question about villas if not dvc member

[mom7011]

My husband and I would like to take our 3 boys to Disney in January and the Wilderness Lodge Villas seem to fit our need perfectly. I've called Disney and they have no availability even in to March. The rep said they are "blocked for owners" but they will be released sometime. Can anybody explain what that means? Do I still have a chance of getting a reservation in January? I am very new to this. Thanks!

 

[carlsoka]

My experience has been that you will need to go through an owner, and even there, I was not able to find anything in January - anywhere in WDW. I ended up with a split reservation (two villa locations) as I had the first week of January as my mission. And I had to upgrade to a 1bdrm instead of a studio - but as it turns out, I am really glad I have. We'll see once I am there. Only other choice is to go to the regular rack rates of the regular Lodge. Good Lukc!
KC

 

[Deb & Bill]

VWL is the smallest DVC resort. There is a good chance it is fully booked already for most of the months through April.

 

[chalee94]

The rep said they are "blocked for owners" but they will be released sometime. Can anybody explain what that means?

owners at VWL have been able to book those rooms since feb 07 and all other DVC owners have been able to book those rooms since jun07. from what i've read, there is most likely already a waitlist of owners who want to stay there in january, who tried to book after it was already full.

if there are a lot of cancellations, such that rooms are available after the waitlists are accomodated, any available rooms will be turned over to disney's central reservations office around 60 days prior to check-in (i.e. november.)

i'd agree that since VWL is small, it's not very likely to work out on relatively short notice...(if you had known your plans a year in advance, people would have advised you to find a VWL owner and arrange to rent a reservation from them)...but you never know...