What does ‘walking’ mean?

jacquellie

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
I’m having doubts about buying DVC as worried availability will be huge disappointment. I’m prepared to book at 11 months out for 12-14 days, but worried my only choice will be a one-bed for 7 days or something. I hear people talking about walking reservations - what does this mean?
 
I’m having doubts about buying DVC as worried availability will be huge disappointment. I’m prepared to book at 11 months out for 12-14 days, but worried my only choice will be a one-bed for 7 days or something. I hear people talking about walking reservations - what does this mean?
Here is a thread from a few years ago that explains the process plus offers some thoughts on it. Note that I believe this can now be done online via reservation modification & a call to member services is no longer needed?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/can-anyone-explain-what-walking-a-reservation-means.3607211/
 
Welcome to the dark side!
Walking is the most controversial topic on the DVC boards :)

Here is a thread from a few years ago that explains the process plus offers some thoughts on it. Note that I believe this can now be done online via reservation modification & a call to member services is no longer needed?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/can-anyone-explain-what-walking-a-reservation-means.3607211/

Correct, modifying reservations online makes walking much easier.
 
you're able to walk the reservation online? I thought the only way to do it is by calling member services.
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you're able to walk the reservation online? I thought the only way to do it is by calling member services.
.

I’m currently walking a reservation by modifying an online booking to add another day and talking one off, it’s very straightforward. I’m doing it at 1pm as that is the equivalent 8am release in USA
 
I’m currently walking a reservation by modifying an online booking to add another day and talking one off, it’s very straightforward. I’m doing it at 1pm as that is the equivalent 8am release in USA
after i posted the above, i had to make our reservations for 2021 and realized exactly what you wrote. That i can walk it myself. Though i have no interest in walking our reservation, but i could if i wanted to.
 
after i posted the above, i had to make our reservations for 2021 and realized exactly what you wrote. That i can walk it myself. Though i have no interest in walking our reservation, but i could if i wanted to.
Yeah, only really necessary for me as I’ve booked a value accommodation for AKV and they are hard to find.

Do you have flights booked yet for next year? We live north east so will probably go indirect from Glasgow or Manchester. Newcastle flights mean changing Heathrow to Gatwick which is a pain

Lufthansa and Air Canada prices look ok for last 2 weeks of August
 


Yeah, only really necessary for me as I’ve booked a value accommodation for AKV and they are hard to find.

Do you have flights booked yet for next year? We live north east so will probably go indirect from Glasgow or Manchester. Newcastle flights mean changing Heathrow to Gatwick which is a pain

Lufthansa and Air Canada prices look ok for last 2 weeks of August

we were supposed to fly in october to los angeles for an adventures by disney tour and a cruise on the disney wonder....
i cancelled both of those a long time ago, but i finally got an email from the airline that our flight in october is cancelled (because of corona - duh)...

i haven't booked flights yet for next summer..
after this experience, i'm waiting until much closer...
we'll get whatever we get on whatever airline...
i have to buy 9 tickets this time, so i'll wait and see...

.
 
by the way, we live in Israel, so i don't know how we'll get there next year..
i wasn't even sure our airline was going to survive corona - it's been completely closed down for 3 months..
but they're starting to fly again next week, so who knows.. (somebody just bought them)...
last year, DD and i flew non-stop from tel aviv to orlando and it was heavenly.....
it was a 13.5 hour flight which is beyond long, but for the first time ever, when we got off that plane we were home....that is, in orlando...
it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing....
when we got to immigration, the officer asked whatever he asked, and my answer was, "we're in orlando!!! we don't have to go through TSA again...we don't have to wait for another flight....we're here...woo hoo"...
seriously....i said that to the immigration officer as i was so happy and so excited that we were done flying..
normally we fly through JFK (hell on earth) and it adds another 6 hours to our travel time....
sadly, there's no way el al is going to do that route again under the current situation, so we're stuck doing another 2 leg flight to get there...
so sad...
this time, maybe we'll try miami and see how that goes (assuming el al resumes their miami flights)..
i've heard it's even worse than JFK, but at least if something goes wrong with the flights, we can jump into a car and drive north....

we used to fly Air Canada a lot...
i'm originally from Detroit, so Air Canada was a good way to get home to see my family..
and they have good prices to orlando (via toronto)...
but i believe they get into orlando late in the evening, which i really hate, so i don't know..

another route we did one year - we flew KLM via Amsterdam...
that wasn't bad either...
i fly through schiphol a lot on the way back to detroit (via delta)..
so maybe that route?

lots of possibilities....time will tell...

.
 
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Yes, we have flown via Philadelphia, JFK and Miami and the worst immigration was Miami but the system was down at the time and they had to give us all water to keep us hydrated. PHI probably the best although they did lose one of our bags!!

the Air Canada flight I've seen gets there at 16:47, so not too bad and I think you clear immigration in Toronto? Do you know if you do?
 
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Yes, we have flown via Philadelphia, JFK and Miami and the worst immigration was Miami but the system was down at the time and they had to give us all water to keep us dehydrated. PHI probably the best although they did lose one of our bags!!

the Air Canada flight I've seen gets there at 16:47, so not too bad and I think you clear immigration in Toronto? Do you know if you do?
yes, when you fly from Toronto to the US, you clear immigration in Toronto
when you fly into canada, you have to esta....but maybe brits don't have to do that?
i'm not sure...but americans do...only when we fly into canada..
if we drive in, we don't need a visa, but if we fly in we have to esta...
.
 
yes, when you fly from Toronto to the US, you clear immigration in Toronto
when you fly into canada, you have to esta....but maybe brits don't have to do that?
i'm not sure...but americans do...only when we fly into canada..
if we drive in, we don't need a visa, but if we fly in we have to esta...
.
I’ve looked into it and we do need to get Canada ETA, but just a transit one that is free.
We will not need ESTA as we were in NYC in February, just before Covid kicked in which was v.lucky!
 
I’ve looked into it and we do need to get Canada ETA, but just a transit one that is free.
We will not need ESTA as we were in NYC in February, just before Covid kicked in which was v.lucky!
i haven't flown via canada since they changed the rules, so i wasn't sure exactly what the requirements are now other than there is some sort of requirement even when transiting..
it's kind of crazy, since air canada sells itself as a cheap alternative for americans flying to europe, but now there's this requirement when you arrive in canada by air.....
i don't think they thought it through..
 
I’m having doubts about buying DVC as worried availability will be huge disappointment. I’m prepared to book at 11 months out for 12-14 days, but worried my only choice will be a one-bed for 7 days or something. I hear people talking about walking reservations - what does this mean?

Just know at 11 months exactly...you would only be able to book 7 nights...you would then add one night each day after that to complete your 12-14 day reservation.

Also if you are booking right at 11 months...you shouldn't have many issues getting a studio if that is what you want. A few studio types are difficult to get at certain times of the year and may require walking (AKL-values and concierge, BWV-Standard, CCV-studios at holiday times, VGF-standard, BLT-Standard).

Walking is pretty easy with the online tools. Say you want to book December 25th-January 2nd. Normally you would book that 11-months out at 8AM online on November 25th. However, if you are worried what you want, might disappear right at 8AM, or even disappear a day early, you could start walking that reservation at anytime prior to November 25th. I think most walkers aim to start 2weeks to a month out for hard to get reservations. So say you start your walk 11 months out on October 25th...you would then modify however is best for you...I see some people say they do it every day, I see others say they do it the day before their last day is set to begin. Basically the only thing that has to happen is that you modify and extend it prior to the booking window opening for the last day you have booked.

Now be aware, people recently have said they have seen rooms get "pulled from inventory" which can disrupt a walk, there also on occasion are computer glitches in the reservation tool, which can disrupt a walk, or at times people have speculated that DVC pulls some popular rooms themselves prior to 11 months (not allowed to - and not proven, so strictly speculation on members parts), which can disrupt a walk. I will say that I have personally done this at CCV for the Christmas season for a studio and also for a 2-bedroom with no issues, and I modified the day before my last day would begin.
 
If you want to know if something is bad; ask yourself "if everybody did this, would the world benefit?" Take pirate DVDs (remember those?), if nobody paid to watch movies, they would have to stop making them. I have a suspicion that 'walking' reservations would fall into the same category: if everybody books their stay early then booking windows become irrelevant, home resorts become irrelevant, living on the east coast with a top notch internet hookup - irrelevant. I could book a stay for Christmas 2025 today, and just deal with the irritation of modifying the booking for the foreseeable future. As others have said before; we don't know how Disney could stop it, and the solution may be more harmful than the practice. With that said, the only solution is for everybody to modify reservations only in the spirit in which it is offered.
 

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