What just happened to my reservation??

[mouseclick1]

I have been trying to switch one night of my trip from SSR to BWV and finally found a day that opened up. I quickly cancelled my SSR and began booking the BWV reservation. I needed to borrow a few extra points so I completed that portion of the reservation. When I clicked on the final button to complete my reservation, I got the 7 Dwarfs screen with the "working on it" message. I waited and waited, refreshed the screen, and then finally tried logging out and then logging back in.

Now I have the borrowed points in my account, no reservation, and the room is no longer showing availability. I can't call or chat since it is Sunday night so I went ahead and waitlisted for the room. Has anyone had a similar experience? If so, how did MS handle it? So bummed.

Edited to add that my borrowed points have been returned to the original use year.

 

[Bing Showei]

That's frustrating. It's likely you're out of luck, but your best bet will be to call at 9am ET when the lines open and find out if you have any options. It may just be a waitlist. In the interim, maybe re-book your SSR reservation.

In the future, if you see the BWV available and already have a reservation, the new modify reservation tool eliminates the risk of losing a reservation as it allows you to change the resort and dates. It holds the current reservation until the new one is booked. Additionally, it will allow you to borrow points from any valid contract to cover any difference. It's one change to the "RAT" that has worked out well for members.

My DVC Membership>Dashboard>[Reservation drop down]>View or Modify Details>[Resort and Dates]

While this doesn't guarantee the 7 dwarfs won't rear their ugly heads, it does avoid risk losing your SSR reservation (which may not be much consolation, I know.).

 

[bobbiwoz]

We are now able to modify a reservation, so I do not think you had to cancel the one you had, just modify it. If the SSR room is available, I would grab that now, so you have something. I am glad you went back and waitlisted what you want.

I don’t know what MS will do for you. I do hope you get the room.

 

[mouseclick1]

The room showed up again so I was able to book it. Very strange. Thanks for the tip on modifying the room. I thought I could only do that to make a change at the same resort - didn't know I could switch resorts all together. That will make things a lot easier and a lot less stressful!

 

[maburke]

Often, when this happens, it has actually held the reservation for you, but you can't see it because it's not fully booked, and it doesn't go back into inventory until the 20 or 60 minutes have expired.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I am glad for you!

 

[Frederic Civish]

The desired reservation probably didn’t disappear. Instead, it was probably ‘locked’ for a few minutes. This could have happened when the program ‘got lost’ and the 7 Dwarfs screen appeared. Sometimes, if you ‘get lost’ While in the process of booking, it thinks you are still trying to book it, so it doesn’t release it, meanwhile, it has locked it away from everyone else, incliuding you, when you re-renter. After a time, it will decide you have ‘timed out’ and will let it go back into the ‘available’ pool.

I have also been working on reservations before, and had it time out like that. Then the desired reservation disappeared, and then reappeared later. I thought that someone had swooped in and taken it, but, really, it was just temporarily locked.

One thing you can do to get it to ‘release’ it quicker, is to go in and start another, different reservation. Get to the screen where it starts asking for names and addresses of the traveling party, and then, ‘back out’ of that screen, or close that page, and just start over. When you got to the point that it is locking a ‘new’ reservation for you, it will release the original one that it previously had locked, since it will only let you ‘lock’ one at a time. So when you now go back and look, the originally desired reservation will now be available. Maybe.

 

[bumbershoot]

In the future, if you see the BWV available and already have a reservation, the new modify reservation tool eliminates the risk of losing a reservation as it allows you to change the resort and dates. It holds the current reservation until the new one is booked. Additionally, it will allow you to borrow points from any valid contract to cover any difference. It's one change to the "RAT" that has worked out well for members.

Yep.

The room showed up again so I was able to book it. Very strange. Thanks for the tip on modifying the room. I thought I could only do that to make a change at the same resort - didn't know I could switch resorts all together. That will make things a lot easier and a lot less stressful!

Not so strange. It was keeping it safe for you for the time alloted. Alas, for some reason the system doesn't recognize you as you while doing that.

One thing you can do to get it to ‘release’ it quicker, is to go in and start another, different reservation.

good idea. I've also cleared cookies, cache, and history to get it to release.