I just don't get the wait list

[tjkraz]

All of the great feedback here raises another valid possibility regarding the waitlist. We know that when a waitlist match is made, the new room is quietly placed on administrative hold and the two reservations are later managed by hand by a cast member. It can take several days for someone to manually cancel the existing reservation and book the party into the waitlisted room.

When people have success "stalking" rooms, it's entirely feasible that another cancellation is being held for them, but a cast member hasn't yet made the modifications.

 

[LynJ]

Wish me waitlist luck. We have 3 days in a BCV studio, 1 night at Boardwalk, then 2 more at BCV in April. Really, really, really hoping the single night comes through so we can stay in the same room the whole time. (Started piercing together about 75 days out, so thrilled with what we have so far)

 

[ScottOKW2K]

On my last reservation I had a combination of stalking and waitlist fill in my desired dates. I had 2 waitlist requests that were open for several months and both filled successfully within days of each other. These were requests for AKL Value Studio rooms between Christmas and NYE so these are very difficult reservations to get!

 

[Artemis Fowl]

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.

My situation did fit neatly into the 'perfect match' situation. I had 5 nights at BLT in a 2BR lockoff and waitlisted for a 2BR dedicated 2BR, same view, same dates, same points. I don't see any upside in the "batch" method. It just seems like the system should automatically stalk on my behalf if I've created a waitlist request, but I don't know much about IT and it that's even feasible.
As you said, if someone else came along and grabbed that room or a portion of it they would have it instead of my waitlist being filled which I think is not how the system should work. And that's with the full understanding that maybe my stalking allowed me to get a room that someone else may have had a higher priority (made earlier) than me.

 

[heapmaster]

The waitlist matching occurs on room cancellations only and that's it.

 

[MrsW]

I was booked 3 nights each at SS and AK with waitlists for BW for the SS nights. I found 3 nights at Copper Springs for the SS nights, called to make the change and the cast member asked if I would prefer the BW as it was available. Well of course I would! And I have no idea if those nights would have come through if I hadn't called. I added a BW waitlist to the AK nights and a week later, I got an email saying that my waitlist came through, so I've ended up with all 6 nights at the BW. Two entirely different situations in how the waitlists "worked" for me.

 

[Sandisw]

I was booked 3 nights each at SS and AK with waitlists for BW for the SS nights. I found 3 nights at Copper Springs for the SS nights, called to make the change and the cast member asked if I would prefer the BW as it was available. Well of course I would! And I have no idea if those nights would have come through if I hadn't called. I added a BW waitlist to the AK nights and a week later, I got an email saying that my waitlist came through, so I've ended up with all 6 nights at the BW. Two entirely different situations in how the waitlists "worked" for me.

It is very possible those rooms at BW were matched for you and that a CM had simply not processed. It is exciting that you got them all!!!

 

[JoeA]

I had a wait list (1 night BCV in May) come through last night!

stalking 1
Wait list 1

we’re all tied up, folks!!

 

[kimberwee]

I had a CM help me with my waitlist mess in late November 22 - she was amazing. I now hold a waitlist on 11/20 (a Sunday night) for a 1BR @ BCV - hoping people cancel with F&W being over on 11/19 this year. I have 11/19 booked already...so, fingers crossed!

The bigger mess was how to get Thanksgiving week in a dedicated 2BR @ AKV-Kidani...I snagged the nights of 11/21 & 22, but the 23rd & 24th are unavailable. The CM was able to waitlist the 23rd-24th for me and I will snag the 25th, which she said had plenty of availability.

I need pixie dust!!

 

[kimberwee]

I had a CM help me with my waitlist mess in late November 22 - she was amazing. I now hold a waitlist on 11/20 (a Sunday night) for a 1BR @ BCV - hoping people cancel with F&W being over on 11/19 this year. I have 11/19 booked already...so, fingers crossed!

The bigger mess was how to get Thanksgiving week in a dedicated 2BR @ AKV-Kidani...I snagged the nights of 11/21 & 22, but the 23rd & 24th are unavailable. The CM was able to waitlist the 23rd-24th for me and I will snag the 25th, which she said had plenty of availability.

I need pixie dust!!

Can’t believe this, but both of my waitlists came through for Thanksgiving week!!!
There is hope!

 

[Nappy1380]

We're 2 for 2 on waitlist so maybe we're just luck!

 

[bobbiwoz]

A one bedroom BCV waitlisted for one night came through for me two weeks ago. I stalk, and had checked that very day, but I got the email, and was happy!

 

[kimberwee]

Just to mention, after reading supposition from an earlier comment, the rooms that I wanted never appeared for me over the weekend after an embarrassing amount of stalking. This puts me in the camp of thinking that the system catches these open reservations before they are released. There wasn't much movement in reservation availability at all this weekend. Hope that means people are shuffling to what they want, via waitlist behind the scenes

 

[JELLYROLLS4LIFE]

I've had waitlists work, and I've had stalking work. Waitlists work best when they are short. (3 days or less.)

 

[RoseGold]

Hi ho! I just had a Boardwalk view studio waitlist come through! WOW! That's a bucket list one for me, so excited! It's only one night, but I'll take it!

It's finally working well to have two memberships and four waitlists.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Booking DVC is all about timing, and the waitlist is just that, a list.

if you waitlist a room 2 month out, you might be xxx down on the list. In that case you most likely not get your waitlist.

one the other hand if you waitlist at 7 months you are more likely to get what you want.

i used to want to stay at BCV but only had SSR and Blt point… I would book the stay at my home resort at 11 months, boom what I could at BCV at the 7 month window, and wait list the rest…. Maybe 70 percent of the time i got BCV. The rest of the time i got a spilt stay.

 

[bakerworld]

50% success rate but I don't count on them completely as every few days I'll check.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I have had some good success with waitlists. Recent example is July 4th at Poly, which I really did not think would come through (put it in around 5 months out, and just got the notification a week or so ago). But agree that sometimes the rooms show up as available but my waitlist is still pending.

I have also had an experience where I had a waitlist, I could then see the rooms available, but I couldn't change my existing reservation (in my second-choice rooms) online. When I called, they told me I had already been given the rooms via my waitlist request, it just hadn't updated on the system yet.

 

[Lesley Wake]

I got really fortunate with recent waitlists.
1-Got a riveria studio, probably waitlisted around the 6 month mark when plans were adjusted. It was just a single night but is between the starcruiser and DCL so works perfectly.

2-AKV Concierge! I definitely didn't expect this to ever come up, but again was a single night. I had grabbed 1 night at 11 months and waitlisted the other one. About 6 months later it came thru and now I don't have to move rooms.

So, it can happen, short stays are much easier to grab than longer ones. But you can't get it if you don't try.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I’ve seen it seemingly go both ways, and I have had many waitlists fill over the years.

There have been times I booked a room when it popped up, even though I had a waitlist for that room. And other times I’ve cancelled a room and immediately kept refreshing curious if it would go back into inventory. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn’t (so assuming a waitlist picked it up?).