On waitlist, but...

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

Should I have a back reservation with CRO???

 

[disneynutz]

Should I have a back reservation with CRO???

If you want to guarantee room availability, then yes.

Bill

 

[tjkraz]

If you have a room secured for your entire vacation and are simply looking to change resorts (e.g. have OKW booked, wait listed for VGF), a backup reservation is not required.

But if you have absolutely no hotel room for certain nights of your stay, it would be very wise to secure something. Among the options are split stays at different resorts, different villa sizes or views at same resort, CRO reservation at either DVC or another cash resort, or even staying off-site.

Every wait list success comes out of a cancellation. If nobody cancels your resort/view/dates, you have zero chance of having your WL met. It would be very smart to have a backup plan.

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

Thanks Bill and tjkraz

 

[DebbieB]

I did that last year, I booked a BWV studio with an AP rate, no DVC was available. Then I was able to stalk the website and got 4 of the 5 nights and got the 5th by waitlist. I then cancelled the AP reservation. I figured if some of the nights didn't come through I could fill in with the AP rate and not have to switch resorts.

 

[CheapRunnerMike]

Newbie question...what is CRO??

 

[CarolMN]

Newbie question...what is CRO??

Central Reservations Office - old name for DRC, Disney Reservations Center.

In other words, the call center the general public uses to make cash reservations.

 

[papertraveller]

I did that last year, I booked a BWV studio with an AP rate, no DVC was available. Then I was able to stalk the website and got 4 of the 5 nights and got the 5th by waitlist. I then cancelled the AP reservation. I figured if some of the nights didn't come through I could fill in with the AP rate and not have to switch resorts.

Please tell me more about stalking the website. I have a wait list now. Are there specific times of day when inventory is added back into the site? Should I just check constantly?

Any and all tips appreciated! Many thanks.

 

[DebbieB]

Please tell me more about stalking the website. I have a wait list now. Are there specific times of day when inventory is added back into the site? Should I just check constantly?

Any and all tips appreciated! Many thanks.

There are no specific times, just check it frequently. For your waitlist to fill, all the nights have to be available at once. It's also a manual process so sometimes there are cancellations that are sitting there before member services checks the waitlist. So by stalking the website, you might see some of your nights and can book them. In my case, I had a 5 night waitlist. Nights 3, 4, 5 came open, I booked them and changed the waitlist to nights 1 & 2. Then night 2 came open, I booked it and changed the waitlist to just night 1. Night 1 came open by waitlist, member services noted that I now had 3 reservations so they combined them into one. This all happened within 2 months of arrival, the night 1 waitlist (Sunday of Vets Day weekend) came through at 28 days. I was not only checking BWV, my first choice, but also checked other resorts. I was surprised to see a BLT standard view 1 night open, an AKV club level room 1 night. So they do open at times.

 

[papertraveller]

Thanks. That is what I will do. Just a question of how long we want to wait, before settling on something else, like an offsite location.

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

I GOT MY DATES !!!. SOOOOOO HAPPY, what a way to spend my

Thank you all for you help, you guys rock

 

[LSchrow]

I GOT MY DATES !!!. SOOOOOO HAPPY, what a way to spend my

Thank you all for you help, you guys rock

congrats

but if you ever find yourself in that situation again tho, i would definitively have a back-up reservation.....while still stalking the website, of course
some options are booking a room thru cro (AP, PIN, etc rate) as you said, booking another room on points (different room category - size and/or view - in same resort, or at another DVC resort), or booking with cash thru MS (25% discount, if available).
with the last option, you will most likely not be required to move, if it is the same resort, & same room category (e.g., size, view).
just an aside, a very few categories are not available for booking on anything except points (notably, BWV BW view is not available for any cash booking, even thru MS).

have a great time & a very happy birthday!

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

LSchrow
I was on Skype with DH and we were talking about getting a reservation at
PORFQ for a backup plan.
While looking around on the member web site checking things out and noticed my 2014 point missing .
checked the upcoming vacation section and there it was - the waitlist came through.
From now on I'm always going to put in a reservation with CRO when I'm on a waitlist.