We are officially DVC owners now and I’m trying to book our first trip. We won’t be going until April/May 2021 (my 40th birthday!!!), so I’m still a couple of months outside of my 11 month window. We bought at AKL because I like the idea of a club level stay on points. There will be 8 of us, so we need a 2 bedroom. So basically I want to book one of the hardest to get rooms on property.
I know there are negative opinions about walking reservations, but for this particular room there really is no other way to get it. So I decided to start early. For the past couple of months I have tried to get the reservation on the very few occasions that availability has popped up. I’ve failed every time. Here’s the kicker though, I haven’t failed because I wasn’t the fastest on the draw, I failed because Disney IT sucks. I keep getting an error message telling me that I can’t book until 7 months. The same thing happens when I try to book a studio. I can book a 1 bedroom just fine though. It’s crazy.
I’ve emailed Member Services a few times. Each time it has taken them at least a week to respond to me. That’s unacceptable. At first they just gave me the canned answer about what time the booking window opens and what the 7/11 month rules are. I responded with a screenshot showing the actual error message so that would stop thinking I’m an idiot and just trying to book before 8am. They said they passed the issue on to IT and I would hear something when it was fixed. That was weeks ago.
I did get a call from Liz in Member Services early this week because she somehow came across the email thread and thought it was interesting and wanted to know more. She made the suggestion that I should wait until 8am to actually sign in and then try for the reservation. Umm, that reservation is gone within a half second once the window opens. That is never going to work. She also said I needed to provide a new screenshot of the error message that also shows which type of room I was trying to book (implying I’m lying about what’s going on?). And last she said that maybe I just wasn’t the quickest on the draw, and I was getting the wrong error message. So now I’m just having to check every day for availability, just waiting on the opportunity to take a new screenshot to prove I’m not a liar. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I should be the one putting in the work to fix their problem!!
I don’t know that anyone on here has any answers or suggestions, I just really needed to vent to some people who might understand!! Thanks for listening/reading!
This shouldn’t matter, but is your AKL home resort Kidani or Jambo? Make certain that you check the box to search in BOTH. I"m wondering if perhaps your contract is with Kidani, but Club level is only at Jambo. My contract is with Jambo, but we/you get to book at either one at 11 months, but the DVC booking site lists them separately, and only will auto-check the one you have a contract with.
Then maybe try DVC again and ask them to check if there is a glitch that the DVC booking site is not recognizing you as having the right to book Jambo at 11 months – maybe that is the IT glitch?
I know some Kidani owners have had issues at times with that message when booking hard to get reservations at Jambo. I agree with @DumboRunner, ask them to look.
I just did a little googling and saw where someone could not book at Jambo (Kidani owner) at 11 months when they used “Plan a Vacation,” but had no problem when using “Check Availability.” Next time availability shows up I will try that route.
Jambo is much tougher to get though because there are fewer DVC rooms. If you want Jambo you need to do it at 11 months. And even then I’ve never been able to get concierge.
Yes, but owning at Kidani you have the opportunity to do this.
I’m able to get the 1br concierge level. For whatever reason it’s the studio and 2br that are giving me error messages. If not for the error messages, I would happily be walking my reservation right now!!
The reason you are blocked from studio and 2 bedroom is that all of the 2 bedrooms at Jambo (concierge) are lock-offs. So if all of the studios are booked, there is no 2 bedroom availability – because for there to be availability for a 2 bedroom there has to be availability of both a studio and a 1 bedroom. 1 bedroom concierge are available at 11 months, but studios are not because they are higher demand (and likely they are being walked)
Then, the reason you are getting an error message is because when you initially see availability for the 2 bedroom that you want, it is not for the room at precisely 11 months – it is for 11 months + a day or two. So when you try to book it the system will not let you because the window for your ability to book THOSE days is not open. The DVC calendar lets you see the rooms that are available in your requested time period, but unless the FIRST day at precisely 11 months is available you cannot book the dates at 11month +.
This was happening to me the first time I tried to book at CC/WL because it is rooted in the same problem: not enough studios for demand plus the tendency of walking the reservation.
I finally gave up on the studios and booked a 1 bedroom at CC/WL. If my family doesn’t want to join me in December I will just have a lot of room to myself
So one idea might be to go ahead and book the one bedroom to guarantee the concierge access you want, and see if 2 bedrooms open up as others walk their studio reservations so maybe you could switch to a 2 bedroom lock-off.
If you look at availability right now it shows no studios (and thus 2 bedrooms) until 2/13/2021, so 11 months plus 3 days. On the days I have tried to reserve there was availability at the exact 11 month mark. The message I got told me I can’t book until the 7 month mark. I have gotten this message about 4 times when trying to book a 2 bedroom, and once while trying to book a studio.
Try this : I’m looking at the booking window on my DVC account and there is a 2 bedroom concierge available on Feb 8 – try booking that (you can easily cancel). If you can, then it is the problem of the moving window, restricted availability, and walking.
If you cannot, then it would seem to be an IT glitch. Just a thought to help you narrow it and have more evidence for the DVC IT people.
I am able to book that. It’s only on the exact 11 month mark that I’m getting the error message. It says, “Please select a reservation date on or after (7 month mark), or use Vacation Points from another Home Resort contract to book this reservation.”
Yes, so I know it is confusing but this is the problem. the reservation you want is not available on the first open date that you can book at 11 months. The calendar format is very confusing.
When it’s not available on the first date it doesn’t even allow me to hit the “continue” button. In these instances the availability is there, the dates I am selecting are all available, the first date being at the 11 month mark, I am able to click the “continue” button, I get the “Hang in There” screen, which is normally followed by the confirmation screen, but instead I am getting the error message.
