DVC Availability (paying cash) for late December

[reluctantredhead]

Hi everyone! Please forgive me if this is a really dumb question. Since the pandemic hit and we've had to cancel a couple of WDW trips, I've stayed off the Dis because it's honestly just made me too sad to think about trips that we can't go on...so admittedly, my knowledge is outdated.

I was looking at availability on the Disney World website last night, and I noticed that for the week after Christmas (specifically 12/27-1/3) there isn't a single DVC room available. Is this normally the case, or is this due to Covid? With the exception of 2020, we've been spending the week before (including Christmas Day) at WDW and have never had issues with availability when booking this far in advance. I noticed that Club level rooms (which we have often booked in the past) are currently not available, and if I understand correctly from reading other threads, this is due to Covid. In the past, we have sometimes stayed in DVC 1 bedrooms that we booked for cash on the Disney website, and we think that one of these rooms would be perfect for this year's trip. Is there any chance that a decent amount of availability for these rooms will pop up in the coming months, or is it typical that the post-Christmas week is 100% sold out already? Specifically, we are most interested in BLT, BCV, BWV (all of which we've stayed at previously), or the Grand Floridian Villas, which we'd love to try.

Thank you in advance for any information or insights you can provide!

 

[Capitalangel]

I believe owners can book at 11 months out at their home resorts but cash bookings are not released to the public til closer. Not sure if it is after the reservations open to non- home resort DVC members or not, maybe someone else knows when they are released

 

[reluctantredhead]

I believe owners can book at 11 months out at their home resorts but cash bookings are not released to the public til closer. Not sure if it is after the reservations open to non- home resort DVC members or not, maybe someone else knows when they are released

Thanks so much for your quick reply!

I feel so foolish! When I searched this topic, I used search terms for post Christmas week availability...and completely forgot that we hadn't quite hit the 11 month mark yet for DVC rooms...which explains why I could find availability already for rooms from 12/19-12/23, but not for post-Christmas. Time has been such a blur to me during the pandemic that I hadn't even realized that we hadn't hit the 11 month point! I'll be stalking the website daily to wait for availability to open up.

 

[clayfolks]

DVC usage is very different, right now, due to Covid. Because the resorts were shut down for so long, many members have an excess of points that they must use or loose. My guess is that there will not be much cash availability the latter part of this year as members will snag those rooms. Cash rooms become available when members trade out of the DVC system and into RCI, for example. Nothing has been open for members to trade into, therefore little to no availability for cash.

 

[reluctantredhead]

DVC usage is very different, right now, due to Covid. Because the resorts were shut down for so long, many members have an excess of points that they must use or loose. My guess is that there will not be much cash availability the latter part of this year as members will snag those rooms. Cash rooms become available when members trade out of the DVC system and into RCI, for example. Nothing has been open for members to trade into, therefore little to no availability for cash.

This makes perfect sense, and is what I feared. When I checked the other day, there was some limited availability for the 19th through the 23rd...I guess I'll just have to keep checking every day to see if anything is available, and perhaps go ahead and book two regular hotel rooms in case no DVC availability ever materializes.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and and for explaining the current situation...it is much appreciated!

 

[Marionnette]

Disney retains a small percentage of the points at every DVC resort. Like all other owners, DVC can reserve rooms with those points at 11 months. DVC then turns those rooms over to Disney CRO to sell for cash. They are also supposed to retain a few for maintenance issues, in the event that a room that a member was assigned to needs to be pulled out of service. Those DVC rooms that are available on the Disney website for December of this year fall in this category.

When a member trades out their points to RCI, the room that their points could have booked has to go into RCI’s inventory. Those rooms are not made available for cash booking.

When members trade out to other Disney vacations such as using their points for ABD, DCL or the Disney Collection, then those points can be used by DVC to reserve a villa, which then gets turned over to CRO to sell. Given that ABD and DCL are currently not running, not many points are being traded out in this manner, resulting in fewer villas being turned over to CRO this way.

Finally, there’s what is referred to as breakage. Those are the villas that went unreserved with less than 60 days remaining until check in. DVC keeps some of them for last minute booking by owners but the rest get turned over to CRO for cash. You won’t see the week of Christmas to New Years Day available from breakage until October, and those will be the rooms no one wanted.

I think Christmas Week is going to be a tough one to get this year. A lot of owners are flush with points due to COVID. They’re in a use it or lose it situation with those points. And they’re booking up December earlier than I’ve seen in the past, probably because there’s a lot of hope that things will begin to return to normal once vaccinations become more available.

 

[Silvermist999]

Disney retains a small percentage of the points at every DVC resort. Like all other owners, DVC can reserve rooms with those points at 11 months. DVC then turns those rooms over to Disney CRO to sell for cash. They are also supposed to retain a few for maintenance issues, in the event that a room that a member was assigned to needs to be pulled out of service. Those DVC rooms that are available on the Disney website for December of this year fall in this category.

When a member trades out their points to RCI, the room that their points could have booked has to go into RCI’s inventory. Those rooms are not made available for cash booking.

When members trade out to other Disney vacations such as using their points for ABD, DCL or the Disney Collection, then those points can be used by DVC to reserve a villa, which then gets turned over to CRO to sell. Given that ABD and DCL are currently not running, not many points are being traded out in this manner, resulting in fewer villas being turned over to CRO this way.

Finally, there’s what is referred to as breakage. Those are the villas that went unreserved with less than 60 days remaining until check in. DVC keeps some of them for last minute booking by owners but the rest get turned over to CRO for cash. You won’t see the week of Christmas to New Years Day available from breakage until October, and those will be the rooms no one wanted.

I think Christmas Week is going to be a tough one to get this year. A lot of owners are flush with points due to COVID. They’re in a use it or lose it situation with those points. And they’re booking up December earlier than I’ve seen in the past, probably because there’s a lot of hope that things will begin to return to normal once vaccinations become more available.

Do you have any insight as to when cash reservation rooms might be available/released at the DVC resorts for March 2022. Upon checking Disney’s website, there is no availability at all except for CC, RIV and BWV. A few weeks ago there were tons of options.

 

[Marionnette]

Do you have any insight as to when cash reservation rooms might be available/released at the DVC resorts for March 2022. Upon checking Disney’s website, there is no availability at all except for CC, RIV and BWV. A few weeks ago there were tons of options.

A few weeks ago, DCL opened up a special booking for DVC members on the Wish. A significant number of DVC points were used for those bookings, which resulted in the need to convert those points to rooms to be sold for cash. That's why you saw a large number of rooms available for cash reservations.

Anytime a member trades out to ABD, DCL, or the Disney Collection a DVC room will be made available for a cash booking. But it won't necessarily be for March 2022. Breakage rooms will be made available for cash bookings approximately 60 days out (i.e. some time in January 2022 for March 2022).

ETA: At this time, approximately 51% of Riviera is owned by DVC members as opposed to sold out resorts which are about 98% owned by DVC members. The other 49% of Riviera is owned by DVD (the developer of DVC resorts). That 41% is given to CRO to sell for cash reservations and the money goes into DVD's pockets. The large percentage of DVD-owned points at Riviera is the reason that you see so much availability at that DVC resort.

 

[Silvermist999]

A few weeks ago, DCL opened up a special booking for DVC members on the Wish. A significant number of DVC points were used for those bookings, which resulted in the need to convert those points to rooms to be sold for cash. That's why you saw a large number of rooms available for cash reservations.

Anytime a member trades out to ABD, DCL, or the Disney Collection a DVC room will be made available for a cash booking. But it won't necessarily be for March 2022. Breakage rooms will be made available for cash bookings approximately 60 days out (i.e. some time in January 2022 for March 2022).

Thank you for such a detailed response!