I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

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We've stayed at BLT three times. Once outside the ‘C’ looking at the marina. Loved it! Twice inside the ‘C’ and once was dead center so we looked straight at the lake. That was nice. Other time was on one of the sides. I hated it!! looking straight into other people’s rooms was not the view I ever want.

I had that side view and some people just aren't smart enough to close their shades. At the time I was grateful just to get the room because I extended my stay and had to take what I could get.
 
You mean just now? If so, wonderful! Glad to be of help! DVC availability changes all the time.

I have been obsessively stalking the website for some time trying to grab something other than SSR. We actually had 5 nights at SSR and I was able to piece together 1 at SSR, 1 at CCV, and 3 at BCV slowly but surely.

I'm debating now if I want to do 2 nights at Kidani and drop CCV... but I hear the lodge is lovely at Christmas. I think I'll keep it.
 
FYI - Southwest extended their schedule this morning for flights through March 6th, 2020.

Here is my usual Historical Southwest Release Dates (for planning purposes) comment:
  • NEXT RELEASE: 9/26/19 - travel through April 13th, 2020
  • 8/15/19 - travel through March 6th, 2020
  • 5/30/19 - travel through January 5th, 2020
  • 3/15/19 - travel through November 2nd, 2019
  • 1/31/19 - travel through October 1st, 2019
  • 11/15/18 - travel through August 5th, 2019
  • 9/27/18 - travel through June 8th, 2019
  • 8/30/18 - travel through April 7th, 2019
  • 6/28/18 - travel through March 6th, 2019
  • 5/31/18 - travel through January 6th, 2019
  • 3/8/18 - travel through November 3rd, 2018
  • 2/15/18 - travel through October 1st, 2018
  • 11/2/17 - travel through August 6th, 2018
  • 8/28/17 - travel through June 1st, 2018
  • 7/27/17 - travel through April 6th, 2018
  • 6/22/17 - travel through March 7th, 2018
  • 5/18/17 - travel through January 7th, 2018
*This chart could be useful to approximate when your travel time may become available for upcoming releases, however they don't always follow the exact same pattern (as you can see above).*

RELEASE TIMES:
  • The release on 5/30/19 went live at 9:20am.
  • The release on 8/15/19 went live at 10:41am.
If you want to search back for this post in the future - just search my name and "release". You could also bookmark this comment on the new DIS somehow (or so I heard).
 


Thank you! I was told 7 days ago that Disney will send me an email in 7-14 business days and then it can take another 14 days from then to have all my points. Im excited to play around with it though and see what's available. Im pretty flexible. I would love to book a trip for festival of the arts.
I considered asking about Riviera for MLK weekend to see Festival of the Arts, but decided I should have restraint. All bets are off for 2021! 😂
 
I have been obsessively stalking the website for some time trying to grab something other than SSR. We actually had 5 nights at SSR and I was able to piece together 1 at SSR, 1 at CCV, and 3 at BCV slowly but surely.

I'm debating now if I want to do 2 nights at Kidani and drop CCV... but I hear the lodge is lovely at Christmas. I think I'll keep it.
I would definitely keep it. WL is one of my top three favorite lobbies during Christmas time!! I've never actually stayed there during the holiday season, but I always try to stop in before the HDDR just to take everything in.
 


Just went through and checked SW flights. SW is still only doing nonstop flights from my airport on weekends, so I'm thinking I may book the flights back from MCO to RIC on 1/26 with SW currently at 7300 miles each. I'm trying to figure out how to fit in a night at Tampa, but there are no nonstop flights there. I could book one way on 1/21 there connecting in ATL for 5300 SW miles. Jetblue has us flying through Boston to TPA, which obviously doesn't make sense. Or I can fly into MCO nonstop on 1/21 for 5300 Jetblue miles and then just rent a car and drive to TPA. We're going to want a car anyways... decisions.
 
If anyone is interested in my block room rates, I can send you a link. Movies is $108, POFQ is $197 and Beach is $404. I have availability November 25th- December 6th. Availability isn't always at those resorts, but I can try and add availability if you are interested. You can cancel without penalty up until five days before checkin. The rooms get released to the public November 3rd.
Can you send me that link? I have a cousin looking to do a 12/1-12/7 trip and Beach Club was on their list.
 
How would you request the north side? I doubt that's on the dropdown menu for room requests lol
I've never actually used the request menu! I'm usually at BWV and there must be something in my profile that says 'will take the crummy view down by the tennis courts' lol. That's where I like to be and mostly because of parking and bus stop.

I do try to get to the desk early - I never do online check in because that requires a credit card and they don't get my credit card. I think Florida is the scammiest place for using CC's.

The rooms are already assigned by then, 'but' they are constantly reassigning to accommodate people who arrive earlier etc (those that complain and raise a stink) and there is always a chance they will try to give you what you want.

Of course nothing is guaranteed. The new day opens at 7am, so if you are in the area, say at a WDW resort or offsite, it may be worth a shot. I've actually gotten into a room at 7am. Mostly when I was staying at BW area resorts with split stays. Now it's a little more difficult as occupancy is much higher and they have this thing where if they sign you in it checks you out of your other WDW room, which isn't a problem if someone is still in the room(you own the room until 11am), but it makes your keys not work.
 
Hmmmmm - Southwest dilemma...

We're on a 737-700 at 8:40pm. I would guess my wife would prefer to fly on the 7:15pm flight and get in a little earlier BUT it's on a 737-800. I've been avoiding 800's since they can be more likely to get moved around. I also would prefer the extra time at WDW, lol.

WWYD??
 
I have a question for the SW experts.

I don't like that you have to pay to transfer points. What would happen if I booked a flight for someone else on my points and then cancelled it. Do those points go to that person because the travel funds stick with them OR do they return to my RR account?
 
Hmmmmm - Southwest dilemma...

We're on a 737-700 at 8:40pm. I would guess my wife would prefer to fly on the 7:15pm flight and get in a little earlier BUT it's on a 737-800. I've been avoiding 800's since they can be more likely to get moved around. I also would prefer the extra time at WDW, lol.

WWYD??

Why are you avoiding the 737 800, not the same plane as the max 8. There's no reason to avoid it.
 
I have a question for the SW experts.

I don't like that you have to pay to transfer points. What would happen if I booked a flight for someone else on my points and then cancelled it. Do those points go to that person because the travel funds stick with them OR do they return to my RR account?
Your points are always your points. If you cancel, then you'd get the points back in your account :) That's why SW points are AMAZING!
 
Hmmmmm - Southwest dilemma...

We're on a 737-700 at 8:40pm. I would guess my wife would prefer to fly on the 7:15pm flight and get in a little earlier BUT it's on a 737-800. I've been avoiding 800's since they can be more likely to get moved around. I also would prefer the extra time at WDW, lol.

WWYD??

The other one is on the Max 8? no way would I fly it even if it is approved to fly again. Also, the more time you can spend at Disney the better lol. Our flight home Sunday lands at BWI at 1am. BWI is an hour from my apartment and SO gets up at 6am for work, but we are doing it lol. He will probably just work from home.
 
Did this get mentioned yet this morning:

Marriott Rolls Out High/Low Season Award Pricing Next Month Along With Other Changes

...Peak and Off-Peak Pricing Go Into Effect September 14...

Another nugget in here:

New Limits on Points Advance Bookings
  • Points advance locks in the room not the rate. Effective September 14 pricing that will apply to points advance bookings will be the current price at the time the member actually redeems points to cover the reservation.
  • Maximum of 3 Points Advance bookings at a time Marriott will be updating their terms to limit members to three points advance bookings at a time. Expect to hear from Marriott if you make a bunch of points advance reservations.
While these changes are unfortunate - I think the changes are a result of people absolutely abusing the points advance to death. I don't blame Marriott, unfortunately I blame the public and bloggers who taught people to abuse the system.
I had not yet, thanks for the link, it's been funny and depressing at the same time.

A few highlights from me:
Peak and Off Peak Dates Will Be Balanced
When Marriott first announced the new program Senior Vice President David Flueck told me, “We’ll make sure there’s a lot of equity in a market, in general roughly the same number of peak nights as off peak nights.”
... There will be more standard pricing dates than peak and off peak dates, with a fairly even distribution of peak and off peak,...
Well that seems reasonable, where's the Bonvoyed?
however that will only hold across the Marriott hotel portfolio as a whole and not necessarily for each individual property.
Ah, there it is. #Bonvoyed - when 15% of the hotel portfolio goes peak at 35-50k locations, 10% at the crazy 60-80k bucket list spots, and then 25% goes off-peak at low tier properties in East Jabip and the West Bumbles. That's seems like a fairly even distribution. ::yes::

Marriott will be the one to designate high and low tier dates for each property. This affects how many points they charge you, the member, for an award stay not their reimbursement of hotels.
Also, they'll be doing this on a monthly basis so there's no advance chart you can check for the year. As they see where the volumes are for a hotel they can adjust to require more or less points for an award stay. The result of this is:
As a result when you check the redemption cost for a hotel stay, and come back at a later date to book it, the price may change even though the same standard rooms are available.
This does make sense for them, as that seems how they were doing the points savers specials and what not to direct traffic, but being able to charge more points to curtail traffic is new. Apparently with SPG the hotels would set the peak/off peak themselves, now the Bonvoy program is doing it for all to curb their program costs. As Gary Leff put it so succinctly, "Marriott is working to ensure that rooms that cost them more cost you more too."

However, this means you'll want to grab a reservation when you see it at standard pricing and then stalk to see if it goes off-peak. Likewise, if your standard pricing goes peak before you book it, then you'd have to stalk to see if it goes back to standard. (It's conceivable that it will happen at some locations if they're doing the changes on a monthly basis)

Here's the big Bonvoy BUT to that, as pointed out -
  • Points advance locks in the room not the rate. Effective September 14 pricing that will apply to points advance bookings will be the current price at the time the member actually redeems points to cover the reservation.
So once peak/off peak goes into effect, points advance booking are only helpful if you were going to stay at that location no matter the points cost.

The one silver lining out of the whole article is they will supposedly honor some points advance bookings made prior to Sep 14 at the standard rates.
Marriott tells me that for reservations made prior to September 14 they will honor up to 5 points advance bookings at the standard rate even if those reservations fall on a peak date.

After Sep 14 they won't even allow more than 3 points advance bookings on an account.

That doesn't seem like we've been Bonvoyed enough :scratchin

Change to How 5th Night Free Prices Work

Ah, there we go. They're not calling it "5th Night Free" anymore, it'll be "Stay for 5, Pay for 4" and you'll get to pay for the highest 4 nights of your booking and they'll generously pick up the tab for the lowest night.

I'm sure we could have been Bonvoyed worse, but I'm feeling like not by much.
 
Why are you avoiding the 737 800, not the same plane as the max 8. There's no reason to avoid it.
When SW adjusts their schedule and moves things around to adjust for the Max, they are the most likely flights to be affected. We've seen a pattern of this on the SW thread here on the DIS. The odds of being affected are still probably less than 1% BUT I don't want to be figuring out how to reconfigure our flights 3 months from now either.
 
Hmmmmm - Southwest dilemma...

We're on a 737-700 at 8:40pm. I would guess my wife would prefer to fly on the 7:15pm flight and get in a little earlier BUT it's on a 737-800. I've been avoiding 800's since they can be more likely to get moved around. I also would prefer the extra time at WDW, lol.

WWYD??
What month? If the Maxes are back in service by then less chance the planes are getting moved around.
 
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