Moonlight magic resort question

SecondEventuality

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Just curious, but I see that both nights in Sept for Moonlight Magic are booked for OKW - Hospitality House. No other nights selected. Thought that was odd, though, I suppose folks can come in locally for 1 night?

Even so, may I ask if folks will book this merely so they can register early and then do they release the reservation once that is done?

Just wondering if those dates generally will open up later on in the year, like a pattern.

Thanks!
 
My understanding is that if one takes advantage of early registration for having an on-site reservation that they will lose the tickets if they cancel that reservation

I ran into the same problem for the May Epcot date. Everything was booked in studios. But, in the past week or so, a few rooms have opened back up.

So, it is possible people booked as they decide if they will go.
 
I'm sure it's a lot of locals booking so that they can get the tickets early with a better guarantee of getting them. As with anything else that's "free", these events keep becoming harder and harder to lock in tickets for.

(I put "free" in quotes because it costs at least $18,000 to get in to these events, so the only people getting in for free are guests of the DVC members.)
 


To me this is as hot of a topic as walking, if not moreso.
@skier_pete says, its probably a lot of locals.
It kinda sucks that what you comment on happens, but, like walking, I doubt it will be addressed. (maybe it shouldn't be, IDK)

I admit, i have made DVC reservations because of MM, but I did so in 2017, when I took a one week ressie and moved it to the next week because of a MM. So that seems fair to me, because it was a "real" one week reservation. But is it really any different?

I want to try to get into the MK MM on 3/3 - so what I did was I booked a room at the all stars so I am eligible. I am not using points for 1 night, when I can get a room for 120 bucks, but thats just me.

What might be nice, perhaps, is if they make the registration for MM < 30 days from it, that way if you dont get in, and you booked a room for one night, if you cancel it it becomes holding points.

but yes, currently MM causing some booking issues
 
To me this is as hot of a topic as walking, if not moreso.
@skier_pete says, its probably a lot of locals.
It kinda sucks that what you comment on happens, but, like walking, I doubt it will be addressed. (maybe it shouldn't be, IDK)

I admit, i have made DVC reservations because of MM, but I did so in 2017, when I took a one week ressie and moved it to the next week because of a MM. So that seems fair to me, because it was a "real" one week reservation. But is it really any different?

I want to try to get into the MK MM on 3/3 - so what I did was I booked a room at the all stars so I am eligible. I am not using points for 1 night, when I can get a room for 120 bucks, but thats just me.

What might be nice, perhaps, is if they make the registration for MM < 30 days from it, that way if you dont get in, and you booked a room for one night, if you cancel it it becomes holding points.

but yes, currently MM causing some booking issues
But the room is actually being booked so what difference does it make if it is a local owner or someone travelling in? If they cancel they lose their event registration.
 
But the room is actually being booked so what difference does it make if it is a local owner or someone travelling in? If they cancel they lose their event registration.

Agree. What are people thinking the fix would be? Require the eligible MM booking to be 3 nights or more? Not allowing anyone with a FL address to book MM even with a qualifying resort booking?
 


But the room is actually being booked so what difference does it make if it is a local owner or someone travelling in? If they cancel they lose their event registration.
Who said anything about cancelling their reservation?
Locals book one night and use it.

Kinda sucks when you cant book a long reservation at your home resort at 10 months because 1 random night is blocked by this event.

And lets face it, MM events , while I enjoy them myself, are marketing tools. Its a perk to sell direct points.

Solution? Not sure if one is needed, or it is just something we live with.
But one solution would be, do not announce them more than 7 months out. But then thats unfair to some people.

Another solution would be to get rid of them, and let people pay for Disney after hours, which is a very similar event, with similar crowds. But Disney can't loose their marketing tool.

Another issue is people who do book one night, just for the event, and that is totally their right to do so - then dont get into the event - then cancel their reservation. they blocked that room for months and are now not using it because they could not get into a free event.

The correct action may very well be to do nothing, and let us members deal with it.

But, IT DOES throw a wrinkle into booking reservations.


Agree. What are people thinking the fix would be? Require the eligible MM booking to be 3 nights or more? Not allowing anyone with a FL address to book MM even with a qualifying resort booking?

I said NOTHING of the sorts. I merely pointed out that it does cause some issues.
 
To me this is as hot of a topic as walking, if not moreso.
@skier_pete says, its probably a lot of locals.
It kinda sucks that what you comment on happens, but, like walking, I doubt it will be addressed. (maybe it shouldn't be, IDK)

I admit, i have made DVC reservations because of MM, but I did so in 2017, when I took a one week ressie and moved it to the next week because of a MM. So that seems fair to me, because it was a "real" one week reservation. But is it really any different?

I want to try to get into the MK MM on 3/3 - so what I did was I booked a room at the all stars so I am eligible. I am not using points for 1 night, when I can get a room for 120 bucks, but thats just me.

What might be nice, perhaps, is if they make the registration for MM < 30 days from it, that way if you dont get in, and you booked a room for one night, if you cancel it it becomes holding points.

but yes, currently MM causing some booking issues
Though all the moonlight magic events are announced to occur well within 11 months. So the owners of those resorts did have time to book the room at 11 months. The MM dates are no different IMO than holidays and don't think it's locals exclusively causing those one days to disappear. I think a lot of owners local or not book multiple one nights because they know that night alone is the most difficult to book, thus lock it down early. If they get in they probably start booking the days around it (or start booking once they decide they will go with or without getting in). Its the same how I think holidays get booked immediately but the days before and after have plenty of availability sometimes, simply cause people book them knowing they go first thus just in case they decide to go. Its just FOMO so they lock the room in case they decide they will travel to Florida and decide they want to go.

But everyone had equal chance to book that single room when MM was announced. The only change I would like them to do is tease the date release. Simply tease that the dates will be announced on X day (giving like a week leeway) then release them during that time. That way the news filters to everyone and theoretically most people interested would be aware (since some people don't get any contact info from DVC, me being one).
 
It would be nice to have some notice as to when they come out. But, like with everything DVC, we take the good with the bad.
 
I will be in Australia on sign up day for June 29, so I bet I’ll not be going to that one.
 
Though all the moonlight magic events are announced to occur well within 11 months. So the owners of those resorts did have time to book the room at 11 months. The MM dates are no different IMO than holidays and don't think it's locals exclusively causing those one days to disappear. I think a lot of owners local or not book multiple one nights because they know that night alone is the most difficult to book, thus lock it down early. If they get in they probably start booking the days around it (or start booking once they decide they will go with or without getting in). Its the same how I think holidays get booked immediately but the days before and after have plenty of availability sometimes, simply cause people book them knowing they go first thus just in case they decide to go. Its just FOMO so they lock the room in case they decide they will travel to Florida and decide they want to go.

But everyone had equal chance to book that single room when MM was announced. The only change I would like them to do is tease the date release. Simply tease that the dates will be announced on X day (giving like a week leeway) then release them during that time. That way the news filters to everyone and theoretically most people interested would be aware (since some people don't get any contact info from DVC, me being one).
Good points, and most are announced well within 11 months, but not all. This years were released on 10/23 - 1 HS one is on 9/22 so within by a day, and one HS is 10/6 - outside of 11 months
But most are early in the year, and probably will tend to be, I dont see them being a summer thing.

I do not think locals are exclusively causing the issue, its never that simple with one root cause to an issue.
 
Good points, and most are announced well within 11 months, but not all. This years were released on 10/23 - 1 HS one is on 9/22 so within by a day, and one HS is 10/6 - outside of 11 months
But most are early in the year, and probably will tend to be, I dont see them being a summer thing.

I do not think locals are exclusively causing the issue, its never that simple with one root cause to an issue.
Oh I did miss the one HS event when I looked at the schedule. It is a hard balancing act cause they could move registration up earlier so that the rooms get dropped sooner by those that didn't get in. But that could lead to more burnt tickets since it's well document when reservations are cancelled they aren't pushing those tickets back out. It's more likely they just budget a turnover rate in the initial they give out.

They could do something like other companies do (for free events) which is charge a deposit for getting the tickets that you receive back when you check in. If you cancel or no-show you lose your deposit. Could be something minimal and if you cancel within X days it could be fully refundable. That would stop people grabbing events and rooms on spec they might be going. Or give more consideration on cancellation timelines. But then this is an overhead cost for sure.
 

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