What are our chances?

[rebster]

Hey Everybody.

My hubby bought me a small number of DVC points for my graduations from medical school! Yay!

I am just now starting my internship year and residency is not very vacation friendly. I am allowed two months of the year where I am allowed to take a week vacation (Which is actually very generous, but I just got my schedule which is hard for DVC). This year one of them falls in october (The other is reserved for my sister's wedding), and we are waitlisted at AKV for a studio. We don't have enough points for anything else. What are the chances that the waitlist comes through. Would there be better chances at another hotel? We arn't picky!

Thanks!

 

[rebster]

Oh, and it is a military residency program, so even less flexibility. I can't switch months around or anything like that. October is pretty much set in stone.

Thanks!

 

[zavandor]

Which category? If it's a value I would say that it's very difficult (nearly impossible, I think, but miracles can happen). Other booking categories are easier to get, above all Savannah view.
SSR and OKW are bigger resorts and have higher availability.

 

[Kidanifan08]

You are allowed to have two active wait lists, so you should set another one up as well. You may consider OKW or SSR, as the PP stated. Those are large resorts and you would have the best chance of a WL coming through. Steer clear of BWV or BCV, given the F&W. Your AKV WL should probably be for a savanna view at Kidani, which has the highest likelihood of coming through, since savanna view rooms are the majority of the resort. I agree that a value studio has almost no chance of coming through.

Also, you may want to avoid Columbus Day weekend, which tends to be quite popular and may be less likely to open up. Here in Indiana, our local schools are off 10/19-10/22 for a fall break. We were at WDW during that weekend last year. The place was crazy busy on that weekend, but I am not sure what impact those short fall breaks have on DVC availability. F&W is the biggest draw, and impacts availability at all of the DVC resorts, but especially the Epcot area resorts.

Watch your banking deadline. If you need to bank your points before the week that you are planning, you risk losing the points if that is not done. In that situation, you could bank the points and set the WL up to borrow from your next use year.

Ask your chief resident puts you on a vacation eligible rotation in Sept, Feb or May for your second/third year. Those months are generally quite easy to get a reservation, even at relatively short notice.

Good luck in your training . . . and with getting your WL!

 

[rebster]

Thank you for your help! We will definently put in 2 wait list requests.

 

[Kidanifan08]

Thank you for your help! We will definently put in 2 wait list requests.

Just remember, if your desired WL comes through first, you need to actively cancel the other one, otherwise your less preferred one may come through and cancel the preferred one that you wanted in the first place. The second WL will not automatically cancel when the other WL comes through.

 

[fmer55]

Just remember, if your desired WL comes through first, you need to actively cancel the other one, otherwise your less preferred one may come through and cancel the preferred one that you wanted in the first place. The second WL will not automatically cancel when the other WL comes through.

I had 2 waitlists for the same time period and the second one was cancelled when the first one came through.

 

[fmer55]

Just remember, if your desired WL comes through first, you need to actively cancel the other one, otherwise your less preferred one may come through and cancel the preferred one that you wanted in the first place. The second WL will not automatically cancel when the other WL comes through.

This is directly from the waitlist page on DVC member site:

Inactive Waitlist requests are either those requests you've deactivated before they reached their expiration date, or requests that Member Services has deactivated because they are for the same dates as another of your Waitlist requests that has been confirmed.

 

[Kidanifan08]

That's good to know. I thought I had seen in the past that other's had a waitlist come through that they forgot to cancel, so maybe it was a different situation. I vaguely remember that it was a back-up WL, but I must have been mistaken. Thanks for correcting that!

 

[Sandisw]

That's good to know. I thought I had seen in the past that other's had a waitlist come through that they forgot to cancel, so maybe it was a different situation. I vaguely remember that it was a back-up WL, but I must have been mistaken. Thanks for correcting that!

I think what had happened was they were able to get the nights by either calling MS or booking online and then forgot to cancel the wait list. If you have two wait lists for the same dates, them once one fills, the other is auto canceled.

 

[rebster]

Thank you all! We have a WL for kidani savannah view studio and SS studio. We will see if anything comes through. If not we can stay a few less nights and get a 1 bedroom.

I will definently make those requests of my Chief Resident. I don't think many people care about having February off anyway!

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you all! We have a WL for kidani savannah view studio and SS studio. We will see if anything comes through. If not we can stay a few less nights and get a 1 bedroom.

I will definently make those requests of my Chief Resident. I don't think many people care about having February off anyway!

Thanks for the tips!

You might want to try OKW instead of SSR studio. It requires a few less points, you're only a boat ride away from DTD, the resort is very nice. The studio is very large (but it has two queen beds instead of one queen bed and one double sleeper sofa if that matters).

 

[papertraveller]

You could also continue to call MS, in case a few nights come open -- but not your entire wait list. We have done this, and then just augmented with a few nights at the Swan or Dolphin. That way you are on property.

 

[rebster]

THanks everyone for your input. Called and we got 6 of our desired nights. So I would say that is pretty good. Maybe it is a sign that I need to decompress for a couple of nights somewhere else (most likely home) after a couple of months on inpatient! Anyway, we are staying at SS, which is not my favorite (But by no means something I am unhappy about), but we still have AKL wait listed.

Thanks for all the tips on managing a wait list since I am new to this.

I hope you all have wonderful vacations!