DVC waitlist questions...

[wdwphanatic]

Hi, everyone! My family and friends of ours are hoping to get 2 studios at BCV for Nov. as soon as the 7-month window opens next week. My question is this: if member services only has availability for a few of our dates, do they let us go on the waitlist for the other nights? We currently have ressies for all 5 nights at BWV, but would prefer to stay at BCV. Do we have to give up our ressies at BWV to be waitlisted at BCV??? How does this all work? I am renting points from someone, so I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of the process! Also, would it be wise to book rooms for the first few nights of our stay when the 7-month window opens for those nights (these are the more popular nights of the week we'll be there) or wait to see if we can get all 5 nights when the 7-month window for our entire trip opens?? Any advice from experienced DVCers would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Sarah

 

[tjkraz]

You keep your current reservation while you are on the waitlist.

If you can only get part of your stay at BCV, then you need to make a decision. Unless you have unused points, you cannot keep the entire reservation at one resort and book duplicate days at another resort.

So, your options would be this:

1. Book as many days as are available at BCV and waitlist for the rest. Risk: you could end up NOT getting all of the days you need at BCV, and would have to move back and forther between the two resorts.

2. Keep the reservation at BWV and waitlist for the entire period at BCV. Risk: All of the days in your stay need to come available at once in order for you to get the room. If that doesn't happen, you stay the entire week at BWV.

All told, I think you have a better chance of getting the days you want under option 1, but you may have some sleepless nights until that happens.

 

[wdwphanatic]

That's pretty much what I expected, but it's good to get the scoop from a DVCer!

What is the likelihood of 2 studios opening up at the same time for the same dates??? I'm thinking that it's not too good... Can we be waitlisted for 2 studios at once for the full 5 nights? I assume so, but just thought I'd ask. If it were you, would you try to book as many nights as possible where we could get the 2 studios and wait/hope for availability at BCV or would you just stay with BWV and see if the waitlist cleared for the 2 studios for all 5 days?? The only problem with grabbing the 2 studios for the days that would be available is that we may end up having to switch resorts, which with kids wouldn't be very easy! Any advice on all this would be MUCH appreciated!!

Take care,
Sarah

 

[tjkraz]

I wouldn't immediately discount the fact that the rooms may be available at 7 months. Unless you're looking for the week of Thanksgiving, you may just find that you can move your reservation right away.

If you do have to waitlist, I would probably take a chance on it if I could book at least 3 of the 5 days now. That gives you a pretty good head start. The farther out more people book, I believe the higher the rate of cancellations we will see. So if all of the studios are already booked when you call, I'd say there is a better-than-average chance that one of two things will happen:

1. Plans will change and people will cancel, or

2. People who have booked at BCV will want to move elsewhere at 7 months. While BCV is a popular resort, I can envision people who own there wanting to try out resorts like VWL or even the new SSR.

So, if you can only get one or two days out of 5 when you call, personally I wouldn't try for the waitlist--particularly when you want two rooms. You could try waitlisting for the entire stay, but you would still run the risk of getting one room and not the second.

Guess it depends on how lucky you feel.