How difficult is it to reserve studios at Copper Creek? and if they are sold out how do you use your points at a Disney resort?

[CastAStone]

Question: people often say how tough it is to book closer to travel dates especially for studios and how it is a large change from DVC’s early years. It seems on the surface like it really shouldn’t have changed as the number of points is always equal to the number of rooms. I’m curious as to why this has happened. Some thoughts which I’ve seen mentioned:

1. in the past, more points (at least as a percentage of the total existing) may have been unused and just lost whereas today a vibrant renting culture exists which helps people “use” points even if not for themselves.

2. More high cost units like Poly bungalows and WL cabins that most members can’t book due to lack of points and they (maybe?) go unbooked while those points get directed to smaller units.

3. more smaller points contracts where people can only afford small units driving up demand for them

4. a “race to the bottom “ type effect where since units seem to book up earlier, people now go out of their way to plan and book earlier such that they get booked collectively sooner, especially at the 7 month mark where there is a mad rush.

Just some thoughts. I’m just curious since I don’t really know the “olden days” of great availability and wanted to see why the seemingly dramatic shift

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and I’d add that Saratoga Springs (and to a lesser extent Aulani, OKW, and AKV) continuing to resell as “sleep around points” puts pressure on 7 month booking which in turn puts pressure on owners to book earlier. Availability at the 4 largest resorts in the system is always great at 7 months, except in early December, and for uncommon room types.

 

[Phonedave]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and I’d add that Saratoga Springs (and to a lesser extent Aulani, OKW, and AKV) continuing to resell as “sleep around points” puts pressure on 7 month booking which in turn puts pressure on owners to book earlier. Availability at the 4 largest resorts in the system is always great at 7 months, except in early December, and for uncommon room types.

SSR does tend to overwhelm the other resorts. Even though the number of points that are out there represents the number of rooms available, there are a lot more rooms at SSR.

Look at it this way, lets say there are 100 owners and 100 rooms at SSR and 5 owners and 5 rooms at Boardwalk. if 20% of the owners at each resort don't book at 11 months, that leave open 1 rooms at BW and 20 rooms at SSR. Those 20 people at SSR are going to try to get the BW room, and you are going to get 19 people saying "it is so hard to get a room anywhere else". I own at SSR and it has become a lot harder to get into other resorts. I never looked at SSR as sleep around points, but for F&W we go to EPCOT exclusively, so I do like to try and get into either an EPCOT resort, or one on the monorail iine.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

SSR does tend to overwhelm the other resorts. Even though the number of points that are out there represents the number of rooms available, there are a lot more rooms at SSR.

Look at it this way, lets say there are 100 owners and 100 rooms at SSR and 5 owners and 5 rooms at Boardwalk. if 20% of the owners at each resort don't book at 11 months, that leave open 1 rooms at BW and 20 rooms at SSR. Those 20 people at SSR are going to try to get the BW room, and you are going to get 19 people saying "it is so hard to get a room anywhere else". I own at SSR and it has become a lot harder to get into other resorts. I never looked at SSR as sleep around points, but for F&W we go to EPCOT exclusively, so I do like to try and get into either an EPCOT resort, or one on the monorail iine.

We also own at SSR, and understand your point of more limited availability at other resorts. We also go every year during Food&Wine, and have stayed at BWV or BCV every year for the last several years. We just book exactly at the 7 month mark, and always a 1 bedroom unit. I will concede that people only looking for studios will have a much harder time, but that is simply the fact there are fewer rooms at those 2 resorts.

 

[Phonedave]

We also own at SSR, and understand your point of more limited availability at other resorts. We also go every year during Food&Wine, and have stayed at BWV or BCV every year for the last several years. We just book exactly at the 7 month mark, and always a 1 bedroom unit. I will concede that people only looking for studios will have a much harder time, but that is simply the fact there are fewer rooms at those 2 resorts.

We go during Jersey Week, which is a very busy week. Sometimes there are 1BR available when the studios are gone, but very often it is a "no room at the inn" situation. I start the watch availability at around 9 months out of both 1BR and studios, and sometimes they are both gone for Jersey Week well before the 7 month widow opens up. Sometimes we do "upgrade" to a 1BR with just the two of us if is available - it depends what we plan on doing with the rest of our contract that year.

In the grand scheme of things, SSR also works out for us, because even on our EPCOT only F&W trips, we do head over to Disney Springs so being at SSR makes that work out easier.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

We go during Jersey Week, which is a very busy week. Sometimes there are 1BR available when the studios are gone, but very often it is a "no room at the inn" situation. I start the watch availability at around 9 months out of both 1BR and studios, and sometimes they are both gone for Jersey Week well before the 7 month widow opens up. Sometimes we do "upgrade" to a 1BR with just the two of us if is available - it depends what we plan on doing with the rest of our contract that year.

In the grand scheme of things, SSR also works out for us, because even on our EPCOT only F&W trips, we do head over to Disney Springs so being at SSR makes that work out easier.

We do love SSR, and have stayed there many times. We love staying in the Grandstand area and walking over to the West Side for a start.

 

[nickys]

We do love SSR, and have stayed there many times. We love staying in the Grandstand area and walking over to the West Side for a start.

I’m not sure if you can do that just now because there is no security / temperature checkpoint over that side. Could be wrong but I’ve seen people say they had to walk all the way round to the check point nearer the parking.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

I’m not sure if you can do that just now because there is no security / temperature checkpoint over that side. Could be wrong but I’ve seen people say they had to walk all the way round to the check point nearer the parking.

Good point. The last time we did it was this past March, right before all the restrictions started. We were staying st SSR, and left WDW for HH the day before the parks closed.

 

[nickys]

Good point. The last time we did it was this past March, right before all the restrictions started. We were staying st SSR, and left WDW for HH the day before the parks closed.

Talk about good timing!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Talk about good timing!

We just couldn't believe that we actually got into HH in March with no notice. We were scheduled to be on a Disney cruise starting on Saturday. We knew it might get cancelled, but we already had our flights and a one night reservation at SSR for the day before the cruise. Well, it got cancelled, and when we checked the prices for flights, it was ridiculous. So we asked the front desk about staying a few extra days at SSR, then checked HH for availability, and a 1 bedroom was available. Rented a car. Drove to HH and spent a few absolutely wonderful days there. It was our first time there, and now will not be the last.

 

[Phonedave]

We just couldn't believe that we actually got into HH in March with no notice. We were scheduled to be on a Disney cruise starting on Saturday. We knew it might get cancelled, but we already had our flights and a one night reservation at SSR for the day before the cruise. Well, it got cancelled, and when we checked the prices for flights, it was ridiculous. So we asked the front desk about staying a few extra days at SSR, then checked HH for availability, and a 1 bedroom was available. Rented a car. Drove to HH and spent a few absolutely wonderful days there. It was our first time there, and now will not be the last.

We were supposed to be in HH for our first time in June/July 2020 - clearly that did not happen.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

We were supposed to be in HH for our first time in June/July 2020 - clearly that did not happen.

Hope you have better luck next time.