Help with Split Stay + Park Ticket issue

[2019TripIdeas]

Hello-
We currently have Boardwalk booked for 9 nights using a Gift of Magic room offer. We were not able to get Boardwalk for the first night (our total stay is 10 nights!) so we booked POFQ. We got a great rate on Boardwalk using the offer (I think about $313 a night for a standard room).

Looking at the total though, with 6 day parkhoppers for 4 people (our youngest is 2 so luckily not for him!) the total for our vacation is just so much higher than we'd like it to be. Our hope was to do 6-7 nights at POFQ with the remaining 3-4 nights at Boardwalk still.

I wasn't able to modify my reservation on MDE and I had to call in. I had a great cast member who tried to help for hours yesterday, but the issue kept coming up that because we'd booked the package with Gift of Magic when we booked, we'd have to cancel and separate it into 4 days of park tickets on one reservation and 2 days on the other (based on what specific dates we needed tix for) and with that all said, our totals ended up being up to 2K more than just staying at Boardwalk for the 9 nights. We also tried to see if we could stay at a value for the first part (Pop/A of A standard rooms) and it was STILL coming up more than Boardwalk with 6 day parkhoppers for 9 days. For logistical reasons (we have family staying at the Dolphin who will be helping with our kids the last few days while we're off property during the days) we need to be at an Epcot Area resort for those last days.

Does this sound right/logical? Is there no way to just have a park ticket for the right dates (total) vs. having to separate the tickets by the reservations?
Can anyone think of how to help me save money here? Our goal was to keep our vacation under 6K before food and flights (which still seems like an absurd amount of $$$).

 

[maxiesmom]

Part of the problem is Disney does not really call anything a split stay. They view it as 2 totally separate reservations. And it could be that some of the resorts you are checking do not have the discount you are trying to book under for those days.

Looking at the promo, it does say rooms are limited and there is a length of stay requirement. Could be that either of those is tripping you up.

 

[sponica]

I'm trying to figure out if I understand things correctly, they wanted you to buy a 4 day ticket and a 2 day ticket? That would be bonkers expensive.

I don't know what the rules are for the gift of magic discount though.

You might want to do the math on the room discounts for the reservations and buying 6 day tickets separately. The 6 day tickets have a usage period of 9 days from the start date.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

I'm trying to figure out if I understand things correctly, they wanted you to buy a 4 day ticket and a 2 day ticket? That would be bonkers expensive.

Yes, that's what they wanted me to do- And I think that's what was driving the price way up too but I don't quite understand why they'd want me to do that. I was confused why they were making us do separate tickets. when the Gift of Magic offer says it's a "Room" discount, not a Room + Ticket discount

 

[SG131]

I'm with those above, this is a little confusing to follow. So it looks like with the gift of magic offer you also get $30 per person gift cards when you upgrade to a package with park tickets. So obviously if you got park tickets attached to the first part of your stay you'd forfeit that. Is the problem maybe that there are no more discounted rooms left at the boardwalk so for the 4 nights you're now paying rack rate? I know it is hard to shorten your stay once you have a promotion so if the discount is full you may not be able to get the 4 nights at the same per night rate you originally got. They only allocate a so many rooms for each discount. There should be no reason you have to attach two separate sets of tickets though. You attach tickets to the first reservation and then the second is a room only.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

So, I asked the same and they said they couldn't give me the $30 per person gift cards anyway because that was a separate offer than Gift of Magic. We originally had booked 5 day parkhoppers but when we added on the extra nights stay at POFQ at beginning of the trip, we decided we'd need 6 day parkhoppers instead.

I am so confused too. I guess it is possible that Boardwalk doesn't have the rooms left (though Beach Club does, so I'd asked them to price it that way too- 6 nights at POFQ, 4 nights at Beach or Yacht and again that came up as 8K, but again they were also having me do 4 day tickets on one, 2 day tickets on the other)

My husband panicked when he saw how high our total was and now I can't get the numbers to make sense either. We are currently:
1 night- POFQ
9 nights Boardwalk (Gift of Magic) with 6 day parkhoppers (no gift card attached)
Total cost of $6,300! (Ouch!)

 

[sponica]

That doesn't make sense. Honestly, I would just ask for the room discount rates for the 2 stays and then buy tickets from undercover tourist or something. The 6 days will have a 9 day valid use date from the start date.

 

[SG131]

So, I asked the same and they said they couldn't give me the $30 per person gift cards anyway because that was a separate offer than Gift of Magic. We originally had booked 5 day parkhoppers but when we added on the extra nights stay at POFQ at beginning of the trip, we decided we'd need 6 day parkhoppers instead.

I am so confused too. I guess it is possible that Boardwalk doesn't have the rooms left (though Beach Club does, so I'd asked them to price it that way too- 6 nights at POFQ, 4 nights at Beach or Yacht and again that came up as 8K, but again they were also having me do 4 day tickets on one, 2 day tickets on the other)

My husband panicked when he saw how high our total was and now I can't get the numbers to make sense either. We are currently:
1 night- POFQ
9 nights Boardwalk (Gift of Magic) with 6 day parkhoppers (no gift card attached)
Total cost of $6,300! (Ouch!)

Since this has gotten so confusing and the people on the disney phone lines aren't always the clearest, if you know your original reservation is too much money that you don't think you will keep it, I think I would try to get a travel agent to price out new packages for you. Let them coordinate this instead of you spending hours on the phone with disney.

 

[siren0119]

Yeah that makes no sense at all. You should be able to book a 6 day ticket with your first stay, and a room-only reservation for the tail end of your trip. 6 day tickets will be valid for 9 days total, so you'd just have to make sure you planned your park days within the valid period. Honestly I would call back and talk to a different CM - tell them you want to book 6 nights at POFQ with 6 day tickets, and then 4 nights at Boardwalk and ask them for the best pricing.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

Thanks for advice. I think it's probably time to contact a travel agent. Follow up question- if I'm able to book the rooms separately from the tickets (i.e. do tickets through Undercover Tourist), am I still able to get everything linked so I can do my fastpass reservations at the 60 day mark?

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Really i agree with @SG131 get a free quote from a Disney TA, less worry less time on the phone

 

[siren0119]

Thanks for advice. I think it's probably time to contact a travel agent. Follow up question- if I'm able to book the rooms separately from the tickets (i.e. do tickets through Undercover Tourist), am I still able to get everything linked so I can do my fastpass reservations at the 60 day mark?

Yep! Undercover Tourist tickets are regular Disney tickets (they buy them at a wholesale rate to resell as an authorized reseller). You can plug the ticket #s into MDE and do everything you would do if they were purchased from Disney direct.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

Ugh I'm on the phone with Disney now and yup, another cast member just told me the same thing- a 4 day ticket for one part of the stay, a 2 day ticket for the other. This is frustrating.

 

[siren0119]

Ugh I'm on the phone with Disney now and yup, another cast member just told me the same thing- a 4 day ticket for one part of the stay, a 2 day ticket for the other. This is frustrating.

THe part of me that likes to stir up trouble would start questioning - like, "why then can I book 6 nights at POFQ with 6 day tickets?" And remind them that the Disney website clearly states that tickets are good for length of stay or valid dates of the tickets ,WHICHEVER IS LONGER. So you could theoretically buy 10 day tickets on a 6 night stay. Nothing frustrates me more than misinformation that is presented as though it's fact, so I'm all for testing it LOL

I would go through a Travel agent, the worst that can happen is you get a free quote that you decide not to buy.

 

[SG131]

Ugh I'm on the phone with Disney now and yup, another cast member just told me the same thing- a 4 day ticket for one part of the stay, a 2 day ticket for the other. This is frustrating.

They are giving you incorrect information. Unfortunately the first level of people you call are not very well trained/informed. If you don’t want a travel agent next time you call ask to speak to guest services.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

^Luckily, they transferred me to someone who reassured me that a 6 day parkhopper should work for the length of our stay and we don't have to split it and NOW we're finally getting somewhere. I'm an hour in again (ha!) but I think I'm about to save a few thousand by switching to Port Orleans for the bulk of the stay. This has been a hassle but it looks like we're just about in the clear.

My wallet thanks you all for your advice!

 

[cutigerlady]

I think your issue is that you added a night before the BW stay with the gift of magic discount. If you move your tickets to the first part of the stay, then you would lose the $30 per person gift card. You may still come out ahead though.

It’s possible that the BW discount isn’t available for the dates you want to keep. A good CM should be able to figure out which night(s) are the problem and give you options for splitting your stay differently.

You definitely don’t want to buy tickets under both reservations! If you aren’t getting anything for having the package, I would just buy your tickets separately through a reseller where you can save a little bit for each ticket ($72 for a 6 day PH I was recently looking at).

 

[loves to dive]

I know it's probably too late but what about staying at the Dolphin and buying your tickets at Undercover Tourist or ParkSavers. Or even a split stay with a value and the Dolphin.

 

[2019TripIdeas]

^We totally would've done Dolphin but we are really trying not to bring the kids carseats (3 carseats because they are 5, 3, 2) so need Magical Express.

So what we ended up doing (grateful I finally got someone who wasn't pushing us to buy 4 day and 2 day parkhoppers) is 7 nights at POR + 3 nights at Boardwalk. That was such a crazy process though, but Guest Services was helpful as we needed to transfer money around a bunch.

Now just need to figure out if it's better to buy from Disney on tickets and see about the gift cards for doing 6 day, or use Undercover Tourist (looks like that discount may be better). In the end, I think we'll come out to be less by about $1600 but still that makes this trip feel a LOT better. The sticker shock is huge with Disney- we've done vacations to European cities and Hawaii with our kids for less which is mind-boggling.