Room-Only Reservation

[Amy Shelton]

Hello all!

Still in the process of actually wrapping my head around the fact that we MIGHT be able to go September/October 2015!! Very exciting!!

Anyways, we will be making our reservation through our family cast member. A few questions, we have heard that if we start making payments and we end up having to change our days, we can transfer our balance? Our schedule is pretty open but we are both actors so there is always that "what if."

Also, we are debating between staying 6D/5N or 7D/6N? Should we go ahead and do the longer stay and then take away a day if we end up not being able to stay the whole time? That seems to make the most sense to me but I'm just curious if there are any penalties and so on and so forth.

Thanks for everything!

 

[LAKid53]

Since you are making a room only reservation, you should be able to make changes/cancel without any financial penalties as long as you do so within 5 days - at least I think it's 5 days - of the start of your stay. But the family CM can check that for you. If you are worried about resort availability, I would do the longer stay and then shorten it, within the cancellation window. I just once again changed my two reservations for this Fall, now that the AP rates are out. But since they were room only, I didn't have to worry about the 45 day window that a package (room, tickets, DDP) has. Plus, if something incredible happens (like you get the lead role in Star Wars VIII), Disney can be very reasonable. I had to cancel our dining reservation 3 hours before the reservation because my daughter got sick after eating lunch (I told her not to eat Mickey Ice Cream, Rice Krispie Treat and a Dole Whip one after another lol) and they were fine and didn't charge me the $10 per person penalty.

 

[Amy Shelton]

Since you are making a room only reservation, you should be able to make changes/cancel without any financial penalties as long as you do so within 5 days - at least I think it's 5 days - of the start of your stay. But the family CM can check that for you. If you are worried about resort availability, I would do the longer stay and then shorten it, within the cancellation window. I just once again changed my two reservations for this Fall, now that the AP rates are out. But since they were room only, I didn't have to worry about the 45 day window that a package (room, tickets, DDP) has. Plus, if something incredible happens (like you get the lead role in Star Wars VIII), Disney can be very reasonable. I had to cancel our dining reservation 3 hours before the reservation because my daughter got sick after eating lunch (I told her not to eat Mickey Ice Cream, Rice Krispie Treat and a Dole Whip one after another lol) and they were fine and didn't charge me the $10 per person penalty.

Thanks so much! That sounds awesome. Do you happen to know that if we add the Dining Plan, does that effect anything? Other than the usual cancelling of dining reservations if something comes up.

 

[LAKid53]

Thanks so much! That sounds awesome. Do you happen to know that if we add the Dining Plan, does that effect anything? Other than the usual cancelling of dining reservations if something comes up.

To get the dining plan, you have to purchase a Magic Your Way package (room, ticket and dining) unless you are an annual pass holder. With a package, you have to pay in full by 46 days before the START date of your trip (they may let you go 30 days, but after that, everything is cancelled). Also, if you have a package and need to cancel or make changes, you need to do them by the 46 days before the start date without either (1) loosing your deposit or (2) paying a $50 fee to change the reservation in any way, especially if the total for the revised reservation is cheaper than the original one. If you have a room only reservation, then you pay a deposit upon booking and can pay the balance when you check in. And I believe you have 5 days before the start date to cancel/change.

But since you have a family member who is a CM, perhaps he/she is able to get rooms/DDP that aren't known to the rest of us, as CM can get passes for family members, correct?