Booking a Disney Villa (timeshare question)

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

Hi all,

I just discovered these boards, I wish I would have known about them earlier, they are wonderful! I have loved reading about everyone's vacations and WDW plans!

Anyways, I have a question for all of you. My family owns a timeshare week in Kissimmee and a condominium at home. Both of which belong to the International Interval timeshare company. We are planning a 2-week visit to Disney World this upcoming December/January, as my dad is going to run the Disney marathon! Owning these timeshares allows us to trade a week with any other resort belonging to Interval International. Anyways, we are planning to stay our week in Kissimmee and since our condo at home belongs to II and so do the Disney Resorts, we would like to trade one of our weeks for a week at one of the Disney Villas (WL, BC, SSR, OKW, etc). We are not picky, we just would like to experience Disney property, as we have taken about 8 trips to WDW and none on Disney property! Because of our timeshare, we would have to trade for a 2-bedroom villa.

Anyways, on Friday my father spoke with an Interval International agent to find out where we could stay and she said that none of the Disney Resort Villas had rooms availiable for the week we wanted! None! Even almost a year in advance. Now, I could be really wrong, but I find this hard to believe. She said that the 2-bedrooms are extremely rare to book because not very many people who own a week at those rooms are willing to give them up. However, I checked online on hotels.com and travelocity.com and it came up with rooms availiable for December, but not January. I read a thread on here that says nothing will come up online for January rooms anyways because its too far in advance. And I know that you dont have to belong to the DVC or own a room to stay in the villas, so it doesnt make any sense to me?

Can someone shed any light on this situation? Is there a chance a 2-bedroom villa will open up later in the year? We are very excited to be going to Disney, but we are disappointed that we cant stay at a Disney Resort, we were really looking forward to it. Thanks in advance!

 

[fla4fun]

Disney DVC allows owners to book their home resort 11 months in advance. At the 7 month point, the resorts are open for booking to all DVC owners, regardless of which resort is their home resort. I would imagine that anyone trading into a Disney DVC resort would not be allowed to book until after the 7 month window opens. They do this to allow owners first choice in their home resort.

 

[bicker]

I don't believe that's how it works. Rather, exchanges are matched-up. When you say you want to exchange out, they try to find someone who wants to exchange in. So the 11 months/7 months stuff has no impact.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I thought there was some sort of rule reguarding trades within the Orlando area. Am I wrong about that? I thought trades from within the same area could not be done.

 

[bicker]

That I'm not sure about. It sure makes sense to me. I know we cannot exchange into other Central Florida timeshares.

 

[castleri]

I thought there was some sort of rule reguarding trades within the Orlando area. Am I wrong about that? I thought trades from within the same area could not be done.

You're right but I think OP said they have two timeshares with II and one is not in the Orlando area. That would be the one they are trying to use.

I think Dean is one who may be able to answer the questions here. I had a coworker who was able to trade into DVC several years ago. She did a search through her II timeshare and when one came up they called her to let her know. It was for a 1 BR at OKW. I think the room availability the OP is looking at is the inventory that is designated to CRO and not the regular DVC one.

Dean where are you?

 

[Chuck S]

The "cash" room the OP is looking is CRO inventory. These are rooms available through the ownership that Disney retains in the DVC resorts. It could also be rooms at SSR that are finished, but not yet "declared" into DVC inventory...in otherwords, finished units that so far have no points sold in them.

I would also assume that DVC makes a limited number of rooms available to CRO based on anticipated availbility, based on normal patterns of member trades to cruises, DisneyLAND resorts, etc...basically any non-Interval Int'l trade.

In order for a DVC room to be available to Interval Int'l, a member has to trade out to an Interval Int'l destination.

 

[bicker]

Based on "normal patterns", Chuck? I would figure they'd have to wait for actual trades for cruises, the Disney Collection, etc.

 

[Chuck S]

Based on "normal patterns", Chuck? I would figure they'd have to wait for actual trades for cruises, the Disney Collection, etc.

But after so many years of DVC points being used for cruising, there certainly is enough data available to make pretty accurate predictions.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I didn't think that two bedrooms came up very often either.

 

[mikesmom]

OK, reality check here. It is very hard to trade into DVC using another timeshare. For something to be available, a DVC member has to have traded out to the other timeshare system to use one of their rooms. Frankly, just doesn't happen very often. Rooms through CRO, rooms from people taking the Disney Cruise, etc aren't in play. DVC members mostly use their membership to stay at WDW - not all, but certainly a majority. We see a lot of comments on these boards from frustrated people who say the other timeshare they bought said they would be able to trade easily into Disney, and it just doesn't happen.

Now that being said, I believe Dean has commented that the most likely times to find availability are in January and September. If there is some sort of waitlist available, I would get on it. I would also make a backup plan as the Marathon is getting more and more popular and makes it harder to get rooms at that time.

 

[tubtruck]

The poor value DVC owners recieve for their points through II probaby increases the likelyhood of been unable to get a trade into Disney, DVC owners realise that they own a unique product that is considerably more desirable than the majority of other timeshares and the reason for this is that it happens to be at the most popular family vacation place on earth, they are unlikly to be trading it out at the poor rates available especially with the ease that they can now rent their points out. Anyone who is trading in to a DVC is getting a bargain, folk trading out are often getting a bum deal, therefore not too many of them happen. Looking at some of the exchanges available, some are absoloutly rubbish, I was looking at one in the Canary Islands, for the price of renting my annual points out I would probably be able to pick up a secondhand contract for the place.

 

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

Thanks everyone for your responses. So basically it is different than someone who doesnt own a timeshare who wants to book a villa. In our situation, someone would have to trade one of their WDW resort room weeks into another II resort? That stinks, I doubt one will open up. Thats alright, we'll still have fun. But why then are the Disney resorts a part of the II if it is so hard for others to trade in?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks everyone for your responses. So basically it is different than someone who doesnt own a timeshare who wants to book a villa. In our situation, someone would have to trade one of their WDW resort room weeks into another II resort? That stinks, I doubt one will open up. Thats alright, we'll still have fun. But why then are the Disney resorts a part of the II if it is so hard for others to trade in?

There are plenty of trades available, but most DVC owners don't find it a good value to trade the high maintenance fees of DVC for a lesser resort, so that is ONE of the reasons. The other that the resort you own must be a good trade with Disney. If it is on the direct trade list with DVC, it would be
easier. If your timeshare is in the Orlando area, I'm not sure it is available to trade with DVC. I know we can't trade out to such a resort, so I'm assuming one of those resorts couldn't trade in either.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Thanks everyone for your responses. So basically it is different than someone who doesnt own a timeshare who wants to book a villa. In our situation, someone would have to trade one of their WDW resort room weeks into another II resort? That stinks, I doubt one will open up. Thats alright, we'll still have fun. But why then are the Disney resorts a part of the II if it is so hard for others to trade in?

There is reasonable availability thru II at times - September and January are good months for availability. There are NOT a lot of 2BR villas available, but the biggest factor regarding availability trading into DVC resorts is strongly affected by the trade power of your timeshare/condo within the II system. There may well be units available for exchange that you won't be able to "see" in the II system unless your trade is of sufficient value based on the II assessment.

There is still possibility of finding something available for the marathon - you might want to request an ongoing search thru II.

Good luck!

 

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

There is reasonable availability thru II at times - September and January are good months for availability. There are NOT a lot of 2BR villas available, but the biggest factor regarding availability trading into DVC resorts is strongly affected by the trade power of your timeshare/condo within the II system. There may well be units available for exchange that you won't be able to "see" in the II system unless your trade is of sufficient value based on the II assessment.

There is still possibility of finding something available for the marathon - you might want to request an ongoing search thru II.

Good luck!

Thank you, everyone's responses have been highly informative, and if nothing else I've learned a lot regarding DVC trading and II! hehe. Anyways, my dad is calling II back today and we are going to book another resort, but we are going to ask them to keep checking on the WDW resorts for us, and if anything becomes available we would like to book it. Actually, he told me that a 1-bdr at OKW just became available, so there is still I chance for the 2-bdr I think. The condo we are trading the week for recently joined II last year so I don't think it has much trading power within II (although I'm not sure of the factors that affect a resort's trading power). Our trip is still about 10 months away, so we'll see what happens!

 

[Mary Ellen]

Actually, he told me that a 1-bdr at OKW just became available, so there is still I chance for the 2-bdr I think.

FYI - in DVC, 1-br. units are MUCH easier to reserve than 2-br. Good luck.

 

[TinkRBel_In_Training]

FYI - in DVC, 1-br. units are MUCH easier to reserve than 2-br. Good luck.

Yeah, the woman on the phone told us that as well. If we have to we may just settle for a 1 bdr somewhere(there are only 3 in our party). Oh well, we are doing the ongoing search through II, so we're keeping our fingers double-crossed for a match! Thank you

 

[littlestar]

If you're trying to trade a Kissimmee timeshare into DVC, it will NEVER happen because there is a block (like for a 50 mile radius) for trading other Orlando area timeshares into DVC through II. Marriott does the same thing.

Now, if you're trying to trade another week that your dad owns (in a different area than Orlando) and the resort has a high enough quality rating in II, then you might get lucky and find a DVC trade in the month of January. It just depends on what you're using to try to trade and if it's got a high enough quality rating to pull DVC and if a DVC unit comes up for the week you want. If you can't pull DVC, there are some really nice Marriott timeshares in Orlando that you might be able to get - Marriott's Cypress Harbour or Marriott Grande Vista come to mind. But once again, Marriott has a block just like DVC does for other Orlando timeshares trading into an Orlando Marriott.

 

[castleri]

A 1BR at OKW is quite large and the sofa beds are very comfortable according to the people who have used them in our groups so if you really want to stay at Disney this would be a good thing. The other resorts have smaller 1BR units with smaller balcony areas etc. If you would do a 1 BR somewhere else I would go for the OKW 1 BR. if it is still available or another one comes up.

Good luck and