VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.5) updated 2 February 2025

[KAT4DISNEY]

I was just able to book December 5th - 11th. I really want the 5th-10th. But the 5th is waitlisted. If it doesn't come through we will stay the night of the 10th. I booked what I could hoping the 5th comes through so I can drop the night of the 10th. If not - we will still have our 5 nights at BRV. The most frustrating part was if I tried to change any nights after first putting the dates in - it would highlight a night in OCTOBER! Not the one I picked. Also - it is showing us as having a contract at Aulani - and we don't! On the phone with them but it is a 30 minute wait.

For a company that creates such magic - resorts, parks, movies... one would think they could actually create a website that works correctly. A few years ago I booked lunch with an imagineer. I am 100% postive I booked it because I was given the choice of 2 locations. Well for some reason the website glitched and I ended with just lunch at Brown Derby. I didn't notice this for a while and by then it was too late to get it. This is why I am really not a fan of booking anything online with any Disney website.

There's been lots of issues with the website for a few weeks - including people seeing contracts they don't have or completely seeing other peoples contracts and none of their own. I've long wondered why Disney isn't embarrassed enough to get a solid system in. Instead they keep adding individual things to it making it worse and worse. Anyway, IT semi-rant over.

I'm confused by what you wrote though - you do have the 5th-11th booked? Or waitlisted?

 

[DVC Jen]

We also will be looking to book later this week. Keep a close watch on availability as it is clear that many people are walking reservations these days. So days could free up. That’s what we saw when booking our F&W reservation a couple of months ago. Good luck!

I am hoping the walking thing is what is going on and I can get the dates we actually want tomorrow (5-10th). If not then I am hoping the 6th-11th is available. If not - looks like we more than likely will not be going for our 35th anniversary.

 

[TCRAIG]

I was just able to book December 5th - 11th. I really want the 5th-10th. But the 5th is waitlisted and since I can't book after the 5th until tomorrow the entire stay is waitlisted. I have to try tomorrow to actually book the rest. The most frustrating part was if I tried to change any nights after first putting the dates in - it would highlight a night in OCTOBER! Not the one I picked. Also - it is showing us as having a contract at Aulani - and we don't! On the phone with them but it is a 30 minute wait.

For a company that creates such magic - resorts, parks, movies... one would think they could actually create a website that works correctly. A few years ago I booked lunch with an imagineer. I am 100% positive I booked it because I was given the choice of 2 locations. Well for some reason the website glitched and I ended with just lunch at Brown Derby. I didn't notice this for a while and by then it was too late to get it. This is why I am really not a fan of booking anything online with any Disney website.

I grabbed the 2Br for 12/5-12/11 right at 8am but by 8:03, studio was gone for 12/5....I’ll try again tomorrow to grab what I can and hope to pick up the 2 studio days I don’t have enough points for at the 7 month mark (via waitlist) or better yet - book a 1Br - with my OKW points

 

[Spridell]

What dates are you going for? It's typically easier for the 2nd full week than it is for earlier dates. I guess that could be different this year but hopefully you can get what you need. And of course - studios 1st!

Looks like this year going to be more difficult than others for 2nd week of Dec. I see lots of walking going on.

Tomorrow is Jan 6th cant even book yet and ALL 2 beds are already sold out for Dec 6th

I go every year in beginning of Dec, and this year by far the toughest I have seen. But i was expecting that with what went on last year.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Looks like this year going to be more difficult than others for 2nd week of Dec. I see lots of walking going on.

Tomorrow is Jan 6th cant even book yet and ALL 2 beds are already sold out for Dec 6th

I go every year in beginning of Dec, and this year by far the toughest I have seen. But i was expecting that with what went on last year.

It's also one of those weird Decembers with the first full week starting on the 5th. That makes it the week I'd have expected to be the difficult one but maybe next week won't be much different.

 

[Spridell]

It's also one of those weird Decembers with the first full week starting on the 5th. That makes it the week I'd have expected to be the difficult one but maybe next week won't be much different.

Yeah the first 3 days of that week the points are actually higher than the first FULL week of December.

I think Dec 5-10 going to be VERY HARD to get in all room categories.

 

[DVC Jen]

I'm confused by what you wrote though - you do have the 5th-11th booked? Or waitlisted?

I had - as in past tense - waitlisted it. Today we cancelled the wait list. We would need to borrow points for the trip and since we aren't even sure we can go until March. So I just didn't feel good about borrowing points knowing we would have to use them with a good chance we can't. So if things work out and March comes, we see we can go - I will see if anything is available to book at the 7 month window. We are losing 9 points this year from our summer vacation that was cancelled. We had 55 points we were going to lose but was able to rent out 46 of them. The pain of losing 9 is bad enough. I don't want to risk losing 75+. Cancelling the waitlist is not what we wanted to do - but it was the responsible adult thing to do - darnit! Some days I really hate "adulting".

 

[DVC Jen]

Has anyone tried to call member services today? I have tried several times but constantly get a busy signal or just dead air.

 

[Spridell]

I have to say, in the 4 years I have been doing this, this is the fastest I have ever seen the first 2 weeks of December book up for ALL room categories.

Pretty much only thing left are Cabins.

I guess this was to be expected though.

 

[TCRAIG]

Has anyone tried to call member services today? I have tried several times but constantly get a busy signal or just dead air.

Took me just under an hour today on hold before I talked to MS after trying about 4X - I gave up trying Weds and Thurs as I never got thru at all...

 

[suse66]

I just modified my summer reservation as I am not sure if we will still be required to quarantine for 14 days upon return to Canada. So now we are going August 8th through the 15th with the 8th through the 11th at BWV and the 11th through the 15th at VWL! I can't wait to be back in my happy place!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have to say, in the 4 years I have been doing this, this is the fastest I have ever seen the first 2 weeks of December book up for ALL room categories.

Pretty much only thing left are Cabins.

I guess this was to be expected though.

I was surprised!

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

I just modified my summer reservation as I am not sure if we will still be required to quarantine for 14 days upon return to Canada. So now we are going August 8th through the 15th with the 8th through the 11th at BWV and the 11th through the 15th at VWL! I can't wait to be back in my happy place!

Those are the same resorts we are staying at for our trip too. Can't wait.

 

[suse66]

Those are the same resorts we are staying at for our trip too. Can't wait.

So nice! Have you stayed at BWV before? I have stayed on the Inn side at Boardwalk before but the Villas side will be new to me. I only bought in to DVC in November of 2019 so have not had the pleasure of staying at the VWL yet (I did stay at CCV summer of 2019). It's going to be great! Any advice on BWV?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So nice! Have you stayed at BWV before? I have stayed on the Inn side at Boardwalk before but the Villas side will be new to me. I only bought in to DVC in November of 2019 so have not had the pleasure of staying at the VWL yet (I did stay at CCV summer of 2019). It's going to be great! Any advice on BWV?

One BWV tip - As long as you don't have a stroller or wheelchair using the stairs at BWV can be best. There's only one set of elevators for the Villas and it is close to the lobby so if your at the end of a wing it can be a long walk to them. It's not unusual for us to fo the same at other DVCs too but almost always at BWV.

 

[suse66]

One BWV tip - As long as you don't have a stroller or wheelchair using the stairs at BWV can be best. There's only one set of elevators for the Villas and it is close to the lobby so if your at the end of a wing it can be a long walk to them. It's not unusual for us to fo the same at other DVCs too but almost always at BWV.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[bluecastle]

Thanks for the tip!

I wish I was better at remembering details! One stay there in 2017. We were very far from the lobby and so I would definitely ask to be close to the lobby. It's a little tricky figuring out the elevators and which direction you go, but we figured it out pretty fast. If you are going to Epcot, go out of the hotel on the boardwalk side and walk. (it's faster than the Friendship boats) If you are going to HS you can either take the Friendship boat on the Boardwalk, or you can walk. Depending on your walking speed it will take 15-20 minutes, I think.The path is close to the villas side of the hotel. We took the boat because I have mobility issues. If you are going to AK or MK go out the front entrance in the lobby area and the bus stop is on that side.
I wish I could give you info on the food choices, but I don't know what is open and what is closed. The Bellevue Lounge is a nice place to hang out and it has coffee and limited breakfast items for sale in the morning, but I don't know if it's open. We had a 2BR and had breakfast and coffee in our room. The coffeemaker is a 12 cupper with basket filters. I set it up every night before going to bed. (we drove that year and I brought my own coffee)
Our villa was 4128/30 and, like I said, it was a long walk. But it was nice and quiet and we were right near the quiet pool. I used the elevator, but there was a stairway close by that led out near the pool.
Sorry I don't have better pictures! I took a lot of the hotel and the boardwalk, but hardly any of the room. The bedroom picture is the master bedroom and the other photo is the view from our room.
Have fun researching!! I'm sure there are lots of videos on YouTube.

 

[suse66]

Our villa was 4128/30 and, like I said, it was a long walk. But it was nice and quiet and we were right near the quiet pool. I used the elevator, but there was a stairway close by that led out near the pool.
Sorry I don't have better pictures! I took a lot of the hotel and the boardwalk, but hardly any of the room. The bedroom picture is the master bedroom and the other photo is the view from our room.
Have fun researching!! I'm sure there are lots of videos on YouTube.

Thank you so much for all the helpful information! I really appreciate it!

 

[Corinne]

We love BWV! The Epcot resort area has always been our favorite place to stay mainly for the proximity to Epcot and DHS. For me, the only thing almost as magical as walking onto Main Street USA, is the feeling when you walk through the International Gateway.

You must enjoy at least one cinnamon roll from the BoardWalk Bakery!

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

So nice! Have you stayed at BWV before? I have stayed on the Inn side at Boardwalk before but the Villas side will be new to me. I only bought in to DVC in November of 2019 so have not had the pleasure of staying at the VWL yet (I did stay at CCV summer of 2019). It's going to be great! Any advice on BWV?

I have never stayed in the BWI side so I can't really comment too much on what would be different but I do think the rooms are different as far as the BWI studio has 2 Queen beds and BWV has a king and a pull out. Otherwise I think you probably know a good amount of stuff from staying there before as well as the great advice the people on here have given you. One thing I have to say that I try to do is when we arrive there for the first time I like to enter the building under the BWV sign. I know this is kind of silly and it seems you are going in the out but for me I want to do it at least that first time.