I finally get why people walk reservations. Disappointed.

[tx911]

Maybe. There are 30 Std Deluxe Studios and 84 Std Resort Studios. Even if resort studios were equally or even more appealing you'd see more availability with resort studios. At least this instance, with the resort studios also being fully booked, does not serve as evidence for this theory.

I tried to book a resort studio, standard view, immediately. Got an error message.

Was able to book a Lagoon view Resort studio eventually.

The deluxe studios were gone immediately, and all the standard view resort studios were gone within seconds thereafter.

 

[walt34]

I tried to book a resort studio, standard view, immediately. Got an error message.

Was able to book a Lagoon view Resort studio eventually.

The deluxe studios were gone immediately, and all the standard view resort studios were gone within seconds thereafter.

I hope it clears up for you again. On the Nov 14, Nov 13 was fully booked, it's now available again. The same happened with the 22nd. Have you waitlisted what you really want?

Best of luck!

 

[tx911]

I hope it clears up for you again. On the Nov 14, Nov 13 was fully booked, it's now available again. The same happened with the 22nd. Have you waitlisted what you really want?

Best of luck!

No waitlist, I just booked the more "expensive" lagoon-view resort studio. If I waitlist the deluxe standard view, and get it, I think my excess points would be stuck in the 2024 UY. I may try that though.

OT, but I also think the up-charge for these views is kind of excessive!

 

[tx911]

When I check the availability for the standard view deluxe and resort studios, 11/23 is unavailable, but the rest of the week is open, and the days preceding the 23rd are open.

I guess that means someone is walking that one day??

 

[walt34]

If I waitlist the deluxe standard view, and get it, I think my excess points would be stuck in the 2024 UY. I may try that though.

If you are outside your banking window then yes, otherwise the borrowed and banked points should be used first, returning the superfluous points from your current use year if I understand this correctly.

Or maybe you have a different use for the points should your waitlist come through?

The lagoon views are expensive but the view is nice.

 

[maui22]

Either we were lucky for the first 10-12 years of owning or things have become much harder the last couple years. We try book at 11 months and exactly the booking time, but never had a problem. The last 2 years every reservation we have made has been a challenge.

 

[davidhr]

When I check the availability for the standard view deluxe and resort studios, 11/23 is unavailable, but the rest of the week is open, and the days preceding the 23rd are open.

I guess that means someone is walking that one day??

Yeah, that normally means a few walkers. There’s a pretty good chance they’re walking the first weeks of December, so there might be availability for your original dates in the next few days.

 

[RichVIII]

Walkers over at BLT for standards around Thanksgiving and working into Dec. My Dec use year prevents me from walking into Dec.

I will say, as the price rise and buy in is lower, I do think people see those standards on points charts and think they can get more than what they can. I do always like when people ask in the Disboards and people say, plan on the next up category and buy enough points and consider yourself lucky if you get a standard.

ETA: No standards are available in a studio for BLT for today.

 

[Sandisw]

Maybe. There are 30 Std Deluxe Studios and 84 Std Resort Studios. Even if resort studios were equally or even more appealing you'd see more availability with resort studios. At least this instance, with the resort studios also being fully booked, does not serve as evidence for this theory.

This time of year was never easy to get, but there are still resort studios eligible to be booked right now tonight yet the deluxe studios , are gone, and went extremely fast this morning.

But, no matter what, the addition of all those points is making getting a SV deluxe studio at VGF harder than it was before..

 

[tx911]

This time of year was never easy to get, but there are still resort studios eligible to be booked right now tonight yet the deluxe studios , are gone, and went extremely fast this morning.

But, no matter what, the addition of all those points is making getting a SV deluxe studio at VGF harder than it was before..

Yes, hard to get a SV studio of any variety! I will keep checking this week and see what comes up.

I'll have to adjust my expectations going forward I suppose.

And, I will definitely research 11 month availability with owners before I buy any points at another resort. If you can't book a cheap room at 11, small point contracts aren't very useful! That is unless you can plan your trips at off-peak times.

 

[walt34]

This time of year was never easy to get, but there are still resort studios eligible to be booked right now tonight yet the deluxe studios , are gone, and went extremely fast this morning.

But, no matter what, the addition of all those points is making getting a SV deluxe studio at VGF harder than it was before..

We keep going in circles. If you were to argue, that the BPK addition increased competition for 1BR, it would be highly likely because BPK did not add any. If only one new VGF owner prefers 1BRs (quite likely), the addition made matters worse for existing owners. No doubt here.

But the fact that some days there are still resort studios available while there are no more deluxe available by itself does not prove that the booking situation for deluxe studios was made worse (could be true or not): there are 4 times as many resort studios now. Even if people hypothetically actually preferred resort studios by a ratio of 2:1, we would still see deluxe studios fully booked first as there are only 50 of them. It's quite likely that they would also be fully booked at the same time or even earlier without the addition. It's quite possible that resort studios offer additional (resort) studio availability to original owners at times when deluxe studios would have been fully booked anyway.

I have read the argument on these boards frequently enough, that everyone prefers the deluxe to the resort studios. But this is not true for everyone. I for one do not. I don't have any use for a kitchenette while on a one week vacation at WDW and find the resort studios more appealing (location, views, design).

 

[JackosinDIS]

Walkers over at BLT for standards around Thanksgiving and working into Dec. My Dec use year prevents me from walking into Dec.

I will say, as the price rise and buy in is lower, I do think people see those standards on points charts and think they can get more than what they can. I do always like when people ask in the Disboards and people say, plan on the next up category and buy enough points and consider yourself lucky if you get a standard.

ETA: No standards are available in a studio for BLT for today.

The standards at BLT seem to be walked year round! I’ve owned there for 4 months and only seen availability pop up once!

 

[Brian Noble]

the guides should be explicitly saying

I get your disappointment. I would be too! But I’m not sure we should expect the Guides to give reasons why someone should not buy points.

 

[tx911]

I get your disappointment. I would be too! But I’m not sure we should expect the Guides to give reasons why someone should not buy points.

No, I don't expect them to at all. It would be the right thing to do, but I understand that an expectation of such is unrealistic.

I hope prospective buyers will read threads like this and be aware that cheaper room options may not be available, even at 11 month home resort booking. This was honestly not on my radar when I bought in.

It certainly seems to be reservation walking, as now the Saturday is available and the Sunday is not.

I would not be opposed to limits on how many times a reservation can be modified, perhaps with any further modifications after a certain number being available for a fee.

 

[kilik64]

The standards at BLT seem to be walked year round! I’ve owned there for 4 months and only seen availability pop up once!

There are only 30 of them, so even if not walked, its hard to get.

In comparison lake view has 101.

On top of that, they are all lockoffs, meaning if a 2br lockoff is booked there goes a studio with it.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I get your disappointment. I would be too! But I’m not sure we should expect the Guides to give reasons why someone should not buy points.

I can see how that conversation would go.... "You know certain studios at VGF or AKV or BWV or BLT can be very difficult to get at 11 months - just to warn. But if you buy double the points, you would have no issue getting the 1BRs, so you might want to consider buying more...." I don't think that would be received very well....

 

[tom1944]

I can see how that conversation would go.... "You know certain studios at VGF or AKV or BWV or BLT can be very difficult to get at 11 months - just to warn. But if you buy double the points, you would have no issue getting the 1BRs, so you might want to consider buying more...." I don't think that would be received very well....

I am not sure the advantage of owning at BLT is worth the premium (even with resale prices down) of buying SSR points and using them at BLT.

Of course, there may be an exception if you travel at the very peak times.

Without negotiating on the SSR side I can buy 25-30% more points at SSR for what I would spend at BLT even offering 10% lower than the lowest asking price for a BLT listing.

For a 1 bedroom at BLT the standard room is 15% more than a lake view room and the standard room is not always available at 11 months. 9 days either 295 or 340 points

I save 25% on cost and have to spend 15% more on booking but get a better view. Plus, there is no guarantee the less expensive BLT room would be available anyway.

None of the above means I have taken BLT out of consideration it is just to say there are a lot of things to consider when you decide what to buy.
It is why the emotional aspect of what you want to own means so much.

 

[Sandisw]

We keep going in circles. If you were to argue, that the BPK addition increased competition for 1BR, it would be highly likely because BPK did not add any. If only one new VGF owner prefers 1BRs (quite likely), the addition made matters worse for existing owners. No doubt here.

But the fact that some days there are still resort studios available while there are no more deluxe available by itself does not prove that the booking situation for deluxe studios was made worse (could be true or not): there are 4 times as many resort studios now. Even if people hypothetically actually preferred resort studios by a ratio of 2:1, we would still see deluxe studios fully booked first as there are only 50 of them. It's quite likely that they would also be fully booked at the same time or even earlier without the addition. It's quite possible that resort studios offer additional (resort) studio availability to original owners at times when deluxe studios would have been fully booked anyway.

I have read the argument on these boards frequently enough, that everyone prefers the deluxe to the resort studios. But this is not true for everyone. I for one do not. I don't have any use for a kitchenette while on a one week vacation at WDW and find the resort studios more appealing (location, views, design).

We keep going in circles. If you were to argue, that the BPK addition increased competition for 1BR, it would be highly likely because BPK did not add any. If only one new VGF owner prefers 1BRs (quite likely), the addition made matters worse for existing owners. No doubt here.

But the fact that some days there are still resort studios available while there are no more deluxe available by itself does not prove that the booking situation for deluxe studios was made worse (could be true or not): there are 4 times as many resort studios now. Even if people hypothetically actually preferred resort studios by a ratio of 2:1, we would still see deluxe studios fully booked first as there are only 50 of them. It's quite likely that they would also be fully booked at the same time or even earlier without the addition. It's quite possible that resort studios offer additional (resort) studio availability to original owners at times when deluxe studios would have been fully booked anyway.

I have read the argument on these boards frequently enough, that everyone prefers the deluxe to the resort studios. But this is not true for everyone. I for one do not. I don't have any use for a kitchenette while on a one week vacation at WDW and find the resort studios more appealing (location, views, design).

I’ve been around long enough and have tracked that resort over many years.

I am confident that the ability to book the deluxe studios is more difficult all year round than it was prior to BPK, but even more so now.

So, we will agree to disagree.

 

[walt34]

I’ve been around long enough and have tracked that resort over many years.

I am confident that the ability to book the deluxe studios is more difficult all year round than it was prior to BPK, but even more so now.

So, we will agree to disagree.

We don't necessarily disagree on your assessment. I haven't been tracking availability nearly long enough to compare with the time before BPK. It doesn't look too bad to me now and people keep complaining about decreased availability at other resorts as well so maybe there is something else at play as well (e.g. demand shifting to different seasons).

I just don't think that a day with no availability of deluxe and availability at resort studios is a case in point because of the huge difference in numbers. Your comparison with previous years is a valid argument, though and I'm happy to concede that.

Happy holidays!

P.S. The walkers seems to have moved one day forward, again. For both types of studios.

 

[tx911]

We don't necessarily disagree on your assessment. I haven't been tracking availability nearly long enough to compare with the time before BPK. It doesn't look too bad to me now and people keep complaining about decreased availability at other resorts as well so maybe there is something else at play as well (e.g. demand shifting to different seasons).

I just don't think that a day with no availability of deluxe and availability at resort studios is a case in point because of the huge difference in numbers. Your comparison with previous years is a valid argument, though and I'm happy to concede that.

Happy holidays!

P.S. The walkers seems to have moved one day forward, again. For both types of studios.

I saw that the day had been walked forward too.

I wonder why Disney doesn't curtail this practice. A simple limit to the allowed number of modifications on a reservation, for example 2 or 3 times, would significantly limit walking while having essentially no effect on legit bookings.