Disabled rooms cost more?

[darthtatty]

Hi, its nearly a year until our holiday and i was close to......
We booked through a UK tour operator-Virgin holidays. This week they were trying to get our room booked as we needed a disabled room with a roll in shower. Weve booked a garden room (which is what we had the last couple of trips) at Disneys Contemporary resort hotel.
we got a phone call from Virgin to say that Disney have said they only do Disabled rooms in the deluxe part of the garden wing. Which is going to cost us an extra £500 approx $750

Weve booked exactly the same holiday as last time and we got a Disabled room in the garden wing. Ive even posted loads of pictures on another thread on here.

I just wanted to know if something has changed in the last year which i dont know about.
Im not happy that theyre trying to charge us more due to a disability

Thanks for any help in advance

 

[maroo]

nope - Disney doesn't do that and would never do that.

I would definitely question that!

It is possible that they don't have any more rooms available in the lower category - that is possible - but they don't charge more for the same room type.

ETA: And I may be just OCD - but I don't let anyone book rooms for us anymore when we need accessibility - because it gets messed up too easily. I always call. But that is just me.

 

[darthtatty]

thanks, its what i thought.
I know we're going at a busy time, end of August next year.
We booked the holiday in March and were told Disney wouldnt let the room be booked until 1 year in Advance. we're 1 year 2 weeks ahead.

 

[maroo]

thanks, its what i thought.
I know we're going at a busy time, end of August next year.
We booked the holiday in March and were told Disney wouldnt let the room be booked until 1 year in Advance. we're 1 year 2 weeks ahead.

I can't believe it would be booked that far out??

I would call on my own and see if they have rooms available - and you may want to keep calling, because they may have them blocked off for some reason and would release them later? Or someone may cancel and open a room.

I booked a room at the POP (roll in shower) yesterday for Free Dining and had no problem - I was shocked!

 

[darthtatty]

I would love to be able to book everything ourselves, we did hope we could do that this holiday. with the price of flights from the UK this year it was so much cheaper doing it as a package. weve used Virgin a few times in the past and theyve been nothing more than helpful.

Im wondering if theyre trying to do things too early.

 

[dclfun]

I don't think the "real" rates are out yet for 2011- maybe this is the reason the price is showing as higher and that it will be adjusted. ---Kathy

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

I don't think the "real" rates are out yet for 2011- maybe this is the reason the price is showing as higher and that it will be adjusted. ---Kathy

Nop. The UK is a totally different ballgame. They're 2011 rates have been out for a while now. WDTC UK and travelagents like for instance Virgin have theirs out yet and no adjusting will be done. The rates are the rates. Totally different from the US. T&C is different, rates are different, options are different, times of booking is different, offerings are different, you name it and it is different. Even the simplest thing like what is offered as an extra when you book a package; different.

By the way, the US 2011 room only rates have been out a while already.



Only thing I can think up off; have you checked WDTC UK? I've noticed before they do not offer each and every category that WDTC USA does. AKL sticks to mind most of all, but wouldn't be surprised if it's the case for most of the resorts. But then again, you had that cat. booked to begin with. Could it be that VH has bought a certain block of rooms and needs to go outside of that block to be able to get you guys the accessible room? That could mean a higher price for VH to pay and they're sticking you with the bill.

Checking US inventory doesn't do much good, as you're dealing with a different animal booking within the UK and in the end it going through WDTC UK. If you do want to compair, I'ld do it through WDTC UK. See what they would quote for that room. And even still then, that might not come up with the answer you're looking for. It all boils down to VH. Only they can provide you with the answer as to WHY you are billed a higher price.

Typing this, I'ld actually ask VH to explain the price difference and reason therefor in writing. The room in itself is there. No way it is booked at this stage of the game. Let them explain why. Either they can back it up (for instance with Disney UK providing info such an accessible room is not available) or not. Next stage, I'ld ask them why you can book that specific roomtype through WDTC UK yourself (of course after you checked if this is the case! ). What is going on to cause the difference?


Have you priced out a package through WDTC UK already? Probably, but just asking to make sure. If the difference turns out to be little, I'ld tell Virgin "tough luck" (changing conditions and price -> allows you to say no thank you) and book through WDTC UK. On the one hand out of the principal of it all. On the other hand; booking directly through WDTC, you know who's handling things. Shorter lines means less chance of any mishaps, miscommunications etc.

 

[darthtatty]

Only thing I can think up off; have you checked WDTC UK? I've noticed before they do not offer each and every category that WDTC USA does. AKL sticks to mind most of all, but wouldn't be surprised if it's the case for most of the resorts. But then again, you had that cat. booked to begin with. Could it be that VH has bought a certain block of rooms and needs to go outside of that block to be able to get you guys the accessible room? That could mean a higher price for VH to pay and they're sticking you with the bill.

Checking US inventory doesn't do much good, as you're dealing with a different animal booking within the UK and in the end it going through WDTC UK. If you do want to compair, I'd do it through WDTC UK. See what they would quote for that room. And even still then, that might not come up with the answer you're looking for. It all boils down to VH. Only they can provide you with the answer as to WHY you are billed a higher price.

Typing this, I'd actually ask VH to explain the price difference and reason therefor in writing. The room in itself is there. No way it is booked at this stage of the game. Let them explain why. Either they can back it up (for instance with Disney UK providing info such an accessible room is not available) or not. Next stage, I'd ask them why you can book that specific roomtype through WDTC UK yourself (of course after you checked if this is the case! ). What is going on to cause the difference?


Have you priced out a package through WDTC UK already? Probably, but just asking to make sure. If the difference turns out to be little, I'd tell Virgin "tough luck" (changing conditions and price -> allows you to say no thank you) and book through WDTC UK. On the one hand out of the principal of it all. On the other hand; booking directly through WDTC, you know who's handling things. Shorter lines means less chance of any mishaps, miscommunications etc.

hi thanks for all that, very useful.
Before we booked our holiday id done some dummy runs on both the Disney UK and US sites. so i knew on the US site they have different room levels.
with all our previous Virgin booking we'd booked a garden room and got a garden room (with a garden view) so last year we got the disabled room no problem. on previous trips weve always got the same type of room. It seems this year theyve tried to save themselves more money and only booked the cheapest rooms. so weve brought the same package as on other trips but are getting less for it. We are questioning this with them at the moment.
I think thats what we're unhappy with, weve always booked the same package and got the same type of room. why is this year different?

Ive just priced up WDTC UK and its about the same price as Virgin, although our flight are no longer available so we'd have to change our dates.
we'll see how they deal with it

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Beware that you are comparing a garden view room at CO with a garden view at the Poly. Both are different animals. While you might be able to find one type of room at resort X when booking through certain agents (and WDTC UK) you might not find that same type of room at resort Y through that agent. As you've been quoted for a non accessible garden view at the Poly, Virgin obviously has bought some of those in bulk. Which only leaves the question of the price difference.

 

[darthtatty]

Beware that you are comparing a garden view room at CO with a garden view at the Poly. Both are different animals. While you might be able to find one type of room at resort X when booking through certain agents (and WDTC UK) you might not find that same type of room at resort Y through that agent. As you've been quoted for a non accessible garden view at the Poly, Virgin obviously has bought some of those in bulk. Which only leaves the question of the price difference.

Ive only done like for like comparing. All quotes ive done are for the contemporary.
My husband hasnt had much luck with them today as theyre saying its Disney who say they dont have the accessible rooms
In all levels of rooms at the Contemporary Disney have accessible rooms, just wondering what they have in the standard rooms. may try to email them to find out.

Thanks

 

[dclfun]

Keep us posted! By the way, true US resort rates for 2011 are not out yet- rumor has it that they will be out on August 2nd. ---Kathy