Directions on Stalking vs just waiting for my waitlist

Domique

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
As I become more comfortable with my New DVC membership, I seem to be coming up with a lot of questions! I have a week of vacation booked 11/3-11/10/2018 @ the Poly, I would like to add a day to the beginning of the vacation. I have it waitlisted, but I've seen posts about stalking vs. waitlist... How do I stalk exactly?
Also, What if I have this waitlist and nothing becomes available can I book another resort for that night and Keep the waitlist?
 
Stalking is where you manually check the RAT for the resort and day that you want to book. You can check hourly, daily, weekly...whatever you have the time for. Some people have success finding an available room that way before it gets picked up by a waitlist. Common advice is to book another resort as a backup for the night you waitlisted just so you have a place booked in case the waitlist never gets filled (or you have no success in stalking). You can set up the waitlist so that if it does get filled, it will cancel your backup and replace it with the waitlisted room.
 
Chancery8 hit it right on the head:

1. Book something for 11/2 as a backup. Could be a cash room at the Poly (if you can stand the sticker shock), could be a room on points at another DVC resort. Booking Saratoga for a night and hitting up Disney Springs is not a bad option. If you are getting in late and just need to crash, a night at a value or moderate isn't a bad play either.
2. Set up waitlist for the 11/2 room at the Poly. If you made a DVC reservation elsewhere, specify to have your waitlist cancel it if fulfilled (this is an option while you are setting up the waitlist).
3. Commence stalking.
 
We had the same situation last year - for the same week. I booked another DVC resort for the night and waitlisted for the Poly. I stalked, but the waitlist came through first.

We have had lots of luck with waitlist, even during holiday weeks. If no DVC rooms are available, you can book a cash reservation and waitlist for multiple resorts (3, I believe). If waitlist comes through, you simply cancel the cash reservation. Good luck!
 


IMO it's probably a waste of time if you're just going to stalk for what you have waitlisted. If you're just looking for a room for that night and all are booked then stalking can be a benefit since you are limited to 2 waitlists but there are more resorts than that. I've once found a room on the RAT that I had waitlisted but when I looked at my dashboard found the waitlist had disappeared which means the waitlist has matched but is waiting to be completed by a CM. So in that case two rooms had actually opened up. My waitlist matched and the other room was sitting there waiting for another person to book.
 
I stalked my way into a 2br standard at BLT at 5 months. Had 3 of 6 days booked outright, then set up 3 individual waitlists for other days (I have 2 UY). Stalked twice a day, and it took several weeks, but they actually had all three days that I needed showing as available on RAT. Not a single one of my waitlists were gone, and I thought I was going crazy and looking at wrong dates or something, lol. But, now it's booked, and linked, and looking forward to the trip :)

I have had other WL fill on their own before, but they were more 'it would be nicer if we were at the Poly,' etc. lists vs. 'I don't want to have to move nine people in the middle of our freaking vacation' lists!!!!! So if it's really important to you, check the RAT (several times a day).
 
I have had good looks both ways. If it is something that I really want, then I will stalk to see if I can make it work. If it is a "nice to happen" but not a big deal if it doesn't, then I let the waitlist do its work. Most of the time, my waitlists have produced my desired room, but there have been a few times that I ended up getting what I wanted the old fashion way of checking and booking!
 


I was stalking for my 2 bed Standard at Boardwalk in July, but it came through on waitlist. I can’t say for certain it hadn’t gone back on the site, but it wasn’t there a couple of hours before I got the email. I was very impressed with the waitlist process on this occasion, so hats off to DVC for that one.
 
I don’t understand how this works. I’m not a dvc owner yet just contemplating buying and trying to understand the waitlist process. So are you guys saying if I’m say staying at beachclub June 6-12 at a studio and there is no studio available on June 8th so I am waitlisted that night and then Joe Schmoe DVC owner drops a BCV studio For the 8th it goes back into the RAT pool and may show available to someone stalking and is not automatically given to someone on the waitlist? If that’s how it work, why?
 
I don’t understand how this works. I’m not a dvc owner yet just contemplating buying and trying to understand the waitlist process. So are you guys saying if I’m say staying at beachclub June 6-12 at a studio and there is no studio available on June 8th so I am waitlisted that night and then Joe Schmoe DVC owner drops a BCV studio For the 8th it goes back into the RAT pool and may show available to someone stalking and is not automatically given to someone on the waitlist? If that’s how it work, why?

Im guessing yes, but I cant say for sure. I can tell you I had a WL in for January 11 for a LV studio at BLT. In addition to my WL I stalked ALL.DAY.LONG at work and would also do once home from work and gym. I looked when I got home from gym, nothing, before the shower, nothing. Then came out of the shower and before getting dressed looked, and there it was, January 11 LV studio, BLT just sitting there. I immediately grabbed it.

Its a very busy week, with Marathon weekend, and even if no one else had that WL, I did and it should not have been on the RAT. Also, I had two WL in for separate days to complete my 8 night stay and three I got by stalking and finding, one was grabbed by the WL. I guess it was my WL, since when I called MS to have them combine my ressies into one, the CM said oh I see you have a WL for January 4 and let me grab it and complete your WL so who the heck really knows.
 
I don’t understand how this works. I’m not a dvc owner yet just contemplating buying and trying to understand the waitlist process. So are you guys saying if I’m say staying at beachclub June 6-12 at a studio and there is no studio available on June 8th so I am waitlisted that night and then Joe Schmoe DVC owner drops a BCV studio For the 8th it goes back into the RAT pool and may show available to someone stalking and is not automatically given to someone on the waitlist? If that’s how it work, why?
Yes. Because it’s a far from perfect system. I understand it’s better than it used to be!
 
I don’t understand how this works. I’m not a dvc owner yet just contemplating buying and trying to understand the waitlist process. So are you guys saying if I’m say staying at beachclub June 6-12 at a studio and there is no studio available on June 8th so I am waitlisted that night and then Joe Schmoe DVC owner drops a BCV studio For the 8th it goes back into the RAT pool and may show available to someone stalking and is not automatically given to someone on the waitlist? If that’s how it work, why?

There's been a fair amount of debate on that. I've cancelled some pretty appealing reservations and try to take a look at if it hits the general availability and every time I've looked there's been at least some nights that were immediately gone or even the entire reservation. I'm west coast so often cancelling later in the evening here after I'd expect a lot of more easterly owners to be down for the night. Then I've had the experience where I saw a night I had waitlisted that was available so I booked it and looked again and there was still availability. So that appeared to be multiple cancellations that had been done. We had a time where our waitlists disappeared from the dashboard when they matched but that only lasted a year or so. Prior to that and I also believe currently you wouldn't know it had matched unless you called and had a CM look.
 

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