New policy for reservations based on check IN date

[LisaS]

I agree, it never was a policy, and never needed to be published or communicated. It was called booking one day ressies (as per the points charts mailed to every member)-DVC/MS were the ones that recommended tying the ressies together-not the members (of course it was a logical step).

I only booked DBD a couple of times but I always started with a 1-night reservation and just modified it each day to extend the check out date by one day. That way you end up with just one reservation rather than several 1-nighters that had to be linked. I see your method described quite often and I've always been curious why people chose to do it that way since it seems more complicated than necessary. The only reason I can see for doing it that way is if there was a time when any change to a reservation was a cancellation and rebooking. Was that the case at some point in the past?

 

[jdg345]

I realize at this point that I have allowed myself to be sidetracked . My original post was to pilferk who said (emphasis on "if" mine)

Understood.

I pointed out that it wasn't a question of "if"--it had not been communicated to all members. In another post he referred to DBD as a policy:

I pointed out that DBD was not a policy. A policy is written down or communicated in some other way(s) to the entire membership as being an officially sanctioned way of doing something. Fine, call DBD a tip or trick of the trade, but don't call it a policy because it wasn't.

Fair enough ... but is there a booking policy at all? Linking isn't a policy that I'm aware of, but they do it.

And yes, I still think it was unfair--it meant someone was locked out of a room they wanted because DVC never told them they had this option, so someone who knew about it was able to get it. I can see the arguments being made for the new system being unfair as well.

So because DVC (or the airlines, or hotels, or car rental places) don't make every single option available known to you, they are being unfair? I'm sorry, but that doesn't make a whole let of sense to me. This is not a matter of being unfair, it's a matter of being uninformed, that's all. Not all of these tips and tricks are public knowledge. If the passenger on your flight happens to know a trick or two to get upgraded to First Class and they get an upgrade, and you don't, is that unfair? Of course not.

Those that booked DBD took extra time and effort out of their day in an attempt to increase their chances of getting what they wanted. Everyone had that option. If they knew about it or not is not a fault of the system.

Again, unfair is your request being denied and mine being honored on the basis of 'just because'. This is not the case, if you knew about it, you could have booked it as well.

 

[waltfan1957]

I pointed out that DBD was not a policy. A policy is written down or communicated in some other way(s) to the entire membership as being an officially sanctioned way of doing something. Fine, call DBD a tip or trick of the trade, but don't call it a policy because it wasn't.

if it was'nt policy surely in all the thousands of calls made DBD to MS at least one CM would have said sorry it's not policy to do that?

 

[aurorafan]

if it was'nt policy surely in all the thousands of calls made DBD to MS at least one CM would have said sorry it's not policy to do that?

As others have pointed out there was no policy against it either . You could make the opposite argument--had they wanted to make it official and encourage people to do it they would have. They would have included it in the literature, planning book, website, emails etc.

As far as I can tell it was neither officially sanctioned nor officially forbidden. I call it a loophole, jdg calls it a tip or trick of the trade (both valid comparisons), but it wasn't a policy.

 

[jarestel]

So because DVC (or the airlines, or hotels, or car rental places) don't make every single option available known to you, they are being unfair? I'm sorry, but that doesn't make a whole let of sense to me.

The difference between airlines, hotels, car rental places and DVC is that we are owners at DVC and customers at the other places. DVC certainly does have an obligation to make options known to owners on a fair and equal basis. Sorry, but this does make sense to me.

 

[jarestel]

All that would stop is walking for more than one week. It would not prevent the kind of walking I expect to see most often, which would involve starting your reservation 7 days in advance of your desired check-in date. So even after you have finished your walk, you are still staying on Day 7 of your original reservation.

Short of dis-allowing DBD calls to modify reservations, I think that's the best that can be expected.

 

[aurorafan]

The difference between airlines, hotels, car rental places and DVC is that we are owners at DVC and customers at the other places. DVC certainly does have an obligation to make options known to owners on a fair and equal basis. Sorry, but this does make sense to me.

 

[jarestel]

Oh, the office took away a week of vacation. Oh, they gave it back, but I need to take it later. Etc, etc. Where does Disney decide on the Grey Area? Time will tell, but I really don't think they have any real intention of monitoring 'abuse' as long as someone is in the rooms.

Shouldn't be confused at all, because that's the way things work today. If your travel dates change, you cancel your reservation and rebook at a more appropriate time. To somehow expect that you should be able to exchange your original 7-day reservation for another one because you no longer want the original dates is unreasonable. Cancel & rebook, just like it has always been.

I realize unreasonableness currently prevails in some sort of convoluted effort to show why the "new" system sucks and the "old" system was wonderful, but most of the examples cited so far have been a bit off the wall, IMO and not all that likely to occur in real life.

 

[maminnie]

I pointed out that it wasn't a question of "if"--it had not been communicated to all members. In another post he referred to DBD as a policy:

I pointed out that DBD was not a policy. A policy is written down or communicated in some other way(s) to the entire membership as being an officially sanctioned way of doing something. Fine, call DBD a tip or trick of the trade, but don't call it a policy because it wasn't.

And yes, I still think it was unfair--it meant someone was locked out of a room they wanted because DVC never told them they had this option, so someone who knew about it was able to get it. I can see the arguments being made for the new system being unfair as well.

*******
Members seem to be going around and around about DBD being a policy or not and claiming that members did not know about it. For many, many years DBD has been suggested, recommended, and advocated by member services and DVC vacation guides/sales reps. On the member web-site regarding the new reservation policy it also reads as follows:

"The previous policy required members to call daily at the beginning of their booking window, piecing together their reservation one night at a time."

Sounds like it was even a bit more then a tip or a trick of the trade and much, much more then a loophole to me. Note it reads "previous policy".

maminnie

 

[maminnie]

Sorry, but reservations at 7 months were never guaranteed even under the old system. My question should read has anyone been denied a reservation at the 11 month mark? Any reservation made after the 11th month day always will have a chance that it wouldn't be available, regardless of which system you chose to use.

Simzac:

Strongly disagree with you. All members should be on the same playing field at both the 11 month and 7 month booking windows.

maminnie

 

[jade1]

Sorry, but reservations at 7 months were never guaranteed even under the old system. My question should read has anyone been denied a reservation at the 11 month mark? Any reservation made after the 11th month day always will have a chance that it wouldn't be available, regardless of which system you chose to use.

I agree, 11 months is the real key and we will know much more in about 6 months on that. Just saying I missed out (with the new system) because I waited one more day than DVCBELLE.

 

[jade1]

I only booked DBD a couple of times but I always started with a 1-night reservation and just modified it each day to extend the check out date by one day. That way you end up with just one reservation rather than several 1-nighters that had to be linked. I see your method described quite often and I've always been curious why people chose to do it that way since it seems more complicated than necessary. The only reason I can see for doing it that way is if there was a time when any change to a reservation was a cancellation and rebooking. Was that the case at some point in the past?

Not really, my point simply is any logical conclusion to the points per night system DVC gave us-was if its a busy time and/or smaller resort, is to call and do a one day ressie-then call again the next day (hence DBD) if you want more (just as you describe), it was MS (not the members) that linked them and started putting them under one ressie number to make things easier/more efficient/logical.

 

[jdg345]

The difference between airlines, hotels, car rental places and DVC is that we are owners at DVC and customers at the other places. DVC certainly does have an obligation to make options known to owners on a fair and equal basis. Sorry, but this does make sense to me.

It wasn't hidden and the CM's typically made it known if you got boxed out of something at 11 months. We may just need to agree to disagree here; there's a reason there are all sorts of guides and books out there full of tips and tricks. If I learn something new, I say, "Nice! I'll have to remember that for later." And that's that. I dont' say, "No fair! How come you knew about that and I didn't? You shouldn't have been able to do that until I did!"

I certainly see more "I don't want to do that, so I don't want anyone else to be able to do it either" in this thread than I'd like to see. I'm starting to feel that some members would rather MS open no earlier than 5pm as anything else would be 'unfair' since they can't/won't call before that time.

Put another way, as mentioned by a PP, you could always book a single day. Everyone knows (or should know that). So there was never any reason to think you could not book a day today, then a day tomorrow, etc. Some people were able to put two and two together, some people weren't. That's not a fault of the system. Me? I'm ignorant, I didn't put it together. I learned from someone else and now it's an option I have available to me.

I learned today you can ride with the captain and get a certificate on the steamboat. Never knew that. Do I think it's unfair that other people have been able to do that over the years and I haven't? Nope, not at all.

With some of the posts on this subject, I can imagine another 200 page thread if people started to find out about the transportation cards!

 

[jdg345]

Shouldn't be confused at all, because that's the way things work today. If your travel dates change, you cancel your reservation and rebook at a more appropriate time. To somehow expect that you should be able to exchange your original 7-day reservation for another one because you no longer want the original dates is unreasonable. Cancel & rebook, just like it has always been.

Ah, but why is that unreasonable? After all, I'm an owner and I should be able to do whatever I want with my points. It's not like I'm a just some customer of some hotel or car rental place.

I realize unreasonableness currently prevails in some sort of convoluted effort to show why the "new" system sucks and the "old" system was wonderful, but most of the examples cited so far have been a bit off the wall, IMO and not all that likely to occur in real life.

I'm not saying it would actually occur, I'm saying it could be a given excuse. Is it up to Disney to figure out who's lying and who's not? I don't think so.

 

[skelooch]

[And again, no one at MS EVER in 8 years has ever suggested that I should call DBD. So in effect, some members have knowledge about a practice when others don't. Please explain how that is fair?[/QUOTE]

Why is it unfair that MS didn't tell you.
They never told me either.
When I became a member (seeing that I just parted with a large sum of money) I made it a priority of mine to find out as much about DVC as I could (over and above the rosey sales pitch we all received). My guide happened to suggest I check out something called the Disboards, boy am I glad I did. And if my guide hadn't suggested it I would have taken the inititive to searched it out for myself. I've learned more here in a few weeks about how the system works, and I only know a fraction of what the real veterans do, all the information is here all you have to do is ask or just read.
Let's not blame DVC, MS CM's or your Guide
Blame yourself for not making it your business to find out as much as you could about something you invested a lot of money in.

 

[jdg345]

*******
Members seem to be going around and around about DBD being a policy or not and claiming that members did not know about it. For many, many years it has been suggested, recommended, and advocated by member services and DVC vacation guides/sales reps. On the member web-site regarding the new reservation policy it also reads as follows:

"The previous policy required members to call daily at the beginning of their booking window, piecing together their reservation one night at a time."

Sounds like it was even a bit more then a tip or a trick of the trade and much, much more then a loophole to me.

maminnie

I just don't understand why it seems more and more that people want to be spoon fed. No one seems to want to do any research. When I want to stay somewhere that is tough to get into, I ask around, search the web, call/email people that have managed to stay there and see what I can learn.

It seems that people that don't want to do the work want to reap all the same rewards. Why should I have to read anything? That's not fair, if you know about it, someone should make it a point to tell me too.

In the case of DBD, it's not complicated. Most of the CM's or Guides would have suggested DBD if you asked how to go about getting a tough to book period/category. So what's the big deal? Should there have been a recording at MS saying "Don't forget! You can always book DBD!" ? Maybe there should be signs in the restrooms that say, "Please remember to wash your hands" too! Oh, wait.

 

[jdg345]

And again, no one at MS EVER in 8 years has ever suggested that I should call DBD. So in effect, some members have knowledge about a practice when others don't. Please explain how that is fair?

Why is it unfair that MS didn't tell you.
They never told me either.
When I became a member (seeing that I just parted with a large sum of money) I made it a priority of mine to find out as much about DVC as I could (over and above the rosey sales pitch we all received). My guide happened to suggest I check out something called the Disboards, boy am I glad I did. And if my guide hadn't suggested it I would have taken the inititive to searched it out for myself. I've learned more here in a few weeks about how the system works, and I only know a fraction of what the real veterans do, all the information is here all you have to do is ask or just read.
Let's not blame DVC, MS CM's or your Guide
Blame yourself for not making it your business to find out as much as you could about something you invested a lot of money in.

Exactly!

It's not like any of these things were purposely hidden away and kept secret. The knowledge and information is there for anyone that wants to seek it out.

 

[EmptyNester]

2775 posts; 242 unique posters
19% of the posts were posted by 1 Diser
77% of the posts were posted by 42 Disers

 

[jdg345]

2775 posts; 242 unique posters
19% of the posts were posted by 1 Diser
77% of the posts were posted by 42 Disers

Yay! Thanks for doing the math for us!

 

[jade1]

2775 posts; 242 unique posters
19% of the posts were posted by 1 Diser
77% of the posts were posted by 42 Disers

And dont forget 70,000 reads.