Someone please explain walking

Can someone please explain walking a reservation to me like I’m a 4 year old? I cannot even comprehend how it actually works in practice. I understand the theory, but in this chart for example, I picked AKL Jambo club level studio with dates 11/1/22-11/10/22.
At what point in this process can I walk? Like, today I can only book 11/2. Which does me no good because the days around it are unavailable. And I can’t actually book the 5th until two days from now, when it will be gone as well. How would I get enough of a spread to even start walking?

Disclaimer: My answering this question in no way suggests I condone nor encourage walking.

I’ve never done it, but in order to actually walk a reservation, you have to first book a reservation far enough ahead where you already have the length of time booked BEFORE then dates you are looking for have opened up. Then, each day, you swap out the first day and tack on the additional date at the end.

What you have shown above indicates that you have already started too late, and/or someone else is already walking a reservation which is preventing you to find availability (which is, in fact, the problem with it).

So, let’s say you wanted to book something for Nov. 6 through Nov. 9. You would need to first have booked something where you get three nights, where the last night is BEFORE Nov. 6. Let’s say you managed to book Nov. 3 through Nov. 6. The next day, you add Nov. 7, and drop Nov. 3. The next day, you add Nov. 8, and drop Nov. 4, etc., until you have Nov. 6 through 9.

This only works if you can book something ahead of time.

You don’t necessarily have to book the same length of time, but instead book a shorter stay, and then ADD days until you get to your length of stay, then continue walking.

That’s the thing – this is at 11 mos from today. I can’t do it any earlier than I am. I can never get it started in the first place.

I’m guessing it is because someone else has already been walking a reservation, which locks out others from doing so as well…particularly when you are talking about such limited availability as Club Level.

BTW, the best you could hope for would be to book Nov. 2, and then hope the 3rd and 4th opens up as someone else walks their reservation.

yea, I was thinking I could waitlist it and/or stalk it hoping the in between days open up. The whole thing is so frustrating.

I wish Disney could find a way to prevent walking. It is tricky, though, because there could be legitimate reasons people need to change dates.

My only thought would be that if you want to change an existing reservation within so many days of what is already booked, you HAVE to call to do it. The pain of waiting on hold daily would likely weed out the walkers.

I just don’t think it is on Disney’s radar to even address at this point. Too many other things in the frying pan.

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This is the clearest explanation of HOW to walk i’ve ever read. Or maybe it’s just clicking today

Adding that I also do not condone, nor do I agree with, the practice. But it’s not breaking any rules.

Annnnnnnnnnd why it’s such a horrible practice.

Yep. And to make matters worse, it gives a kind of unfair advantage (arguably) to those who have a lot of points. They can book a full 10 nights out, even if they only eventually want to stay 5…walk that reservation until they get the 5 days they want, and then drop off the days from the front of the reservation once they are within the window for those dates. Someone with fewer points does not have the same “power” to do that.

Of course, I say arguably, because I suppose one could argue it is the right of a person with a lot of points to use them how they see fit!

ETA: I keep saying 10 nights…but actually, I don’t know what the booking days out limit is off the top of my head, and I’m too lazy to go look!

We’ve never walked because it felt icky. I feel like we’re backed into a corner of having to do it if we want to stay in particular rooms, like this club level AK-J, the alternative being not staying in them at all. It’s so frustrating that even owning at a resort does not give any advantage to staying there. I’m more than happy to get up at o’dark thirty and have quick booking skills to get a room on the first day available. But that’s not even a choice with these.

And this is why it persists. And I totally GET that piece. It’s totally sucky. Nobody wants to do it (do they? maybe somebody wants to do it IDK) but they feel like it’s the only way. :frowning: So then everyone has to do it. It’s a lot of fricken work, IMO.

Ooh! You know what they COULD do, to at least help owners.

Once you make your reservation at your home resort in your 11month-7month window you cannot make ANY MODIFICATIONS to that reservation until you hit 7 months. Then nobody could walk until they hit 7 months and would allow owners the true 11 month advantage they are paying for.

Unless I’m an idiot and I’m missing why this wouldn’t work. I’m really not that smart about the DVC stuff sometimes LOL

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What’s even more frustrating is with this particular example, I couldn’t even walk if I wanted to.

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That’s an interesting idea. People would lose their minds. I think the problem really ramped up once we were able to make modifications online. In the past all modifications had to be made by phone. It’s just so easy now to move things without having a conversation with a human, explaining why we’re doing it. For sure it was a cost saving measure by DVC to not require as many CM in member services.

People might. But it would protect that 11 month advantage and people might like that more than they would lose their minds.

I do wonder if there is any legal language that would prevent them from doing that? I doubt it since they make changes to the borrowing rule from time to time

Yeah. That would still allow the ability to cancel the existing reservation and then book a new one. If there are any wait lists open for those same dates, then, I believe the waitlisters would get those dates now instead.

It does still pose problems with those who legitimately need to shift dates around…but again, forcing guests to call to do that would definitely help.

Cancel and rebook is not as easy as modify and you have that small bit of hang time where you can lose it. So people might be more hesitant to do it?

IDK

Those who legit need to shift dates … how many people LEGIT need to do that in that very specific 4 month window? Or maybe limit the changes you can make?

Hard to say…but I definitely could see booking dates that cover when we MOST LIKELY plan to go…but 11 months out is still quite ways, and if, for various reasons, we decide to shift those dates around, I would hope I wouldn’t be locked out. (Truth be told, at SSR, being locked out even at 7 months isn’t terribly concerning…but other resorts, yes.)

BUT, another thought, based on your idea, is to make the “modification rule” apply only to the 10 days surrounding when you actually booked. So, if I book 11 months out, I have to wait a MINIMUM of 10 days* before I can modify (UNLESS it is still the same day I originally booked, to account for accidental date selection type errors). This would prevent my ability to walk it, but still allow modifications later…but before the 7 month window.

[*] I selected 10 days arbitrarily. I might need to be 15 or 20 days instead, but hopefully illustrates the point.

That would make sense too. There does need to be limits set, much as some people will hate it – because I think more would breathe a sigh of relief