Hiya, Heather!
As a fellow Disney Vacation Club Member, I'm happy to welcome you to planDisney! Isn't waitlisting a reservation for an upcoming Walt Disney World Resort visit one of the coolest features of booking a DVC Resort stay? I love that if my top room preference is unavailable, I have the flexibility to book a different reservation while waiting to see if my first choice pops up. Plus, there's no better feeling than getting that email that tells you your waitlist has been fulfilled –– talk about magic mail, right?! While waitlisting the perfect reservation is a pretty simple process, how your Vacation Points factor into that equation can be a little confusing. Let me share a few details about
using your Points for a waitlist to help clear things up.
If your existing reservation was booked using Points from your current Use Year and your waitlist request requires fewer Points, those Points will be returned back to your current pool of available Points, as long as your waitlist request is fulfilled
more than 30 days in advance. That means those Points would still be available to bank for next year if you're within your banking window. For waitlists that are fulfilled 30 days or less from the date of check-in, any "extra" Points would be placed into a
Holding Account. Once those Vacation Points are in Holding, they can no longer be banked or borrowed and they will expire at the end of the current Use Year. If you borrowed any of those surplus Points for your existing reservation, those will also be placed into a Holding Account, regardless of when that waitlist is fulfilled. That means your borrowed Points will be placed in Holding, even if your waitlist becomes available more than 30 days in advance.
The biggest thing to consider when choosing between the 31-day and 7-day waitlist options is whether you're comfortable with those "extra" Vacation points being placed in a Holding Account. If you choose the 31-day option, all your current Use Year Points will be returned to your account like normal. With the 7-day option, those points will be placed in Holding. It's also important to remember that any Vacation Points in a Holding Account can only be used to book new DVC Reservations within 60 days of check-in. That means they're only going to be available to use for last-minute bookings. The great news, though, is that you can easily modify your existing waitlist request if you prefer to use the 31-day option. All you need to do is log into the Disney Vacation Club website and navigate to
"My Dashboard" under the "My DVC" tab. Under "My Vacation Plans", click on your waitlist and select "View or Modify Details". By clicking "Modify" in the "Waitlist Details" section, you'll easily be able to make that change.
Thanks for visiting planDisney, Heather. No matter which Disney Vacation Club Resort you end up visiting during your upcoming Walt Disney World vacation, I hope your stay is filled with Membership magic from start to finish!
Happy Planning,
Amy