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Tips to reserve week at 12 months (is it really this competitive?)

M

MrbeanOnVacation

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I bought a platinum resale in Aruba at Ocean Club and am hoping to reserve for my kids spring break in 2025. That isn’t till March but I wanted to get a feel for how quick inventory disappeared and was surprised (and concerned) that today (Thursday morning) there was no availability for ANY weeks the day after a new weekend opened up for reservations (i.e. Friday 2/7/25 opened up yesterday 2/7/24 @ 9am).

Do I really need to treat this like Ticketmaster and have my alarm set for 8:59:59 and speed click through the morning of my window opening?

If I miss it what are my options? Will MVC put me on a waitlist? And worst case I rent my week and buy off redweek?

With kids I only have certain times I can travel with them…

Would love any advice
 
Those dates will probably go within minutes, so yes you need to be up and ready to go at 9am ET.

Know ahead of time what your order of preference for check-in day is. Any hesitation could land you with nothing.

Do a practice run or two the day before…or better yet on a Tuesday so you get a sense of the lag. Go through all the steps except actually reserving.

Get logged in a few minutes ahead because the log-in process can get bogged down. Once you are logged in don’t let it time out.

At least a minute ahead, navigate to your week and fill out the preferences and wait there, do not click to see available dates until 9am sharp.

If it says there’s nothing available, don’t believe it. Keep trying as someone may hold and release, or there may be a glitch. Personally I wouldn’t give up for an hour.

There are three basic ways to make a reservation. Call, chat and online. I like to initiate all three at 6am, but online has worked best for me. The main reason I do all three is that the web page can crash while there is still inventory available. Two computers helps.
 
Prime Spring Break weeks will go quickly. So yes, if you need a specific week you should absolutely do it the minute the window opens. Platinum season is 20 weeks of the year so your ownership only guarantees you one of those not the specific one you need so you have to play the game wisely to make it work!!
 
You also need to know that the inventory has been updated. 2 years ago I called in for my reservations at exactly 9 a.m. and was told the week I wanted was not available. I couldn't believe that there were so few weeks that as a 9 a.m. caller they were all taken, so I took the next best week I could. I then was following online and saw the inventory didn't update until 9:30. I called back, waited in the queue, and explained what happened. The person I spoke with immediately got me the week I wanted and cancelled the other one. She said they don't always get the updated inventory before the call time begins. That should never happen, but apparently it does.
 
MrbeanOnVacation said:
I bought a platinum resale in Aruba at Ocean Club and am hoping to reserve for my kids spring break in 2025. That isn’t till March but I wanted to get a feel for how quick inventory disappeared and was surprised (and concerned) that today (Thursday morning) there was no availability for ANY weeks the day after a new weekend opened up for reservations (i.e. Friday 2/7/25 opened up yesterday 2/7/24 @ 9am).

Do I really need to treat this like Ticketmaster and have my alarm set for 8:59:59 and speed click through the morning of my window opening?

If I miss it what are my options? Will MVC put me on a waitlist? And worst case I rent my week and buy off redweek?

With kids I only have certain times I can travel with them…

Would love any advice
Click to expand...
If it's the week before or after Easter, I would absolutely agree. IF it's a full week off those 2 weeks then you're chances are better esp later in March. Next year Easter is later in April so that should help you some. Also make sure you check then calculator for when you can reserve. I would also check periodically starting at least 24 hrs before the stated release time.
 
Last edited:
Dean said:
If it's the week before or after Easter, I would absolutely agree. IF it's a full week off those 2 weeks then you're chances are better esp later in March. Next year Easter is later in April so that should help you some. Also make sure you check then calculator for when you can reserve since Aruba has a Thursday check in option as you know. I would also check periodically starting at least 24 hrs before the stated release time.
Click to expand...

The OP is asking about Ocean Club not Surf Club. OC does not have Thursday check-ins. Only FRI-MON.
 
jwalk03 said:
The OP is asking about Ocean Club not Surf Club. OC does not have Thursday check-ins. Only FRI-MON.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes I totally whiffed on that one. I'll edit my post.
 
Delete
misread and thought it was a points booking not a home resort booking
 
Vistana updates inventory at Midnight Eastern Time.
 
Thanks all - very helpful (I’ll work on my dry runs in the next few weeks!)

Hypothetically if I am not successful:
Is there a way to get on a wait list for a particular week? And if so: any idea how successful that is?

Or if I miss: I should just plan to rent my week and head to redweek or this forum to get the week I really need?
 
MrbeanOnVacation said:
Thanks all - very helpful (I’ll work on my dry runs in the next few weeks!)

Hypothetically if I am not successful:
Is there a way to get on a wait list for a particular week? And if so: any idea how successful that is?

Or if I miss: I should just plan to rent my week and head to redweek or this forum to get the week I really need?
Click to expand...
There is no wait list for week owners. You are competing with owners for basically the prime weeks in your season. If you can't get what you want, then yes, book a week and try and rent to generate funds so you can rent what you want. BTW - if you buy another week for the same season, then you can book consecutive or concurrent weeks at 13 months out. 50% of the weeks are released at 13 months for multi-week owners. The rest of the inventory is released at 12 months. So, understand that when you are looking at the 12 month window, half of the inventory has already been booked before your window opens.
 
igopogo said:
If it says there’s nothing available, don’t believe it. Keep trying as someone may hold and release, or there may be a glitch. Personally I wouldn’t give up for an hour.

There are three basic ways to make a reservation. Call, chat and online. I like to initiate all three at 6am, but online has worked best for me. The main reason I do all three is that the web page can crash while there is still inventory available. Two computers helps.
Click to expand...
Agree, don't give up. I tried to get week 51 at Maui for 2023 at 9am and failed. I checked the next morning and there was a week available, and I reserved it.
 
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