Disney Vacation Club Booking, Oh MY!

Bay Lake Tower this is from my 2011 trip DH said lets stay one day!

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well with the hot weather we all seem to be getting this year.   I for one love the hot weather so this is perfect for me.  Now on to booking the very first reservation with our Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points.  Well, when I mentioned to my member rep that we had a two week window already for vacation he asked when?  I told him Nov. 12th to Nov. 25th,  he said go ahead and start booking.  Just like that!!!!!  I was already in the 11th month booking window.  I have never booked my own stay as we always went with my BF Nancy or her husband Phil and they  booked for my daughter and I on their points.  First I had to choose the length and the dates.  This just so happens to be smack during my daughters birthday week and then the next week is Thanksgiving, which I can’t miss either with our family.  I thought we wouldn’t be able to get a room for all the tea in China with the holiday the following week.  But, I was wrong.

You have a few options when booking your DVC vacation to Walt Disney World.  Phone is the original way or now on the computer.  Since this was my first time doing it by myself, as my daughter did hers alone when I gave her some shares for a trip they took this May, I figured I wanted to speak to the DVC department directly so I made sure to understand that I wasn’t going to make a mistake.  This actually ended up being quick and easy, I phoned and after a few questions we had our first reservation for our home resort, Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. I could say we stopped here but we didn’t. You know that 7 month booking window?  Well if you don’t the 7 month booking window allows you to stay at other DVC resorts that are not your home resort.  My husband really wanted to stay near Magic Kingdom this trip, if we didn’t have DVC it probably would have been the Disney Polynesian Resort, which would have been a great stay too as we have never stayed there yet.   I called on the 7th month booking day and asked the nice rep at DVC member services if they could check to see for me if there was anything open at Bay Lake Tower, crazy right new resort newbie DVC member!  To my surprise there was a 2 night reservation available in a studio Lake View. My husband was so excited as this is for his birthday that happens to be a month later.  The member rep asked if that was all or if we wanted to check for more days? I said no that was fine then we changed our minds again.  We said is there anything else? They said not at Bay Lake Tower but at the Boardwalk Villas there  is availability, but I would have to call back on the 17th to change the reservation we chose to change from Saratoga (home resort) the balance of our nights.  I spoke to my husband, of course he knew that I love that venue of the Boardwalk, he said call on the 17th see if there is anything available.  I did as he mentioned and to my surprise again there was a Boardwalk Villa Studio preferred view available.  Now the only issue was I had to borrow points from next year.  My head was spinning with all this, but by the end  of the phone conversation I think I finally understood how the points worked!  I have to commend DVC member services, they are so helpful and very understanding.  I felt like we were being huge pains.  They assured me I would get this booking down and the points system down in a few more vacations!  Next time I am going to book on the computer as my BF Nancy just did it for their Disneyland vacation and coastal California vacation. She said it was a piece of CAKE!  I believe I need to pick her brain and my other DVC family/friends to learn their easy ways:)

A picture of me in the lobby of Boardwalk Resort!

I hope you all are enjoying my adventure!  Have a Magical Day until the next edition on planning our days & dining!  Darlene

Tags: Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney Vacation Club, Disney's Boardwalk Resort

This entry was posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:00 AM and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.