Disney hotel and tickets - not purchased from Disney

[mcurran]

I tried to find a sticky but couldn’t. Maybe someone can help point me to the right place.

If I book a Disney hotel and tickets through a third party site do I lose any benefits of staying at Disney? I won’t name site since I don’t know if that’s allowed but it’s major online travel site that is legitimate and extremely well known so I don’t worry about scams or fraud. Just looking to understand what I may give up booking this way instead of Disney travel company.

In particular:
- Can I use Magical express?
- can resort reservation and e tickets link to mde?
- Will FP+ open at 60+ days? If not what would be the timing?
- will I be able to book dining 180+ out or 180 day by day?
- would I get magic bands? I will have bands to reuse if needed.

 

[kmb584]

I tried to find a sticky but couldn’t. Maybe someone can help point me to the right place.

If I book a Disney hotel and tickets through a third party site do I lose any benefits of staying at Disney? I won’t name site since I don’t know if that’s allowed but it’s major online travel site that is legitimate and extremely well known so I don’t worry about scams or fraud. Just looking to understand what I may give up booking this way instead of Disney travel company.

In particular:
- Can I use Magical express?
- can resort reservation and e tickets link to mde?
- Will FP+ open at 60+ days? If not what would be the timing?
- will I be able to book dining 180+ out or 180 day by day?
- would I get magic bands? I will have bands to reuse if needed.

You will not lose any onsite benefits if you book with a third party.

There is an extra step involved though. After booking, you will need to contact the company that you booked through and ask them to provide you with your Disney confirmation number. You will then link that number to your MDE account to have access to booking FP+, dining at 180+, etc.

 

[Marionnette]

I tried to find a sticky but couldn’t. Maybe someone can help point me to the right place.

If I book a Disney hotel and tickets through a third party site do I lose any benefits of staying at Disney? I won’t name site since I don’t know if that’s allowed but it’s major online travel site that is legitimate and extremely well known so I don’t worry about scams or fraud. Just looking to understand what I may give up booking this way instead of Disney travel company.

In particular:
- Can I use Magical express?
- can resort reservation and e tickets link to mde?
- Will FP+ open at 60+ days? If not what would be the timing?
- will I be able to book dining 180+ out or 180 day by day?
- would I get magic bands? I will have bands to reuse if needed.

You will get all of those. However, depending on the way that the TA books your trip, you may not get those cute Disney luggage tags or any other goodies that are included in Disney World packages booked thru Disney.

 

[fla4fun]

I have booked through third parties probably 25% of the time (all room only reservations, if that makes a difference) and the trips are identical to those booked through Disney. As a pp mentioned, you do need to get the Disney confirmation number from the third party to link everything in MDE.

Also, if you want to make a change to your reservation, you have to go through the third party - so if you tend to change resorts or tweak dates frequently, going through a third party may not be the best choice.

I have received my room requests just as often with a third party as I have directly through Disney.

 

[bumbershoot]

And FYI if you want to mention a ta you simply use the full url then click to preview your post to check it. If it comes through fine then you can mention them. But don’t mention them if their url looks like this when you click to preview the post: xxxxxx.com

 

[samsonjs]

I booked my stay through Chase using rewards. I bought tickets through UT. I called chase to get the Dis confirmation to link to my MDE but the lady said the department was closed and call back the next morning. I ended up finding a number for Disney wholesale that other people called for their third party bookings. I gave the friendly lady my name, dates of travel and resort name and she gave me my confirmation number and added the rest of my guests to the stay. Super simple once I got the number. If you don't get the confirmation through your third party try the Disney wholesale phone number.