How do I waitlist?

[PAGran]

I know the answer to this question is somewhere on these boards, but I can't find it. I've never waitlisted.
In a few days I want to make a res at 7 months for a 6 night stay. All are currently available except the fifth night. If I make the res at the the 7 month day, and availability stays the same, will I only be waitlisting the 5th night, or the whole stay? Will I still be reserving night 6?

 

[disneynutz]

You should make a reservation somewhere for all the nights, book the nights available where you want to stay and wait-list the missing night.

Bill

 

[gharter]

Agree with the above advice. Book all of the nights available as 2 reservations , 1 before and 1 after the waitlisted day. Waitlist the single day, but have a night reserved at another resort to be sure you have somewhere to stay. From what I have read, if you wait list one night instead of the entire week or several nights, you will have more sucess.

We knew this trip we were splitting between 2 resorts by choice. We had the first 3 nights at BWV, wait listed the 4th. We booked the rest of the nights at another resort including the night we had waitlisted to be sure we had somewhere to stay. I kept watching, but never saw the other day come open. We received an email for Disney that our wait list had been fulfilled. They also merged the 3 nights and the waitlisted night into one reservation and cancelled the overlapping night at the other resort for us.

I wasn't sure how easy wait listing would be, but Disney made it very easy for us.

 

[Dean]

I know the answer to this question is somewhere on these boards, but I can't find it. I've never waitlisted.
In a few days I want to make a res at 7 months for a 6 night stay. All are currently available except the fifth night. If I make the res at the the 7 month day, and availability stays the same, will I only be waitlisting the 5th night, or the whole stay? Will I still be reserving night 6?

You can reserve what's available and wait list the entire stay or wait list the individual nights once their 7 mo window opens. Let's assume a 7 night stay at 7 months and only the 5th night is not available when the reservation window opens. In that situation you'll only be able to reserve the first 4 nights but not the last 2 because the 7 month window is not open then. However, you could reserve the first 4, then go back and search for the 7 days and put in the full stay as a wait list even though you have the first 4 nights. It'll ask you if you want to replace a reservation and you would select what you already have. You'd then keep searching on a daily basis and maybe everything was available a day or 2 later and you'd just grab it then and cancel the other making sure not to borrow any points you didn't need to. IMO managing the wait list well is the key to making points work at the 7 month window.

 

[PAGran]

Thanks, guys. Now I get it. I'll book nights 1-4 at the resort I'm wanting, and book the last two nights at another resort. We don't mind moving if we have to. Then when the 7 month window opens for night 5, I'll waitlist those last two nights.