Modifying at 7 months

[Grumpy by Birth]

I've modified reservations before, so I'm familiar with the process. But I have a home-resort reservation for October that is coming up on the 7-month mark and I'm thinking of modifying it to stay at a different resort. Because of the time of year, I'm planning to be online right at 8 am to try and switch.

With all of the ROTR boarding group madness that I've been preparing for (timing opening of the app down to the second, etc.), it got me to thinking... how much of the modification process can I accomplish before 8 am? Or put another way, at what point should I stop and wait for 8 am to strike before clicking the next button so that I am the fewest steps away from snagging the desired room? Does that make sense?

If I'm not fast enough, it's not the end of the world. We'll be quite happy keeping our home resort reservation. But we thought it would be fun to try somewhere else for this trip. The room I'm interested in has remained available for a few weeks now, so no owners have taken the last one. It's not what I would categorize as a "high demand" room, but still... with every DVC member able to book it at 8 am on the 7-month mark (and not knowing if there's 1 or a dozen rooms of this type left), I want to approach this as prepared as I've gotten for ROTR!

 

[Sandisw]

I have had it work and not work two different ways, I have gotten to the point where it said check availability and hit that right at 8 am but also gotten to the calendars and hit book right at 8 am for the room I wanted,

Honestly, I think it Depends what you are trying for. I always also try back like 5 minutes later in hopes that someone changed and it opened up what I wanted,

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I just looked more closely, and I see availability literally every day from early June until mid February. I'm probably overthinking this (ROTR BGs have me feeling extremely competitive! ) and there's not going to be a huge run on these rooms in a few days. That theory is also supported by those great "predicted availability" charts posted here.

 

[ookitarepanda]

You and I are in almost the exact same situation! I’m hoping to try out a different resort as well as my home resort and looking this morning I had a moment of “This feels just like ROTR...”

It’s a good thing some of my other hobbies have internet drops like this and I’m used to it, at least.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

So, I came up with a compromise solution. It's technically walking, but please don't judge... here's the caveat:

I booked this morning for 7-months from now. The dates I booked would also work for us and if, in a few days, the later dates somehow got booked up (unlikely), then we will keep the dates I already have booked. But if the last few days are still available, I will probably modify again (I know... that's walking) to secure dates that are preferred slightly over the ones I have.

Personally, I tend to fall into the camp of walking is allowed, so not breaking the rules. But regardless, in this instance, I didn't book dates that we have no intention of using. We want to either check-in on this date or a few days later. Availability of a few days from now will determine which option we finally land on, but I didn't want to wait until then and risk not getting either dates (here again, I'm probably being overly paranoid and there will be rooms galore still available).

I'm just curious if the community here considers it "walking" if I plan to stay on the dates I booked but will probably modify for a few days different if availability allows it? Wouldn't this be similar to booking and then finding cheaper airfare so deciding to check-in a few days later? Is it only "evil" walking if you have no intention of using the dates you book originally?

 

[Sandisw]

So, I came up with a compromise solution. It's technically walking, but please don't judge... here's the caveat:

I booked this morning for 7-months from now. The dates I booked would also work for us and if, in a few days, the later dates somehow got booked up (unlikely), then we will keep the dates I already have booked. But if the last few days are still available, I will probably modify again (I know... that's walking) to secure dates that are preferred slightly over the ones I have.

Personally, I tend to fall into the camp of walking is allowed, so not breaking the rules. But regardless, in this instance, I didn't book dates that we have no intention of using. We want to either check-in on this date or a few days later. Availability of a few days from now will determine which option we finally land on, but I didn't want to wait until then and risk not getting either dates (here again, I'm probably being overly paranoid and there will be rooms galore still available).

I'm just curious if the community here considers it "walking" if I plan to stay on the dates I booked but will probably modify for a few days different if availability allows it? Wouldn't this be similar to booking and then finding cheaper airfare so deciding to check-in a few days later? Is it only "evil" walking if you have no intention of using the dates you book originally?

No need to feel bad or even explain why you might change it, This is an exact example as to why someone might book earlier but change at a later date, Get what you can now, and if you can’t change out, then you adjust your trip!

One of my favorite aspects of DVC is the ability to adjust things and have such flexibility.

Always great to have a Plan B in place!