Wow Online booking coming soon

[MickeyMcMouse]

As the title says, online booking coming soon.

Just logged in to see balance of dues and noticed on the front page

"Special Announcement: Soon you'll have the opportunity to book Disney Vacation Club Resorts online!

We have some exciting news. Soon you'll have the opportunity to make your Resort reservations online!

In order to ensure a quality experience, online booking will begin to be introduced starting on January 19. We'll gradually increase the percentage of Members able to make online reservations each day. So in the not too distant future, when you reserve a Disney Vacation Club Resort, we hope you'll try online booking and enjoy the convenience of this new feature."



Hope I'm allowed to paste that, if not log in and have a look !! Exciting stuff !

David

 

[crabbie1]

Well we jouned in november and still not sent a pin to access anything online. Hv phoned them twice and emailed them still nothing. Not impressed. Sounds good but think i will still phone or at least to confirm reservation.

 

[Elise79]

Alison - call MS and they will give you the info over the phone to log in first time and talk you through it

 

[Disneymad]

Online reservations went live yesterday and members are being given access over a period of 3 days (ie yesterday, today and I guess tomorrow though maybe Monday as the last, not sure).

Got my access today and have to say it's really good and very simple to use. You can see availability for each night, book what's available and easily waitlist for missing nights. It also throws up all the alternative resorts too which means if something doesn't quite work out with your first choice, you can see at a glance if there's other options that work better and numerous resorts at once.

Not actually made a booking yet but merely been poking availability but I heard people say on the main dvc board that upon booking it's also very clearly laid out so you can choose which points come from which contract/use year/borrowing points etc to pay.

Considering Disney's past history with their online services and websites going live, I have to say, I'm impressed with what I've seen so far! Hopefully I've not just cursed it

Anyone else have access to it yet? What did you think?

 

[wilma-bride]

Yes, I've just logged in and had a look. Must say, I'm pretty impressed so far. Tested the system by trying to book a non-home resort more than 7 months in advance and it wouldn't let me (which is good).

It's been a long time coming but, as DH just said, it must be a fairly complex system given all the nuances and processes involved with booking a DVC resort.

 

[UKDEB]

Are there options to waitlist and make special requests?

 

[Samaya]

Wow, just tried it and it all looks as simple as you say Disneymad.

Tried to add an extra day to our next vacation at Vero Beach but no rooms available at all, even in the hotel but it did suggest Saratoga Springs Resort as the only option or wait-list.

For our next reservation we will possibly use the new system to just check availability and then make the booking through Member Services, wouldn't want to think that this new system is a way to reduce the number of cast-members at MS.

 

[UKDEB]

We were posting at the same time, Samaya, and you've answered my question about the ability to waitlist. Were you given the opportunity to add any special requests?

 

[Disneymad]

I just did a dummy booking right up to where you have to hit confirm - unless it appears as an option after you've finalised the booking, there was no place to add requests

 

[Hilary]

I made a reservation online on Thursday - and it seems to have worked very easily!! So far, so good, and I like it

Deb - I couldn't find anywhere to make requests, although the terms and conditions mentioned the fact that requests were not guaranteed, so I had expected to be able to add something at some point in the booking. I assume this is still an option at online check-in, but it certainly seems likely that members will still call in to MS to make any requests once the online reservation is complete. Even if this is the case, making the reservation online will free up time that could have been spent on the phone to MS looking at various options/availability, etc.

The reservation I made was at our home resort, and I intend to try to switch resorts at the 7 month mark - I'll be interested to see how straightforward that process is online.

 

[wilma-bride]

If anybody is going to be using transferred-in points to make/complete a booking (and also if you need to use the one-time purchase points from Disney), you still have to call MS as the online system, it appears, can't cope with anything out of the ordinary.

 

[jns]

Just had a look around , about time will make planning so must easier
Wonder if u can change booking too

 

[loadsapixiedust]

There is no facility to make requests. We cannot use online booking as we need an accessible room and it doesn't handle those

 

[wilma-bride]

There is no facility to make requests. We cannot use online booking as we need an accessible room and it doesn't handle those

Like I said above Lynne, it appears that anything out of the ordinary cannot be handled by the online booking system

Still, I suppose it is a step in the right direction and I understand that, to cope with out-of-the-ordinary requests, it woul dhave had to be extremely complex. Just a shame that some won't be able to make use of it, particularly as you are able to book online from 8am EST so at times may have an advantage over telephone bookers.

 

[UKDEB]

I just made a booking at our home resort. As it's for 8 nights, I had to make two reservations, but there doesn't seem to be any functionality within the Vacation Center to link the two. (Did I even need to do it as two separate reservations? Matt told me I did, so I just took his word for it!) The system uses your points in the most beneficial way and, when you reach the confirmation page, it shows precisely how it's done it in table format. The table includes transferred in points as well as banked, current use year, previously borrowed, available to borrow and holding, but not purchased points. If they haven't been used in the way you want, you have the option to cancel at that stage with no penalty but only until you leave that page.