How to Change Resorts At WDW

[mwbrown]

I tried to ask this attached to another topic, but no replies...

We are booked at Pop for July 14th-23rd, but were thinking we wanted to try a moderate (CBR) for part of the trip.

We called to change to 6 days at Pop and 4 at CBR, but since we have MYW w/ Dining, we would have had two bookings with 6 days of tickets in one and 4 days of tickets in the other and would have spent an extra $1000 for 4 people between the resort and the tickets (buying 10 days much cheaper than 6 and 4). We thought we would talk to the concierge at Pop when there to find out about doing a resort switch and only paying the difference in room rates.

Has anyone done this? How did it work?

Thanks in advance for advice...

 

[smk]

I tried to ask this attached to another topic, but no replies...

We are booked at Pop for July 14th-23rd, but were thinking we wanted to try a moderate (CBR) for part of the trip.

We called to change to 6 days at Pop and 4 at CBR, but since we have MYW w/ Dining, we would have had two bookings with 6 days of tickets in one and 4 days of tickets in the other and would have spent an extra $1000 for 4 people between the resort and the tickets (buying 10 days much cheaper than 6 and 4). We thought we would talk to the concierge at Pop when there to find out about doing a resort switch and only paying the difference in room rates.

Has anyone done this? How did it work?

Thanks in advance for advice...

It's easy if you just have a room booked with no tickets or dining. I have never booked with the DDP or tickets and we have switched twice in the middle of a trip before.

 

[Monty]

I'm fairly sure you can't do it with a package. Your tickets and dining are both tied to your resort booking. If you split up the package, it's treated as two separate bookings and as a result the tickets will cost a lot more.

My only suggestion is to give up the dining plan and book room-only for two resorts and ten-day tickets. Unless you're on Free Dining, the DDP doesn't really save you all that much [unless you very carefully plan exactly which entrees are the most expensive at each TS and avoid buffets] and it restricts what you can eat and where. :shrug:

 

[DISMOM]

Talk to a Disney travel agent.

 

[bdedon2]

We did this back in May. We stayed at WL first and transfered to the S&D half way through the stay.We bought tickets at the WL, so our room key was our tickets. Once we transfered to the S&D the WL key no longer worked as a room key, but remained active for entry into the parks until all our days were exhausted.

The morning you are to transfer, call Bell services and tell them you are transferring resorts. They will show up with the appropriate tags, mark each item and transfer your bags for you. You can leave and go into the parks and enjoy your day. Around 4:00pm show up at the new resort, check in, and tell them you had bags sent over from another resort, Bell services will brig them right up. That easy, it was pretty hassle free for us.

Hope this helps.

 

[Rob562]

Other options to consider in addition to those above...
(Note, I'm just using Base ticket pricess in my examples)

1) Book your first hotel with 9-day tickets, and then your second hotel with 1-day tickets, and add the Dining Plan to both reservations.
While the cost is still more expensive than 10-day tickets ($239.63), 9+1 ($313.12) is much cheaper than 6+4 ($456.89). You'll just have to make sure to keep both room keys when you check into your second hotel.
(Alternatively, you could purchase 10-day tickets with your first reservation, and 1-day tickets with your second, but don't use the 1-day tickets and save them as payment toward new tickets on a future trip. They'll never expire, as their 14-day window doesn't start ticking until you actually *use* them)


2) Have one adult in your group purchase an Annual Pass, while the others pre-purchase their 10-day tickets. You can then add the Dining Plan onto both reservations without needing to include a MYW ticket purchase.
The difference between a 10-day ticket an an Annual Pass is $237.49. It might be the cheaper option.


3) Skip the Dining Plan and have one person purchase an Annual Pass. Then buy a Disney Dining Experience membership that gets you 20% off of your Table Service meals, as well as all meals in the Pop Century food court (because Pop doesn't have Table Service). Only you know the dining habits of your family, so it would be up to you to see if 20% off would mean more than $300 in savings... ($238 ticket difference plus $55 DME membership) FYI: $300 in savings would mean spending $1500 pre-discount on Table Service and Pop Century food court meals.

Also, with options 2 & 3 above, there might still be Annual Passholder rates available for your room reservations, but at this late date it's doubtful.

You'll have to let us know what you eventually decide to go with.
-Rob

 

[mwbrown]

2) Have one adult in your group purchase an Annual Pass, while the others pre-purchase their 10-day tickets. You can then add the Dining Plan onto both reservations without needing to include a MYW ticket purchase.
The difference between a 10-day ticket an an Annual Pass is $237.49. It might be the cheaper option.

I was actually looking at the AP for my wife as she is going back to Disney in the Spring for the Princess Half-Marathon. Is it possible to add the Dining to the tickets without using the MYW package?

If I get this right than...we would have two room reservations through my wife with the AP (6 days at Pop and 4 at CBR), and she would have the AP Dining Plan, and then my kids and I would just get 10 days of tickets and get the dining plan attached to that...Am I following correctly?

Thanks for your help so far...

 

[Rob562]

I was actually looking at the AP for my wife as she is going back to Disney in the Spring for the Princess Half-Marathon. Is it possible to add the Dining to the tickets without using the MYW package?

If I get this right than...we would have two room reservations through my wife with the AP (6 days at Pop and 4 at CBR), and she would have the AP Dining Plan, and then my kids and I would just get 10 days of tickets and get the dining plan attached to that...Am I following correctly?

Thanks for your help so far...

The Dining Plan is a function of your room reservation, not your tickets. They're not "attached" to your tickets but rather the room reservation.

Essentially, you would make reservations in either your wife's name or your name (the AP holder doesn't have to be the primary guest, just has to be a guest of the room, but she should be there when you check in).
You're still booking a package, it's just that having an Annual Pass removes the need to purchase tickets for everyone in the room as part of that package. Everyone will have the same Dining Plan.

Plus, after you check in, you *should* be able to add those pre-purchased 10-day tickets to the room keys. The only exception would be the AP-holder who must keep the AP on separate ticket media.

-Rob