Some RS tours filling fast and sold out

Possibly, you're correct. On the other hand it just says "join wait list" which could mean it's sold out or it could mean they don't have enough interested people to actually schedule the tour so by "joining the waitlist" you actually indicate your interest. It's a way for RS to gauge interest before committing to a hard and fast scheduled tour date.

Just guessing

If that were true, they would not have put it out first with a "sign up" indicator. "Waitlist" would discourage people from signing up. I talked to the tour office once, and they told me that "filling fast" meant that there were 6 or less spots available, and "waitlist" was all full. But they also said that there were often a lot of cancellations or re-schedules so they encouraged people to try anyway.

Tim,
I signed up for a tour on the wait list and they called me a week later to say a space had opened up. This was one month before the tour departure so I had to make all my arrangements in a month! I think the wait list is a true one, meaning there are 5 or 6 spaces left on the tour. People do drop off a tour sign up list and months before the tour departs, spaces become available.

Our tour two years ago had only one seat left for a long time. My adult son grabbed it and the * join waitlist* popped up! This was two weeks before departure too!

I’m just glad I reserved as soon as the tours became available to get the date I wanted and the discount.
RS outlines this in his info section of this website!

Anyone else on 9/2 Heart of Portugal and 9/13 Barcelona and Madrid tours?

"it could mean they don't have enough interested people to actually schedule the tour so by "joining the waitlist" you actually indicate your interest."

Agree with the others that this is not how RSE works. Waitlist means the tour is full. There CAN be shadow dates where they can insert tours if the ones on either side are full. I know this happened to a friend who was taking the Belgium and Holland tour a couple of years ago. You can call the office and they are usually able to tell you if there are shadow dates on tours.

Glad you booked ahead Diane!

A very minor side note. RS tour info list up to 28...but in the fine print they allow up to 29. And for intelligent reasons. If they have 27 registered on tour and a single signs up, 28 is hit and they close it (wait list) but at 27 if a couple signs up they will bump the group to 29 and wait list it.

Not so sure I agree with that assessment. Last year we signed up for a trip with a filling fast label. When we signed up for the tour we were instantly added to the wait list. So I call the office and was told that there was just one space left and since we were a couple we were wait listed. We never did clear the waiting list. Maybe in some cases they will add a couple to the 28th place but not in our case.

I agree with Frank. Several years ago we signed up for a tour and got a phone call saying there was only one spot left so we went on the wait list. We eventually went on another date. We have been successful twice while being on the wait list.

Frank- sorry to here you didn’t get on the tour. I’ve seen the expansion to 29 twice (and it is mentioned in their paperwork, last time I read it- maybe that has changed).
What tour?
I would suspect a hotel issue and the only room left that RS could obtain at one stop being a “single” room (or a double bed room that I has one single in it and they want a roommate for it). Another issue for some are pure single (supplement) rooms- those are limited and can make a tour unavailable to some fairly early in the booking season.

Two questions — can one be added to the wait list without making a deposit?

Does one not know in advance that he or she could be placed on a wait list prior to making a deposit?

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/tours-faq

Continental,
If a tour is full, you can join the waitlist without paying the deposit. See the above link. It spells it out nicely.
You would not be put on a waitlist unless the number of reservations you are trying to make exceeds what is available and I’m sure your emailed response would disclose that info to you.

Continental, if you're concerned about the number of spaces left, you can always call the tour office and ask first. We did that once when there were four of us wanting to join and the "filling fast" designation was up. That's when they told us it meant 6 or less spaces and it was at 6 for our tour, so we got in.