question on walking ?????

[paults]

Question is:

at seven months out if I can book a GV at say BLT for Nov 16 ,17 and get it but need to add to more days, one at a time, can someone with the 11 months booking period jump in front to book the 18th therefore blocking my ressie?

 

[DMKEDM]

I may be missing something here--but if you can book at 7 months out, no one will have an 11-months out advantage...everyone (home resort owner or not) will be at 7 months (or less)...

Key to booking is date of stay, not date of booking or use year...so for it to be 11 months out (again, whether or not it's a home resort owner), the date has to be 11 months from the date being booked...

Does that help or did I misunderstand what you're asking?

Also, in general, everything is first-come/first-served (within the home resort booking advantage parameters)...so yes, anyone who can book a particular date can book it ahead of you, even if you're "walking" the reservation...it's all in the luck of the timing of your visit to the website and/or phone call...

 

[CarolMN]

Question is:

at seven months out if I can book a GV at say BLT for Nov 16 ,17 and get it but need to add to more days, one at a time, can someone with the 11 months booking period jump in front to book the 18th therefore blocking my ressie?

The short answer is yes. That is why walking at 7 months is almost always a waste of time. (Don't know if that is what you are doing, since you are only booking 2 nights to begin with, but this question comes up often in one form or another).

In addition to an owner swooping in at the last minute to book what you want, you have no way to know if anything in the future is even available in the first place when you are booking at 7 months. If even one of the days you want/need is booked, the walking you did will be fruitless (unless you plan to waitlist and wanted those nights anyway).

 

[paults]

I may be missing something here--but if you can book at 7 months out, no one will have an 11-months out advantage...everyone (home resort owner or not) will be at 7 months (or less)...

Key to booking is date of stay, not date of booking or use year...so for it to be 11 months out (again, whether or not it's a home resort owner), the date has to be 11 months from the date being booked...

Does that help or did I misunderstand what you're asking?
I think I get it but not sure, never did it at 7 months. So lets see I have Nov 16 and 17 booked but need to get to the 19 th. So on the 17th I can book the 18 th but unless there are more rooms open for that date (17th) no one can get the 18 but me since I have the 17 th booked. ( even 11 months owners) correct!

I'm I confusing you yet, I'm trying

Also, in general, everything is first-come/first-served (within the home resort booking advantage parameters)...so yes, anyone who can book a particular date can book it ahead of you, even if you're "walking" the reservation...it's all in the luck of the timing of your visit to the website and/or phone call...

I know if I book at 11 months say a 1 br at bwv for Feb 9 and 10 and keep adding on the next day from the last day I already have booked for the next day that no body can get that room because their 1st day is already book by me. RIGHT!

 

[RobDoc]

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I know if I book at 11 months say a 1 br at bwv for Feb 9 and 10 and keep adding on the next day from the last day I already have booked for the next day that no body can get that room because their 1st day is already book by me. RIGHT!

You can reserve up to 7 nights right at 11 months from the arrival date and can then add additional days later without the fear that someone else can jump ahead of you since you already have those first 7 nights and can an 8th (or more) night anytime before the 11 month priority opens for that date.

At 7 months you can also reserve 7 nights and can see up to 7 nights from the arrival date. Unless you only have enough points to reserve 2 nights, you will be competing with others for any remaining inventory on a daily basis. The person that you beat out to reserve 7 months from today cold beat you out and reserve 7 nights for a date 7 months from tomorrow and some of subsequent dates could have already been reserved by owners at 11 months. Within 7 months, availability is always going to be an issue since owners have already had a headstart of 4 months.

Good luck!

 

[LaurenT]

So, in short, walking is only useful for your home resort, starting before the 11 month window and locking in the dates before the ones you actually need - then adding to the end of the trip while removing from the beginning.
I did it for Jambo value studio because I needed 2 of them and didn't have enough points for anything else.

 

[DebbieB]

I've done a form of walking at 7 months for VGC. Say I want to arrive Saturday or Sunday and stay to Friday. 7 months from Friday I will book Friday to Friday, then change the arrival to the correct day a day or two later. Kind of "insurance" since the first night tends to sellout shortly after 8:00am online. It has worked for me 3 times at VGC, fortunately the nights were all available.

 

[Jobelly]

Could I just ask what walking is. Trying to buy DVC at SS but hoping occasionally to book BCV at 7 months but really don't understand how the 7 month or wait listing works.

 

[Anal Annie]

I've done a form of walking at 7 months for VGC. Say I want to arrive Saturday or Sunday and stay to Friday. 7 months from Friday I will book Friday to Friday, then change the arrival to the correct day a day or two later. Kind of "insurance" since the first night tends to sellout shortly after 8:00am online. It has worked for me 3 times at VGC, fortunately the nights were all available.

I did something similar for VGC this summer. I had been watching the availability and knew it was going to fill quickly (we wanted a Sat. arrival) and I had planned to get up early to log on & be ready to book the 4 nights we wanted but then a few days before that window I went online & could see the whole week that ended on the last day we wanted and it was all open. All of a sudden the idea came to me to just book the whole week right then while I was seeing it and then to call back a couple days later to cancel off the extra nights on the beginning. I hadn't planned it but the idea & opportunity presented itself & we had enough points to do it so I did it. It was an instant relief to know that we had those 4 nights to start our trip (pre-Aulani). I figured that the nights I cancelled came through for somebody's waitlist so it made someone happy. It's not a practice that I would do other than for the hardest of reservations. Usually when we're going to WDW we just make a list of our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice resorts & we'd be happy getting any one of them. But with VGC it's different because that IS the only DVC resort.

 

[Anal Annie]

Could I just ask what walking is. Trying to buy DVC at SS but hoping occasionally to book BCV at 7 months but really don't understand how the 7 month or wait listing works.

I am not the best one to explain it but "walking" is usually done at the 11 month window and sometimes can work at the 7 month window too. It's when you actually book dates ahead of when you actually WANT to go then cancel off the beginning & add to the end - it gives you a slight booking window advantage over somebody else who may be trying to book the same dates at the same time as you. It is not as useful at the 7 mo. window because there is always the fact that the owners at the resort could have already booked the same dates before your 7 mo. window ever opened.

 

[Jobelly]

Thank you that makes sense.

Can you just waitlist one property at a time?, and do you only have to cancel your home reservation once your waitlist comes through.