Is Disney Vacation Club Breaking the 11-Month Booking Rule?

[Creathir]

So I came across this on Reddit, and I actually experienced this while trying to book a tower studio at Riviera for the 50th.

We ended up getting a normal studio, but I did find it interesting that it was impossible to obtain these rooms because of something strange the website was doing. I figured more experienced DVC folks were either somehow fooling the system, or maybe it was just buggy, it is a Disney website after all.

But seeing this article and reports of others experiencing the same thing, thought you all might find it interesting.

Is Disney Vacation Club Breaking the 11-Month Booking Rule?

Today we dig into an issue that has been causing many DVC Members problems with booking a vacation at 11-Months!

dvcfan.com

 

[RememberWhen]

I did notice this recently trying to book 2 2-bedroom boardwalk views. I got one, but the other is a pool view since it has this weird availability gap. I figured I would just waitlist the Boardwalk view. Odd though.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

So I came across this on Reddit, and I actually experienced this while trying to book a tower studio at Riviera for the 50th.

We ended up getting a normal studio, but I did find it interesting that it was impossible to obtain these rooms because of something strange the website was doing. I figured more experienced DVC folks were either somehow fooling the system, or maybe it was just buggy, it is a Disney website after all.

But seeing this article and reports of others experiencing the same thing, thought you all might find it interesting.

Is Disney Vacation Club Breaking the 11-Month Booking Rule?

Today we dig into an issue that has been causing many DVC Members problems with booking a vacation at 11-Months!

dvcfan.com

This is very concerning, and you do wonder how it could be checked on, and what legal ramifications there would be.

 

[nickys]

The article actually does manage to describe the problem quite succinctly. I must admit I had seen some discussion about it but couldn’t get my head around it!

My first thought was this was due to the fixed weeks, but I believe this has also been happening at AKL which I know doesn’t have fixed weeks (just Poly, CCV and Riviera - plus Aulani).

So I think what it’s saying is that if this was normal “walking” happening, you wouldn’t expect to see exactly 11 months from “today” available but the next days booked out. Correct?

So my question is, if you book a week at 11 months out, can you immediately drop the first day? Or do you actually need to wait until the following day to do so? If I was to book a week starting Sept 30th 2021 now, can I drop 30th Sept tonight and simply have 1st thru 6th of October 2021? Maybe you shouldn’t be able to but I wonder if there’s a glitch?

 

[RememberWhen]

The article actually does manage to describe the problem quite succinctly. I must admit I had seen some discussion about it but couldn’t get my head around it!

My first thought was this was due to the fixed weeks, but I believe this has also been happening at AKL which I know doesn’t have fixed weeks (just Poly, CCV and Riviera - plus Aulani).

So I think what it’s saying is that if this was normal “walking” happening, you wouldn’t expect to see exactly 11 months from “today” available but the next days booked out. Correct?

So my question is, if you book a week at 11 months out, can you immediately drop the first day? Or do you actually need to wait until the following day to do so? If I was to book a week starting Sept 30th 2021 now, can I drop 30th Sept tonight and simply have 1st thru 6th of October 2021? Maybe you shouldn’t be able to but I wonder if there’s a glitch?

I’m not sure. I’ll play with it tomorrow if I remember and post back. My gut says no. You can’t drop that first day and keep the rest. But I’ll test. Why not?

 

[Creathir]

The article actually does manage to describe the problem quite succinctly. I must admit I had seen some discussion about it but couldn’t get my head around it!

My first thought was this was due to the fixed weeks, but I believe this has also been happening at AKL which I know doesn’t have fixed weeks (just Poly, CCV and Riviera - plus Aulani).

So I think what it’s saying is that if this was normal “walking” happening, you wouldn’t expect to see exactly 11 months from “today” available but the next days booked out. Correct?

So my question is, if you book a week at 11 months out, can you immediately drop the first day? Or do you actually need to wait until the following day to do so? If I was to book a week starting Sept 30th 2021 now, can I drop 30th Sept tonight and simply have 1st thru 6th of October 2021? Maybe you shouldn’t be able to but I wonder if there’s a glitch?

Yeah, this is what confused me. There may be a bug of some sort allowing it. Entirely possible.

If it’s something a bit more sinister, like preferential locking of inventory, that would be something else. What exactly would the upside for Disney be if that was indeed the case?

I’m not familiar enough with “walking” given my adolescence in this whole DVC thing, so that’s why I wasn’t sure if this was just guru level DVCers somehow locking when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

I’m not familiar enough with “walking” given my adolescence in this whole DVC thing, so that’s why I wasn’t sure if this was just guru level DVCers somehow locking when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

Walking a reservation is unfortunately allowed. It’s when people make a reservation, then the next day, they add a day, and remove the first day, and keep doing that until they have the days they really want. DVC could easily kill this by not allowing more than 2 or 3 changes per reservation.

 

[Creathir]

Walking a reservation is unfortunately allowed. It’s when people make a reservation, then the next day, they add a day, and remove the first day, and keep doing that until they have the days they really want. DVC could easily kill this by not allowing more than 2 or 3 changes per reservation.

Ah I see. Yeah. That seems... questionable. I guess because anyone can do it what does it matter... but still. It’s like holding your block of time.

 

[larryz]

Disney explanation: "System Creates A Mess."

 

[jaklgreen]

Walking a reservation is unfortunately allowed. It’s when people make a reservation, then the next day, they add a day, and remove the first day, and keep doing that until they have the days they really want. DVC could easily kill this by not allowing more than 2 or 3 changes per reservation.

But that would punish the innocent also. So in my case, I wanted to book 2 weeks at Aulani. DVC only lets you book 7 days out so I had to call back every day to add one more day to my reservation. I did not walk it since I never dropped any days, just added. So if you have a limit to a couple of "changes", nobody would be able to book more then a week unless they just then waited another week to call back, and by then, the rooms could be booked up.

 

[RememberWhen]

But that would punish the innocent also. So in my case, I wanted to book 2 weeks at Aulani. DVC only lets you book 7 days out so I had to call back every day to add one more day to my reservation. I did not walk it since I never dropped any days, just added. So if you have a limit to a couple of "changes", nobody would be able to book more then a week unless they just then waited another week to call back, and by then, the rooms could be booked up.

Agreed. I just did this for our hopefully happening mid-October trip next year. We planned a 10-night stay, which meant going in and adding a day for each of the additional days after the week. We’re certainly planning to be there and stay that whole time. But if flights are way cheaper a day earlier/later we like to be able to make adjustments.
I’m not sure how they would stop reservation walking and still allow changes. There have certainly been times when I have kicked myself for not walking out a reservation because I couldn’t get the room I wanted. But it all worked out.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

But that would punish the innocent also. So in my case, I wanted to book 2 weeks at Aulani. DVC only lets you book 7 days out so I had to call back every day to add one more day to my reservation. I did not walk it since I never dropped any days, just added. So if you have a limit to a couple of "changes", nobody would be able to book more then a week unless they just then waited another week to call back, and by then, the rooms could be booked up.

Agreed. I just did this for our hopefully happening mid-October trip next year. We planned a 10-night stay, which meant going in and adding a day for each of the additional days after the week. We’re certainly planning to be there and stay that whole time. But if flights are way cheaper a day earlier/later we like to be able to make adjustments.
I’m not sure how they would stop reservation walking and still allow changes. There have certainly been times when I have kicked myself for not walking out a reservation because I couldn’t get the room I wanted. But it all worked out.

Hmm, having had to do that myself, I had not thought about the need to add days. Guess we'll just have to live with the practice, though I don't agree with anyone doing it. We are all supposed to have the same chance at a particular resort for a particular set of dates, but people that walk a reservation take that away from the rest of us. Oh well. Some people just couldn't care less about anyone but themselves, and what they want. We just think differently than those people.

 

[correcaminos]

To me there is a legit difference between the idea of walking a reservation and adding on days at the end. Dropping a day you never intended to use is the difference. Even having to change due to flights is not as big of a deal.

I'm not sure how we could get rid of walking without punishing real changes though.

 

[RememberWhen]

To me there is a legit difference between the idea of walking a reservation and adding on days at the end. Dropping a day you never intended to use is the difference. Even having to change due to flights is not as big of a deal.

I'm not sure how we could get rid of walking without punishing real changes though.

That’s the trouble. There are legit reasons to change a reservation. It wouldn’t be reasonable to not allow changes.
Do you think DVC keeps info on people walking reservations? Maybe it’s not really that many people? I have no data one way or the other. Just speculating that, to DVC, maybe it’s not that big of a problem.

 

[correcaminos]

That’s the trouble. There are legit reasons to change a reservation. It wouldn’t be reasonable to not allow changes.
Do you think DVC keeps info on people walking reservations? Maybe it’s not really that many people? I have no data one way or the other. Just speculating that, to DVC, maybe it’s not that big of a problem.

They likely do. They have files on everyone really. Don't know how common it is tbh