Any way to guarantee connecting rooms?

[Bea]

I have heard conflicting information regarding connecting rooms (at value resort) . Last year when we booked, we were "guaranteed" to get them. We ended up cancelling our reservation so wasn't able to test this out. Others on the boards have said though Disney tries their hardest, they won't guarantee . Others say it depends on the number of adults vs children in each room. We have 2 adults and 3 children. Their ages are 3,11 and 14. Any suggestions ? I want to call today but need some info before I do so. Don't want to spent too much time on the phone and if this is a no starter, then I think we will move on to another plan.

I tried searching the forums but either the search is really, really slow, or just isn't working right now. Thanks for any help!!

 

[fla4fun]

Since there are two adults in your party, then no, there's no way to absolutely guarantee connecting rooms. This is because if worse came to worse, and you had to split up, there would be one adult per room.

The only real guarantees are if there is one adult and more children than the room occupancy, or some specific medical issues (such as when an ADA requirement has to be fulfilled).

Have you considered booking an All Star Family Suite? It's not much more than two value rooms, and you would be guaranteed to all be together. There would be a queen bed for the two adults (as opposed to a full size in a regular value room), a kitchenette for snacks, two bathrooms, and three fold out beds in the living room, so none of the kids have to share. Just a thought.

 

[Aliceacc]

I agree: get a family suite at All Star Music? That way, it's a definite!

 

[Bea]

I thought of that but do the Suites have 2 doors to the outside? We would probably put the kids in the "living" part of the suite and because our oldest is 14 and can babysit, it would be nice to get out for a swim or walk when the 3yo has gone down for the night. He is a light sleeper and I would be afraid we would wake him while walking through to the door. If there is a door in the bedroom section then that would solve our problem. Hope I explained that correctly .

So many decisions to make. We are looking at the end of August so lots of time to prepare, I supose.

 

[Aliceacc]

I think there's only one door-- it adds to the security when there are young kids in that part of the suite.

But I bet you $1 that the 3 year old is so tired after a day in the parks that he doesn't hear you leave (and that the 14 year old is out cold when you return.)

 

[Allison]

I have heard many times here that it is not guaranteed.

I am going to share my experience. We also have 3 children and booked at POFQ. I was told by 3 difference CM's on 3 different phone calls that in our case our connecting rooms were guaranteed. I booked it. We arrived at POFQ on December 26th and sure enough, we had our connecting rooms.

 

[newtodisney]

I just booked 2 rooms at POP and they said it was a guaranteed connection with 2 adults and 3 children.

 

[disnut8]

And I'll share my experience. My husband and I checked into the All Star Music the day before Christmas. My in-laws were joining us a week later in a different room. I had asked for connecting rooms (my mother-in-law wanted that, I was fine with adjoining). I thought there was no way in heck they could get us connecting rooms. Not with all adults and not during the Christmas/New Years week and not with the two parties checking in a week apart from each other.

Well - you know what happened. We had connecting rooms.

 

[Coconuts]

We stayed at POR 11/07 on one of the supposedly "wonderful weeks of Disney", the week before Thanksgiving when it's not supposed to be crowded. My parents were arriving mid-week and we asked for a connecting/or adjoining room. They said the hotel was completely booked and the best they could do was give us a room in the same building but 2 floors away. I called several times before arriving and asked several times after arriving and this was the best they could do. I know that having different arrival days may have complicated my situation and you may not have the same problem. So, long story made long, I would say nothing is guaranteed. Good luck.

 

[minnie61650]

As a mother of 4 (All grown now. My oldest is in her 30's and my youngest is 22) I often wished Disney had more options for larger families.
When the children were younger and we would go to Disney they did not have DVC or the family suites. In fact Disney did not have a Moderate until CBR opened in the late 1980's so if we wanted to stay onsite we either rented 2 rooms at a deluxe or stayed in the cabins.

I wrote to Disney many times over the years asking for more options for families so when I heard they were building the New Family Suites at All Star Music it just made me so happy!

In the late 80's I booked 2 connecting rooms at CBR for my family.
When we checked in there were no connecting rooms left but we were able to get rooms next to each other on the second floor.
Our two oldest were teens so I put them in one room and the 2 little ones who were 5 and 7 stayed with us. It worked for us because our older children were able to stay in a room without us but if they were younger DH and I would have had to split up.

Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.

If there are 2 adults Disney can split the adults and children into two rooms that are not connecting. They try hard not to do this but it can and does happen sometimes. If however it is one adult with 5 children Disney should try harder to find connecting rooms since some of the children cannot be left in a room without an adult. But if you look at the threads posted below you will see that sometimes even Disney mixes up.


It does happen. Far too often IMHO.

From this thread;

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1145289

Just wanted to re-iterate what others have said:

We requesting connecting rooms at CBR in January--not really a busy time & we were early for check-in. They did not have us in connecting rooms. They said they could accommodate us, but it would be smoking rooms--which was our #1 request non-smoking.

We were side-by-side, so we just went outside to go next door, so it wasn't a huge deal for us. But if you definitely want to be together--I would go with a suite. You could also look into renting DVC points for a villa.

Here are a couple more threads about guests not getting connecting rooms:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1095679

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=785797&page=1&pp=15

From this thread:

http://disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=13528958

One of the threads that Linda posted a link to was my experience last March. I had many conversations with the higher-ups at Guest Services and was told that even if it says "guaranteed" it is not truly "guaranteed." It just has higher priority over the "requests." Because on a given day, there might only be 25 connecting room sets opening up, but 27 "guaranteed connecting rooms for families" ressies checking in. 2 of those families are not going to get their "guarantee."

I know, I was shocked that we had to fight so hard to get put in rooms that had just been fumigated for lice (they were taken out of the inventory, but re-opened because we insisted we needed rooms.) I sort of assumed that if they didn't have the rooms for us, they'd find rooms elsewhere on Disney property. For that stay, we were sometimes 2 adults and sometimes only 1. Now we will book offsite if we need to do that again. If there are 2 of us adults, we book connecting and hope for the best. Otherwise, we'll split the kids.

My point is to make backup plans if you are depending on connecting rooms.

That is one of the main reasons if my family were young I would choose a Suite over 2 connecting rooms or I would be prepared that I may need to split the family up and sleep in a different room than DH.

 

[fla4fun]

I thought of that but do the Suites have 2 doors to the outside? We would probably put the kids in the "living" part of the suite and because our oldest is 14 and can babysit, it would be nice to get out for a swim or walk when the 3yo has gone down for the night. He is a light sleeper and I would be afraid we would wake him while walking through to the door. If there is a door in the bedroom section then that would solve our problem. Hope I explained that correctly .

So many decisions to make. We are looking at the end of August so lots of time to prepare, I supose.

There is only one exterior door, in the living room. You would have a couple of options, depending on how light a sleeper he is.

You could put him in the bedroom with you. The bedroom has a door that closes, so he could go to bed early, and you could stay out in the living room area until you were ready for bed (or move him to the living room at that point).

You could put him (if he's in a pack-n-play or crib) by the sink to the bathroom outside the bedroom, and put up a privacy curtain to shut the area off visibly. This would work if he's awakened more by movement than by noise, and there would still be a bathroom to use by everyone else.

I agree that he'll probably be too tired to wake up once you get him to sleep. But if the older kids want to have the living room TV on and just relax, then one of the other options may work better.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.

1) Correct.
2) Regardless of what a CM said or the confirmation says.
3) There are just too many reasons for the guarantee to not be kept.
4) With that said, if they "guarantee" it, they do try to comply.

 

[Ilovestitch]

Nothing is "guaranteed" -- it's not even guaranteed you'll stay at the resort you booked.

Grand Gatherings do get priority for connecting rooms.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Nothing is "guaranteed" -- it's not even guaranteed you'll stay at the resort you booked. Grand Gatherings do get priority for connecting rooms.

1) True, on both statements !
2) People can get surprised when they are moved to a different resort.
3) Usually they go at the same room type or better.
4) But, it can still be quite a let down if you planned for a certain resort.

 

[luvdisney77]

I was just emailed this evening by a dreams unlimited travel agent who told me that ASMu will not guarantee connecting rooms anymore because of the Family Suites. That said, she also said that we could have guaranteed connecting rooms at any of the other values! SO, in my case, I have to pay 196.00 more for the week if I want to stay in the suite vs. two rooms. Oh well, I just don't think they shouldn't "not" guarantee them anymore because of the suites option. Like I said, I am just going by what I was told.

 

[BamaFan121s]

Connecting rooms are not really guaranteed. No request (other than those you pay for) are a sure bet. That being said, however, we have been able to get connecting rooms EVERY time. We've been assigned rooms that weren't connecting upon arrival but have been able to get them to switch rooms to accomodate in each instance.

 

[spelosi]

There is only one way to guarantee connecting rooms - don't say you have 2 adults in your party - list the second adult as 17 years of age (so they still pay full price) but they can not stay alone and Disney will guarantee you connecting rooms.

this may be a bit of creative editing - but you are still paying full price for everything as you would for an adult - but you can guarantee your family stays connected!

this works for us every time

 

[maxiesmom]

Connecting rooms are not really guaranteed. No request (other than those you pay for) are a sure bet. /QUOTE]

And even the ones you DO pay for are NOT guaranteed! I experienced that myself, and according to other posts I have seen, so have a few others!

Spelosi--I'm not sure how you get away with your "creative editing". Once you give Disney the ages of those in your family, they keep it in their computer system. Keeps people from saying their kids are 9 5 years in a row, KWIM?

 

[BamaFan121s]

And even the ones you DO pay for are NOT guaranteed! I experienced that myself, and according to other posts I have seen, so have a few others!

I stand corrected. Hopefully they can guarantee the castle will still be there the next time I come back. Although I'm pretty sure there's someone around who could argue why that's not guaranteed either. I forgot that kind of thing happens frequently here.