Number of People Walking

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Walking is really a PIA at BLT Standard Studios right now. I was up at 3 am last night and my dates opened up for 10 sec and then were gone. I was hoping my Waitlist would have snatched up villas, but no such luck. At exactly 8 am I tried again, and 3 days were now unavailable!! Come home from church and 2 of the 3 are available, but not the key start day. However I notice that the previous week is now available for a Sun - Thur, so I says to myself, why not? I had originally wanted to do a 6 nt w/weekend, but I'll shave a day off, save points and book more nights later throughout the year. Our anniversary is 10/15, so I'll watch for availability next week and hopefully we'll be able to change from 10/6-10/11 to 10/13-10/18. We drive down (6 hr) and usually leave first thing on check-out day (tired and ready to go home), but we may now do a park in the morning and then head home. Seems like a Win-Win for us. Just relieved that we at least have a low point reservation booked for now, and any changes will only be gravy!
 
And I wish that they then would actually allocate at least some of those 2BR's at BWV to only be booked as 2BR's. Or at least that they do so at the times I'd like to book 2BR's. But when booking studios then I want them to be allocated to whomever books first. :D

I asked about it once years ago. They said they book the dedicated studios and 1 bedrooms first. When they are gone, they start separating the lockoffs. There are 97 dedicated studios and 130 1 bedrooms, plus 149 lockoffs.
 
Walking is really a PIA at BLT Standard Studios right now. ... Our anniversary is 10/15, so I'll watch for availability next week and hopefully we'll be able to change from 10/6-10/11 to 10/13-10/18. ...

SUCCESS!! :rockband: At exactly 8 am I was able to book BLT Std Studio for 10/13-10/18. At 8:02 when I rechecked, the rooms were no longer available! Cancelled my 10/6-10/11 and it looks like those were scooped up pretty fast. I'm a happy camper again, and look forward to booking CG for our 37th anniversary on 10/15.
 
It really is getting that if you want to sleep around, the overwhelmingly best option is buy cheap, and buy enough for a 1 bed.
It was so predictable that the new system would lead to en mass walking.
The majority of DVC owners don't know what walking is, so there's massive room for walking growth in future.
 


I asked about it once years ago. They said they book the dedicated studios and 1 bedrooms first. When they are gone, they start separating the lockoffs. There are 97 dedicated studios and 130 1 bedrooms, plus 149 lockoffs.

Hard to believe that they book all of the one bedrooms prior to splitting the lock offs to get more studios. Maybe there aren't that many for a reason.

:earsboy: Bill

 
Hard to believe that they book all of the one bedrooms prior to splitting the lock offs to get more studios. Maybe there aren't that many for a reason.

:earsboy: Bill
I read DebbieB's message to mean once the last dedicated studio is taken, they move onto the studios that are part of a lockoff. Once the last 1BR is taken, they move onto the 1BRs that are part of a lockoff; independent of one another.
 
Hard to believe that they book all of the one bedrooms prior to splitting the lock offs to get more studios. Maybe there aren't that many for a reason.

:earsboy: Bill

I read DebbieB's message to mean once the last dedicated studio is taken, they move onto the studios that are part of a lockoff. Once the last 1BR is taken, they move onto the 1BRs that are part of a lockoff; independent of one another.

That is how I read it too.

When a booking is done they essentially "use up" the dedicated number of either studios or 1BR's before they dip into the lock-off count. So once 97 studios are booked then it's into the lock-off pool for the studios. And the same applies to 1BR's. But not that they require all the dedicated 1BR's to be booked before they release the lock-off studios.
 


Keep in mind that the dedicated studios (and 1 bedrooms) exist in all view categories at the BWV. It probably doesn't take long to book all the dedicated villas in the standard and Boardwalk view categories during the last 3 months of the year. Even so, I am sure that some are successful in booking standard and Boardwalk view 2 bedrooms.

FWIW, I am not seeing reports of anyone shut out at the BWV if they are willing to book a Pool/Garden view at 11 months (Don't recall anyone reporting that and this subject has come up EVERY YEAR for the BWV for as far back as I can remember) . Happy to see that Members do not appear to be walking the P/G villas - it isn't necessary and I certainly hope that all this annual angst over standard & Boardwalk views doesn't cause Members to start walking where it really isn't needed.
 
I read DebbieB's message to mean once the last dedicated studio is taken, they move onto the studios that are part of a lockoff. Once the last 1BR is taken, they move onto the 1BRs that are part of a lockoff; independent of one another.

That's the way I took it.

I was just looking at October. October 13 is booked in both standard and boardwalk view studios, the rest of the week is available. Available in Pool/Garden View. 1 bedroom is available in all 3 views. 2 bedroom is booked in both standard and boardwalk views, pool/garden is available. So all possible studios are gone for October 13 for standard and boardwalk views.

I hate to do the walking thing but I really want to get Dec 1 to 7 in standard view. Not sure when I should start the walk, maybe early December. From what I understand, once you get the first night you are pretty much home free. Is it right that you can book 7 nights, you don't have to move it every day, just once every 7 days?
 
As I mentioned earlier, as I was told years ago, what happens in the reservation system for BWV is that 2BRs remain open (except to the extent reserved as 2BRa) until the number of studio reservations reach the total number of dedicated studios for any particular view booking category, at which time the 2BRs then become prey to studio reservations. In other words, none of the 2BRs are held just to be reserved as 2BRs, which would be a violation of the first come first served reservation rule. The ones who reserve studios early will not necessarily be given dedicated studios when they check in; the reservation system is simply designed to keep 2BRs open until the total studio reservations equal the number of dedicated studios, and assignment to actual studios, dedicated or otherwise, occurs much closer to arrival.

Also, as noted above, the pool/garden view, has never been a victim of disappearing very quickly at 8 a.m. at 11 months out. Pool/garden view studios (and thus 2BRs) have disappeared at exactly 11 months out on fairly rare occasions during the first week of December or around NYE but not until well past 9 a.m. eastern.
 
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Been trying for a week to get a full 8 nights at BWV 2bd std. No such luck. Ive decided to waitlist one night (Oct 5) and 2 nights (Oct 7-9), and booked the other 2bd nights that are available between Oct 5-13). In the meantime, I've booked 5 nights at a studio BW view (the in laws only plan on 5 nights and it doesn't matter when during our trip). While we prefer a full 2 bd, if we have to get a 1bd std and a studio, then so be it. I only have 275 points to play with without borrowing, so I'm limited. If we end up having to borrow 40 points and then bank 40 points, so be it.

The walking seems worse this year than previous years (I usually book for Jersey week or first two weeks of december, and had some difficulties but got the std rooms within a week). This year in early to mid October, I'm unable to get anything....
 
Well, I wanted a SV Studio at BWV October 21-25 next year. Lots of folks are walking, but 16-20 are available, what the heck, I changed my dates. We have our F&W vacation set for next year!
We are happy to be retired, so did not have a schedule to follow.
 
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Similar dates. Oct 16-25. I’m not walking. I’m following. Everyday I pick up the day a walker drops. Is like picking up the walkers “droppings”. Very time consuming. Six days now and have 5 nights. I have five more days to do this. I know I could get locked out any day, but so far have managed the day before each morning. Glad I’m retired and can sit on my iPad for 11 mornings at exactly 8:00am. I do keep trying to book more than one day, but locked at 8:00:01am every day. I do think the waitlist is grabbing the day because it’s just too quick.
 
Similar dates. Oct 16-25. I’m not walking. I’m following. Everyday I pick up the day a walker drops. Is like picking up the walkers “droppings”. Very time consuming. Six days now and have 5 nights. I have five more days to do this. I know I could get locked out any day, but so far have managed the day before each morning. Glad I’m retired and can sit on my iPad for 11 mornings at exactly 8:00am. I do keep trying to book more than one day, but locked at 8:00:01am every day. I do think the waitlist is grabbing the day because it’s just too quick.
I do hope you are successful. I wasn’t following, I just decided to see what was available, and it worked for me. I had complained to MS about walking for years, they do not care, they made it easier, and you don’t even have to involve them. I did give a moment to think about keeping the dates I originally wanted, and booking pool view, but then I thought, why not save the points. :upsidedow
 
If they eliminate walking, they might as well go back to reserving your stay based on your check out day instead of check in day. When it was that way, you didn't have to worry about people reserving six days before you could even get one. Unless they added a day at a time on the front end (book the first night, book the second night, etc, until you got your entire stay). I know that Hilton Grand Vacations Club still does it by check out day.

I thought walking was rampant back then as people were booking one day at a time from the checkin date before the 11 or 7 month mark at the checkout date.
 
I thought walking was rampant back then as people were booking one day at a time from the checkin date before the 11 or 7 month mark at the checkout date.
It wasn't called walking because you didn't cancel a night, you just kept adding another night to your reservation and you had to call MS to do it. I know Hilton still does reservations by date of departure.
 
They need to remove the online modification tool, and/or start charging a fee to make changes.
 
They need to remove the online modification tool, and/or start charging a fee to make changes.
I disagree. The ability to modify reservations online is a brand new feature and is not making it any harder to reserve than before. It is very much needed to keep up with demand as Disney continues to add more villas, and hence owners to the group that we are.

I'm not a lawyer, but adding a fee to make modifications to reservations may be illegal. Also many of us will secure our DVC reservations at 11 months out long before we even know what the flights will look like or if we are permitted to take the time off so shuffling of dates may be required.
 
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I disagree. The ability to modify reservations online is a brand new feature and is not making it any harder to reserve than before. It is very much needed to keep up with demand as Disney continues to add more villas, and hence owners to the group that we are.

I'm not a lawyer, but adding a fee to make modifications to reservations may be illegal. Also many of us will secure our DVC reservations at 11 months out long before we even know what the flights will look like or if we are permitted to take the time off so shuffling of dates may be required.
It’s not illegal. Wyndham and others charge a fee. But it’s not something we should encourage.

The problem isn’t walking; that’s a symptom.

The problem is more demand than supply.

Penalizing walking simply won’t change that.

Walking is a helpful outlet for the highly motivated within the DVC population to use their knowledge to their advantage, both by walking itself and by the strategy of lurking in the wake to snag rooms just after the 11 month window. From DVC’s point of view, it’s probably a good thing; it keeps the DVC owners most likely to be influencers busy.

In a world where there’s no advantage to knowledge, those same influencers might give up and tell people to just dump out of DVC. And those are the people most likely to be posting those opinions everywhere people are searching to figure out if they’re interested in DVC.

I think walking is probably viewed by DVC as a very low cost outlet to keep the influencers mollified (now with online modification that is). To the extent DVC was going to interfere with walking, it would have been to hold down the CM interactions it created. They’ve solved that.
 
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