When can I book Aulani?

[palaemon]

When can (or should) I book an Aulani DVC 1BR with cash as a non-member?

I know you can book WDW-DVC resorts through CRO (?) I want to say two months before reservation date.

 

[DVCconvert]

just as a member of the general public....if not booking via MS

BOOKING YOUR WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP IN 2013 AND BEYOND


You can book rooms at Walt Disney World for 2013 up to 500 days in advance right now. But there’s a couple of tricks and complexities.
You can’t do it on the Disney World website. You can only do it by calling Disney directly, or through a travel agent


For dates beyond what are available on the Disney World website, you can only book rooms—not packages with tickets, the dining plan, and such. (You can add these to your reservation later.)

The prices you’ll be quoted will be 2012 prices. These will be wrong. The prices for the next year are usually announced in August of the prior year–so 2013 prices likely will come out in summer 2012. This is also when the website is opened to 2013 reservations.

You will have to pay a deposit to hold your reservation. This deposit will increase when the final prices for 2013 come available, next summer.

When final prices come out, your travel agent will help you fix your deposits…and if any discounts come out, your travel agent can also help you take advantage of those! You can also add tickets and other parts of a package later, when final prices come out.

I'm sure the same applies in HI as it would for other WDC hotels.
HTH

Edited to add:
I just looked at this site:
http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/

and it appears you CAN make an on line ressie upto 499 days in advance.

 

[palaemon]

just as a member of the general public....if not booking via MS



I'm sure the same applies in HI as it would for other WDC hotels.
HTH

Edited to add:
I just looked at this site:
http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/

and it appears you CAN make an on line ressie upto 499 days in advance.

I didn't see anything that said "1br" or "2br" or DVC. I did see an option for a "Parlor Suite" that has a 1br, but it doesn't say anything about a kitchen, just a small fridge.

I'm looking specifically to book DVC accommodations at Aulani, and I thought that DVC inventory wasn't released until (I think) 60 days out.

Is this true? Would I have to call Disney directly (ie not thru website) or a travel agent?

 

[erionm]

Because Aulani just opened, they may not be making DVC accommodations available for cash yet.

 

[PVA]

We are DVC members and Disney Chase Visa holders. But due to the Med Cruise on the Magic this past July we are fresh out of points for the next year! We got a special flier with a reduced rate for Chase Visa members for rooms, so I called to set it up. When we were done (with a reglar pool view hotel room) I said, "Just for kicks can you see what a cash price on a one bedroom Villa is?" The rep indicated that I would be pleasantly surprised, and I was. He got me the quote and it was only about $70 more a night than a standard hotel room. We are booked in early January for a week.

I think that they have the villas (or at least some of them) done and are renting them out to the general public, and at least in my case the cash price was great. It did not matter that I was DVC. I also had him check suite rates and they were quite high, so it may be a good time for a good rate. May only apply in January, but good luck.

 

[drusba]

Based on what Disney has on its website, it would appear it is doing cash reservations that include the villas even now. It also states that it is doing it for reservations made 60 days or less out. Nevertheless, you can call further out and see what happens because I suspect they are taking reservations further out since the 60 day rule applies only to member inventory and not DVC inventory still owned by DVD which should be a lot of the DVC side of the resort right now. (Note those "Parlor Suites" mentioned are in the hotel and are not DVC units.)

 

[palaemon]

Thanks for the replies!

I'll give them a call and see what I find out.