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[poohbr2015]

I went on this morning to try and book beach club at 7 months, 2 of the 7 nights are not available so it would only allow me to book the first night and now I have to wait and keep trying every day. ugh! I know its a busy time in October, but in a week from Oct 13-20, how do you get all available except the 14th and 18th? So bizarre. I am waitlisted for the entire week along with having the first night reserved. I am just wondering if I should also book a back up, SS, OKW, AKL and BLT were available. We were just really looking forward to spending time at stormalong bay again with our 4 year old and the location since we will also have a 4 month old this time.

[HiddenMickey]

I would book a backup just in case. With kids the ages of yours and your desire to be near a nice pool, I'd suggest AKL-Kidani if that's available.

I'd also keep the first night at BC, because no matter what, you'd still have a day that you could take advantage of the pool and location. Even if the first day isn't the one you'd probably choose.

Pixies that you get the other nights at BC through the waitlist.

[tjkraz]

Originally Posted by poohbr2015

I know its a busy time in October, but in a week from Oct 13-20, how do you get all available except the 14th and 18th? So bizarre.

Overlapping trips. 14th is a Sunday so that's the easiest to figure. There are a lot of people with trips which end on the 14th and other people whose trips begin on the 14th. 18th is a Thursday so I suspect similar phenomena. Long weekend trips starting on Thursday while others are still there from earlier in the week.

I am waitlisted for the entire week along with having the first night reserved. I am just wondering if I should also book a back up, SS, OKW, AKL and BLT were available.

If you have the points available to book the entire week elsewhere AND keep the single nights that are currently available, that would be the best recipe for success. But I wouldn't borrow points to do it.

We were just really looking forward to spending time at stormalong bay again with our 4 year old and the location since we will also have a 4 month old this time.

Our kids are 8 and 11 and have never been to SAB....and they've lived to tell the tale. All resorts have great pools. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time no matter where you stay.

Good luck.

[poohbr2015]

It isn't that my child has to be at SAB, we stayed there in April and loved it, just didn't get to enjoy it as much as we wanted. We are travelling with others this time and that was one of our plans to spend time at SAB and the resort. We really enjoyed the location, walking to epcot and boat to HS. The thing that deters me from AKL is the location, we drive so we have our cars, but its just so far away from everything. We love baylake, its our home, but we didn't want to spend the points to stay there this time, we were just there in Dec. Saratoga and OKW are both beautiful resorts, but again, we were looking for the location of beach club. Saratoga is definately on our list of places to stay. We are trying to stay at a resort where our friends can also get a regular room and be close by.

[HiddenMickey]

If you have a car, that makes staying at AKL-Kidani even easier. You park under the units so the car is close and you can easily drive to the parks if you want. It seems far away from everything, but nothing is more than 25 minutes and DHS and Epcot are closer than that.

At age 4 and 6, AK was our kid's favorite park. They loved staying at AKL too and watching the animals from the room when they were 5 and 7.

We used to use the buses all the time at WDW, but lately we've had our car on trips and have used it more and more.

Sorry you have this dilemma.

[tjkraz]

Beach Club is always difficult to get into--even more so during the Food and Wine Festival.

As for transportation, personally I think there are gives-and-takes to every location. Walking from BC to Epcot is very convenient. But to get to Hollywood Studios you either walk 30 minutes or wait for the slow boats to arrive. To Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom you're stuck with either the bus or car.

From Animal Kingdom Lodge yes you do have to use car/bus for every destination but it's not exactly a cross town trip. Most locations are reachable within 10 minutes.

Unless you're spending an inordinately large amount of time at Epcot, I doubt you would save much time over the course of a trip when comparing BC to AKV.

That's my $.02.

[poohbr2015]

we actually do end up spending alot of time at Epcot. we had no problem booking beach club at 7 months out for April, but again it wasn't food and wine festival. we walked to epcot, actually took the monorail from epcot to t&t to mk and rode the boat to hs, never in a rush to get anywhere. It was just nice not having to put the kids in the car every day, and we don't do buses.

[chezp]

I was just going to say the same thing. The Beach Club Villas are notoriously difficult to get into during the Food and Wine Festival. That's why I'm very glad we have some points there.

I would definitely book a back-up and, of your choices, Animal Kingdom Lodge is our favourite.

I hope that you are able to get into the Beach Club Villas.

[Tigger25]

I know the feeling we are going to the same week you are. I went online exactly at 7 months to book 2BDR @ BLT and same thing random nights not available so we didnt want to chance it w/ the waitlist ( we personally havent had luck with in the past w/ the waitlist and didnt want to chance having to move mid-stay). We also love BCV and checked there too but NOTHING for all week. We did however get WLV for all 7 nights in a dedicated 2 BDR and since we never stayed there we wanted to try it out. Maybe there is still availability there if you want to try . I am excited to stay so close to the MK and monorail since we never stayed there and will will be close for MNSSHP. F&W does make it difficult but I wish you luck if you waitlist

[disneymom9092]

Good luck getting the beach club! We were on a waitlist for BLT last October (random days) and it did come through. We are going in October again this year and we were lucky to get into the BCV, but some of our points are there which helped as we had enough for the stay at the 11 month window.

Have you decided what you are going to do?

[Clare loves Stitch]

What about trying BWV if you like the location of BC?

[WeLvBCV]

BCV are very hard to get into during food & wine. The location is very popular and it is a smaller resort. We bought there specifically because of this since we tend to travel in October.

If I were you I would certainly have a back up plan. Kidani has a great pool area for kids. Looking at it from that point of view I would make reservations to stay there and then keep the wait list at BCV.

Another idea is to call daily and see about the other days. Right now all days have to become available for you to get the wait list. If you have the first day and call daily for the next day you might be able to slowly build up the week one day at a time. Just make those back up reservations! Worst case you end up with a split stay.

[julieb]

Just wanted to echo what others have said about AKV. We stayed there twice - once at Kidani and once at Jambo house, and we loved it!! The buses were extremely convenient, and dedicated to AKV so they never seemed to be full. We stayed in a one bedroom at Kidani October of 2010 (actually did a split stay with half the nights at BLT), and while we love our home resort (BLT), we were totally loving Kidani. The one bedroom was extremely spacious, and the savanna was amazing. The kids loved the pool, too. We were always reluctant to stay there due to the location, but even though you can't walk to the parks, the parks are still a convenient bus ride away. I guess I'm saying that I wouldn't let the location stop you. The bus service from AKV/AKL was a lot easier, in my mind, than some of the times we've waited for the bus to MK from the Beach Club!

[HakunaMatata]

AKL Kidani is our current go-to resort when we don't want to spend the points for BLT (which is our home resort). We were reluctant to stay there because it is more removed from most of the parks, but, actually we discovered we like that aspect of AKL! It truly is a destination unto itself. We stay at Kidani, where the 1BR is larger than in Jambo. Our kids LOVE the community hall there.

that your WL comes through, but you can't go wrong with one of the other resorts you mentioned.

[OKW Mom]

We are waitlisted for a week at BCV and our backup is booked at OKW.

Of course the first week in October is a kicker....but my HS class reunion is the last weekend in Sept, and it was seamless to stay at WDW at this time.

I WISH we had been smart enough to buy BCV points.....