Online booking question

[DisneyMotherOf2]

First - my apologies if this has been asked before. I was unable to find an answer in the threads. We booked at BWV at 11 months out and our 7 month window is approaching. We want to switch our ressie to BCV. I've never booked online before. My understanding is we can book online starting at 8am (correct me if I'm wrong). My question is do I need to cancel my BWV ressie first? Or can I book BCV, then cancel BWV without it affecting points? I'm concerned about seeing BCV is available. Canceling BWV, then trying to book BCV only to be told it's not available because someone else just snagged it. I'm assuming I have to cancel BWV first, but I wasn't sure if there was a concession of a few minutes for when people are making changes? Any info/advice on the best way to make the switch would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[chalee94]

unless you have a ton of pts, you would need to cancel BWV first to free up enough pts to book the BCV reservation.

whether you call in or book online there has historically been a risk of having someone book your intended room while you were canceling your reserved room. not sure if anyone has solved that yet or not...i think it's just a risk you take...

 

[drusba]

If you call the change is very quick and there is supposed to be no risk because MS is supposed to be able to hold the room now which you are switching to while cancelling the other, or at least I was told MS can do that by MS.

To do it on-line, you must go into your "Vacation Center" and cancel the prior reservation before attempting a new one and doing a new one then requires going to a different page and thus there can be delay in between cancellation and getting to point where new reservation is locked in for 20 minutes while you choose points to use and fill out information needed like who will be there.


Thus, even if you see BCV is available on-line, you risk losing it while you go through the cancellation process and then come back to a different page to reserve BCV. Thus, you risk having no reservation.

I ran a test to see if I could do a safe change on-line by getting to the page where your new ressie is locked up for 20 minutes while you do all the extras including choosing points. I then went and cancelled a reservation at home resort (one I made an hour earlier just to conduct the test). My thinking was that perhaps I could then return to the new reservation and just refresh the page and have the points from the cancellation appear as unused points so I could use them for the reservation. It would not do that and the points from the cancellation would not appear in the account for use on the new reservation without starting over again to make the new reservation.

 

[DisneyMotherOf2]

Thank you both for your responses. It certainly makes changing reservations incredibly stressful! If we call in the change and they can hold a ressie while canceling the original why can't we do this online? And having to wait an hour between the online booking opening up vs. speaking with a CS rep that makes it even more stressful.

Guess I'd better decide what to do fast because our 7 month window opens tomorrow.

 

[islandtimect]

Whenever we want to change a ressie i always call. As someone said, theres the risk what you want isnt available, plus you'll have to use a new set of points.

 

[CarolMN]

May is one of the easier months to book at 7 months.

You may have a problem if you want a 2 bedroom and will only accept a dedicated villa with 2 queen beds in the second bedroom. But for anything else, I do not think you will have a problem waiting until 9 am Eastern to call MS.

If MS says no availability, you can just keep the BWV reservation and waitlist the BCV reservation. You'd probably get it.

Good luck!