Question about "last minute" booking

[michaelcooley]

Hello all-

My wife and I are considering buying into DVC (having enjoyed two trips to WDW with our 6 year old daughter). This forum has been tremendously helpful in answering a lot of our questions (and raising new ones we hadn't considered!).

Here's my predicament, though: With my work schedule, it is generally difficult for us to schedule trips 7 months out (much less 11 months) -- usually, we get about 2 months notice when a good window is about to open at work for me to get away for a vacation. Given that, how hard would it be for us to get decent bookings as DVC members? Obviously, I'm not talking about the super-hard-to-get bookings like 3BR villas at Christmas, but just generally for getting a 1-2 BR villa for us and our kids. Low Season? High Season?

Thoughts, observations and advice would be MUCH appreciated!

mpc

 

[hakepb]

Nothing can be guaranteed that short of notice, so you are probably not an ideal DVC canidate.
That short of notice, you would usually be limited to SSR and OKW, and if you do get a reservation, it may require moving resorts mid-trip just to get all of the days.

I have done 2 "last-minute" 1 month out trips April (well after spring break, stared in OKW, then moved to SSR) and July (not the 4th, and only had SSR available )

If you are still set on using DVC as the most affordable way to get "Deluxe" accomodations and are happy with the possibility of OKW and SSR, then look to purchase a SSR or OKW resale contract (much cheaper than through Disney) Unless you see you vacation planning window expanding in the future, I would not waste the extra money on "new" points through Disney (i.e BLT..)

 

[Deb & Bill]

There aren't too many low seasons anymore at WDW, especially with DVC. When some people think that early Dec would be a great time to go, they don't realize that that is one of the most popular times for DVC members - the parks are decorated for Christmas and points are low. With more and more DVC resorts, it gets harder and harder to book a stay only a few months/weeks out and stay in the same accomodations.

 

[yekcoh_99]

We just booked 2 weeks ago for a trip during the last week of March, which is Premier Season (I believe) and also in the 2 month window you're referring to. Granted it's 4 nights (Sun - Wed), but we were able to get accomodations other than SSR and OKW. When we called to make reservations, we were told the resorts were very booked. Our first options were to either stay all 4 nights at SSR (our least favorite resort) or we could split it and stay 1 night at SSR and 3 at OKW. We booked the split and waitlisted for AKV.

A few days later we were able to swap out the 1 night at SSR for a studio (SV) at AKV. About a week later (as in yesterday), we found out that our 3 nights at OKW have been swapped now for a studio (V) at AKV. We'll spend our first 3 nights in the same studio room, then swap to a SV room within the same hotel. Unless we missed it, we didn't see a notification on this, we just happened to call and inquire and were told the switch was made a couple days ago.

I realize your scenario will in all likelihood involve a 7 day stay, but the 3 nights we just got at AKV might have come about b/c someone canceled a 7 day stay. And let me be clear by saying we didn't want to give up the one day with the SV. We have 2 toddlers who are going to love that!

We're new to DVC and this will be our first trip home. We own at BCV, but wanted to keep the points low on this short trip. We're very happy with what we were able to get on short notice. I'm sure it will be a bit of pain, but we're fine swapping rooms one time while we're there. If you're willing to go on the waitlist and hang tough I would imagine you'll be able to get what you're looking for often enough.

Best of luck!

 

[Safari Queen]

We've been very lucky getting great resorts on short notice. Two BR villas are often available. I believe studios are the toughest to book. Wait list often comes through. We've been able to stay at the BCV and BWV with just a few weeks notice.

 

[Daddio]

We've been very lucky getting great resorts on short notice. Two BR villas are often available. I believe studios are the toughest to book. Wait list often comes through. We've been able to stay at the BCV and BWV with just a few weeks notice.

Studios are the first to go followed by two bedrooms, leaving 1 bedrooms the most often available at the last minute (not counting GVs or Treehouses).

David