Complicated trip planning

[gracelrm]

We are planning my retirement trip (Woohoo!). My hopes for the trip will be 3 nights in each of the monorail DVC resorts in a studio for my DH and I. At the 11 month window, I plan to book the entire trip at my home resort, like I've done on any trip where I was planning to stay somewhere other than my home resort. So, I'm familiar with booking then changing the resort at the 7 month window. However, I've never tried to book a three way split stay at 7 months, like this trip. Once the 7 month window opens up, will I have to book the three resorts on three different days to have the 7 month window at each resort? For instance, if I had the 1st through the 10th reserved at home home resort at 11 months out, then at 7 months would I need to book the first 3 nights at BLT and keep the last six at my home resort. Then three days later, book the second three nights at PVB and keep the last 3 nights at my home resort and then finally, three days later, book the last 3 nights at VGF? Or is there a way to reserve all three of them at the 7 month mark of the entire trip.

I hope this is making sense. Like I've said, I've only tried to switch at the 7 month mark when the whole trip would be at one resort. Trying to make sure I've got this all figured out and know exactly what I'm doing.

 

[LisaS]

It can be confusing because to the guest, it is one vacation but to the booking system, it is three completely separate reservations. You must wait until 7 months from check-in for each of your three reservations to make that reservation.

ETA: Congratulations on your retirement!!

 

[Mrs.Milo]

I think you're right, at 7 months change home resort to 1st resort for 3 days, then wait 3 days for the next, and then 3 days more for the last. Or consider renting your home points out, and then rent what you want at 11 months out to make sure you get what you want on the Monorail. I think VGF especially would be hard to get, depending on time of year and that there aren't a lot of studios there.

 

[gracelrm]

Thanks! I assumed I'd have to do it this way after I started thinking about it. I guess I'll try each of the three times I switch to get VGF and if it doesn't work out, we'll be happy to stay at our home resort of VWL. I know, it's Boulder Ridge now, but it'll always be VWL to me!

Would a 1 BR at VGF be easier to get, I wonder? I guess we could always try for a 1BR if there is no availability for studios.

 

[cruisin5]

Booking your 11 month trip as 3 separate trips will permit cancelling/booking online without needing to call MS. You'll need to make each reservation under a unique name but when you finalize at 7 months you can clean up the names.

 

[com_op_2000]

Booking your 11 month trip as 3 separate trips will permit cancelling/booking online without needing to call MS. You'll need to make each reservation under a unique name but when you finalize at 7 months you can clean up the names.

2nd this option.
Book first 3 days at HR at 11 months under one name.
3 days later book 2nd 3 days at HR at 11 months under a different first name (IE: DW, DH, nickname, middle name, etc).
3 days later book 3rd 3 days at HR at 11 months under a different first name (IE: DW, DH, nickname, middle name, etc).
Then when the 7 month window opens you can cancel/book just one of the non-HR booking, do so online without involving MS, and making use of the one hour online booking advantage.

 

[Dean]

If one has sufficient points to hold multiple bookings, there are ways to improve the chances of success for ultimately getting what one wants. But it'd require a few phone calls to DVC and roughly double the points of the home resort 9 night reservation. In the absence of enough points to do so, I'd book as described. Whether it's worth the hassle depends on how difficult the options are likely to be to reserve and how many points the ultimate desired reservations are compared to the home resort reservation.

 

[mustinjourney]

what time of year are you looking at booking?

 

[gracelrm]

The trip will be mid September 2018. So my 11 month window at home resort of VWL is mid October 2017 and then the 7 month window(s) will be mid February 2018.

 

[Dean]

The trip will be mid September 2018. So my 11 month window at home resort of VWL is mid October 2017 and then the 7 month window(s) will be mid February 2018.

So you likely don't need to get fancy for that time unless you're counting on standard view villas at the 7 month resorts. But since the desired reservations will cost significantly more than the same nights at your home resort, if you have extra points tied up early on at BRV, you should still be able to use them.

 

[mustinjourney]

In your situation, I would book three different reservations at your home resort. That way you can cancel each portion as you go along without having to call MS to do it. When putting the names on the reservation, try to change them up slightly so the system doesn't merge your three reservations into one.

September is not the busiest time of the year, so your plan should be doable. VGF is going to be the hardest.

 

[gracelrm]

So you can book online earlier than you can call MS? What time can you start booking on-line?

 

[clayfolks]

Book online an hour earlier than calling MS.

 

[gracelrm]

Today, I was adding the dates for making ADRs and Fast Passes in my phone calendars for the trip mentioned above. Once my 7 month time comes around and I change my plans to the resorts I'll hopefully be moving to, can I then have the entire 9 nights linked together for ease with making my fast passes when the 60 day mark comes along - or will it continue to be three different reservations since it is three different resorts? I was thinking that making fast passes would be a lot better if I could make all nine days at one time. Thanks for all the help with trip planning.

 

[CarolMN]

Separate reservations can't be linked, but that's not a problem for FP+.

You will be able to make FP+ reservations for all days of your trip when the 60 day window opens for the first segment of the trip, assuming you have a ticket linked that covers the entire trip. Worked that way for me for our last trip 11/28/17 - 12/6/17.

You can also do all your ADRs (at 180 day window), but will have to call MS if you want to make some for the later segments at the same time the window opens for the first segment. Online looks at split stays as separate reservations.

Congratulations on your retirement! Retired life is great!

 

[gracelrm]

Thanks Carol. I'm looking forward to having time to devote to hobbies, travel, etc... Oh, and Disney trips, of course!

 

[gracelrm]

Well, I'm excited. I'm about a month away from starting to change over my reservations from my home resort to the monorail resorts and I check the availability about once a week. So far so good for getting what I want. I might have to get lake view instead of standard view at VGF and it's looking like it will have to be the middle leg of my 9 day stay, which increases the likelihood of the days getting snatched up before I can get them, but if I can't get VGF, I'll be perfectly happy at my home resort of BRV. In fact, I haven't been in the new pool there and I really like the open-air bar and will be fine to have a chance to try those out.

I actually had my first snow-day yesterday from my school and instead of snow-days, I'm calling them Retirement Practice Days!