Best time to score resort cancelations?

[BibbidiBobbidiBec]

Hi! My husband and I are taking our daughter for her first Disney trip 11/7-11/11. When we booked, we asked family if anyone was interested in going along. My mom decided to come and my sister has been on the fence ever since. We've been booked at Coronado Springs since April and over the weekend, my sister decided she was coming and bringing along a friend. We only had room for my sister and weren't expecting the friend, so I tried looking for a larger room (direct and by searching confirmed DVC reservations) and also looked for on-site rooms for the two of them. The closest we've come so far has been Pop Century (which is a bit out of her price range) and the Residence Inn in Disney Springs, which of course lacks the ability to book ILL at 7am and our goal was to have everyone on the same reservations. I've been checking Disney's website for the last 3 days in hopes of finding a canceled All-Stars resort for those dates, but no luck so far. Normally, I rent DVC points and don't have to deal with people coming last minute. Does anyone have any tips for coming across an All Star cancelation or are we better off booking what's already there?

Thank you!!

 

[Dave006]

Just keep checking daily as inventory changes often. There are 2 key dates that you can also check. 1st at the 30 day mark for Packages before a guests stay so you can start about 5-7 days before your 30 day mark. Since other guests may arrive before your date of 11/7 but overlap your time-frame.

The last chance if for Resort only Reservations which have a 5 day before arrival date for other guests to cancel.

Dave

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

This was years ago, but I used to check every day on my drive home from work trying to find a specific room (we wanted theme park view at the Contemporary but also wanted the free dining promotion.) After about two months of checking every day, the perfect room showed up! I know they say people cancel when their payment comes due at the 30 day mark, and sometimes extra inventory gets uploaded randomly. I just got lucky I guess! I used to call every night and I got really into listening to the hold music lol, to this day I miss hearing the Trolley Song. The hold music had the best version, I haven’t found it anywhere else.

 

[Genie+]

Wow not much left those dates even with confirmed reservations beyond the oddball night. They might need to pop over to Pop. I’d book that room only for now while still looking around. Room only has generous cancellation terms, just needs to be more than 5 days out. It’s a very popular time of year.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Be honest with her. Tell her the price of what is available on-site and that if she stays off-site she won’t be able to join on the lightening lanes and will need to handle all her own transport. Snag the on-site right now in case she says yes so it’s secure.

Please realize it’s not your fault she chose one of the busiest times of the year to come along on short notice (F&W Marathon meets Jersey Week meets Veterans Day- Oof! 2 months is short notice). You planned properly. She didn’t. Don’t let her bad choices change your trip plans.

And has she even planned out flights? Transport to WDW? Ticket costs? I ask because it’s amazing how many people don’t even consider those and upon seeing those bail on the trip entirely as they are not a small chunk of change.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

if you have two rooms you could just add them on your reservation so they can get the “benefits” but actually sleep elsewhere couldnt they?

 

[Marthasor]

Inventory fluctuates all of the time, but that is going to be a very, tough weekend in terms of any availability popping up.

I agree with PP - do you have two rooms at CSR? If so, you could just add both people to the reservations (knowing you will end up paying an extra adult fee if you have more than two adults in a room) and then they could book whatever is in their budget, off-site (and also keep checking for All Stars cancellations).

 

[PepperjackDragon]

Inventory fluctuates all of the time, but that is going to be a very, tough weekend in terms of any availability popping up.

I agree with PP - do you have two rooms at CSR? If so, you could just add both people to the reservations (knowing you will end up paying an extra adult fee if you have more than two adults in a room) and then they could book whatever is in their budget, off-site (and also keep checking for All Stars cancellations).

Well I’m not so sure about the adult fee. As long as they are on the reservation and not staying it shouldn’t matter the age. And when you link it in the my Disney app it will allow you to select which person it is, but I don’t think it would matter. At minimum just explain it to the hotel staff I’m sure nobody cares and they wouldn’t want you paying an extra fee in this situation

 

[PepperjackDragon]

Also not sure if you have checked Priceline. Hidden deals for the swan and dolphin hotels can be really great, plus you can usually get a code for an extra 50-60 dollars off. Most importantly it is in easy walking distance of epcot a quick boat ride from Hollywood studios and Epcot and a great location. Add that plus the benefits of the deluxe hotel evening hours (looks like only 2 extra hours at animal kingdom that Wednesday so, decent, but coukd be better) it it is a pretty decent deal. There are some pretty easy ways to identify them, I see that the dolphin is currently showing 300 before taxes and fees for those dates.
You can also play around with the dates, for example staying 11/7-11/9 yields 230 at the dolphin per night via hidden booking, then for 11/9-/11 you could either book somewhere cheaper, elsewhere, or do a separate booking at dolphin which is then available for 300per night. Thus allowing you to use the ill at Epcot and Hollywood studio, deluxe evening hours (so sad it’s animal kingdom though), walking distance and then pick a different hotel specifically for magic kingdom and animal kingdom. Moving isn’t great but, def worth looking at imo.

Ive attached an example for those nights

 

[Marthasor]

Well I’m not so sure about the adult fee. As long as they are on the reservation and not staying it shouldn’t matter the age. And when you link it in the my Disney app it will allow you to select which person it is, but I don’t think it would matter. At minimum just explain it to the hotel staff I’m sure nobody cares and they wouldn’t want you paying an extra fee in this situation

If there are three adults listed on a CSR reservation, they will be charged an extra adult fee. If OP adds another person to the reservation, they need to state whether the person is an adult or a child and give the same name that is listed in MDE so they can match profiles (which will indicate their age) and they can make ILL which is the whole point of putting them on the reservation. The front desk isn't going to monitor whether this person is actually in the room or not. Can OP talk their way out of the extra adult fee by explaining they are trying to do a work-around for ILL? Doubtful.

 

[focusondisney]

Well I’m not so sure about the adult fee. As long as they are on the reservation and not staying it shouldn’t matter the age. And when you link it in the my Disney app it will allow you to select which person it is, but I don’t think it would matter. At minimum just explain it to the hotel staff I’m sure nobody cares and they wouldn’t want you paying an extra fee in this situation

So you think just add the names on the reservation, get the benefits of staying onsite & not pay the required fee???? If you’re “on the reservation” & want the benefits, you pay what it costs.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

The benefit in question is to to pay for a lightning lane earlier. The room in question is part of the same persons party and is paid for by the group. The family could stay there, are paying for it, and are only trying to pay more money to ride together, and the family has the right to put the other family members on their reservation and enable them to stay, even if the other family members decide they don’t want to.

I am personally confident any manager would be understanding, if presented in a logical and reasonable way. Maybe someone wouldn’t but really…smirks, sarcasm, and insinuation of wrong doing seems pretty overboard in this situation….

 

[Marthasor]

The benefit in question is to to pay for a lightning lane earlier. The room in question is part of the same persons party and is paid for by the group. The family could stay there, are paying for it, and are only trying to pay more money to ride together, and the family has the right to put the other family members on their reservation and enable them to stay, even if the other family members decide they don’t want to.

I am personally confident any manager would be understanding, if presented in a logical and reasonable way. Maybe someone wouldn’t but really…smirks, sarcasm, and insinuation of wrong doing seems pretty overboard in this situation….

I don't think you fully understand - a CSR standard room has a capacity of 4 guests. If more than 2 of those guests are adults, they pay an extra fee. So if the "family has the right to put the other family members on their reservation and enable them to stay", they have to pay the rate for the room which will automatically include the extra adult fee once the extra adult is added - this is a WDW resort-wide rule for standard rooms. That extra fee entitles that extra adult to the perks associated with being listed on the reservation including purchasing ILL at 7:00 am - I am having trouble finding the logic or reason in expecting resort-related perks will be given to the extra adult without paying the fee? No one is smirking, being sarcastic or insinuating wrong-doing. If OP lists an extra adult on the reservation, they will automatically be charged the fee - just giving them a heads-up for budgeting reasons. If you think there is some kind of work-around here by listing this person as a child, it won't work as they need to link the actual person's profile (that has their tickets attached) in order to make the ILL reservations. If you think they can somehow talk the manager into giving WDW resort perks to an extra adult for free . . . ? I don't think that request will get very far.

 

[musicguy856]

Hi! My husband and I are taking our daughter for her first Disney trip 11/7-11/11. When we booked, we asked family if anyone was interested in going along. My mom decided to come and my sister has been on the fence ever since. We've been booked at Coronado Springs since April and over the weekend, my sister decided she was coming and bringing along a friend. We only had room for my sister and weren't expecting the friend, so I tried looking for a larger room (direct and by searching confirmed DVC reservations) and also looked for on-site rooms for the two of them. The closest we've come so far has been Pop Century (which is a bit out of her price range) and the Residence Inn in Disney Springs, which of course lacks the ability to book ILL at 7am and our goal was to have everyone on the same reservations. I've been checking Disney's website for the last 3 days in hopes of finding a canceled All-Stars resort for those dates, but no luck so far. Normally, I rent DVC points and don't have to deal with people coming last minute. Does anyone have any tips for coming across an All Star cancelation or are we better off booking what's already there?

Thank you!!

For ILL is your daughter tall enough for those rides? If not you could just book her an ILL (assuming she is 3+ and has a park ticket) and the family member could use her band to scan in.

Early entry shouldn't be a problem since they only scan one band per party.