Booking Questions

[packfan79]

Hi guys, I posted this on another site, but wanted to throw it out here, too, for more insight. We are planning to stay onsite for our trip next spring. I'm in pre-planning mode and trying to get all my ducks in a row so when it comes time to act, I am ready! As of right now, we will have 4 adults and 1 teenager on the trip and the plan is to book 2 rooms - 1 for my husband, me and our son (teen), and the other for our daughter and her boyfriend (young adults). I have a couple of scenarios that I need help with on this - and let's say I am booking straight through Disney.

1) I think I read that I can't book both rooms in my name, so would I make another MDE account for my daughter and book one of the rooms in her name? Is there a way to link the reservations or accounts? I would really like to be able to manage the ADRs and FPs for everyone if possible.

2) Worst case scenario, if I need to cancel one of the rooms and move my daughter into ours, can I do this without cancelling both rooms? And up until what point can I do this as far as cancellation without penalty?

3) If the room and tickets are booked as a package, and I cancel one room and move my daughter to ours, does this cancel her ticket or would it move with her?

4) Would I be better off to book room only reservations and purchase the tickets separate, closer to the 60 day FP time, instead of as a package? Can the discounts that come out be applied to just room only in lieu of packages?

5) For ADRs, if we end up with 4 travelers instead of 5, can I delete 1 person off of the ADR, or would I just leave it as 5? I don't think I would want to cancel them and try to re-book as I probably wouldn't get the same time again.

I hope I don't have to worry about any of this, but better to be prepared. I'm sorry for all the questions, and thank you to anyone who answers!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

1. I've never heard of a restriction on only booking one room. We have booked more than one in my name a few times. There does have to be an adult over the age of 18 assigned to each room.
2. Should not be a problem.
3. Probably, but we always purchase our separately, so am unsure on that one.
4. We would book them separately, but that's just us.
5. I wouldn't change, just mention that someone couldn't show up when you go to check-in.

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

This is one of the things that is frustrating about Disney. I have tried numerous times to reserve more than one room in my name. I have been told every time that I must be staying in the room to have my name on the reservation. From the answer above, this isn't applied to everyone. I used to put my daughter's name on the other room where her brother and his longtime gf are staying to get the ap discount and she would simply stay in my room. We have tons of magicbands, so she would use one of my extras to get into the room if I wasn't going to be with her--which is rare. Now, I put either my son's or his gf's name on their room, but I pay with my cc and use my email. I have them on my MDE as managed by me so that I can make all their fp's and their room reservations show up on my account. This has worked well for us.
As to a package, even when we don't get ap's, I always book the room and tickets separately. This way, I can cancel up to five days before with no loss, whereas with a package, it's 45 days. I have health issues, and my son comes from LA, so it's a necessity to be able to cancel if I have problems or he can't get away at the last minute.

 

[DarthVader]

1) I think I read that I can't book both rooms in my name, so would I make another MDE account for my daughter and book one of the rooms in her name? Is there a way to link the reservations or accounts? I would really like to be able to manage the ADRs and FPs for everyone if possible.

That seems crazy, are you booking online or calling them? I think it may be easier to talk to a person to get this organized.

2) Worst case scenario, if I need to cancel one of the rooms and move my daughter into ours, can I do this without cancelling both rooms? And up until what point can I do this as far as cancellation without penalty?

Each room will have its own confirmation number so, you will only cancel the one you want.

3) If the room and tickets are booked as a package, and I cancel one room and move my daughter to ours, does this cancel her ticket or would it move with her?

If you booked the room as a package, then you can only cancel the entire package, so the tickets will also be cancelled.

4) Would I be better off to book room only reservations and purchase the tickets separate, closer to the 60 day FP time, instead of as a package? Can the discounts that come out be applied to just room only in lieu of packages?

I don't believe there is any incentive to buying the tickets upfront and in fact you may be able to find some savings, i.e., the undercover tourist sometimes has discounted tickets if I'm not mistaken.

5) For ADRs, if we end up with 4 travelers instead of 5, can I delete 1 person off of the ADR, or would I just leave it as 5? I don't think I would want to cancel them and try to re-book as I probably wouldn't get the same time again.

Good question, I'm not sure, because if you don't cancel a reservation in 72 hours (or something like that), you get charged but that's more for no shows. I would think keeping the 5 and if there's only 4 tell the hostess that there's only 4

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

I'm sorry for all the questions, and thank you to anyone who answers!

Wow - talk about deja-vu - I had virtually the same scenario in August 2014 for our August 2015 trip.
We're from the UK and everything was booked for wife and I plus youngest daughter in one room at AKL and eldest daughter and boyfriend in room 2.
Boyfriend was then assigned a business trip to the USA (about 6 weeks before departure) which meant that he wouldn't join us for the first half of the holiday.

1) We didn't book through Disney and I had one MDE account for all 5 of us. I canvassed opinions from everyone re ADRs and FP so when the 180 days and 60 days came around I knew what I was booking for everyone. It really was straight forward

2) Don't know

3) No, you're booking / cancelling a room - not an individual

4) Don't know

5) This was my main pre-trip issue - there would be 4 diners turning up for a 5 person booking for the first 6 days of our trip and then a full complement of 5 of us for the last 8 days of the trip. I was advised on here not to cancel or amend the bookings from 5 to 4 people. It was sound advice - when we checked in at each of the restaurants we just advised staff that there were only 4 of us. WDW staff were fine about this and there was never any discussion about lost deposits etc.

 

[Rob562]

To add to the info in the posts above...

-The key is to make sure that everyone only has a single MDE profile, whether it's a profile they control through their own login, or one that you control as a "managed by you" profile. Even if people have their own profiles that they control, as long as they are linked to you under Family & Friends, you can make FP+ reservations for them, list them as guests on dining reservations, etc. (That's kind of the entire purpose of the MDE system... To allow individuals to plan trips as a group)

-The previously mentioned issue with having more than one reservation in your name is that the system might have issues when it sees that "you" are staying in two rooms and in granting access to those rooms. The proper way to handle this is to make the reservation and list someone who is actually staying in that room as the "lead guest". I *think* the Lead Guest can be someone whose profile you control, they don't have to have their own login account.

-Even if a reservation is made in someone else's name, you can still pay for the room with your own credit card. Simply change the billing info when making the reservation. (If I recall there's a box to check that says "this payment is by someone not staying in the room")

-There are so many variables involving the cancellation of a room and adding one of those people onto the existing reservation that it'd be easier to answer if/when that becomes an issue. But the basic idea is that as long as it's done before the cancellation deadline listed on your reservation, you won't pay a fee.
And if it's after the point that you've made FP+ reservations, as long as you cancel one reservation (whether package or room only) and re-add the person onto the other reservation on the same day, all FP+ reservations should stay in-tact.


-Rob

 

[LuvtheGoof]

-The previously mentioned issue with having more than one reservation in your name is that the system might have issues when it sees that "you" are staying in two rooms and in granting access to those rooms. The proper way to handle this is to make the reservation and list someone who is actually staying in that room as the "lead guest". I *think* the Lead Guest can be someone whose profile you control, they don't have to have their own login account.

-Even if a reservation is made in someone else's name, you can still pay for the room with your own credit card. Simply change the billing info when making the reservation. (If I recall there's a box to check that says "this payment is by someone not staying in the room")
-Rob

I will say that we have not tried to do this since MDE was in place, and was in fact many years ago. The current policy is probably due to technology limitations, though I would've thought that Disney could have coded their systems to allow one person access to more than one room if they are paying for both.

 

[Rob562]

I will say that we have not tried to do this since MDE was in place, and was in fact many years ago. The current policy is probably due to technology limitations, though I would've thought that Disney could have coded their systems to allow one person access to more than one room if they are paying for both.

We had a situation where a friend staying for part of a week in my DVC villa had a second room in his name for the first couple days of the trip. A CM at the MDE Help Desk (so someone well-versed in the intricacies of the MDE system) strongly suggested that he not link his stand-alone room to the same profile that the DVC villa was linked to. He ended up creating a second MDE profile under his work email to use for that stand-alone room reservation.

That trip was 14 months ago, so things might have been changed/upgraded, but IMO it's best not to tempt fate with the MDE system if at all possible.

-Rob

 

[Oakridge1st]

Hi guys, I posted this on another site, but wanted to throw it out here, too, for more insight. We are planning to stay onsite for our trip next spring. I'm in pre-planning mode and trying to get all my ducks in a row so when it comes time to act, I am ready! As of right now, we will have 4 adults and 1 teenager on the trip and the plan is to book 2 rooms - 1 for my husband, me and our son (teen), and the other for our daughter and her boyfriend (young adults). I have a couple of scenarios that I need help with on this - and let's say I am booking straight through Disney.

1) I think I read that I can't book both rooms in my name, so would I make another MDE account for my daughter and book one of the rooms in her name? Is there a way to link the reservations or accounts? I would really like to be able to manage the ADRs and FPs for everyone if possible.

2) Worst case scenario, if I need to cancel one of the rooms and move my daughter into ours, can I do this without cancelling both rooms? And up until what point can I do this as far as cancellation without penalty?

3) If the room and tickets are booked as a package, and I cancel one room and move my daughter to ours, does this cancel her ticket or would it move with her?

4) Would I be better off to book room only reservations and purchase the tickets separate, closer to the 60 day FP time, instead of as a package? Can the discounts that come out be applied to just room only in lieu of packages?

5) For ADRs, if we end up with 4 travelers instead of 5, can I delete 1 person off of the ADR, or would I just leave it as 5? I don't think I would want to cancel them and try to re-book as I probably wouldn't get the same time again.

I hope I don't have to worry about any of this, but better to be prepared. I'm sorry for all the questions, and thank you to anyone who answers!

I am organizing a family reunion for 3 families in 3 rooms. Each family has its own MDE account. I paid for all rooms, tickets and dining plans. All of the reservations, including ADR appear in everyone's MDE account after we linked them with Family & Friends. The only problem I had was that they sent the confirmation to each family for their room,dining and ticket package even though they were all put on my credit card. No problem I just had them forward me a copy so I knew that the charge was correct. We made ADR for all eleven for some meals and they can make their own ADR and FP+ reservations too. They will also be able to order their own magic bands. Each room is listed under the name of an adult staying in that room. After I made the reservations, we changed the resort and took advantage of a recently announced discount. I was able to change everyone's package with some telephone help from Disney.

 

[LadyBelle]

What's the latest date that I can cancel a pre-booked Disney trip? Unforeseen circumstances may require me to cancel my upcoming trip . Would it be NLT 30 days before arrival?