes, you can waitlist your Day 1 and call back on Day 2 to try and book the rest of your trip, whereupon you will find that the walkers already took your Day 2 also, so you are still calling DBD to waitlist.---Kathy

 

[jmkjr72]

with the new rules it was a bit of a pia to book our 10 night stay
under the old rules we would wait to call till we could book the last day of our stay and if there were not enough days ahead then we would just change things up a bit and call for the next day or 2(the only time this was ever an issue was the first time we needed the first floor grand villa at okw)
this trip we needed the sam unit and we had to call 10 diffrent times becasue of some one walking that unit (we know this as when we finaly got a start date for sure we asked what earlier dates were availbe to see if we could maybe leave a or 2 earlier and get our trip as we originaly wanted but it would have been a full 8 days before we wanted to travel and that woulndt have worked)
then we had to call and add the days on that we needed

 

[SuzanneSLO]

with the new rules it was a bit of a pia to book our 10 night stay
under the old rules we would wait to call till we could book the last day of our stay and if there were not enough days ahead then we would just change things up a bit and call for the next day or 2(the only time this was ever an issue was the first time we needed the first floor grand villa at okw)
this trip we needed the sam unit and we had to call 10 diffrent times becasue of some one walking that unit (we know this as when we finaly got a start date for sure we asked what earlier dates were availbe to see if we could maybe leave a or 2 earlier and get our trip as we originaly wanted but it would have been a full 8 days before we wanted to travel and that woulndt have worked)
then we had to call and add the days on that we needed

Sorry for the inconvenience, but you do know that once you get a reservation at 11 months, you do not need to call back every day to extend your vacation. You can call back once for every 6 nights you are adding. So a 8-13 night vacation will take a total of 2 calls and a 14-20 day vacation will take a total of 3 calls. -- Suzanne

 

[LIFERBABE]

Sorry for the inconvenience, but you do know that once you get a reservation at 11 months, you do not need to call back every day to extend your vacation. You can call back once for every 6 nights you are adding. So a 8-13 night vacation will take a total of 2 calls and a 14-20 day vacation will take a total of 3 calls. -- Suzanne

I lost my last night of Concierge because I waited until 11 am to call day by day. You can get passed up (lose your reservation) if you wait til day 6 when the villas are extremely limited like concierge.

No big deal for me, as we got the nights we really wanted and moving at the end of a long stay helps us prepare better for the long ride home.

 

[Sandisw]

I lost my last night of Concierge because I waited until 11 am to call day by day. You can get passed up (lose your reservation) if you wait til day 6 when the villas are extremely limited like concierge.

No big deal for me, as we got the nights we really wanted and moving at the end of a long stay helps us prepare better for the long ride home.

I think her point is referring to those that walk there reservations, or have to book more than 7 nights.

If someone wants to book 10 nights, they call on the 1st day at the 11 month mark and book the first seven nights They don't have to call back day by day after that to add the next 3 nights. They can wait until day 6 and then add the next three. As long as they call before the 11 month window opens for the check out day, no one else can get the room.

Same with walking. You only have to call the day before the 11 month window opens for a night you really want to secure things. Day by day is really not necessary.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Surprise!! Surprise!! I called MS to check on some points and while on the phone my waitlist came thru for Jan 1 at AKV Concierge!!
So now we check out on Jan 2nd. Seems the walkers left behind that high point night!

So use the waitlist!!! The walkers are dropping a trail of bread crumbs!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Surprise!! Surprise!! I called MS to check on some points and while on the phone my waitlist came thru for Jan 1 at AKV Concierge!!
So now we check out on Jan 2nd. Seems the walkers left behind that high point night!

So use the waitlist!!! The walkers are dropping a trail of bread crumbs!

Great!

 

[Inkmahm]

At 11 months out, you can walk a reservation by calling every 6 days, so it is far different than day by day. You can also walk a reservation even if you don't have enough points for a 7 night stay, but you will need to call back more often than every 6 days.

I want to book a 7 night stay for March, 2011. If I walk the reservation, don't I still have to call every day? Say I really want March 16-23, if I call today to make the one week reservation for March 6 to 12, don't I need to call tomorrow to change it to March 7 to 13?

 

[RobDoc]

I want to book a 7 night stay for March, 2011. If I walk the reservation, don't I still have to call every day? Say I really want March 16-23, if I call today to make the one week reservation for March 6 to 12, don't I need to call tomorrow to change it to March 7 to 13?

No, you can actually wait until the 12th and then add the 13th thru the 19th to the exsiting reservation. With walking you have locked in that room and no one else can reserve it until 11 months from the specific date (in this case, the 13th). Calling daily can certainly be done, but is not necessary since the room is not available to anyone else during that time period.

 

[Inkmahm]

No, you can actually wait until the 12th and then add the 13th thru the 19th to the exsiting reservation. With walking you have locked in that room and no one else can reserve it until 11 months from the specific date (in this case, the 13th). Calling daily can certainly be done, but is not necessary since the room is not available to anyone else during that time period.

Thanks! I still am not sure I understand walking but I think I will try it for my reservation. Now that I think about it though, I can't call a year in advance. Only 11 months. So I'll have to wait until April to do my reservation for March, 2011. Since I want AKV concierge, it will be worth it to me to walk the reservation. Just not walking for more than a month!

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks! I still am not sure I understand walking but I think I will try it for my reservation.

Try to think of it as reserving a rental car. You pick it up on the 6th and decide to return it on the 12th. The next person can't reserve that car until you return it. If you call on the 11th and tell them that you want to keep it for another week, that new person won't have a car to get when they get there on the 12th since you kept the car.

It is the same thing as your room. Once you are in it, that room can not be reserved until your check out day. As long as you call and extend your use of the room before the next person can reserve it, you are all set!

Good luck!

 

[Inkmahm]

Try to think of it as reserving a rental car. You pick it up on the 6th and decide to return it on the 12th. The next person can't reserve that car until you return it. If you call on the 11th and tell them that you want to keep it for another week, that new person won't have a car to get when they get there on the 12th since you kept the car.

It is the same thing as your room. Once you are in it, that room can not be reserved until your check out day. As long as you call and extend your use of the room before the next person can reserve it, you are all set!

Good luck!

Okay, I think I get it. As long as I call on day 6 of the reservation the room is mine to walk forward. So if I start walking concierge AKV with a reservation in early April, I am guaranteed to be able to get the nights I want for later in March, 2011. I just have to find a one week period earlier at some point that has all nights available and then I'm home free.

 

[Sandisw]

Okay, I think I get it. As long as I call on day 6 of the reservation the room is mine to walk forward. So if I start walking concierge AKV with a reservation in early April, I am guaranteed to be able to get the nights I want for later in March, 2011. I just have to find a one week period earlier at some point that has all nights available and then I'm home free.

Yes, that is the way walking works! Good luck!!!