Ressies made, your thoughts appreciated

[luvthattink]

Called yesterday to make ressies for our November trip, really wanted to stay at BLT and wasn't sure if we'd get a 2 bdrm at the 7 mos. window. We were wanting to go the 7-17th, I was hoping for the best but expecting that I may need to take our second or third choice. How about our 4th choice. Nothing was available for all the nights of our stay at BLT, VWL or BCV so I made our ressie for AKV-Kidani, SV and wait listed BLT. When I told DH, he wasn't thrilled. I didn't mind so much as I knew our 4 kiddos would love stepping out on our balcony and seeing the animals. However I could tell this really wasn't what DH wanted to do so I did a little brainstorming, checked with him and my parents and decided to see if we could get BLT or one of our other two choices if we were to change our dates to Nov 9-19th. Jose (the CM I spoke with) was SUPER helpful and now I am doing the happy dance We are now booked for a 2bdrm, LV at BLT....only had one night that I had to wait list (the 11th which seemed odd to me since it is a Thursday night). At least it is near the beginning of our trip so if we do have to switch for one night I'm ok with it. However, Jose seems to think that our wait listed night will almost certainly come through. Here is where your thoughts come in....those of you with wait list experience what do you think? And do you think it would be better for me to do a split stay and stay the 9-11th at AKV and the 12-19th at BLT (that way we wouldn't be moving in and out) or do you think I should leave it as is and just hope that the wait list comes through.

Any thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated as we have never done a split stay or had experience with the wait list. TIA

 

[DenLo]

We recently had two different wait lists come through within three days of making the original reservation. So there is a chance that your WL will come through. On the other hand you already mentioned that you had to change your reservation dates because three resorts were booked. It's possible that even AKV will run out of villas, but since Thanksgiving is later in the month on the 25 you might be okay. That's really guessing on my part though.

We always have a back up reservation when doing WLs. Do you have enough points to book both reservations? Keep the BLT reservation as is but add a reservation at AKV for the 9th through the 11th (I wouldn't borrow points for it though)? Then you would have a safety net with the second reservation. You could then tell MS if the WL comes through for the one night to cancel all three days at AKV.

An alternative is to WL the one night at VWL in addition to BLT. Then if that WL comes through it would be at least nearby. I'd also check out making a cash reservation somewhere.

 

[maburke]

My experience has been that one-night waitlists have a high probability of coming through, as long as it's not a particularly high-demand night. I think once you are waiting for several nights to come available at the same time, that's when it's less likely. Good luck!

 

[Sandisw]

I don't know if I would wait list just a day in the middle of the trip, but that is just me. It could mean moving twice.

If you go with AKV for the first few nights and then wait list all of those, then you know you are moving, at most, once, if it doesn't come through. With four kids, that is a lot of moving.

Plus, on the switch days, you could end up being homeless, because your BLT room is not ready, until after 4:00 pm.

Good luck!!

 

[luvthattink]

Thank you all so much for your input. I really appreciate it. While I would prefer not to have to move at all and am keeping my fingers crossed that my wait list for one night will come through I am going to talk to everyone and see what their thoughts are on potentially staying the first three nights at AKV. I did reserve two studios at SSR for the 11th. I had asked if they had any at BLT but they did not. I should have asked for VWL to see if they had two studios there (doing the studio thing for that one night to save a few points). We have plenty of points available because we didn't go in 2009 and banked our points. We have 625 to play with so I'm pretty sure I may have enough to schedule AKV for the first few nights while keeping our BLT ressie and waiting for our WL to come through.

As Sandisw said....that's alot of moving with 4 kiddos and I don't like the thought of moving twice.

 

[CarolMN]

Wait it out. I agree with Jose - the one night waitlists have a very good chance of coming through, Lake View has the most rooms of the 3 categories and November is still 7 months away. On top of all that, BLT sales will probably go well enough that more inventory will have to be declared. When that happens, lots of waitlists get filled.

Good luck!