Lots of Availability

[jo-jo]

We have a lake view studio first week, one night AKL, 4 nights standview and then one night WL. We can get the 6 nights in an accessible lake view studio for the second week. But I feel guilty. A roll in shower for DH would be great, but he can still manage a tub with a handrail. He really doesn't need any other rooms changes.

 

[sethschroeder]

We have a lake view studio first week, one night AKL, 4 nights standview and then one night WL. We can get the 6 nights in an accessible lake view studio for the second week. But I feel guilty. A roll in shower for DH would be great, but he can still manage a tub with a handrail. He really doesn't need any other rooms changes.

If absolutely everything is booked except for that I think you are okay. Then just put in a waitlist for the normal room just in case it become available you go back to a normal room.

If you were grabbing it at 11 months because you liked the view or something then maybe that is a tad over the line.

Others might feel differently.

 

[csmommy]

If absolutely everything is booked except for that I think you are okay. Then just put in a waitlist for the normal room just in case it become available you go back to a normal room.

If you were grabbing it at 11 months because you liked the view or something then maybe that is a tad over the line.

Others might feel differently.

This is how I am looking at it too.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

If absolutely everything is booked except for that I think you are okay. Then just put in a waitlist for the normal room just in case it become available you go back to a normal room.

If you were grabbing it at 11 months because you liked the view or something then maybe that is a tad over the line.

Others might feel differently.

I pretty much agree. I just moved a 4 night stay in an AKV studio to a RIV HA Tower Studio in mid-October. Once I booked it it was gone for those dates so assuming I grabbed the last one. While I would never chose a HA room when there were non-HA rooms available, I have no problem booking a HA room when that is all that is available.

 

[MouseFiend]

That’s my feeling too, but I’m looking at bay lake tower studios available over the 50th weekend and wondering how often do these rooms not get booked? I already have rooms to begin with but just decided to check for fun and was shocked to see a multiple stuido options available or beach club available pretty much the next 6 weeks while nothing is available in regular studios. My thought was they might go unused frequently and DVC uses them when rooms go down unexpectedly for maintenance. I always wonder how DVC manages things like that operating at 100% almost at all times.

I pretty much agree. I just moved a 4 night stay in an AKV studio to a RIV HA Tower Studio in mid-October. Once I booked it it was gone for those dates so assuming I grabbed the last one. While I would never chose a HA room when there were non-HA rooms available, I have no problem booking a HA room when that is all that is available.

I was thinking this way too so I’m glad a couple others have said it. Especially when we are way past the 7 month mark…seems like everything should be fair game.

 

[ScubaCat]

I book on Hilton a lot for work, and when I click on an accessible room a pop-up appears saying to please only book that room if it's needed *or* if nothing else is available. Thus, if it's all that's available there's no issue. If you want, you could always do a room request via email or chat so they can note the booking as "accessibility not required" in case someone else could benefit from it, allowing them to reassign you to a regular room if one becomes available.

 

[js]

I was thinking this way too so I’m glad a couple others have said it. Especially when we are way past the 7 month mark…seems like everything should be fair game.

I'm not saying I'm for or against this but if this was a cruise forum, I can tell you, people would be up in arms. I don't have a monkey in this circus (although I am looking to complete a nine night stay in a one bedroom on November 11 in BW), but cruise forums would be up in arms about this, even if sailings were two months away. Just smiling to myself that wow, two different takes on the same types of needs.

Good luck to all, I hope we end up all finding what we need/want.

 

[CarolMN]

I'm not saying I'm for or against this but if this was a cruise forum, I can tell you, people would be up in arms. I don't have a monkey in this circus (although I am looking to complete a nine night stay in a one bedroom on November 11 in BW), but cruise forums would be up in arms about this, even if sailings were two months away. Just smiling to myself that wow, two different takes on the same types of needs.

Good luck to all, I hope we end up all finding what we need/want.

Interesting. FWIW, The DVC forums have had an order of magnitude MORE reports of getting an HA room and not wanting it. Different populations/communities of interest, I guess.

 

[jo-jo]

So I switched the one night of AKL to BLT accessible with wait lists in place for either a lake view or standard view.

 

[Lolaura84]

I was thinking this way too so I’m glad a couple others have said it. Especially when we are way past the 7 month mark…seems like everything should be fair game.

I know I've been assigned accessible rooms when I did not book that way before, and I have been told that they are the last rooms to book, but are not held exclusively for that booking; in other words, that it is not unusual to be assigned that room even if you didn't book it.
From an equity standpoint, that makes sense to me... there are not rooms exclusively held for those who request an accessible room, but it's the last one that will be booked. Similar to the way the HA stall is in a public restroom - if there's a line of people waiting, the HA stall is used, but if I enter an empty restroom, I'll use one of the other stalls to make sure the HA one is available for someone who really needs it, should they come in.

 

[Novatrix]

Speaking as someone who has needed to book accessible when my mother travels with me and has hated being assigned accessible when traveling solo (seriously, I've kept track, if I don't have it noted on reservation "want bathtub", I've been assigned a HA room 6 out of 8 times), I really applaud separating out the inventory. No one should book the HA rooms first if they don't need them, but if all the other rooms are taken and HA is all that is left I don't begrudge them. Hopefully, they waitlist a regular room if it's far enough out.

 

[kes601]

It would be nice if they could do something along the lines of putting all the rooms in inventory and then when you go through the reservation they could ask if you need a handicap accessible room (and what type). That way it is first come, first serve for all available rooms (and they could all be in general inventory) but if one needs that type of room they would be guaranteed to have it.

Example — I think there are 20(?) Tower Studio Rooms. Out of that 20 it appears there is 1 hearing accessible and 1 wheelchair accessible. This number could be higher, but used for this example….

So there are 18 “non-accessible” rooms, which means 2 are taken out of general inventory and reserved for those who need / look for accessible rooms. Instead, why not put 20 rooms in inventory, then if somebody checks the “hearing accessible” box during checkout then there are now 19 available, but that one hearing accessible room is taken out of inventory.

Unless I am missing something this still makes those rooms available to those who need it and if they are first to book they get them, but if also doesn’t take 10% of the inventory away from others.

 

[stlrod]

I noticed yesterday that there were a lot of accessible rooms suddenly available in the next few months which were not present before, including many on 9/30. Interestingly, this followed a large amount of inventory being made available around the same dates and the same resorts the day before. My thinking is they were made available on purpose so they would get booked. It's Disney's way of saying, "Please use those points so we don't have this log jam forever."

 

[Novatrix]

It would be nice if they could do something along the lines of putting all the rooms in inventory and then when you go through the reservation they could ask if you need a handicap accessible room (and what type). That way it is first come, first serve for all available rooms (and they could all be in general inventory) but if one needs that type of room they would be guaranteed to have it.

Example — I think there are 20(?) Tower Studio Rooms. Out of that 20 it appears there is 1 hearing accessible and 1 wheelchair accessible. This number could be higher, but used for this example….

So there are 18 “non-accessible” rooms, which means 2 are taken out of general inventory and reserved for those who need / look for accessible rooms. Instead, why not put 20 rooms in inventory, then if somebody checks the “hearing accessible” box during checkout then there are now 19 available, but that one hearing accessible room is taken out of inventory.

Unless I am missing something this still makes those rooms available to those who need it and if they are first to book they get them, but if also doesn’t take 10% of the inventory away from others.

That's about how it used to work (only difference was you would need to check "accessible" during the search, not check out.)

You're not taking inventory away, it's just an extra step to search.

With the old method you'd be playing Russian roulette when you checked in on whether you'd be assigned HA or not. Personally, I'd rather book a different resort than get a HA when I don't need it.

 

[jo-jo]

ok, I think we are finally done bouncing around. We were BLT lake view for 7 nights , 6 nights SSR. First week stays constant. Second week 1 night kidani, 4 night BLT standard, 1 night copper creek. Change to 1 night blt accessible, 4 night BLT, 1 night kidani accessible. This morning, we got the whole second week at a accessible savanna studio at kidani. I do have a wait list to add a day to BLT. We really do love Kidani but BLT is just so much easier transportation wise.

So we went from a possible 4 times switch to just 2. Makes so much more sense.

 

[zackiedawg]

I have checked almost every day since I saw this post to see if there was any new availability since I booked my September trip back in June. For a 1-bedroom, 9/24 to 9/28, the only thing available is a std view Saratoga. I managed a preferred Saratoga reservation in June. So at least for the type of room I'm looking for and the dates, still no availability (I would have preferred to stay at Boardwalk if it had been available).

I decided to also check if any other resorts were available for my Dec 10-14 trip, also booked back in June, and again with Saratoga being the only resort available...and again, no other resorts have a 1-bedroom for those days.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

I have checked almost every day since I saw this post to see if there was any new availability since I booked my September trip back in June. For a 1-bedroom, 9/24 to 9/28, the only thing available is a std view Saratoga. I managed a preferred Saratoga reservation in June. So at least for the type of room I'm looking for and the dates, still no availability (I would have preferred to stay at Boardwalk if it had been available).

I decided to also check if any other resorts were available for my Dec 10-14 trip, also booked back in June, and again with Saratoga being the only resort available...and again, no other resorts have a 1-bedroom for those days.

Did you try searching for ACCESSIBLE ROOMS for your dates?

 

[npatellye]

I just logged in after seeing the updates here and, shockingly, I was able to get a Poly studio for 12/30 and 12/31! I had it waitlisted for a couple of months with no luck. I don’t think we need 12/30 but I’m sitting on it for now while I stalk airfare. Thanks for this entire thread!!!

 

[ValW]

Thanks for the heads up! I was able to book a split stay for Wine & Dine Half Marathon - 4 nights in a CC Studio and 4 nights at BWV in a 1-bed standard view. I've waitlisted for non-accessible rooms, but happy to finally have a workable reservation.

 

[bumbershoot]

I know I've been assigned accessible rooms when I did not book that way before, and I have been told that they are the last rooms to book, but are not held exclusively for that booking; in other words, that it is not unusual to be assigned that room even if you didn't book it.

Same.

It's Disney's way of saying, "Please use those points so we don't have this log jam forever."

I hope so!