If you intend to stay in 1-Bedroom Villas in the Summer

RamblinWreck · Mar 6, 2019

Does the mantra of "buy where you want to stay" really hold true?

It seems like there's availability 7 months out for 1 BR at most resorts during the summer months.

Am I overlooking anything?

BillPA · Mar 6, 2019

Always, unless you will not be disappointed if you get stuck at your home resort. As more and more DVC resorts are built home resort will be more and more important.

MB_01 · Mar 6, 2019

If you are thinking SSR or BRV they are both awesome anyway so who cares if you get stuck there. VB and HHI? I'm not sure if they can but Disney seems determined to find a way to screw that plan up for people...

drusba · Mar 7, 2019

1BRs are usually the last to be reserved. Moreover, DVC at WDW essentially has two demand seasons. The high to extremely high demand season that runs from late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan, and the low to moderate demand season that runs from the Monday after marathon weekend in Jan to late Sep. Thus, under current circumstances, if desire is always a 1BR during summer, one could purchase at, for example, SSR and likely be able to stay elsewhere every year. Buying HH or VB to stay at WDW is often not recommended because those resorts have high annual dues and a real hurricane risk that could result in an additional assessment of dues.

In any event, you should still consider that eventually things may change and you may be substantially limited to the resort you buy, e.g., your room size need may change in the future to a 2BR or maybe just a studio; your preferred time for going could shift to a higher demand season; DVC could do a seasonal point change by raising points needed in Fall and lowering them in summer, resulting in increase demand and lower availability for summer; DVC could adopt point requirements for reserving non-owned resorts at 7 months out that differ from the point requirements for home resorts at 11 months out, and make switching to MK and Epcot resorts cost significantly more points than shown in the existing home resort charts. Thus, you should buy a resort that you would accept staying at most of the time if circumstances change.

kniquy · Mar 7, 2019

If this is your plan then at least buying a DVC on property would be the way to go. 1BR are usually the ones open the longest, so if you have the points and want to go this route it isn't a bad plan. What works well is to book your home resort at 11 months so you are assured to have something and then at the 7 month window see what is open and online you can modify your reservation to a different resort.

As they continue to add DVC's the big issue is the cost is high so you end up with more members buying smaller contracts to stay in studios thus they book up first. With the higher points requirements of 1 BR I don't see this trend changing anytime soon.

DizneyLizzy · Mar 7, 2019

This was the first summer I tried to book anything except a 1 bedroom non-HH at OKW (which has been very easy to book the past few years at less than 7 months). I had no problem booking a one bedroom standard view at BLT, but I'm not expecting to be able to do so in the future (after Galaxy's Edge opens and the 50th anniversary stuff comes online). I also worry that if Disney does a reallocation and some of the summer points end up in the fall season to balance demand, summer will become more difficult to book. The bummer about summer (ha) is the high point cost...the upside is that 7 month people pretty much have their pick of whatever they want. But that could change at ANY time due to shifts in demand or point reallocations. I've never booked before 7 months before because our home is SSR, and we've become OKW or Poly people since having kids bc the villas at OKW are HUGE, and the studios at Poly are nice with the extra half bath, but you'd better believe I'll be booking my home resort at 11 months for summer of 2020.

Lumpy1106 · Mar 7, 2019

Total newbie question;
Me: Family of 5 (kids 16, 13, and 5)
Looking at the points charts some of the studios are listed as 5 person occupancy, but the 1br units are listed as only 4 person occupancy. How could this be? Would certainly explain why 1 br's are booked last.

BillPA · Mar 7, 2019

did you have a question?

Lumpy1106 · Mar 7, 2019

Yes; is there a reason why 1 br's have a smaller occupancy than studios?

Edit;
For comparison; AoA 1BR suites have beds for 6, and you could comfortable put a sleeper chair in the unit and get a 7'th person in there (though that's probably not allowed).

BillPA · Mar 7, 2019

AoA is not a DVC unit. Some of us like having a 'at home' feel and do not wish to be jammed into 300 Sq Ft of space, we like the full kitchen, washer/dryer, multi bath rooms... and don't mind the increased points. Other like to save money and don't mind the limited space. As far as why DVC charges more for a 1 BR, because it's worth it. Many of the 1 BR units will sleep 5 with full bedding, other permit 5 but you need to provide your on bedding/towels for the 5th person.

Madame · Mar 7, 2019

Lumpy1106 said:
Yes; is there a reason why 1 br's have a smaller occupancy than studios?

Edit;
For comparison; AoA 1BR suites have beds for 6, and you could comfortable put a sleeper chair in the unit and get a 7'th person in there (though that's probably not allowed).

As a family of 5, yes, it's backwards. Our 1st contract was 200 SSR resale and we "sleep around" in 1bds during spring and summer with it. Booked a BRV 1bd totally last minute (4 days out) last Aug for 6 nights - I would not recommend this as a habitual strategy. You must provide the bed (air mattress or sleeping bag), sheets, towels, face cloths, etc. for the 5th person in a 1bd at BCV, SSR, BWV, BRV.

Look at a resale AKV contract. Great resort and really reasonable points for a 1bd standard that sleeps 5 (lots of room and 2 bathrooms). OKW has 3 sleeping surfaces in a 1bd as well, but shorter contract life unless you get an extended contract. Your other 5 in a 1bd options are VGF and BLT (not exactly budget resorts). Don't expect to get BWV or BLT standard view 1bds if you don't own there, even in summer. You could probably get it via waitlist, but I'd buy more points if booking those 1bds at 7months is in the plan, in order to cover the costlier views.

I wouldn't buy VB or HHI to stay at WDW on a consistent basis. YMMV.

Deb & Bill · Mar 7, 2019

Lumpy1106 said:
Total newbie question;
Me: Family of 5 (kids 16, 13, and 5)
Looking at the points charts some of the studios are listed as 5 person occupancy, but the 1br units are listed as only 4 person occupancy. How could this be? Would certainly explain why 1 br's are booked last.

Because the addition of the murphy bed in some of the studios is a recent addition. They used to only sleep four. When BLT and AKV were built, they added the twin sized sleeper chair to the one bedroom. OKW had it added, too, because it was the only existing DVC resort with one bedroom villas that had room for the sleeper chair. Even when studios slept four and one bedrooms slept four, one bedrooms booked up last because many owners wanted to conserve their points and didn't want to use twice the points to book a one bedroom. In our case, we prefer one bedrooms, even with just the two of us because we prefer the king sized bed over the queen sized bed. We will stay in OKW studios since they have two real queen sized beds and no sleeper sofas which are usually horrible to sleep on (usually fine for kids).

Lumpy1106 · Mar 7, 2019

Madame said:
As a family of 5, yes, it's backwards. Our 1st contract was 200 SSR resale and we "sleep around" in 1bds during spring and summer with it. Booked a BRV 1bd totally last minute (4 days out) last Aug for 6 nights - I would not recommend this as a habitual strategy. You must provide the bed (air mattress or sleeping bag), sheets, towels, face cloths, etc. for the 5th person in a 1bd at BCV, SSR, BWV, BRV.

Look at a resale AKV contract. Great resort and really reasonable points for a 1bd standard that sleeps 5 (lots of room and 2 bathrooms). OKW has 3 sleeping surfaces in a 1bd as well, but shorter contract life unless you get an extended contract. Your other 5 in a 1bd options are VGF and BLT (not exactly budget resorts). Don't expect to get BWV or BLT standard view 1bds if you don't own there, even in summer. You could probably get it via waitlist, but I'd buy more points if booking those 1bds at 7months is in the plan, in order to cover the costlier views.

I wouldn't buy VB or HHI to stay at WDW on a consistent basis. YMMV.

This is great news - Thanks! We just passed ROFR @ BLT. Do you have to provide bedding for the 5'th person there? It's nearly academic - our plan is to bank/borrow points and stay in 2BR units until the kids start going off to college (which is only a couple of years away) then play it by ear from there depending on who joins us.

crvetter · Mar 7, 2019

Lumpy1106 said:
This is great news - Thanks! We just passed ROFR @ BLT. Do you have to provide bedding for the 5'th person there? It's nearly academic - our plan is to bank/borrow points and stay in 2BR units until the kids start going off to college (which is only a couple of years away) then play it by ear from there depending on who joins us.

You would not at BLT for a 1 Bedroom because you get sleeping surfaces for 5 guests (the fold out chair in addition to the fold out sofa).

Madame · Mar 7, 2019

Lumpy1106 said:
This is great news - Thanks! We just passed ROFR @ BLT. Do you have to provide bedding for the 5'th person there? It's nearly academic - our plan is to bank/borrow points and stay in 2BR units until the kids start going off to college (which is only a couple of years away) then play it by ear from there depending on who joins us.

Nope. BLT has 3 sleeping surfaces. Everything provided for 5 people.

Deb & Bill · Mar 7, 2019

Lumpy1106 said:
This is great news - Thanks! We just passed ROFR @ BLT. Do you have to provide bedding for the 5'th person there? It's nearly academic - our plan is to bank/borrow points and stay in 2BR units until the kids start going off to college (which is only a couple of years away) then play it by ear from there depending on who joins us.

But if you plan on studios at BLT, you are limited to four persons and even that is very crowded unless two of the four are tiny kids.

Wakey · Mar 7, 2019

I have said on here many times in summer, 1 beds are wide open. Most views in 1 beds are wide open. Supposed hard to secure rooms like AK Value, have been open multiple years for stays of 5+ nights.
Most difficult rooms to get are:
AKL concierge.
BLT Standard.
Then just about everything else is open. VGF standard may be a challenge. I’ve had no problem with Boardwalk Standard.
I check availability at least weekly just out of interest and find Skier Pete’ s charts pretty accurate.
Copper Creek can get iffy in busy times, but that resort has major availability issues anyway.
Moving into busier times, in the one bed you often have good choices.
Buy where you want to stay can be good advice, it can be awful advice which would result in people like myself unnecessarily spending much more money.
My mantra is I bought to sleep around as I like different resorts, mainly in summer, so I bought enough resale points at SSR for a 1 bed to enable that vision, having extensively researched 7 month availibility and seen 1 beds are wide open.
I am going Christmas so with Star Wars open it will be interesting to see if I can switch to lots of choices. I’d be staying at SSR if they’d done the refurb but it will hardly be started. As well as my mantra above, I subscribe to the view if I go at peak peak times and have to stay st SSR even pre refurb I’ll be happy.

gharter · Mar 12, 2019

It really depends on what time of year you are traveling.
We don't do summers.
We travel every fall for F&W. At 7 months, there are very few 1 br available at any of the EPCOT resorts.
we find a little more availability in April and May for a 1 br when we also travel.

davidl81 · Mar 13, 2019

We own at AKV and SSR and have owned for about ten years. I find that at seven months normally we can book most one bedrooms and many times most two bedrooms as long as we book right at seven months out to the day. Studios are much more hit and miss. We have not stayed at SSR in about six years, yet we go to Disney at least twice every year or so. We do go to AKV some as our kids really like the Savanna view rooms. In general I would say that you can get most of what you want in a one bedroom at seven months, but just be willing to be a little flexible. What I mean is say you want BLT 1 bedroom at seven months. That is fine, just be willing to be open to any room choice and also be willing to maybe have to do CC or BR if needed.

It really comes down to cost and if you have ONE resort you really want to always stay at. If you always want to stay at BLT and no other place, then buy BLT. If you want to stay on property and don't care if its BLT, CC, AKV, BW etc then IMO the best value still is SSR resale with the understanding that maybe once every few years you may end up staying there if other resorts are not open and you are not real flexible on the days you can go.

Frederic Civish · Mar 24, 2019

I still think it is better to buy where you want to stay. Why? It is true that 1-Bedroom units are the most available, in general. HOWEVER, this could change, easily. First of all, Disney could reallocate points in a way that could make the 1-Bedroom units much more popular. So, more people would use them, and they wouldn't be available for you. Second, DVC gets harder and harder to use. 7-month availability is greatly decreased from the past. This trend will continue and get worse. Once it is bad enough, even the 1-Bedroom units won't be available. 1-Bedroom units might be the last to feel this pressure, but it probably will eventually happen.

If you intend to stay in 1-Bedroom Villas in the Summer

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