Looking for some help/answers before buying!

[TheWeasel]

We are looking to buy in but we have a few questions:

1. We go yearly at the end of June(wife teaches) and love the Epcot Resorts. We would like to finance with Disney and like some of the incentives with purchasing at SSR, but we're concerned with the 11 month/7month window. How difficult of a time would we, if any, have booking at 7 months for either BWV or BCV based on anyones history for booking during this time of year? I know there are no guarentees for the future, but asking anyway.

2. Aside from the annual pass discount and the 90 + 10 day booking advantage what other benefits are there?

3. Do you normally book at different Resorts(not home resort) by booking a day at a time or by trying to book the whole trip at once?

4. How often have you not received what you wanted?

5. Is it almost impossible to book Epcot Resorts during Holidays, Food & Wine, etc. if it's not your home resort?

Thanks for the help!

 

[poohj80]

We are looking to buy in but we have a few questions:

1. How difficult of a time would we, if any, have booking at 7 months for either BWV or BCV based on anyones history for booking during this time of year? I know there are no guarentees for the future, but asking anyway.

Sorry, no help here as we try to avoid this time of year.

2. Aside from the annual pass discount and the 90 + 10 day booking advantage what other benefits are there?

DVC members also are eligible for some dining discounts (similar to AP discounts) and discounts on some WDW tours.

3. Do you normally book at different Resorts(not home resort) by booking a day at a time or by trying to book the whole trip at once?

We have never booked day to day and have always gotten what we wanted including VWL in Dec and HHI at Thanksgiving.

4. How often have you not received what you wanted?

Never so far. So far, BWV has always been available on our dates and that's a pretty good fallback in my book!

5. Is it almost impossible to book Epcot Resorts during Holidays, Food & Wine, etc. if it's not your home resort?

We've stayed in the BWV during F&W several times booking less than 7 months out.

If you have any more questions, just let us know!

Looking forward to saying Welcome Home!!

 

[tjkraz]

We are looking to buy in but we have a few questions:

1. We go yearly at the end of June(wife teaches) and love the Epcot Resorts. We would like to finance with Disney and like some of the incentives with purchasing at SSR, but we're concerned with the 11 month/7month window. How difficult of a time would we, if any, have booking at 7 months for either BWV or BCV based on anyones history for booking during this time of year? I know there are no guarentees for the future, but asking anyway.

June isn't historically a busy time for DVC members. The key will be calling as close to the 7 month window as possible. If you call right at 7 mos, my guess is you will be successful 99% of the time. The longer you wait, the worse your chances get. If all else fails, go on the waitlist. 7 months is a long time for other people's plans to change.

2. Aside from the annual pass discount and the 90 + 10 day booking advantage what other benefits are there?

There are some dining and recreation discounts. The list is constantly changing, so it's somewhat pointless to tell you what they are now as they are likely to change before your first trip. Really, other than the AP discount, they are nothing to get excited about and really shouldn't play a big part in your decision.

3. Do you normally book at different Resorts(not home resort) by booking a day at a time or by trying to book the whole trip at once?

Depends on the time of the year, length of trip, resort and room size. I called at 7 mos to book the first couple of nights in a Standard View room at the Boardwalk. The CM told me there was "plenty of room" in the resort, so I didn't call to book the rest until the end of the week. We later decided to add another night to the trip and I got the SV room just 1-2 mos before check-in with no problem.

4. How often have you not received what you wanted?

That's again going to vary based upon resort, time of year, number of nights (you've got a lot better chance of getting 3 nights than 14 in a row!!!), room size, how flexible you are (asking for BWV OR BCV gives you a lot more rooms to work with than just specifying BCV), etc.

Far as I'm concerned, as long as I keep coming to these boards and there is a general absence of outrage over room availability, that tells me people are satisfied with what they are getting. We've booked 3 stays at non-Home resorts and gotten what we wanted everytime. One time we changed travel dates on something like 3-4 months' notice, and had to go on the waitlist (for BWV.) The waitlist came through within a week.

5. Is it almost impossible to book Epcot Resorts during Holidays, Food & Wine, etc. if it's not your home resort?

Difficult but not impossible. Read these boards long enough and you'll be amazed at the number of people who report "I just got ___ resort" on a regular basis. Best course of action is to book your Home resort and go on the waitlist for another. The earlier you call, the higher you'll be on the list and the greater chance of the request being met.

 

[bobbiwoz]

#4. The only room we hadn't gotten was a SV studio at BWV in December. Plans changed 3 months out. We were able to get a studio, but not SV. Considering December is so popular and these were for weekdays, we were very pleased.

We are still waitlisted for SV studio for a 3 night weekend at BWV. Even 5 months out there wasn't availability even for F & S nights. We're there, in a PV, but I would like to save the points. These are our only "failures."

Bobbi