Waitlist and Reservation questions

[cobbler]

1 - Ok, I am kind of confused on how to do this so if someone could give me the rundown that would be fab.

Hubby is undecided (at this point) on where to stay next year, either our home resort or he may want to do a 3bdrm at OKW and invite some family.
We always vacation the Sunday after Thanksgiving so I know its a very popular time for DVC'ers. How would making reservaitons work? I know I would have to wait until the 7 month window. I know that its for the check out day but should I call and do it day by day? And can I have a reservation at my home resort and also make one for OKW to see if we can get in there. I want to make sure we are staying somewhere so if we can't get OKW 3bdrm we at least have our home resort and the family members just don't come. Can we have a reservation at our home resort and be on a waitlist too? Kind of confused by this so if anyone can help I would love it.

2 - We do want to try some non DVC properties with our points a couple of times, what are the booking windows for those? 11 months? 7 months? or something entirely different?

Thanks!

 

[CarolMN]

1 - Ok, I am kind of confused on how to do this so if someone could give me the rundown that would be fab.

Hubby is undecided (at this point) on where to stay next year, either our home resort or he may want to do a 3bdrm at OKW and invite some family.
We always vacation the Sunday after Thanksgiving so I know its a very popular time for DVC'ers. How would making reservaitons work? I know I would have to wait until the 7 month window. I know that its for the check out day but should I call and do it day by day? And can I have a reservation at my home resort and also make one for OKW to see if we can get in there. I want to make sure we are staying somewhere so if we can't get OKW 3bdrm we at least have our home resort and the family members just don't come. Can we have a reservation at our home resort and be on a waitlist too? Kind of confused by this so if anyone can help I would love it.

If you want a Grand Villa (3 bedroom) at OKW for the week after Thanksgiving, call day by day. At that, you will surely have to use the waitlist for some or maybe even all of the days. If you really want to be sure of getting the GV, consider trying to trade points/reservations with an OKW owner.

IMHO, it's a very good idea to make a "back up" reservation at your Home Resort at the 11 month window. You can always cancel it if/when you get the GV reservation.

You can be on a waitlist and still have a reservation somewhere else for the same day(s).

2 - We do want to try some non DVC properties with our points a couple of times, what are the booking windows for those? 11 months? 7 months? or something entirely different?

Thanks!

You can book the non-DVC options 11 months ahead of time. For the cruises, it's 11 months prior to the cruise departure.

Best wishes -

 

[LisaS]

Carol, I have a follow up question if you don't mind. Let's say you make a reservation at your home resort at 11 months. At 7 months you try to switch resorts but you end up waitlisted. Do you have to have enough points to cover the waitlisted reservation or do you only need to have the points available if/when the waitlist comes through?

 

[cobbler]

Ooh, that is a good question! I would like to know that too.

 

[CarolMN]

Carol, I have a follow up question if you don't mind. Let's say you make a reservation at your home resort at 11 months. At 7 months you try to switch resorts but you end up waitlisted. Do you have to have enough points to cover the waitlisted reservation or do you only need to have the points available if/when the waitlist comes through?

You have to have the points when the waitlist comes through - many members will cancel the 11 month reservation (day by day if necessary) when the waitlisted "7 month " reservation comes through.

If you are in that situation, it's probably best to have MS call you when the waitlist comes through - to make sure things happen as you would like. For example, you may want to cancel a reservation to ge the points needed when MS would choose to borrow them. Remember if you do have MS call you, you only have 24 hours to call back if they leave you a message. Otherwise, they move on to the next person on the waitlist.

Best wishes -

 

[LisaS]

Thanks, Carol!