When do WL Villas become available to General Public?

[robdam]

I would like to stay in the WL Villas, 2BR. I've been told after calling WDW, that I have to wait until closer to my arrival date, (arriving 5.15.04), in order to see if any villas are left after the timeshare folks get 1st crack @ them. Any advice?

 

[betterlatethannever]

I believe it is 3 months. The DVCers who do not own at VWL get a chance at the 7th month window. And if there are rooms left at the 3 month window, it can be rented by the general public.

VWL is sold out. Cannot buy any more points (time) there.

BCV on the other hand, is not sold out, so the time (rooms) not sold are open to the general public much earlier, maybe 11 months.

Ed

 

[robdam]

The Villas are sold out for the dates I'm looking for? Already? Really?

 

[disneydentist]

Originally posted by robdam
The Villas are sold out for the dates I'm looking for? Already? Really?

Betterlatethannever means that you can no longer buy timeshare points there. They are soldout. Availability depends on use by Disney Vacation Club members on any given day. They have priority, as they should. Any rooms they don't use are made available to the public.

 

[kda]

Memberships are sold out at all on-site DVC properties except BCV, although there had been some availability again recently because Disney bought back some contracts that were up for resale through private realtors.

There is a very small % of DVC rooms (?2% or 4% --- I'm just forgetful tonight) that Disney sells to anyone who will pay $$$, and there may be various discounts available for those accomodations at times. 60 days prior to the date, rooms not booked by DVC members also could become available to anyone who will pay $$$.

Perhaps there are no rooms currently available for the dates you want and the CM was suggesting you keep trying, especially at the 60 day mark. VWL is not large, and if only 2% of the rooms are available to the general public, that's probably less than 5 rooms --- depending on the size accomodations you're looking for.

As with any Disney resort, inventory changes constantly, as people change their minds. Ask for clarification --- are there no rooms available, or is it not even possible to book this far in advance. Are some of the nights available? Another option is to go to the DVC points rental board and try to rent from a DVC member. Just compare the asking price for the points with the rack rate from CRO (knowing that you MIGHT be able to get a discount and get it cheaper) and decide. It depends on how badly you want VWL. When you rent points, it's higher to rent on weekend nights, but when you pay cash, the cost is the same for each night.

Mid-May is has not been a busy time there. OKW is huge, in comparison, so if you're looking for DVC accomodations, you might ask CRO about that. Good luck!
PS. We love VWL.

 

[michellemmj]

It's got to be more than 3 months. We are staying at a 1-bdrm villa at the WL in mid-September, and I booked it way back in March.

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by michellemmj
It's got to be more than 3 months. We are staying at a 1-bdrm villa at the WL in mid-September, and I booked it way back in March.

What probably happened in your case is a DVC member traded out their DVC points to a non-DVC resort. If a DVC member decides to use his/her points for something other than DVC accomdations, those DVC points must be "sold" to CRO to cover payment for the vacation that DVC member has chosen. Once that transaction takes place, there would be another room available during that time period. It is very difficult to get into a DVC resort pretty far in advance, especially the ones that are completely sold out to DVC members. As indicated before only a small percentage of rooms are held back from sale, and they are sometimes used for maintenence issues. Those are the only rooms that would be available for cash stays, and the other ones would have to be provided by the trading a DVC member does. That can take place at any time, and they usually won't open up additional cash ressies until around 60 - 90 days before the ressie to protect any members who wish to stay at a DVC resort.

 

[Pongo101]

I would suggest to just keep calling. We switched from BWV to BCV, someone had told us we were going to have a hard time getting into BCVs. When I first started calling to switch, they kept on telling me no availability. I was calling twice a day, in the morning and in the evening as they get cancellations all the time. On the fourth day of calls, they finally had one open!

 

[SimbaNoodle]

Robdam,

Another option would be for you to go to the DVC Rental board. You can rent points from a DVC member and have them book the reservation for you.

Good luck.

 

[Gillian]

It's true that you can't book the DVC resorts as far in advance as the other resorts. Did the CM say WHEN to call back?

I think it's something like 9 months or 6 months. It's not 3 months or 60 days & is not related to rooms not booked by DVC members. The rooms you get through CRO are separate from those for members. Additional rooms may become available at 60 days or whatever, but there are ones you can book sooner.

I would call back and ask when you can book those rooms. You're still about 10 months away from your trip so I don't think availability is the problem.

 

[peachgirl]

The rooms you get through CRO are separate from those for members. Additional rooms may become available at 60 days or whatever, but there are ones you can book sooner.

I agree. We were told the same thing by CRO when we made our OKW reservations more than 6 months before our trip. They said that WDW holds a percentage of rooms from sales to be used by the general public that are available just as they are at any other WDW resort. If I were you, I'd call back and double check. You never know, CM's have been know to make mistakes and if nothing else, you could find out exactly when they do start booking the rooms reserved for the general public.

I've often read that it's tough to get reservations at the DVC properties, but when we started checking for our June trip, we had our choice of any of the Home Away From Home resorts. None were booked. I've also read that it's hard to get discounts on these rooms, but the codes that came out for our time frame always included them.

We chose OKW and we got a discount that made it less expensive to reserve through CRO than to rent points. Along with that we didn't have to pay to get maid service and we got CRO cancellation/reservation change policies.

In fact, less than 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we had a change in plans that caused me to check about switching the type of villa we had. There was still availabilty at our resort had I needed to make the switch.

I think that sometimes the difficulty and exclusiveness of the Home Away From Home reservations is a bit overstated. At least that's what I found when I did our trip research.

As I said, if I were you, I'd call CRO back and get the details on exactly when you can make reservations. I really don't think you'll have any problems getting reservations through them, especially if you do so at the first available opportunity. Also, keep your eyes open for discount codes. At the time of year you're going, I'd be very surprised if there weren't some really nice discounts available.

 

[Lewisc]

Peachgirl--The other posters are correct, CRO gets about 2% PLUS the units from people who use their points for DCL and Disney resorts. I think your success is more a function of relatively few people knowing that you can reserve the units. I share your experience, a few phone calls and there is frequently availability. I also think some of the people reserving through CRO cancel when they see how much cheaper than can rent a condo offsite.

OP--Not sure how available 2 bedroom units will be. You might look into renting points. During the week you'll come out a little bit better than a code discount (at $10/point)

 

[Scoootch]

Originally posted by peachgirl
I agree. We were told the same thing by CRO when we made our OKW reservations more than 6 months before our trip. They said that WDW holds a percentage of rooms from sales to be used by the general public that are available just as they are at any other WDW resort.


Yes, but as you just stated, CRO holds a % of the vacation homes for availibility for the general public, you booked at OKW and OKW is MUCH MUCH LARGER therefore would have much more availibility than at VWL's. The percentage CRO holds is only 4% and that is hardly anything if you are talking about trying to get VWL.

 

[disneyatl]

CRO told me they are available to the general public 7 months before your travel date.

 

[icydog]

I know someone has already posted this but the cheapest
( by far) and the easiest way to stay at a DVC property is to rent points on the DVC rent/trade forum on the DIS. Points are usually $10 each and for the month of May the points for a
2 bdrm in the Villas at Wilderness Lodge are 34 points for Sun-Thursday nights and 72 points for Friday and Saturday nights. A one week stay will be 314 points. Do the math, it is cheaper to rent points and the room will be guaranteed. I personally haven't rented any of my points but numerous others have. You post what you are looking for and people will come back with the point offers.
Marylyn

 

[peachgirl]

The other posters are correct, CRO gets about 2% PLUS the units from people who use their points for DCL and Disney resorts.

I didn't know the exact percentage, but I think that's pretty much what I said CRO told me. I assumed that any leftover DVC rooms would be at CRO's disposal as well.

you booked at OKW and OKW is MUCH MUCH LARGER therefore would have much more availibility than at VWL's.

Yes, we chose OKW in the end, but when we were deciding, we checked rates and availability at all the DVC properties. There was availability at all of them for a 2 br villa.

I know someone has already posted this but the cheapest ( by far) and the easiest way to stay at a DVC property is to rent points on the DVC rent/trade forum on the DIS.

Generally yes, but not always. As I said, due to the days we were staying and the discount code available, our rate was less than renting points and we saved the $35 a day housekeeping charge. Of course if one doesn't want maid service, you don't have to pay that fee.

All I'm saying is don't assume anything. Check both ways because it can be cheaper to reserve through CRO. It certainly was for us.

There are plusses and negatives whichever way you go. It just depends on what your own personal needs are. We could get a great discount rate, we wanted housekeeping and we needed the flexibility to change our reservations that CRO offers.

 

[icydog]

Originally posted by peachgirl
I didn't know the exact percentage, but I think that's pretty much what I said CRO told me. I assumed that any leftover DVC rooms would be at CRO's disposal as well.




Yes, we chose OKW in the end, but when we were deciding, we checked rates and availability at all the DVC properties. There was availability at all of them for a 2 br villa.



Generally yes, but not always. As I said, due to the days we were staying and the discount code available, our rate was less than renting points and we saved the $35 a day housekeeping charge. Of course if one doesn't want maid service, you don't have to pay that fee.

All I'm saying is don't assume anything. Check both ways because it can be cheaper to reserve through CRO. It certainly was for us.

There are plusses and negatives whichever way you go. It just depends on what your own personal needs are. We could get a great discount rate, we wanted housekeeping and we needed the flexibility to change our reservations that CRO offers.

Very interesting which discount rates did you use? I have wanted to stay on $$ sometimes but the rates are always so high that we never do. I am looking forward to your response.

 

[peachgirl]

Very interesting which discount rates did you use? I have wanted to stay on $$ sometimes but the rates are always so high that we never do. I am looking forward to your response.

Originally, we started with a comeback rate that was offered. We did check though when the AP rates came out and they were less that $10 a night higher.
The comeback rate is not available any longer as far as I know, but as I recall, the AP rate would have been very close to the same as renting points and less if you include the housekeeping charges.
There were a couple of other discount codes available for our time period that came close to the cost of renting points, but the AP rate was the best available at that time.

I would think the FTP package that came out recently would have come close to the cost of renting points as well.

If you stay weeknights only, I think it's probably cheaper to rent, but we were staying weekend nights when the points go sky high yet the CRO rates stay the same.

We would have gone through CRO regardless because we were more comfortable using them. It was a nice bonus to find that we were actually saving a little money!

Edited to add:

I happened to have the records I kept on rates for our trip handy so I checked the specifics.

Our comeback rate: $2300 for 5 nights
AP rate: $2348
Cost to rent points: $2360
Housekeeping Charge: $175

 

[robdam]

I was able to FINALLY get a 2BR Villa Reservation today through AAA! I tried to call directly on my own afterward and was told the same story; Villas will not be released to genral public until 3-6 months before my date of arrival. Way to go AAA! I am there!

 

[icydog]

Originally posted by peachgirl
[
If you stay weeknights only, I think it's probably cheaper to rent, but we were staying weekend nights when the points go sky high yet the CRO rates stay the same.



Edited to add:

I happened to have the records I kept on rates for our trip handy so I checked the specifics.

Our comeback rate: $2300 for 5 nights
AP rate: $2348
Cost to rent points: $2360
Housekeeping Charge: $175 [/B]

You were right I just checked the CRO AP rate for OKW for a weekend night for a 2 bdrm in September and it is $433 inclusive of housekeeping vs $540 using a member's points( 54 points) and no housekeeping. I also looked for a studio and the AP rate was $180 a night vs members points( 20 points) or $200 a night.
Wow you have opened my eyes! If I need to buy a reservation for someone this is the way to go for the weekend.

Now for the weekdays, I don't think you can rent a room for the same price as member points. A Sun night through Thurs night stay in a 2 bdrm at OKW in Sept is 22 points or $220 and a studio is only 8 points for a total of $80. So what everyone should do is to rent from members during the week and book with CRO for the weekends.

The reason I used September is because that's the month that's available now and I have no way of knowing the AP rate for May but I do know it for September and October,2003.

As they say on EBay "Happy Bidding"

Marylyn