Are the rooms really sold out? Any tricks for getting in?

[madisonmouse]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about "sold out rooms" at Walt Disney World.

We recently planned a trip to WDW and when we tried to make reservations directly through Disney, they told us the room we wanted was sold out. Then we tried to reserve the same room through other travel planners online and they did have the same room available that Disney told us was sold out.

Can some one shed some light on this for us? Does anyone have any tricks for how to get the rooms you want from Disney directly?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[DisneyGeek2000]

I have heard that Expedia and Travelocity and others block groups of rooms with Disney.

I also have heard that if you tell a Disney CM that you saw that rooms were available on Expedia, that sometimes they can find an available room, but not always.

Other than that, no clue.

Michael

 

[Paisleyjane]

I have found rooms available in the morning, after the previous evening being told nothing available, because of cancellations being processed over night. I think that because of constant cancellations, the inventory of available rooms is very fluid.

 

[safetymom]

Try early in the morning. Blocks of rooms are held by Travelocity, Expedia, AAA. They make still have rooms to sell where Disney doesn't. At a certain point they turn those rooms back to Disney to sell. Try, try, try is the best advice.

 

[lark]

I think some entities that sell rooms actually buy options on the rooms, which means that disney cannot show those rooms as available unless and until the room is actually been put back to them by the person who purchased the option (or the option expires unexercised). That is why I think you'll often see some online companies have inventory while WDW does not.

 

[michvin]

My husband travels a lot with his company and he usually uses the "prescribed" travel agency company they have a deal with. However, we have found that although they say a hotel is "booked" I can go online to the company directly and get a room with his frequent user number.

From my experience and perspective on the whole thing, traveling is like this:
Planes, hotels, resorts, large companies, travel agencies, etc. have certain groups or quantities that they hold for certain companies, senior person's, people with select "codes" etc. So, even if one way of trying to get a ressie for any of these things doesn't work, you should always try another way. Example, your travel agent says that WL booked for whatever dates. Try disney directly, or AAA or whatever to see if maybe they have some "slots" open. Same for plane tickets or resorts. No space or seats or whatever doesn't always mean they are really gone, they are sometimes just gone for that mode of booking them. There are groups of slots, if you will, for all types of things. Hope this helps.

 

[andijean]

I just talked to a CM about this today. He was the one who actually told me to go to Expedia or a reseller to book a room. He said they buy blocks of rooms and may have rooms available eventhough Disney is showing booked. If the rate is close to rack it is probably best to just book it b/c that is what you would pay thru and Disney and getting a discount is unlikely. I was able to get a room today online thru Disney by random luck. So, you could also just keep trying their site everyday.

 

[AnotherPrincess]

We ran into this last year. We went the week after Thanksgiving and had planned to travel the Friday after T-giving, arriving on Saturday. About a week before, we realized there was nothing keeping us from leaving a day earlier and traveling on T-giving, arriving on Friday. However, we were told the property was completely booked and couldn't book a room through Disney. We tried all options, and nothing. However, several of the internet companies showed availability but only if you booked a minimum of 3 nights. We couldn't do that since we already had the next 7 nights booked at the AP code. We called all the way down and was told over and over that until those online companies release the rooms back to Disney, they can't sell them. Friday came, and we were about an hour and a half from Disney (at the former Welcome Center in Ocala) and were told that even if they did release the rooms back to Disney, the resort manager could choose not to sell them if they don't have the staff scheduled to handle the extra guests...then...miraculously...the CM said for me to hold tight a moment, started typing frantically, and found a room at All-Star Movies. We stayed in Love Bug and were close to the only ones in that area, so we figured that was the block held by the internet travel sites. We were so happy that persistence paid off!

 

[Candice30]

i was going thru this recently. i had a reservation for 4 nights at beach club and wanted to spend 2 nights at grand floridian. i went back and forth in my head about it when i finally decided to go for it. the only thing they had was a concierge room in the main bldg and while i thought it over for a day or two....i lost it! i checked via phone and internet for several days and finally i logged on one morning and there was both garden and lagoon view and NO concierge. i had to take a conference call and when i got a chance to call disney, the garden rooms were gone and i had to take lagoon view.

my point...keep trying! people cancel all the time so everyone on these boards tells me and i am happy that i kept checking. of course now that i couldn't get concierge, i want it so i will probably keep checking.

 

[ntburns22]

For our last trip we wanted to add an extra day. When I called I was told ASMo was full and I would have to book our last night at ASMu. I called daily for 2 months asking if anything was available. I was given tips like call first thing in the morning because it takes overnight for the cancelations to get back into the system by one CM. Finally I got a great CM and she told me the resorts are never 100% full and it just takes the right person to get you what you need. She added a day at ASMo for us.

 

[Mamu]

I just returned 2 weeks ago. When booking back in August I had a difficult time finding a room.

I was worried about crowds. There were no crowds. The pools were busy during the day but not crowded. I never found the parks to be busy, barely any wait on the rides 10-15 minutes, even the popular rides had very little wait. R&R 15 min, TOT 5 min Pooh and Peter Pan 15 min, Test Track 15 min.

I've been during busy times and this trip was average attendence. No lines to enter the park, always got a seat on the monorail and the buses even during closing.

If the resorts were sold out I'd like to know where they were hiding the guest. I never saw them at the resorts or in the park.

 

[lark]

I've definitely booked on expedia when WDW says it's sold out. But just to be clear, I'm pretty sure these are not rooms that expedia has "bought." I believe they are rooms for which it has an option for which it has paid. The only reason this might matter is that the rooms will be put back to disney later if not sold, which means that disney itself may get the inventory back.

 

[mrzrich]

I was trying to get a room for three days at POP and was told nothing was available. A friend told me to add a day. I thought she was crazy, but she was right, when I increased the number of day I was staying, rooms magically appeared. I don't get how Disney does things sometimes.

 

[cjb71870]

I called awhile back. The CM sounded like she really didn't know what she was doing. She said no rooms. Called right back and that CM found rooms. But. hotels don't really sell out. They have rooms they don't mention.