Resort Availability in January??

[mamathompson]

We are trying to plan our next trip for January 2014 and it seems as though there are lots of unavailable rooms. I was under the impression this was a slow time of year. We were originally planning for January 24-Feb 2. When those rooms/resorts were coming up unavailable I thought maybe changing to Jan 31- Feb 8 But am ending up with many of the same things.
It seems like Standard View is unavailable in most resorts I'm checking as well as some coming up no availability at all...CR. We are 5 plus an infant so our options are more limited to begin with.
Second guessing my weeks now. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[goteamSy]

I was under the impression it was a slow time of year too! We just hit the 180 day mark for our ADR's and there was barely any availability

We also had to book a "special" view, as the standard ones were already booked.

 

[TheIndyRowes]

We're going from Dec 31st - Jan 13th. The reason we are going is to be there for New Years Eve and the Half Marathon. I have a feeling the issues you're running into are due to the Marathon weekend. Good Luck!

 

[vacation_junkie]

We are trying to plan our next trip for January 2014 and it seems as though there are lots of unavailable rooms. I was under the impression this was a slow time of year. We were originally planning for January 24-Feb 2. When those rooms/resorts were coming up unavailable I thought maybe changing to Jan 31- Feb 8 But am ending up with many of the same things.
It seems like Standard View is unavailable in most resorts I'm checking as well as some coming up no availability at all...CR. We are 5 plus an infant so our options are more limited to begin with.
Second guessing my weeks now. Anyone else having this problem?

We go every January.
Around the same time frame you are going.
We've never once had a problem with getting a room.

As far as room availability. Call or keep checking back.
If you searching under a promo remember every room category does not apply there for they may not come up.

As far as dining. We've never had a problem booking what we've wanted as well. Just check back every day.
Things change all the time.

We love going over that time frame because the parks and the resorts are quiet.

We are going Jan 25th-Feb 2nd

 

[vacation_junkie]

I was under the impression it was a slow time of year too! We just hit the 180 day mark for our ADR's and there was barely any availability

We also had to book a "special" view, as the standard ones were already booked.

If you are already hitting your 180 mark that means you are most likely going over Marathon time and approaching MTK weekend.

The end of January is very quiet...the first few weeks are busy due to the Marathon.

 

[mamathompson]

We go every January.
Around the same time frame you are going.
We've never once had a problem with getting a room.

As far as room availability. Call or keep checking back.
If you searching under a promo remember every room category does not apply there for they may not come up.

As far as dining. We've never had a problem booking what we've wanted as well. Just check back every day.
Things change all the time.

We love going over that time frame because the parks and the resorts are quiet.

We are going Jan 25th-Feb 2nd

Thanks. I was thinking that I was missing the busier time of Disney. I'm just pricing Rack Rate right now so no promos. But I will just keep checking I guess. I'm a bit nervous for January. We've done the last two Septembers and crowd wise was great but weather wise was HOT. Hoping to get the best of both worlds!

 

[DisneyDreamingInMI]

We are trying to plan our next trip for January 2014 and it seems as though there are lots of unavailable rooms. I was under the impression this was a slow time of year. We were originally planning for January 24-Feb 2. When those rooms/resorts were coming up unavailable I thought maybe changing to Jan 31- Feb 8 But am ending up with many of the same things.
It seems like Standard View is unavailable in most resorts I'm checking as well as some coming up no availability at all...CR. We are 5 plus an infant so our options are more limited to begin with.
Second guessing my weeks now. Anyone else having this problem?

Yes, I am having the exact same problem for the exact same dates. I was totally surprised to see that almost all room categories at CR are unavailable, especially since booking for 2014 packages just opened and this is a "less-busy" time of year to visit! When I called the CM wasn't very helpful, but mentioned that many of the rooms were probably taken by room-only reservations. But I can't imagine that every room in the garden wing and half the tower were room-only reservations made this early on!!! Hopefully others will chime in, but I thought I read on another thread a few days back that this is also happening at a few other resorts and may be due to rooms being held for a convention? I keep checking each day for something to open up, but no luck so far. I am pretty set on my dates, so I may end up booking something else at another resort and changing if something opens up! Good luck!

 

[vacation_junkie]

Thanks. I was thinking that I was missing the busier time of Disney. I'm just pricing Rack Rate right now so no promos. But I will just keep checking I guess. I'm a bit nervous for January. We've done the last two Septembers and crowd wise was great but weather wise was HOT. Hoping to get the best of both worlds!

That time frame is just perfect.

Last 2 January vacations we didn't use any fast passes at all. We went on test tack 3 times in one morning.

Weather was awesome. Warm enough to enjoy the pool during the day yet cool enough so you don't sweat buckets.

You'll be hooked on that time of year after your first visit.

They also hold rooms back when the new booking time frame opens.

By the pins that have just gone out to some select people the General public promo for the time frame will be Play/Stay/Dine. Same as this past January. Hopefully thats released in the next month.
Play/Stay/Dine is...
Rack rates for rooms
But adults pay kids pricing for park tickets and the dining plan.

Not as good as free dining but its still a savings.

 

[mum2four]

Yep, I've been noticing the same thing with resort availability for the last week of January, particularly CR. The weird thing is, for the dates I've been looking at, the only thing available at CR is standard view in the garden wing. Now, that seems ridiculous to me, because everything I've read always says that these are the cheapest rooms at CR and therefore book up the fastest. So, why would all the more expensive tower rooms be booked, but the cheapest rooms in the resort still be available? Makes me think it must have something to do with rooms being held for conventions.

 

[DisMama3]

It is crazy and extremely bizarre. I have seen this issue and ADR issues popping up often. We went the third week last year (MLK weekend), and planned out trip last minute a MONTH out and got all the ADRs we wanted. So I don't buy it is marathon weekend and MLK weekend, because it was the same last year. Something has to be off with the system.

As for CR I posted this question for a friend and it turns out that a convention sucked up all the standard rooms for a room block (this was as per an attendee),