Auto waitlist- Does the computer fill it instantly or at end of the day?

[bunny]

When someone cancels a reservation for which another member has waitlisted days, does the computer automatically fill the waitlist or is it done at the end of the day? If it is at the end of the day, could someone calling that day get the days if only by luck?

 

[SuzanneSLO]

How the waitlist works is one of the great mysteries of DVC!

Some DISers have reported that it appears you can get lucky reserving a hard-to-book date just by calling on the same day that a cancellation is made, but this is hard to verify. Other DISers report that attempts to actually transfer a date (not a compelte reservation) to someone else not on the waitlist is not successful. As a result, calling and getting lucky would seem to require both that the date you wanted was cancelled by someone else that same day and that both CMs at MS (the one who took the cancellation and who made your reservation) were not experienced enough to know that a waitlist for that date might exist.

You probably have a better chance winning the lottery.

It appears to me that when your waitlist comes thru, it gets attached to your reservation somehow, but MS may not actually call you or autoconfirm it for some time. This seems to explain why so many people report receiving their waitlist when they call MS about something totally different. There does not seem to be a specific time of day or day of the week that calls are made or that autoconfirms are posted.

As a veteran of many waitlists, I wish you the best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[DISNEYDEVOTEE]

We wait listed last trip on a whim reservation. We called about every other day at about 40 days out and got it. Never received an auto confirm or phone call.

We just played dumb!

Good luck

Bob

 

[mugglemomof3]

My last 3 waitlists never got phone calls, they just 'appeared'.The last one I wouldn't even know about, except the new features on the DVC website has the info. I never got confirmation letters with the added dates. If I didn't call, I wouldn't know. Good luck. I have been very lucky getting my extra days, but I did need to keep on top of things to find out that I actually got them.

 

[Cinderpals]

My educated guess would be that they get filled/held by the computer and matched to the waitlist. I checked my DVCmember site throughout the day yesterday. By 4pm, one of my waitlisted days was booked! It wasn't available an hour before, because I had called to check. So, if your on autobook doesn't mean that your day will be filled before the person before you gets a chance to confirm via ph. call. I have a feeling my other 3 days (I just added another day to the waitlist today!) are available, but they are waiting to confirm through the waitlist. Hopefully, they will make their way down to my name on the list soon!