I admit I am a Numpty - Help Please

[saratogagirl]

We will shortly be at the seven month point, I currently have four nights booked at Saratoga before two nights at Universal and then back to Saratoga for thirteen nights. I am hoping to try somewhere new for the first four nights, I know with it being December I may have no luck but its worth a try. I needed to speak to Member Services about something last week and enquired then about the Boardwalk, and three of the four nights I wanted were available.

We know where we would like to stay and have an order of preference, however, IF I am able to swap I am not allowed to tell Ian where to, it is to be a suprise.

My problem is, having always stayed at my beloved Saratoga I have no idea what I need to do. Do I call on at seven months of the day we are due to check out of Saratoga, what happens if I have to waitlist, how does this work??

I'm sorry I know I am a numpty, but having only ever stayed at Saratoga I have no experience of such things - help please x

 

[wilma-bride]

Jules, you can either call day by day or you can wait until 7 months before the check-out day and call to book all 4 nights at once. When you call, you just ask them about availability at the resorts you want (in order of preference). If all the nights are available, then no problem - they will just cancel your SSR ressie and rebook whichever resort you get. If there is one or more night unavailable, you can choose to waitlist for whichever nights aren't available. What will happen then is that you will keep your resiie at SSR for those nights, MS will rebook you at the new resort for the available nights and you will be placed on a waitlist for the nights you still need. The waitlist is now automatic so, as soon as the nights become available, MS should in theory automatically cancel your remaining SSR ressie and rebook at the new resort.

I could be wrong but I believe you can choose to waitlist for all four nights together so if, for example, nights 1, 3 and 4 were available but not night 3 you can choose to keep your ressie at SSR and wiatlist for all 4 nights. That way you wouldn't end up with a situation where you had 3 nights at one resort and 1 at another smack bang in the middle.

MS will explain it all to you when you call, if you are still confused - they're normally pretty good as I'm sure you know

 

[squitty]

Hi

I have just booked using the 7 month window...You can either book day by day, ringing up everyday you need of the reservation or wait until your last day, (check out day) and ring up then and take the chance that they have availabilty for the length of stay.

You start ringing on the day after your first day of checkin, for me my first day was Dec 1st so I rang May 2nd and rang the next day and so on till I had all the days I needed. I did tell MS what I was wanting to do on the first day I rang, so they checked to see what was available for the duration.
I did not want to waitlist so can't help with that one.
I hope this makes sense as I am no good writing things down...

 

[UKDEB]

Member Services are very helpful with waitlisting (which can be a very complex process), but as with all Disney CMs, some are more knowledgeable and helpful than others.

For November, we're booked for 5 nights at SSR, 2 at RPR, then 7 back at SSR. Ideally, we want to be at an Epcot resort for the first 5 nights for the IF&WF, but nothing was available at the 7 month window. Studios seem to be the most popular, btw.

Initially we decided to waitlist all 5 nights as a block on the basis that we didn't want to find that some of the days came through and not others. However, the chances of getting what you want are higher if you waitlist a day at a time, so that's what we've done now. One day has come through bang slap in the middle of those 5 days, but we figure that we've still got almost 6 months for the others to come through. We're going to keep an eye on availability at SSR (which we're thinking should remain good given its size) and if we find that we're getting close to the time without all 5 days having come through, we'll just switch back to SSR.

You can waitlist all sorts of combinations. We're waitlisting one day at a time for a BoardWalk View Studio, but if a 5 night block comes through in one of the other Studios (preferred or standard view), or at BCV, that will override the day-by-day waitlist.

If the option you're waitlisting means more points than your current booking and you don't have sufficient in this year's use year, you have to make sure you tell them they can automatically borrow to make the reservation.

Hope this helps. I've probably made it as clear as mud!

 

[saratogagirl]

Thank you all for your help, it has made it all a lot more clear, fingers crossed now, also prayers that I can keep my mouth shut when the pinot grigio bunny has been. Ian doesn't want to know if I have been able to do it, or which location if any I am able to get !!

 

[PhilUK]

You'll love Boardwalk. It's been our Home Resort for 9 Years but joined you with an add on at Saratoga last month.

Phil

 

[jns]

ust sending you some
we waited for the full week last year and it never came through
this year I done day by day phoned the day before to see what was available and was on the phone at openning each morning 9am US time was able to get 6 nights at BCV and 3 nights at WLV , no wait list
CM's are all really helpful
let us know how you get on we will not tell Ian

 

[saratogagirl]

thanks for the pixie dust, it is sorted bar for one day (the first day) when we are on the waitlist, the other three days are done, will have to PM you to let you know where we are off to, I don't want nosy parker snooping LOL, fingers crossed for the first day !