Piecing together a longer stay through 1-day waitlists

[kboo]

Looks like people do this fairly often - how successful are you when the single days missing are 7 months out and busy DVC times (President's weekend)?

We have a 6-night "backup" DVC reservation, and I'm thinking that trying to waitlist the whole stay (at another resort) isn't going to work. Right now there are scattered days here and there. If one more waitlisted day comes through, I could book 4 days in a row, but would that be enough for you to ditch the "backup" reservation or would you borrow points to hold those 4 days and try to get 1 more day at either end (for a total of 5 nights) before giving up the 6-night backup?

We have another short trip planned later in the UY, so we could probably use the borrowed points later, but then it leaves us with banked points for 2019 and less flexiblity then. Which might not matter, in the end, but we just have no experience with this.

Also - piecing the trip together 1 day at a time is likely going to go better than waitlisting the entire time, right? And how often are single days going to come off WL over President's weekend, when we are already <7 mo out?

 

[disneynutz]

How do you do at Vegas or the lotto, about the same here. Plan for the worse and hope for the best.

Bill

 

[kboo]

LOL I'm still kicking myself at not jumping on the BWV std 1BR when it came available for THE WHOLE WEEK for about 20 minutes. Rookie mistake; I'm not letting that happen again.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Waitlists can fill at any time - it's all just a guess on how many people will cancel but some will and it's just a matter of how many other waitlists are ahead of yours etc.

Personally I'd have to be pretty unwilling to stay at the backup resort before I'd start borrowing to work on a different reservation. It would be a split stay before that unless I knew that I was going to have to borrow anyway for a different upcoming reservation.

Now, I also would have a decent amount of confidence to get the reservation if you already have 3 days possible to be booked. It's really just about backup plans and your flexibility if it didn't happen.

 

[crisi]

One thing you'll discover with time is that different people have different definitions of success.

On one extreme you'll get someone who defines success with the waitlist/stalking as waitlisting their entire week, and getting their entire week, without another phone call and no bother.

On the other extreme you'll get someone who defines success as a stay in which one or two nights come through and they move three or four times during their vacation - but they did manage to get BWV during F&W (for the Monday and Thursday night of their week long stay).

You need to figure out what you'll use as success criteria. If its closer to the second, you'll be much more successful with the waitlist. If success means no moves at all, then your success will be limited and you'll take on a lot more risk if you attempt day by day.

 

[kboo]

Waitlists can fill at any time - it's all just a guess on how many people will cancel but some will and it's just a matter of how many other waitlists are ahead of yours etc.

Personally I'd have to be pretty unwilling to stay at the backup resort before I'd start borrowing to work on a different reservation. It would be a split stay before that unless I knew that I was going to have to borrow anyway for a different upcoming reservation.

Now, I also would have a decent amount of confidence to get the reservation if you already have 3 days possible to be booked. It's really just about backup plans and your flexibility if it didn't happen.

Yeah, at this point I think I am just experimenting - I would be happy to stay at either resort. As for borrowing, we are pretty sure that we'll need to borrow points for a stay later in the UY, and the Feb trip will happen early enough in the UY that if I ended up canceling the backup reservation, the borrowed points could be used for the later stay, right? (I think the whole strategy hinges on this point.)

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Yeah, at this point I think I am just experimenting - I would be happy to stay at either resort. As for borrowing, we are pretty sure that we'll need to borrow points for a stay later in the UY, and the Feb trip will happen early enough in the UY that if I ended up canceling the backup reservation, the borrowed points could be used for the later stay, right? (I think the whole strategy hinges on this point.)

As long as that second stay is in the same UY that you borrow the points into then yes, they could be used for it.

Just my opinion but you'll have lots of time over the years to stay at all the locations and since you're fine with the one you have booked I'd say just stick with it and waitlist the entire BWV stay. If it fills then it fills but if it doesn't you'll just stay there some other time.

 

[kboo]

I am now one waitlisted night away from piecing together my stay!

Question: I have 200+ points tied up in a backup booking in case this doesn't work out. For the week I'm putting together, I have Monday and Friday booked, and the Thursday night waitlisted. (Tuesday and Wednesday have been open the whole time I've been monitoring.) My plan is that if I see that Thursday open up, that I'll try to call MS and link M&F/book the whole week and let go of the backup booking all in one go. But if it comes off the waitlist, how can I tell if I said it was ok to borrow points (or would that come up when they're filling out the waitlist?)

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I am now one waitlisted night away from piecing together my stay!

Question: I have 200+ points tied up in a backup booking in case this doesn't work out. For the week I'm putting together, I have Monday and Friday booked, and the Thursday night waitlisted. (Tuesday and Wednesday have been open the whole time I've been monitoring.) My plan is that if I see that Thursday open up, that I'll try to call MS and link M&F/book the whole week and let go of the backup booking all in one go. But if it comes off the waitlist, how can I tell if I said it was ok to borrow points (or would that come up when they're filling out the waitlist?)

It used to be an option to say yes or no to borrowing but a year or two ago they changed it so if you set up a waitlist they have you agreeing to borrow if there aren't enough points in the current year.

 

[kboo]

It used to be an option to say yes or no to borrowing but a year or two ago they changed it so if you set up a waitlist they have you agreeing to borrow if there aren't enough points in the current year.

Got it, thanks! i couldn't remember what it said when I set up the waitlist. At the time I assumed that WL day would come through before the Monday and borrowing wouldn't be an issue, so didn't pay much attention when setting it up.