Thinking of buying, but have a big question first!

[hsuthard]

We would love to buy into the DVC -- we're Florida residents (over in Tampa) and we've been seasonal passholders for years and years. We usually visit for at least 6-9 overnights every year, and a few more day trips. But we tend to take small trips of 3-nights or so during the off times. And, we almost always make our reservations about 2 months ahead of time. Rarely I'll make a reservation five months in advance; I've never made a reservation any earlier than that. Sometimes I'll book our room only a few weeks in advance.

It would definitely be economical for us to buy into DVC -- we have three children and a family of five is much easier to fit into a 2-bedroom villa than the limited hotel rooms that fit five. But my concern is that we'll have a really hard time getting reservations with so little lead time. I can never get a 2-bedroom villa when I call as a non-DVC member, and it's hard to get a hotel room sometimes, although I always seem to manage it.

Is this a valid concern? Are last-minute reservations hard to get? I'm also getting the feeling that 2-bedrooms are the hardest to get, especially at the Beach Club (our favorite resort, and the one I'd want to buy into). What are your workarounds if you have them? I look at the availability threads and wonder if this is even worth it given our vacationing style.

Thank you all for your patience -- I love lurking on this board and I'm finally feeling curious enough to post!

 

[Kmango]

I live in Sarasota, and my Disney-going habits are similar to yours. I've never tried to book a 2-bd two months out, but I have successfully booked short 3ish day stays two months out. I also booked a studio at BCV over Labor Day Weekend on about 5 hours notice. It's easier to book short stays than long ones, so that will help you.

The one thing to consider is that the peak periods for DVC can be counter-intuitive. For example, while October and early December are slow for WDW in general, they're peak times for DVC. That being said, since you're close, you may have a little more flexibility on dates, which is a great help here. I love being able to bop over to Disney for a few nights.

 

[Lynne M]

The off-times are different for DVC, and another complicating factor is that BCV is the smallest resort, and therefore the fastest to book up.

I would say it's going to be very, very difficult to get reservations on short notice at BCV from the beginning of October (F&W) to the end of the year. That's the DVC busy season. And by 'short notice', I mean less than 6-7 months. At the beginning of April, I tried to get a villa at BCV for any week in October, and couldn't get one.

Also be sure to check out the point charts. I'm guessing that you're planning to stay mostly on weekends if you're local, and the weekend points are much higher than the weeknight point costs.

 

[hsuthard]

That's interesting about the peak times being different for DVC and WDW in general. It definitely fits with what I've found through experience, though. And yet another complication I've run into is that many studios won't allow more than 4 people in the room, so we can't even take that option.

Is there a convenient way to view which rooms WDW will rent to groups of 5, by the way? There is so much information out there, I wonder if I've missed that. I know I can get hotel rooms at Polynesian, WL, and BC with my group of five, or a 1-BR or 2-BR villa.

 

[crisi]

Keep in mind that while there may be short notice availablity (or there may be none) it may be scattered. So you might have no problem booking an SSR Studio on Friday, a room at VWL for Saturday (but only a one bedroom) before needing to move back to SSR on Sunday.

DVC runs at pretty much 100% occupancy year round (not quite, but the empty rooms are often not available on points - they are down for maintenance or owned by CRO). At some point each resort - when DVC is working smoothly - gets completely booked. On New Years Eve, that might be two days after the eleven month window opens up. In September, it may not happen at all and you can find a room the day you show up (or it might happen two months out).

The problem with this is planning - DVC points are "use or loose" - you can bank them, but you have to know in advance to bank them. So if you hold back some points for those unplanned trips, then can't find a room before they expire, the points become worthless.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Akl has one bedrooms that sleep 5. They also have 2 full bathrooms.

 

[vandy]

We would love to buy into the DVC -- we're Florida residents (over in Tampa) and we've been seasonal passholders for years and years. We usually visit for at least 6-9 overnights every year, and a few more day trips. But we tend to take small trips of 3-nights or so during the off times. And, we almost always make our reservations about 2 months ahead of time. Rarely I'll make a reservation five months in advance; I've never made a reservation any earlier than that. Sometimes I'll book our room only a few weeks in advance.

It would definitely be economical for us to buy into DVC -- we have three children and a family of five is much easier to fit into a 2-bedroom villa than the limited hotel rooms that fit five. But my concern is that we'll have a really hard time getting reservations with so little lead time. I can never get a 2-bedroom villa when I call as a non-DVC member, and it's hard to get a hotel room sometimes, although I always seem to manage it.

Is this a valid concern? Are last-minute reservations hard to get? I'm also getting the feeling that 2-bedrooms are the hardest to get, especially at the Beach Club (our favorite resort, and the one I'd want to buy into). What are your workarounds if you have them? I look at the availability threads and wonder if this is even worth it given our vacationing style.

Thank you all for your patience -- I love lurking on this board and I'm finally feeling curious enough to post!

Even though BCV is your favorite, there is no need to buy into that resort if you only make reservations 2 months out. Unless you see sometime in the future making reservations in the 7-11 months window, you lose any home resort advantage of buying in BCV. You'd do better buying into SSR which has the lowest maint. fees right now. Can you get a DVC 2-br at 2 months? Most likely since you are only staying around 3 nights, it may just not be for BCV. Chances are you will end up in the bigger resorts of SSR and OKW. You can definately waitlist at one of the others and stand just as good a chance it will come through than not. I would say unless you are flexible in your enjoyment of where you stay, then DVC may not be a good fit. If you don't mind staying at another DVC resort other than BCV, then you may find membership beneficial.

 

[DMKEDM]

We've had 3 experiences (in 2 1/2 years) in doing "last-minute" reservations...one for spring break 10 days in advance, one for marathon weekend 12 days in advance, and one for early August a month in advance. All three times we got good-choice villas (but not BCV--one was Boardwalk, the other two were OKW)...

None of the three times did I use the wait list ... each time I booked what was available when I called, and then kept calling back each day...got what I wanted (4-5 days in a row in the same villa) within 2-3 days each time...

From my (limited) experience, I'd say the closer you get to your planned vacation, the more likely you will find cancellations and therefore availability on a "last-minute" basis...

Note: two of the three last-minute plans were for very high-demand and busy times...getting villas during spring break week and on marathon weekend was sort of "miraculous"...I also thought getting our villa at OKW for the first full week of August calling just a month out was pretty miraculous, too...

And our first DVC trip was for T-giving 2006...we bought in June, so first tried to book that trip 5 months out...used the W/L on that trip (and made cash back-up reservations for the Wed-THurs of T-giving week, as those were the "tough nights" to get)...it all worked out perfectly (8 days in an SSR studio, which is what we wanted)...but it required considerable flexibility (and patience)...

If I were you, I'd be a bit uncomfortable about buying given your routine last-minute plans, though...even though last-minute reservations can and do come through (and it seems that one-bedrooms are the easiest to get), you can never be "sure"...for most of our trips, we booked at either 11 or 7 months (once at 6 months) out...

Another thing I've done successfully (again, we've now only had 2 1/2 years of experience...but we got the DVC bug really bad and have done 3 add-on's and 11 trips in those 2 1/2 years!) is to go ahead and book for "possible-probable" dates at 11/7 months, and then make changes as our plans firm up...that has worked very well for us, too...

Good luck w/your decision...