How to handle this reservation?

[gsuoumu]

It's always just been the wife and I but now we're having a daughter in August and are trying to plan her first trip in May. The grandparents have never been to Disney so we are offering it up to them and they seem interested so far. Rough plan we have is my wife and I would go up and spend a full week with my parents coming up 2-3 nights and wife's parents coming up for the other nights of the trip. We've always stayed at Pop Century and will probably stay there as we love the Skyliner.

Questions I have that you may be able to help with:

If my parents and her parents are going to stay the 6th night, I'd probably be willing to just go ahead and pay for the 7th night if it helped us get an adjoining room. One would assume it would make things tougher if we requested the same room (hopefully adjoining!) with it being "unsold" for one night in the middle of the trip. But if we did do this as one reservation, how easy would it be to change the names of the room from one set of parents to the other? Hopefully that makes sense.

As far as park tickets, can I add that onto the reservation when I book all of this or will I need to do it separately? We think both set of grands would probably want to maybe go to the park just one day.

 

[Mollygirl21]

Have you considered renting DVC points and using them for a 2 bedroom suite? May 5-12 at Saratoga is 232 points and same week at AKL savanna view is 291. Std view at AKL is 238.

There are lots of disboard users who rent points or you can use an agency. Sometimes you can rent for $18pp.

 

[gsuoumu]

We aren't considering DVC points at this time. Too many variables and I can't commit to dates.

 

[Shellyred8]

In regards to changing the people part way thru, I'm not sure they would let you do that. You can Add people part way thru your stay, but I'm not sure about changing them. It could be a bit of a nightmare to try to change them. If you do a "package" thru Disney, you have to buy the same park tickets for everyone on the reservations.

I would recommend buying the tickets separately from the rooms. Then you could take the approach of just adding the two additional people part way thru your stay.

Another thing to consider is that if you have one continuous reservation, the room won't get a full "cleaning" between sets of parents.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

You want connecting rooms, not adjoining. In Disney speak, connecting rooms is the term they use for the rooms that have the door inside that go to the other room. You can call reservations and they'll note it, but again, it's never guaranteed. Tickets can be purchased in a package by whoever books the reservations or can be purchased separately. Doesn't make a huge difference unless you're looking for discounts with special deals that would require a package or room only discount. All that to say, hopefully if they can get your connecting room request then they would have the same room.

 

[SteveMouse]

one way through naming is to have one adult as the lead for the second room, and that “person” doesn’t check out. That could be one of the first set of parents.

For the second set of parents, you’d add them to the room on arrival. You’d ask of the “original” parents (the non-lead) to be removed from the occupancy list.

You’d pay a fee per night for the “third” person.

 

[lanejudy]

If DVC isn't an option, would a family suite work? Honestly, there is no way to "guarantee" you'll have connecting rooms or even rooms on the same hallway with separate room reservations.

If you really need the separate rooms I would book room-only reservations, same room-type, same length of stay and make "connecting" the only request. In booking, put you and the first set of grandparents into 1 room and your wife+child and the other set of grandparents into the other room. You'll pay a little extra for the 3rd adult in each room, but that way you'll have the 2 rooms -- hopefully connecting -- and everybody accounted for across both.

Buy your tickets separately (not a package). You might even save a little by buying from an authorized reseller.

 

[sponica]

If DVC isn't an option, would a family suite work? Honestly, there is no way to "guarantee" you'll have connecting rooms or even rooms on the same hallway with separate room reservations.

If you really need the separate rooms I would book room-only reservations, same room-type, same length of stay and make "connecting" the only request. In booking, put you and the first set of grandparents into 1 room and your wife+child and the other set of grandparents into the other room. You'll pay a little extra for the 3rd adult in each room, but that way you'll have the 2 rooms -- hopefully connecting -- and everybody accounted for across both.

Buy your tickets separately (not a package). You might even save a little by buying from an authorized reseller.

If you book separate rooms, also call and add a "traveling with" number to the reservations. Then the assignors will try to make them connect.