Typical availability at 7 months...

[jimonb]

Starting to consider buying dvc resale at Saratoga Springs. I like Saratoga, however, the main selling point for me is the ability to use points at any resort. Only going to be buying 150-200 points, so likely will mostly be staying in the studios. What resorts typically have studios available at 7 months out in the busier seasons (dream or magic)? Wanting to stay at Polynesian, Boardwalk, Beach Club, and Bay Lake Tower. Thanks.

 

[CraigInPA]

You may want to take a look at this thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...tudios-some-1-bedrooms-prepared-2015.3419112/
It's outdated, but can be used as a general guide.

 

[disneynutz]

Booking patterns today is not an indication of patterns tomorrow. A few years ago booking was more open compared to today, tomorrow will be worse as thousands of owners are added and they all want to book at 7 months.

Your only guarantee is to buy where you love to stay.

Bill

 

[chalee94]

Your only guarantee is to buy where you love to stay.

Bill

Agreed. If you buy at SSR but would be disappointed to have to stay there, you may be setting yourself up for some trouble.

 

[aokeefe]

I can only give a you little insight bc I am a new DVC member and booked my first stay at BWV for April Magic Season (Northeast vacation week). I booked at the 9 month window (as soon as I had my points). At that time Beach Club studios were all gone. Studios were available at Boardwalk, polynesian and Bay Lake (lake view). I watched the availability for 2 months so I can figure out how fast rooms book up. At 7 months out Poly studios and BLT studios were available. 100-150 points would get you less 6 nights or less.

Bottom line- buy where you don't mind staying.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Also, using points value as your indicator of busy is a bad idea with DVC. Busy season for DVC is late September through marathon, plus any given holiday weekend or runDisney event. Neither really overlaps to Dream nor Magic seasons for points, save at Thanksgiving, plus the random 3-day weekends/runDisney events. Most of DVC busy season is during Adventure/Choice seasons.

Increasingly, it is more and more difficult to get studios at BWV or BCV many times of year. VGF studios at 7 months for any more than a night or two is rough. At BLT, in low season, expect to be booking Lake View (not Standard, and probably not TPV). At BWV, if a studio is available, it will be Pool/Garden. At 7, expect never to get Value Studios at AKV, although Standard and Savannah are very possible much of the year.

But if you buy Saratoga and won't be happy booking there at 11 months and seeing what you can get at 7, don't buy Saratoga.

 

[DougEMG]

Right now there are 3 nights already missing in a standard view studio at BWV for Aug 2018, 11 months out.

Buying today I would definitely be only buying where I didn't mind staying. It is just too hit and miss at 7 months. We always book BWV first at 11 months and then I'll try to add something else in at the 7 month mark to do a split stay, but if I don't get anything I am happy to stay at BWV.

 

[disneynutz]

Disers often use the terms like "buy where you don't mind staying", I use the term "buy where you love to stay", why, because we will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars during the life of our contracts and I expect to stay at the resorts that we love, not at resorts less popular and available.

Bill

 

[jimonb]

Thank all for all the insights. It may be worth the extra money for me to buy at a different resort...

 

[Minniesgal]

Thank all for all the insights. It may be worth the extra money for me to buy at a different resort...

Or buy enough points to stay in 1 bedroom as they have much better availability and are a really nice place to stay

 

[jimonb]

Good idea

 

[Matty B13]

Yeah, 1 bedrooms are a much better bet, but not a guarantee, especially during rundisney events.

 

[disneynutz]

Thank all for all the insights. It may be worth the extra money for me to buy at a different resort...

If you really don't care where you stay it really doesn't matter. For us, staying at our favorite resorts really does matter and if we couldn't we would not be vacationing at Disney. Spending more to get what you want is worth it to us.

Bill

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you lack sufficient Disney or DVC experience to have a favorite resort, Saratoga is not a bad plan, so long as you have the means to pay cash, and possibly flip the contract in a few years to buy the points you find you really want, and also so long as you understand the limitations of a 7month booking, particularly in fall. You may learn waitlist and backup plans quite intimately, which is not the dream most people have buying in.

 

[kniquy]

Late September through marathon weekend in Jan - book your home resort and hope something is available at the 7 month window. Other times of the year there is availability elsewhere. For example. I was looking at changing a portion of our 2BR AKV stay in April to another 2BR at BC or BW. - As i was watching my dates approaching the 7 month mark there was availability, but 7 months opened and they were booked. I didn't jump on changing my reservation because i was really undecided.

at 2 days past the 7 month mark i made a last minute decision to change to Poly for 3 days -- they were able to book 2 standard studios for those 3 days. So there was availability. It really all depend on the time of year. There are some loose patterns for booking but no one really knows what will happen at the 7 month mark. You just have to be happy with your home resort if you get stuck there. This is why we chose AKV for our home. We had stayed at SSR before becoming owners and as nice as the resort is I just can't come to FL and not have palm trees at my resort.

 

[Wakey]

I bought enough for a 1 bedroom and can stay everywhere when I go in summer. Spending more would have been a waste of money. As to booking patterns, See attached. 2015 data. Iv'e kept a close eye on it this year and it's still accurate in my view. With Riviera being the next resort, that may actually relieve some booking pressure on BWV and BCV as long as it's similar or less points per night.
If you wish to resort hop, and don' mind the extra dues, 1 bed is the way to go.

 

[zavandor]

Thank all for all the insights. It may be worth the extra money for me to buy at a different resort...

Do you have a favorite resort and are ready to pay the premium to stay there?
If you don't travel during the very busy periods that @_auroraborealis_ repoted, you have a good chance of trying different resorts over time. You won't be able to get the very difficult categories but a lake view at BLT or Garden view at BWV are not impossible.

I bought DVC because of the possibility to stay at different resorts over time, so SSR was the most logical choice because of buy in cost and low MF. It helps that I like the resort and not only I don't mind staying there, but the beautiful grounds and walking distance of DS are really appealing to me.

I reccommend to not buy SSR if you want to use the points to routinely book another specific resort.
But if you're flexible with your travel dates and want to try different resorts over time, buy SSR (or BLT, second best choice). If you want to stay in a specific resort and would be disappointed if you cannot get it, buy there.

 

[Wakey]

Do you have a favorite resort and are ready to pay the premium to stay there?
If you don't travel during the very busy periods that @_auroraborealis_ repoted, you have a good chance of trying different resorts over time. You won't be able to get the very difficult categories but a lake view at BLT or Garden view at BWV are not impossible.

I reccommend to not buy SSR if you want to use the points to routinely book another specific resort.
But if you're flexible with your travel dates and want to try different resorts over time, buy SSR (or BLT, second best choice). If you want to stay in a specific resort and would be disappointed if you cannot get it, buy there.

SSR can be a very good strategy to stay other resorts if you stay in a 1 bed.

 

[disneynutz]

In our earlier DVC years we didn't really care where we stayed so the SSR strategy would have worked. After staying at all DVC resorts, we found ourselves desiring certain resorts more than others and certain room categories or views. Owning those resorts gives us what we want, when we want it and we plan the resort and view ten years out. In 2026 we are scheduled to stay at BWV, Boardwalk view one-bedroom for ten nights.

Bill

 

[crisi]

Disers often use the terms like "buy where you don't mind staying", I use the term "buy where you love to stay", why, because we will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars during the life of our contracts and I expect to stay at the resorts that we love, not at resorts less popular and available.

Bill

We used to say "buy where you want to stay" - but the problem was too many people responded "but I want to stay EVERYWHERE" - which is fine if you have a ton of money to spend on points - but most of us don't. So it morphed to "buy where you don't mind staying" I own BWV and if I got stuck there, I'd be happy (perhaps a little disappointed if I didn't get the VGF room I wanted, but more or less happy). Where if I owned SSR and got stuck there, I would be very unhappy.

(That is me, plenty of people love SSR and look forward to staying there.)