Booking resort for a large group w/free dining: individual ressies?

[Violet Parr]

I'm looking to book a trip for extended family of 12. We'd love to grab free dining. Is it best to book as a group, or book each of our 4 rooms individually if we want to get a discount (free dining preferred but a room-only would also be great.)

Also, I'm an AP holder, but the rest of the fam is not. If i book as a group, would I be able to apply any future passholder discount to all of the rooms if I booked them all myself, or would it depend on availability? (I think I know the answer to that question.)


On that note, is there a forum here for planning trips for large groups? I didn't see one listed, but maybe I'm missing something?

VP

 

[DisneyWishes14]

You can book up to three rooms with an AP discount, but the rooms have to be in AP discount inventory. You can't simply apply an AP discount to any room. You should do the math, but you may come out ahead by booking 3 AP discount rooms and buying a TIW card to save on dining. The TIW card will cover 10 people in your group. Then, perhaps with the 4th room, try for a FD or room-only discount.

Snagging any discount is luck of the draw. I don't really understand your question re: booking as a group - in order to work with the groups department, you need to book a minimum of 10 rooms. Do you mean booking everything yourself? Personally, I would probably try to do it myself especially if you are trying to snag a discount at the same resort and possibly same room categories as that's going to be fairly difficult and it may be easier to call that in as opposed to making 4 separate reservations via the website. If you have 4 families trying to do this at once, you run the risk of people not being able to snag the same resort/room category and then you are going to have to modify from there.

 

[Violet Parr]

Thanks. I meant booking everything myself or having each family member book their own room. I've never booked by phone, always online, so I wasn't aware that I could do 3 AP/discount rooms at once.

I'll have a TIW card but we don't plan to eat all meals together.

I think we're going to opt to have me book all the rooms for now, so we have *something* for our dates, then come July when the discounts are released, I'll try to snag discounted or FD rooms in thes same area. I won't mind if we have one fam in Beach Club, one in Boardwalk, etc.

It's just hard to go from planning for one family to planning for four, for sure!

 

[Wendy5055]

I believe that Disney has a Group Booking Department...a search brought this up...
Disney Group Getaways experiences and benefits are available to groups of any size who book and occupy at least ten (10) guest rooms during one (1) night of their stay. If you need less than 10 guest rooms, please contact the Disney Reservation Center at (407) W- DISNEY or visit www.disneyworld.com.

 

[Wendy5055]

I remember using them for a large family trip years ago and it was a great resource when making dining reservations etc. We did not have the 10 room minimum that trip but we did have over 15 people to make dining reservations for so they can definitely help with those other items.