Waitlist vs Stalking - Stalking won

[ookitarepanda]

I have a stay planned for 10/14-10/20. We booked 16th-20th at Riviera (HR) and wanted to try BLT as our 14th-16th, since I've been thinking of adding on there. Managed to get a standard view room for the 15th and a lake view for the 14th. Didn't really want to have to switch rooms, so I put the 14th on a waitlist for a Standard. Yeeeeah, I've heard that Theme Park View is rad for fireworks, but that can be saved for another time (or Top of the World!).

I had checked pretty much every day to see if a standard opened up and last night it finally did! So I switched that out and now we have both nights in a standard.

But legit, I'd been on that waitlist for 3 months. Shouldn't the waitlist be automated at this point and just give down the order of people who waitlisted the specific night?

 

[Nappy1380]

Two words to answer your question.......Disney IT

 

[Sandisw]

Sometimes, rooms show up and sometimes they don’t. It is supposed to catch.

It is also possible more than one of those nights showed up and you have a waitlist match. Waitlists are processed by CMs and the dashboard doesn’t indicate when there is one.

With reduced staff, it is taking longer to actually see it changed. I have done that...snagged something else, canceled my WL, refreshed and my WLd room was there.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I can't imagine that waitlisting would be in "real time." As a matter of fact, I'm relatively certain it's simply a batch operation that's run against available inventory a couple or few times a week. If it was a real time operation, I doubt we'd ever see any availability online once a resort period books up, and if you looked at it through a programmer's eyes, there's really no practical way to do it.

Having said all that. I've had exactly the same experience as you in the past. I do waitlists too, but mostly for things I'd like to have but don't matter as much. And in case I forget to check manually every few days.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Don't forget to cancel your waitlist. I have a friend who was so proud she 'stalked' a room only to discover that Disney matched it too. She had two rooms and wound up with points in holding because both of them were matched about 14 days before her visit.

 

[DMKEDM]

W/L vs stalking is so random...here's my current experience, which has a little bit of everything:

I need two studios at the Beach Club, from 11/30-12/7--had enough BC points to book one for the full week and one for 3 nights at the 11-month mark...booked the "missing" 4 nights at BW (using a friend's points, which he graciously lent to me, pending finding out what I could do at the 7-month mark)...I note that I knew going into this I was "playing" with THE hardest week of all for a studio at BCV....but figured four nights across the lake at the BWV was an acceptable fall-back plan if I couldn't make things work ...

The 7-month mark came...so far, I've got 3 of my missing 4 nights--one via a W/L--which a CM told me had matched (it never showed up on my dashboard) when I called MS about something else, and one via stalking (and one via the fact that my DS and DIL have to leave a night early, so I can use their room the last night of the ressie)...I also found a BWV studio while stalking and booked it, so I could return my friend's points....just for fun, I watched to see how long it took for the BWV ressie made on my friend's points to first show up and then disappear...it never appeared, so the W/L must have grabbed those nights "immediately"... So, I keep on stalking...I still have 5+ months for that one missing night at the BCV to come available...if it doesn't, I'm fine w/moving over to the BWV for that one night...and since I can stash my stuff and hang out in the villa booked for my DS and DIL, I won't be "homeless" during changeover....but to me, this is proof positive that sometimes stalking is best and sometimes the W/L is...so you kind of have to do both to maximize your chances...

 

[AZMermaid]

I’ve been stalking one night in a studio at VGC for months. I had the waitlist set up to replace the one bedroom I had booked, also via stalking. I have a second night in a studio. Just last night, I went to stalk and I always hit one bedroom and studio just because VGC inventory is interesting to watch. The one bedroom was available. I thought, huh, wonder if that was mine? I went to my dashboard and sure enough, I got the studio which released the 1BR. The email came overnight. So the waitlist worked, but stalking let me know early!

 

[GoingSince1990]

I’ve had lots of stalking success. I keep a DVC browser page open on my phone all the time when stalking and check multiple times a day, whenever I have a free moment. With Touch ID automatically filling my password it’s really quick.

 

[Nvrgrowup]

I did my first stalking end of April. We decided no parks this year wanted to do HH. Its a small resort and popular wasn't really hopeful.
Did a waitlist 7/5-7/10 for a studio. Kept stalking 7/5 popped up about 3 weeks ago. Grabbed it.
Changed waitlist to 7/6 -7/10. Kept looking then low and behold the waitlist came through 2 weeks ago!! Couldn't believe it !!

 

[James Rhoades]

I thought they had "fixed" this so that stalking wouldn't beat wait listed people? I guess not...

 

[James Rhoades]

The question is then is how large of a window do you have to stalk before the wait list runs

 

[Sandisw]

The question is then is how large of a window do you have to stalk before the wait list runs

I stalk all the time when I want something. Daily if it is no big deal...a few times a day when it is because I always have some other choices as a 2nd and 3rd option too.

 

[n2mm]

I stalk all the time when I want something. Daily if it is no big deal...a few times a day when it is because I always have some other choices as a 2nd and 3rd option too.

me too. I’m trying to piece together a trip after my cruise got moved. I’m missing 4 nights of a 3 week trip. I have 2 single night waitlist, so stalking hourly. My 7 month window is almost here and that’s when you get more movement.

 

[Marionnette]

The question is then is how large of a window do you have to stalk before the wait list runs

I had been stalking regularly (i.e. multiple times daily) after picking up all but one night of a 8-night stay in September. I had a wait list in for that night but I actually beat the wait list last night when the room became available. Last week the wait list beat me, grabbing one of the nights that I had been casually stalking. I was actually doing some checking on the website when I got the email confirmation.