I just don't get the wait list

JoeA

Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2014
Does waitlist ever work or is it just me? Maybe I just don't understand how it works!!

We wait listed a room on our last two trips and each time the room became available for booking at ~70 days out but the wait list never triggered (exact same room category). Both times I was lucky enough to book the room and then I just cancelled the other reservation and corresponding wait list.

At this point I don't see any real value in the wait list, to be honest. What am I missing?
 
Does waitlist ever work or is it just me? Maybe I just don't understand how it works!!

We wait listed a room on our last two trips and each time the room became available for booking at ~70 days out but the wait list never triggered (exact same room category). Both times I was lucky enough to book the room and then I just cancelled the other reservation and corresponding wait list.

At this point I don't see any real value in the wait list, to be honest. What am I missing?
It works sometimes. I've had waitlists come through. I've also stalked and found rooms I've waitlisted before they were culled from inventory. My guess is that the waitlist software is not run in real time so canceled rooms go into inventory and stay there until it gets run and pulls any matches.
 
I had the same experience. I was waitlisted, but through stalking found what I was waitlisted for and then modified my reservation to get the room I wanted.

Everyone always comments how bad Disney IT is, and I think this is another example. I would think the waitlist would be triggered as soon as there is availability but that doesn't seem to be how it works.
 
I had the same experience. I was waitlisted, but through stalking found what I was waitlisted for and then modified my reservation to get the room I wanted.

Everyone always comments how bad Disney IT is, and I think this is another example. I would think the waitlist would be triggered as soon as there is availability but that doesn't seem to be how it works.

Disney's IT is bad? I haven't noticed! :)
 


I got waitlist to fill marathon weekend at Poly. Every other booking I have gotten by stalking, even when I had an open waitlist open for it. Yay Disney IT.
 
My guess is that the waitlist does a search at a certain interval on the same inventory that we see on the website. So if you happen to search after someone cancelled, but before the waitlist ran its search, you'll be able to book that room.
Also, keep in mind that while the waitlist might match your search, the reservation still needs to be put through manually by MS, and from what I've read recently, it sounds like it's taking them a while to actually do that. I had a waitlist match last November, and only found out because I chatted with MS to ask for an update. They were able to push it through right away at that point.
 
Everyone always comments how bad Disney IT is, and I think this is another example. I would think the waitlist would be triggered as soon as there is availability but that doesn't seem to be how it works.

No, it appears to run in a batch mode at set intervals rather than in real time. To me (as an IT guy), it's more of a philosophical decision with both approaches having their pros and cons.

Waitlist requests are only filled if a match is made for the entire duration. If you waitlist 7 nights and 3 come available, there's no match. And the system will not hold those 3 nights in anticipation that the other 4 *might* eventually open up. If the system were run in real time, the odds of a match would decrease because the only time a match would occur is when a single cancellation matches an entire request.

With the batch process, there is a greater chance of multiple cancellations contributing to a match. In the example above of the 7 night trip, imagine one member cancels 3 nights at 5pm and a second member cancels the other 4 nights at 8pm. When the batch process runs at 10pm, ideally it finds all 7 nights and the match is made. Of course, this comes with the potential drawback that someone could log in and grab some or all of those dates before the batch is run.

If you brainstorm the entire process, there are drawbacks either way. I don't see any clear reasons to say that one approach is better than the other. To answer OP's question, I've had success with the waitlist almost every time we used it. Granted, we steer clear of the absolute toughest resorts and room categories--you're not going to have much success waitlisting BCV studios or AKV Value. Also, getting 2 nights off the waitlist will always be much easier than 7+.

I also wonder if we don't over-estimate the number of people who are stalking the website, grabbing rooms as soon as they are released. There is no-doubt a lot of attention paid at the 7 month window when people are jockeying for different resorts. But I'm not sure there are many people logging in 5x per day, trying to find a room for some random dates that are 4-5 months away.

In OPs case, I think there's a very high probability that the match would have been made last night when the batch process ran. He just happened to manually grab the rooms before that occurred.
 


If you brainstorm the entire process, there are drawbacks either way. I don't see any clear reasons to say that one approach is better than the other. To answer OP's question, I've had success with the waitlist almost every time we used it. Granted, we steer clear of the absolute toughest resorts and room categories--you're not going to have much success waitlisting BCV studios or AKV Value. Also, getting 2 nights off the waitlist will always be much easier than 7+.

I also wonder if we don't over-estimate the number of people who are stalking the website, grabbing rooms as soon as they are released. There is no-doubt a lot of attention paid at the 7 month window when people are jockeying for different resorts. But I'm not sure there are many people logging in 5x per day, trying to find a room for some random dates that are 4-5 months away.
I actually lucked out and had a BCV studio match in November for wine and dine weekend. I was shocked when it happend!

But to your second point, I think outside of some people on the DIS, I doubt many people are stalking the website. I bet most of them don't even know how the waitlist works, and assume if the room becomes available, it goes to the member at the top of the waitlist (it's what I thought before coming on here)
 
I actually lucked out and had a BCV studio match in November for wine and dine weekend. I was shocked when it happend!

It happens, for sure. There's certainly no harm in dreaming big, especially if you already have something else locked in.

The point I was trying to illustrate is that demand and inventory both play a role in waitlist success. When people say "I never get anything off the waitlist", it's often impossible to know what they're going for...how realistic their requests might be. Suffice it to say members will have a lot more luck waitlisting an SSR One Bedroom for 3 nights in September than an AKV Value Studio for 7 nights in early December. 😉
 
"Long shot" waitlists do come through. On a whim, I waitlisted for a BLT standard view studio for 3 nights last year in late/November- early December. To my surprise, it came through. The three nights in at Lake view studio that I gave up disappeared right way.
 
No, it appears to run in a batch mode at set intervals rather than in real time. To me (as an IT guy), it's more of a philosophical decision with both approaches having their pros and cons.

Waitlist requests are only filled if a match is made for the entire duration. If you waitlist 7 nights and 3 come available, there's no match. And the system will not hold those 3 nights in anticipation that the other 4 *might* eventually open up. If the system were run in real time, the odds of a match would decrease because the only time a match would occur is when a single cancellation matches an entire request.

With the batch process, there is a greater chance of multiple cancellations contributing to a match. In the example above of the 7 night trip, imagine one member cancels 3 nights at 5pm and a second member cancels the other 4 nights at 8pm. When the batch process runs at 10pm, ideally it finds all 7 nights and the match is made. Of course, this comes with the potential drawback that someone could log in and grab some or all of those dates before the batch is run.

If you brainstorm the entire process, there are drawbacks either way. I don't see any clear reasons to say that one approach is better than the other. To answer OP's question, I've had success with the waitlist almost every time we used it. Granted, we steer clear of the absolute toughest resorts and room categories--you're not going to have much success waitlisting BCV studios or AKV Value. Also, getting 2 nights off the waitlist will always be much easier than 7+.

I also wonder if we don't over-estimate the number of people who are stalking the website, grabbing rooms as soon as they are released. There is no-doubt a lot of attention paid at the 7 month window when people are jockeying for different resorts. But I'm not sure there are many people logging in 5x per day, trying to find a room for some random dates that are 4-5 months away.

In OPs case, I think there's a very high probability that the match would have been made last night when the batch process ran. He just happened to manually grab the rooms before that occurred.

Actually, I booked the room this morning so whatever stars needed to align for last nights "batch" didn't!
 
I rang MS and lo and behold the waitlist had matched but they hadn't allocated it yet. The booking was about 6 months away and they probably do these on a nearest to travel basis
 
Actually, I booked the room this morning so whatever stars needed to align for last nights "batch" didn't!

Could have been cancelled this morning, shortly before you looked. Same difference.

The waitlist does work. My most recent success was 4 nights in an AKV studio for December 2021. But there are definitely situations where you can stumble across availability before it hits the waitlist process.
 
We had a waitlist come through for BCV for 3 nights of our trip coming up in March. Was pleasantly surprised when it happened.
 
I have been stalking for a standard studio at SSR for March 31-April 4th. We had a preferred studio booked. I randomly checked in with MS with the online chat one day and was told my waitlist matched. She was able to switch the reservation over for me immediately. Now I have a long shot waitlist for Riveria for the same time frame. This was a late booking for the Springtime Surprise RunDisney weekend. If I had had the dates at 11 months out, I could of had my Tower Studio. Oh well, maybe next year's run in April.
 
I have had several that worked out for me. Wait listing for a larger unit has worked. Wait listing for a location I do not own at (7 months out) has worked.
 
I just had a waitlist match for March 25-27 in AKV kidani 2 bedroom. We had OKW booked but wanted the extra bathroom because we are in Orlando for a wedding so we need plenty of bathrooms to get ready in 🤣
 
I have picked up several rooms, only to cancel my waitlist and have it show up again.

The problem right now is that you don’t know if there is a match because the system does not indicate it.

Once matched, the room has to be processed by a CM and so it can sit there for days before you see the new reservation.

It has happened too many times now that it is not a coincidence.
 
I've had success with some waitlists. Others I've gotten by stalking. One time I called about something else so I asked them to check & they were able to confirm a pending one for me right then. I usually will book whatever nights are available & then wait list the rest as single nights where possible until the reservation is complete. Plus stalk for what I'm missing. Only once did I end up having to change rooms 4 times within the same resort for a 2 week stay. But it was BWV during F&W. A few other times I've actually had to change resorts but I try to avoid that as much as possible because I hate wasting time moving from one resort to another. That really only works for me if I have a car and have planned for non-park days.
 

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