Disappointed can't get what I want at home resort 11 months in advance!

[JessLCH]

At 8 am on the nose, 11 months in advance could not get the first day of a standard view 2 bedroom at my home resort (BLT) arriving Sun. before Thanksgiving. The first night is unavailable and the rest of days are available. Had to waitlist standard and book lake view to ensure we had something. So, lesson learned: even if one books home resort at 11 month window at 8 am on the dot one is STILL not guaranteed one's preferred reservation! That is super lame, DVC!!!!

 

[NoleFan]

Someone else had the same issue booking standard view blt during food & wine

 

[tjkraz]

At 8 am on the nose, 11 months in advance could not get the first day of a standard view 2 bedroom at my home resort (BLT) arriving Sun. before Thanksgiving. The first night is unavailable and the rest of days are available. Had to waitlist standard and book lake view to ensure we had something. So, lesson learned: even if one books home resort at 11 month window at 8 am on the dot one is STILL not guaranteed one's preferred reservation! That is super lame, DVC!!!!

Not sure what DVC can do about it. It just means that demand among your fellow BLT owners is greater than the supply of rooms available. DVC didn't block you from getting a room--other BLT owners did.

Actually there is something they could do about it: Raise the nightly point requirements for these dates when demand has proven to be excessively high. But even that would be unpopular with many owners for obvious reasons.

 

[Moniqu17]

I had the same problem at blt during f&w. We had to change or dates slightly to get the std view. The dates I originally wanted never opened up.

 

[Breyean]

Maybe this is a good example when walking might have helped.

 

[DisneyDame27]

I've had this problem for 3 years in a row and at different times of the year at SSR. Very frustrating. Fortunately the last 2 trips we booked I had more success but we had to split our stay. Which turned out to be a disaster when we left one resort and checked into the second.

Our upcoming trip in Jan was a little easier to book but we still have to do a split stay with our last night at the new villas at GFR. I'll be curious to see how it goes.

I was contacted by DVC about purchasing at GFR told them no for a number of reasons, one being the booking issue.

 

[drusba]

From what we have been seeing, BLT standard view has 11 month issues in the middle two weeks of Oct, end of Oct through first week of Nov, Thanksgiving week and will likely have them for first two weeks of Dec and about Dec 23 to Jan 2 (those Dec times are even higher demand times than Thanksgiving week). The others having similar issues are AKV club level (although for it the issue exists almost all year), AKV value for which studios and 2BRs are already gone for half the Thanksgiving week and the values will likely have the same problem those Dec periods mentioned above, although in Oct and early Nov you could at least get it exactly 11 months out as long as you did so in the early morning. The OKW GV in the Hospitality House booking category also often disappears before 11 months out (but other GVs at OKW do not). BWV standard view studios and 2BRs sometimes has the issue first week of Dec and Christmas week.

Be aware that your problem will likely not just be the one day you are seeing now. When you go on tomorrow morning you will likely find Monday of Thanksgiving week also gone. Nevertheless keep checking daily because there may be some who are "walking" reservations who are actually seeking time after Thanksgiving and thus some standards might actually open again temporarily for days you want.

Those who buy at BLT for standard view when only about 10% of the rooms are standard can face stiff competition from the many others who did the same. The only solution DVD would have is not one that would make many members happy -- it could lower the demand for the rooms by raising the points needed for the times of year when there is a problem while lowering points for other times of year.

 

[JessLCH]

Well, I suppose it is a good thing we purchased a lot of points, then, if we will always have to book higher point view rooms. We generally go during Thanksgiving week or other high demand periods.

 

[rlovew]

I have had the same problem with the time period and standard views at BLT. Last year my standard view waitlist came through within a week of making it (however I was checking out before Thanksgiving and just wanted the beginning of the week.

 

[DebbieB]

At 8 am on the nose, 11 months in advance could not get the first day of a standard view 2 bedroom at my home resort (BLT) arriving Sun. before Thanksgiving. The first night is unavailable and the rest of days are available. Had to waitlist standard and book lake view to ensure we had something. So, lesson learned: even if one books home resort at 11 month window at 8 am on the dot one is STILL not guaranteed one's preferred reservation! That is super lame, DVC!!!!

I would keep watching it online in addition to your waitlist. It might open up, especially if people are walking.

I've had this problem for 3 years in a row and at different times of the year at SSR. Very frustrating. Fortunately the last 2 trips we booked I had more success but we had to split our stay. Which turned out to be a disaster when we left one resort and checked into the second.

Our upcoming trip in Jan was a little easier to book but we still have to do a split stay with our last night at the new villas at GFR. I'll be curious to see how it goes.

I was contacted by DVC about purchasing at GFR told them no for a number of reasons, one being the booking issue.

You didn't get SSR at 11 months? Tree House?

 

[GrumpyPOTFH]

I have been watching this for several weeks, we wanted Saturday to Saturday. I did decide to walk my reservation and did get it. I did see that on Saturday the 2 Bedroom Lock Out was still available, but Sunday it was not. Last I looked only 1 Bedroom was still available for that week. I have read hear some one was walking a reservation for the first or second week of December. Maybe your wait-list will come through for you, hope so. But may still run into you next year.

 

[Pirate Granny]

We walked our June reservation for HH GV at OKW...there are only two and my family had their hearts set on it. We also successfully walked a 2 bedroom lake view lock off for VGF at 7 months. Know it was risky but it did work out!

 

[GrumpyPOTFH]

A note on BLT's, there is only the following available in Standard View.

15 each 2 Bedroom

&

30 each 2 Bedroom Lock-Out ( this means the same number of 1 Bedroom and Studio's, each time one of these gets reserved it take a 2 Bedroom out)

Means there is just not very many available to be had.

 

[Deb & Bill]

When DVC changed to booking by check in date versus check out date, walking was needed for some reservations. Before, members just booked a night at a time and kept adding another day. In this modern age of MB and FP+, you'd have seven MBs - one for each night of your stay.

 

[tjkraz]

When DVC changed to booking by check in date versus check out date, walking was needed for some reservations. Before, members just booked a night at a time and kept adding another day.

...and often ended up with holes in the middle of their reservations when they couldn't book the next night desired.

When demand exceeds supply, someone is going to lose out. Regardless of the underlying administrative processes.

In this modern age of MB and FP+, you'd have seven MBs - one for each night of your stay.

The reservation was left open with nights added to the existing reservation number. As long as the same resort/room was booked without interruption, the end result was a single reservation number. And it would have been a single MagicBand.

 

[Muhlenberg]

I had the exact same problem trying to book AKV value 2 bedroom for the first week of December. Eventually, we decided to go with a GV at SSR, because we needed TWO 2 BR value rooms. I decided that wasn't going to happen, after the 1st night was ALWAYS gone for our week. I checked every day...1st night always gone.

I couldn't walk it...we have a December UY. Yet another small caveat/quirk of booking the FIRST week of the UY.

Anyway, as it turned out, we really loved being ALL in the same room, even if the number of points required is a bit when you're somewhat points-challenged.

 

[JessLCH]

A note on BLT's, there is only the following available in Standard View.

15 each 2 Bedroom

&

30 each 2 Bedroom Lock-Out ( this means the same number of 1 Bedroom and Studio's, each time one of these gets reserved it take a 2 Bedroom out)

Means there is just not very many available to be had.

Had no idea there were only 15 dedicated standard view 2 bedrooms. Guess we will be spending lots of time in lake views! Glad we bought so many points now!

 

[Dean]

At 8 am on the nose, 11 months in advance could not get the first day of a standard view 2 bedroom at my home resort (BLT) arriving Sun. before Thanksgiving. The first night is unavailable and the rest of days are available. Had to waitlist standard and book lake view to ensure we had something. So, lesson learned: even if one books home resort at 11 month window at 8 am on the dot one is STILL not guaranteed one's preferred reservation! That is super lame, DVC!!!!

It is a known risk but it's the way the system is set up. You either knew or should have known this was a risk up front prior to buying.

 

[JessLCH]

Well around 9:30 this am a standard view became available for all the nights I wanted so I quickly cancelled my lake view and booked standard and then cancelled my waitlist for the standard. This makes me have no confidence in the waitlist though. Shouldn't the waitlist have automatically come through as soon as the room and dates became available before me or anyone else could make a NEW booking on that room/dates?

 

[drusba]

Well around 9:30 this am a standard view became available for all the nights I wanted so I quickly cancelled my lake view and booked standard and then cancelled my waitlist for the standard. This makes me have no confidence in the waitlist though. Shouldn't the waitlist have automatically come through as soon as the room and dates became available before me or anyone else could make a NEW booking on that room/dates?

From what has been reported, the wait list doies not work that way. Apparently, wait lists get served after MS hours so anything that comes open during the day can be grabbed by another before the end of the day. It looks like you were able to hit it just right as "walkers" passed by the intisal dates you needed