deciding whether to waitlist individual days or whole vacation

[alisonslp]

Hubby has to be in orlando for business in the beginning of Oct. so we decided to try to put together a mini-vacay (3-4 nights) for the family. But after getting online and seeing little availability - even SSR which is always open, I realized it is Columbus day weekend... yay me... We really want to make this work because we would like to go back to MNSSHP.

I am not opposed to split stays. We do it often, since we don't usually plan more than 4-5 months out but we have rarely needed to waitlist and only 1 day. I would really like to get BLT for the party night (thursday) at MK. Wed is available but not thursday and beyond. Am I fooling myself thinking that a waitlist for that one day might come through? Would it be easier to waitlist a 1 or 2 bdrm through for BLT (party of 5, no studio).

If we want to try for thur and fri night, should I waitlist thur and fri together or separately? which gives me a better chance of getting that thurs specifically? I have a Dec UY, so I will likely only waitlist until the end of July so I can bank my points if a it doesn't go through.

For the remainder of the weekend, any ideas on what to do-which resort will give us the best chances of getting Fri and Sat night through waitlisting?

Thanks

 

[freediverdude]

October, good luck, but you never know. I would waitlist only the party night to start, to get that locked in, and then gradually add nights.

 

[alisonslp]

October, good luck, but you never know. I would waitlist only the party night to start, to get that locked in, and then gradually add nights.

Thanks, After doing a more extensive search on the boards, it looks like doing 1 or 2 night waitlists work best. It is a short stay for us so maybe we can luck out. But we are not opposed to staying off site if need be. We already have reservations in Orlando for a convention.

 

[Dean]

Thanks, After doing a more extensive search on the boards, it looks like doing 1 or 2 night waitlists work best. It is a short stay for us so maybe we can luck out. But we are not opposed to staying off site if need be. We already have reservations in Orlando for a convention.

Given the same starting time, single days will always improve your chances of success. Here's an example. If you're on the WL for a single night and the next person in line is on the wait list for 2 nights including the night you have WL then only those 2 nights come available, you'll get the one night and orphan the other night. They will not skip over you because it's a better fit for the other WL.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Your entire waitlist has to match, and you have to be in first position on the waitlist for those dates. So it's always easier to match a day at a time.

 

[suebeelin]

Given the same starting time, single days will always improve your chances of success. Here's an example. If you're on the WL for a single night and the next person in line is on the wait list for 2 nights including the night you have WL then only those 2 nights come available, you'll get the one night and orphan the other night. They will not skip over you because it's a better fit for the other WL.

Your entire waitlist has to match, and you have to be in first position on the waitlist for those dates. So it's always easier to match a day at a time.

Confused... Does your entire Waitlist have to match, or each day on a day by day basis?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Confused... Does your entire Waitlist have to match, or each day on a day by day basis?

Your whole waitlist has to match. In Dean's example:

1st in line: Bob, who waitlisted Monday.
2nd in line: Bobbi, who waitlisted Monday and Tuesday.

Monday and Tuesday become available. Bob is given Monday, which is the only day he waitlisted. Bobbi gets nothing because the whole of her request didn't match once those ahead of her in line were dealt with. She isn't given Tuesday and a chance to wait for another Monday opening, because her request needs to completely match.

 

[suebeelin]

Thx!! So it makes sense to Waitlist day by day! I may be doing that in a week, as I'm hoping to switch from BLT to poly. Wish me luck!

 

[Dean]

Thx!! So it makes sense to Waitlist day by day! I may be doing that in a week, as I'm hoping to switch from BLT to poly. Wish me luck!

It depends. Often yes and sometimes no. You only get 2 waitlists per UY TOTAL. If you have more than one booking category listed, that's your 2. And if you wait list day 1 & 2 (one booking category) of a given trip you can't WL any more days AND you would have to wait an extra day to WL day 2 in this example if you're at the 7 or 11 mo window. Also consider that it often takes 2 or 3 days for a matched WL to get completed so you might miss the opportunity to WL additional days timely. IMO managing the WL is key to making DVC work at 7 months or later.

 

[alisonslp]

ugh. I forgot about only having 2 waitlists pear UY. We typically don't use it enough for me to worry about it. Now I can't remember if we waitlisted anything for our trip last month. I will have to go back and check, if there is a way to do that.

 

[Dean]

ugh. I forgot about only having 2 waitlists pear UY. We typically don't use it enough for me to worry about it. Now I can't remember if we waitlisted anything for our trip last month. I will have to go back and check, if there is a way to do that.

It's 2 active. If the trips past you're ok.

 

[alisonslp]

It's 2 active. If the trips past you're ok.

OK, thanks. I think I need to go back and read the rules.

 

[alisonslp]

2nd question - if the wait list comes through for individual nights, will the CMs always combine the reservations together so that we don't have to move between rooms or is it at their discretion?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

2nd question - if the wait list comes through for individual nights, will the CMs always combine the reservations together so that we don't have to move between rooms or is it at their discretion?

Even if they don't combine you can call in and have them do it. The room must be exactly the same type though. I've had it happen both ways - where when the waitlist fills they notice I have existing nights and they combine and where they don't combine and I just call MS and have them do it. You could also email MS to have them do it.

 

[gharter]

2nd question - if the wait list comes through for individual nights, will the CMs always combine the reservations together so that we don't have to move between rooms or is it at their discretion?

I can only tell you that our one time to waitlist, when it came through, we received confirmation of the waitlist being filled as a new reservation. The next day we got a second email that combined the 2 reservations into one. Does it always work this way? No idea, but it did for us.