Booked wrong resort--now I want to change it all! Will this work?

[TwisterMomma]

I've been planning this trip for over a year and I cannot believe I've missed this in the countless hours I've spent researching things!

We are booked for a week the first week of May. I thought we were staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter in a pool view room. We are actually staying at the Port Orleans Riverside in a Pool View room. We are using a vacation planner that is a friend and I realized that we always referred to it as "Port Orleans" and the original quote she sent me was for Riverside, not French Quarter. Not her fault, just mine.

I was REALLY looking forward to our stay at French Quarter because we have 3 kids under 5 and will be relying solely on Disney Transportation. Short walks to the food court, bus stop, and a room right next to the awesome French Quarter pool and splash pad sounded PERFECT!

Riverside isn't bad, but I'm worried about the walk to the Food Court and Pool now. Plus, the pool at Riverside doesn't wow me at all--we would probably walk all the way back over to the French Quarter pool. My kids keep talking about the water parks, but we didn't want to spend the extra money (and sanity) dragging small kids to a water park. So we planned to take the day off and enjoy the pool and Disney Springs instead.

So now I'm going crazy and considering maybe changing our reservation up while staying within a few hundred of our current cost. It looks like French Quarter isn't even an option now. I've always wanted to stay at the Beach club and try out Stormalong Bay, so I considered going to a value resort for most of our stay and switching over. However, it doesn't look like the Yacht or Beach Clubs have any availability that week.

So, after 2.5 hours of trolling the Disney World reservation site, I think I came up with something that might be more convenient for us, give us a better pool on our day off, and save us some money to boot. Tell me what you think...

Sun-Wed: Stay at the Contemporary resort. We are doing Magic Kingdom Mon + Wed and Animal Kingdom Tuesday, so staying in a monorail resort these days is VERY ideal.

• To make this work, I would need to book our 5 park tickets through this reservation in a package with a dining plan. BIG QUESTION--can I use these park tickets past our reservation for Friday & Saturday while we are at another resort? That is key to this plan! Is this going to mess with Fastpass+ Reservations?

Wed-Sun: Stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort, room only. This would allow us to use the awesome pool on our Thursday day off.

• The BIG PERK--all the food courts will be closed in May and they are offering a $75/night gift card. We don't care about the closures. If we can use the rest of the 5 day tickets from the Contemporary stay, we can completely forgo a dining plan for the rest of the trip and use the gift cards to pay for our food.

Is this doable? What am I missing? It appears we wont lose our ADRs by doing this, but I'm wondering if our Fastpass+ Reservations would be affected?

Edited to add--We could also switch out the Contemporary for a Deluxe Studio Villa at the Wilderness Lodge for $100 more total. I've always wanted to stay there and my parents are camping at Ft. Wilderness during this trip, so that might be an awesome idea too! The boat isn't as convenient as the monorail to MK though.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I guess if you are going to switch up that would be fine. If you are planning on spending the day at the pool, the Caribbean won't have it's pool bar open to you either (I don't know if that is important to you, some people like a tropical drink while relaxing at the pool. I know I do! ).

I don't know if you have thought of this, but if you are only switching for one pool day, would it be in your budget to go to a water park for the day? Typhoon Lagoon will have their new family raft ride open by then and there is so much to do there. Plus it is just a beautiful spot. Just an idea.

 

[MissingDisney]

Yes, you can use those tickets. Days purchased must be used within 14 days of activation. You food credits will expire on midnight the day you check out if the first resort.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

That sounds like a lot of resort hopping and a lot of extra work for me. We always stay at POR and love it. The smaller, quiet pools are great for kids, as is the bigger one. If you want to spend a pool day, just go over to FQ and use their pool. You are allowed to use either resorts pools. There is a lot to love about POR but if your heart is set on it, I guess you could make the other plans work. I would expect your fp and adr's will be affected somewhat. Good luck.

 

[TwisterMomma]

I guess if you are going to switch up that would be fine. If you are planning on spending the day at the pool, the Caribbean won't have it's pool bar open to you either (I don't know if that is important to you, some people like a tropical drink while relaxing at the pool. I know I do! ).

I don't know if you have thought of this, but if you are only switching for one pool day, would it be in your budget to go to a water park for the day? Typhoon Lagoon will have their new family raft ride open by then and there is so much to do there. Plus it is just a beautiful spot. Just an idea.

Nah, the bar isn't a big deal. It's more the disappointment of realizing that instead of the best set up at French Quarter we will have a "meh" one at Riverside. I like those resorts well enough, but It was the moderation in price and extreme convenience that was going to make it a good fit for our family. If it is no longer convenient and we aren't right next to the good pool, it isn't really an awesome fit for our family anymore.

I asked my husband about the water park--he said no way. We can deal with our 3 at a pool, but a waterpark would probably make us need those mixed drinks...

Switching resorts on Wednesday wouldn't be bad for us. We are going to the Magic Kingdom with my parents that day and eating at Ohana for dinner. Then my parents are taking the kids back to the campground with them for a night while we go back for extra magic hours. We'll just have to transfer our luggage and then my husband and I will just go to a different resort late that night.

 

[Marc Levin]

So your dates are staying the same and all you want to do is stay at 2 resorts during the stay instead of 1? That's easy.

Just phone them up and explain that you've had second thoughts about the resort you originally chose and want to change it up. They'll change the resort to the contemporary and shorten the dates on your first reservation and make you another reservation for Carribean Beach Resort for the rest of your stay. Your tickets shouldn't be affected. As the overall cost of your booking goes up, they'll "kindly" waive any amendment fee.

I know the above because I did exactly the same kind of change for my upcoming trip, it was completely painless, and I got the impression it was a fairly regular thing for them. Better do it sooner rather than later though, you don't want to risk availability disappearing.

p.s. My understanding is that they transfer your luggage between resorts for you if you ask them as you're checking out of the first one.

 

[JillC LI]

I think construction starts at CBR in May but I don't recall the dates - you might want to check on that.

 

[PrincessL]

As long as your tickets are tied to your first reservation NOT the second reservation you are good to use the tickets your entire trip. Almost learned that the hard way but spent 45 min on the phone with a CM yesterday to get clarification.

 

[TwisterMomma]

Our Disney vacation planner did it for us and we kept all Fastpasses and ADR. I'm sure I could have figured it out, but she was willing to sit on the phone for us, so I let her

We are now staying in a Deluxe Studio at the Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge Sun-Wed and Caribbean Beach Wed-Sun. Yes, there will be construction at both resorts, but I really don't care. It looks like the construction at Wilderness Lodge is nearing completion and we don't plan to use the food services at Caribbean Beach. Best of all, our total actually came DOWN slightly. Now, we are forgoing the dining plan the 2nd half of the trip and will be using the $300 in Disney gift cards we will receive. We are going to end up spending more than that with our Epcot reservations, so in the end the total cost of the trip after rebooking should pretty much be the same. I'm calling it a win! Staying at the Wilderness Lodge has been something I've wanted to do for awhile.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

Well... looks like there was really no help needed. ENJOY!