BWV party of 5

[freshmanjs]

Quick question about BWV 1BR reservation made through disney travel company. We are a family of 5 (3 kids -- ages 6,6,3).

They would not allow us to book a package in a 1BR villa, because the maximum is 4 people in that room.

I asked the reservation agent if I could book the package for 4 and just buy separate park tickets for the little one. She said that this should be ok and booked the package for 4.

My question is: Are we going to run into any problems doing this? We really don't need a 2br...1br is plenty of space.

 

[brittsmum1998]

I believe they will only give you 4 keys which means if you go to any extra magic hours, you may be out of luck. As a DVC member, I agree, you will have plenty of space for 5 especially w/ 3 little ones. Have a great time.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Unfortunately for you, your 3 yr old now counts. And by booking through a TA, you must abide by Disney rules and not DVC rules. Disney says only four in the room unless the fifth one is under the age of three. So, if a CM asks your 3 yr old how old he/she is, and he/she says 3, you'll be ante-ing up extra money for the ticket and won't be allowed into Extra Magic Hours without that fifth room ID. These are fire occupancy rules talking, not just someone who wants to ruin your vacation.

All the literature that we were given when we bought into DVC indicated that all one bedrooms only sleep four. Now with AKV, there are one bedrooms that sleep 5 with the addition of a twin sized sleeper chair.

You probably should have gotten a deluxe room that slept five legally or POR with the trundle bed.

 

[ducklite]

The CM's at the DTC have quotas to meet. Had the CM told the OP that they couldn't book the room they were trying to, the CM would likely have lost the sale. So instead they told the guest what they wanted to hear, and it now becomes the check-in CM's problem to deal with.

OP, you could arrive at the resort and be told flat out that you can't stay in that room with your party, and have to ante up a lot of money for a 2BR. I would call back and either book a regular room at the BWI that will hold five, or another resort. There are no roll-aways at the BWV as an FYI.

 

[magicaldisney]

Also, without that 5th key you will not be able to get Fast Passes for your whole party. Unfortunatley, skirting around the rules might cost you big time in the end. I agree with the above post that at this point you just found someone who told you what you wanted to hear. I think you will be disappointed you didn't fix this issue now.

 

[Tink415]

You should have asked your question to the person who booked the package for you. I would imagine you'd only get 4 keys which would be a problem if you want to do EMH. I can add that we booked a room for 5 at BWI this past summer and were put in a BWV studio with an aerobed, but we did get 5 keys. I would switch to a deluxe room or POR like another poster suggested. Good luck!

 

[DisneyKidds]

These are fire occupancy rules talking, not just someone who wants to ruin your vacation.

In this case....not really. Not that somebody is trying to ruin their vacation, but a DVC 1BR villa 'sleeps' 4, and that is the max that Central Reservation/Travel Agents must abide by, not necessarily for fire occupancy purposes. Why do I say that? Well, while a DVC 1BR only 'sleeps' 4, DVC Member Services will accept a reservation for 5 in a 1BR. So, obviously it doesn't violate fire code to have 5 people in the room.

As others have pointed out, only having a reservation for 4 leaves you one room key short. Wouldn't matter for fastpasses because you'd buy a separate admission ticket. But it would matter for Extra Magic Hours. Not really morning EMH as they don't scan room keys for entry and if you flashed them 4 they probably wouldn't even know. However, for evening EMH they do scan room keys before issuing a wrist band. That said, it's not like a 3 year old is going on too many rides where they will get checked, and with a group of 4 others who all flash wrist bands it really wouldn't matter that you didn't have one. Theoretically, if you were discoverd to have more people than your reservation, you could get in trouble or be required to pay for a bigger room. Realistically, that will never happen.

One real impact would be if you were planning on doing the Dining Package as you wouldn't be able to get it for all 5 people.

One potential solution to your problem would be to scrap the reservation through Disney/Travel Agent and rent yourselves some DVC points. On this discussion board, over in the Disney Vacation Club section, there is a Rent/Trade board. If you were comfortable with that process you could contact a member over there and try and secure a reservation that way. If there is availability for a "points" reservation (do note that sometimes rooms are avilable for "cash" reservation when they might not be available for "points" reservations due to inventory rules) the member would be able to secure you a reservation for 5 in a 1BR villa and you'd probably save a decent amount of money on the room. Keep in mind that in obtaining a reservation this way you lose a lot of flexibilty as far as cancellations are concerned. You'd also be able to add the Dining Package. You could buy admission separately, but that's ok because the WDW packages don't include any admission discount. Our family of 5 (kids 9, 6, 4) just returned from a stay at BWV in a studio. Via Member Services you can get a reservation for 5in a BWV studio, with a request for a "studio plus". BWV is the only location where this can be done through Member Services. So if you went the DVC route that might be an option if cost were more important then space. Not as much room as a 1BR, but quite a bit cheaper and doable if all three kids can sleep in the same bed, which ours do when on vacation.