Walking VGF for December

PolyRob

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 8, 2016
I have read multiple threads about walking a reservation, but how far in advance would one probably have to start for either a standard or lake studio at VGF during the first 3 weeks of December?
 
I did not walk, and I have 4 nights in VGF standard studio. December 1-5. I hope you get pixiedust: for what you want.
 
Are you talking about reserving 11 months out or 7. If 7, walking will not work for that period because the time will disappear with VGF owners reserving with the 11 month window. If 11, for third week of December (Dec 15 or after), it is probably not needed as long as you book right at 11 months out. For the other two weeks, there is some risk of being blocked out although you still may get what you want if you book exactly 11 months out. If you want to consider walking, you need to start reserving with some start date before December 1 that will most likely be open at 11 months out. That would likely be the Saturday or possibly Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving, unless Dec 1 is the Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday immediately after Thanksgiving, in which case you should probably begin a walk the Thursday that is a week before Thanksgiving.
 
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I did not walk, and I have 4 nights in VGF standard studio. December 1-5. I hope you get pixiedust: for what you want.

That is great to hear, thanks!

Are you talking about reserving 11 months out or 7. If 7, walking will not work for that period because the time will disappear with VGF owners reserving with the 11 month window. If 11, for third week of December (Dec 15 or after), it is probably not needed as long as you book right at 11 months out. For the other two weeks, there is some risk of being blocked out although you still may get what you want if you book exactly 11 months out. If you want to consider walking, you need to start reserving with some start date before December 1 that will most likely be open at 11 months out. That would likely be the Saturday or possibly Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving, unless Dec 1 is the Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday immediately after Thanksgiving, in which case you should probably begin a walk the Thursday that is a week before Thanksgiving.

I was inquiring about the 11-month window. I am looking at purchasing a possible resale and direct combination of points in hopes of booking for December 2019. I figured Thanksgiving could be popular and the initial reservation would have to start before it. I just wanted to factor having enough points to encompass Thanksgiving in a lake view studio for 7 nights if it came to that. I appreciate it!
 




Walking for December gets complicated. The main reason people book that time of year is because of the low point cost. But to walk, you have to start around Thanksgiving, which is one of the highest-cost times. There’s a real chance to mess up your points.
I was trying to figure it out and could see how you could easily be stuck with lost banked/borrowed points if you did not have enough for the walk in your current UY.
 
I am not sure if this is a silly question, but if I wanted only four nights in a studio, would I be able to successfully walk just four nights? Or would I be better off walking seven nights and then dropping three?
 
I am not sure if this is a silly question, but if I wanted only four nights in a studio, would I be able to successfully walk just four nights? Or would I be better off walking seven nights and then dropping three?
Walk the seven, then once you have the days you want cancel the ones you don’t want. You can only cancel at the beginning or end of your reservation, not in the middle of it.
 
I am not sure if this is a silly question, but if I wanted only four nights in a studio, would I be able to successfully walk just four nights? Or would I be better off walking seven nights and then dropping three?
The number of days is irrelevant. You can walk with a two-day reservation if you call to change it every day. If you book seven days and then drop three of them, where did your extra points come from? If you had to borrow, you risk stranding some points.
 
The number of days is irrelevant. You can walk with a two-day reservation if you call to change it every day. If you book seven days and then drop three of them, where did your extra points come from? If you had to borrow, you risk stranding some points.
It is always better to reserve the full seven days as that is the max allowed at one time. If you don't one risks getting blocked when only reserving a couple of days at a time.
 
It is always better to reserve the full seven days as that is the max allowed at one time. If you don't one risks getting blocked when only reserving a couple of days at a time.
That's technically not possible. Say you want two days in a studio, Dec 7 and Dec 8 and there are only 4 studios available in inventory. If you are one of four people who book on day 1 starting January 7, you could walk two days every day and no one would ever get ahead of you as long as you call in the next morning to walk your day; it's just a lot more work.
 
That's technically not possible. Say you want two days in a studio, Dec 7 and Dec 8 and there are only 4 studios available in inventory. If you are one of four people who book on day 1 starting January 7, you could walk two days every day and no one would ever get ahead of you as long as you call in the next morning to walk your day; it's just a lot more work.
I have walked a few times I would never walk a reservation 2 days at a time. That's a terrible and time consuming way to do it. If one has the points do it for 7 days. That way it is definite you get the desired days.
 
I have walked a few times I would never walk a reservation 2 days at a time. That's a terrible and time consuming way to do it. If one has the points do it for 7 days. That way it is definite you get the desired days.
Agreed. I wouldn't either.

But you can can still walk as little as two days and it would still be definite you get the desired days. And for people who don't have the points (or may need to borrow points) to walk seven days, it helps to know that no one can block you out once you walk. That's just not possible, even if you walk with two days for 12 month length of your UY.
 
Thank you all. I definitely think I understand the walking process better now. The 7 days do not really give you an advantage of getting the room before someone else, it just helps ease the walking process requiring less calls to MS to move the reservation. If I got 4 days which is my desired duration, I would just have to call 11 months before the day prior to checkout on my reservation and move it 3 days forward. Rather than calling every 6 days for a 7 night reservation, I would need to call every 3 days.

I was not planning on borrowing to do a longer walk. I would not want to have the future points stuck in the current UY. It is my hope that I can get an October UY contract before December/January of this year and bank the 2018 points into 2019 and then use them to book December 2019. If I had enough of banked 2018 and current 2019, I would have done the 7 nights, and then once I got my desired 4 nights I would have made sure the banked points were being used rather than current UY and wait to see if I wanted to use the others throughout the year or bank them before the deadline.

I appreciate the help!
 
I find it sad there is even such discussion. The plan is to walk through Thanksgiving blocking someone else out from getting a vacation they would like in order to drop it later for days in December. DVC thought they were doing a good thing moving to reservation opening off first day planned stay rather than last and of course it was immediate when people figured the best way to beat the system. As more and more people walk it will become the future of reservations and more and more people will not know they can plan their desired vacations in advance waiting for peoples walks to pass.
 
The system is what it is, you just have to keep checking the system each morning after the morning rush after the 11 month mark. It sucks to have to do this but for reservations in the fall it is the only way to work through the people walking reservations.
 
Loop holes are all over the Disney systems, in every aspect of planning, I personally don't choose to use any of them because I believe karma will get me! Call me superstitious but that's how I am! We r going 2nd week in December so of course the only thing available was OKW (home is SSR). So we r all happy with that and have never been there but we only go every 3 yrs with a big family and our last trip was a horror! So if this one isn't better we r selling and will rent points when we want to go and would probably get into whatever resort we want! Just my opinion after owning 15 yrs!
 

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