ceetee
Waiting on ROFR
Posts: 6
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Post by ceetee on May 14, 2023 10:12:54 GMT -5
Hi,
New here but DVC owner since 2010. When we first purchased, we lived further away and were very much in the mode of planning 11 months out. We have since moved to within a reasonable drive of WDW and finding we really don't plan that far out anymore. Do you find good availability "last minute" (2-4 weeks out)? Are there any tips/tricks? I imagine we need to become more flexible/open to other resorts (our favorites are Beach Club and Boardwalk for location). Also imagine mid-week (vs. weekends) might be easier to find last minute... we still work but do so remotely. Any favorite resorts for remote work?
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Post by allanadale on May 14, 2023 11:03:42 GMT -5
I'm not local, but I have worked out of my fair share of hotel rooms in the past. Assuming you're only talking about studios, I would have to think Poly or AKL would be favorites for me. Both have quiet atmospheres and beautiful scenery, plus Poly has the larger rooms if you're both working at the same time (though I'd imagine either would be fine). Boulder Ridge would probably also qualify but I haven't stayed there.
Also, if you're making 'last-minute' reservations, I'd pick Saratoga Springs over OKW because I hate the OKW studio layout. I really can't imagine working there. If it's a 1BR or larger though, I'd take OKW.
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Post by nickys on May 14, 2023 12:45:54 GMT -5
Paging Brian5581 for his advice. And welcome to MagicOwners! |
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Post by Brian5581 on May 14, 2023 19:00:00 GMT -5
Paging Brian5581 for his advice. And welcome to MagicOwners! Remembered answering this a few weeks ago, so repeating here: So while I have almost always been successful finding reservations for a weekend stay sometime during the week or so prior (random checking at odd times being quite useful), I still am most likely at a different resort for Friday night and Saturday night. Just something to keep in mind, particularly with a family. I also will often permit myself to stay in either a studio or one-bedroom. If someone is restricted to two-bedrooms that will greatly impact the searches. |
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Post by helenabear on May 14, 2023 21:31:25 GMT -5
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Post by Eeyorelover22 on May 15, 2023 4:37:22 GMT -5
We own at AKV, but will stay anywhere. We live in FL now too. I’m retired, but DH works remotely. He has worked remotely while I go to the parks during the day. We will meet for lunch and then after work we will wander the parks. Some good places to work from a resort are: The 2nd floor of the CR, the room off the gift shop at BC, the second floor of the YC, the room off the main lobby of Jambo, and the room at the back of the quick service at SSR. He usually finds the internet good to work in all of those places. He does have a headset for meetings which helps. He uses that at home too so he’s used to it. He doesn’t mind being in the room, but the change of scenery is nice too.
I search for rooms that I want since I’m retired. I still plan in advance, but do a last minute room now and again. When we fly out of MCO on occasion I will book a room because we are 1.5 hours from the airport. This fall I plan on using a night when DH has to travel back to Iowa and two back & forth trips to MCO for me in a week is a lot so I’m going to go down and stay over one night when I pick him up.
We use our points in a completely different manner now and stay for 2-3 nights max. Somehow I’m still in borrow mode too! I know that really this year it’s because we have a 2br at Kidani in the fall when our kids are going to join us. Otherwise, I book a couple nights at a time to visit during the different seasons of Epcot…aka, the festivals. DH’s favorite so far is the Art Festival more so than Flower & Garden. I take my mom to Flower & Garden for a night which is nice. Hopefully, we’ll do that again in 2024, but my parents are on the eve of 89 and 85 so each year I know it’s a day to treasure for the two of us.
It’s been fun booking different resorts and staying there. So far, our home resort is still where we love, but I have not been able to stop the call to Riviera. I just love that place! DH isn’t a huge fan, but he did like the regular studio over the tower studio. We had fun when we went to the Art Festival last February.
I’ve booked single nights when I know friends are coming down too so it makes the day visit easier for me. I’m the fanatic Disney fan while DH comes along for the ride. We don’t do week long stays anymore since we are not paying for airfare or driving 20+ hours.
Arrival day usually DH doesn’t work remotely, but the room days he has. It was great when our vacation time was chewed up by our kids. I think this year is the first time we’ve had our days all to ourselves.
We also dropped down to the Sorcerer AP because going over the holidays doesn’t seem like fun with the crowds and we went between Christmas and New Year’s when our kids were in college because it was the only time we all had vacation at the same time. DH has that time off still so I give him a break from the magic.
I should add too…one of the main reasons we also avoid the holidays: TRAFFIC. It’s pretty nasty getting home on I-75 when it’s holiday time. I went on a trip over Thanksgiving weekend once and drove home from MCO on the Sunday after…took 3 hours rather than the 1.5. So, we avoid those times if we can. We have only had a problem once going early in the morning due to multiple accidents, but getting home has been the issue. Mid day always seems to be bad too.
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Post by captjacksfamily on May 16, 2023 9:45:06 GMT -5
We live very close, if using Disney transportation I can get home quicker than going back to a resort. We are also retired so no working for us. Since we are so close we have sold most of our points but we did keep out BWV points. What we typically do is when the window opens at 11 or 7 months we will pick a few random days when the weather is good for single night stays or around Christmas to see the decorations. We always reserve a view room with the intention of enjoying the room and not so much the parks. We typically don't go over until about 4:00 since we know our room should be ready by then and take some wine and a picnic then enjoy the evening on the balcony. The next day we may spend some time in the parks just because the resorts typically provide better parking than the parking lots. It may only be a walk over to MK from GF for a train ride or a stroll through EPCOT or HS but we will typically do something. So I guess we still plan way out but then again we don't have any issues canceling the reservation should something else come up. Since we are typically looking for just a single night we have had pretty good luck with wait listing about a month out.
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Lamima
Waiting on ROFR
Posts: 58
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Post by Lamima on May 17, 2023 7:28:04 GMT -5
We bought DVC in 2006 and lived far away. Last year we moved to Kissimmee and are just 12 mins to AK. We had 650 points and sold some off over the past 2-3 years when we began the whole move process. Down to 301 points now. Here is how we use them...
We book 1-2 night stays each month we are down in FL (we still visit up north for like 6 weeks 2 or 3 times a year...been 3 times but want to get it down to 2, lol). So I just look at availability and grab Friday or Saturday nights or both. I change up a lot as new things pop up or our plans change and need to change dates. I sometimes wait list too and will get it often since its usually just 1 night.
We like SSR a lot so we don't mind booking there and it is available a lot. DH has tried working from there though, and it was tough to do. It's an unsecured network and his current company doesn't allow him to connect. Now he has no need to work there because we just do weekends but when we were house hunting and then closing and all...we did longer stays at SSR where he had to work and had trouble doing it. He said never again...doing a stay while he has to work. He worked at Disney in the past with other companies. But has always had some degree of trouble getting online. I recall a stay at Coronado, Jan 2018, that he was constantly frustrated getting wifi.
But anyway...I don't have trouble grabbing things last minute. Though we live close enough to be flexible with dates. We like Epcot festivals and DS so we tend to book BWV, RR, BCV, SSR as much as possible. I also stalk club level at AK. We have done it 3 times now, maybe 4 and I have 1 night booked in the winter. I had 2 nights in Sept in a 1BR but canceled since none of my kiddos (20 somethings) could join us to enjoy it. We grab studios now for just hubby and I. The club level studios are tough tough tough to get. But, I see 1 night open and grab it...even weeknight for that one.
We do the 1-2 night stay because our dog is almost 17 and blind and limpy and very tough to leave for long. Like when we do a day visit to a park or DS, we can only be gone from home 3.5 hours max or we come home to a crap show nightmare mess. He panics and paces and potties and paces through it. He is very attached to DH and needs to be near him at all times. So even kenneling him can be a problem and he often comes home with some issue. But we like to do a stay once month ish, so we can drink and have fun and not hurry home or have to drive after drinks. But once the doggo is gone 😢, we will probably do long weekends instead and maybe less often.
Another thing we have done is booked 2 nights at 2 different resorts. That is not that hard for us since we have a car and it's just us, no kids. We put stuff in car on swap day and run off to a park or DS and wait for next room to be ready. We like this because we get 2 different resorts and can go to different parks that are convenient to that resort.
Good luck on planning and welcome home to FL. We love it! Hope you will too.
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