I am a professional late booker and the others will tell you it's a bad idea I do it a lot but there are rules you must consider
1. You are not going to get Beach club, Boardwalk or Wilderness Lodge. You have a much better shot at SSR or AKV
Happiness is liking what you get. But, I really like AKV. A 1 bedroom with a savanna view, a pair of binocs and a camera with a nice long lens... I just need the kid to be old enough I can send her to the parks without me. Until then, that's what grandparents are for. I'm in favor of their pool, too.
SSR, eh. I've only been out there to the DVC sales-brigade, and the resort itself didn't register for me other than lots of screaming people by the pool. I think I'd want to be "at WDW" to book there, rather than wanting to go for the resort itself. The treehouses are cool, but I'm not getting that on short notice! I suspect I'd like it just fine, and that the "lots of screaming people" was a fluke.
2. You must be prepared to waste points. For example I only need a studio but one-bedrooms often easier to get
One bedrooms are probably our ideal, with the occasional preference for a studio, and the occasional preference for a 2 bedroom depending on circumstances. "Wasting" points is more likely to be a weekend thing, because weekends vs weekdays make little difference to us for short trips, but it seems like the higher priced weekend reservations should mean they were in greater supply.
3. You must except the cash reservations and points reservations are not always the same pool. Personal belief is that Disney will pull units back from CRO to use for late bookers, but I have no proof of this and you have to be really late for this to happen
It makes sense that they'd be seperate, but people who don't own DVC have no visibility into DVC availability, so it seemed like a logical proxy. Last minute rooms do odd things everywhere, but usually not in a reliable way, especially when cross
billing is in play.
4. You must a plan B. I use the wait list but will stay off property if it does not come through
Check. I'd offer examples, but I'm fairly sure that I've already been branded insane in this thread!
I think the cancellations are bigger issue because the points go to holding and that really limits what you can do with them. Of course I normally have points and holding and that's what I used my living room so...... I did lose 5 points last year, but considering I had about 100 in holding at one point, not bad
Well, if we don't cancel 31 days out, then we've made our bed, and it's time to lie in it. I think that the odds of cancellation are low, and are getting steadily lower as we get better at this "vacation" thing.
Now I am not saying this is a good idea. It just works for me
Much appreciated, really.