Wow, DVC all booked up (nearly) for 30/9 and 1/10

[Stitchesmumanddad]

Yay cheers for posting this! Im WDW 23rd Sep to 14th Oct. Of course its to be there on 1st October exactly 50 years to the day WDW opened on 1st Oct 1971 - Having now realised this - Im well chuffed if it all happens and Im there !

[Twentyyears]

We booked SSR (home resort) at just after the 11 month window- we didn’t even factor in the Birthday 😲 just happens to be the two nights before our 7night DCL cruise. We easily booked the week after our cruise at Kidani at 11 months. I only went in today to book the 2nd to the 9th Oct at SSR in case we decide not to do the cruise. Easily got a standard studio for the week so can tack it onto the two nights of 30th and 1st if we need to.
We have two weeks booked for mid May at Kidani and the AVIOS companion flights, so we just need to make a decision on that before our banking window at the end of March. So, if we cancel then, we will need to rent out 67 points before the of August. At the worst I will gift them to our friends in the States.
With the vaccine news today I am sincerely hoping we will both have been done by May, one and only time being at risk ( hubby due Jan) and older (predicted April May) is an advantage.

[Robyn89]

OK - so we're new DVC owners, we bought in 2019 (although haven't been able to use our membership yet, thanks Rona). But what does walking/walkers mean?

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Robyn89

OK - so we're new DVC owners, we bought in 2019 (although haven't been able to use our membership yet, thanks Rona). But what does walking/walkers mean?

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Walking is booking ahead of time and moving it incrementally to the days you want.

So for example, you can only book at 11 months (home resort) or 7 months (any resort). And you can only book 7 nights at a time right on that first day you can book.

So imagine you want Copper Creek for Xmas week, knowing it often books out at 8am 11 months out. You instead book it for say 5 nights when you get a window, earlier in December. As long as you then amend that booking before the 5 nights are up and shunt it on by another 5 nights, you lock out anyone else after that room- because you always have the first night booked 11 months out. You then do this again and again, walking towards your desired dates.
Works best for 11 month home booking windows as no one can get ahead. At 7 months an owner could always come in and book ahead of you, but walking at 7 months can still have good advantages on the theory that most owners would have booked by 7 months, and you are locking out other non owners at 7 months.
Hope this makes sense.

[Robyn89]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Walking is booking ahead of time and moving it incrementally to the days you want.

So for example, you can only book at 11 months (home resort) or 7 months (any resort). And you can only book 7 nights at a time right on that first day you can book.

So imagine you want Copper Creek for Xmas week, knowing it often books out at 8am 11 months out. You instead book it for say 5 nights when you get a window, earlier in December. As long as you then amend that booking before the 5 nights are up and shunt it on by another 5 nights, you lock out anyone else after that room- because you always have the first night booked 11 months out. You then do this again and again, walking towards your desired dates.
Works best for 11 month home booking windows as no one can get ahead. At 7 months an owner could always come in and book ahead of you, but walking at 7 months can still have good advantages on the theory that most owners would have booked by 7 months, and you are locking out other non owners at 7 months.
Hope this makes sense.

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That makes perfect sense, thank you! I feel we have a lot to learn over the life span of our membership 😂

[2point]

I'm up against a raft of walkers tomorrow - we are at Copper Creek.

Got a Dec use year so a tricky slot to get.

My plan is to snag whatever I can get in Studios and book a placeholder 1 Bed just in case. I expect to be able to backfill my Dec dates over the next few days as walkers move onto the prime Xmas dates. We are there late Nov to Early Dec, staying offsite for the first portion.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by 2point

I'm up against a raft of walkers tomorrow - we are at Copper Creek.

Got a Dec use year so a tricky slot to get.

My plan is to snag whatever I can get in Studios and book a placeholder 1 Bed just in case. I expect to be able to backfill my Dec dates over the next few days as walkers move onto the prime Xmas dates. We are there late Nov to Early Dec, staying offsite for the first portion.

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Copper Creek- wonderful resort, appalling studio availability due to cabin points loading and not enough studios. I would like a contract there if I ever bought another, but this problem somewhat puts me off. I did once do some analysis on here of the points to cabin ratios compared to Poly (I must have been bored that day!) and it was very telling- substantially more points loaded into cabins as a proportion compared to Poly and its bungalows. Also I worked out you could see why- the margin on a cabin point must have been huge compared to a room point (where margins are already massive).
Good luck- if you want CC at Xmas in a studio walking is a necessity it seems.
I’m currently walking a 1 bed at Grand Cal, nearly there, but it’s just an insurance policy as it appears 1 beds are still quite open next summer. Suspect with the park being shut and further lockdowns happening in California, the Americans have not thought about booking as usual.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by 2point

I'm up against a raft of walkers tomorrow - we are at Copper Creek.

Got a Dec use year so a tricky slot to get.

My plan is to snag whatever I can get in Studios and book a placeholder 1 Bed just in case. I expect to be able to backfill my Dec dates over the next few days as walkers move onto the prime Xmas dates. We are there late Nov to Early Dec, staying offsite for the first portion.

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Good luck. We got a CCV studio for the end of November / 1st week of December last year (2019) with no issues (& no walking), from memory I forgot the 11 months window so must have got lucky when people carried on their walking past that week.

This is the issue imo with walking, it creates a false availability and makes people panic, often unnecessarily.

[catlady]

Can i ask a dumb couple of questions🤔. Never walked a reservation as usually travel in the summer when surprisingly it's never been an issue!

1. How do you physically walk a reservation? Do you modify The reservation online or call member services?

2. Just for example if it was difficult to get? I wanted the 31st Oct? When would I book to walk?

I find it so confusing! Don't you end up with points in the wrong year? 🤦

[blackbird]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

We are taking the Granddaughter on that trip so have to work around half term hence we arrive on the 17th October. Will still be crazy I suspect but not insane!

Edit. Seems Virgin haven't picked up on it as there are a shed load of Miles flights available around those critical dates.

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We arrive on the 16th SSR hopefully some of the crowds will have left by then