Spur of the moment trips

[RyTy]

My wife and I want to become DVC Members but I wanted to ask you guys this before we purchase.

-How hard is it to use your extra points sporadically? We both work from home so we can just decide to go whenever we want.

(We plan on booking a major vacation every year in advance, but will have points left over hoping to use spur of the moment.)

Thanks in advance for all the feedback!

 

[Sandisw]

Last minute trips are very difficult to book with DVC.

And last minute I’m talking a few months out. If you are talking less than that? Maybe a night here or there or at different resorts so might be changing rooms.

But I would go in assuming it’s a bonus and not a sure thing, especially for mid September to mid January and if you want studios.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

If you are flexible (dates, # of nights, open to split stay, room type .... basically willing to take anything you can find), it has not been hard for us.

My DD moved down to FL for the Disney College Program in January and we have booked several trips Feb - Aug but most only a couple of nights each time.

You have to be willing to waitlist, stalk and make other travel adjustments. For example, I only fly Southwest on points (even if I have to buy them) so that I can change things easily and at the last minute.

 

[RichVIII]

Are you driving flexible (versus flying)?
What time of room are you hoping to get spur of the moment?
Spur of the moment like needing a few days (or longer)?

 

[mcdieselsauce]

I use the DVC availability tool calendar, to pick a room cat and search for 1 night here or there. We live <2 hours away so one night vacations our the primary use case.
I found a AKL studio Friday night, two weeks after I bought in march this year.We checked Friday night this week and found a riviera studio for Saturday(yesterday) so it is possible but more of random luck.

I've had no problem finding Friday - Sunday nights 2+ months out at SSR,AKL,OKW

 

[RamblinWreck]

If you aren’t picky about which resort you’ll be in, and you’re also ok with 1 bedrooms, you will likely have some luck with very short trips. But there will be no guarantee, especially during certain times of the year.

 

[Isabelle12345]

We planned a long weekend in Orlando for June, starting to plan mid-March; I was able to snag 3 nights in a Studio at the beach club (by stalking, getting one at a time and then combining them) and one night savannah view at Jambo House for our last night, which was exactly what we wanted! I took about 2 weeks of intermittent stalking (5-6x/day, when I had a few spare minutes) and waitlist.
We also changed our dates for a one-night stay in August and I was able to get 3 studios at the Poly for the night we wanted with waitlisting last week! So there is definitely room for short-term planning