Never Did a Waitlist Before so Question

[Pluto1976]

Because I delayed in hitting the "Reserve" button, now 1-night in the middle of a planned 4-night stay is no longer available for the room type I want. That being said, I am unsure how the waitlist would work in this case. It is a Tue - Sat stay and Wed night is unavailable. If I select the entire stay and select Waitlist are the available nights reserved on points and the unavailable night waitlisted in hopes it comes through and if it does not come through I am still reserved for Tue, Thurs, and Fri?

To add some diceyness to it, I will need to borrow points from the next UY for this stay and I did not want to borrow the points into this UY if I cannot get the entire stay, so if the available 3-nights are booked on points it would not be desirable.

Hope this question makes sense.

 

[erionm]

If you select waitlist, the entire stay will be waitlisted. Nothing will be booked until all nights are available and the waitlist is matched.

 

[CarolynFH]

Many owners in your situation would book what they could on points and WL the one missing night, making a backup reservation (points and/or cash) for the missing night. They’d also stalk the booking website and grab the missing night if it showed up before the WL filled. If it fills, a simple chat/call to MS to combine the reservations into one (assuming all are exactly the same resort/villa size/view) will get a single reservation.

 

[Pluto1976]

Thanks to you both for the responses. It looks like I may need to start stalking the website now.

Does anyone know technically how waitlists are filled? Example, is it real-time or batch processing to fulfill waitlists? If it's batch, I will definitely be stalking more.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks to you both for the responses. It looks like I may need to start stalking the website now.

Does anyone know technically how waitlists are filled? Example, is it real-time or batch processing to fulfill waitlists? If it's batch, I will definitely be stalking more.

I don’t think we know for sure. We do know that the system only puts a “hold” on the night, and a CM has to complete the process manually at some time later.

Many people report being able to find the desired night by stalking. Some also report finding the night by stalking, booking it, and then seeing the night pop up again, as if their WL had filled but by booking it themselves and canceling the WL they freed up the night and it went back into open inventory - I believe @Sandisw has confirmed this happening. IOW, because of the time between the system doing its job pulling the night and the CM completing the booking, we’re not certain how the automated system works. Thus the advice to WL and stalk, stalk, stalk!

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks to you both for the responses. It looks like I may need to start stalking the website now.

Does anyone know technically how waitlists are filled? Example, is it real-time or batch processing to fulfill waitlists? If it's batch, I will definitely be stalking more.

We don't really now and there are times when I have canceled nights and some show right back up and other times they don't. Its too random to think I am hitting it right at the same time.

However, I have had plenty of times where I had a waitlist, grabbed something else that showed up, canceled my waistlist, and went back and my first choice was there. So, it meant I did have the match but it was not yet processed.

I still stalk and have grabbed something I had waitlisted, and after canceling, saw it show up again, meaning there was indeed more than one room!

 

[MartyParty]

Because I delayed in hitting the "Reserve" button, now 1-night in the middle of a planned 4-night stay is no longer available for the room type I want. That being said, I am unsure how the waitlist would work in this case. It is a Tue - Sat stay and Wed night is unavailable. If I select the entire stay and select Waitlist are the available nights reserved on points and the unavailable night waitlisted in hopes it comes through and if it does not come through I am still reserved for Tue, Thurs, and Fri?

To add some diceyness to it, I will need to borrow points from the next UY for this stay and I did not want to borrow the points into this UY if I cannot get the entire stay, so if the available 3-nights are booked on points it would not be desirable.

Hope this question makes sense.

Recommend you call DVC. They have more options for waitlisting vs what’s allowed on the website. That’s what I’ve done in the past.

But to be safe when you speak with them you should book as much of your stay as you can. Either another resort or at least the nights you can at the resort you want.

 

[SkampyOne]

This is me right now... For a 6 night stay with my BFF next January, I'm currently holding 15 nights across 2 different hotels and 2 waitlists. All my 2024 points are tied up and started borrowing from 2025, knowing at least when I release some of my nights, those points will be bankable back to 2025. And all because my home resort was already gone at 8am on my 11 month booking window day. As I grabbed nights by stalking, I didn't want to release and adjust my waitlist because I would go to the bottom of the list but realize the odds of 6 nights magically appearing are slim. It really shouldn't be this stressful!

 

[jlstwinmommy]

We had to waitlist 1 night of our October trip. i was stalking every day and never saw the night we needed, but the waitlist ended up coming through 2 weeks ago which was a nice surprise. I really thought we'd be stalking/waiting until at least September before nights started to appear.

 

[Pluto1976]

Thanks again for all the info. and suggestions! Clearly we need to organize a clandestine operation to inflilrate DVC Member Services to see how the system actually works and then film a documentary exposing the "secrets" of the DVC reservation and WL process

I have waitlisted the room category I like at the Poly, but I am thinking I will also book a std. view room as well as they are available which brings me to the next question. My understanding is if I borrow the points for the std. view room they will come into my current UY; however, if my waitlist for lake view comes through would that proceed to also borrow points from my next UY and then I would have 2 room reservations and would need to cancel one of them? If that is the process, I would have borrowed all of my points into the current UY and could not bank the unused ones as they would need to be used in the current UY, correct?

Or, is the system smart enough if the WL comes through to cancel the std. view reservation, use the banked points originally slated for the std. view room and apply it to the WL room, and lastly borrow the small number of points I would need to fulfill the WL room request resulting in only the points needed would be borrrowed from the next UY?

 

[SugarSweetLee]

This is me right now... For a 6 night stay with my BFF next January, I'm currently holding 15 nights across 2 different hotels and 2 waitlists. All my 2024 points are tied up and started borrowing from 2025, knowing at least when I release some of my nights, those points will be bankable back to 2025. And all because my home resort was already gone at 8am on my 11 month booking window day. As I grabbed nights by stalking, I didn't want to release and adjust my waitlist because I would go to the bottom of the list but realize the odds of 6 nights magically appearing are slim. It really shouldn't be this stressful!

Dang, what was your home resort and when were you trying to book for?

 

[bbeagle]

I just had a waitlist come through today, I was on the website, looking for December 26 specifically. Only 2-3 resorts had it available, But not the Polynesian, which I had waitlisted 3 days ago.

(I had Dec 23-26, Dec 27-30 booked at the poly, but not the gap of Dec 26-27)

I’ve been checking every 8 hours or so, and could never find December 26 available… and didn’t tonight either.

3 minutes after I logged off, I got an email saying 'We can't wait to welcome you home at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort!' What? I don’t remember making a reservation? Did I accidentally click copper creek? No… my waitlist at the poly came through!

So, this time it was immediate, and didn’t seem to be a reservation I could make.

This is the opposite of what I experienced last year where I had a waitlist of a few days and I found it myself and booked it, and the waitlist never grabbed it,

How does it work? I have no clue.

 

[SkampyOne]

Dang, what was your home resort and when were you trying to book for?

BWV standard either of the last 2 weeks of Jan so lost out to walkers who likely won't keep walking I usually plan my trips around room availability so this was the first time I had actual dates that I had to reserve for. Unless we get insanely lucky, we're looking at all six nights at OKW or start at BWV while blocked out for MLK and then split stay to OKW. I have every 2nd or 3rd night at BWV booked but my waitlists are for the full week so

 

[intamin]

BWV standard either of the last 2 weeks of Jan so lost out to walkers who likely won't keep walking I usually plan my trips around room availability so this was the first time I had actual dates that I had to reserve for. Unless we get insanely lucky, we're looking at all six nights at OKW or start at BWV while blocked out for MLK and then split stay to OKW. I have every 2nd or 3rd night at BWV booked but my waitlists are for the full week so

Unfortunately seems par for the course for a BW standard studio nowadays =/. It's become hard to recommend buying BW with the intention of staying in BW standard rooms. It's great for those BW view rooms though which IMO are worth it but otherwise yeesh. It's not quite at AKV club/value studio levels of difficulty booking but not that far off

 

[SkampyOne]

Unfortunately seems par for the course for a BW standard studio nowadays =/. It's become hard to recommend buying BW with the intention of staying in BW standard rooms. It's great for those BW view rooms though which IMO are worth it but otherwise yeesh. It's not quite at AKV club/value studio levels of difficulty booking but not that far off

Yup. Main reason why I bought BWV but finding I'm staying more at AKV - have even been lucky enough to nab value studios 3 or 4 times in the past 18 months, including waitlist! (Granted I often stay only 1 night as a local-ish)

 

[Simba's Mom]

Many owners in your situation would book what they could on points and WL the one missing night, making a backup reservation (points and/or cash) for the missing night. They’d also stalk the booking website and grab the missing night if it showed up before the WL filled. If it fills, a simple chat/call to MS to combine the reservations into one (assuming all are exactly the same resort/villa size/view) will get a single reservation.

What do you mean by "making a backup reservation [on points or cash]"? Do you recommend booking something that's physically as convenient as possible, in case the waitlist comes through? And is it possible that even though you couldn't get the room for that night on points from DVC, it may be available on cash through Disney Reservations? And what if the waitlist never comes through and you end up moving for that one night in the middle of your stay. Has that ever happened to anyone? Is it as big a PITA as I expect it would be?

 

[Cybertruck]

Waitlists in action by Disney IT (The IT Crowd = Disney IT)

 

[CarolynFH]

What do you mean by "making a backup reservation [on points or cash]"? Do you recommend booking something that's physically as convenient as possible, in case the waitlist comes through?

Something that's physically convenient would be ideal, but sometimes it's whatever is available for cash.

And is it possible that even though you couldn't get the room for that night on points from DVC, it may be available on cash through Disney Reservations?

Yes, book "something" for that night - preferably for cash (room-only) so that it can be canceled without penalty if the WL comes through.

And what if the waitlist never comes through and you end up moving for that one night in the middle of your stay. Has that ever happened to anyone? Is it as big a PITA as I expect it would be?

I've read reports that it never came through and yes, people had to move for that one night. And to me any split stay is a big PITA. But when the alternative is canceling the trip entirely because I can't immediately get a points reservation that covers the entire time I want to be there, I'd consider it. A one-night WL has the best chance of coming through, although never guaranteed.

 

[intamin]

What do you mean by "making a backup reservation [on points or cash]"? Do you recommend booking something that's physically as convenient as possible, in case the waitlist comes through? And is it possible that even though you couldn't get the room for that night on points from DVC, it may be available on cash through Disney Reservations? And what if the waitlist never comes through and you end up moving for that one night in the middle of your stay. Has that ever happened to anyone? Is it as big a PITA as I expect it would be?

It's better to guarantee you're at least staying in the same resort than waiting until right before your trip and not having a room for a night in the middle of your stay. The worst thing that happens is you have to change rooms in the middle and have bell services hold your suitcases while you're at a park.