11 Nights at the GF @ 7 Months ##COMPLETE##

[Moogles Smith]

Morning all,

What are the chances of securing 11 nights at the GF at the end of may in a studio?

We have our home resort (poly) booked anyway but would like to stay at the GF this time round.

Thanks

[fudgie]

Studios are tricky to get at the best of times now that they sleep 5, especially in a smallish resort like VGF where there aren't that many to start with

I tried unsuccessfully to get one for a week in May 2015 but eventually had to bite the bullet and borrow points for a 1 bed which was beautiful but used alot of points

[Guest]

Anyone can check availability now with the resort availability tool. Availability for May is currently broken by single nights with the longest blocks being 14/05-24/05 then 26/05-03/06. April isn't looking too bad though so there's a good chance you'll get something.

[YorkshireT]

I keep saying it, but if you want to resort hop and can swallow the extra dues, buy cheap (Saratoga best value) and buy enough points for a 1 bed. Grand Floridian is entirely open for a 1 bed either standard or lake view for the whole of April and May. Every day available. You can even get 15+ consequitive days in March and that is less than 6 months away ( and it's only 5, 6 and 11-15 that are booked). In other words a 1 bed would be no problem. Studios for May there is 1 block of 11 nights left (14-24) and in June we so far have 4, 5, 25 and 27 gone. Get on booking at 8am ET and be prepared to a bit flexible and if you are very lucky you might get 11 nights. I imagine with flexibility you may get 5- 7, so maybe have a split stay, and have some at Poly and some st VGF.

[WDWMAD]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

I keep saying it, but if you want to resort hop and can swallow the extra dues, buy cheap (Saratoga best value) and buy enough points for a 1 bed. Grand Floridian is entirely open for a 1 bed either standard or lake view for the whole of April and May. Every day available. You can even get 15+ consequitive days in March and that is less than 6 months away ( and it's only 5, 6 and 11-15 that are booked). In other words a 1 bed would be no problem. Studios for May there is 1 block of 11 nights left (14-24) and in June we so far have 4, 5, 25 and 27 gone. Get on booking at 8am ET and be prepared to a bit flexible and if you are very lucky you might get 11 nights. I imagine with flexibility you may get 5- 7, so maybe have a split stay, and have some at Poly and some st VGF.

See more...

11 Nights in a 1 Bed at the VGF in May is 483 points?

@Moogles Smith - Not sure how many points you have or which dates you want to go, but, at the moment there is quite a bit of Studio Lake View availability for 11 nights which is 287 points in May 2018?

[YorkshireT]

Yes but he/ she is 8 months out, so booking patterns indicate it may be difficult to get a whole 11 nights, but they won't know until it opens up. 2015 data analysis showed that studios were only open at VGF 4% of the time for A full week in that year (!) whereas 1 beds were open 60 % of the time for a full week. A chance of booking at 8am ET but may not be available at which point a split stay with Poly looks a good idea, assuming they don't have that huge points number. Think they'll get a decent chunk of consequitive nights. It might be over 400 points, but if they've got half of that for a studio, buying at Poly, for the same initial outlay they could have had the full amount at SSR and be booking non home resort no problem and staying in vastly superior 1 beds. My comments in this respect were not really aimed at OP as OP has bought, but the perhaps dozens or hundreds of people thinking about buying who may be thinking about resort hopping and read this thread. Similarly my comments here are not aimed at OP or criticising OP in any way- OP probably adores Poly and having 11 month booking ability there trumps everything. These comments are aimed at anyone thinking of buying to have the wonderful ability to book all DVC resorts and have a different holiday every time.
If you want to resort hop as a main reason for buying DVC and don't mind the extra dues (all the caveats there as well- can get enough rental income for all dues that year if you do find a studio etc, we have had this discussion ) then the best tactic is to buy enough SSR points for a 1 bed. Many people buy because they think they'll always want to stay at the same resort- many then change their mind. It did not used to matter because you could stay everywhere and DVC is still sold direct with this as it's core selling point. In fact it's wrong, unless you get points for a 1 bed. Thus for people buying to resort hop, they are not being given a realistic picture. Many of those people would been better served buying twice the points via resale, but by the time they realise this it's too late
Even people who do a lot of research may not realise the vast difference in studio and 1 bed availibility. Really DVD should be telling people do not buy expecting to get into other resorts October to early Jan, and hope but do not expect Jan to September, unless you book a 1 bed. Anyway I digress, just trying to help out any prospective purchasers.

[Sweetie Babes]

I had a discussion about long stays in DVC accommodation with the resort reps at the Contemporary a couple of weeks ago (we were staying at BLT). The problem us Brits have - and he confirmed we were at a major disadvantage here - is that we want longer stays. Mot US DVCers book an odd night here or odd weekend there meaning that some months it's virtually impossible to get more than 3 or 4 nights in a row at any accommodation, especially if booking at 7-months.

The longest we've done is 8 nights with 2 nights at BLT and 6 nights at Jambo, both in studios. Our home resort is GFV which we're trying hard to save for by skipping next year (ie doing a 'package') and then borrowing the following year's points. Even then if we want something bigger than a 1-bed (so DD can actually sleep in a proper bed for once) we can't go beyond 6 or 7 nights - and with the 213 points we'll have available, 5 nights at GFV. DD has actually suggested we try for 2 studios so we both get a full size bed AND a proper bathroom! The problem with that, of course, is that GFV only has 23 studios on offer, and while it's our home resort and we can book bang on 11 months, we'll still be pushing it to get 2 for the same nights.

So, unless you book somewhere like OKW, which is huge and always seems to have long bookings available, you're going to find yourself having to put up with split stays - or buying points from another DVCer. I don't think the limited number of points DVC will let you buy on top to make up the number you need will give you enough.

We're looking into it for 2019. We have plenty of time to work something out. Hopefully we'll have the money to buy another 100 or so points on third party resale! Just got to remember that there are still annual dues to pay every January, of course.

[BarryandCaron]

I'm hoping to book two connecting studios at the Poly for next September. This will stretch our points enough so that we can book a two bed for the remainder.

We quite like moving around although three moves is about the maximum we'd do.

[Sweetie Babes]

Originally Posted by BarryandCaron

I'm hoping to book two connecting studios at the Poly for next September. This will stretch our points enough so that we can book a two bed for the remainder.

We quite like moving around although three moves is about the maximum we'd do.

See more...

Do they have connecting rooms there? When we had our DVC tour our saleswoman told us about connecting rooms - but we were told subsequently that the studios don't inter-connect! That said, as the Poly effectively only has studios (who can afford the bungalows?), they don't need to connect them to the 1-beds to make the 2-bed lock-offs.

I still maintain they missed a trick when building the new accommodation that they didn't put a floor of 1-bed villas in for families who don't want to all sleep in one room, on top of each other.

[BarryandCaron]

Originally Posted by Sweetie Babes

Do they have connecting rooms there? When we had our DVC tour our saleswoman told us about connecting rooms - but we were told subsequently that the studios don't inter-connect! That said, as the Poly effectively only has studios (who can afford the bungalows?), they don't need to connect them to the 1-beds to make the 2-bed lock-offs.

I still maintain they missed a trick when building the new accommodation that they didn't put a floor of 1-bed villas in for families who don't want to all sleep in one room, on top of each other.

See more...

Yes, a lot of studios at the Poly are connecting as they are the old Resort rooms.

Disney didn't make the same mistake with the new Copper Creek rooms in the main Wilderness Lodge building.