Waitlist advice for week of Dec 1-7

[heathpack]

I can get off work the week of Dec 1-7 but no other week of the holiday season.

I have 79 VGC points and want to set up waitlists. I'd like the longest stay possible but can live with a stay of 3 days.

I understand the basic principles: try to WL properties with more inventory, set up two WL with less number of days, and try to request less popular room sizes and weekends over week days.

Our first choice would be Jambo but strategically we will request Kidani instead, and we'd be happy with any of the other options. We prefer studios to stretch points but understand so does everyone else booking in the holiday season. In the end, we are ok with any resort that has non-bus transport to parks, and are ok with a single night on check in day at any resort regardless of transport options.

Would appreciate input on which of the following waitlists is most likely to be successful:

OKW Studio Thur Dec 4 + BW preferred 1Br Dec 5, ck out Sun Dec 7. 79 points
Strategy: WL 1: OKW, WL 2: BW

OKW Studio Tues Dec 2 + Kidani SV studio Wed Dec 3, check out Sun Dec 7. 78 points
Strategy: WL 1: Kidani W/Th, WL 2: Kidani Fr/Sa, try to add OKW by stalking or new WL if one of the others fills

BLT studio preferred Wed Dec 3, check out Sun Dec 7. 78 points
Strategy: WL 1: BLT Wed/Th, WL 2: Th/Fri

Thanks for any ideas

 

[sethschroeder]

I would be constantly checking for availability. I have more success manually doing it than the waitlist coming through.

Breaking up the stay is a good though and 1BR is going to be the most likely thing that will show up as well.

When you search I would do a search for all WDW resorts from Jan 1-7. It will then return all the rooms with the various lengths so you can do one search and find if any rooms have 3/4/5 nights together and then just click on the room and adjust the actual dates for the booking.

I think you will find something if you are open to all the resorts.

1BR is more likely than Studios
Non-preferred views at OKW/SSR/AKV
SSR > OKW > AKV is likely order

You might find other options though.

 

[heathpack]

I would be constantly checking for availability. I have more success manually doing it than the waitlist coming through.

Breaking up the stay is a good though and 1BR is going to be the most likely thing that will show up as well.

When you search I would do a search for all WDW resorts from Jan 1-7. It will then return all the rooms with the various lengths so you can do one search and find if any rooms have 3/4/5 nights together and then just click on the room and adjust the actual dates for the booking.

I think you will find something if you are open to all the resorts.

1BR is more likely than Studios
Non-preferred views at OKW/SSR/AKV
SSR > OKW > AKV is likely order

You might find other options though.

Sorry I guess I should have been more clear:
1. As I mentioned, we want to only stay at a resort that has non-bus options but we’re willing to stay the first night at OKW. The reason for this is that we’re driving down and will arrive at check in time and will not be visiting any parks on check in day. We are NOT interested in a multi day stay at OKW or SSR. If that’s the only option, we will bank points and use in 2026.
2. I did not mention this because I didn’t have any questions about doing so, but I will stalk availability frequently. However there is no down side to setting up a wait list, and that’s what I’m asking about doing in this thread.
3. I know how to search via stalking and don’t need to learn how to do so.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[sethschroeder]

Sorry I guess I should have been more clear:
1. As I mentioned, we want to only stay at a resort that has non-bus options but we’re willing to stay the first night at OKW. The reason for this is that we’re driving down and will arrive at check in time and will not be visiting any parks on check in day. We are NOT interested in a multi day stay at OKW or SSR. If that’s the only option, we will bank points and use in 2026.
2. I did not mention this because I didn’t have any questions about doing so, but I will stalk availability frequently. However there is no down side to setting up a wait list, and that’s what I’m asking about doing in this thread.
3. I know how to search via stalking and don’t need to learn how to do so.

Thanks for your help though.

Was confused as you had OKW/Kidani stays so didn't know you wanted close to park stays. So read it wrong.

In that case your looking at:
1BR > Studio
BWV (resort/garden), BRV, RIV (preferred)
Poly possibly because of declared room inventory

I covered mostly the stalking piece because I would bet on that even if you want resorts that are non-bus.

 

[heathpack]

Was confused as you had OKW/Kidani stays so didn't know you wanted close to park stays. So read it wrong.

In that case your looking at:
1BR > Studio
BWV (resort/garden), BRV, RIV (preferred)
Poly possibly because of declared room inventory

I covered mostly the stalking piece because I would bet on that even if you want resorts that are non-bus.

Sorry I was trying to be succinct when asking my question and not go into tons of details about our preferences. If we obtain our first choice (Kidani) we would likely do a resort stay except for maybe popping into AK and the bus piece doesn’t matter much. If we stay elsewhere we’d likely visit whatever park we can get to without riding a bus. Maybe it’s easier to just mention we don’t want to stay at OKW or SSR for anything other than check in day.

We’d be fine with Boulder Ridge but assumed it would be more difficult due to a lesser number of studios in inventory?

Poly would also be very attractive for us, I’ll have to count points for that stay.

 

[sndral]

Your 7 month window will open on 5/1/25 for a stay starting 12/1/25 - you never know, something you want might be available then & you won’t have to waitlist at all .
Based on numbers alone I’d wait list Poly standard view (currently called resort view?) & BWV preferred view.
Here are the park adjacent resorts w/ the most studios & no. of studios in the most available view w/ points needed for a 4 night stay starting Mon.12/1:
Poly - 288 standard (resort view) studios (76 points)
BWV - 164 preferred view studios (64 points)
Riv - 119 preferred view studios (80 points)
BLT - 105 lake view (preferred) studios (76 points)
VGF - 90 lake view resort studios (84 points)
That first week of December is really really tough to get - good luck.

 

[heathpack]

Well... my desire was for a 5 night stay in a SV studio at Jambo Dec 1, check out Dec 6.

A few days ago, in the process of prestalking availability, I found a 3 consecutive nights in a 1BR resort view at Jambo Nov 30, check out Dec 3, which I thought I didn't have enough points for (actually I thought I did have enough points but my account didn't reflect that and I assumed my personal accounting was wrong). But I clicked through making the reservation and found my "missing" points! (Apparently OTU and transferred points don't show up in the tally of the UY they're in???). So now I had the start of a nice AKL Christmas trip without even WLing but was thinking I'd need to WL Dec 1-4 and drop the Nov 30 date (because I was on call that last day of a holiday weekend)

Then I was able to swap on call days with a generous colleague to get Nov 30 off (this is expected to be a kind of ape$hit on call shift)! My remaining plan was to WL another 2 nights in a SV studio at Kidani- my logic being, there'd be more of them and we'd have enough points for 2 more days.

However, last night I was again prestalking and saw all three nights available in a 1BR SV at Kidani. We'd prefer to be in Jambo (lobby, prefer that pool, more "common area" animal viewing)- however during the crowded holiday season, I think its nice to have a private space for animal viewing. So I switched to that reservation Kidani 1BR SV Nov 30-Dec 3, eating up more of my "rediscovered" points.

Now we have enough points left to WL one more night- SV 1BR Kidani for Dec 3. I think we have a decent shot, since we're looking for a 1BR of a villa type with high numbers in inventory.

So- I set up that one night WL right at 8am today. As a back up, I booked a stay for that night in the "Marriott Village" (near Disney Springs)on Bonvoy points, since we'll be resort guests for the entire day. If our WL doesn't come through, we still might stay the day as Nomad guests- just to get four full days to experience the Christmas vibe.

Thanks everyone for your input. @sethschroeder @sndral

Booking WDW DVC is an entirely different game than I was playing back when I lived in LA and was trying to book 1 or sometimes 2 nights at VGC, here and there, so we could get 2-3 consecutive days of early entry and didn't have to drive home in SoCal rush hour traffic. VGC was pretty much wide open in the 11 mo booking window, and if we wanted to make a 7 mo plan, it didn't matter much whether we got it or not, we could still go to DL that day as day guests. The WDW game requires a little more experience and strategizing. However, so far so good. We are just home from a BLT/BRV 5 day split stay, we have booked for May 2025-Apr 2026: 13 nights of II exchange (BRV/OKW) coming up in late May, 5 nights in Sept at BCV, 3 (hopefully 4!) nights at Kidani in Dec, and 7 nights split stay BCV/CC next March. Our goal for this first year was to stay at all of the resort areas (MK, Epcot, Disney Springs, and AK) to experience them all and determine our preferences. From here on, we think we will use our BCV, CC, and HHI points to book at 11 months, and to use the VGC at the 7 mo mark, or to go back to DL.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I'm still hung up on trying to figure out the 'non-bus' option at AK. You've been adamant that you don't want a resort without other transportation options, yet for the life of me, I don't remember anything at AKK Or AKJ.

 

[heathpack]

I'm still hung up on trying to figure out the 'non-bus' option at AK. You've been adamant that you don't want a resort without other transportation options, yet for the life of me, I don't remember anything at AKK Or AKJ.

Sure dude.

What I was hoping in my original post was that the actual question that I asked would be answered- as in which of the three wait lists that I was asking about might have the best chance of success.

It didn’t seem necessary to include a great deal of background information on the thought processes since the question seemed straightforward enough. But the logic confused others so in later posts I clarified- we want to stay at AKL regardless of the transportation options because we like the animal-viewing aspect so much that if we stay at AKL, we’d plan a resort-centric stay, in which case the transportation options are less important.

To flesh this out more fully: we don’t love BLT theming and amenities. But we’d happily stay there because its non-bus transportation options means we would be roaming WDW resort and not spending much time at the resort.

In contrast, we also don’t love Saratoga theming and amenities. Disney Springs isn’t a huge draw for us, meaning the boat transport to DS is <shrug> to us. So: we don’t love the resort itself. We don’t love the busses. We don’t love the idea of driving ourselves off the Saratoga resort property multiple times a day because we don’t want to hang out there. Therefore we don’t want to waitlist Saratoga, and the same logic applies to OKW.

However, my intent was not to go into all of that. Instead, I tried to ask a specific question about back up waitlists to my intended Kidani waitlist. We are using mostly points from one contract, but would be ok with using some points from another contract- which adds up to 4 total waitlists.

All of which is detail than anyone here really needs but since replied expressing confusion, now you know. Hope that eases your puzzlement.