Talk to me about 7 mo availability at VGC

[sets14]

We are planning to take a trip out to Cali in either late 2015 or 2016. In order to cover all my bases and contingencies when planning our budget I have a question about availability at VGC. I know this property is incredibly small and we will be booking right at the 7 mo window. Those with experience booking VGC please rank the following time periods from easiest to hardest (or impossible!) to book at the 7 month window. We will be looking for 3 weekday nights in a studio. Thanks!

Early Dec
Early May
Week before Thanksgiving
Early Oct

 

[DebbieB]

We are planning to take a trip out to Cali in either late 2015 or 2016. In order to cover all my bases and contingencies when planning our budget I have a question about availability at VGC. I know this property is incredibly small and we will be booking right at the 7 mo window. Those with experience booking VGC please rank the following time periods from easiest to hardest (or impossible!) to book at the 7 month window. We will be looking for 3 weekday nights in a studio. Thanks!

Early Dec
Early May
Week before Thanksgiving
Early Oct

I'm 3 for 3 at VGC at exactly 7 months. Early May (studio), Late September (studio), early August (1 bedroom). You problem might be weekdays. People tend to check-in on Sunday. If you have enough points, I would book Saturday to Saturday at exactly 7 months and then drop the nights you don't want a few days later.

Of your dates listed, I think Early December might be the hardest.

 

[DenLo]

October might be difficult to get at the 7 month mark. We stayed at VGC last year using David's rentals. We chose to go that method at the 10 ½ month mark versus waiting until the 7 month mark because we were attaching the stay to a California Coastal cruise. At the 7 month mark for before and after the cruise we checked the availability and we couldn't get all of our nights. Within a week every night of our stay was gone, Saturday departing on a Wednesday.

I think booking around a three day weekend will be hard to get a room at VGC at the 7 month mark. September and October are very popular months because the cooler weather and the Halloween Time at MK starts up. And then the Halloween Parties attract even more.

I can't help you with the other dates. So far we are really zero for one attempt to book at the 7 month mark at VGC.

 

[czmom]

We went the first week of December in 2013. I was too nervous to wait until the 7 month mark, so I rented a studio through an owner. Glad I did! When the 7 month mark came, our nights were gone.
We are planning to go back in August 2015. I believe D23 will coincide with our dates, so I will rent from an owner again to ensure our stay.
It's a great resort!!!

 

[bobbiwoz]

At 7 months I was able to get 3 weekday nights Mid May for this year in a studio!

 

[sets14]

Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. I have thought about renting from an owner and renting out our points. Might be the way to go.

 

[sechelt]

I missed the 7 month mark for the last few days of April, first few days of May. Waitlisted 3 nights and they came through about a month later.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I find that the most difficult time to book at VGC is when Disney is holding events which appeal to a wide audience at DLR. That includes D23 Expo and RunDisney events.

In 2015, the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend is May 7-10. I would expect it to be very hard to get rooms at VGC just before, after or during that time.

-- Suzanne

 

[Sheribo]

I was able to get one of the two days that I needed for my waitlist. I booked it and will keep trying for the last day. It just seemed better to book what I could than waitlist the whole vacation. I've got 6 month to get the last day and I check often. Not going to rely on DVC to match it up.

 

[Syndrome]

We were able to score a 1bdrm in late July for 5 nights midweek at exactly 8am online at the 7 month window . Within days some of the rooms were already gone. If you cant take a gamble, rent your points, then rent points from a VGC owner to be safe.

Good Luck !