Booking on Expedia

[MagicHappens1971]

Okay, this is something I'm firmly against. But due to Disney's very annoying and terrible website.. Which resulted in my friend (Lori) booking a room, and then not having a room left for myself. Even though the room was available for at least 2 hours after it wouldn't allow us to book it, Disney's chat agents refused to give us the room. Regardless we then intrusted Expedia because it would tell us if there was only one room left... Moving on, Expedia obviously wouldn't give us a Disney conformation number. So with that, do you get magicbands, I am annual passholder who already has magicbands, from my pass and my previous stays. However Lori, will be an annual passholder doesn't want to buy our passes until we get there. So will really she get magicbands? I'm calling disney first thing tomorrow to see if there is something they can do for us with the situation that occurred, and find out if I could and to adjust other aspects of the reservation(s).

 

[Rob562]

So in trying to figure out your question, here's what I've got from you:
You're trying to book two rooms. Your friend booked their room and somehow that was the final room available at the resort, leaving you without a room available to book.
You then went onto Expedia, booked a room through them, and are now trying to figure out where to go from here?

I can't speak for booking through Expedia, but I *can* speak for booking through Orbitz, so I presume the process is the same.

Orbitz gives you the Disney reservation number. It's different from the Orbitz reservation number and is buried about 2/3 of the way down in the confirmation email. It should either be a 12-digit number or a 6 or 7 character alpha-numeric reservation number. You can take that number and link it to your My Disney Experience profile. (I suggest setting up and/or linking any other members of your party in MDE *before* linking the reservation)

If the Disney reservation number isn't in the email, call Expedia and get it.

Once linked, you'll then be able to customize the Bands and have them shipped to you (assuming you live in the U.S. If you don't, then they'll be waiting for you at check-in). Assuming both your reservation and your Annual Pass are properly linked to the same MDE profile, the new Bands will work interchangeably with your current ones you got with your AP.

You'll also want to double-check the shipping address on the Bands. When I worked on my reservation through Orbitz, the address was input as the address of the main offices for Orbitz in Chicago. It was a quick change to get it to be my actual home address.

If you don't link your reservation, the MDE site won't know you're an on-site Guest and you'll only have a 30-day FP+ booking window rather than the 60 days you get from staying on-site.

Your friend who booked through Disney directly can go onto their own MDE account and customize their Bands to be sent to her. Even though she doesn't want to buy her park tickets until she gets there, I would *highly* recommend buying them ahead of time. She won't be able to make any FP+ reservations until she buys the tickets. She can buy the tickets, arrange to pick them up at Will Call and they'll be linked to her Bands.

-Rob

 

[MagicHappens1971]

So in trying to figure out your question, here's what I've got from you:
You're trying to book two rooms. Your friend booked their room and somehow that was the final room available at the resort, leaving you without a room available to book.
You then went onto Expedia, booked a room through them, and are now trying to figure out where to go from here?

I can't speak for booking through Expedia, but I *can* speak for booking through Orbitz, so I presume the process is the same.

Orbitz gives you the Disney reservation number. It's different from the Orbitz reservation number and is buried about 2/3 of the way down in the confirmation email. It should either be a 12-digit number or a 6 or 7 character alpha-numeric reservation number. You can take that number and link it to your My Disney Experience profile. (I suggest setting up and/or linking any other members of your party in MDE *before* linking the reservation)

If the Disney reservation number isn't in the email, call Expedia and get it.

Once linked, you'll then be able to customize the Bands and have them shipped to you (assuming you live in the U.S. If you don't, then they'll be waiting for you at check-in). Assuming both your reservation and your Annual Pass are properly linked to the same MDE profile, the new Bands will work interchangeably with your current ones you got with your AP.

You'll also want to double-check the shipping address on the Bands. When I worked on my reservation through Orbitz, the address was input as the address of the main offices for Orbitz in Chicago. It was a quick change to get it to be my actual home address.

If you don't link your reservation, the MDE site won't know you're an on-site Guest and you'll only have a 30-day FP+ booking window rather than the 60 days you get from staying on-site.

Your friend who booked through Disney directly can go onto their own MDE account and customize their Bands to be sent to her. Even though she doesn't want to buy her park tickets until she gets there, I would *highly* recommend buying them ahead of time. She won't be able to make any FP+ reservations until she buys the tickets. She can buy the tickets, arrange to pick them up at Will Call and they'll be linked to her Bands.

-Rob

Thank you, the trip is less than 30 days away anyway, and we both have annual passses so it doesn't make much difference what we get on that trip. Thank you for the advice anyway. However I did what you suggested and the alphanumeric code is not working.

 

[Rob562]

Thank you, the trip is less than 30 days away anyway, and we both have annual passses so it doesn't make much difference what we get on that trip. Thank you for the advice anyway. However I did what you suggested and the alphanumeric code is not working.

If you *just* made the reservation tonight, it may take a day or two for Expedia to get all of the info over to Disney. Try it again in a day or two.

-Rob

 

[MagicHappens1971]

If you *just* made the reservation tonight, it may take a day or two for Expedia to get all of the info over to Disney. Try it again in a day or two.

-Rob

Okay thank you. I have another question (I'm normally pretty good with this) but its new territory. My friend already has her reservation which she will be canceling tomorrow, she already has her magicbands being ordered they said "Act Fast", will they still come if even if she cancels the reservations, I know that they can use them interchangeably though.

 

[Rob562]

Okay thank you. I have another question (I'm normally pretty good with this) but its new territory. My friend already has her reservation which she will be canceling tomorrow, she already has her magicbands being ordered they said "Act Fast", will they still come if even if she cancels the reservations, I know that they can use them interchangeably though.

It's a gray area that I've only read about a few people falling into, and I'm not sure I've ever heard of one with this exact set of circumstances. (It's usually they either cancel well before they ship or they cancel well after, not just as they're getting ready to)

If she cancels before they ship, then they probably won't come.
If they do ship, it's quite possible she'll get a "free" set of Bands out of it. If they show up on her MDE profile as Bands and they remain as "Active" until your trip, then they can be used interchangeably with the others.

-Rob

 

[BrunoTaTa]

I recently booked part of a stay on Expedia and the confirmation from them wouldn't link to my Disney account. I called and the agent gave me a disney confirmation number for that booking and this triggered magic bands being sent to me just like a reservation booked through Disney and the reservation then showing up at the Disney website. .

 

[Nick Pappagiorgio]

I recently booked part of a stay on Expedia and the confirmation from them wouldn't link to my Disney account. I called and the agent gave me a disney confirmation number for that booking and this triggered magic bands being sent to me just like a reservation booked through Disney and the reservation then showing up at the Disney website. .

Had the same experience, except I waited a few days and the number showed up on my Expedia account. Then took that number to MDE and was set from there. The only thing that is different is that is if you use Magical Express there is a separate link you have to use to set that up. But other than that it worked pretty seamlessly.