Newbie questions on 1st reservation

[Prefam4]

Hi all! My husband and I are new to DVC. We are going to be booking our first reservation tomorrow morning for seven months out.

I was playing around online last night and pulled up availibility for seven months from yesterday thru the end of our stay just to see what was available. We were looking at BLT with a theme park view and the first night of our stay (at least according to how it was last night) was sold out but the remaining nights were available.

What is the best way to work around it? Do you book the available nights with the preferred view and waitlist the one night, booking a different view for the night that isn't available and then possibly having to move rooms if the waitlist doesn't clear. Or can you waitlist the entire stay with the preferred view and confirm the lake view and hope for the best? Or just not book online and call Member Services? lol

Apologizing in advance if this is a silly question. Thanks so much for your input.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Hi all! My husband and I are new to DVC. We are going to be booking our first reservation tomorrow morning for seven months out.

I was playing around online last night and pulled up availibility for seven months from yesterday thru the end of our stay just to see what was available. We were looking at BLT with a theme park view and the first night of our stay (at least according to how it was last night) was sold out but the remaining nights were available.

What is the best way to work around it? Do you book the available nights with the preferred view and waitlist the one night, booking a different view for the night that isn't available and then possibly having to move rooms if the waitlist doesn't clear. Or can you waitlist the entire stay with the preferred view and confirm the lake view and hope for the best? Or just not book online and call Member Services? lol

Apologizing in advance if this is a silly question. Thanks so much for your input.

All of the options you mention are available to you. It's really a subjective thing, based on your personal preferences, as to which is the best. Obviously, the best scenerio is one in which you can book exactly what you want to begin with. But if a waitlist is required, which do you feel is the lesser of the two evils: potentially having a split stay (moving resorts or rooms during the trip), or possibly having to stay in another resort/view than what you really wanted for your entire stay? For some, getting at least some of the nights in the room they really wanted is worth the risk of having to move. For others, moving is just out of the question. They'll enjoy what they were able to book and save the other resort/view for another trip. If the waitlist comes through, all the better.

In either case, you'll want to lock in some room for the dates of your stay. (You don't want to book airline tickets or make other arrangements until you know you've got some place to hang your hat. In fact, the best plan is to always book a room at your home resort at the 12-month point, then switch your reservation to the non-home resort at 7 months.)

So, if you don't mind moving rooms on your second day, book the MK view studio for the nights it's available, and book another view (or another resort) for the nights it isn't. Then waitlist only the nights you couldn't book. (If it's the first night of your stay that isn't available, you'd need to wait one day to book this, as your check-in date for the MK-view room is now a day later.)

If you really don't want to change rooms under any circumstances, book the entire length of your stay in another view or resort. Then waitlist your MK-view for the entire period. You need to understand something about how waitlists work, though. A waitlist will only match if every night on the request can be fulfilled at once. They won't hold individual nights for you to "build" your waitlist fulfillment. So if 6 of your 7 waitlisted nights become available, it isn't a match to your waitlist request and someone else will probably get those nights. You're more likely, therefore, to get the shorter waitlist.

 

[Prefam4]

All of the options you mention are available to you. It's really a subjective thing, based on your personal preferences, as to which is the best. Obviously, the best scenerio is one in which you can book exactly what you want to begin with. But if a waitlist is required, which do you feel is the lesser of the two evils: potentially having a split stay (moving resorts or rooms during the trip), or possibly having to stay in another resort/view than what you really wanted for your entire stay? For some, getting at least some of the nights in the room they really wanted is worth the risk of having to move. For others, moving is just out of the question. They'll enjoy what they were able to book and save the other resort/view for another trip. If the waitlist comes through, all the better.

In either case, you'll want to lock in some room for the dates of your stay. (You don't want to book airline tickets or make other arrangements until you know you've got some place to hang your hat. In fact, the best plan is to always book a room at your home resort at the 12-month point, then switch your reservation to the non-home resort at 7 months.)

So, if you don't mind moving rooms on your second day, book the MK view studio for the nights it's available, and book another view (or another resort) for the nights it isn't. Then waitlist only the nights you couldn't book. (If it's the first night of your stay that isn't available, you'd need to wait one day to book this, as your check-in date for the MK-view room is now a day later.)

If you really don't want to change rooms under any circumstances, book the entire length of your stay in another view or resort. Then waitlist your MK-view for the entire period. You need to understand something about how waitlists work, though. A waitlist will only match if every night on the request can be fulfilled at the time it's being reviewed. They won't hold individual nights for you to "build" your waitlist fulfillment. So if 6 of your 7 waitlisted nights become available, it isn't a match to your waitlist request and someone else will probably get those nights. You're more likely, therefore, to get the shorter waitlist.

Thank you. I wasn't quite sure how the waitlist worked. Makes much more sense to me now.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can't book multiple views when you are seven months from the start of your trip. You can only book the consecutive days up to seven in the same booking category.

So if theme park view is available for you to book tomorrow and lake view is available today, you could only book the lake view today and have to wait for tomorrow to book the theme park view. And it might be gone tomorrow.

So at seven months out from the start of your trip you could not book this:
Night 1 - Lake View BLT one bedroom
Night 2-3 - Lake View BLT studio
Night 4-5 - Lake View BLT one bedroom
Night 6-7 - Theme park view one bedroom

All you would be able to book would be Night 1 unless nights 2-7 were also available in the same booking category as night 1.

 

[hakepb]

Did they correct that bug?

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2907226
It might let you do it..

 

[Prefam4]

You can't book multiple views when you are seven months from the start of your trip. You can only book the consecutive days up to seven in the same booking category.

So if theme park view is available for you to book tomorrow and lake view is available today, you could only book the lake view today and have to wait for tomorrow to book the theme park view. And it might be gone tomorrow.

So at seven months out from the start of your trip you could not book this:
Night 1 - Lake View BLT one bedroom
Night 2-3 - Lake View BLT studio
Night 4-5 - Lake View BLT one bedroom
Night 6-7 - Theme park view one bedroom

All you would be able to book would be Night 1 unless nights 2-7 were also available in the same booking category as night 1.

That makes sense. Thank you for your help!