gracelrm
<font color=teal>Wow - you learn something new eve
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2002
So for months, I've been planning our next trip to celebrate my retirement. On September 1st, I'll retire after 34 years in education. My plan was to stay in the three monorail resorts - three nights each. I've never planned a split stay like this, and have only ever stayed at more than one resort on a trip when we've decided on a last minute trip and had to piece one together. I've asked all sorts of questions on these boards first, for the ins and outs of split trip planning then, most recently, trying to figure out the best way to change from my home resort to my desired resorts at the 7 month mark.
I've gotten great advice on here and learned about the double browser method to change resorts at 7 month mark. I've set alarms with reminders for all three days that I will need to be online at 7:00(central time). About once a month, I check to make sure I have the right dates in my phone for reminders and for about the last two months, I check the vacation planning section of the website to see if my desired locations were still available. In about the last 14 days, I could tell that my first reservation would need to be PVB, the second would be GF and the last three nights would be BLT. About a week ago, figured out we'd need lake-view instead of standard at PVB & GF (but had suspected that all along). Sunday, I got up at 6:45am to make the first change using the two browser method and everything worked perfectly. One down, two to go. Oh, I forget to mention, for the past week, I've checked availability two or more times a night. My DH may be getting tired of me talking about "what ifs".
Today was the morning to change the second portion of the trip to GF - lake-view. I looked right before I went to bed last night and all was good. I was ready for work early and waiting for 7:00 am central time to come along and at 6:55, I checked one more time and wouldn't you know, one night of the three desired nights was gone. For about 2 weeks, I knew this was our only shot, but since it included two weekend nights with the higher points I assumed I'd be fine. I was so disappointed. All along I've been saying staying at our home resort of BRV would be perfectly fine, but I've never stayed at GF and since it's a special trip, I REALLY wanted this.
So for now, I'm waitlisted for the three nights at GF. Tomorrow, I will try to add a night at PVB and hope for two consecutive nights at GF. I had been warned by knowledgable people on these boards that GF would be difficult, but the consensus was a September check-in shouldn't be too hard. So normally, I'm happy where ever I get a reservation and have never obsessed over things like I have done this time. Maybe the DVC gods are trying to help ease me in to retirement by learning to go with the flow.
I've gotten great advice on here and learned about the double browser method to change resorts at 7 month mark. I've set alarms with reminders for all three days that I will need to be online at 7:00(central time). About once a month, I check to make sure I have the right dates in my phone for reminders and for about the last two months, I check the vacation planning section of the website to see if my desired locations were still available. In about the last 14 days, I could tell that my first reservation would need to be PVB, the second would be GF and the last three nights would be BLT. About a week ago, figured out we'd need lake-view instead of standard at PVB & GF (but had suspected that all along). Sunday, I got up at 6:45am to make the first change using the two browser method and everything worked perfectly. One down, two to go. Oh, I forget to mention, for the past week, I've checked availability two or more times a night. My DH may be getting tired of me talking about "what ifs".
Today was the morning to change the second portion of the trip to GF - lake-view. I looked right before I went to bed last night and all was good. I was ready for work early and waiting for 7:00 am central time to come along and at 6:55, I checked one more time and wouldn't you know, one night of the three desired nights was gone. For about 2 weeks, I knew this was our only shot, but since it included two weekend nights with the higher points I assumed I'd be fine. I was so disappointed. All along I've been saying staying at our home resort of BRV would be perfectly fine, but I've never stayed at GF and since it's a special trip, I REALLY wanted this.
So for now, I'm waitlisted for the three nights at GF. Tomorrow, I will try to add a night at PVB and hope for two consecutive nights at GF. I had been warned by knowledgable people on these boards that GF would be difficult, but the consensus was a September check-in shouldn't be too hard. So normally, I'm happy where ever I get a reservation and have never obsessed over things like I have done this time. Maybe the DVC gods are trying to help ease me in to retirement by learning to go with the flow.
Bill
. It looks like you'll still need to stalk. That one might be a bit harder because of the member's event. Make sure you have a backup!
