still mulling over our decision - more questions!

lnb1230

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 23, 2002
I am so glad to have found such a wonderful group of people to help me with all my questions. Here are a couple more:

1) From your experience, what times of year have been most difficult to make a reservation? If you call at the 11 month mark for your home resort what % of the time would you say you can get what you want? At the 7 month mark?

2) Any experience with last minute travel? At times of the year like this I have the major winter doldrums. Have any of you ever decided to at the last minute you just got to get out of here and head to your "summer home"?
 
In general, I have never found any time of the year difficult to get from the 11 motnh mark. My home resort is OKW, which is a big resort wit a lot of units, so maybe that has something to do with it. At the 7 month mark, I am still pretty lucky with OKW, have had probably 75% luck with BCV. 75% with BWV for a prefrred view(standard views are all scooped up by BWV owners at the 11 month mark;) ). Haven't tried VWL yet.

I would guess that the times of the year when there are special things happening, such as the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, or the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, may be busier, as well as the first 2 weeks of December, when the holiday decorations are up but the crowds are low.

We tend to travel in October/November or January/February to WDW. Last July we made a kind of last minute(about a month out) reservation at OKW for a 1 bedroom with no difficulty. Perhaps the resorts with less units(BCV and VWL) may be a little tougher to get at the 7 motnh window on occasion, but OKW has a large number of units, as does the BWV, so I think it'll be OK in general. Also, SSR is supposed have a fair number of units when it is completed, so that will add to the inventory.
 
Can't help with the last minute question, but I'm sure you'll get responses on it - lots of posters report success with last minute reservations.

If you call when your 11 month window opens, you will have 99.99% success in getting your first choice of dates and rooms types. I've never had a problem and we usually book a standard view room at the BWV for early December.

In my experience, the most popular times/times you need the 11 month window for all the WDW resorts are the week of Thanksgiving through New Year's, October & November and the two weeks surrounding Easter.

In addition to that, standard views and boardwalk views for BWV and Grand Villas everywhere are difficult to get all the time.

Believe it or not, summer time and spring break (last half of February - April, not including Easter weeks) are relatively easy to book.

That doesn't mean you can never get one of those "difficult times" times if you don't use the 11 month window. It just means that to be absolutely sure of getting what you want right away, you need to reserve as soon as you can. I need to be sure to make sure I have a chance to book reasonable airfare. That can be a problem out of MSP.

Anyway - best wishes and good luck with your decision making!
 
Carol is right. We have NEVER had a bit of trouble booking between 11 and 7months out during our exclusive booking window. We have also had luck gettng Labor day last minute (day before), so we have had success at last minute too.
 


Our points are at Boardwalk, and we have always gotten what we want at 11 months. Nobody else can reserve before this time period, so you are in good shape if you call when you are first allowed to. Hilton Head in the summer seems to be a tough reservation to get at 7 months.
 
My experiences are limited, being a new member as well. I made two reservations last year 5 months out for our home resort (BCV) without any difficulties,.. even got the views we asked for. Course this was the week BEFORE Thanksgiving.

Last month I took advantage of some really cheap airfares and found myself in the neighborhood.. I stopped at Vero Beach to check it out and figured I needed a place to lay the head that night, so I called MS and inquired about ressies for 3 days at BCV.. no problems. Gate guard was a bit confused as to why he didn't show me checking in till I explained I had only made the ressie 2 hours earlier..

Nothing short of incredible service, IMHO.
 
This question is probably going to show what a newby I am, but here it goes.

Is the 7/11 month window from the day you check in or the day you check out? For example if I want to make a res in the 7 month window for a 1 week stay starting October 1, can I make the res on March 1 or do I have to wait until March 7?

Thanks.
 


Originally posted by Poorman
Check out date.

However, a technique many people use for 'tough' reservations is to call day-by-day. In effect, you have 7 reservations, but Member Services will link them into one ressie so you don't have to keep track of 7 numbers nor face the posibility of having 7 different rooms! :cool2:


-Joe
 
Okay difficult times - Thanksgiving week - why - low points - high demand.

The first two weeks of Christmas - very difficult - why - low points, low crowds, special events, the whole place (and I mean whole - resorts, theme parks, DD) is decorated and it is probably the best time of the year to be there. the weather can be unpredictable - I have been there when the highs were in the 80's and then other times the highs were in the 40's.

I have made July 4 reservations last minute. So summer does not seem to be difficult.

I have been told that BWV and BCV are difficult in Oct/Nov because of the food and wine festavial - this does not seem to be as big problem with the April/May/june - flower and garden festavial which I like better....

I have also made spring break reservations last minute.

generally the lower points the harder to get - except for Jan and Sept - alot of people can't go in those months - I can't in Jan or Feb - so I can't say about them. I LOVE Sept - low points, low crowds - the weather can be hot and humdity - but the down side - the parks close early. (epcot is still open until 9 generally). So more time to spend at the resort swimming - or shopping - or exploring Orlando/Kissimmee.

October is getting to be harder - but then it has the MNSSHP and the food and wine festavial plus that Golf thing....
 
I would think that the number of units at your home resort and the time of year can make a difference if you wait until the 7 month window to make a reservation. For instance, recently we wanted to make a reservation at BCV (our home resort) for this spring but could not get a 1bdrm. We inquired about BWV and they had one for the week we wanted. So, while I wasn't able to get into my home resort, I was able to get into a DVC resort.

From what I read, you can get into one of the DVC resorts in the 7 month window, or perhaps on short notice in mosts cases (with the exception of certain holday times).
 

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