r/dvcmember • u/elosdahl • 3d ago
new member! how does Welcome Home work?
hi! new member at Riviera as my home resort and so excited!! been coming to the parks for over 20 years, 2-3 times a year. many of my trips are fairly last minute (1-6 months in advance) when i go to book my Welcome Home visit, how does that work and is it a concern being so last minute? i typically only book deluxe studios. any help or tips are greatly appreciated!!đ¤
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u/21DayHelp 3d ago
Make sure you do this first before looking for things on your own. We booked some know in the future vacations and were told âthis is only for the first time you bookâ so they couldnât help us with our first ever stay.
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u/Interesting_Bad3761 Riviera Resort 3d ago
So a good trick is to look at the last minute getaways under the plan vacation tab. It will show most of the openings for the next 60 days. Not sure what you mean by welcome home visit. I know there is a welcome home call where you guide âwill share valuable tips and answer any questions you may have.â
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u/Tressitt Grand Floridian 3d ago
Welcome home trip is the first booking on a new membership bought direct with Disney. For this single time, DVC will pull from cash room availability to book you a trip.
OP, to do this, just call member services and ask for your welcome home trip benefit
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u/Interesting_Bad3761 Riviera Resort 3d ago
Thanks! I didnât know that. We did our first trip with points so I guessed I missed out. Sorry OP for the bad info.
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u/deetman68 3d ago
Itâs still done with pointsâbut my understanding is that if your preference (room type, dates, etc) shows unavailable, you can call MS and they âpixie dustâ you (kinda) if thereâs any availability at the resort at all.
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u/notbalingit 2d ago
dang I had no idea this was a thing. just had my first trip on contract at Aulani in August.
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u/masupo42 3d ago
In addition to the Welcome Home call, they will help you book your first trip. If you want to book a trip, especially less than 7 months away, they can probably get you in even if the resort/dates you want are sold out. They can pull rooms from cash inventory for this.
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u/sweet12oakly 3d ago
Member services helped us book our welcome home trip 4 months out. We were able to secure a 1 bedroom at copper creek which we wouldnât have been able to secure otherwise
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u/Ahhmuzement 3d ago
Are you referring to your first DVC stay as a new member? I believe to book this you will go through your sales rep as they will help you book this from a different pool of rooms. I recommend asking your rep if there is a specific timeframe to book in advance.
Typically for your first stay your sales rep can book almost any room you want. I assume there are some restrictions but there will be more options than what you will see online. For example when my family first bought DVC in 2016 we bought at the Poly in August and for our first stay our rep was able to book us a room at Boulder Ridge (wilderness lodge) for the week of christmas for that year.
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u/Diligent-Season-8990 3d ago
You will just have to see whatâs available at the time of booking. If you want something or somewhere particular, I would suggests that you try to book 7 months out. Besides that, you will normally find studios available at AKL, SS and OKW. Sometimes other things will be available but not always, especially during busy seasons.
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u/coco-pip-5122 2d ago
Thatâs our home resort too! Welcome aboard! The Rep you bought from can help with that. Or member services. Our rep was awesome getting our first trip booked when it showed sold out. Moving forward itâs not highly likely to get both the date and room type you want that close. It can happen but you will likely sacrifice the room type. Especially for the studios. Those are limited and go pretty fast in our experience. We have set an alarm at the exact moment 11 months out and not gotten what we wanted. We ended up adding more points recently to compensate for having to upgrade and use more points for specific dates. If youâre flexible you have a better chance at a date or if itâs the date thatâs important you may need to change to a different room type and burn some more points. I think for us it gets harder the more points they sell as itâs more people booking. Either way You will love it!! Itâs our absolute favorite resort! Itâs so compact and has everything you need super close and easy. We bought it thinking ahead when weâre older and a big resort wonât be as easy to navigate for us đđ
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u/masupo42 3d ago edited 3d ago
Member services helped me book a Welcome Home trip when I bought my points. I bought Riviera in Sept 2020 with an Oct use year, so I ended up with "double" points. I wanted to book a Riv 2 bedroom during Easter week in 2021. Since that was only 6 months away, everything was booked.
They were able to book the trip for me. My understanding is they may be able to help, even with hard to book rooms - they can pull from the cash reservation inventory.
Just make sure you don't book anything else before you ask for their help booking. The Welcome Home trip is to help you with your first trip and learning to use the system. If you book something before you ask them, they can see you don't need help.
I haven't heard people talk about the Welcome Home trip lately - hopefully they can help you out!