Help & how-to

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DVC Planner watches the resorts, rooms and dates you choose and helps you spot an opening. When you find a match, use Open Disney booking to check availability and complete your reservation with Disney.

1. Open DVC Planner. If prompted, enter the shared master password. Your browser remembers your sign-in.
2. Select New search and choose your dates, resorts and acceptable room options.
3. Select Check availability beneath the room picker. Review the nightly results and complete-stay summary right there. You can leave the name blank for this check.
4. Use Open Disney booking when you are ready to book with Disney.
5. To keep monitoring, give the search a name, select Save trip, then add the people who should receive emails in the Email alerts panel that opens.
6. Check the saved search's Last complete availability check time and any row marked Previous result.

Use Show beside a password field when you want to check what you typed, then Hide to mask it again.

Everyone with the master password can view and manage the group's saved searches and alert recipients. Global Settings has a separate password. Each search has its own recipient list, so different searches can notify different people.

Appearance

Use the Dark button at the top right to switch from Classic light mode to the dark blue After Dark theme. Select Light to switch back. On phones, the same control uses a moon or sun icon.

The artwork sits behind the controls and results. The grid remains the main working area. Open the top-right More actions menu (three dots in a circle) for Settings, Saved trips, Open Disney booking and Sign out.

Classic is the default. Your browser remembers your choice, including on the sign-in and change-log pages. The choice also follows you between open DVC tabs. If your browser blocks local storage, the switch still works for the current page.

Choose your dates

Fixed date range

Use Fixed date range when you know the nights you want.

Enter your Check-in date and your Last night (included). The last night is the final night you will sleep at the resort. The app shows the resulting checkout date beneath the fields.

For a five-night stay beginning October 18, select October 18 through October 22. Checkout is October 23.

Selecting a start date initially sets the end to the following day. Adjust the end to cover your full stay.

Flexible check-in

Use Flexible check-in when you can arrive on several possible dates.

1. Set the beginning and included ending night of your search window.
2. Enter the Number of consecutive nights you want.
3. Select your Acceptable check-in days. You can choose any combination from Monday through Sunday, including weekends.

The whole stay must fit inside the search window. For example, to find five consecutive nights within October 18–31 with a Friday or Saturday arrival, enter that window, choose five nights, and select Fri and Sat.

Make the window at least as long as the requested stay. A wider window gives the app more arrival dates to check.

Choose resorts and rooms

Select Choose resorts, select one or more resorts and choose Use resorts. Use Change to revise the selection. Closing the resort chooser discards its uncommitted changes. Then choose every room option that would work for your stay. Equivalent room variants are grouped into one selection throughout the catalog. Each checkbox selects all variants listed in that group's details. A search can find a group through any of those descriptions.

Room titles use a consistent short format. 2BR means two bedrooms. The grey text shows useful distinctions such as Preferred View, Resort View, Tower, or Near Hospitality House. Lock-off and dedicated choices remain separate.

• Search with phrases such as 2-bedroom, 2 bedroom, 2BR, or savanna.
• Use the Bedrooms buttons and the View / location and Accessibility controls to narrow the list. Their choices follow your selected resorts, room-search text and other selected filters. The matching-room count updates immediately. Active filter chips stay visible while you browse. Select × on a chip to clear that filter, or Clear all filters to reset the room filters and room-search text. Filtering preserves your selected rooms.
• Accessible rooms appear alongside the other choices, with Accessible in their description.
• Click anywhere on a room listing except its checkbox to expand or close the full descriptions. You can also hover for the details.
• Use Select all shown to select the currently visible choices for a resort.
• The bottom bar shows how many rooms you selected. Open Review rooms to see those choices, including rooms hidden by the current filters. Use × to remove a choice, then Back to rooms to continue.

A saved search can monitor up to 40 individual room variants. A grouped choice can include several variants. If the selection reaches that limit, use an additional search.

Check availability before saving

Select Check availability after choosing your dates and room options. The editor shows the latest returned counts, a checked time, complete-stay matches and a booking link. This also works while editing an existing search.

Saving a named trip persists the search. Poll this trip controls automatic monitoring. You can close the editor after reviewing a one-time check. If you change dates or room selections, use Check availability again to update the results.

A failed room check shows ? and its error. Other completed room checks stay visible. Slow checks can return the completed options while marking remaining options unknown. Another Disney operation may need to finish before the button becomes available.

Read your results

Each row represents a room option and each column represents an occupied night.

Green cells indicate reported availability. Neutral cells containing 0 indicate no rooms. ? means the result has not been established. A gold outline marks a change on the latest poll.

The Complete stay found bar below the grid means one selected room option is available for every required night. Expand it to review matching dates, gaps and point totals when available. A failed update labels retained matches as previous results; incomplete or nonmatching searches use their own status.

Use the date arrows to move through the grid. Phones show three dates at a time; wider screens show seven. The grid adapts when you rotate the phone. Full grid, below the result disclosures, shows the whole window with horizontal scrolling.

Check Last complete availability check and any warning before acting on a result. That time advances when every selected room option refreshes successfully. A partial poll updates the options that succeeded. A failed option shows Previous result with its observation time, or No result yet. Hover over a cell for its observation time.

An incomplete-update warning means some room options failed to refresh. Activity identifies the affected rooms, updated/total counts and available HTTP or response-validation details. Availability can change between checks.

Set up your alerts

Open Email alerts on the saved search you want to configure. This panel opens automatically after you save a new search.

Add people

Select Add email, enter the email address and optionally a name. Repeat for everyone who should receive this search's emails. Each address has an On/Off switch and a Remove action. Select Save alerts once to save the recipients and all other changes in this panel.

The recipient list belongs to this search. Add the person separately to any other search they should hear about. Everyone with app access can review and edit these lists.

Test email

The server's email sender is configured. Unlock Settings, enter a Test recipient and select Send test email. Check that recipient's inbox and spam folder. Sending a test does not add that address to any search.

Alert emails arrive from DVC Planner. Subjects show the date, action, resort and room, such as Dec 26 · Available · OKW Deluxe Studio. Grouped updates show the number of additional room options. The search name appears inside the email.

The availability grid gives you a quick view of the affected rooms and relevant nights. It uses the app's Classic colors, room counts, ✓ when availability is known without a count, and ? for unknown or older observations. An amber outline and * mark changed cells. Longer date ranges are arranged in phone-width sections. Detailed changes and observation times follow the grid.

Use View search to open that search in DVC Planner. Each room's Check Disney availability button preselects its resort, exact room, dates and accessibility setting on Disney's search page. Fixed searches use the monitored stay. A flexible complete-stay alert uses the matching stay, and a flexible nightly alert links to that individual night. Check-in and checkout are shown beside the button. Disney may ask you to sign in. Review the search and complete any reservation through Disney.

Outlook may rewrite link destinations through Safe Links. The HTML email displays labeled buttons. Microsoft's explanation

Choose when to receive updates

Turn Email alerts On to receive availability updates for the selected rooms and dates. Emails cover openings, closures and room-count changes, and automatically highlight full stays.

Open Delivery schedule to choose Immediately, 15-minute summary or Hourly summary. You can also set quiet hours and the time zone. Select Save alerts to apply the changes.

The initial availability check establishes a starting point. Subsequent changes generate emails. Email current matches sends the saved current matches to enabled recipients immediately, including when polling is paused. It uses results checked within the last hour. Check availability again if those results are older.

Immediate delivery combines changes from one check into one email per search recipient. Repeated checks with unchanged availability generate no new automatic emails.

To stop all emails for this search, turn Email alerts Off and save. To stop one person's emails, turn that recipient Off or remove them, then select Save alerts.

Recent emails shows each recipient's delivery status and errors. Sent means the SMTP server accepted the message. Check the inbox to confirm receipt.

Find and manage saved searches

Use the card's More search actions menu (three dots) for Delete search. In Past, this menu also contains Edit search.

Past cards use the same layout for previous searches. Expand Availability, Changes & activity or Email history to review the saved results. Resort photos identify single-resort searches, and multi-resort searches show a collage.

Use the Polling switch beside Edit on a trip's main card to pause or enable automatic checks. The switch saves immediately. A paused trip appears under Paused, where you can turn polling back on to return it to Active. The Poll this trip checkbox is also available in Edit when configuring a search. Global Auto poll and Disney sign-in status determine when scheduled checks can run. Changes to a shared search affect everyone using it. Configure its recipient list and alert settings under Email alerts.

Monitoring and access settings

Open the top-right More actions menu and select Settings, then enter the separate Settings password and select Unlock Settings. Choose Settings from the same menu again to hide the panel. Use Lock Settings when you want to lock the controls immediately.

• Auto poll sets the automatic-check interval or pauses automatic checking.
• Disney login opens the server's Disney browser in a new tab. Sign in to Disney and complete any verification steps there. Return to DVC Planner and select Finish Disney login. The app checks the saved connection automatically. If you close the tab before finishing, Open Disney login reopens it while the login is active. The login window expires after ten minutes.
• Send test email sends to the Test recipient address in Settings and records the outcome in Activity.
• Check session is an optional diagnostic control. The app automatically verifies its saved Disney connection after a restart and retries temporary failures. If an availability request loses authentication, the app also reloads Disney's booking page and retries once using the saved session.
• Sync from Disney refreshes the resort and room catalog. In the search editor, open Choose resorts or Change, then expand Resort catalog. Unlock Settings to enable the sync control.
• Change master password lets you choose a new shared password after entering the current one. Other browsers must enter the new password.
• Change Settings password lets you manage the Settings password. Enter the current value, choose the new one and confirm it. Other browsers must unlock Settings again.

First-time Settings setup uses a separate one-time link supplied by the person running the app. Open it while signed in, choose the Settings password and save it as a separate password-manager entry. Settings unlock uses a browser-session cookie. Use Lock Settings for an immediate lock. If this password is forgotten, the server operator can reset it.

The app remembers each browser for up to a year and renews that period during use. Sign out ends access in the current browser. Save the shared password in your password manager. If it is forgotten, the person running the server can reset it.

The monitor uses the sign-in opened by Disney login. Open Disney booking opens Disney’s booking site for your own manual search and reservation. The ears in the top bar show the connection state. Tap the icon or focus it and press Enter to read its status. Press Escape or tap outside to close the message. Each search shows its own availability-update status.

Automatic monitoring continues while the computer or server running DVC Planner is awake and the app is running. You can close your own browser tab. Connection verification also works while availability polling is paused. If Disney requires a fresh login, the ears turn red and the app displays Disney sign-in required.

Common questions

Why are my results old?

Check the search's last complete availability check, row observation times, polling status and Activity. A partial poll can show freshly updated options alongside older results for failed options. A successful Disney connection check verifies the saved connection through the resort catalog. Availability poll entries report room-result updates and failures. The polling schedule carries its due time across app restarts.

Why did my alert not arrive?

Open that search's Email alerts. Check that alerts and the recipient are On, verify the address, review Delivery schedule and look at Recent emails. Check the inbox and spam folder. The person managing Settings can send a test email. An authentication or configuration error requires the server operator to review the protected SMTP setup.

Why did I get a busy or cooldown message?

Disney operations run one at a time. Wait for the current operation to finish. Poll now and Poll all also use a short cooldown between requests. Check availability can run again once the current check finishes.

Why does Disney show an error such as HTTP 500?

The latest request failed. Review Activity for the affected search and time, then retry after the current operation finishes. If it persists, give the administrator the search name, time and displayed error.

Why are resort and room options loading?

DVC Planner retries interrupted downloads automatically. New search and Edit become available once the initial resort list has loaded. If a later refresh fails, your loaded options and current filter selections remain available while the app retries. A persistent loading problem appears as an inline message and clears when the list recovers.

Where can I review check and email errors?

Open Activity, filter by search or operation type, and expand the relevant entry. Recent emails on the search also shows delivery status and errors.