It’s all change on the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Member website, as it finally introduces online booking.

Let’s be honest, it’s something that’s long overdue, as having to call Member Services to make your booking was feeling distinctly 20th century, especially as it’s an international call for us. Thank goodness the DVC make it a free call, otherwise we’d have clocked up some serious expense over the years!

It’s also been very frustrating, ringing up to make your booking, as you have to keep asking what’s available, perhaps trying different resorts, or different room sizes. Sometimes I know I’ve had to try three or four combinations before finding something that’s available. I’ve often thought that’s a job I’d rather do myself. Now I finally get the chance…

So what’s the verdict on online booking?

Short version – it’s very user friendly, and well worth the wait.

Given that before when Disney have introduced things online, it hasn’t necessarily gone 100% to plan (I’m thinking issues with upgrades to online dining reservations here), I was wondering what the result would be. Would the Disney Vacation Club have everything in place, or would there be any glitches? Well, I didn’t actually book anything, as until I’ve got our flights booked for our next trip, I’m not going to worry about accommodation, but up until that point seemed simple enough.

The first page tells you that you’ll basically get the same availability through the website as if you phone Member Services. The only exception is within 10 days of arrival. If you can’t find what you want for a stay that’s just around the corner, you might be better going back to a phone call after all.

From there, you enter your check-in and check-out dates, how many adults, and children are in your party, which resort you want to stay at, and the room size. Then it’s on to the next page.

Your resort offer

This is where you find out what’s available for your stay. Not only will it tell you if the resort you were after is available, but the system will also find any other resort that’s available for the same dates, and room size, and that’s exceptionally useful. It certainly went above, and beyond what I was expecting. I thought you’d only get availability at the resort you’d entered, and that would be it.

There’s information on this page about the resort, just in case you’re not familiar with it, along with useful details about how many people the room sleeps, and what facilities you get. It’s a good aide memoire. The vacation points are clearly displayed, giving you an idea of how much you’ll be spending for your stay.

If the nights you’re looking aren’t available, then this is also your opportunity to see what is available, and if you want, to waitlist for the other nights of your stay.

Contracts and points

Here’s the point where, if like us, you’ve got more than one Disney Vacation Club contract, you can pick which contract you want to use to pay for your vacation. It’s also the point where, if you don’t have any points left in your contract for the year you’re taking the vacation, like us, then you can borrow points from the next year.

To do that, all I had to do was click the button to borrow vacation points, then another window popped up, asking which contract I wanted to borrow the points from. Of course, it’s a final transaction, and you’re warned about that, but at that stage, you can also undo it, if you need to.

Provide guest info

Once you’ve worked out where the points are coming from to pay for your stay, you then need to enter the name, address, and phone number for each guest. If you’ve got a non-member staying on your reservation, you need to say that, and you need to note that the name and address you give must match the ID you present when you check in. There’s also a handy tool for clicking if everyone in the group has the same last name, which I thought was a very useful addition. You can even add more guests, if you realise you forgot someone at the first stage.

Review offer

Here, you get a confirmation of what you’ve signed up to so far, including the resort, type of accommodation, your dates, and who’s in your travel party. If everything’s in order, then you confirm, and that your booking made.

Receive confirmation

The final page shows you how your vacation points were used, and again, in a nice touch, if you’re not happy with how this was done, you can choose to undo things at this point. There’s a “cancel without penalty” option, which you just click on.

If you’re happy with everything, then you get all your travel plan details at the Vacation Center. At this stage, you then have links that let you either:

• Add one of Disney’s Dining Plans
• Add travel insurance
• Buy theme park tickets
• Make a reservation for Disney’s Magical Express
• Add celebrations

And it really is as simple as that! I was pleasantly surprised by how easy everything was. If you haven’t already had the chance to try out online booking on the Disney Vacation Club Members website, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as well.