Adjoining rooms

[ShaSoPa]

Yep, totally get all that, too. I definitely do! And that is why nobody should have told and me (AND written) the word 'guaranteed.' "Guaranteed" has exactly one meaning, so they have no business using that word.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Disney owns 2% of BLT, so the total number of available rooms on a cash basis tends to be pretty low.

 

[Babsy]

I WISH that you could book those connecting rooms! Sometimes we have lucked out and had our request granted, but not always.

It is very sad, but there is No way that they ever guarantee connecting rooms, despite what anyone says or writes on your reservation. Even the room type that you have paid for is not 'guaranteed', you CAN be downgraded. As a matter of fact even the resort that you have booked is not technically guaranteed. People have gone to their resort and found that they were moved to another resort or room category - and not always to a better one (upgrade) either.

I would keep looking for a villa. If that doesn't work, have a plan for the situation where you do NOT get connecting rooms. It could happen.

 

[dansdad]

Which begs the question, why on earth did they add it to online check in? It wasn't necessary. There has to be a reason they put it there

I was flabbergasted that they put that wording there. It was bad enough that the phone CMs were incorrectly telling guests that they had guaranteed connecting rooms. And bad enough that they would put guaranteed connecting on paperwork when that was not correct. It blows my mind that they did that.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I don't think guarantees mean much at hotels, in general.

This didn't happen at Disney, but I'd requested a refrigerator at a hotel my family was staying in for 4 nights. They "guaranteed" I would have one. I needed it to store my son's formula. At the last second, I bought pre-made single serving formula bottles instead of the larger ready-to-use containers (because he was drinking the exact amount in the bottles), and it's a good thing I did, because there was no fridge available for the duration of our stay. I really don't know what I would have done if I'd brought the larger containers. I learned a valuable lesson! If they don't have a room type or amenity available, well, then, they don't and there's nothing that can be done about it. They aren't going to take it away from someone else and give it to you instead.

 

[Prose]

This thought might be totally wrong, but when you book a room on a Disney cruise ship, the term 'guarantee' indicates that you are not requesting a particular room number but will accept the room you are assigned. I wonder if the term is being used in a similar context here.....

 

[Lynne M]

What about the new feature during online check in that reads
Connecting (Guaranteed)

Unless they've changed their reservation system to allow blocking of connecting rooms, it's still not a guarantee. It would be nice if they made that change, but if they haven't, it's just yet another disconnect between reservations and the resort staff.

 

[AngiTN]

This thought might be totally wrong, but when you book a room on a Disney cruise ship, the term 'guarantee' indicates that you are not requesting a particular room number but will accept the room you are assigned. I wonder if the term is being used in a similar context here.....

Sorry, that doesn't even make any sense
How does one translate guarantee to any room?

 

[AngiTN]

I still want to know what Disney would do when a single adult shows up with say, 8 kids, all aged over 3. If I could tolerate 8 kids on a trip I'd do it just to find out. Call to book it since the phone CM will tell you they are guaranteed connecting rooms

 

[DisneyWishes14]

This thought might be totally wrong, but when you book a room on a Disney cruise ship, the term 'guarantee' indicates that you are not requesting a particular room number but will accept the room you are assigned. I wonder if the term is being used in a similar context here.....

DCL (and most cruise lines for that matter) and WDW work very differently in terms of room assignments. On DCL, when you book, you CAN pick a specific stateroom and even book specific connecting staterooms. However, if you book a "guarantee" stateroom on DCL, you will not be able to book a specific stateroom. Instead, DCL is guaranteeing you will get a stateroom of a specific category (for example, cat 5A) or higher. On these "guarantee" rooms, you are typically given a more competitive price, but you cannot make any specific requests for the stateroom and you must accept the room assignment.

When booking WDW, on the other hand, you are basically booking the "guarantee" as it relates to DCL in that you are booking a room category, like a Royal Room, pool view at POR. What you cannot do with WDW, ever, however, is book a specific numbered room or guaranteed connecting rooms within that "guaranteed" room category.

Does that make sense?!

Even then, there have been many reports on this board of people not even getting the "guaranteed" room category they've booked with WDW and being switched to different room categories and even different resorts. Things happen all the time that put rooms out of service and WDW simply cannot guarantee anything other than they will have a room for you somewhere on property.

 

[disnut8]

Which begs the question, why on earth did they add it to online check in? It wasn't necessary. There has to be a reason they put it there

It's very simple and it happens all the time at many companies and websites. The people who design and "manipulate" what you see on the website are no where near the people in the parks or who you talk to on the phone. Different branches, different divisions, different people. There's one website I went to at my last job and even within the company, when I had to fill out a request, for one request, the user name was in a different place from another request. Because not even the programmers talk to each other about things like this. And Quality Assurance for a website usually will have a team of people and within that team of people, no two of them will have the same expectation of "quality" and "assurance".

 

[NaughtyDog]

I booked connecting rooms late Friday night for a Saturday night stay this past weekend at Pop Century and I got them.

Well technically I booked a room and another couple we were going with booked a room about the same time but put us down as a connecting room request during on-line check in (and we did the same).

As the number of connecting rooms are limited, I'd suggest you check in as early as possible and when you do your on-line check in, I'd put down you are arriving early. That way you have the best chance of getting the connecting rooms you want.

 

[Baklava]

I still want to know what Disney would do when a single adult shows up with say, 8 kids, all aged over 3. If I could tolerate 8 kids on a trip I'd do it just to find out. Call to book it since the phone CM will tell you they are guaranteed connecting rooms

I don't believe you can book two rooms that way. My understanding is that every room MUST have an adult. Connecting, you can fudge by saying that you're in one room and your spouse is in the other, but I don't think you can book two rooms for one adult. That person would need to rent a 2 bedroom villa or... is there even a suite that will hold 9?

 

[maxiesmom]

I don't believe you can book two rooms that way. My understanding is that every room MUST have an adult. Connecting, you can fudge by saying that you're in one room and your spouse is in the other, but I don't think you can book two rooms for one adult. That person would need to rent a 2 bedroom villa or... is there even a suite that will hold 9?

On line would only go up to 6 kids, and it puts you in rooms that will hold everyone. Very expensive rooms.

 

[HopperFan]

Yep, totally get all that, too. I definitely do! And that is why nobody should have told and me (AND written) the word 'guaranteed.' "Guaranteed" has exactly one meaning, so they have no business using that word.

You are absolutely correct that no CM should ever use the word "guarantee" under any circumstances because Disney does not guarantee and their fine print covers them quite nicely. On their behalf with the huge number of rooms, guests, turnover and changes that they have - there really would be no way to guarantee most things.

When you get your paperwork it will include lots of fine print and some to effect that everything is subject to change (and this is direct off some Disney paperwork terms and conditions):

"Adjacent rooms, connecting rooms or specific room location and types of rooms or bedding are on a "request basis only" and are subject to availability at check-in. Those requests for specific room type or location may result in additional charges to be paid directly to the hotel."

"Features of the package are subject to change and may be based on features available on date of guest arrival, or those in effect at the time the reservation was made."

Even under the Guests with Disabilities they conclude with "All accommodations are subject to availability."

FOR me I would book with what I can live with and if I get the requests, great. If you can't live without connecting rooms I would move to a suite, villa or offsite, which would be a guarantee.

 

[Minniesgal]

they will try to accommodate your request but it is not guaranteed.

As a family of five it is exactly this that lead us to buy DVC points so we could have a 2 bedroom villa for 5 and all be together.

 

[DisBuckMan]

I don't believe you can book two rooms that way. My understanding is that every room MUST have an adult. Connecting, you can fudge by saying that you're in one room and your spouse is in the other, but I don't think you can book two rooms for one adult.

Correct.

Here's the difference in DCL and WDW. DCL can offer guarantees on rooms because all reservations on the ship are for the exact same length of time. There's no pieces of the puzzle to have to interconnect. There's a fixed number of rooms and a fixed number of passengers for the length of the cruise. No one's coming and going.

At WDW, people are constantly checking in and out of the resort. The only way to guarantee connecting rooms is to:

a)have people who are checking out on the same day in a room next to each other, which would be a logistical nightmare, or

b)Potentially let rooms sit idle for a day or two. Their goal is maximum occupancy, so they're not keen on doing this.

Connecting rooms "can" happen, but it's nearly impossible for Disney to guarantee them at WDW.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I don't believe you can book two rooms that way. My understanding is that every room MUST have an adult. Connecting, you can fudge by saying that you're in one room and your spouse is in the other, but I don't think you can book two rooms for one adult. That person would need to rent a 2 bedroom villa or... is there even a suite that will hold 9?

Several $uites will hold 9.

 

[Baklava]

Several $uites will hold 9.

Do you know off hand which ones? (Because I believe you, but that would be useful information.)

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Do you know off hand which ones? (Because I believe you, but that would be useful information.)

I know you can basically add-on to the King Kamehameha Suite at Poly to accommodate a cast of billions. Wait, that's how much it costs.

But the base is a 2BR unit, and you can "connect" 3 additional bedrooms via connection with other suites.

And yes, Disney will guarantee connecting if you book KKS + additional bedrooms.

I think the other $suites sleep 6-8, generally, and I don't know if they have an "add a bedroom option" like KKS.