Strategy for Hard-to-Get Reservation at 7 months...Could this work??

kristenrice

NOT just an ambulance driver
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Apr 25, 2006
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The family is planning a trip for October 2016. As of now, my sister's family (4 people) and my parents (2 people) are planning on booking a 2BR standard at BWV. We already have an arrangement in place for the BWV points to be transferred into my account, which I know means that I will need to call since I cannot book online with the transferred points. I am also thinking that I will attempt to walk the reservation as well. Their backup plan is a 2BR standard at AKV-Kidani which should hopefully be available at the 7 month mark.

That brings me to my family...we are owner's at AKV and HHI and I will have 178 points available for the 2016 trip...128 at AKV and 50 at HHI. Ideally, we would like to book a standard 1BR at BWV for the whole week, but since we are OK with a split-stay (studio/1BR), I am looking at options.

Plan A: At 11 months, book a standard studio at AKV-Jambo for Saturday and Sunday night for 28 AKV points. Then, at 7 months, at 8am exactly, if it's available, I would book Saturday-Thursday (6 nights) in a BWV standard 1BR for 138 points. At that point ...can I call at 9am and CANCEL my 2 nights at AKV to free up the 28 points and then add on the final night at BWV? Or would I have to wait until 7 months out from that last day? Do I even have to call or is this something I could do online?

Plan B: If the BWV standard 1BR is NOT available at 7 months, I would waitlist the full 7 nights. Two days later, I would be able to try and secure a 1BR preferred (pool/garden) at BWV. That would give me the first 2 nights at AKV (in a studio) and then the last 5 nights at BWV. If I need to waitlist the preferred 1BR at BWV, can I do it without jeopardizing the 1BR standard waitlist? It would have to be set up that if the standard WL came through, they would cancel the 2 nights at AKV (since they would be overlapping), but if the preferred WL came through, it would NOT cancel the AKV reservation. If I need to waitlist, I would also book the final 5 nights in a standard 1BR at AKV-Kidani so that we at least have a room for the full week.

Now that I've made it about as confusing as possible, I'll throw some more thoughts out there...

I can borrow 3 points from my 2017 UY which would give me enough to book the full week in a 1BR at AKV-Kidani. Since I won't be able to do this until the 7-month window anyways (because the 50 HHI points are banked points and MUST be used), I should know by then if the other group was able to get in at BWV. If they did, then we would obviously like to spend as much of our stay at BWV as possible. That means the 1BR standard for all 7 nights, or the preferred for 5 nights...BUT...I can only definitively book EITHER the 1BR at Kidani for the full 7 nights OR the studio for 2 nights. This means that I would have to rely on the waitlist filling or I would not have a room. I have to choose which of the options is most appealing...

...7 nights in a standard 1BR at BWV...
...2 nights at AKV followed by 5 nights in a preferred 1BR at BWV....
...a 1BR standard at AKV-Kidani for the full week, even if the rest of the family is at BWV...

Oh, and did I mention that since we are doing a point transfer (thus putting ME in control of the points and reservations), the rest of the family would be OK with a standard 2BR at Kidani??

Phew....that's a lot to process and think about. Getting it in writing helped me straighten it out in my head, but I am still really confused as to what scenario is most likely to be successful.
 
Plan A: You can cancel the first reservation online at 8am while holding the second on a separate device, which will free up the 28 points so you can book the whole stay all at once.

Plan B: Yes, you can set up one wait list to cancel the AKV reservation and the other wait list to not. But if one waitlist gets filled, the other might be cancelled.
 
The two waitlists open can get tricky. Normally DVC will cancel the 2nd waitlist if the first one comes thru - I have had this happen several times. If this happens with you, you would have to re-waitlist and go to the bottom of the line. I have also had them accidentally cancel reservations when filling a waitlist, when I did not indicate that I wanted the reservation cancelled.

If you did not want to try and cancel the 2 nights at AKV before trying to book the BWV reservation, you can call MS later in the day to do it. They can modify your BWV reservation to add a day after you have some points freed up. You are allowed to book 7 days at the 7 month mark :)

We own BWV points, and have had trouble securing a 2 bedroom standard view at the 11 month mark for certain times of the year. Have a back-up plan - the standard view villas go quick. That is why we bought BWV points!
 

We own BWV points, and have had trouble securing a 2 bedroom standard view at the 11 month mark for certain times of the year. Have a back-up plan - the standard view villas go quick. That is why we bought BWV points!

^^^This is what I'm afraid of:scared:! We are transferring in BWV points and my sister and parents really want to try the BWV. They have each stayed at AKV and OKW so they would like to try BWV this time. I told my sister that if they were willing to try and obtain a few more points, I would have a better chance of getting them a preferred (garden/pool) view room instead. The added "cost"(:ssst:no "cost" for transferring points, right?;)) would definitely improve their chances of getting to stay at the BWV in October. She said that if they can't get the standard room then they will be perfectly happy at AKV. I was really hoping to try and get a BWV 1BR for my family since my girls developed a fondness for the food booths at this year's F&G festival. I know they'd love to be walking distance to Epcot, but I'm not going to stay there, knowing that the rest of the group is over at AKV.
 
1BR BWV standard is easier at 7 mo than 2BR or Studio standard much of the year. (I've done 4th of July and pre-Thanksgiving) ..but F&W really pushes your luck. I hope it works out.
 
Edited...because I didn't read the OP properly
 
Last edited:
I am not even sure that trying to walk a reservation will help. My experience this year was, at 7 months that there was nothing available period at BWV for the entire month of October in standard view and only random days here and there in the rest of the resort. I only looked once so maybe other dates opened up, but Food and Wine puts enormous pressure on the Epcot resorts, especially the DVC Epcot resorts. I can only recommend that the OP have several backup plans ready.
 
I have to agree with cwdefouw - walking is very unlikely to work for an October reservation at 7 months for a standard view at BWV. To be successful ALL of the nights must be available when you make the first reservation and then all of the nights after that right through to the last night you need. That just isn't going to be the case, especially if any of your dates include Columbus Day weekend or the week following it. You'll probably have trouble getting even Pool/garden views for that time

If a BWV standard view is what you must have, my advice is to get a transfer of BWV points or rent the reservation using the 11 month window. You could offset most of the cost by transferring or renting yor own non-BWV points.

Good luck!
 
If a BWV standard view is what you must have, my advice is to get a transfer of BWV points or rent the reservation using the 11 month window. You could offset most of the cost by transferring or renting yor own non-BWV points.

Good luck!

OP, I think this is the way to go. As DVC has grown the standard view rooms at BWV, especially during F&W, are getting even harder to get. IMHO it would be highly unlikely for you to get a standard room at 7 months, even with walking. In any case, good luck!
 
Are you planning to go over the Columbus Day weekend holiday? Even if you are not, that could be your speed bump to walking a ressie.
We have been booking the Columbus Day weekend holiday for the past several years. I have run into trouble even at the 11 month window. Our booking category is generally studio std view (sometimes 2BR std view). One peculiar thing I have noticed is random availability popping up a few days after the 11 month booking window. I chalk that up to folks walking ressies. But, I have been able to cobble together a week most of the time by collecting random days plus a strategic wait list here and there. The WL is generally filled in a very short time (but, that is around the 11 month window).
Good luck to you!
 
I am not even sure that trying to walk a reservation will help. My experience this year was, at 7 months that there was nothing available period at BWV for the entire month of October in standard view and only random days here and there in the rest of the resort. I only looked once so maybe other dates opened up, but Food and Wine puts enormous pressure on the Epcot resorts, especially the DVC Epcot resorts. I can only recommend that the OP have several backup plans ready.

I have to agree with cwdefouw - walking is very unlikely to work for an October reservation at 7 months for a standard view at BWV. To be successful ALL of the nights must be available when you make the first reservation and then all of the nights after that right through to the last night you need. That just isn't going to be the case, especially if any of your dates include Columbus Day weekend or the week following it. You'll probably have trouble getting even Pool/garden views for that time

If a BWV standard view is what you must have, my advice is to get a transfer of BWV points or rent the reservation using the 11 month window. You could offset most of the cost by transferring or renting yor own non-BWV points.

Good luck!

Just a point of clarification....

The reservation(s) that I plan to walk will be for a 2BR standard using BWV points at 11 months. The reservation that I would like to make at 7 months, if I am successful in securing a 2BR for the rest of my family, is for the standard view 1BR. I know that there is a slightly higher probability that I can get a 1BR at 7 months vs. a 2BR so that is why I want to try and get the 2BR first.

Our back up plan is at Kidani Village, but since we have all stayed there at least once, we were hoping to try something a little different:hippie:.
 
Just a point of clarification....

The reservation(s) that I plan to walk will be for a 2BR standard using BWV points at 11 months. The reservation that I would like to make at 7 months, if I am successful in securing a 2BR for the rest of my family, is for the standard view 1BR. I know that there is a slightly higher probability that I can get a 1BR at 7 months vs. a 2BR so that is why I want to try and get the 2BR first.

Our back up plan is at Kidani Village, but since we have all stayed there at least once, we were hoping to try something a little different:hippie:.

I agreee that the 2 bedroom standard is the one to go for at 11 months. If your dates do not include Columbus Day weekend, then IMO, you probably do not even have to walk to get it.

However, I still think that getting any standard view at 7 months is not a good bet. If it were me, I'd still try to get a transfer of BWV points so that I could make both reservations at the 11 month mark.

Good luck!
 
I agreee that the 2 bedroom standard is the one to go for at 11 months. If your dates do not include Columbus Day weekend, then IMO, you probably do not even have to walk to get it.

However, I still think that getting any standard view at 7 months is not a good bet. If it were me, I'd still try to get a transfer of BWV points so that I could make both reservations at the 11 month mark.

Good luck!

We are going the 15th-22nd and Columbus Day is the 10th so that should work in our favorpixiedust:. My family is OK with a split-stay too so if we can only get some of the nights in a 1BR, we are OK with that too.
 





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