Day by day ressies?

[Granny]

I've seen a lot of suggestions on calling daily for a vacation reservation, in essence booking a new "check out" day to extend the reservation each day.....is that correct? I've got some questions about this tactic.

1. If, for example, you are staying a week, do you end up with 7 different reservations? And confirmation numbers?

2. How does it work if you are able to reserve days 1,2,3 but not 4 or 5, and then reserve 6 and 7? Does that make sense?

3. Does it make sense to do this if you already have an 11 month ressie at the home resort and want to move to another resort?

4. If you made a ressie at the home resort, can you cancel one day at a time as you add to the "new" resort?

4. Does DVC frown on this or in any way give you a hard time about this?

I think I understand the strategy involved....not having to wait for the 11 or 7 month window for the last day you intend to be there, but instead booking starting with your planned check in day? I'm just struggling with the logistics of calling each day and getting confirmation for some days, and wait listed for others.

Am I totally off base or lost on this? I'd appreciate any help you all can give.

 

[jel0511]

When I made my ressies for the 4th of July for next year, I called day by day. MS asked me when I called if I would be adding more ressies to my first day, which I replied yes, and they asked what my eventual check out day would be. They said they'd hold my confirmation until I had successfully added all days, and then one would be mailed with one confirmation number. They didn't seemed annoyed by this, almost expected it!!! Unforunately, I've never run across any of your other questions, so I can't answer those.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Yes, it works great and they do expect this for some types of ressies. If you are travelling on a low point season (like January), and you want a studio or GV, it is wise to do this. Studio and GV ressies seem to fill up fastest for these seasons. We are OKW members, so the only time we have used this is when we reserve a GV. Since there are only a limited number of those ( I think 25 or 27), we need to reserve day by day. If you explain to the MS CM when you call the first day, they will check on the availability of your request so you should know ahead of time if you have a chance at it. I have never felt the need to do this for a 2 BR. We usually wait until the real check out day for the entire trip to make that ressie.

I don't know about the canceling one day at a time to add to the new resort. We haven't tried that yet.

 

[drusba]

With DVC we have gone numerous different times of year, Easter, June, August, November, February. We usually get a 1 or 2 BR at BWV. We have never done the day by day because it was never needed; in fact we never had a problem reserving about 10 months out. Many have said the day by day is needed for GV's; I doubt seriously that it is needed for anything else. As I have also reserved times of year for my daughter and her family at OKW (including Easter) , I have also found at OKW that it is not needed for use of the 7 month window.

Nevertheless, if you want to be extremely safe and reserve day by day, you can as mentioned above do it and then as you go along they link the ressies together until it is complete. DVC does not frown on doing this.

Changing at 7 months has different issues. The answer to the question on whether you can reserve another resort day by day while cancelling the prior ressie day by day is possibly not. For example, if all your prior days were linked and then confirmed as one ressie under one number when you reserved 11 months out at home resort, they may not allow you to cancel it day by day. Viewed as one ressie, they may require you to cancel the whole prior ressie before making any change. We found this out for that Easter ressie for the DD. We made a six night ressie 10 months out at BWV. She wanted 3 nights there and 3 at OKW. When we went to make the switch at 7 months we learned the following: as the the prior ressie was under one number, to change any of it to OKW, we would have to cancel the entire prior ressie and then reserve anew at BWV and OKW for the separate days. We were then told that, if we did that, there was availability at OKW for the days we wanted but we could not reserve BWV because our reservation there would now be subject to current availability at 7 months out and there were people on a waiting list in front of us for that time. After much begging and talking to a supervisor, they finally allowed us to make the change "this time." However, that experience taught us that if you want to switch part of a ressie at 7 months make sure you do two different ressies at 11 months out at home resort, one for the time you actually want to stay at home resort and one for time you may later switch to another resort. and do not have them linked (you can have them linked later if you don't make the switch). That way you can cancel and switch the particular ressie at 7 months without affecting the time you want to keep at home resort.

Thus, you might face the same issue if you try to change day by day at 7 months out. Don't know if any one else ever had that issue or if MS will usually just allow the adjustment (meaning in our case maybe we just got someone that was a stickler for rules of process). Also as mentioned above what you might do at 7 months out is call simply to see if the time you are going to request is already close to being filled by those who reserved at 11 months out; if not you can probably wait.

Note though that if you are reserving at 11 months out day to day and call on that first day, they really cannot tell you anything accurate about possible availability for the remaining days; the reason: it is impossible for anybody else to have yet reserved any of those days (no one else can reserve them either since like you, they are still more than 11 months out for those days) and thus there must be total availability for the remaining days. What they can tell you if you are calling on that first day late in the day is whether ressies for the that first day you are reserving have been heavy.

 

[Granny]

As always, this is tremendous information and I appreciate those who spent the time outlining the ups and downs of this practice. I have been interested in this practice in general for some time.

In this case, I do have a specific example. I have ressies at VWL (my home) for next July 28 through August 2 (Sunday - Thursday nights). This was made with one call under one confirmation number.

We would really like to try to stay at the BWV during this stay since we will be staying at VWL in May. I'm thinking that BWV is probably pretty heavily booked in July so I'm trying to figure the best strategy. I would prefer a standard view to save some points but that's not really all that important and wouldn't keep me from switching.

We don't want to switch resorts in the middle of such a short stay, so I don't want to use any technique that could end up with that. I guess my best strategy is to wait until the 7 month window of entire stay check out and "go for broke, all or nothing"? I thought the day by day thing might improve my chances. But I'm worried that I might get confirmations on only 3 of the 5 days and go onto a wait list. Then I'd end up with a mess....and I don't want to make cash ressies at all since I have enough points.

Or I guess if necessary I could go on a waitlist for BWV (if ressie not available at 7 month window) and switch if that comes through?

Again, any suggestions or strategies are appreciated.

 

[CarolMN]

Granny -

Do you have enough points to make reservations (temporarily) at both BWV and VWL without borrowing? If so, you could make the VWL ressie at 11 months and then at 7 months out call day by day to get BWV. (I'm assuming you will get preferred view and same size as VWL ressie so points are the same). If you get all days, then cancel VWL. If not, go on wait list. Do not cancel VWL until all days clear waitlist or at 30 cancellation window. The trick with this suggestion is not to miss a key banking window - if you have to bank points before all the days come through, then that is the time you have to either cancel the BWV days or cancel the VWL days.

This won't work if you have to borrow points to make the BWV ressie in order to keep the VWL ressie. But if you have enough points, it will at least ensure you have the best chance to get BWV while still keeping your "safety net" ressie at the VWL.

Good Luck!
Carol

PS. IMHO, you will get BWV at 7 months for your dates, but might have to use waitlist. I think it is easier to get BWV in the summer than it is to get it in November and December.

 

[drusba]

Standard view will likely be tough to get. However, you have a good chance for preferred. That time of year is actually easier to get than a number of the off-season low point times (DVC high demand time does not equate with Disney in general high demand time). You might try an exploratory call at the first day 7 month point to find out how booked they are for the time you may request.

 

[Granny]

CarolMN....thanks. I do have enough points to hold a ressie at both places at once without borrowing. What you suggested was my original plan. But I was worried about waitlisting, 30 day cancellations, and only getting some of the requested days at BWV. Fortunately, my initial banking deadline is July 31, so that doesn't come into play. I could even borrow points to make my alternative ressie, and bank the original ressie points. But I could see that being a total mess if the switch was not a clean one!

Drusba...thank you for your second thorough reply. Per your suggestion, I'm not even going to get greedy and go for the standard view. My goal really is not to save points, but to stay at a "new" DVC resort for a new experience.

I love the DVC planning but sometimes it makes my head hurt....11 month, 7 month, day to day ressies, banking, borrowing, wait list.....aaaagghhh!


On the other hand, the reason I have to plow through all this is because of the options that DVC offers....so ultimately it's really a good thing.

If anyone else can add some suggestions, I'd welcome them.

THANKS AGAIN!!

 

[disneydawn6]

I did that very same thing about reserving at my home Wilderness and then switching to Broardwalk at the 7th month. Day by day, I cancelled at Wilderness as I got my Boardwalk and no one gave me a bad time at all. I even got the standard view in a two bedroom no less I did have to waitlist the last day and it came through the very next day

 

[Granny]

disneydawn6....

Now you're tempting me to go after that standard view again! I want to have my cake and eat it too!!!

I'm just afraid of ending up with a split trip between resorts. So I think I'll go day to day and not cancel any of my original ressie at VWL. Then if I end up with a messy ressie (rhyme ) situation, I can just fall back to the original stay at VWL.

Again, thanks to all.