We feel fortunate but...

[rriley25]

Just this past Friday morning, my wife and I discussed the possibility of visiting WDW during Christmas. I was pessimistic, believing everything was booked and we would have no chance. Well lo and behold, we were able to book a 1 BR at BWV arriving 12/21 and departing 12/27 except for the 22nd. We are waitlisted for that night. So today I'm surfing around (waiting for the Skins / Philly game) and tried to book a 1 BR for the same time and resort online through Disney. All days are available at a cost of $3,813.36. How could there be availability? Is this some of those rooms that is held-back for CRO?

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by rriley25
Just this past Friday morning, my wife and I discussed the possibility of visiting WDW during Christmas. I was pessimistic, believing everything was booked and we would have no chance. Well lo and behold, we were able to book a 1 BR at BWV arriving 12/21 and departing 12/27 except for the 22nd. We are waitlisted for that night. So today I'm surfing around (waiting for the Skins / Philly game) and tried to book a 1 BR for the same time and resort online through Disney. All days are available at a cost of $3,813.36. How could there be availability? Is this some of those rooms that is held-back for CRO?

It might be part of the 4% Disney retains for each resort. It also might be (and this is more likely) rooms that DVC sent over to CRO to pay for the non-DVC options chosen by other DVC members. For example, for those who book a cruise using points, DVC rents out the equivalent number of rooms to "pay" DCL for the cruise. That's also true when someone books non-DVC resorts and anything in the Conceirge or Adventurer's Collections.

You might consider booking the night you are missing for cash via CRO as a back up. (Pay attention to the cancellation policy). If your waitlist doesn't come through, you will still have a place to stay. It's even possible that you wouldn't have to change rooms, although that can't be guaranteed.