Has booking at 8am changed?

holyrita

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
For the past few days I've tried to book a room at my home resort at the 11 month mark, right at 8am. Normally I load up the website a few minutes before, do the search and then wait until 8:00:00am to hit the 'Continue' button to try and secure the room. Both times I've gotten the warning "its too early to book, start your search over" (or whatever the exact message is). In a surprise to no one by the time I re-search the room is gone.

Does this method no longer work or am I not waiting long enough? Do I need to start the search right at 8:00:00am and move as quickly as possible instead of queuing up the search?

Thanks for any help :)
 
The same has happened for me. There are a few others that seem to be able to complete the search and just hit continue at 8 sharp. Seems to have something to do with caching the search times. Based on OS, device, browser, cookie, cache, and privacy settings..... I have not been able to find the magic combination. So, I need to do the search at 8. Puts me (and you) at a tremendous disadvantage for the highly competitive room types.
 
I do the search first and then when my clock hits 8:00 am est I hit continue.

Sometimes it’s worked and sometimes it has not.

When I owned BWV and was trying for SV studios, I was struggling for Columbus Day weekend which is one reason why we no longer own there.

Depending on what you are trying for changes it up as well. Things like AKV CL and value rooms can simply be luck of the draw and sometimes it’s just a different computer was a millisecond faster
 
I do the search first and then when my clock hits 8:00 am est I hit continue.

Sometimes it’s worked and sometimes it has not.

When I owned BWV and was trying for SV studios, I was struggling for Columbus Day weekend which is one reason why we no longer own there.

Depending on what you are trying for changes it up as well. Things like AKV CL and value rooms can simply be luck of the draw and sometimes it’s just a different computer was a millisecond faster
I did that but it said I was too early (exactly 7am CST/8 am EST on my phone). By the time it reloaded, someone got the Poly room I wanted, so we are trying new VGF studios.
 


I've actually investigated this myself. I kept getting the "too early" message when trying to book an AKV Value room last month, so delayed hitting Continue each day I tried. That was a mistake.

It seems that if you are on the page where you hit Continue at any point prior to 8am, you will get the "too early" message if there is no availability after 8am. Even if you hit Continue at 8:01 you'll get the message.
 
I've actually investigated this myself. I kept getting the "too early" message when trying to book an AKV Value room last month, so delayed hitting Continue each day I tried. That was a mistake.

It seems that if you are on the page where you hit Continue at any point prior to 8am, you will get the "too early" message if there is no availability after 8am. Even if you hit Continue at 8:01 you'll get the message.

Not always though as it is how I do it all the time at 11 months and don’t get the error message consistently

So, it is just a matter of when your computer connects.
 
Not always though as it is how I do it all the time at 11 months and don’t get the error message consistently

So, it is just a matter of when your computer connects.
Might not be always, but it did happen every time I checked for a Value Studio when it was available last month. (So about 10 times in 3 weeks).

I had two computers running with two browsers on each (Chrome and Edge). I got the message of too early every single time. Other than the first click on Continue, the others tries could not possibly be early.
 


Not always though as it is how I do it all the time at 11 months and don’t get the error message consistently

So, it is just a matter of when your computer connects.
I'm curious if you remember when the last time you did this method successfully? I have been investigating and have a theory but your datapoint would be helpful! :)
 
I'm out of practice because we no longer own AKL and try for value rooms, but I would have the atomic clock up and go by that for when it was officially 8 am and then click continue.
 
I'm curious if you remember when the last time you did this method successfully? I have been investigating and have a theory but your datapoint would be helpful! :)

I just did it for a RIV SV studio on the 1st of October, for check in date of Sept 1st. 2023.

Once I got booked, went back and those rooms were gone, so I was lucky!
 
This is happening to me too. I can’t grab my room no matter what I do. This was never like this. I would set up and hit continue but now I’m always too early. I even tried counting a few Mississippis, but that doesn’t work. I feel like I’m never going to get my desired room again. I even tried refreshing and even that doesn’t work. Im always too early.
 
I have even searched for a room at SSR and done the search 15 sec before 8 am, I then wait till 30 seconds after 8 am... and I get I searched too early. There are still rooms available. On a separate browser, I do the search just after 8am and hit continue and I can book. There is something in my set-up that always uses the search time, not the continue time. Others still claim they can pre-search and just hit continue at 8am. No BWV STD, AKV Value, or AKV Club for me.........
 
I just did it for a RIV SV studio on the 1st of October, for check in date of Sept 1st. 2023.

Once I got booked, went back and those rooms were gone, so I was lucky!
Is it really that hard to get SV studios at 11months in September? Yeesh 😯
 
After 2 weeks of trying using a NIST time ( and getting the too early message), I realized that you can not prep up the search - You have to start the search after 8 am - then it worked - or it gave me the Dwarfs. My phone works better than my browser for some reason.
 
Also making you select the checkbox on the final screen is so unnecessary - We have signed notarized contracts saying the same thing - why do we have to check a box that many circumstances make it so courts don't recognize as consent?
 
Last edited:
For those who have the "too early" error whenever you search before 8am, which search tool are using?

I can think of four:
  1. Homepage search from https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/
  2. "Plan Your Next Vacation" from your Dashboard
  3. "Book a Vacation" from the "Plan Vacation" dropdown
"Book a Vacation" from the "Plan Vacation" dropdown

From the Homepage search, I don't see how to select my membership number before the search. (I have different UY's, so I have multiple memberships). It defaults to my SSR membership (my first), which will not work for BWV or AKV reservations.

Same goes for "Plan Your Next Vacation" from the dashboard and "Check availability" from the resort page. The only way I have the ability to select which of my memberships I want to use, is to go to "Book a Vacation" from the "Plan Vacation" dropdown.

This was a good thought though; I had not tried the various search methods. I even tried to do a "previous" search from the different memberships, hoping the system use the "last used" membership number, and I tried from different membership countdowns on the home page and different resorts pages. To no avail, all "non Plan a Vacation" searches defaulted to my SSR contract.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ehh
"Book a Vacation" from the "Plan Vacation" dropdown

From the Homepage search, I don't see how to select my membership number before the search. (I have different UY's, so I have multiple memberships). It defaults to my SSR membership (my first), which will not work for BWV or AKV reservations.

Same goes for "Plan Your Next Vacation" from the dashboard and "Check availability" from the resort page. The only way I have the ability to select which of my memberships I want to use, is to go to "Book a Vacation" from the "Plan Vacation" dropdown.

This was a good thought though; I had not tried the various search methods. I even tried to do a "previous" search from the different memberships, hoping the system use the "last used" membership number, and I tried from different membership countdowns on the home page and different resorts pages. To no avail, all "non Plan a Vacation" searches defaulted to my SSR contract.

Thanks for the suggestion.
I also have multiple UY and need to go through "Book a Vacation", but don't recall having this issue. Was thinking the issue was possibly from Dashboard or Homepage searches, hmmm. Will try to think of other variables.

I'm not really keen on testing it directly since it's 5am my time, but may try a series of tests the next few days as I'd really like to know if there's a user-controllable cause so I can avoid it in the future.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!













facebook twitter
Top