Offer accepted, will I be able to book for August or October?

[bristowe]

Hi All
Thanks for the many tips I've received in planning to buy a DVC resale. Today our offer was accepted on Boardwalk Villas. Assuming everything works out (big assumption), I am hoping we are closed in 8ish weeks and giving myself another 4ish to get our DVC account number. That brings us to June 16ish.

For those of you with prior experience or access to the portal, I would really appreciate your expertise and advice. Do you think we will have any chance of booking any DVC east coast resort for a week or so in:
--August 2016, last two weeks? if not,
--October 2016 around Columbus day weekend?

Of course we would love to stay at our new "home" resort if it all works out, but based on what I've read hear - that is not going to happen. We are fine staying anywhere on the east coast preferably in the time frame I mentioned.

Reason being we had originally planned a trip to Disney and purchased our southwest tickets in November 2015. When we had sticker shock at the full price of the trip, we decided to look into DVC to lower our costs over time as we have "disney in our blood" & would like to come once a year.

Any advice you can give us would be great. Our twins turn 8 on May 10th and we would like to announce our trip as a part of their present : )

Also, our use year is September, so our 2016 points will be active through August 2016 so we will figure something out but I really want to use those southwest flights with our new points!!!!

Thanks so much!!

 

[magicaldisney]

Welcome to the DIS! You don't mention what size room you are looking for. That will help determine what kind of chance you have. Also, a week or so? Could you be more specific? More than a week might prove difficult. Are you open to a split stay?

 

[bristowe]

Thx magical disney! I would prefer to stay 8-9 days at Boardwalk. Since this will be our first year in DVC, we are open to staying at Hilton Head, Vero Beach, OKW, Saratoga, etc. Our kids finish camp August 12th. So we have flexibility in that 2 weeks before school starts to work with the dates and length. I went on Southwest today and it seems like the best rates to rebook our tickets will be a Tuesday-Wednesday stay. I'm not open to a split stay as that seems stressful to us to move around. My son has multiple allergies so we have a lot of food in our room to accommodate him and moving it would be overwhelming. Thx again for the help!! We are so hopeful we can get through ROFR and finally join all of you in the club!!

 

[magicaldisney]

I think you will be able to possibly book SSR or OKW. Would you be happy with either of those resorts?

 

[bristowe]

Thx, yes we would be thrilled to use our points at Disney World! If not, we would be ok with Vero Beach or Hilton Head. So you think we have a chance on Disney property? That would be great (of course I don't hold it to you, smile!). We just needed experts like you to weigh in as we won't get into the lovely DVC portal until we get that number from Disney. I'm usually high strung but I'm going to be chill.Worst case scenario is we bank our points. : ) Thx for your time, we really appreciate it!

 

[jerseyduke]

What size room?
There are no guarantees, but you probably have a pretty good chance at getting a 1 bed room, particularly at SSR or OKW. 1 Bedrooms are the slowest bookers

October is Food and Wine, and Boardwalk is in high demand for that, that is usually a book at 11 months thing.

Access to the portal is useless unless you can book. When it says a room is available, it could be one room, that will be done in 2 minutes, or it could be 200 rooms that will be available for month.

From my experience, there is USUALLY something available a few months out somewhere on property (most likely OKW and SSR)

And as mentioned, a split stay can be a viable option (repacking can stink, bu you can experience 2 resorts in one stay)

 

[bristowe]

This gives me hope and I appreciate your time and experience. If we had to split stay I might bank points for a longer stay in the future. It is only my husband and I and our soon to be 8 you twins. So a studio is fine. If we have enough points and could upgrade at resorts with rooms, we can probably swing it with the points/borrowing points. Ty so much. Such a roller coaster for 2-3 months but then simplified planning moving forward (yay!) Ty again!!

 

[jerseyduke]

YW.

I know it is hard, you want to use it right away! But the reality is DVC does not lend itself very well to short term planning. We are already talking about our 2017 trips and when to go!

One other thought: If nothing is available, you can rent out your points, and use the money to stay at a moderate resort. That should be close to a wash. As I am waiting on a contract to close, I am planning on doing that for a december trip myself (different situation, the seller has a vacation scheduled for late may, so he can not close until 5/25....i do not expect there to be anything left in december by the time the new account is all set up) If there is, I will grab it, if not I will rent out the points and stay at Port Orleans Riverside. I know that is kind of trading down, but I do not need to bank the points, and I would rather go in Dec.

 

[DenLo]

I think October will be difficult by time you close and your DVC account is set up and the points are accessible by you. I don't know about the end of August, but it getting more popular.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

A studio at Boardwalk for Columbus Day booked within 6 months (at best) is a lovely dream, but likely not happening.

OKW and Saratoga are likely both options, and you may be able to doink around with various split stays.

Booking in June for late August is cutting it close to breakage. Available rooms for late August will be entering breakage in mid-June.

 

[supersnoop]

This thread is your friend: http://disboards.com/threads/predic...-some-1-bedrooms-vgc-update-10-21-15.3419112/

Essentially, you'll looking at two months notice for August and four months notice for October. For August, your changes are good for AKV or SSR; everything else is exceedingly unlikely. For October, even a one-bedroom at SSR (the most available room) is unlikely.

 

[bristowe]

Thanks for all the advice. What is breakage?

 

[bristowe]

Thanks, we would prefer August so that is good news. We'll try it and if not, we'll look at Vero Beach or Hilton Head. I imagine they would be booked up for August too. Thanks!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Thanks for all the advice. What is breakage?

DVC aims for 98% occupancy. Any available rooms/dates that are 60 days out are made available not just to DVC but also to cash reservations, above and beyond any rooms released to reservations earlier in the season (due to crazy math involving banking, RCI trades, etc. etc.). Within 60 days, it can be a bit of dice rolling.

 

[jerseyduke]

Thanks for all the advice. What is breakage?

Breakage is when points go unused and expire.

Disney can rent out the rooms not used by broken points for cash, some of which has to be given back to the condo association, and you will see it designated as breakage income.

 

[sndral]

...
Also, our use year is September, so our 2016 points will be active through August 2016 so we will figure something out but I really want to use those southwest flights with our new points!!!!

Thanks so much!!

... I might bank points for a longer stay in the future. It is only my husband and I and our soon to be 8 you twins. So a studio is fine. If we have enough points and could upgrade at resorts with rooms, we can probably swing it with the points/borrowing points. Ty so much. Such a roller coaster for 2-3 months but then simplified planning moving forward (yay!) Ty again!!

Just to clarify w/ a use year of September your 2016 points will be usable (w/out banking/borrowing) from 9/1/2016 - 8/31/2017. If you book an August trip you can borrow those 2016 points to use them for that August 2016 stay.
If you have points usable in August 2016 they may be 2015 points (good 9/1/2015 - 8/31/2016) and if not banked before May 2016 they will expire if not used by 8/31/2016. You must bank your points by the 8th month of your use year, you cannot bank them during the last 4 months of your use year, so if you have 2015 points which you plan to use in 8/2016 and it doesn't work out it will be too late to bank them.
For an October 2016 trip you can use any banked 2015 points, your 2016 points and borrow from your 2017 points if you want.

 

[bristowe]

I looked at my contract. I have 140 points for 2016 and each year annually with September as use year. If I was cleared in time and got something for mid-August 2016, that would be a borrow as I have no points until September 2016. That is how I was interpreting it.

 

[sndral]

I looked at my contract. I have 140 points for 2016 and each year annually with September as use year. If I was cleared in time and got something for mid-August 2016, that would be a borrow as I have no points until September 2016. That is how I was interpreting it.

Sounds like you're good then, I just was confused by that one sentence in your post and wanted to make sure you weren't at risk of losing 2015 points. Yes, you'll be able to borrow your 2016 points for an August trip.
Hope you have a fast ROFR/Estoppel/closing and get to use those points in August.

 

[bristowe]

We sincerely appreciate your help. We have read everything over and over but only members who have been through it can really help us with the actual details of booking! We appreciate your time!