New DVC Member, a mistake?

[Houndstooth]

So, just bought at VGF, received my one time authentication code and got into the system. Just to be curious, I selected roughly 25 different vacation possibilities, 4-7 day options, spanning 6 months and various weeks in each month. The VGF is not available in ANY of my options, except perhaps 1 day out of 5. Bay Lake Towers is also not available. Saratoga Springs is available for roughly half of my random choices. So....just how far in advance does one have to plan, if I'm going as far out as possible in my home resort (VGF) and nothing is available? Any guidance?

 

[Master Yoda]

For the more popular resorts and/or during the busier times of year you will typically need to book at the max 11 months out.

You can occasionally get lucky or get a wait list selection honored, but if you want a particular thing, you need to plan well ahead.

 

[DVCOwner]

I always book my home resort 11 months in advance and if I want to stay at another resort I book on the day that it opens. O have always got rooms when I want them. Had to wait list once for the first day of one trip, but cleared the wait list months in advance.

 

[Minthorne]

if you buy the expensive and popular with resort then you have to use the advantage and book at 11 months. Since anyone can in the 7 month or less range.

 

[Ralphlaw]

I've always had good luck with waitlisting. Grand Floridian is new and very popular right now, so it is probably artificially crowded for a few years. At 6 months out, things will probably be a bit tight. Instead of going online, I'd call in, tell them you're new, and maybe something extra will be done to get you in when you want. Good luck. At a minimum, you need to waitlist.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Please recall that DVC members can book at their Home Resort up to 11 months in advance. Other resorts can be booked up to 7 months in advance.

Most DVC Resorts require booking more than 7 months in advance, especially when booking Studios. Within 7 months, typically only Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR) and Old Key West (OKW) are consistently available for a full week, with Animal Kingdom Villas (AKV) generally available. These are WDW's 3 largest DVC resorts.

One Bedroom Villas often are available at most resorts at 7 months.

Some types of rooms and/or resorts are more difficult to book than others. Perhaps the most difficult to book are the Club Level Studios at AKV, which usually are completely booked first thing in the morning right at 11 months. Studios at Beach Club Villas (BCV) are popular year-round, while it's difficult to book any room at BCV and the Boardwalk Villas (BWV) during Food & Wine Festival (F&WF) at less than 7 months. Often the Standard View Studios at BWV for F&WF are fully booked at 11 months.

This doesn't mean it's impossible to book anything other than your Home Resort, it just mean you have to plan as far in advance as possible. I've stayed at all the DVC resorts but I'm usually booking a 2 Bedroom Villa or a Grand Villa, which are a bit easier to get than Studios.

It's also a bit easier if you are willing to resort hop. In other words, book (for example) 3 days at one resort and then switch to another resort for the remaining days.

Hope this helps!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

The Food & Wine time is starting to get full for almost every resort nowadays. You almost have to plan for reserving your home resort at 11 months, and then changeover at 7 if you can. It really all depends on the time of year and the resort. We own at SSR, and we stayed at VGF in a 1 bedroom just a few weeks ago. We initially reserved the 1 bedroom at SSR just in case, and then called Member Services to change it over. You can do it yourself on-line, but you have to cancel the original, and then book the new. While the CMs have to do the same thing, their system is much faster, and they can bring up both at the same time. They hit cancel, then book in just a few seconds, where you might be waiting a few minutes for the web page to load, and all of a sudden, it's gone.

If you just bought in to VGF, congratulations, you did not make a mistake! Just remember that you will have to plan to book the resort initially at 11 months if you want to be sure. There are slower times, so you can look at those as well. Good luck!

 

[WWWD]

When we bought into DVC we bought enough points for a two bed room for most times of the year. This way we have more flexibility when booking. A two bedroom allows us to spread out or invite friends with us. When we have to get a studio, we spend less time in the cramped quarters and more time in the parks.

We have had luck at the 7 months window with a lot of different DVC resorts. We were even able to book the Disneyland DVC (can't remember its name) at 6 months out for this summer during Disneyland's 60th anniversary.

If you own at a popular resort, then you really need to plan your trips, at the latest, more than 7 months out. At the 11 months during popular times. And, remember, DVC popular times and parks popular times don't always match. DVC rooms can be sold out during "slower" park times because DCV'er know when to go to WDW or points required for a stay are lower.

Finally, even though we love our home resort of BCV, we have yet to stay in a DVC that we didn't like. And, there is always split stays (which we have done a few time) if all your dates are not available.

 

[sxeensweet]

So, just bought at VGF, received my one time authentication code and got into the system. Just to be curious, I selected roughly 25 different vacation possibilities, 4-7 day options, spanning 6 months and various weeks in each month. The VGF is not available in ANY of my options, except perhaps 1 day out of 5. Bay Lake Towers is also not available. Saratoga Springs is available for roughly half of my random choices. So....just how far in advance does one have to plan, if I'm going as far out as possible in my home resort (VGF) and nothing is available? Any guidance?

Call the cast member you bought from. They can do a one time thing (forgot what it's called there is a name for it) to pull from the cash portion of the DVC resorts. They do this for new members that may have just bought in and it is close to when they want to take a trip. They did it for us when we had less than 6 months until when we wanted our home resort AKV when we bought in 2013. Really you can talk to anyone in member services about it. They worked their magic for us and got us our room when DVC is really busy in December. There was nothing available for points at all, but they did the one time pull from cash reservations for us.

 

[freediverdude]

I just purchased at the Poly, and for a while I've been trying to get 3 nights in a row pretty much any dates in Sept for Poly- it's been difficult but I did finally get them today. And forget October, already no more than one night available here and there. So good luck, I guess we monorail resort people need to book at 11 months, so I will do that for next year.

 

[GoofGoof]

One other thing to consider is DVC popularity doesn't always sinc up with WDW popularity. Because the less popular times at WDW require the least number of points to book a room for DVC they will sometimes book fast. This is particularly true of the fall. As a previous poster mentioned food and wine is pretty popular and It is during one of the lower point total times.

 

[Tom]

One thing that's pretty much a requirement of being a DVC owner is being able to plan your vacations 7 or 11 months out.

Studios go fast, then 1BRs. 2BRs are often available, since they're in lower demand.

If you want to stay at GFV, you'll need to book it at 11 mos since you own there.

 

[Chezman1399]

Yeah VGF Studios are very hard to get for various reasons. First only 100 rooms are DVC rooms there, people have guaranteed weeks all throughout the year, there are only 47 studios (10 of which are lockoffs, so only 37 are guaranteed to be studios year round), it's a very popular location. So as everyone else said either look 1 bedroom or book 11 months out (or both). As someone who has stayed there twice (once with Lake View and once with standard view), I wouldn't go with Lake View again as the view of the golf course we had with standard was a lot nicer than the view of the Polynesian/TTC w/ the water pageant every night coming by 2 times that we could hear with the Lake View Room.

 

[Seanual757]

As others have said book right at your 11 month window. I reserved mine 2 weeks ago for March 20, 2016 (we reserved 2 2-bedroom's for the week).

I was able to book at Studio for October for 3 nights but we opted for AKL.

 

[DVC Mike]

So, just bought at VGF, received my one time authentication code and got into the system. Just to be curious, I selected roughly 25 different vacation possibilities, 4-7 day options, spanning 6 months and various weeks in each month. The VGF is not available in ANY of my options, except perhaps 1 day out of 5. Bay Lake Towers is also not available. Saratoga Springs is available for roughly half of my random choices. So....just how far in advance does one have to plan, if I'm going as far out as possible in my home resort (VGF) and nothing is available? Any guidance?

VGF is the smallest DVC resort at WDW, as shown HERE, so it goes fast.

Also, you may be trying to book at a high use or heavy demand period, as described HERE.

Hope that helps.

 

[michael.fumc]

One other thing to consider is DVC popularity doesn't always sinc up with WDW popularity. Because the less popular times at WDW require the least number of points to book a room for DVC they will sometimes book fast. This is particularly true of the fall. As a previous poster mentioned food and wine is pretty popular and It is during one of the lower point total times.

That is very true, everyone is trying to get the most value out of their points