My family belongs to DVC and are planning to visit the World in December. Well, we called to book a 2 bedroom villa and was told there are NO vacancies at this time at ANY of the DVC resorts. I know it's the most popular time of the year, but not sure if I believe that every single 2 bedroom is unavailable during early December. I could just be acting naive about the situation, but does anyone know of a loophole? We are on the waiting list & crossing our fingers!
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Booking a 2 bedroom villa in December & was told it's all full!
- Thread starter hurry_back86
- Start date
DVC does not obligate you to any particular week of the year. The freedom to pick and choose weeks allows certain time periods to fill very quickly and early. When we made our December reservations in February there was only the one bedroom my family needed. No two bedrooms were available then either.
Pioneer Hall
Well-Known Member
December is a very busy month for DVC no matter when you look to go. Clearly the Christmas/New Years period is madness, but low points in the first half of the month make it a very popular time for members to go. I am not surprised to hear that there are no 2 bedroom villas. Also, keep in mind that a lot of 2BR villas are lock-offs that can be split into a studio and a 1BR villa depending on bookings (which tends to be why 1BR villas seem to be easiest to get in my experience). If you are looking at the holiday time, those villas were probably all booked at the 11 and 7 month booking windows.
DVCOwner
A Long Time DVC Member
As I have said many times on this site, if you want to buy into DVC, but at "home" resort you want to stay at the most and book as early as you can. I always try to book 11 months out and have never had a problem getting the rooms I want. DVC is not booking at the six month or less time frame.
disneyeater
Active Member
This close to December I would be suprised if anything was available at all, not just 2 bedrooms. It is one of the most popular times of the year for DVC.
BWV. BLT. AKL. BCV. All of those were booked to the gills when I called last night to look for an extra studio. They had no one or two bedrooms either.
As everyone has stated this is not uncommon. What you might want to do is look at modifying your date. It is not that strange for a single day of zero availability to lock out your entire trip. I have run into several cases where a move of just a single day up or down opened things up.
We booked a week out in May from a rather impromptu trip. For seven nights we were slated to move room four times. We arrived at the second resort and spoke to the front desk. They had us call DVC and they spoke with them stating they had a room of our needs available so we would not have to move anymore.
From what I have been told, the two systems that the pair uses sometimes do not update or read vacancies until a certain day or time. (that is only the case when you are a week-two weeks out. From MY experiences)
Sorry but you're being naive. December is extremely popular--first half of the month because of the low points and second half of the month because of Christmas holiday. Sorry but no loopholes.
Chalk it up as a learning experience. Booking DVC villas is not like booking a hotel room. Disney has 25,000+ hotel rooms and runs about 85-90% occupancy and that's even AFTER they run promos to attract guests.
DVC is a timeshare, which means there is equilibrium between the number of owners and number of rooms available. Timeshares are designed to be at 100% occupancy year-round. The villas will thus be filled-up quicker during the more popular times. Getting a room on 3 months' notice is not a reliable approach to take most of the year. It's first come, first served and the honest truth is that thousands of other members beat you to the punch.
You are only allowed 2 active waitlist requests at a time and waitlists are tied to specific resorts and views. With that said, I would HIGHLY recommend listing Saratoga Springs as one of your waitlists. SSR has hundreds of two bedroom villas and it may only take one cancellation for your waitlist to come through.
For the other request I would recommend either Old Key West (non-Hospitality House) or Kidani Village Savanna view. I believe those are the next largest room categories.
If you are waitlisted for just about anything else, it dramatically reduces your odds of getting a room. Waitlisting for a resort like Bay Lake Tower, Beach Club or BoardWalk at this late date would be extremely foolish. It's entirely possible that there are dozens of other members ahead of you on the waitlist. There could be people with confirmed reservations at resorts like Saratoga or Old Key West who are waitlisted for Bay Lake or Boardwalk. If they are higher on the waitlist than you, they'll get first shot at what is likely to be a small number of cancellations.
Chalk it up as a learning experience. Booking DVC villas is not like booking a hotel room. Disney has 25,000+ hotel rooms and runs about 85-90% occupancy and that's even AFTER they run promos to attract guests.
DVC is a timeshare, which means there is equilibrium between the number of owners and number of rooms available. Timeshares are designed to be at 100% occupancy year-round. The villas will thus be filled-up quicker during the more popular times. Getting a room on 3 months' notice is not a reliable approach to take most of the year. It's first come, first served and the honest truth is that thousands of other members beat you to the punch.
You are only allowed 2 active waitlist requests at a time and waitlists are tied to specific resorts and views. With that said, I would HIGHLY recommend listing Saratoga Springs as one of your waitlists. SSR has hundreds of two bedroom villas and it may only take one cancellation for your waitlist to come through.
For the other request I would recommend either Old Key West (non-Hospitality House) or Kidani Village Savanna view. I believe those are the next largest room categories.
If you are waitlisted for just about anything else, it dramatically reduces your odds of getting a room. Waitlisting for a resort like Bay Lake Tower, Beach Club or BoardWalk at this late date would be extremely foolish. It's entirely possible that there are dozens of other members ahead of you on the waitlist. There could be people with confirmed reservations at resorts like Saratoga or Old Key West who are waitlisted for Bay Lake or Boardwalk. If they are higher on the waitlist than you, they'll get first shot at what is likely to be a small number of cancellations.
True post. That is booked up though.
patricia27
Member
Dvc
I have to admit we book eleven months in advance for OKW. When the seven month period comes along, you can always change to another resort that isn`t your home resort.
Then at least you know you have got something. as we are from the UK we have to book early to tie up the booking with the flights.
I have to admit we book eleven months in advance for OKW. When the seven month period comes along, you can always change to another resort that isn`t your home resort.
Then at least you know you have got something. as we are from the UK we have to book early to tie up the booking with the flights.
Understood. I was suggesting it as a waitlist possibility.
I believe the largest inventory of Two Bedroom villas at WDW would be:
1. Saratoga Springs
2. OKW non-Hospitality House category
3. Kidani Savanna View
Those who want to get ANY ROOM on short notice via the waitlist would be well advised to include two of those three among their requests, IMO.
Believe it. "Most popular time of the year" means that owners are camped out on the phones the minute Member Services opens, 11 months to the day from their check-in date. If you want December, you're going to need to book in January.
At this point, there are many, many people in front of you on the wait list. Your chances of getting anything are very slim, and if you do, you'll probably have to switch resorts at least once during your trip.
I'd recommend making alternate plans that you can cancel in the unlikely event that the wait list comes though.
patricia27
Member
Thanksgiving
I have friends who did a last minute booking for 2 weeks either side of Thanksgiving. They have got the rooms they wanted but have been told there is nothing in the DVC for them over the holiday weekend--BUT there would be something if they paid instead of using points!!
I have friends who did a last minute booking for 2 weeks either side of Thanksgiving. They have got the rooms they wanted but have been told there is nothing in the DVC for them over the holiday weekend--BUT there would be something if they paid instead of using points!!
Pioneer Hall
Well-Known Member
That makes sense because Disney retains points that they then use to make cash bookings. Basically consider DVC a member with a large number of points. They then "rent" those points to resorts in order to book the rooms at a cash rate. So while the maximum number of points at that time are booked, there are still some rooms that are there for cash bookings at certain times.
Thanks for all the info everyone. We ended up moving our dates to not include a Saturday and were able to get a 2 bedroom.
patricia27
Member
disneyeater
Active Member
Congrats. I am suprised you were able to get it this close to the date. Great score!
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
Before anybody goes all sorts of crazy about DVC retaining points to sell and thinks it is some sort of money making scheme, it's not.
The term for this is "breakage" and a time share company is required by law to retain a certain percentage of the time slots (or in the case of DVC - points) as breakage.
This time is to be used for maintainence, upgrades, repairs, etc. The logic is, if they sold 100% of the available time slots (or points) there would never be a time when they could perform these tasks and not cause a conflict with a booking owner.
If the rooms are available during the breakage period, then the owner is free to rent them as they wish.
In you look at your DVC cash flow statement, you will see breakage listed as a line item income, which is used to offset part of your yearly dues payment.
-dave