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June 20, 2008
Posted in
Policies & Procedures News
Throughout its history the DIsney Vacation Club has allowed members to book their vacations either 11 or 7 months in advance of their CHECK OUT date. However a recent policy change has altered that booking window.
DVC members can now book 11 months in advance of their CHECK IN date at their Home resort. That initial booking can include the arrival night and up to 6 additional nights (7 nights total.)
Bookings at non-Home resorts can begin 7 months in advance of their CHECK IN date, with a total of 7 nights booked in the single phone call.
In recent years many DVC members have taken to booking individual days in multiple phone calls due to the system based upon check out date. A member looking to book the nights of March 1st to 5th would place five phone calls--the first call on the morning on April 2nd (the theoretical check out date for the following March 1st), again on April 3rd, and so on. With this policy change the entire vacation can be booked in a single call.
Member Services has confirmed that this new policy has been put into effect immediately. Beginning Friday, June 20th members can book all resorts, all dates 11 months in advance of their arrival date for their Home resorts and 7 month ahead of arrival for non-Home resorts.
It would seem that members could manipulate the new system by booking nights they do not really need at the front-end of their trip and later cancelling the unneeded dates. In other words, if a member wishes to book March 1st to 5th, she could call as early as February 27th to book all 7 nights. Later the nights of 2/27 and 2/28 could be cancelled without impacting the remainder of the reservation. This would effectively the member to book the trip two business days earlier than would normally be allowed.
According to the Member Services representatives we spoke with, DVC has no plans to implement rules which would prevent members from booking and canceling in this manner.
http://dvcnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=482&Itemid=1
I'm a little disappointed about the 7 day limit as most of our trips now are 11 nights.
I love this news!! I bet it cuts down on a lot of calls to MS, expecially during booking time for busy seasons. Yay!This will simplify things- now I certainly hope they have a rule where if you want to cancel the 1st few days of your ressie you have to cancel the WHOLE reservation and rebook. I can see people abusing the system otherwise.
