"Guests" who don't actually stay with you or on DVC property

[Lora]

How difficult is it to arrange meeting up with friends/family who stay off site - or at another WDW Resort when you're at DVC? I don't have room for everyone who's coming. We have a 2BR, but there will be 9 of us. They knew I could only take 4 besides my family, so they are planning to get another room somewhere. We're at the BWV and those rooms (and probably even the Swan/Dolphin) are out of the price range we'll looking for. They'll most likely stay at the All-Stars, DTD or off-site.

Where do you usually plan to meet up? Is it a major hassle? If I don't have a car and my guests do, can I give them a parking pass for BWV so it's easier for us to meet up? They'll be coming to our room for some meals and breaks.

Please share your experiences. Thanks.

 

[Chuck S]

Why not have them stay at POP Century, it is pretty close to Boardwalk and is a Disney value resort. Then they'll have a POP parking permit, and they can tell the guard they are meeting up with you for meals and give the guard your room number. If it is a peak time, they may get a time limit of 3 hours for parking at BW. Or perhaps they can park in the BW lot that is further away (behind the gas station.) Other than that, it shouldn't be much problem to "meet up" you could designate a time and location to meet in the parks.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When we have friends staying elsewhere that we have to meet up with, we pick a time and place the night before. That way we can plan each park day by all meeting at a pre arringed time and place in the chosen park. Works great, and only once did we have to wait longer for someone who overslept.

 

[OneMoreTry]

We've had no problems with day guests at DVC resorts. At OKW parking could be a problem at times.

When meeting people for WDW or skiing or anything I usually say "If you're not there by _____, we'll meet ..." and give backup time and place. Even with cell phones. I"m not good at sitting around waiting a long time.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

I made up an iternary for both of us and we are going to meet in the parks at opening and/or at Dinner. They have all the ress# as well as which park we are going to each day. Plus we have cells which will help to keep us in touch.

I hope it works!!

 

[jenelope]

Last fall, I stayed at Pop while my friends stayed at BWV. They ended up giving me their parking pass because they didn't have a car. Until they did that, it was very difficult to convince the gate attendant to let me in for one simple reason: Food and Wine Festival! Even with the parking pass, it was sometimes difficult to find a parking spot.

I've also done the reverse- I was in a SSR studio and a friend was staying at an off-site conference hotel. That is a setup I'd never want to do without a rental car.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We did this on our past trip. My roommate's sister was staying at POFQ and we were at SSR. She wanted to meet up and then travel to the parks in the morning, but I was firm that we would meet there. Even though our resorts were close, there was no reason to involve extra transportation just to travel to the parks together.

On our itinerary, I planned very easy to find locations for our meetings. We also had cell phones to contact one-another if we were running late or didn't see the other when we arrived.

We'd spend the day together in the parks, travel to where we were having dinner (if not in a park), and then just travel back to our own hotels separately.

It worked great.

 

[spiceycat]

you can get your friends a BWV parking permit. or they can get you a pop (if that is the hotel) parking permit.

but I think I agree with Dave - just meet up at the parks.

Pop has pretty great transportation - I think our normal time for a bus was under 5 minutes. One time it was the entire 20 minutes - but that was MK coming home after the park closed.

 

[thelobstershanty]

...... At OKW parking could be a problem at times QUOTE]
That has got to be the very first time I have ever heard that one!
OKW is actually one of the easiest resorts to park at because there are so many parking lots. Each building has it's own parking lot in front of the building. This is a big plus for many guests at OKW.
I am not trying, in any way, shape or form to put down any resort, etc., etc.,yadda, yadda. It just hit me as so funny when I read the above quote, I just had to comment.
Anyway, personally, we have also found that the best place to meet up are the parks. When 1 group does not have a car it is much more inconvenient for them to travel to a resort vs a park, using Disney transportation.
Have a great trip!

 

[Chuck S]

...... At OKW parking could be a problem at times QUOTE]
That has got to be the very first time I have ever heard that one!
OKW is actually one of the easiest resorts to park at because there are so many parking lots. Each building has it's own parking lot in front of the building. This is a big plus for many guests at OKW.
I am not trying, in any way, shape or form to put down any resort, etc., etc.,yadda, yadda. It just hit me as so funny when I read the above quote, I just had to comment.
Anyway, personally, we have also found that the best place to meet up are the parks. When 1 group does not have a car it is much more inconvenient for them to travel to a resort vs a park, using Disney transportation.
Have a great trip!

I'm pretty sure OneMoreTry was referring to the lot for main check-in and bldgs 11 to 14, that lot does fill up with folks checking in/shopping/going to the pool slide/getting CS from Goods to Go/dining at Olivia's/catching the launch to DtD, etc.

 

[MinnieGi]

We always go with friends and family who are not with us in our DVC unit or resort. We've never had problems meeting up and have great vacations with everyone. I usually plan out ahead what parks we will be going to and ask our guest if they want to meet up or plan ADR's together. This past July we went on a trip with four other families and none of us were staying at the same resort and one family was even off-site. We coordinated plans through a yahoo group. It worked well in that families could pick and choose what ADR's or special events and parks they were interested in for group activities. Then we also scheduled two whole group events - HDDR and an Illuminations meet-up.

Other times we are just traveling with one or two other families and we plan beforehand also what ADR's we will meet up for. Then usually take it from there to tour the park together for a while and then break off so everyone gets to see what they are interested in.

Have fun!!!