Ugh! Checking 5 times a day

[FortForever]

When you are ready to shorten your stay make sure you escalate when they tell you "no" - I've had luck once I got to the supervisor level. Other people have had luck with skipping reservations and going through Guest Services once they were told "no."

I got it fixed today, thanks! We only have the weekday annual passes, so don't stay on weekends. Of course, it was showing no vacancy for just the week nights. Even when I added the entire week, nothing available. I got some to show up by adding more people to my reservation. Four wasn't cutting it, so I made us a party of eight and the magic happened. More guests means more tickets to the parks, which they promptly tried to sell me for those of us without AP.

of course the KEY here is to schedule what you expect to use, but the "Piecing" together forces some to reserve time that exceeds their needs because of the (apparently) silly reservation policies. You can't get a single day, but if you stretch it over 3 days... you're good!

I get it, I really do. It's to keep people from reserving the throw-away sites, among other things, but it's real frustrating to those folks who really just want to have an enjoyable vacation.

I always cancel the days that I'm not going to use right away. Always within a week becuase I don't want to hold them back from others trying to get a site. I left the 8 people on my res, but canceled the weekend days. Thankfully, they didn't give me a hard time.

 

[love__goofy]

I am getting a little discouraged I haven't been able to pull it all together yet.

Every night I try about 3-4 times between 10-11:30 est. Then around 5am I check a few times till 7 am. Has anyone had any luck and snagged a night or two after checking at 7am, and there wasn't anything, and something opened up? I guess my question is, should I be checking multiple times a day from 7am till 10 pm at night assuming nothing was available prior to 7am or is it just updated once through the night?

 

[2goofycampers]

People with packages have until 45 days out to cancel and site only have 5 days to cancel. Don't give up, these times are coming!

 

[peg110]

As Denise says... The 45 day mark is a "Milestone".

Once you get down to 30 though (and I know it's cutting it close for you too.) I think you would see even more open up. Surely, though, you don't want to wait until the 5 day mark. That said, however, you'd be surprised how you might even get an extra night (where you need it) on the day of "Check-in" too. (as a last resort though).

 

[love__goofy]

Thank you both for the encouragement! I will keep checking. I am getting exhausted though lol

 

[love__goofy]

Yippee!!!! I had random nights before. I had secured the 23rd and 25th. Tonight I got the 26th and 27th. All of them are Premium sights. I am so excited!!!!!!

I am going to stay the course hoping to get the 28th and 29th.

 

[FortForever]

Yippee!!!! I had random nights before. I had secured the 23rd and 25th. Tonight I got the 26th and 27th. All of them are Premium sights. I am so excited!!!!!!

I am going to stay the course hoping to get the 28th and 29th.

Congratulations, that's great news! Don't forget the 24th.

Also, try adding additional people to your reservation. I have no idea why that works, but it does. That's how I got my February reservations. I was playing around last night with some other dates, and it worked for them as well. When we were a party of 4 - nope. Bumped it up to 8 and all of a sudden there is availability.

 

[love__goofy]

Congratulations, that's great news! Don't forget the 24th.

Also, try adding additional people to your reservation. I have no idea why that works, but it does. That's how I got my February reservations. I was playing around last night with some other dates, and it worked for them as well. When we were a party of 4 - nope. Bumped it up to 8 and all of a sudden there is availability.

That is so crazy! We are already a party of 8, so I don't think I could bump up too much further. Thank you so much for the tip though.

My husband and I are so excited though. When they wake up Xmas morning and they have a brand new motorhome and get to go hang out at the Fort, they are going to be on top of the world!

We are hoping to drop the 23rd and get the 28th and 29th....keeping all options open right now.

 

[bama_ed]

Yippee!!!! I had random nights before. I had secured the 23rd and 25th. Tonight I got the 26th and 27th. All of them are Premium sights. I am so excited!!!!!!

I am going to stay the course hoping to get the 28th and 29th.

Keep going - don't stop till you get them all.

 

[FortForever]

That is so crazy! We are already a party of 8, so I don't think I could bump up too much further. Thank you so much for the tip though.

My husband and I are so excited though. When they wake up Xmas morning and they have a brand new motorhome and get to go hang out at the Fort, they are going to be on top of the world!

We are hoping to drop the 23rd and get the 28th and 29th....keeping all options open right now.

OH, I see! That would be amazing!

I have no idea why adding people works. It's almost like they are trying to encourage throw-away reservations.

Best of luck getting those last two days. I think it's going to work out.

 

[love__goofy]

I got the 28th at 6:00 am this morning! 4 nights..all premium..strung together. Woohoo!!! So excited! If I can manage to snag the 29th, then great, if not the 4 nights will do.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and tips!

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

I got the 28th at 6:00 am this morning! 4 nights..all premium..strung together. Woohoo!!! So excited! If I can manage to snag the 29th, then great, if not the 4 nights will do.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and tips!

When you are done adding days call in and have the reservations merged so you will have 1 reservation in MDE and won't have to chance being moved. I was able to do it last Christmas. It took 3 phone calls to find someone who knew how to do it, but it CAN be done! As long as all of your sites are the same "type."

 

[Sunny37]

I got the 28th at 6:00 am this morning! 4 nights..all premium..strung together. Woohoo!!! So excited! If I can manage to snag the 29th, then great, if not the 4 nights will do.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and tips!

Check now! I was looking for the 29th too and I just got it! There is availability still showing!!

 

[love__goofy]

Thank you all for your help! I have been up many nights trying to find all the days. Finally, I had 7 nights in a row all Premium with the exception of one night in the middle that was preferred. When I called Disney, after waiting over an hour to speak to someone, they were kind enough to get a Disney Customer Service rep to link all my nights together. They made them all premium!!!!! I guess they have extra reservations that we don't have access to. When on the phone I tried repeatedly online to snag a premium to make it all work and nothing was available for that one night.

So I am officially done with staying up at night, checking 5 times a day, and can finally relax. Thanks again everyone for your tips, and encouragement! My kids Xmas is going to be such an exciting surprise!

 

[peg110]

So happy you were able to get the nights. Persistence does pay off, but you are right, You still stress until you actually have it.

I hope the kids have an awesome Christmas.

 

[KristinU]

Awesome news, congrats!

 

[bama_ed]

That's great news, love__goofy. Now go catch up on your sleep...

 

[tiggerdad]

Good deal. Glad it all came together.

 

[cmullen]

Hoping "fort wilderness fairies" magically have a campsite for 12-28-12/30 we just found out WVU football plays in Orlando that weekend and we need to add the extra days on!