My family is planning a trip for approximately October 18th to 23rd. We’ve been trying to plan our accommodations, but availability is extremely limited for most moderate and deluxe resorts. I’m wondering if anyone has any insight as to why there is such limited availability. We’ve visited at this time of year before and booked later and had way more options in terms of where to stay. What gives? Does anyone know?
It is a very, very popular time of year! Have you tried MVT or the swan/dolphin?
I will check the Dolphin and Swan, though they’re definitely way down on my list of desired accommodations. I may have to check out MVT or another agent. I do prefer to book everything on my own, so I tend not to consider travel agents. Also, I’m Canadian, so I’ll perhaps see if there are any Canadian options (due to exchange)
I agree - seems busier, earlier this year. I know for families like ours we now have kids in the school system so we have to go October, Christmas, Spring Break or Summer and in the midwest, October is the best option.
It seems super-weird to me that there are zero rooms at deluxe hotels when I do a search. And, according to the crown calendar, it’s not THAT busy, sitting around a 4 or 5 most days.
We will be there around the same time. Have you tried calling?? I have had ALOT of issue finding rooms on the website. Many of the specials right now are limited availability so this effects how the search works. If you do a search and click on the resort, even if it shows nothing available, then change it to Room or Package and it shows more availability. Does that make sense??
I just searched and found rooms at POP, SSR, AoA, ASM. ASS, CBR, OKW, POR etc etc
I’ll definitely do more searching and change it to Room or Package. Thanks for the tip! That gives me at least a few more options.
I did try calling, but I will definitely keep trying. My brother-in-law and I were speculating that rooms were perhaps being held because of the specials on at the moment.
It gets really frustrating. I ended up calling and having them help me. Online nothing was showing up for me! The cast members are so helpful and patient!! They checked prices for me endlessly until I found what I was looking for.
Im going at the same time, 15th through the 22nd, I did book like forever ago (November really, but feels like forever) and through DVC rental, but I agree with jojobean44, the CLs for that time would make it seem that there should be rooms available. At least I am hoping so as I was banking on the lower CLs. I would recommend renting DVC points though, so far it has been an extremely easy process and a terrific deal, only you have to pay up front.
The reason I said MVT is that they may have an agency exclusive deal. Some agencies have exclusive offers since they book blocks of rooms on their own.
I’ve never used DVC points, so I’ll look into that! Thank you 
Thanks for expanding on your earlier comment. That makes total sense. Will definitely have to check it out!
Is there a particular site you’d recommend for renting/using points?
I used DVC Rental Store, I first checked with David’s but they did not have availability that far in advance. One other good point is that with DVC Rental Store you can buy a cancel anytime option. It was like $140 more (probably could have got travel insurance for the whole trip for that but what the hay). I would recommend either of these two sites, even though David’s did not have what I wanted at the time they were easy to work with and understanding when I canceled because I didn’t want to wait. You’ll have to check out the sites for all the details, the two handle it differently.
David’s Vacation Club Rentals- www.dvcrequest.com
DVC Rental Store- www.dvcrentalstore.com
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Thanks for the suggestion of the DVC Rental Store. We were thinking of renting points for the next trip but haven’t done it before, and we’re nervous about not being able to make changes! I love their optional protection plan. I requested a quote! 
Np, I wish you luck in getting what you want. We also added the DP after booking the room and ME, and even though the DP does not show up on MDE, they were able to see it when we booked ADRs (Specifically for CRT, so we didn’t get charged for it on the card). Still 149 days out till our first trip, but I will post a trip report when we go both for the room experience and the parks.
Tried David’s - all DVC resorts sold out for October 18-24th.
Settled on POR. All CMs we spoke with seemed as surprised as we were that there were very limited deluxe accommodations available, while there were plenty of value and moderate options. The thought is that blocks of rooms are being held for conferences.