Purchase AKL concierge?

[Zach197]

Hey everyone my family and I recently returned home from our first stay at AKL. We stayed in a 2 bedroom savannah lock off room at jambo house and absolutely loved everything about the room and the resort. Theme, dining, pools everything.

We were pondering adding on 50 to 100 points at AKL mainly for the value and concierge option. AKL usually has availability at the 7 month window but the value and concierge obviously are not available.

We have not stayed concierge at AKL but are very interested especially for our adult only trips just wife and I. We usually plan our adult trips 11 months out.

What are some thoughts on concierge? Is it impossible to get at 11 months with walking reservations? Is it worth the extra points? Is it worth purchasing a AKL contract exclusively for concierge? Thank you

 

[JETSDAD]

Club level is extremely hard to book. There are only 5 lockoffs so they go very quickly (especially the studio portion). I would not buy just for that. I would treat it more as a bonus if you do get it.

 

[Zach197]

Club level is extremely hard to book. There are only 5 lockoffs so they go very quickly (especially the studio portion). I would not buy just for that. I would treat it more as a bonus if you do get it.

Yes forgot to mention we would only need studio not 2 bedroom since it would be wife and I. Thank you

 

[starry_solo]

Do you plan to make it a resort only stay? A 1 bedroom is very nice (just stayed in one at Boardwalk a few weeks ago and we aren't going back to studios!)

If you are willing to walk, you might be able to get it. My owner actually was able to snag it on a waitlist, a week after he put in for it (for me). This was when me and another person were going and we were only doing resorts for the first few days.

 

[Zach197]

Resort only or split stay between a resort near the parks. We usually do split stay half chilling half parks

 

[RoseGold]

I think it depends on how flexible you are. Club level 1BR is not impossible. It does pop up now and then at 10-11 months and make me curse not having AKL points. Heck, it's available right now at 9-11 months sporadically.

But that doesn't help if you aren't flexible enough to plan around a random Tuesday night 1BR club level booking, and 50 points won't get you far, even if you spot the club level 1BR.

 

[Best Aunt]

Yes forgot to mention we would only need studio not 2 bedroom since it would be wife and I. Thank you

But as PP said, the only Club level rooms are 5 studios and 5 1-bedrooms all of which can be part of a 2-bedroom lock-off. So if 5 people are faster at booking than you and they all want a 2-bedroom, you are out of luck; all studios are gone.

 

[Ruttangel]

Took me 3 weeks of stalking before I got a day to start a walk, then pushed it forward a day at a time for about another 3 weeks. This was to get a full week in a studio next August.
Might seem like too much hassle for some, I just see it as challenge accepted.
Edit to Add: It’s about 8 points more for a Club studio, so about $120 more if you convert that at $15pp. You just need to work out if the food and drink you will get would be worth it, it’s easy to make it work if you have 4 in a studio as breakfast/coffee and a couple of evening drinks make that up. As a couple if you are having a few more adult beverages then it could still easily be worth it. One interesting thing we did was take a full glass of wine to Jiko....we did order another but thought I’d let you know you can do that too.

 

[sethschroeder]

walking reservations?

only 5 lockoffs

So to put this in context do a search on here about people looking at club level. I think there are about 5-10 different people on this forum that walk Club Level already at times. That means you are now up in the air if someone else will be walking and you will have to pick up reservations or hope wait lists come through.

Each year as someone strikes out they will start looking to walk earlier and earlier. If I were to buy AKV for Club level I would expect to:

1. Have my Use Year the month after when I travel (so I can easily walk reservations 11 months)
2. Expect to walk reservations 11 months (logging in almost daily to update)
3. Expect something to still go wrong some year (like rooms taken out for refurb) and losing the walk

2 bedroom savannah

Something to keep in mind the Club Level rooms don't guarantee Savannah views. So 2 out of 5 will have a view of the pool and the other 3 "savannah" will be like the picture below.

 

[Zach197]

Thanks for all the responses! We always travel in September and February with a use year of October for both of our Saratoga and Poly contracts. We decided we are going to purchase an AKL contract. Now to find that perfect contract! Thanks all

 

[_auroraborealis_]

But as PP said, the only Club level rooms are 5 studios and 5 1-bedrooms all of which can be part of a 2-bedroom lock-off. So if 5 people are faster at booking than you and they all want a 2-bedroom, you are out of luck; all studios are gone.

I'd add that it is wildly rare for 5 to be available on the same day. There are check-in dates for which 0 units will be available due to the very limited inventory. Many times, the competition on a day is for one solitary unit, based on check-outs of prior guests.

The maximum number of bookable units is 10. But basically the only day in the last 10 years there were legit 10 available on the same check-in date was the day AKV reopened after COVID.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Took me 3 weeks of stalking before I got a day to start a walk, then pushed it forward a day at a time for about another 3 weeks. This was to get a full week in a studio next August.

How does that work exactly? You find a single day to start but eventually expand it to a week once you get to the start date of your trip? I'm a little fuzzy on how the walking thing works

 

[Ruttangel]

How does that work exactly? You find a single day to start but eventually expand it to a week once you get to the start date of your trip? I'm a little fuzzy on how the walking thing works

So, once the first day of my booking was open the rest of that week was as well and then every day after that I took a day off and added one on to move it forward.

 

[Sandisw]

How does that work exactly? You find a single day to start but eventually expand it to a week once you get to the start date of your trip? I'm a little fuzzy on how the walking thing works

It is basically started your search weeks before your real 11 month window. Once you snag a reservation, you just modify it and keep it moving forward until your real dates.

 

[Jimmy Geppetto]

It is basically started your search weeks before your real 11 month window. Once you snag a reservation, you just modify it and keep it moving forward until your real dates.

I've always been confused when people talk of this strategy/concept. I'm likely not interpreting the process correctly, but how can you search weeks before, when the system prevents you from booking more than 11 months out?

 

[JETSDAD]

I've always been confused when people talk of this strategy/concept. I'm likely not interpreting the process correctly, but how can you search weeks before, when the system prevents you from booking more than 11 months out?

You are only ever booking 11 months out, you just start trying before you get to the actual dates that you're wanting. So let's say I want a Club Level Studio at AKV for the first week of December. If I wait until the actual date that I want I only get one shot at trying to get it. Odds are extremely low that I would get it. Instead I could start trying each day now to get an 11 month reservation from now....so right now it would be a reservation for Oct. Odds are still low that I can get one but I can keep trying each day. If I finally get a reservation then I can keep adding days to the end and dropping days from the front end of it until we get to the beginning of January when my dates could be where I want them into December.

 

[Jimmy Geppetto]

You are only ever booking 11 months out, you just start trying before you get to the actual dates that you're wanting. So let's say I want a Club Level Studio at AKV for the first week of December. If I wait until the actual date that I want I only get one shot at trying to get it. Odds are extremely low that I would get it. Instead I could start trying each day now to get an 11 month reservation from now....so right now it would be a reservation for Oct. Odds are still low that I can get one but I can keep trying each day. If I finally get a reservation then I can keep adding days to the end and dropping days from the front end of it until we get to the beginning of January when my dates could be where I want them into December.

so why not just book multiple one night stays the day it’s first available and keep doing that daily until you want the reservation to end and then ask MS to combine them into one reservation?

 

[JETSDAD]

so why not just book multiple one night stays the day it’s first available and keep doing that daily until you want the reservation to end and then ask MS to combine them into one reservation?

Once it's available you could book 7 nights and then keep adding each day if you want longer than 7 nights....the problem is that you have one shot at it. So if you want Dec 1-8 and you wait until Jan 1st to try to book it, there may not be a single studio even available to book, or there may be 1 studio but 50 people trying to get that one studio. There is no guarantee that you can ever get a walk started, it just gives you more chance to try. If you get it then you can book 7 nights into the current 11 month window. That locks you into a room and blocks other from booking it. Tomorrow you could then modify the reservation to drop the first day and extend the last date out another day.

 

[RoseGold]

so why not just book multiple one night stays the day it’s first available and keep doing that daily until you want the reservation to end and then ask MS to combine them into one reservation?

Because you book 11m + 7 days. Then every few days in the afternoon, you move it You don’t do the 8AM mess again. With rooms like this, even that can be an issue. If they take a couple out for whatever reason, you are against the other walkers.

 

[dvc lover 1970]

Congratulations. I love AKV and regret not buying there ten years ago.