Grand Californian booking at 7 mos

Spork24

Mr. Blue Bird on my shoulder
Joined
Jan 21, 2014
Ok, So I know VGC is almost impossible to book at 7 months. I've always wanted to go to Disneyland, and I have the points available, so I decided to give it a try for this fall. I've been watching the availability of 7 months for a while. This morning is the 7 month booking window for my trip. We want a 1 bedroom villa, which appears to be the most possible to book. Yesterday afternoon there was still availability for my trips full window. This morning I got up and logged on at a quarter before 8 ET and the first day was gone.

Any idea what I did wrong? Booking starts at 8 ET right? could someone have gotten that stay in their cart and just held it until 8 AM? I know its a pipe dream, so I'm not really upset, just want to figure this out.

any other advice or strategies for booking VGC is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
 
It is possible someone beat you to the room by adding a day onto an existing reservation sometime between when you looked and 8 AM.
 
Owners of GCal can book at 11 months, one of those members may have made a reservation that included your dates.
 


Also, another owner who is walking a 7 month reservation may have booked it. They would also have access to the room before 8am EST if they had a reservation the day before. It was either a VGC owner or a 7 month walker. I would WL it as someone may walk right past your day.
 
I had a VGC owner book my Nov 2019 dates at VGC with her points. I made a reservation for her with my points for one of my resorts. We essentially swapped points with actually swapping them. Your post made me curious, so I looked back at the historical info for my dates in 2018. Sure enough, the dates booked up anywhere from 1-3 hours before the 7 month booking window opened for each day. According to what I saw, those dates never opened again after the firest time they were listed as unavailable at 7 months + 1-3 hours. My guess is that the wait list grabbed those dates if anyone cancelled. It's weird that this seems to be "a thing" at VGC. Maybe it's "a thing" at a lot of resorts at 7 months, and I don't pay close enough attention to it. :/
 
Keep trying each day and waitlist any ones at the beginning that you miss. (I like to waitlist the one night immediately before my reservation and all the nights I'm missing as my two lists, if the single night fills I make a new waitlist for the one night before again and so on) while I can't guarantee you success I can tell you I've had very good luck with this method at VGC.
 


Keep trying each day and waitlist any ones at the beginning that you miss. (I like to waitlist the one night immediately before my reservation and all the nights I'm missing as my two lists, if the single night fills I make a new waitlist for the one night before again and so on) while I can't guarantee you success I can tell you I've had very good luck with this method at VGC.


Thanks so much
 
I tried again this morning. 1br was gone within seconds of 8:00. I just missed it. I did wait list it though. so we shall see what happens. I will try again a couple more mornings this week to see if I can get any nights that week.
 
Also, another owner who is walking a 7 month reservation may have booked it. They would also have access to the room before 8am EST if they had a reservation the day before. It was either a VGC owner or a 7 month walker. I would WL it as someone may walk right past your day.

Wanted to give you guys an update. There was definitely a 7 month walker walking past our travel week. I have hopped online almost every day this week at 7AM and have been able to get 3 consecutive days for our travel dates! I will probably try to add one more day on either end and we will just spend the rest of our week elsewhere in socal. (maybe sea world or the San Diego zoo)

Thanks for all the advice!
 
So is walking a reservation the new thing and everyone does i? Does it frustrate you as a non VGC owner as it is essentially preventing us from obtaining and having to always wait list? Should i be doing to same as I try to also book this week for my 7 month window? Love DL but hate the hassle of trying to try and snag a studio or even 1BDR at VGC these days haha!
 
So is walking a reservation the new thing and everyone does i? Does it frustrate you as a non VGC owner as it is essentially preventing us from obtaining and having to always wait list? Should i be doing to same as I try to also book this week for my 7 month window? Love DL but hate the hassle of trying to try and snag a studio or even 1BDR at VGC these days haha!
Personally I don’t think walking is preventing non-owners of VGC from being able to book at VGC at a major degree. I think that is from the fact that many VGC are now simply owners that intend to use their points there and never at WDW (aside from it being the smallest DVC). This has happened at other highly desirable resorts, resales happen and buyers pay a premium and don’t intend to use outside that resort. With a healthy resale market those owners would simply rent their points and rent points themselves for WDW.

It’s technically impossible to prove a walker is responsible for something at 7 months because the owners can do anything they want at that point.
 
Personally I don’t think walking is preventing non-owners of VGC from being able to book at VGC at a major degree. I think that is from the fact that many VGC are now simply owners that intend to use their points there and never at WDW (aside from it being the smallest DVC). This has happened at other highly desirable resorts, resales happen and buyers pay a premium and don’t intend to use outside that resort. With a healthy resale market those owners would simply rent their points and rent points themselves for WDW.

It’s technically impossible to prove a walker is responsible for something at 7 months because the owners can do anything they want at that point.

Thanks, I don't mean it in a mean way just like is this the new normal? LOL I never remember wait list being so prominent as it seems to be now. We haven't booked DL since 2016 for an early 2017 trip and it seems like so much has changed in being able to book the morning of that 7 month window. Just trying to wrap my head around what's the best way to snag those VGC days I want this week! Thanks for the input :)
 
Thanks, I don't mean it in a mean way just like is this the new normal? LOL I never remember wait list being so prominent as it seems to be now. We haven't booked DL since 2016 for an early 2017 trip and it seems like so much has changed in being able to book the morning of that 7 month window. Just trying to wrap my head around what's the best way to snag those VGC days I want this week! Thanks for the input :)
Are you wanting a 1 Bed or a Studio? I suppose, technically speaking, grabbing the room using walking (even if it isn't a guarantee) would be your best odds.

I think WL at VGC is more prominent because more are being sold at a premium so that led to a higher owner use, which leads to the need by some to walk. So I guess in that effect it is the new normal.
 
Are you wanting a 1 Bed or a Studio? I suppose, technically speaking, grabbing the room using walking (even if it isn't a guarantee) would be your best odds.

I think WL at VGC is more prominent because more are being sold at a premium so that led to a higher owner use, which leads to the need by some to walk. So I guess in that effect it is the new normal.

Studio which I know is harder, we are flexible on dates just looking for a quick 3 night trip to see SWGE and DL at Halloween time! I have never walked a reservation so i think I need to read up on it so i don't mess it up somehow LOL
 
Personally I don’t think walking is preventing non-owners of VGC from being able to book at VGC at a major degree. I think that is from the fact that many VGC are now simply owners that intend to use their points there and never at WDW (aside from it being the smallest DVC). This has happened at other highly desirable resorts, resales happen and buyers pay a premium and don’t intend to use outside that resort. With a healthy resale market those owners would simply rent their points and rent points themselves for WDW.

It’s technically impossible to prove a walker is responsible for something at 7 months because the owners can do anything they want at that point.

I am a VGC owner (and SSR and AKV), and my VGC points are ONLY for VGC. I do not use them elsewhere since it is so hard to get in there. I added on twice to have VGC points after I had waitlist issues (even had them at 11 months before). I use or bank the VGC points since they are so valuable and hard to come by.
 
I am a VGC owner (and SSR and AKV), and my VGC points are ONLY for VGC. I do not use them elsewhere since it is so hard to get in there. I added on twice to have VGC points after I had waitlist issues (even had them at 11 months before). I use or bank the VGC points since they are so valuable and hard to come by.
I just became a VGC owner because I wanted to go there on a yearly basis so I knew I would need to own, as you stated.
 
VGC is a tougher get due to its size, the fact owners there often don't trade out, and walkers. It's anecdotal evidence only but, yes, I believe at some resorts walking is the new normal especially for studios (and that's a whole other topic). We do believe in the waitlist even though over the years, we've "only" been successful maybe 75% of the time. Case in point was VGC last June. Literally, up until four days before our window opened, we saw availability slip away day by day, and we were okay with a 1BR. We wound up with two of our 5 nights in a 1BR after being vigilant with the RAT (the first two nights) and nothing else. We booked DLH as our backup plan, and a couple of months later, while stalking the RAT, a GV opened up for the last two nights, so we grabbed it. Never did get that middle night either via WL or RAT watching. So, we had a split-split stay. Loved it, anyway! Best of luck to those hoping to get into GCV--it's a lovely resort and extremely convenient.
 

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