Help! Lodging already sold out for early December?

Howdy all,

I just searched on disneyworld.com for 2 adults, check-in Sat Nov 30 2019 (two days after Thanksgiving), check-out Sat Dec 7 2019 (7 nights). No availability at all came up for Value or Moderate (only expensive GF and AK) . I know 3.5 months is cutting it short for true Disney planners, but it seems crazy that WDW would be absolutely sold out.

  • Is this possible?
  • Is there anything I can do to find Value/Moderate accommodation for those dates?

Thanks for any advice!!
-Buck

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I’m seeing availability…? Unless I have have your parameters wrong…
Also the screenshot below is just values, but also had availability at CS, PO, and POFQ.

Also - welcome to the forum! :grin:

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I think @buck9063 is looking for 2019, yours looks like it searched 2020. :grimacing:

December may be booked for SWGE - Rise of the Resistance opens December 5.

@buck9063 You may want to call that Walt Disney travel booking line and ask them? I had a similar question pop up when trying to book my May 2020 trip, and finding that all of the standard rooms at WL were basically booked from mid April to mid-May. Weirdly limited availability, and I was booking just a few days after 2020 dates even opened for online bookings. The cast member on the reservations hotline put me on hold, and found out that a big block of standard view rooms had been taken by cheerleading competitions. Usually they stay at the value resorts, but they booked some room blocks at other hotels it seems like this year for family members or something. If you have your heart set on staying on site, it’s worth a few minutes it takes to check, otherwise maybe one of the good neighbor hotels would work for your dates.

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I think you do. You have 2020 loaded, and @buck9063 is looking for 2019. And yeah, it’s pretty full up already. :frowning:

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You can rent points from a DVC site. With some prices $185 to $250 a nite, it’s under what you’d pay for moderate. I was just looking at dates in the first half of December today, Old Key West and Boardwalk both had some nights as low as $185. That could save money and bump you to deluxe :slight_smile:

Usually the best availability is at OKW, SSR and AKL, but might be harder to book a 7 nite stay.

Adding food plan is still an option as well.

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You might also want to try splitting your stay in to 2 resorts, say Sat-Tues & Tues-Sat. May have better luck looking at what options like that are left.

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Would you consider staying on a Disney Springs area resort? They cost less then values, have 60 days FP+ and EMH and are still available, although they are not Disney hotels, don’t come with magic bands and their transportation to the parks is much worse (you can use the cost difference to pay for Lyft): Disney Hotels Discount | Universal, SeaWorld, Orlando Hotels | Undercover Tourist;

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"Neighbor Hotels’ have value for people who can use points accrued from business travel, chain hotel stays, credit cards, etc by finding something to use their points on and not paying out of pocket.
They lose value by not getting reliable free transport, magic bands, free express from MCO, luggage transfer, ability to send items bought at park directly to room, Goofy wake-up calls, Disney resort activities, and any other magic extras.

Keep in mind that you can search Expedia and others for Disney Resorts too, and those are discounted much better than WDW offers.
Right now I’m only able to find Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort for Nov30-Dec3 on Expedia for $196/nt.
Only AKL there for last days of your trip avail but they’re $400/nt.
You can keep trying all the different hotel sites for Disney Resorts to see what comes up. Or take that Coronado resvn above and call Disney to see if they have the rest of the days avail either at that resort or consider transferring mid-trip to what they have avail (a split stay can actually be fun).

When your priority is cost you definitely need to do the math. For my particular case (group composition, travel dates, Disney prices and availability) when I added up the cost of the hotel + Lyft to and from the airport + Lyft for all internal transportation needs (I just assumed the hotel shuttle would be unusable) + magic bands for everyone in the group + resort fees, it still ended up being 30% cheaper to stay at a neighbor hotel then staying at All Star Sports :scream:

I was actually doing the math to convince my group that we should stay at a Disney hotel, so it was an unfortunate turn of events. One day I will get to stay on property, but it is still nice that there are neighbor hotels which are cheaper and offer some of the benefits.

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Ooooopss… :flushed: so I did! So sorry. I had previously been looking at 2020 dates and so when I adjusted the calendar, it was still in 2020. :anguished: Don’t I feel sloppy… lol.

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For the OP, that first week in December is one of the Cheer or Dance events too, which block books a lot of value rooms.

@william_belcaro, I’m not sure what DVC availability tool you’re looking at, but there is no studio, 1-bed or 2-bed available for that week. At most there are 2 nights at the BCV, and random one nights available at Saratoga.

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Not to hijack the thread, but it might be useful to OP as well, what tool do you use to check point rental/villa availability?

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Woah this is when I’m going. You
Think the cheerleaders will be at Wilderness lodge?

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There may be a rogue family that upgrades to a deluxe, but most school trips are strictly value resorts. You’ll def run into roving packs of cheerleaders in the parks, though!

DVC owners can check availability for non-owners. There’s no tool accessible otherwise.

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I’m a DVC Member so I use the booking tool on the site.

No other tool can get real time availability.

Try breaking it down into two searches such as 11/30 to 12/3 and then 12/3 to 12/7. You may find availability at the same resort even if it means two different rooms (ask when you arrive if you can stay in the same room). It could mean splitting between a Value and a Moderate but it’s a nice way to get to experience two different resorts.

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I was planning a first week of Dec (2021). When specifically is Cheer and Dance (whole week, long weekend?)

I’ve found this tool. Is it not accurate? So far, it’s seemed to match the dates that my “rental buddy” finds. I realize it’s not an immediate search, but for research it seems decent.

https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator