Reservation merging problem help!

[riogirl]

I booked the yacht club on orbitz for 4 nights because of an excellent deal I got ( less than $280/night). I had to add one extra night and now I have a check in on Monday-check out and recheck in on Tuesday for the rest of the week. I called Disney-they said they cannot help because orbitz is a 3rd party and I called orbitz and they said I have to check out and recheck back in! I mean really??

Does anyone know if I should even bother to call the yacht club directly to merge? I find it so hard to believe that no one could merge these reservations! Also now I get 2 sets of magic bands? One with 1 day and another with 4~if anyone can give me advice or just let me know if I am stuck...thanks!

 

[CheshireCat12]

I would mention it when you check in the first night and request that they allow you to just keep the same room when you check out/check in the next day. I think that would be easier for them too, one less room to turn over!

 

[riogirl]

I thought of that...I just wondered why it seemed so difficult when talking to WDW and Orbitz

 

[LAM378]

I thought of that...I just wondered why it seemed so difficult when talking to WDW and Orbitz

I've got 2 reservations for August at YC that they can't merge. I'll have to check out and back in after the first night (same room category). No way around it. I've called WDW at least 10 times and they insist it's just not possible. I have no idea why. It's not the Orbitz aspect--my reservations are both directly with Disney.

Have Orbitz note on your room requests that it's a continuing reservation; it's unlikely that they'll move you if there's any way to avoid it. But yes, you'll get 2 sets of Magicbands and lose some time dealing with it at the front desk .

 

[riogirl]

LAM378 thanks for the advice about requesting its a continuing reservation....it is very annoying

 

[Rob562]

Disney has never been able to merge two reservations.

As for the Bands, if they're both linked to your MDE account, they'll both work interchangeably during your entire trip. It won't be one Band for one night and then another for the rest. As long as the hotel knows that you have a continuing reservation, it will most likely require a quick stop at the front desk on the switch day that'll be less than 5 minutes. And you can do that as early as 7am.

-Rob

 

[Master Yoda]

LAM378 thanks for the advice about requesting its a continuing reservation....it is very annoying

Sadly, this is what happens when you buy from third parties.

From a strictly technical standpoint, Orbitz "owns" the reservation you made with them. You "own" the reservation you made with Disney. The party that owns the reservation is the only one that can make changes and it also dictates commissions to be paid, if any.

Those are the primary reasons that you can not combine reservations booked through different entities.

 

[DougK]

This even happens if one of your reservations is with Disney and one is with DVC. I had a 3 night DVC reservation at the Boardwalk a few years ago, it was a Standard View studio. Some time after I made the DVC reservation we decided we would be able to arrive a day early. So I waitlisted the new (first) night on DVC. As many of you know standard studio rooms at The Boardwalk are very hard to get through DVC because they are one of the best values out there, at the time I think it was only 10 points per night. So about a month before the trip I booked the night as a cash room (with an AP discount - I got lucky with that at least) and cancelled the wait list. because I figured it would not come through.

So now I had 4 consecutive nights at a Boardwalk standard view studio room. I contacted both Disney reservations and DVC Member Services and they both said the two reservations were not made through the same company so they cannot be combined. I guess DVC isn't Disney!

They did both mention that when we checked in we should mention the second reservation so at least we would not have to change rooms, we would just have to check out and back in but not actually move out of the room. I thought that wasn't a big deal, BUT...

When we checked in guess what? We were UPGRADED to a Garden/Pool view for the 1st (cash) night! I said that was great but are you also upgrading the DVC part of my reservation? They said no there was no availability to do that! So I said ok well then I don't want the upgrade. They are not used to hearing that I think! Then they said I had to take it because there were no more standard view studio rooms available that night! This kind of bothered me because that meant we had to check out the next morning and check back in again which menat packing and unpacking, basically due to their error. The only concession they made was they said they would make every effort to have our new room ready to occupy by the time we had to check out.

So I bet you can see where this is going... the new room was NOT ready the next morning, in fact we didn't get it until AFTER 4 pm. I was NOT happy.

Needless to say I learned two things:

1) they cannot combine reservations made by two "different" parties - as defined by them - meaning Disney and DVC are not both Disney (in a way)...and

2) most room upgrades are done because of the lack of room availability and NOT to throw pixie dust around.

 

[seahawk7]

Disney has never been able to merge two reservations.

As for the Bands, if they're both linked to your MDE account, they'll both work interchangeably during your entire trip. It won't be one Band for one night and then another for the rest. As long as the hotel knows that you have a continuing reservation, it will most likely require a quick stop at the front desk on the switch day that'll be less than 5 minutes. And you can do that as early as 7am.

-Rob

We had two reservations with Disney and got two magic bands apiece. They told us that the both bands would work but that wasn't the case. We had the bands checked out at the front desk of our hotel and they told us that they fixed the problem. They did not. We just started taking both sets of magic bands with us. That was a smart move since one of my magic bands didn't work to get me into MK. Luckily, I had my other band and that worked. Plus, the band I had for my first reservation worked while my kids bands for the second reservation worked. The front desk couldn't figure it out. I'm hoping this isn't the case for you, but I wanted to mention it so you don't show up at a park and the band you have doesn't work while the one that does is on your dresser back at the hotel.

 

[riogirl]

that is a good idea...I will be taking both bands at all times...better to be safe than sorry

 

[eblaz37]

This is a standard throughout the entire hotel industry. Third party reservations need to be kept separately for billing purposes. Plain and simple. This is not exclusive to Disney whatsoever.

Being in the hotel industry, I have relationships with my regular guests. The ones who book with Expedia, Orbitz, etc. sometimes say the rate will be the same as the rate the hotel is selling at. I always request that they book directly through the hotel in this situation, as the third party sometimes actually keeps more than half of the room rate... which is disgusting to think about. So, if you're loyal to a company, even if that company is giant-Disney, and the rate is reasonable directly through whichever hotel company, you're doing the company a great favor by allowing them to collect the actual amount of money necessary to pay its bills & keep business booming (especially when the travel industry continues to work to bounce back from the recession). I know that may seem silly from an outsider's perspective, but just keep in mind how hard these businesses work to provide you the services they do-- only to sometimes "auction" a room off, which often times causes the business to LOSE more money on it than it would to keep the room vacant.

Just food for thought... though I know you did say you found a really good deal on Orbitz. Even *I* would have a hard time passing that up, then!