VWL availability question

[kirsangel]

I am planning an early Nov or Dec trip with extended family and was wanting to stay at VWL in a 2 bedroom. I checked availability of disney's website and VWL is unavailable for 3 of the 4 weeks I am considering(Nov 4-11, Nov 11-18, Dec 2-9, Dec 9-16). Does this mean it is unavailable for DVC members as well? I guess my question is - Does Disney keeps a certain number of rooms available for DVCers or is it first come first served for all rooms regardless of who you are? I am wanting to rent points from a member and this is the the first time I have done this, so please excuse my ignorance.

 

[DebbieB]

CRO gets rooms from DVC from points that DVC owns, points from members transferring out (cruise, non-DVC resorts). They are kept in a separate inventory from the points that DVC members own. So CRO's availability has nothing to do with the points rooms available through DVC member services. Since VWL is soldout to DVC, most of the rooms are only available to DVC members.

 

[CarolMN]

The inventory of rooms available for members to reserve with points is entirely separate from the inventory of rooms available to the general public to book for cash via CRO/WDWTC. So you cannot tell anything about availability of rooms for members by checking Disney's reservation website.

FWIW, I think you are going to have a problem renting the December weeks - VWL is very popular during the time between Thanskgiving and New Year's Day. IIRC, there are already waitlist for many of the December days for all unit sizes.

November 4 -11 may also be a problem - that week is a very popular time for New Jersey members to visit WDW (due to a 2 day state wide Teachers' conference), and there are a lot of DVC members from NJ.

All that said, availability does change frequently. You don't know until you call what may be available.

My advice to you is to find a member and get a reservation asap. If the dates are more important than the resort, consider one of the other DVC resorts. You could probably get into OKW or SSR without much of a problem, but if you wait too much longer, those resorts will be booked as well. Busy times for the DVC resorts are not the same as busy times for the parks.

Best wishes -

 

[kirsangel]

Thanks for the responses. Is there a way to check availability for DVCers? I am in charge of the arrangements for the whole family and our dates are flexible, but we would really like VWL so I'd like to tell everyone what is available for what days so we can decide as a group when to go.

 

[CarolMN]

You need a DVC member to check for you - no way for a non-member to check.

Suggest you post your possible dates on the Rent/Trade Board and wait for someone to contact you. You'd be more likely to get a response (and successful in getting a reservaiton) if you did your discussions before you post and include second or third choices in your post. Also, availability changes very frequently. It's more than likely that the "choices" would be gone before you got back to the member to actually make the reservation for you - especially if the 7 month winodw opens before you get a reservation.

As I mentioned above, the sooner you nail down a reservationm the better - VWL is going to be difficult. Once the 7 month window opens, the chances of getting a reservation for the times you listed are going to significantly decrease.

Best wishes -

 

[dis-happy]

Hoping things work out for you! I just wanted to add one word of caution re. renting---make sure your entire family is 100% on board. It is difficult if not impossible usually to change your mind later on in the process. The DVC owner will have their points tied up with your ressie and will be locked into it. Just make sure your family knows they won't have the luxury of cancelling say 30 days out like most WDW vacations. If you are splitting the costs and you are handling the finances make sure you get money upfront. I had ressies for 3 family members last Christmas, made the plans in January, and held my breath until the day they arrived since those were my dvc points at stake. Thankfully, no one bailed!

 

[byoung]

Good luck.