Staying outside home resort

[JohnW]

I was wondering what the chances are of booking outside your home resort at the 7 month window. We are looking at buying at SSR but I was wondering how likely it would be to get a 1 bedroom for, say 5 nights, at one of the smaller resorts (BCV/VWL/BWV) at the 7 month window for the end of August (Dream) or October (Choice)?

What about at Vero for the same times?

How would you rate the chances?

 

[spiceycat]

august you might be able to get anything.

Oct - don't count on either BWV or BCV - food & wine festavial is happening and these resorts are very, very popular for that.

VWL you might stand a chance at for Oct.

VB I think any time you mentioned would be fine - unless you want one of the beach houses (3-bedroom)

 

[browniemtb]

Chances get slimmer and slimmer as more members join. I've never traveled to WDW at those times so I can't honestly say how busy DVC is. From what I've read though is that the summer is a pretty busy DVC time. Basically what you should plan on doing is booking your home resort at 11 months and then try getting into one of the smaller resorts at the 7 month mark. That way you will at least have a room for your trip and can cancell the home resort ressie if you get into the smaller resorts.

If you plan on buying SSR and want to stay only at one of the smaller resorts you may want to rethink that decision. Buy where you want to stay the most......If BCV,BWV, or VWL are you top choices, buy there. Either find a resale or get on a waiting list with Disney. This way you will have that 11 month advantage.

Good luck in you decision.....

Brownie

 

[MiaSRN62]

I've been able to get BWV/VWL during most weeks in the summer. My home is OKW. This October, I called in Sept for availability for Oct 1-8. I was offered OKW, SSR, BWV and VWL. I chose VWL. This was for a studio though. But I've heard 1 bedrooms tend to be easier to secure than studios and 2 bedrooms.
Can't guarentee it will always be like this, but I've had very little difficulty booking non-home resorts at less than 7 months. I think your most difficult time period will be Oct-Dec because of the all the holidays/festivities (Food and Wine, Halloween, "Jersey Week", low points in early Dec, Christmas etc). I felt I got really lucky having a choice of DVC studios for this Oct.

 

[dianeschlicht]

In August, you will likely get anything you want at any resort. For October, there MIGHT be some availability at BWV if you book right at the 7 month window and day by day. BCV will be VERY difficult in October. As stated, the FOod and Wine festival fills the Epcot DVCs up very quickly in October.

SSR and OKW are the largest and easiest to get with BWV the next largest and a lot easier than BCV and VWL which is the smallest.

 

[JohnW]

Thanks for the replies so far. I appreciate the argument about buying where you want to stay the most and, to be honest, I don't want to stay at BCV/VWL/BWV for the most part, which is why I am happy with SSR (and we like OKW too). However, part of the attraction of DVC is to be able to stay at the other resorts and I just wondered how practical that would turn out to be. I am sure we will want to stay at the three smaller WDW resorts and Vero and I jst wanted to find out if that was likely to be possible.

Any other thoughts/experiences?