A couple of questions!

[Conno]

The last time I visited WDW it was 1998 and I was 14 years old. It's now 2014 and I'm long overdue another visit (this time without the parents!)

I have a couple of questions, and I figured the Disney World aficionado's here on disboards would be able to help me out and gather my thoughts. I think my situation and plans are semi-unique (or at the very least, not run-of-the-mill).

We are a group of 5 friends (all adults) who want to stay at a Disney Resort (either a 2 bedroom villa, or Treehouse villa). The unique part of this is; three of us are from the UK, one from Puerto Rico and the other from the USA.

We plan on spending much of our time together; but I'm wondering what the best way is to go about booking this holiday?

For the group of us:

As we're all coming from different locations and arriving in different ways; can we all still be booked to stay in the same villa?

For those of us coming from the UK:
- Can we take advantage of Magic Express transfer?

For those not coming from the UK:
- Can these guests purchase and take advantage of the 14 day ultimate ticket (which I believe are only available in the UK? -- correct me if I'm wrong?)
- If not, what tickets can our friends pickup from Disney that will give them similar access to the parks as those of us travelling from the UK.

-- If I was to book Holiday/Tickets/Dining Plan for 5 adults from DisneyHolidays.co.uk; would my friends from the other side of the Atlantic be able to use two of the Ultimate Tickets?

As for the Disney Dining Plan - we'll likely want to take advantage of this. I presume this needs to be booked by the person making the reservation and paid for at once (which is not an issue) but again will our varying locales prior to arrival affect anything?

Sorry if this post is a little confusing (or stupid)! Hoping someone can offer some guidance ! It's all a bit overwhelming and seemed much more simple when the parents were the ones doing the planning

 

[Shazzie B]

Happy planning , I'll answer what I can. I can see absolutely no reason why one of the UK residents can't book everything for the group. I've booked for a group of 5 adults (all from UK), I've only had to give my address not for any of the others, I only gave their names & possibly their ages. I booked, villa, 14 day tickets and DDP.

Not sure when you're planning for, but you may be able to pick up 'free' DDP if you're looking at 2016. If you book as a package with rest of holiday I think the deposit is still £50 each then you may balance about 8 weeks before(cost of villa, tickets & DDP)

Yes you can use Magic Express, we did last year.

Hope that helps.

 

[Conno]

Hi Shazzie, thanks for your insight

We are thinking of booking for the first two weeks of May 2016, or two weeks starting Feb 20th 2016.

Much of what you said is what I had assumed, so thanks for validating that for me!

 

[starrysky]

Hi Shazzie, thanks for your insight We are thinking of booking for the first two weeks of May 2016, or two weeks starting Feb 20th 2016. Much of what you said is what I had assumed, so thanks for validating that for me!

Keep an eye out for the deals stating next year for 2016. Been some talk on here that they may no longer offer the free dinning plan again but there has been no official confirmation of this from Disney.

Shazzie is right should be no reason why you could not book it all and they square up with you.

 

[cheryl.UK]

Buy the 14 day passes for them from a seller that gives you actual tickets (attraction tickets direct do this) and no-one will blink an eye when you get there. we did this for our US friends who were holidaying with us a couple of years ago.

 

[cheryl.UK]

Buy the 14 day passes for them from a seller that gives you actual tickets (attraction tickets direct do this) and no-one will blink an eye when you get there. we did this for our US friends who were holidaying with us a couple of years ago.

 

[chmurf]

Keep an eye out for the deals stating next year for 2016. Been some talk on here that they may no longer offer the free dinning plan again but there has been no official confirmation of this from Disney.

Shazzie is right should be no reason why you could not book it all and they square up with you.

we've been hearing the end of free dining rumour for years now

we had that rumor back in january not only did they not end it this year for 2015, but they also added a free breakfast deal, which is basically a 1 credit qsdp, for stays at values.

Buy the 14 day passes for them from a seller that gives you actual tickets (attraction tickets direct do this) and no-one will blink an eye when you get there. we did this for our US friends who were holidaying with us a couple of years ago.

OP is planning a stay at an onsite villa
they don't need actual tickets as long as they're on the same room/villa reservation
it will all be on mydisneyexperience and no one will ever question them

the only precaution is to have a UK ( or EU) resident as a lead guest on the ressie

if OP wants to benefit from the much awaited FD, all the guests will need to be booked on the same ressie (hotel+tickets+dining)

 

[Conno]

OP is planning a stay at an onsite villa
they don't need actual tickets as long as they're on the same room/villa reservation
it will all be on mydisneyexperience and no one will ever question them

the only precaution is to have a UK ( or EU) resident as a lead guest on the ressie

if OP wants to benefit from the much awaited FD, all the guests will need to be booked on the same ressie (hotel+tickets+dining)

I think this is probably what we'll end up doing. I'll book the resort, tickets and dining plan and have everyone attending pay me; I'll be the one making the reservation; so I presume it won't be an issue naming my American friends as two of the guests (as I won't have to obviously state where they're from - just their ages/names).

Sounds pretty straight forward.

 

[NatalieMT]

We booked a trip from the UK, for us and some friends who live in the US (one is British, but married an American) and we didn't have any issues - we were only asked for names of guests and whether adult or child as far as I remember. We just transferred into one account every month and then paid the holiday off from that account. Meant it was easy to keep track of! Just do it all through Disney and you'll have no bother.

The 'no more free dining' rumour has been going years, I don't frequent the boards but I've read it multiple times and so far it's never actually been anything more than fictional. I was worried before I booked our trips for next year that we wouldn't be able to get it, but we have the free breakfast for April and free dining for August. Personally I think getting the free dining is well worth it because regardless of whether it's actually really 'free' or not, it's convenient and you don't have to worry about having to pay for meals when you are there, just tips.

Magical Express is great - UK guests can use it, I'd just advise collecting your own luggage and putting it under the bus/taking it off yourself when you get to the resort, they do offer to deliver it but it can take a good couple of hours. When we've been, we've often arrived at MCO 5/6pm and by the time you get to the resort you're tired and waiting for luggage when you'd like to go to bed is never that much fun!

 

[disneyholic family]

tickets aren't an issue, whether they're hard tickets or etickets.

we buy our tickets via a UK travel agent, who buys them for us on the disney UK website.
We get the eticket version - so we print out our voucher to turn in for a ticket at WDW. Which you don't even have to do anymore, since the tickets are on your magic band.

the system doesn't seem to care that we have a US address (we don't actually live in the US, but disney thinks we do as we use our US credit card mailing address in our My Disney Experience account).

Anyway, bottom line, we get the UK tickets purchased for us by someone in the UK. Which means, you can purchase it for your friends and they can reimburse you.

 

[Conno]

Fantastic! Thanks everyone. It seems like booking this next year isn't going to be an issue!

 

[cheryl.UK]

As someone who has had trouble with vouchers, I also ways get hard tickets. A few years ago our US friend Steve had a UK voucher that they wouldn't swop over for a ticket without proof he lived in the UK. He didn't at the time but, luckily he and his English wife did have a joint UK bank account so it all got sorted after a few hours. MDE doesn't like the codes on all vouchers. This year our UK friends couldn't link their vouchers until they actually got there. Not a problem for FP+ as they were staying on site but it might have been if they weren't actually British.

 

[chmurf]

As someone who has had trouble with vouchers, I also ways get hard tickets. A few years ago our US friend Steve had a UK voucher that they wouldn't swop over for a ticket without proof he lived in the UK. He didn't at the time but, luckily he and his English wife did have a joint UK bank account so it all got sorted after a few hours. MDE doesn't like the codes on all vouchers. This year our UK friends couldn't link their vouchers until they actually got there. Not a problem for FP+ as they were staying on site but it might have been if they weren't actually British.

As for OP it's a package booking, no voucher is involved, tickets are included and directly linked to the MDX account with the hotel/villa ressie.

 

[disneyholic family]

As someone who has had trouble with vouchers, I also ways get hard tickets. A few years ago our US friend Steve had a UK voucher that they wouldn't swop over for a ticket without proof he lived in the UK. He didn't at the time but, luckily he and his English wife did have a joint UK bank account so it all got sorted after a few hours. MDE doesn't like the codes on all vouchers. This year our UK friends couldn't link their vouchers until they actually got there. Not a problem for FP+ as they were staying on site but it might have been if they weren't actually British.

that's interesting...how long ago was this..
as i noted, we do NOT live in the UK.

they have never asked us for any proof of residence in the UK.
In fact, you don't have to live in the UK to buy the tickets.
Anyone in the EU can buy the tickets.
The problem arises for those of us who live outside of the USA but don't live in the UK or the EU.

a few years ago, i called disneyUK and complained that we weren't able to buy the tickets even though we also don't live in the USA.
She said i was correct and that i all i had to do is get someone in the UK to buy the tickets for me.
So disney themselves told me to have someone in the UK buy the tickets for me.
Which is exactly what i've been doing for the past 5 years.
we've never ever been asked where we live.
Though of course, if we were asked, i would just tell them the whole story i just told you.

 

[novice101]

Disney said that only one person in the party has to be from the uk to book the uk special offers for disney hotels.

 

[chmurf]

Disney said that only one person in the party has to be from the uk to book the uk special offers for disney hotels.

Actually it's one person in the party from the European Union.

Disneyholidays UK (previously WDTC International) is intended for all of the European Union and any resident/citizen of the EU can book uk special offers.

In fact Disney refers to the UK site as its "international site".

 

[disneyholic family]

and because we're in the middle east, not in the european union, disney UK told us we could just book via a uk travel agent or even a UK friend and we'd be fine.
that was disney themselves telling us to do that.