Almost Full Occupancy For The Rest Of 2021

[Raineman]

My family and I are looking into a short 4 day trip to WDW during the first weekend of November. Checking room availability on the Disney website, there is virtually nothing left. Choosing other dates until the end of the year show the same thing.
We have never booked less than a year in advance, so this situation is new to us. Is this normal, or is this mostly due to factors like post-lockdown trips and 50th anniversary celebrations?
At this point, we may have to book a room at a non-Disney hotel on property, or even see if there are any DVC rentals available that won't break the bank. The non-Disney hotel option isn't one I would really want, as we would have to rent a car at MCO just to drive to the parks and back. If we did book a non-Disney hotel, we could probably get our agent to keep an eye out for any cancelled resort reservations up until we go, but I'm sure those would get snapped up quickly.
Maybe not going now would be a good idea-if every room on property is occupied, the parks will be a nightmare as far as crowds are concerned.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I would definitely say that much is due to the 50th anniversary, but the first week of November can fill due to the NJ Teacher's Convention, being held Nov 4-5, 2021, AKA Jersey Week. Many NJ families, since the kids don't have school on those 2 days and sometimes more than that, will take the time, including the weekend, to take a WDW vacation.

 

[Bullseye1967]

My family and I are looking into a short 4 day trip to WDW during the first weekend of November. Checking room availability on the Disney website, there is virtually nothing left. Choosing other dates until the end of the year show the same thing.
We have never booked less than a year in advance, so this situation is new to us. Is this normal, or is this mostly due to factors like post-lockdown trips and 50th anniversary celebrations?
At this point, we may have to book a room at a non-Disney hotel on property, or even see if there are any DVC rentals available that won't break the bank. The non-Disney hotel option isn't one I would really want, as we would have to rent a car at MCO just to drive to the parks and back. If we did book a non-Disney hotel, we could probably get our agent to keep an eye out for any cancelled resort reservations up until we go, but I'm sure those would get snapped up quickly.
Maybe not going now would be a good idea-if every room on property is occupied, the parks will be a nightmare as far as crowds are concerned.

Not all hotel rooms at WDW are currently available for booking. Many are sitting empty. They just don't have the CMs to fully staff resorts.

 

[ParentsOf4]

My family and I are looking into a short 4 day trip to WDW during the first weekend of November. Checking room availability on the Disney website, there is virtually nothing left. Choosing other dates until the end of the year show the same thing.
We have never booked less than a year in advance, so this situation is new to us. Is this normal, or is this mostly due to factors like post-lockdown trips and 50th anniversary celebrations?

In recent years, the 4th quarter (October to December) is WDW's strongest. (Yellow in the following chart.)

However, at the moment, there seems to be a rolling window of hotel cancellations.

Weeks ago, there was nothing available in October. Now, the first 3 weeks have freed up, at least Sunday to Friday.

I suspect this is due to the COVID surge and the lack of room discounts. (In previous years, Guests would book the rooms they want and then call to rebook once discounts were announced.)

Maybe the best plan is to book something offsite that is 100% cancellable, and continue to monitor the WDW website to see if something frees up for your dates?

 

[Raineman]

In recent years, the 4th quarter (October to December) is WDW's strongest. (Yellow in the following chart.)

View attachment 585883

However, at the moment, there seems to be a rolling window of hotel cancellations.

Weeks ago, there was nothing available in October. Now, the first 3 weeks have freed up, at least Sunday to Friday.

I suspect this is due to the COVID surge and the lack of room discounts. (In previous years, Guests would book the rooms they want and then call to rebook once discounts were announced.)

Maybe the best plan is to book something offsite that is 100% cancellable, and continue to monitor the WDW website to see if something frees up for your dates?

I'm thinking that's the best plan. We prefer a Moderate, POFQ if we can get it, but we would take a Value for this short stay if it popped up first. This short trip is gonna cost us more than our usual 8 day stay anyway, as we would be flying for this one when we normally drive to Florida.

 

[COProgressFan]

We're actually in the same situation as you, as we are considering a short 4 day trip in November. Most dates show zero availability at any resort, or something crazy $$ like a 2 BR DVC suite at the GF. I am almost certain that they are still keeping large quantities of rooms out of inventory (by choice, or more likely due to staffing issues).

At this point, we are looking into going off-site or doing a longer trip next year instead.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Pre-pandemic, the ability to get rooms from Oct-Dec while in Sept was not gonna happen unless you pay for the uber pricey suites at $1k/night.

I learned that my usual Oct and Dec trips had to be reserved more than 8 months in advance.

 

[COProgressFan]

Pre-pandemic, the ability to get rooms from Oct-Dec while in Sept was not gonna happen unless you pay for the uber pricey suites at $1k/night.

I learned that my usual Oct and Dec trips had to be reserved more than 8 months in advance.

Interesting, that has not been my experience in the past. But this is obviously an unusual year.

 

[lunchbox1175]

is POFQ and POR even open yet? feel like i read somewhere they hadn't opened them up yet or reservations for them still. Maybe that's part of it.

 

[Raineman]

is POFQ and POR even open yet? feel like i read somewhere they hadn't opened them up yet or reservations for them still. Maybe that's part of it.

POR-October 14, POFQ-October 28. Been taking reservations for a little while, I believe.

 

[JusticeDisney]

Wait. This can’t possibly be. I mean, I’ve been on this site long enough to know that WDW is total crap now, that everything that WDW does would have Walt turning over in his grave, and that people are done with WDW and are going to start spending their hard-earned vacation dollars elsewhere.

 

[Andrew25]

"Full" Occupancy

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Disney is holding rooms back to try and get people to book the deluxe resorts claiming "that's all that's available" or making the pricier rooms (preferred, king bed, water view, etc..)the only rooms available at the values and moderates. I know some resorts aren't fully open due to staffing, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they only made the pricier rooms available at each resort.

 

[dovetail65]

Wait. This can’t possibly be. I mean, I’ve been on this site long enough to know that WDW is total crap now, that everything that WDW does would have Walt turning over in his grave, and that people are done with WDW and are going to start spending their hard-earned vacation dollars elsewhere.

Yep, I agree, Disney is crap and why I still get an AP and enjoy every time I visit.

 

[Tha Realest]

I have too been checking out inventory. It’s unclear what’s going on. Rooms that are available for a longer stretch of time (like 3 days for our trip) have no individual availability on any one of two of those three days (we’re hoping to do a split stay). Like, I am begging them for the ability of paying $650 for Yacht Club for one night but they won’t let me do it?

 

[nickys]

I have too been checking out inventory. It’s unclear what’s going on. Rooms that are available for a longer stretch of time (like 3 days for our trip) have no individual availability on any one of two of those three days (we’re hoping to do a split stay). Like, I am begging them for the ability of paying $650 for Yacht Club for one night but they won’t let me do it?

If it won’t let you book online then call. The algorithms they use try to avoid having “orphan” nights and consequently make it hard to book single nights.

 

[Jon & Susy]

It seems that there are a couple issues influencing availability, one is staffing for sure, the other is the 50th Anniversary, and third is the backlog of people who rescheduled their vactions due to the pandemic. I have been looking to set up a stay in early or late January and there is littel to no availability during these timeframes either which in pre-pandemic years would not be the case.

I would consider the Swan & Dolphin or perhaps a local hotel within good distance to the parks. There may be some availability at a reasonable price, but being a DVC member, I'd prefer to use my points before I spend more cash.

 

[durangojim]

I've found that checking availability daily really helps or breaking up the reservation into two different ones at the same resort increases the chances of finding what you're looking for. We're at the Riviera later this week for 4 nights and when I originally booked two months ago, the only thing available was a water view Yacht Club, over the past month there has been a lot more intermittent availability at virtually every Deluxe and DVC resort on property.

 

[Raineman]

Well, we've decided to stop looking now, and focus on 2022. We might attempt an early July trip, but we might have to condition ourselves for that by sitting in a sauna for 10 hours with a UV lamp shining directly on us.

 

[nickys]

Well, we've decided to stop looking now, and focus on 2022. We might attempt an early July trip, but we might have to condition ourselves for that by sitting in a sauna for 10 hours with a UV lamp shining directly on us.

I think you’d need to be pacing around the sauna to get the full effect of Florida in July. Did it once, never again. We got as much done in 10 days in February as we did in 3 weeks in July.