Combined stalking and waitlist success

[Figment&Piglet]

Since there are often threads about waitlist vs stalking online ressies, I thought I'd offer our experience.

This year and last we decided after our April trip to book an end of August trip. We own at BWV and our family is truly not happy unless we stay there. That said both times we went to book the Aug trip with less than 4 months to go, there were no BWV studios.

Last year we went on the waitlist for the entire 5 nights and when we had little success, we started stalking the online ressie system late in the game. Was able to snag BWV studios for each night but in 3 diff views so we had to move 3 times in 5 nights! Still not bad.

This year we were aggressive from the start with stalking, with both my husband and I checking multiple times per day (obsessively even) and through snagging rooms as they came up and using the 20 minute hold to our advantage plus strategically waitlisting single nights here and there we wound up snagging all 5 nights in a garden/pool view studio (no moving!) with 3 by stalking and 2 by single night waitlists.

While of course availability changes year to year, the bottom line is we will continue to use the waitlist as needed but stalking seems just as or more necessary.

Just our 2 cents!

 

[CarolMN]

Happy you were able to make that work.

We've also owned at BWV since 1999 and strongly prefer to stay there (but occasionally do a split stay for 2 nights at BLT).

Too bad you can't plan more in advance, then none of the stalking, waitlisting or stress would be necessary. We've never had an issue getting exactly what we want at 11 months, and you can almost always get Pool/Garden at 7 months.

I know some families just can't commit more than a few months in advance - but wondering if you've had any success "guessing". You can always cancel or adjust later if it doesn't work and you are no worse off than if you just waited until your dates are firm. (Feel free to ignore - I know you didn't ask for any opinions, LOL).

 

[DebbieB]

I did the same last November. I had a boardwalk view studio for the week I wanted (Nov 10 to 15) when an important work conference came up for that week. I asked my boss if the dates were final, set in stone, she said yes. That was around August. So I changed my reservation to the following week, staying at AKV Kidani, no BWV available.

You can guess what happened next. My boss calls me and says she has bad news, the conference is changed to the next week. She said I didn't have to go since I already had plans but this conference was important and I didn't want to miss it. This was sometime in September. There was no DVC studio available for November 10 to 15, not even SSR. I waitlisted BWV, both preferred and boardwalk views. I also got an AP discount reservation for BWV, $285 a night incl tax. Luckily my air was SW so I could change it without fees. I started stalking the website and Nov 12, 13, 14 came up preferred view studio. I booked it, changed the waitlist to 2 nights. Then Nov 11 came up, booked it and changed the waitlist to 1 night. To my surprise, Nov 10 came through on the waitlist about 28 days before check-in and member services automatically combined the reservations so I had all 5 nights. I then cancelled the room only (I didn't make any changes to it along the way). So 15 points per night vs $285 per night, I was really happy! I doubt all 5 nights would have came open at once to fill the waitlist.

 

[mpusateri]

I have the same resort and I have found that if you plan out 10 months in advance there is usually never a problem.

 

[Sandisw]

Congrats! I also have used a combination of the wait list and stalking to end up with what I wanted when changes happened after my original booking.

 

[zavandor]

I'm going for the Marathon week end in January. At 7 months, Friday and Saturday the only studio available was at SSR, but for this trip I wanted OKW because of the two double beds: I'm going with a friend and didn't want anyone to sleep on the sofa bed.
So I created two waitlist, one for each missing nights, Satuday came two days later, but for Friday no luck until today. I stalked the website multiple times a day for the last month and finally today I succeeded to snag one.

 

[magicaldisney]

I've always just used the system to fill or more times than not, not fill our waitlists. If you stalk the online system and you find your night(s) available, do you cancel what you have for that night and then hope the room you wanted is still there? OP, what is the 20 minute hold you are referring too?

 

[Figment&Piglet]

Yes I know all about booking 11 months in advance. We always do so for our main April trip and have no issues getting our first choice of a standard view studio. But both times I'm referring to we decided to book a short August trip too when we got home in April. Both required borrowing points too so we wouldn't have booked until we were positive we were going. My point was the different experience between relying solely on waitlist vs waitlist plus stalking.

20 minute hold is when you find, say, a night or two of what you want online but of course you can't modify an existing ressie online. You'd have to cancel the whole trip which isnt desirable. You go to the booking screen to hold the room for 20 mins then call MS by phone to cancel only that one night of your existing ressie then release the room you have on hold for them to book in its place. Not without risk but better than having to cancel a 5 night ressie to gain one night and risk losing the other 4 in the meantime. We did this twice to gain the three nights we got by stalking.

 

[magicaldisney]

20 minute hold is when you find, say, a night or two of what you want online but of course you can't modify an existing ressie online. You'd have to cancel the whole trip which isnt desirable. You go to the booking screen to hold the room for 20 mins then call MS by phone to cancel only that one night of your existing ressie then release the room you have on hold for them to book in its place. Not without risk but better than having to cancel a 5 night ressie to gain one night and risk losing the other 4 in the meantime. We did this twice to gain the three nights we got by stalking.

Got it, thanks. I thought you'd still have to call MS, but was hoping your post was suggesting we didn't. At least you get that 20 minutes. I wasn't aware of that.