Booking a room from UK on the US section of WDW site?

steveyjc81 · Jan 24, 2016

Hi,

Trying to book a room only reservation on WDW website. The little mermaid (i.e. regular rooms) are not available for art of animation on UK site, yet is ok on US site.

Anything to stop me booking on US side of the website (ok it will be in dollars)?

Will this screw up my MDE? Availability of magic bands?

Thanks, Stevey

Grimbold · Jan 24, 2016

Don't think it will screw up MDE as you just need a booking reference for that. Magic bands you will just pick up as normal at resort.

When looking at booking ours, I noticed booking availability was different depending on which airport you flew from as well. Live up north so when using Manchester no availability, when selected London airports availability. This was using travel websites, not the Disney one though. In end got a travel agent (who happens to be my Aunt

) to book it for us and got what we wanted flying out of Manchester.

steveyjc81 · Jan 24, 2016

Thanks - think I'll give it a go - kinda frustrated Disney would try to scam the people booking through the UK website.

Babyboo · Jan 24, 2016

I always use the US site to book, much more flexibility with the booking and more choice of rooms

Never had any problems

saintrob · Jan 24, 2016

Babyboo said:
I always use the US site to book, much more flexibility with the booking and more choice of rooms

Never had any problems

Me too, although I use an American TA. I wouldn't use the UK site due to the restrictions imposed if the booking needs to be changed.

steveyjc81 · Jan 24, 2016

Got it booked no problem through the US site. Thanks everyone

Jon84 · Jan 25, 2016

saintrob said:
I wouldn't use the UK site due to the restrictions imposed if the booking needs to be changed.

What are the restrictions out of interest?

saintrob · Jan 25, 2016

Jon84 said:
What are the restrictions out of interest?

Cancellation fees or fees to amend the booking. None on the American site up to a week before check in.

tinkerpea · Jan 25, 2016

Booking through the US site is fat better if you don't need a free dining deal,
Of course us site does free dining too, but only certain times of the year.
They actually can be far better too, as you get free qs with value and full ddp with moderate and above.
We book though through dreams unlimited when we want to us a US deal.

Amelia :) · Feb 10, 2016

Jon84 said:
What are the restrictions out of interest?

Hey I have experienced some of these restrictions. I have booked to stay at wilderness Lodge, but now I have been informed they are going through major renovations. My travel agent Virgin, are unable to help me at all, they have no authority to move us to a different resort, and they have limited availability even if I was willing to pay extra (as it would be an entirely new booking I would also lose my dining plan). I keep hearing about those who booked with Disney directly are able to call them and negotiate moving resort. I have to say, using a travel agent hasn't helped me at all.

Jon84 · Feb 11, 2016

Amelia :) said:
Hey I have experienced some of these restrictions. I have booked to stay at wilderness Lodge, but now I have been informed they are going through major renovations. My travel agent Virgin, are unable to help me at all, they have no authority to move us to a different resort, and they have limited availability even if I was willing to pay extra (as it would be an entirely new booking I would also lose my dining plan). I keep hearing about those who booked with Disney directly are able to call them and negotiate moving resort. I have to say, using a travel agent hasn't helped me at all.

We had booked WL with free DDP with Virgin too, but got lucky and managed to move to Beach Club for £10 extra between us.

I think if you complain when you check in you'll get something

chmurf · Feb 11, 2016

Jon84 said:
I think if you complain when you check in you'll get something

Disney has contacted the guests who booked direct and offered them to move, or be given a $100 per night room credit when they announced the refurb.
So I doubt anyone would get something upon check in when Disney has already offered a compensation or an alternate accomodation, but it's worth a try

Jon84 · Feb 11, 2016

chmurf said:
Disney has contacted the guests who booked direct and offered them to move, or be given a $100 per night room credit when they announced the refurb.
So I doubt anyone would get something upon check in when Disney has already offered a compensation or an alternate accomodation, but it's worth a try

This person has not booked direct though, they booked with Virgin Holidays in the UK, who are not able or willing to offer anything.

chmurf · Feb 11, 2016

Jon84 said:
This person has not booked direct though, they booked with Virgin Holidays in the UK, who are not able or willing to offer anything.

yes, that's why I doubt Disney will offer any kind of compensation.

when you book through a third party, it's all in their hands. Choosing a third party is accepting to be bound by the third parties T&Cs and their own customer service.

That's the reason why I always book direct (Disney or Universal). More than often it's cheaper that way, and you can enjoy the customer service offered by the real thing.

Don't get me wrong, I do sympathize with those who discover that the hotel they chose may not provide the experience they expected to get. But I'm just trying to be realistic. Disney might do something, as they're quite good at that, but I also think it's rather unlikely, since the only way to amend a third party booking, is through the third party.

Jon84 · Feb 11, 2016

chmurf said:
yes, that's why I doubt Disney will offer any kind of compensation.

when you book through a third party, it's all in their hands. Choosing a third party is accepting to be bound by the third parties T&Cs and their own customer service.

That's the reason why I always book direct (Disney or Universal). More than often it's cheaper that way, and you can enjoy the customer service offered by the real thing.

Don't get me wrong, I do sympathize with those who discover that the hotel they chose may not provide the experience they expected to get. But I'm just trying to be realistic. Disney might do something, as they're quite good at that, but I also think it's rather unlikely, since the only way to amend a third party booking, is through the third party.

It's worth a try, VH had no idea that WL was going to be in such a state when it was announced.

I don't know if they still are in the dark.

They also didn't know the Poly has works on at the moment.

chmurf · Feb 11, 2016

Jon84 said:
It's worth a try, VH had no idea that WL was going to be in such a state when it was announced.

I don't know if they still are in the dark.

They also didn't know the Poly has works on at the moment.

you put your finger where it hurts the most. As a general rule, TAs have no clue regarding what they're selling (re: disney products)

it's already hard enough to have reliable information from the Cast Members themselves ... (try asking the same question to 3 different CMs, you'll get 4 different answers IYSWIM) but TAs are in the dark. They even sometimes go with outdated infomrmation.

You'd think that a major TA like VH would be reliable and knowlegable. But they're not. And that's one cold hard truth about most TAs.

Amelia :) · Feb 11, 2016

chmurf said:
you put your finger where it hurts the most. As a general rule, TAs have no clue regarding what they're selling (re: disney products)

it's already hard enough to have reliable information from the Cast Members themselves ... (try asking the same question to 3 different CMs, you'll get 4 different answers IYSWIM) but TAs are in the dark. They even sometimes go with outdated infomrmation.

You'd think that a major TA like VH would be reliable and knowlegable. But they're not. And that's one cold hard truth about most TAs.

They had absolutely no clue what they were talking about! It was so frustrating! Virgin emailed me saying during my stay in November they would be adding some "finishing touches". I did my own research and found out about all the amenities which were closed, and saw some pictures online of all the major work that was going on. I emailed them back and told them about all of this. They emailed me back and told me I was wrong,and nothing would be closed. I emailed again and sent them some photos and was like look dude you're wrong major work is going on! They emailed me back telling me I was wrong again. 24 hours later, they sent me a generic email they sent to everybody, outlining everything that would be affected and closed until 2017 funnily enough I was correct, and funnily enough no apology! I was so mad! They have been a nightmare honestly, I'm so upset, but I can't even cancel because free dining is such a money saver to just lose, and they won't even let me upgrade my resort with losing my dining as that promotion isn't on at the moment. I have learnt my lesson and will only ever book directly through Disney in the future. Gosh sorry that was a mega rant!

Amelia :) · Feb 11, 2016

Jon84 said:
We had booked WL with free DDP with Virgin too, but got lucky and managed to move to Beach Club for £10 extra between us.

I think if you complain when you check in you'll get something

Oh that's so lucky! The problem is there is just no availability now for anywhere at a similar cost, and the free dining is long gone. Sigh. I'm just going to have to brave construction!

tinkerpea · Feb 11, 2016

chmurf said:
yes, that's why I doubt Disney will offer any kind of compensation.

when you book through a third party, it's all in their hands. Choosing a third party is accepting to be bound by the third parties T&Cs and their own customer service.

That's the reason why I always book direct (Disney or Universal). More than often it's cheaper that way, and you can enjoy the customer service offered by the real thing.

Don't get me wrong, I do sympathize with those who discover that the hotel they chose may not provide the experience they expected to get. But I'm just trying to be realistic. Disney might do something, as they're quite good at that, but I also think it's rather unlikely, since the only way to amend a third party booking, is through the third party.

Actually they are really good about sorting issues when a TA has not helped or passed on th fact that disney are allowing people to move.
We had this issue a couple of years back,
When we explained on check in that our travel agent was not allowing us to move, theu offered us other accommodation,or to have a room credit.
We took the room credit

tinkerpea · Feb 11, 2016

Amelia :) said:
They had absolutely no clue what they were talking about! It was so frustrating! Virgin emailed me saying during my stay in November they would be adding some "finishing touches". I did my own research and found out about all the amenities which were closed, and saw some pictures online of all the major work that was going on. I emailed them back and told them about all of this. They emailed me back and told me I was wrong,and nothing would be closed. I emailed again and sent them some photos and was like look dude you're wrong major work is going on! They emailed me back telling me I was wrong again. 24 hours later, they sent me a generic email they sent to everybody, outlining everything that would be affected and closed until 2017 funnily enough I was correct, and funnily enough no apology! I was so mad! They have been a nightmare honestly, I'm so upset, but I can't even cancel because free dining is such a money saver to just lose, and they won't even let me upgrade my resort with losing my dining as that promotion isn't on at the moment. I have learnt my lesson and will only ever book directly through Disney in the future. Gosh sorry that was a mega rant!

That's awful! I'm pretty positive that when you arrive and explain the situation they will allow you to move to another hotel and keep your dining!
We've had this issue when booked through Thomson.
And disney where really great about it, they do not want you to have a bad trip, and once you are actually at the resort and checking in, it does not matter to them who you booked through,they will treat you no different.

Booking a room from UK on the US section of WDW site?

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