Hi all, as I recently posted, we had an amazing stay at Aulani this past spring where we rented DVC points for the first time. Well…we got hooked - big time. Except for the dark COVID times, we typically go to a Disney park at least once a year, and we’ve started making twice a year trips to DL. Now that the kids are older (11 & 12), we realized what a different it was to stay in a 1 BR with a washer and dryer and a lot more privacy vs. a standard room. Being on the cusp of really needing two hotel rooms for our family of four finally pushed us over the edge and we are now proud DVC owners at Disneyland Villas. We decided on our points by estimating a 1BR stay for a long weekend (4-5 nights, depending on season) at DL per year. And our guide helped us book our first stay back in June (which was amazing!). But we still have a lot to learn. I was able to book one night at AKL after an upcoming cruise in October and a stay at DL for Spring Break, but following people here I’m seeing lots of terms that I don’t really understand (ie: what is “walking?”).
If anyone has tips for a newbie, please let me know. I’d like to use our points (rarely, but sometimes) at WDW, but it looks like a lot of the resorts are booked out at 7 months? Perhaps, this is too broad of an ask, but really anything basic that you wish you’d known when you joined (outside of the standard training Disney does) would be much appreciated.
This is an oft-done, but frowned upon practice/loop-hole that some people use to try to get around the 7 month rule. You book your preferred resort and reservation ahead of when you actually want to go, and then you just keep modifying the reservation further and further into the year until you finally reach your dates. While this can help you get what you want, it effectively locks others out of booking dates you have no intention of keeping. In short…don’t do it. (But, I wouldn’t know it if you did.)
Yes. Many of the resorts tend to be booked up ahead of the 7 month mark. Although, it is easier, sometimes, to get a 1 bedroom at 7 months than a studio. You can also waitlist resorts still. They sometimes go through.
If you don’t care as much about the resort itself, others are easier to get at 7 months ago. In particular, SSR and OKW.
I’ve been an owner at BLT resale for three years and have yet to stay at my home resort, I do book at 11 months out if I can at BLT, but start stalking the dvc website when my 7 months out hits…I set up a wait list for the desired resort, but 70% of the time I catch the availability by stalking vs the wait list. I usually do one or two nights, so short stays are much easier to find at 7 months. I’ve stayed twice at GF, once at Poly, BW, BC, OKW on my points…WELCOME!!!
One key thing to know about walking is that it impacts the availability you will see at 7 months. Often a date shows as booked, but two days later it has availability because the walkers rolled through. This also happens as people shift to other resorts.
This means stalking the site that first week after the 7 month mark is a must. All kinds of things pop up. I also recommend grabbing a day of tou see it and then continuing to add days by modifying your original booking.
Example - at 7 months, you can’t book because the first day of your stay has no availability. A day or two later that day becomes available so you book it. Then each day you modify that original booking to add the days the walkers drop.
This strategy won’t work as well for super hard to get stays - BWV standard, AKL value, Beach Club. But always set a waitlist, you never know what you will get.
This is super helpful! One of the reasons we finally decided to take the plunge was because we don’t really mind what resort we stay at and think it’s a lot of fun to try out new places, so I’m less concerned about specific hotels except we really did love the Disneyland Villas.
It took a bit to figure out the contract month vs booking window situation but now I think we have that. If you are able to book some of the nights but not others, can you combine your reservation with a cash option and still have it count as one stay? Ie: two days DVC + two days cash (maybe at a different hotel) - can you still book dining for the full 4 days or do you have to break it down ?
Hi and welcome! I bought a direct contract at Riviera in 2021 and bought resale OKW for a great price this year. All of my trips are shorter in duration, 3-4 nights. I’ve booked anywhere from one month to about 6 months in advance. Even if there is no consecutive availability for what I need, I stalk the DVC site and have always ended up getting what I need. I have never walked a reservation so can’t provide any info there. Down the road if you decide to add on, the only advice I can give is what I learned from someone else and do the research and look into what you need. I admit I was almost 100 percent certain that I would want to add on when the new Poly tower opened. But as I started researching and reflecting, I realized that I would be better off going the resale route and getting more points that I can use over the next 10 years for family trips. I love OKW so why not buy there and get a bunch more points. So now I have a direct Riviera contract and a resale OKW contract. I also love staying at different properties so I enjoy the flexibility that DVC provides with that. I’ll also say member services is so friendly and helpful. I’ve had to call to get reservations merged and buy one time use points and they are great.
My understanding is if you book 2 days using DVC points and then the next 2 days using cash, this is 2 separate reservations. If it’s the same hotel, room type and category (i.e. both are 2 bedroom standard view), you can ask upon check in if you can stay in the same room for all 4 nights but this is not guaranteed. I’m not sure about the dining plan since I’ve never used it.
I believe that different stays require separate dining plan, but there is no harm in that since there isn’t a deal for longer dining plans. In fact, I like the idea of split days for the dining plan because I can order the dining plan for only one of them if I wish.
We did this earlier this month because we had to add one day due to flight changes. We added the dining plan for that one day stay, and stretched it over two days (arrival and departure).
We plan to do the same thing with our December trip.
You can’t book with cash and points and combine them - though as mentioned you can ask the front desk to keep you in the same room - but there is no gaurentee.
Howver if you book two seperate DVC stays, if it is the same room category they can combine them.
This helps with waitlist strategies. I book a 2nd choice resort in a split stay and then waitlist my 1st choice resort for each of those shorter stays. This increases the chances that one will match. That way I still get some tiime at the first choice. If nothing comes through (or both come through) I call Member services and have them merge the stays.
This is super helpful. Waitlisting is something I need to figure out too. Can you waitlist something knowing that you will have to borrow if you get it? Or do you have to borrow before you waitlist so you have enough points in the right year? That seems risky to me if it doesn’t come through…? (Maybe that question doesn’t even make sense…)
Being able to barrow automatically when the waiist processes is nice. I wish you could automatically buy one time use points for a wait list, but not yet.
Sorry I think my previous waitlist post was a bit garbled. The long and short of it is, if you have a long stay and there is only availability at resorts you aren’t thrilled to be staying in, book it, but break it into two stays, then waitlist each stay. It increases the chance of at least part of it coming through.
No, I wish it did because that would definitely impact which reaort I waitlisted. I try to use some of the resources that list overall inventory for the resorts to help decide where I have the best chance.
