no availability

[heynowirv]

just got off the phone with MS can you believe there is not a single studio available anywhere for the the week of DEC.8th. How is that ?

 

[Lynne M]

The month of December is THE most popular time of year for DVC reservations. Members are on the phone to reserve their home resort the minute MS opens, exactly 11 months out from their dates. Unfortunately, you would have had to reserve that week in January. Sorry.

You can get on a waitlist and hope something comes through, there's always a chance. But there are a lot of people ahead of you on the list, and at best, you'd probably get one night at SSR, another one at OKW....that sort of thing.

 

[heynowirv]

We did waitlist but last year we went the same week and it was no problem and i think we booked later.There was 1 bedrooms @ SSR &OKW for the w/e 10-11 that was all. Oh well

 

[JWG]

Not surprised. A week ago when we rented points we were told no availability anywhere on 12/12 and then other dates were only OKW or SSR unless we mixed and matched days.

We shifted our trip to start 12/13 (Monday) instead of 12/11 like we wanted. 12/13-12/19 we could get AKV or SSR, nothing else unless we wanted a day here or a day there.

 

[Chuck S]

Remember that there are more owners this year vying for the same reservations. As many people sold off their smaller add-ons (or kept the add-ons only and sold off the larger contract) when the economy went South. And DVC itself is allowing a smaller initial buy-in. This makes booking at 11 months more and more important.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Not surprised at all. I called and booked my 11/30 - 12/5 trip at the 6 1/2 month window and all I could get was a standard view studio at Kidani.

Now that I've added on at Aulani I don't have to save my points so much.....I wonder if I could upgrade to a 1BR at either AKV or BLT? Probably not. I think I'll call Member services tomorrow and see.

December is one of the lowest points parts of the year and there are all the Christmas decorations.

 

[Nikisha421]

Remember that there are more owners this year vying for the same reservations. As many people sold off their smaller add-ons (or kept the add-ons only and sold off the larger contract) when the economy went South. And DVC itself is allowing a smaller initial buy-in. This makes booking at 11 months more and more important.

I suppose as the system gets larger and larger it will become hard to make these type of reservations...

 

[TisBit]

I suppose as the system gets larger and larger it will become hard to make these type of reservations...

Yes and no, the owners will always be relational to the rooms, but depending on how those owners vacation and the size of accomodations they desire, things will fluctuate.

The first two weeks of Dec are very busy most of the time due to the low point cost for reservations, low attendance for regular CRO bookings and Christmas decorations being up......

 

[Chuck S]

Yes and no, the owners will always be relational to the rooms, but depending on how those owners vacation and the size of accomodations they desire, things will fluctuate.

The first two weeks of Dec are very busy most of the time due to the low point cost for reservations, low attendance for regular CRO bookings and Christmas decorations being up......

But also how many total owners there are. For instance, if a resort has 75,000 owners with 1000 points, vs 750,000 with 100 points, and 10% of the owners want to vacation the first week in December, your overall odds are 10 times better at the resort where the owners have the larger contracts.

 

[Dean]

I suppose as the system gets larger and larger it will become hard to make these type of reservations...

Not necessarily. More owners would equal more villas a well. Ultimately it comes down to the relative demand of the next "unit" declared into the system. If that "unit" is of a demand that's more popular than the average, it would actually ease pressure on high demand times and the reverse it true as well. This is exactly what's happened with SSR, it has brought a significant volume of points into the system that are more likely to be used at the 7 month window than the average demand was prior. As a result we have seen the more in demand times become more difficult to get. The negative effects for SSR won't be at their peak until about 2-3 years after the resort is effectively sold out, so maybe another 3-4 years form now.

One might therefore assume that HI, VGC & BLT would counteract that effect and I'm sure they will but only to a small degree. It's actually the number of points looking at 7 months that's the issue, not the size of the resort itself. Thus it'd likely take about 8-10 times the number of units of SSR from such other resorts to balance this effect. If anything, HI might make it worse long term because while it will be in demand from an overall standpoint, the % of owners there who stay at their home resort every year is likely to be no better than SSR and may be as low as VB/HH.

Some might take this as my complaining about SSR and that would be far from the truth, just my honest take on the real effects I see of such resort additions. I own where I want to make 11 month reservations and generally do so at day 1, 11 months out so it really doesn't affect me. Plus most of my trips to WDW are of an exchange nature and more options means more potential inventory, if it's of slightly less demand, that means even more inventory still.

 

[Crystal_27]

That's crazy that there is not one single studio to be had. Hopefully, you can get a waitlist to come through???

 

[Inkmahm]

just got off the phone with MS can you believe there is not a single studio available anywhere for the the week of DEC.8th. How is that ?

Of course there isn't. It is one of the most popular weeks of the year for DVC. Those dates were reserved by members back in early January at the 11 month mark. No surprise at all.

 

[pointbroker]

Yeah, sorry to say, this is expected. If you're on the waitlist for SSR or OKW you probably have a decent shot of something openeing up. People know you have to book December way in advance so everyone does. Many people's plans change over the next 4 months though. Don't give up yet.

 

[jjohnson]

Not only are the studios gone but so are the 1 & 2 bedrooms. I called for this date a few weeks ago & didn't believe it either.

 

[rlduvall]

I encountered this for the week of 12/1 - 12/8 [absolutely not one studio anywhere for even one night], but just found spotty studio availability at AKV from 12/8 - 12/15 yesterday [didn't check any other resorts - love, love AKV). I reserved 12/8 in a value at AKV, waitlist for value 12/9, cash for a Savannah view - Jambo for 12/10 - but called today and it was available , reserved Savannah view - Jambo for 12/11, waitlisted for 12/12 and reserved Savannah view -Jambo 12/13 and 12/14; which means out of 7 nights, I was able to get 5 of my nights. I will check everyday to see if one of my 2 waitlists come through to re-waitlist for the night I didn't get. This is definitely not for the faint of heart, but I feel pretty good about it, especially after just one day I was able to fill my cash night with points. The CM thought I had a great chance in light of each WL only being for one night. Let's hope this CM was right.

I have to stick with my first 2 nights in a different studio at AKV because I am 2 points short for a Savannah view. That's even after purchasing the 24 points. If the 12/12 Savannah view fills first, I might change my WL to 2 nights in a standard view. Which one has more standard studios, Jambo or Kidani?

I see that last year I didn't decide until September to go 12/8 - 12/15 and was able to get SSR with only the first 2 nights WL and they did come through.

Thanks.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Frankly it would be far more surprising if there WAS a studio available at this late date! Those rooms are mostly gone even before the 7 month window opens up at all DVC resorts. December is THE MOST POPULAR time for DVC with the exception of New Year's Eve.

 

[JWG]

On 7/18, we were able to get a studio - AKV-SV for 12/13-12/19. Could not get 12/12 as our original dates wanted were 12/11-12/18. I guess the good news is we're saving some money by shortening the trip a day.

 

[kaelarad]

again...it is late to make a reservation for December. Not surprized that there is nothing left.

 

[n2mm]

I went during this timeframe last year and booked at the 11 month window as I had been watching availability the year before and knew how popular it was. I was so glad I booked one of my homes at the 11 month window as I probably would not have gotten in had I not. I also managed to get a BWV-standard studio last year and was very nervous prior to the call. I hope the OP gets something on the waitlist!

 

[woohooo]

The only way I was able to get into BLT for December was to buy Direct through Disney and make it a condition of buying. If you really really want to stay this December, maybe you can buy the smallest contract they offer and make it a condition? My guide had to pull a reservation from the cash side, which i think is CRO?, in order to get my studio.