Trip Accommodations: Disney Vacation Club Split Stay 11 & 7 Month Booking; Off & On-Site @ Universal

[@stephaniebfi4297]

This was such a cool video. Boardwalk always looks hopeless. So great to see waitlist come through.

[@PixieDustPhD]

BoarWalk pretty much always looks really bad at 7 months for sure. And I know it's a tiny sample size, but I've waitlisted it twice and gotten it. I also have a friend who booked at 1 bedroom and waitlisted the standard view studio and it came through! People move their trips around a surprising amount in my opinion... so you never know!! If you are for sure traveling during that time, I would suggest booking something like OKW or SSR etc just to make sure you have somewhere to sleep lol. But try for the waitlist for sure! It might come through.

[@lanaturopathefrugale]

Awesome video - very nice to see the complete process and it looks like a lot of work so thank you for sharing all of it!

[@PixieDustPhD]

Glad you enjoyed it and I hope it was a teensy bit helpful!

[@jessicataiv]

Great video! Loved the insight into DVC booking.

[@PixieDustPhD]

Cheers, thanks so much!

[@peterodonnell8715]

I love this slate! Poly is a great choice for the big chunk since they're the largest studios (and they're very pretty, too.) You are a blood sport split stayer! I don't know if I could do this, but I've ruined split stays for myself with my two single night trips. But I think if I was on a trip the length of yours, I would want to try at least two resorts. Maybe a 5-night maximum per resort is a rule of thumb I'll follow. It's very interesting to see your process. I'm glad the waitlist worked out for you. I've done it twice and both times I got my reservation by stalking the site. I was never contacted about the availability opening up. Hmmm... I can't wait to hear about the resort experience. I really like staying at Poly, although the pools are not my favorites. I hope BW was fun. I've been hearing a lot of negative reports lately. I hope you'll try Riv as your Epcot area resort one of these days. I think you'll be pleased. Looking forward to the rest of your trip clips! Have a great day, Jacqueline!

[@PixieDustPhD]

"Blood sport split stayer" lololol it's true though. I don't know... on the one hand I do enjoy the thought of just checking into one place, plopping down, and not moving. On the other, i think a huge factor for DVC for us was the location of the resorts; so I'm generally inclined to try to move locations to make that work for us. Frankly, we do that when we travel abroad as well. I think Paris was the first time we probably didn't move hotels to different parts of the city for on a longer trip for us, and that was basically because we booked it on points and that has a "stay 4 nights get the 5th free" stipulation. I definitely think the single nights are hard. I also feel like 2 nights is doable but not ideal. That 3 - 5 night range for a trip like Disney just works very well for us... so yeah, 2 resorts, 5 night max per resort could be very fun! Yeah the first time I tried waitlist I found the reservation before member services ever did it. I asked about that; it does seem to be a weakness of not having the waitlist system fully automated but shrug. Im happy for people who find the reservations they want by the manual process; I'm happy for people who get the waitlist to work for them. Overall, particularly for folks who plan ahead, I almost never see genuine complaints about availability. Riv is an interesting prospect now that we have valid points for it. I fear it will uh always lose the comparison to BoardWalk simply since from BoardWalk we can walk to both EPCOT and HS and from Riv you cannot. And I know the skyliner is way way better than a bus (or driving), but it's still not me being in charge of my own destiny the way walking is... and also it always takes longer than I think it will (that's definitely a me problem though lol I expect those things to MOVE hahaha). I do want to stay at the Riv at some point... may just have to split that with BW though to satiate my walking desires haha

[@johnaesposito1737]

I haven’t been putting my travel party when I first book DVC. Like we’re going on a brief trip in December that I booked several months ago and I didn’t add my travel party (partly because I wasn’t sure who’d be going, partly I was just being lazy) till just a few days ago (and after I’d already linked the reservation in MDE). I don’t think this caused any trouble. The party even showed right up in MDE with just a page refresh. Not sure if it could cause issues, but just my experience. Thanks for this in depth lead through of your process. I haven’t tried to be first in line to book trips yet. I didn’t even realize that booking opened at 8am! I’ve been basically just booking whatever is available when I sit down to book. This is helpful and gets me thinking about how to do it better in the future!

[@PixieDustPhD]

Oh interesting! I feel like once I tried to speed through it and it made me fill out the party info, but I might be lying to myself there (or perhaps this was changed). Good to know!