Updated Resort Availability Tool

[wdrl]

I hate it too. Once you find a room the old system had a "book now" button this one doesn't! When you enter your dates and select a resort its hard to tell if the room is actually available or not. Plus if you put in a weeks time frame it does not tell you if there is particle availability. It flat out tells you no rooms. Way too many steps to search. And so incredibly slow even at 3 in the morning it was so slow.

Actually, the new Tool has a Booking button, too. However, the Booking button only appears if there is availability for the entire length of stay for the dates you specified. If one or more days is not available, then a Book button is replaced with a Wait List button.

I suspect that when you were trying out the new Tool, all the accommodations you checked had either no availability or partial availability.

I'm not sure why you say its hard to tell if the room is actually available or not. Once you enter your dates and select the resort, it shows all the accommodation types for the resort. Next to each accommodation type will be a tag showing that it is either Available, Partial Availability, or Not Available. You can also click on the little calendar icon next to each accommodation type to look at a calendar that shows the actual dates that are, or are not available.

 

[supersnoop]

Plus, the "book now" button seems to actually do something now. In the old tool, it just took you to the booking page. Now, it takes you there and actually fills in the date/resort/room type you've selected.

 

[DeeCee735]

love the new tool, wish it would work (RCI link just isn't working....again)

 

[lovin'fl]

Late to the party, but I HATE the new tool. Hate it!!!

 

[paults]

way to much crap, get rid of it

 

[rfc0001]

way to much crap, get rid of it

Well, it is called the Check Resort Availability Page

My vote is: it's growing on me - it takes a while to figure out, but it's actually fewer clicks if you are doing it right, and once you find the filters at the top for WDW and DVC (Thanks for the tip Wil!) it cleans up the results. They just need to add a filter for room type. I like that you can scroll the availability calendars infinitely without having to re-search .

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

It's not really more clicks. Before, you had to click each resort you wanted to review before you hit the search button, and now you click each resort after you hit the search button.

As I said, it's actually more. You did not have to check anything before, just enter dates and hit search. I'm not forgetting to mention or skipping anything that was required. It would then search and display availability for all DVC resorts. Easy, fast and nothing to select. On that search page it showed all the room sizes and if it was available, partial or none. Only if you wanted to limit did you have to select any boxes.

 

[rfc0001]

As I said, it's actually more. You did not have to check anything before, just enter dates and hit search. I'm not forgetting to mention or skipping anything that was required. It would then search and display availability for all DVC resorts. Easy, fast and nothing to select. On that search page it showed all the room sizes and if it was available, partial or none. Only if you wanted to limit did you have to select any boxes.

If you previously didn't select resorts or room types, then it's more clicks, but if you did then it's marginally fewer clicks -- e.g. to view the availability calendar for 5 resorts, 3 room types previously required clicking 5 resort checkboxes, 3 room type checkboxes, and calendar links to 15 resort/room combinations (23 clicks). Now you must click the "Availability" link on 5 resorts, and the calendar link on 15 resort/room combinations (20 total clicks). 20 < 23 -- so, we're both right .

 

[DISNEYSC]

It's starting to grow on me- and I think with a just few more filter options this could be an improvement. At least this tool seems better connected to the rest of the site -I did hate having to fill out the forms 10 times to book or wait list a room.

 

[drusba]

Well, it is called the Check Resort Availability Page

LOL. A better acronym than the prior RAT

 

[TeeterTots]

Hate it! Just getting the hang of things as they were and now it's worse! Ugh

 

[LisaS]

For me it's not so much the number of clicks as it is the amount of scrolling and the amount of data I have to scan to find what I'm looking for -- availability of 1BRs and Studios. The old RAT made it easy to do that. I do like that I can have multiple calendars open at once, very helpful since I plan to book a split stay at 7 months out so I'm keeping an eye on availability at two resorts. I also like that I can step through more than 3 months' worth of data. I never understood why the old RAT had that restriction.

If they provide check boxes for room sizes that would really help. However since this tool now includes more than just DVC resorts, it's not clear how best to do that. Users who have not narrowed a search to just "DVC Resorts" might have to be shown a long list of possible room types, and those who have narrowed their search should not have to wade through a long list of room types that do not apply.

ETA: Kudos to supersnoop for taking the time to grab and post screen shots, illustrating the shortest path to the availability calendar.

 

[rfc0001]

For me it's not so much the number of clicks as it is the amount of scrolling and the amount of data I have to scan to find what I'm looking for -- availability of 1BRs and Studios. The old RAT made it easy to do that. I do like that I can have multiple calendars open at once, very helpful since I plan to book a split stay at 7 months out so I'm keeping an eye on availability at two resorts. I also like that I can step through more than 3 months' worth of data. I never understood why the old RAT had that restriction.

If they provide check boxes for room sizes that would really help. However since this tool now includes more than just DVC resorts, it's not clear how best to do that. Users who have not narrowed a search to just "DVC Resorts" might have to be shown a long list of possible room types, and those who have narrowed their search should not have to wade through a long list of room types that do not apply.

ETA: Kudos to supersnoop for taking the time to grab and post screen shots, illustrating the shortest path to the availability calendar.

The WDW and DVC filter help reduce the amount of results. I think a room type filter would greatly help, along with an expand all button so you can quickly scroll through the results without clicking each resort. Of course, being Disney, it's class form over function, so unlikely to change to improve functionality.

 

[ziravan]

The RAT let you do a 30 sec stalk of your dates, multiple times a day.

The CRAP requires a larger investment of time, meaning it's a direct system attack on stalking.

 

[disneynutz]

Just tried to use the CRAP and it showed several resorts as available. Going to the booking page it shows the resorts/rooms as waitlist. Then I got an error stating that not all services are available and to try again later.

I don't think that this is what Walt meant by "pulsing it".

Bill

 

[rfc0001]

Just tried to use the CRAP and it showed several resorts as available. Going to the booking page it shows the resorts/rooms as waitlist. Then I got an error stating that not all services are available and to try again later.

I don't think that this is what Walt meant by "pulsing it".

Bill

Sounds like the CRAP has hit the fan

 

[sndral]

I tried it the other day and hated it, tried it this am on my IPhone and it's worthless/nonfunctional. Tried it at lunch - took about 4xs as long to check to see if there was availability in a 1 br for 1 night @ VGF.
The new CRAP won't let me narrow my options to the specific resort and villa size I want - instead I get junk to wade through wasting my time. Plus all those pretty pictures take time to load - I'm already sick and tired of the lassoing cowboy on his horse.
Finally - if you check Disney vacation under the last tab (type of vacation) Jambo does not show up only Kidani. So if you are looking for Jambo best not to bother with that tab. I mentioned that in the survey I took but they haven't fixed it. I also pointed out that they had the wrong points for a Kidani studio ( they had Jambo value listed) and I noticed today that that had been fixed - at least for the day I was looking at.

 

[Sammie]

I liked the other one but this one is fine too. Works fine. It is laid out just like the Disney World booking site so I am sure they are going for a uniform look.

It also loaded extremely fast. I have to wonder if the slowness some are experiencing is more about their WiFi connection and less about the site.

I always use Google chrome with Disney, always works better for me than IE or Mozilla.

 

[bookwormde]

As usual Disney IT rolled out a new interface before actually testing it, and as usual it does not work most of the time.

Even if it did work the ease of use and practical use value has issues.

Again as usual Disney put a priority on appearance over functionality

 

[rseeb]

Well, it is called the Check Resort Availability Page

My vote is: it's growing on me - it takes a while to figure out, but it's actually fewer clicks if you are doing it right, and once you find the filters at the top for WDW and DVC (Thanks for the tip Wil!) it cleans up the results. They just need to add a filter for room type. I like that you can scroll the availability calendars infinitely without having to re-search .

I originally gave it a C but it is growing on me as well. I am planning our next bi-annul vacation and it took some time but it is pretty cool. A-