New to DVC. Did I do this right? (Booking & Waitlisting)

[Cruisin Spartan]

So my family is brand new to DVC. I just went online today and booked my first trip. However, there was no availability for the first night of our 6 night stay. Instead of waitlisting our entire trip, I just booked the last 5 nights of our vacation, then went in and set up a separate waitlist request for the first night that is currently unavailable. I'm assuming that if the waitlist comes through, I can just call MS and link the two reservations. If not, I'm not super worried as we can likely use hotel loyalty points to stay offsite for the 1st night if we need to.

Was this an accepted way of doing this, or was there a better way to handle it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bwvBound]

That is how I would have handled the matter. I might have used two waitlists:
a) The first one, as you did, for just the one night, in the same resort and unit type as the 5 night you have booked.
b) The second one for all 6 nights in a different resort/unit type.

Using the 2nd waitlist in this manner makes the entire reservation a "roll of the dice" and a surprise. Where will it land? Where will we stay?

 

[Cruisin Spartan]

That is how I would have handled the matter. I might have used two waitlists:
a) The first one, as you did, for just the one night, in the same resort and unit type as the 5 night you have booked.
b) The second one for all 6 nights in a different resort/unit type.

Using the 2nd waitlist in this manner makes the entire reservation a "roll of the dice" and a surprise. Where will it land? Where will we stay?

Thanks @bwvBound ! I'm glad I had the right basic idea.

While the second waitlist does sound like fun, we've got plans for our points for the next few years that require us to budget them a little strictly. This trip is at SSR to stretch the points, with the idea that what won't be used for this trip will get banked to the next UY for a trip next year. Then, next UY's points can be banked into the following year for a much bigger vacation at a higher point resort (we're thinking Poly).

 

[disneynutz]

Since you have somewhere to stay the first night, you did fine. When the waitlist comes through have MS modify the reservation to include all of the nights into 1 reservation. Linking is only required when the points being used are coming from different sources.

Bill

 

[gharter]

You did well. Another option would be to book a single night at another resort for the night you couldn't get, and list it to be cancelled if the waitlist comes through.

 

[kristenrice]

Question...is today (well, yesterday now...) the day your 7/11 month window opened? If so, and your first night wasn't available, I'm curious as to how you were able to book the last 5 nights of your stay? That shouldn't be possible if the first night isn't available.

 

[Cruisin Spartan]

You did well. Another option would be to book a single night at another resort for the night you couldn't get, and list it to be cancelled if the waitlist comes through.

I thought about doing this, but there is zero availability that shows up for my first day at any resort that I can see.

Question...is today (well, yesterday now...) the day your 7/11 month window opened? If so, and your first night wasn't available, I'm curious as to how you were able to book the last 5 nights of your stay? That shouldn't be possible if the first night isn't available.

Nope. As we are new members, we were just able to book, but the trip is inside the 7 month window, and during a very busy time at WDW. I've been researching DVC for a while now, and suffice it to say that I'm not overly surprised that we weren't able to get availability for the whole trip.