KAT4DISNEY
Glad to be a test subject
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2008
Hello. Long post, but I need and appreciate your advice.
Although we’ve been Disney-bound for years, we are only a few years into our DVC ownership and consider ourselves to be newbies. Our home resort is BRV and we usually book a studio.
We have always traveled to Disney on or about Thanksgiving, and stayed the full week after. Thanksgiving usually falls the 3rd full week of November, but this year, it falls in the last week of November. Here comes my mistake…at the 11th month mark, and in a pre-Christmas, auto-pilot, mommy-brain-haze, I booked the wrong week at our home resort. Instead of booking November 28, 2019 - December 8, 2019, I goofed and booked November 21, 2019 - December 1, 2019, one week earlier than I intended (not only did I goof for the first 7 nights, I repeatedly goofed when I added each subsequent night! Ugh).
I was so upset at myself when I discovered my mistake a month later. And now there’s no availability for a BRV studio during the timeframe I intended to book (we have no additional points for a 1BR, and we'd rather not borrow). For several reasons, we don’t intend to keep our current reservation of November 21, 2019 - December 1, 2019, but for now, we haven’t cancelled it.
I currently have one waitlist for December 1, 2019 - December 8, 2019 (since we already have the first 3 days that we want from our original booking, i.e. Nov. 28-30). MS tells me that it’s a “slow time of year” (not the case from what I understand) and that I should have "no trouble" with our waitlist coming through. I absolutely hold out no hope that a 7 night waitlist is going to come through for the first week of December (unless you all think otherwise?)
From time to time, a day here or there will pop up during the week that I want. MS has discouraged me from grabbing one day at a time, and piecemealing our trip. I feel like I should do what I can, instead of waiting on our waitlist to possibly (never) come through.
What would you do?
Thank you for sticking through this long post and for your thoughts and advice.
- Would you just hang tight and see what happens with the waitlist?
- Or would you grab day-by-day and see if you can patch together the week you need?
- Also, I know it’s just a guess, but do you think there’s any chance of movement at the 7 month mark? In other words, current booked BRV home resort guests switching to a different resort at the 7 month mark, thereby possibly opening up the week for us?
- Is there something else that I've not considered?
I'd modify the existing reservation and drop the nights now that you are not going to use. Keep the 3 nights you have that are necessary. Then I'd absolutely pick up nights that show up. Waitlist 2 individual nights if you pick up some nights in the middle and a 7 month waitlist no longer is needed. Or you can waitlist longer time frames that make sense around whatever you pick up. Right at this moment I'd have the 7 night waitlist and then create a second waitlist for the night immediately following the 3 nights you already have. If you get then I'd change the 7 night waitlist to a 6 night (first to give it priority) and then a second waitlist for night #5.
MS gave you bad advice in this case starting with the information that it's a slow week.
And at 7 months I'd book elsewhere if something is available and then change the waitlists to replace that.