Can someone who’s well versed in DVC explain the waitlist to me?
I had points (from March) that we didn’t get to use. Our rental contact graciously is trying to re-use those points for us this coming March. Of course, things have changed, so I don’t want to stay at the same place we’d booked last year (partially Poly)
So, I was hoping she could book BCV. However, it wasn’t fully available at 7 months, when she want to book. (It doesn’t help that she was massively affected by the derecho at the same time she was trying to do this for us). We discussed it and she booked BWV instead, for the same 4 nights, with a waitlist for BCV.
After seeing @DumboRunner’s pictures, I really would rather be at BCV. So, what hopes can I have that the waitlist will come through? How does it work? Does someone at Disney reassign rooms if something opens up? I assume it just happens when someone cancels their reservation?
It works like you think it does, if someone cancels then the DVC staff go down the list and will choose the next on the waitlist. Your rental contact will get notified automatically. Things are moving around quite a bit so I would expect your nights to probably come through.
I’m probably going to waitlist a night in October right now.
Thanks!
You’re looking at moving because of the pool construction, right? Do you know - are they just doing a refurbishment, or is it something “better”?
I hope you’re right about things moving a lot. I’m worried that out in March, it won’t be as much movement as right now. Eh - it’s not like the Boardwalk is BAD at all. My kids would just like the pool better at Beach Club.
The waitlist is done automatically. It’s a bit tricky to explain because DVC don’t really explain to members precisely how it works.
But effectively the waitlist is in date order of when it was requested, and if someone cancels then the first person on the list that can have their request filled “wins” their dates. This should happen automatically, except it runs maybe twice, three, four times a day. It is possible someone just looking can grab those nights first.
For the waitlist to be filled all the dates must be available, otherwise the next person on the list is checked for a complete match.
Yes, we are moving from Boardwalk to Beach Club because the pool slide will be closed for October. I’m thinking it must be an easy, somewhat emergent fix that they are doing, but it says “construction” will be present in November too. I don’t think they are doing much of an overhaul. But my DS pretty much only wants to just go down the slide the whole day long and to have the pool open and slide closed just seems like a recipe for disappointment.
I’ve waitlisted many times, and the only times it didn’t come trough were BCV. Then again, right now booking seems to be fluctuating constantly, and we did have a BCV waitlist come through for next month. We decided to move to Jambo House, though, because we liked the grand villa better, plus at either AK villas site you have use of the Jambo House and Kidani pools.
The Kidani slide has a swirly part similar to the one at Boardwalk, but it’s got a little more swooshing back and forth than swirling. I’d say they’re close in total length. Kidani is also fairly easy to get into, relatively speaking, so if the slide is the main concern then maybe show DS videos of the Kidani slide and see if he might like that. The biggest drawback to AK villas is the remote location.
He loves the Kidani slide! And many eons ago this entire trip was at Kidani actually, but with everything the way it is, the restaurant situation at AKL is abyssmal and we were trying to be able to walk to DHS. If my BCV waitlist doesn’t come through, we are still at BWV for that night so it’s not too shabby!
If location is the #1 then I guess just cross your fingers. We’re definitely annoyed by the amenity situation at AKL, but we’re only planning an AK day and the rest is just resort time, and maybe dinner at DS one evening. My niece is super excited to have a pool table in our villa. Also, they put off telling us whether the BCV pool was even going to be open in October. It just said “Stormalong Bay pool will be closed for the initial phase of reopening” with no dates until very recently.
Wow! That is a different perspective than I’ve heard before. I guess I’m not surprised to hear how crowded it can be. We’ve stayed (and used the pools) at AKL and BLT. The BLT pool was really boring. AKL was great - but like @Nikkipoooo mentioned - it’s SO far away from everything else. And the food situation isn’t great.
I guess the answer is to just wait and see, and be happy with either one.
If AKL is still available when we get closer, we might book our other nights there. I’m just hesitant to rent more points with so much still unknown.
How do you learn things like this? You have an amazing knowledge of the most minute details of WDW’s operations. Do you know people on the “inside”? Were you a CM? Have you dealt with every issue at one point?
I’m active on three forums which each have a specific focus, one of which has several genuine insiders (who tend not to be the ones self proclaiming to be one ).
I make a point of knowing as much as I can on DVC as I’m a member, it’s in my own interest! The planning side is just to fill time since my visits have been every three or four years - longer now.
Well, it’s impressive. And I like details, so it is really interesting to learn how the mechanics of their business works. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
I imagine the people renting out their points feel the same way. It must be something of a bother to have to be the conduit through which everything happens.
One odd thing I find about the waitlist is that it’s very nonchalant when you get what you want. It just sends you a regular booking confirmation, no “congrats your waitlist came through!” or anything like that. I’ve had two come through for this trip and I have to scrutinize the email each time to make sure it is actually my waitlist coming through.
I could see myself not realising a waitlist had come through for a while. Like until I started checking and re-checking everything in the last couple of weeks before our trip.
And another thing is that sometimes people wait ages after their waitlist matches before it actually appears in MDE as such. I think after the match it requires a CM to actually process it so that it updates in MDE.
Ok… so as a renter, I assume those confirmation emails do NOT come to me? They’d go to the point owner, right? And then, do they have to actually DO anything?
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