Welcome home stay

[VGCgroupie]

They did show me some flexibility on a Welcome Home stay

Technically, I think that once you make a reservation using the newly purchase contract you are no longer eligible? But I made a reservation for my 2nd choice dates and then figured I'll call them to see if they can find my first choice dates a month earlier (I knew they had the inventory since it was at CFW). They told me that I wasn't eligible but did anyway it as a "one time exception".

That is so cool!

 

[R2Daddy]

We are looking to add on and our guide said they could book us a welcome home stay (even though we already have points) (yay!). However, there’s a room I want that is available for cash, but unavailable for DVC. I asked if we could get that room (assuming they could pull from cash inventory). The guide didn’t address it directly but simply said “these are the available rooms” and proceeded to list what seemed like DVC-available rooms. None of which were close to what we were looking for.

Would it be better to just book the rooms as a cash stay, then make the proposal that we’ll buy DVC if they can convert this stay? Rather than trying to get them to search for rooms and then try to sell us on a compromise. The rooms we want are absolutely DVC room types, just part of their cash inventory apparently.

 

[VGCgroupie]

We are looking to add on and our guide said they could book us a welcome home stay (even though we already have points) (yay!). However, there’s a room I want that is available for cash, but unavailable for DVC. I asked if we could get that room (assuming they could pull from cash inventory). The guide didn’t address it directly but simply said “these are the available rooms” and proceeded to list what seemed like DVC-available rooms. None of which were close to what we were looking for.

Would it be better to just book the rooms as a cash stay, then make the proposal that we’ll buy DVC if they can convert this stay? Rather than trying to get them to search for rooms and then try to sell us on a compromise. The rooms we want are absolutely DVC room types, just part of their cash inventory apparently.

My guide never looked at inventory for my welcome home stays. I always booked that via MS, they put you on hold and they go to a different dept to help them make the booking.

 

[Mouseforward]

My guide never looked at inventory for my welcome home stays. I always booked that via MS, they put you on hold and they go to a different dept to help them make the booking.

This was my experience as well, I gave them 3 resorts - none were available , I gave 3 more and they got me in at BLT

Both times they had to go to someone else.

 

[noisykid]

We are looking to add on and our guide said they could book us a welcome home stay (even though we already have points) (yay!). However, there’s a room I want that is available for cash, but unavailable for DVC. I asked if we could get that room (assuming they could pull from cash inventory). The guide didn’t address it directly but simply said “these are the available rooms” and proceeded to list what seemed like DVC-available rooms. None of which were close to what we were looking for.

Would it be better to just book the rooms as a cash stay, then make the proposal that we’ll buy DVC if they can convert this stay? Rather than trying to get them to search for rooms and then try to sell us on a compromise. The rooms we want are absolutely DVC room types, just part of their cash inventory apparently.

I can only tell you what we experienced:

We initially booked the room as a cash stay. This must be a DVC villa room, not a "regular" hotel room that is not in a DVC building. Ours was a 1BR in Beach Club Villas (not our home resort of Polynesian).

We put down the minimum deposit on our cash room when we initially booked it a couple months prior, which if I remember correctly was $200 (refundable), just like any hotel guest would.

When looking into DVC and discussing with my guide about our existing cash reservation, he offered the Welcome Home stay as a "perk". He said it was no problem to convert that cash reservation to a points reservation after we bought DVC. So we did. At that point, our guide put a "Sales Guide Hold" on our cash room. We called DVC Member Services and told them (per our guide's instruction) to "Lock in a Sales Guide hold" that was on our account. It was all done in a specific order and our Guide was very clear about what we needed to do.

A note:

Welcome Home stays are not "free", they use your points. We purchased in July and have an October Use Year, so we still had 2024 points that we were able to bank and combine with our 2025 points to cover our upcoming stay in Nov 2025. You may or may not need to do so depending on how expensive your stay is, how many points you own, and when your Use Year is. If your Use Year has passed, you likely will not get any 2024 points.

 

[R2Daddy]

Thanks for that! Yeah, we have enough points for the welcome home stay (we are declining magical beginnings).

I went ahead and booked the rooms since they are fully refundable. I’ve already lost a room I wanted by waiting too long.

Wish me luck.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Thanks for that! Yeah, we have enough points for the welcome home stay (we are declining magical beginnings).

I went ahead and booked the rooms since they are fully refundable. I’ve already lost a room I wanted by waiting too long.

Wish me luck.

Good luck!!

 

[maui22]

My guide never looked at inventory for my welcome home stays. I always booked that via MS, they put you on hold and they go to a different dept to help them make the booking.

This was also our experience a couple months ago.

"Sales Guide Hold"

That was the exact terminology our guide used. They booked it via another line. We had to call later but within some number of days (maybe 7). I think the key was they booked, but our points had to load, then we called MS with that terminology. They had to look at a separate place. I think they put us on hold to find and verify it. After that, they gave us the reservation number so we could add it to MDE.

 

[MicheyMouse]

This was also our experience a couple months ago.

That was the exact terminology our guide used. They booked it via another line. We had to call later but within some number of days (maybe 7). I think the key was they booked, but our points had to load, then we called MS with that terminology. They had to look at a separate place. I think they put us on hold to find and verify it. After that, they gave us the reservation number so we could add it to MDE.

We arranged for our Welcome Home stay as part of the purchase with a Sales Guide Hold just like that. Our trip was 3 weeks later. If Disney has a points or cash room available they will make it happen for the sale.

 

[R2Daddy]

To everyone who had the Welcome Home via an existing reservation converted to DVC, were you an existing member or a new member?

 

[Tumnus]

I booked my first ever welcome home stay! I'm still a little salty that I did not get one for my original purchase because I waitlisted a resort and they said that disqualified me...had to stay at a marriott my first time back at disney as DVC! But this time I was able to grab a Disneyland Hotel stay on a sold out day, so I'm excited!

 

[Mouseforward]

To everyone who had the Welcome Home via an existing reservation converted to DVC, were you an existing member or a new member?

Existing member , got my 6 day cash BC stay converted to BLT 40 days out. It was not available via website.

 

[Sandisw]

Existing member , got my 6 day cash BC stay converted to BLT 40 days out. It was not available via website.

So, you BC cash stay was not turned into a points based DVC stay, correct? They just got your a BLT reservation for the same dates with points that you couldn't get on the website?

I only ask because when I think of someone saying they got cash to convert, I imagined that they had the same DVC room booked for cash, and DVC moved that same room back for the owner to use points.

 

[noisykid]

To everyone who had the Welcome Home via an existing reservation converted to DVC, were you an existing member or a new member?

New member, direct contract. I had a cash stay booked. My sales guide was able to put my cash reservation on hold, I cancelled the cash reservation, I called and they booked it (exact same room) with my points out of sales hold.

 

[Mouseforward]

So, you BC cash stay was not turned into a points based DVC stay, correct? They just got your a BLT reservation for the same dates with points that you couldn't get on the website?

I only ask because when I think of someone saying they got cash to convert, I imagined that they had the same DVC room booked for cash, and DVC moved that same room back for the owner to use points.

Yes they just get you a points based DVC that was not available - they will only use the new points.
BC was not available for points so they could not "convert' a cash room.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes they just get you a points based DVC that was not available - they will only use the new points.
BC was not available for points so they could not "convert' a cash room.

Just wanted to confirm how it happened because when I first read it, I thought it was DVC taking a cash DVC room and moving it back for a new buyer!

 

[foodiddiedoo]

To everyone who had the Welcome Home via an existing reservation converted to DVC, were you an existing member or a new member?

I was a new member.