First Reservation...Need Advice

[cwilstl]

We are making our first reservation soon, at our newly purchased DVC home, BWV. The dates are October 13-19 2019. I will be taking myself, my wife, and two kids. Also, we are taking both sets of grandparents (4 additional adults.) I know from reading these boards for several years that its a premium time for DVC reservations at my resort. I'm kind of nervous I won't be able to secure all the reservations I need.

Ideally, I would like a one bedroom space for our immediate family and a studio for each set of grandparents. it doesn't matter if that takes the form of a 2 bedroom and a studio or 1 bedroom and 2 studios. We would prefer to have at least the one bedroom directly on the boardwalk for my immediate family. The grandparents can stay standard view or boardwalk. I have worked all scenarios point wise and I have the points to cover any combination.

My question is this: What should be my strategy the morning of November 13 when I can book this trip? i.e. I assume I start online. What room should I try to secure first? In what combination? What combo leads to the greatest chance of success? On the online system do I need to make one reservation and then start the process over and do the next? Or can I make two or three at the same time for two or three different rooms?

My end goal is to make sure I'm able to secure reservations for all of us at BWV for those dates.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

At BWV every 2BR is part of a lockoff. So it honestly doesn't matter a lot the order.

Book a studio and a 2BR. If you want either to be Standard or BW View, do that one first. Your easiest booking will be Pool-Garden.

 

[disneynutz]

Book the boardwalk view room first, then the pool-garden view next. Add "traveling with reservation #" to each reservation and maybe, just maybe your rooms might be across the hall from each other or at least close.

Bill

 

[drusba]

Your issue is Columbus Day weekend and standard view studios (and possibly even boardwalk view studios), which also means you have an issue for a standard 2BR (or possibly boardwalk view 2BR) since the 2BRs are all lock-offs, and thus if the studio is reserved there is no longer the 2BR to reserve.

Here is what might happen for the time you want because it has occurred in the past

-- the standard view studios (and thus also 2BRs) could fill for Oct 13 and possibly 14 before Nov 13 by those making reservations with start dates of Oct 10,11, or 12. If not filled before Nov 13, it is likely they will fill for Oct 13 and 14 within nanoseconds after 8 a.m. eastern on Nov 13 when online reservations open for an Oct 13 start date

-- the same could happen to boardwalk view studios (and 2BRs) but a lesser risk of that

-- the 1BRs in both categories will be open on Nov 13 even after 9 a.m. to reserve Oct 13-19. (Likewise, if you want any size pool/garden view room, you will have no problem getting it at 11 months out.)

The only guaranteed way to avoid the risk of not getting a 2BR or studio standard or boardwalk view for the time you want is to walk the reservations (other than any 1BR) and start walking early, potentially as follows:

A. Assumption: your use year beginning month is not October:

Go on line on October 23 and reserve the rooms you want other than 1BRs for Sep 23 to 28. Why then and why only five nights? That start time in Sep has traditionally had all BWV rooms open at 11 months out for at least an hour after 8 a.m. If you wait to start the walk until three or four days later, you will run into the beginning of DVC's high demand season, which runs from late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan -- the change in demand that can occur between Sep 23 and Sep 27 is extreme -- and with any start dates of Sep 27 or after, you can face a potential issue of standard view studios disappearing right at 8 a.m. at 11 months out; it does not happen always but the risk is there.

Book only five nights because I assuming you may not have enough points to book six nights, the total reservation you actually want, if two rather one of the nights is a weekend night, and while walking you will need at times to have two weekend nights in the reservation.

Reserving Sep 23 to 28 on Oct 23 does the following: the rooms you have reserved cannot be taken by anyone else who attempts to reserve rooms at 11 months out with any start date of Sep 27 or before. You then "walk" those reservations by modifying them regularly to drop days at the beginning and add days at the end. For example, you could wait and go online and redo the reservation for each room on October 27 to change the dates to Sep 27 to Oct 2, then change again on Nov 1 to Oct 1-6; on Nov 5, you change to Oct 5-10; on Nov 9, you change to Oct 8 to 13; on Nov 12 change to Oct 12-17; then on Nov 13, change it to Oct 13-19.

Many suggest doing that walking exercise daily by dropping a day at the beginning or adding a new day at the end, which is possibly the safest, but doing it as described above should be sufficient.

B. You have an October use year

If you have an October use year, you cannot start a walk in Sep, because the start date would be in the wrong use year for the time you want to go, e.g., you canot borrow from your Oct 2019 use year to reserve dates in Sep 2019 because those borrowed points could not be put back into the Oct 2019 use year when you want to go to WDW. Thus, to start a walk you need to find a date in Oct when you can reserve rooms at 11 months out. You should start that exercise Nov 1 looking for an Oct 1 start date and reserve Oct 1-6, and if you cannot get an Oct 1 start date, try for Oct 2 on Nov 2, etc.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Yeah, what Drusba said!

Good luck with getting your reservations!

 

[cwilstl]

Thank you for the replies, especially Drusba!