Bit of advice please.

[The Eighth Dwarf]

Lol , for the third year in a row there's been some sort of problem with our booking. I'll not go in to too much detail but our flight home has been changed from one stop in Newark to two stops the second one being in London heathrow
This really doesn't suit us , the journey home is the worst part of any holiday and adding an extra flight and an extra 2 hour stop over in London is not something we would have booked or even contemplated. So I called our travel agent today and though they were very nice and tried there best to be helpful as of now I've no idea what to do.
So the choices they gave me were ,
Cancel at no cost , this is the last resort , no intention of doing this unless I'm left with no choice, we would lose our free dining Plan.
Get a flight back the next day which would only stop at Newark, this is our preferred option to be honest but they have said if they amend our booking at old key west we would lose our dining plan cause that offer is no longer available.
They can book me in for an extra night at a different hotel , she mentioned somewhere on I drive. Not so good would involve moving hotels and as I'm not driving we would struggle to get to the parks.

Do you guys think there is any chance if I phone Disney myself I could explain the problem and they would be able to book us in an extra night without effecting our dining plan , the travel agent says they can't do it cause the minimum stay is 3 days for Disney resorts.
As always any advice appreciated .

 

[wilma-bride]

Are your flights booked separately? If so, keep your Disney booking as it is and just book an extra night at a Disney resort through the US site. You won't need to do it as a package, just book one night. The only down side is you wouldn't have park tickets for WDW that day (presumably) and you wouldn't have the dining plan. It would still be a pain to have to move room/resort but WDW would move your bags for you so you could just go out for the day and your bags would be at your new resort when you got back.

 

[irenep]

I would book the same room/resort direct with Disney (or maybe your TA can do it) for 1 night room only and when you check-in ask to have the 2 reservations linked so that you don't need to change rooms.

You won't get the Dining Plan for the extra night but you will still be able to use any leftover credits right up until midnight on your original check-out day.

 

[amacspad]

Def hope you can sort the extra night, seems ridiculous to lose the dining plan, fingers crossed and let us know

Debs x

 

[Elise79]

If it was me I will tell to switch the flights and book a room only direct with Disney US (maybe able to get a discount) for one night at the same resort as had been suggested already.

You will have to get new keys but if you tell them they will do their best to keep you in the same room.

 

[The Eighth Dwarf]

Thanks all, have been having a think and agree with everything above.
The best idea would be to just move the flight back one day and book the extra day, will try my travel agent again in the morning to see what they can do. They did say this morning that they can't book any less than 3 days , but I've tried Disneys website and I can get a one day stay.
Just had a look earlier and I'm getting a price of around £220 for 2 adults and 1 child, is it just me or does this sound a bit expensive?
Might be better to phone Disney direct and explain the situation to them.
Does anyon know offhand when the free dining offer expired and is it likely to come back on again before we go?

 

[Elise79]

Where are you staying and what type room?

 

[wilma-bride]

OK, I am assuming you have booked a package with free dining through a UK travel agent. The reason why you can't just add 1 night to your booking is because that necessitates a change to your package and, since the free dining (original offer) is probably no longer available, it means that you would lose your dining. Also, UK TAs don't normally have the flexibility to add a day here or there. Your best option, as I said before, is to just book independently (forget going through your TA) a 1-night stay at Old Key West. Yes, £220 sounds about right for a studio (presuming that's what you have booked). You will not be able to add dining to that stay so woud have to pay OOP for meals and, as I said earlier, unless you have tickets still, it wouldn't be worth adding tickets to that booking either.

The alternative, if you don't want to pay that much, woud be to book 1 night at a cheaper resort (a value or moderate). Disney would then transfer your luggage for you. The downside would be that you woud have no chance of linking the reservations so would have to move rooms and would have a period of time where you would technically be 'homeless'. That is still preferable, in my opinion, to losing your free dining. Is your TA not likely to charge you an admin fee for changing your booking too, if you did it through them?

 

[The Eighth Dwarf]

OK, I am assuming you have booked a package with free dining through a UK travel agent. The reason why you can't just add 1 night to your booking is because that necessitates a change to your package and, since the free dining (original offer) is probably no longer available, it means that you would lose your dining. Also, UK TAs don't normally have the flexibility to add a day here or there. Your best option, as I said before, is to just book independently (forget going through your TA) a 1-night stay at Old Key West. Yes, £220 sounds about right for a studio (presuming that's what you have booked). You will not be able to add dining to that stay so woud have to pay OOP for meals and, as I said earlier, unless you have tickets still, it wouldn't be worth adding tickets to that booking either.

The alternative, if you don't want to pay that much, woud be to book 1 night at a cheaper resort (a value or moderate). Disney would then transfer your luggage for you. The downside would be that you woud have no chance of linking the reservations so would have to move rooms and would have a period of time where you would technically be 'homeless'. That is still preferable, in my opinion, to losing your free dining. Is your TA not likely to charge you an admin fee for changing your booking too, if you did it through them?

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned it was a studio room we are in, I've just looked online and I think there is a MNSSHP on the final day, we had planned to go on the 11th of September but it's no hardship moving it as we haven't bought tickets yet, that should solve our ticket problem .
Thanks Wilma everything you've said makes sense and I think that's what the travel agent was trying to tell me this morning.
We are looking at POR Riverside cause it would only cost an extra £100 or so and being positive about things it would be a chance to have a look round the resort and stay somewhere different. The technically homeless bit doesn't sound like much fun even in Disney, am I right in thinking we would have to check out at 11 am and we couldn't check back in till 4 at a new resort, and when you say about Disney moving the bags how would that work? Could we be without cases all day?
Just one more thing I take it the magical express could be booked to pick us up from a different resort to the one we were dropped off in.

 

[WiganTony]

Disgressing for a moment, we almost found ourselves in the same position for next month when Air France cancelled our return flight and we were booked on the flight the following day. We had booked our OKW studio direct with WDTUK, and I have to say that although at first we had the same problem as yourself, after four calls to Disney, a brilliant USA cast member called up Disney UK Travel and managed to get our stay pushed back a day. However, as noted above, that may not be an option for you booking through another TA BUT I would suggest calling Disney to see if your stay could be moved - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Anyhow, enough of our tale!! With regard to your additional night's accommodation, have you considered renting DVC Points to cover you for the extra night? This could work out quite a lot cheaper than paying the £220 as you were quoted, and may even work out cheaper than POR. You could then stay in OKW through to your final day.

I've had a quick check here, and it appears you would need 10 points Sun-Thurs in October and 14 points Fri/Sat (not sure exactly when you are going). Then have a check on the DVC Rent/Trade board to look for suitable "renters". Looks as if $11/point is the going rate (example here), so approx $154 or £100 for a studio at a weekend (less if midweek), but I would post on the board to make sure you get an accurate figure.

The technically homeless bit doesn't sound like much fun even in Disney, am I right in thinking we would have to check out at 11 am and we couldn't check back in till 4 at a new resort, and when you say about Disney moving the bags how would that work? Could we be without cases all day?

If you still go with POR, it isn't too much of a hardship as all you are doing is packing a day early - just keep all your stuff for your final day/night/travel day in one case to save lots of unpacking. Even though you are "homeless", you can still use the facilities at OKW on the day you leave (we will probably be doing this on our final day) before moving over to POR. Just keep a bag with your necessities for the day with you.

Also to note that your free dining will still be valid up to midnight on the day you check out of OKW, so you would still be able to use credits when at MNSSHP.

Hope you get sorted soon and have a great trip.

 

[nibbo]

am I right in thinking we would have to check out at 11 am and we couldn't check back in till 4 at a new resort,

We've checked in twice at 9am when coming off a cruise. Once we had a room allocated immediately, the other time we had to wait until the room was ready early afternoon. There's no problem checking in so early, it's just that you might not get your room straight away. I think your luggage can be left at the reception until your room is ready.

 

[darthtatty]

Ive been homeless at Disney, its not as bad as it sounds.
you just pack and take your luggage to bell services (or get them to collect it)
Then its can be picked up from bell services later.
The only thing I didnt like was carrying our passports and paperwork with us. Didnt really want to leave them in the cases.

Im for the option of just adding an extra night

 

[tinks_1989]

Is there any way you could treat yourselves to a deluxe resort for one night and not worry about not having park tickets enjoy the resort!

I don't know anything about DVC but could you rent points for just one night :-/

 

[The Eighth Dwarf]

Just a quick update, firstly thank you all for the kind words and suggestions, as of yet nothing has been ruled out.
So I phoned the travel agent this morning, and again they were really nice and tried their best to be as helpful as they can. I have moved my flight back a day so on the plus side one more day in Disney ,and as there is a MNSSHP that night we will go there and that means we don't need to worry about park tickets.
The TA phoned their "product department " lol no I've no idea either , but they are going to phone Disney direct and try and work something out with them and hopefully we will just get an extra night at OKW, this is the easiest most preferable option to us, but if that doesn't work out we will phone Disney ourselves and do as suggested above, either DVC points, worry about this one cause we have to get the Magical Express back to the airport and I can't see how that would work.
Or we will just book one day in either OKW or POR, so everything is moving and we've now got an extra day in Disney.

 

[WiganTony]

Fingers crossed you will get sorted with the studio at OKW.

 

[Elise79]

Just a quick update, firstly thank you all for the kind words and suggestions, as of yet nothing has been ruled out.
So I phoned the travel agent this morning, and again they were really nice and tried their best to be as helpful as they can. I have moved my flight back a day so on the plus side one more day in Disney ,and as there is a MNSSHP that night we will go there and that means we don't need to worry about park tickets.
The TA phoned their "product department " lol no I've no idea either , but they are going to phone Disney direct and try and work something out with them and hopefully we will just get an extra night at OKW, this is the easiest most preferable option to us, but if that doesn't work out we will phone Disney ourselves and do as suggested above, either DVC points, worry about this one cause we have to get the Magical Express back to the airport and I can't see how that would work.
Or we will just book one day in either OKW or POR, so everything is moving and we've now got an extra day in Disney.

If you rent DVC points you can still get ME back to the airport - its easy to set up with the person you are renting from

Personally, I would get the extra night a OKW regardless, they should be able to keep you in the same room as long as you mention at check in then you would have true full extra day. I would hate packing a day early.