I’ve never had issue getting my home resort at 11mos
I used to not have issue switching at 7 months to many resorts
This is the site I personally like to use
DVCHelp.com
4 Likes
I think this is key…if you are the kind of person who is likely to want to have a trip planned 11 months out (or much less, depending on the resort), then it shouldn’t be an issue to what what you want. Just make sure you buy points at a resort you will be happy with, because then you can book for sure what you know you be good with. At 7 months out, you can then HOPE for something different. It may or may not happen. In our trips, I was able to get something I wanted at 7 months out, and another time I waitlisted…which went through. Coming up, we have waitlisted BLT…and it very possibly won’t come through. That’s fine. We love SSR…but if we get the wait-list, great!
5 Likes
You can only see really true live availability as an owner. Some sites give you a pretty good approximation but for certain high demand things I would not rely on that since rooms can move within minutes.
The only 11 month issues I feel like have existed for a long time are like really low point, high demand studios. So BWV/BCV standard studios and CCV studios.
4 Likes
I thought one of the major differentiators of DVC was that you were able to stay at multiple properties and not be locked in to a single property as with other timeshares. While that seems to be somewhat true, I’m taking away from here that the value of option has been somewhat diminished.
1 Like
So, while there are “bad actors” who are affecting this…the truth is that as Disney sells more DVC contracts, there will always be that tension of becoming harder to book at 7 months out. So, it will diminish over time regardless. All the more reason to buy where you will be happy.
2 Likes
It has always been a stipulation that that is based on availability only. And it’s why owners get a 4 months head start at their home resorts before others can book there.
It has been less easy to modify recently
However, I am staying at BLT next week which I only secured in January. So it’s not impossible.
Just not as easy as it once was
3 Likes
I agree with this - and usually this is only at high demand times.
I would add, the low volume, super cheap rooms - BLT standard view, GF standard view (cheap for GF), BWV standard rooms and the AKV value rooms. While those don’t necessarily get booked up right at 11 months, they are usually gone before the 7 month window comes around, so can be hard to get anytime of the year. I think you have to buy into a resort assuming you will not get these lowest point rooms, but if you can, it is a bonus!
3 Likes
When I book at the highest seasons - spring break and winter break, I always assume I will only be able to stay at my home resort. But any other time of the year, I think you can get into other resorts, especially if you wait list, and/or are willing to do a split stay. A full week at a studio will always be the hardest to get.
I have had an AKV contract since 2020. I have stayed at AKV (7 nights), AKV value (3 nights), Hilton Head (5 nights), Aulani standard view (2 nights), Grand Cal (3 nights), Poly (4 nights), Boulder Ridge (6 nights), Old Key West (3 nights) and have a BWV (2 nights) and BLT (4 nights) coming up. I bought a Beach Club contract in 2024 which I only use for Beach Club - because we wanted to stay multiple nights during peak times, so 11 months is needed.
I list the number of days at each of these places so that I don’t give the impression that I could have booked at all of these places for a week. Some of these stays were booked right at 7 months, others were as little as 40 days out. I just had a waitlist come through for BWV in mid-July.
I hope this helps show the full picture.
3 Likes
I don’t know why, but what you said just made me realize I haven’t been changing the room type to include 1br as I’ve been looking to make a modificiation for a future stay
Off to re-do my daily check…
5 Likes
I own at CCV and there are months I can’t book at 11 months out, and other months I can book at 7. I added a second resort contract that allows me to plan stays in the months CCV is just too frustrating to deal with. I don’t like it, but there are resorts that with planning, a room (maybe not the cheapest studio) will be available. There are also resorts that at times, you win the lottery when you find a room.
I have a late October booking at AKL Jambo that I bought one time use points for. I could have booked almost any resort (studios) at that time.
I think the concerns regarding availability will always vary by time of year. I had been saving my points to book an Aulani trip. When the dates changed, I ended up renting points to book at 11 months.
4 Likes
Interested why you think that.
Disney sells more contracts when they open new resorts, or add on to existing resorts.
So whilst there are more contracts, so there are more rooms to be booked.
It is true that if the rooms they add on have a very high points cost per night then that can have a knock-on effect, as they sell points against rooms which few owners can “afford” to book.
However that was only an issue with the Copper Creek cabins and prior to that the Poly bungalows. Only CCV is badly affected, due to the large number of original Poly studios.
Also if fewer people move resorts at 7 months, then there will be less non-home resort availability. But that doesn’t correlate to how many contracts are sold in any way.
2 Likes
I do think the exception to all of what you’ve said here - which jives with what my thoughts were but did not have time to say clearly or eloquently - is Riviera. And that is because resale contracts can only book at Riviera. So I do think that in time we’ll begin to see that be an issue, particularly once the resort is sold out.
Otherwise I agree with what you’ve said. Fortunately they recognized the error of what they did with the CCV cabins and I think they are more careful not to have that happen. And I think the Poly Tower was somewhat to correct the lack of other accommodation sizes beyond studios.
I think they’re pretty mindful of things and aside from it being a Disney product I think those careful measures are part of what helps the product to hold its value
5 Likes
Why wouldn’t I? It is an absolute truth.
Then please can you explain?
For the record: David’s has had confirmed reservations since at least 2022 when I started my data project.
But, they seem to have been dropping the number over time - they have listed 23% of all confirmed reservations since 2023, but only have 11% of active ones right now. (I’m curious now, will have to chart when they began to change!)
3 Likes
To grossly oversimplify…as you sell more contracts, there are fewer points available overall. If people booked evenly across the year, it wouldn’t be a big deal…but since there are busier times, more people are concentrating booking at those times, making availability limited at those times. If few contracts are sold, this is less of a problem. By the time you get to 7 months, you have severely limited excess capacity.
I’m not sure of David’s owns any DVC points themselves. I’m fairly certain that all of their points are owned by other people. DVCShop and DVCRentalStore, I believe, both use in-house points to make confirmed reservations.
3 Likes
Whoops, If the context of that part of the conversation was about the sites themselves owning points, I didn’t catch that. I was just pointing out they do have dedicateds.
4 Likes
And my belief is that some of these dedicateds are coming from points owned by the rental companies, themselves, which is driving down inventory for DVC owners to use.
I think this is what Disney really wants to crack down on.
3 Likes
I seriously do not understand what you mean by the bolded part.
Fewer points available to whom, where?
If there is 1 room which costs 10 points per night, that’s 3650 points that can be sold.
They start by declaring 1000 points and sell 10 contracts of 100 points.
They declare another 1000 points and sell another 10 contracts of 100 points.
Finally they declare the remaining 1600 points and sell another 16 contracts of 100 points.
In total there are now 36 contracts sold.
(The remaining 50 points are Disney’s own).
Banking and borrowing has been suspended.
Every owner can now book 10 days over the year, That is true of the first and last owner and everyone in between.
Who has fewer points available to them?
1 Like