Is this against the rules

[hayesktrm]

So, if there were plenty of campsites and everyone was able to book a campsite, then it's morally okay? I don't think morality works that way. It's either morally wrong or not regardless of the number of spots. Personally, I agree with the person who suggested people take an MBA class if they think Disney would have a problem with it. I am sure they don't. If the people paid for the spot and then don't use it I don't think it's morally wrong.

 

[Us3]

My sister goes to FW with her family CONSTANTLY and rarely steps foot in the parks...how is she any different than the "stealers" who step foot in the parks but do not stay at FW?

The reason I think this is different is because WDW is more than just the parks. WDW includes the theme parks, the resorts, DTD etc etc. They are paying for a site and using it for its intended purpose. They are enjoying Disney "their way". (that's why I love Disney so much...the Disney magic is different for everyone! )

The OP was asking if they could book a site to gain Disney benefits w/o actually staying on Disney property. What bothers me is that another family misses out on a vacation so someone else could save a few bucks through a disney loop hole.

 

[des1954]

To the OP, book the spot and enjoy whatever benefits that come with it as you please.[/quote]

Hey... a pat on the back for you!!

I'm a Floridian & I LOVE it when stupid tourists book multiple resorts thinking they're reaping some benefits!

The State of Florida is reaping millions off of your resort taxes & the gasoline you buy to get back and forth to your resort. Go ahead!!! Book the whole stinkin' Fort!! That'll further delay a state income tax for Florida!! Yippee for me!!! I LOVE northerners!!!

 

[lisa3383]

To the OP, book the spot and enjoy whatever benefits that come with it as you please.[/quote]

Hey... a pat on the back for you!!

I'm a Floridian & I LOVE it when stupid tourists book multiple resorts thinking they're reaping some benefits!
!

I don't think we need to be calling anyone stupid

AND there are some benefits, otherwise there wouldn't be such a long discussion on this thread.

 

[asmit4]

WHY does DW NOT have a policy in place at FW???? Anybody want to hazard a guess?

I am going to bet that they don't have one b/c they are making $$$ off of 'stupid tourists' who do this. They LIKE it when people do this b/c they make more $$$. I'm talking DW corporate who makes these types of policies/decisions.

Also, to those who say there is not a value in this? $42 a day would get you free parking, DDP which saves $$$ year round depending on the family, perhaps even FREE DDP if you book during Sept., KTTW cards with charging ability, and EMH....

Maybe I'm just odd, but these things are for SURE worth 42 bucks- to me they'd be worth 100, as I've stated I'd be willing to book a value just to get them. In all honest, I saw no moral issue with this at all whether you book FW, or any other resort.....UNTIL I came on this board last week and asked a simple question- IS there a policy or NOT?

LOADS of people slammed me for it. Maybe I'm just morally bankrupt but I hadn't even thought of it as a moral issue- the question is "Does DW have a policy" That's all I wanted to know.

After having read all of the posts, I'm on the fence about it and I can't say 1 way or the other whether or not I will do this in the future. I'm a little uneasy about the booking FW b/c of so many posts about it being morally wrong. I'm just not convinced of that yet.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I have a great idea - for those who want to stay offsite but use a FW site for the "perks" thereby preventing a family who can only afford to camp from enjoying a Disney vacation, why not open your offsite accommodations to this family? Surely you would have an extra sofa or bedroom for them to stay in. So pony up, folks. If you want to use up a camping site, open your hearts and your home to that camping family who can't go to Disney. I'll be waiting to see your offer on a thread in the near future.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Also, to those who say there is not a value in this? $42 a day would get you free parking, DDP which saves $$$ year round depending on the family, perhaps even FREE DDP if you book during Sept., KTTW cards with charging ability, and EMH....

.

You need to do some homework. Free dining plan is not offered to guests at the campsites, only the cabins, so I guess Disney messed that one up for you.

I would refer you to my previous post since you feel no moral violation in doing this.

 

[des1954]

I don't think we need to be calling anyone stupid

AND there are some benefits, otherwise there wouldn't be such a long discussion on this thread.

If you lived in Florida, you'd understand. Ever see people stop in the middle of a busy highway just to take a picture? Yes, I mean IN THE DEAD MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!! I call THAT stupid - and people do it all the time at WDW (and other places in Florida) and they usually have out of state plates on their cars or a rental vehicle.

I understand fully about wanting to save some money - don't we all?? The only benefits gained are to the people who are working the loop holes. If you can't afford a "true" Disney Vacation, then wait til you can or put up with what you can afford. By booking a campsite you have no intention to use just so you can wrangle some benefits is denying another family their Disney Vacation.

Ft. Wilderness has 824 campsites. It is a very limited vacation option. It's too bad that people are so self-centered that they just can't understand this concept. Nope!!! It's all about ME!!! So, yes, it is stupid thinking.

 

[Us3]

After having read all of the posts, I'm on the fence about it and I can't say 1 way or the other whether or not I will do this in the future. I'm a little uneasy about the booking FW b/c of so many posts about it being morally wrong. I'm just not convinced of that yet.

I think if you're actually using the site at FW or the room at the All-Star, you shouldn't feel bad about it or care what anyone thinks. But if you were only booking it for benefits (like saving on parking etc)...that's what bothers me because it's very possible you're using a site or room someone else could have actually occupied. But you mentioned coming back for naps and relaxing with your young child. You *are* using the room and/or site...and there is nothing wrong with that. This is my opinion anyway! (who cares if you are in the room for 2 hours or 8 hours??)

 

[aribelle]

I have a great idea - for those who want to stay offsite but use a FW site for the "perks" thereby preventing a family who can only afford to camp from enjoying a Disney vacation, why not open your offsite accommodations to this family? Surely you would have an extra sofa or bedroom for them to stay in. So pony up, folks. If you want to use up a camping site, open your hearts and your home to that camping family who can't go to Disney. I'll be waiting to see your offer on a thread in the near future.

I can just see it now....ebay listing for someone's campsite....they paid Disney and aren't going to stay there....you pay them and you can have the space, but they get the KTTW card.

 

[aribelle]

How do you know that those empty sites are being used in the way OP is asking about (i.e. paying to get the benefits but not living there?).

I asked a CM.

So did the CM say there wasn't someone physically sleeping there last night but no reason why, or did they specifically say they knew that someone had booked it just for the benefits?

If the CM said someone wasn't sleeping there last night, then it is still very possible that they got held up in traffic, had to cancel last minute, or something else. I doubt many people do as the OP asked about, and there are plenty of noshows.

On the other hand, if the CM said someone booked it just for the benefits, then I think that's telling you that Disney doesn't have a problem with this strategy. They're condoning it even, by not doing something about it. If they felt it was against their rules somewhere, they certainly could tell the person they had to give up their reservation if they weren't going to use it. Or if they couldn't find the person to evict them, they could certainly turn off their KTTW cards to force them to have to go to Customer Service for help, or lose their dining plan benefits, etc. But, my guess is IF, and that's a big IF, they knew or cared to know, they wouldn't care, so long as the payments had been made. As another poster pointed out, from a business standpoint, they don't care......they have a paid for room. They were paid $38 a night for each adult's DDP.....that means that the person is eating inside Disney instead of off property or at their rented condo/home. Most people who stay offsite eat several meals not at Disney, so Disney would lose that money, but in this case, they collected for the DDP....if you don't eat on site and use your credits you don't get a refund, so again, they won't care if you don't eat....they already got paid.

So, where is the downside for Disney? They still collect money for a room/site, they get paid for DDP...they don't care if there are a few extra bodies in the park for EMH, and parking is a negligble loss anyway, as it's actually factored into the room cost...so those who don't have a car are paying for it anyway (though using the bus probably equals the cost).

The only downside is for other guests who had hoped to stay there, but can't because it's booked. Do you get mad at people who book a vacation 10 months out, make all their ADRs at the 180 days mark, possibly meaning you can't get the room you want nor the ADRs you want....and then last minute they have to cancel? Their cancellation didn't help you, because you already booked at a higher level of resort, or changed your dates, or couldn't go. Of course not....in fact I've seen many times people post they had to cancel their whole vacation and replies come pouring in with sympathy and condolences. Haven't yet see someone say "yippee, now I am going to call CRO and grab their room and ADRs before someone else does".

Disney is pretty savvy about what is happening on their property. One of the biggest flamings that I see is for people who openly admit that they use a Refillable Mug at either a different resort than they're staying....or an even heavier flaming offense, bring their last mug back on their next vacation. Obviously, if Disney really thought this was unacceptable, there are a zillion ways that they can make it nearly impossible to do......until the last year or two, they had different mugs for each resort, so it would have been easy for a CM to spot a "foreign" mug and politely tell the guest they can't use that here. But they don't. Instead, last year (or maybe the year before) they changed the mugs so that they are ALL identical....now the CM has no way to know what resort you paid for....or if you even did this stay or at all (do you have to show a room key to buy a mug???? or can someone eating at a resort food court living off site pay for one, they appear to be out in the open). If they really wanted to stop this, they'd simply change the design every month, or every quarter, or even every year, have CM's police for foreign mugs. But they don't, they actually made it easier to cheat the system. I imagine that the savings in having one design was worth it for them....do you really imagine that everyone in your party drinks $12 worth of DISNEY's COST of soda? Soda is the leading profit makers for most restaurants as it costs pennies per cup but they charge dollars! Not just Disney, but all restaurants.

Now...for hard ticket events, like Pirates and Princess (we went to those, so I know about them, but I'll venture to guess that Halloween and Christmas parties are the same)....they have found a way to prevent guests from cheating the system. The wristband color changes every night.....and it's not consistent enough to be able to say "Mondays are blue".....it's random enough to make it incredibly difficult for a guest wanting to cheat to have somehow accumulated every different color band to reuse. And...Disney knows these are resold on Ebay....but they don't do anything to stop those sales, there are people selling things like this, and AAA parking passes, and even MYW tickets, and they have been for months (look at their feedback) or years without being stopped. Do you really think Disney doesn't know. By the time you bought enough color bands to be sure you can find the right one for a particular night, you've probably paid for a ticket, lol. Might be an interesting poll to find out how many different colors they use.

Disney as a business knows that some people are going to find ways to cheat them.....it's an impossible goal to try to stop them all, so instead they pick and choose which they are actually losing money on, like the parties, and find ways to stop those cheaters. The others, they chalk up to the cost of doing business. Same thing about not requiring a parent to prove a child's age.....not a difficult thing to require after all....but they don't. So lot's of people have children who are miraculously 2 years 10 months old even though they certainly appear pretty tall for that age, lol....or the 9 1/2 year old who also appears not only very tall but ahem, developed? My girls were only 3 months past "child" age when we went....I wish I could have paid for a child's AP instead of an adult, but I couldn't bring myself to do that, nor did I want to tell my child to lie if asked about their age (that would have been worse to me than my own lying!).

Disney obviously decided that people buying tickets and then sharing them was not a wise business plan, and put the finger scans in to prevent this....but you know what, I'll venture to guess that on any given day there are hundreds who get through it unscathed. Not because Disney is letting them, but because they discovered a loop hole that they could use....I can't begin to tell you how many times my AP would fail the fingerscan....why, I have no clue, but probably half the times I tried it they had to reset it.....oooo, a loophole...if you can hold your finger so it's not obvious, but it still fails....you MIGHT get your fingerscan reset too.....and if it's an "illegal" ticket and you get it reset you won. But, I wouldn't risk not getting in for a savings of even 90% of the ticket cost...but there are others willing to try it for a mere 10% savings, or anything in between.

Of course, the final say is what you are willing to do....OP apparently is at least considering doing this (and from looking at his few previous posts he's already stayed at FW so he knows the set up). It isn't a benefit that I would even want.....so I don't even have to wrestle with the "right/wrong" question. My gut says it's not quite fair....can't totally pinpoint why, just doesn't feel ok, so I probably wouldn't. But....legally it's not wrong, and Disney appears to know about it and not do anything, so it's not against any policy they have that they can use to prevent it....and believe me, they can easily make such a policy to stop it in the future if they want.

So, as with many gray areas of the law, it all comes down to letting your conscience be your guide...if it bothers you don't do it...if you think it's perfectly fine, do it....if you're somewhere in between, you'll have to wrestle yourself.

 

[asmit4]

I have a great idea - for those who want to stay offsite but use a FW site for the "perks" thereby preventing a family who can only afford to camp from enjoying a Disney vacation, why not open your offsite accommodations to this family? Surely you would have an extra sofa or bedroom for them to stay in. So pony up, folks. If you want to use up a camping site, open your hearts and your home to that camping family who can't go to Disney. I'll be waiting to see your offer on a thread in the near future.

I know you meant this as a joke, but I'll bite.

We probably won't do this for a long time, as we don't have a large family yet and values work for us now. But in the next 5-8 years, we will be in a position to make this decision. I know you are not going to believe me, but I would totally do this. Of course I'd have to know a titch about the family before we went- maybe we could IM or e-mail for a month or 2, but if we rented a 6 bedroom house, I would totally consider taking in a family that couldn't afford to go- I think this would be a wonderful thing to teach your children. Maybe in the future I could find someone on the boards that had to cancel or is considering cancelling due to financial strain and offer up 1/2 the house.

My husband and I have already talked about going and renting a house alone in a few years. We have already considered and will most likely be offering up 1/2 the house to my aunt and uncle. They have 2 children and are struggling financially. They most likely won't ever take their kids to DW unless they can find a super cheap way to do it. We've talked about having them drive with us and splitting gas costs, and then we'd pay for the house. They'd just have to afford tickets. I know this is a family thing but I seriously think we'd consider doing this for people who aren't family.

I have heard of sites/groups that offer kids/families trips that otherwise can't afford to go. I think DW has something like this and it's been posted on the boards- something about getting help to afford it. I'd love to donate to something like this too and have our kids donate in the future. Giving back is great!

 

[aribelle]

And as for Disney being double paid for a room, isn't that just what the airlines do? If you don't show up for your flight they certainly don't leave that seat empty. They resell it. Why should hotel rooms or camping sites be any different. You vacate or not show up, they should be able to fill that spot with someone who wants it.

Well, the difference is that it's a written law about the hotel, don't know that it is for the airline. And it's also different in the ability of using your hotel.....check in at WDW resorts is 4pm.....but you aren't required to arrive by 4pm (or by anytime for that matter). You can arrive at 9pm, midnight, 2 am, even 7am the next morning. And when you do arrive you'll expect the room that you paid for to be available to you (provided it's after the 4pm check in of course, I'm talking 7am the next morning). If you only want to sleep in your room for a couple hours before you are required to depart (check out is 11am I believe), that's your business.

An airline however, is not required to keep the plane on the ground waiting for you to show up. And that's part of the contract that they have with you....you are provided the ability to board the flight that leaves at a specific time. I pay for a flight on Airline X that will leave at 4:28pm. It is in their rules that you must arrive at the gate 15 minutes prior to departure OR YOU MAY FORFEIT YOUR SEAT, so that would be 4:03pm. At that time, you have not arrived and they resell your seat to someone on standby. Your flight takes off. You arrive at 4:40......you actually don't have any right to expect that they'll put you on another flight, though most airlines will......on standby, just like that person who got your other seat, the one you actually paid for. However, because there was a REQUIREMENT that you arrive by a specific time to get your paid for seat, and you FAILED to fulfill your side of the contract by arriving on time, they actually have no obligation to put you on another flight. Now....that would be really horrible customer relations, so I'm sure they wouldn't do that...but what if your flight left at 4:28pm, and you didn't show up at the airport until midnight.....would they still be as accomodating, I doubt it.

Hotels only have a time that you can NOT check in BEFORE......not a requirement that you check in by a certain time (exception being the hotel that didn't take a credit card deposit can and usually does say, that you must arrive by 6pm (or whatever their policy is), or they won't hold your UNpaid for room. But the credit card will hold your room until check out the next morning, because you bought and paid for it for the period of 4pm to 11am the next day.

Another thing I see asked quite often on DIS and other Disney boards is "my flight doesn't leave until 8pm, can I get a late check out until then?". THe answer is always no.....the resorts MAY extend your check out time but the consensus seems to be that 1pm is the latest. This is because they still have to clean these rooms before the person paying for it to be ready for them at 4pm arrives. Can you imagine arriving at 4pm and being told you can't have the room until 8pm because the other guest's flight doesn't leave until then! You'd be in an absolute outrage, and rightly so. Your contract with them is for 4pm to 11am and that's all. They don't have to grant you a late check out.....and sometimes they can't. I don't know for sure, but logic suggests that since they require you to request the late check out the night before (rather than asking for it at check in a week earlier), is so that they can grant late check outs to a specific number of rooms ONLY....in other words, they know that there are 100 rooms being checked out of this morning, and that the housekeepers have 5 hours to clean those rooms to be ready for the next guest and that they can do 20 rooms an hour (made up numbers of course)....so they know that they have to have 40 rooms check out on time so that during those first 2 hours the housekeepers can keep up their pace. So if you happen to be the 61st person to request a late check out, guess what they'll say no. But number 1-60 will probably get a yes. Again, all made up numbers, lots of variables like the person who late check outs at 11:55, etc...but you get the idea. If they allowed all 100 rooms to not check out until 1pm, they'd either have to hire more housekeepers to get more rooms turned over on time....or the guest checking in at 4pm might not have a room available. Of course, you also have the variable of not everyone arrives at 4:01 asking for their room. I'm sure there is a very specific science to it, not too different from the ADR system, because you know they overbook the restaurants to accomodate no shows, at the ones that you don't have to pay first at least. They also estimate how long it will take an average table to eat and leave....and so if you linger over coffee you're messing with their numbers, but the family who gobbles and leaves earlier....well, you can see that this can go either way too.

That's actually what I think Disney does better than almost any other hotel, restaurant or entertainment that I've attended....they've got these statistics done to a science and 99% of the time it seems to work. They can move more people in less time than I've ever seen....and we travel quite a bit so I've seen hotels and restaruants that can't handle small amounts of business as efficiently, forget booked up nights!

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I can just see it now....ebay listing for someone's campsite....they paid Disney and aren't going to stay there....you pay them and you can have the space, but they get the KTTW card.

You need to read my post again. I am suggesting they allow a family who can't camp stay with them in their condo or vacation home.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I know you meant this as a joke, but I'll bite.

We probably won't do this for a long time, as we don't have a large family yet and values work for us now. But in the next 5-8 years, we will be in a position to make this decision. I know you are not going to believe me, but I would totally do this. Of course I'd have to know a titch about the family before we went- maybe we could IM or e-mail for a month or 2, but if we rented a 6 bedroom house, I would totally consider taking in a family that couldn't afford to go- I think this would be a wonderful thing to teach your children. Maybe in the future I could find someone on the boards that had to cancel or is considering cancelling due to financial strain and offer up 1/2 the house.

My husband and I have already talked about going and renting a house alone in a few years. We have already considered and will most likely be offering up 1/2 the house to my aunt and uncle. They have 2 children and are struggling financially. They most likely won't ever take their kids to DW unless they can find a super cheap way to do it. We've talked about having them drive with us and splitting gas costs, and then we'd pay for the house. They'd just have to afford tickets. I know this is a family thing but I seriously think we'd consider doing this for people who aren't family.

I have heard of sites/groups that offer kids/families trips that otherwise can't afford to go. I think DW has something like this and it's been posted on the boards- something about getting help to afford it. I'd love to donate to something like this too and have our kids donate in the future. Giving back is great!

As far as I know, Disney doesn't do a background check when they rent the campsite, so no way. If you're gonna rent the site for bennies, then offer the extra bedroom to whomever would have rented the campsite. My guess is it's not ever gonna happen.

 

[aribelle]

I know you meant this as a joke, but I'll bite.

We probably won't do this for a long time, as we don't have a large family yet and values work for us now. But in the next 5-8 years, we will be in a position to make this decision. I know you are not going to believe me, but I would totally do this. Of course I'd have to know a titch about the family before we went- maybe we could IM or e-mail for a month or 2, but if we rented a 6 bedroom house, I would totally consider taking in a family that couldn't afford to go- I think this would be a wonderful thing to teach your children. Maybe in the future I could find someone on the boards that had to cancel or is considering cancelling due to financial strain and offer up 1/2 the house.

My husband and I have already talked about going and renting a house alone in a few years. We have already considered and will most likely be offering up 1/2 the house to my aunt and uncle. They have 2 children and are struggling financially. They most likely won't ever take their kids to DW unless they can find a super cheap way to do it. We've talked about having them drive with us and splitting gas costs, and then we'd pay for the house. They'd just have to afford tickets. I know this is a family thing but I seriously think we'd consider doing this for people who aren't family.

I have heard of sites/groups that offer kids/families trips that otherwise can't afford to go. I think DW has something like this and it's been posted on the boards- something about getting help to afford it. I'd love to donate to something like this too and have our kids donate in the future. Giving back is great!

My family has never shared a vacation home with strangers, but we do open our house on Easter, Thanksgiving and CHristmas (and sometimes other holidays) to friends that would otherwise be alone, and to complete strangers that we hear about from friends who are down and out and planning to have hot dogs and beans for Christmas dinner type thing. I love to cook huge meals, and with only 2 kids, need more people to eat it! It's a wonderful thing to do and DOES teach my kids a lot about helping those less fortunate than them. For their birthday party they asked for no gifts but instead bring canned foods for our church's food pantry which was almost empty. It was the greatest birthday party they had, and the best attended, lol. We had it at the church so we had extra room and could invite everyone. We had hot dogs and potato salad and a big homemade cake that leaned to one side, but it was marvelous. We seldom do birthday parties for the girls, instead we do something as a family, so this was really special in many ways.

Disney isn't the organizer of this....but there is an organization called "Give the Kids the World" (www.gtkw.org) that works simliar to Make a Wish foundation but only at Disney (Make a Wish grants a wide variety of wishes not just trips to Disney). They have a "village" where the guests can stay so they don't particularly need a home, but I'd venture to bet there are other ways that everyone here could help them. We send them a quarterly check as they are one of our "tithe" charities. Occasionally we send them material things that we know the kids would enjoy as well. Especially when there is a huge sale of Disney character items somewhere, I've been known to buy out the stock and send it to them. If you want to tour the village on your next visit, they'll let you....it's a very emotionally moving thing to see!

 

[aribelle]

And as for Disney being double paid for a room, isn't that just what the airlines do? If you don't show up for your flight they certainly don't leave that seat empty. They resell it. Why should hotel rooms or camping sites be any different. You vacate or not show up, they should be able to fill that spot with someone who wants it.

Well, the difference is that it's a written law about the hotel, don't know that it is for the airline. And it's also different in the ability of using your hotel.....check in at WDW resorts is 4pm.....but you aren't required to arrive by 4pm (or by anytime for that matter). You can arrive at 9pm, midnight, 2 am, even 7am the next morning. And when you do arrive you'll expect the room that you paid for to be available to you (provided it's after the 4pm check in of course, I'm talking 7am the next morning). If you only want to sleep in your room for a couple hours before you are required to depart (check out is 11am I believe), that's your business.

An airline however, is not required to keep the plane on the ground waiting for you to show up. And that's part of the contract that they have with you....you are provided the ability to board the flight that leaves at a specific time. I pay for a flight on Airline X that will leave at 4:28pm. It is in their rules that you must arrive at the gate 15 minutes prior to departure OR YOU MAY FORFEIT YOUR SEAT, so that would be 4:03pm. At that time, you have not arrived and they resell your seat to someone on standby. Your flight takes off. You arrive at 4:40......you actually don't have any right to expect that they'll put you on another flight, though most airlines will......on standby, just like that person who got your other seat, the one you actually paid for. However, because there was a REQUIREMENT that you arrive by a specific time to get your paid for seat, and you FAILED to fulfill your side of the contract by arriving on time, they actually have no obligation to put you on another flight. Now....that would be really horrible customer relations, so I'm sure they wouldn't do that...but what if your flight left at 4:28pm, and you didn't show up at the airport until midnight.....would they still be as accomodating, I doubt it.

Hotels only have a time that you can NOT check in BEFORE......not a requirement that you check in by a certain time (exception being the hotel that didn't take a credit card deposit can and usually does say, that you must arrive by 6pm (or whatever their policy is), or they won't hold your UNpaid for room. But the credit card will hold your room until check out the next morning, because you bought and paid for it for the period of 4pm to 11am the next day.

Another thing I see asked quite often on DIS and other Disney boards is "my flight doesn't leave until 8pm, can I get a late check out until then?". THe answer is always no.....the resorts MAY extend your check out time but the consensus seems to be that 1pm is the latest. This is because they still have to clean these rooms before the person paying for it to be ready for them at 4pm arrives. Can you imagine arriving at 4pm and being told you can't have the room until 8pm because the other guest's flight doesn't leave until then! You'd be in an absolute outrage, and rightly so. Your contract with them is for 4pm to 11am and that's all. They don't have to grant you a late check out.....and sometimes they can't. I don't know for sure, but logic suggests that since they require you to request the late check out the night before (rather than asking for it at check in a week earlier), is so that they can grant late check outs to a specific number of rooms ONLY....in other words, they know that there are 100 rooms being checked out of this morning, and that the housekeepers have 5 hours to clean those rooms to be ready for the next guest and that they can do 20 rooms an hour (made up numbers of course)....so they know that they have to have 40 rooms check out on time so that during those first 2 hours the housekeepers can keep up their pace. So if you happen to be the 61st person to request a late check out, guess what they'll say no. But number 1-60 will probably get a yes. Again, all made up numbers, lots of variables like the person who late check outs at 11:55, etc...but you get the idea. If they allowed all 100 rooms to not check out until 1pm, they'd either have to hire more housekeepers to get more rooms turned over on time....or the guest checking in at 4pm might not have a room available. Of course, you also have the variable of not everyone arrives at 4:01 asking for their room. I'm sure there is a very specific science to it, not too different from the ADR system, because you know they overbook the restaurants to accomodate no shows, at the ones that you don't have to pay first at least. They also estimate how long it will take an average table to eat and leave....and so if you linger over coffee you're messing with their numbers, but the family who gobbles and leaves earlier....well, you can see that this can go either way too.

That's actually what I think Disney does better than almost any other hotel, restaurant or entertainment that I've attended....they've got these statistics done to a science and 99% of the time it seems to work. They can move more people in less time than I've ever seen....and we travel quite a bit so I've seen hotels and restaruants that can't handle small amounts of business as efficiently, forget booked up nights!

 

[aribelle]

actually they aren't illegal. there is no law that says you must state the correct age of your child and no police officer will give you a ticket if someone reported that your child was 3 years and 3 months and not 2 years 11 months and 25 days.

I disagree.....let me cut/paste the definition of fraud from dictionary.com for you:

deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. ​

If you are not giving your child's proper age in order to PROFIT or GAIN from paying the proper price of a ticket, that is fraud. And fraud is illegal.

SO, different word from stealing, but same illegal activity. And, although I doubt that Disney would ever do it, they could in fact have you arrested and brought up on fraud charges. But again, as I said in my big long post...Disney knows about a lot of fraud and scams and other things happening that lower their profits, but chooses not to do so. No unlike if you're caught shoplifting, many stores will simply request that you leave instead of calling the police. It's likely more about not making a scene in front of other customers, rather than them accepting your shoplifting. I believe that I've read that Disney will evict you from the park, take away your tickets and put you on their banned list.....to some of us, that is a worse punishment than being arrested by the police!!

 

[asmit4]

Thank you for the information! I'm going to look into that site.

As with many things- morals are highly debatable. I am 100% sure that there are things that I feel are not morally wrong that others do. (as exhibited by the sheer # of posts/drama on this issue, and another issue that comes to mind- gay days discussions on the boards, refillable mugs, I could go on and on)

As with most things, you need to let your conscience be your guide- beyond that, you can look to your church for guidance, and even ask family/friends on their thoughts no matter what the issue might be that you are debating.

I may very well disagree with lots of people on a host of issues, but I won't be rude to people b/c of their beliefs, I won't call them morally bankrupt or call them out and say they are part of a 'me me society', I also won't call them stupid. We differ in what we feel is morally wrong. That's ok.

 

[Goofyz3girls]

OMG people lets give this a break.Morally responsible how can you say that.If someone wants to do it,fine.Whats the big deal.It's their money and they can spend it anyway they want whether at home,WDW or where ever life takes them (last time I checked this was the USA).For all you who say...you might take away the last camping spot in FW from a family who might need it.....I say they will have to just go at another time.We all have had to change plans for a ressie we wanted and couldn't get (check the waitlist) need I say more.What about the people with double adr's or rental cars (you know who you are) go after them they are the ones that cost us to spend more money.Lets all put our tissues down and not worry about what might happen and say to the person go right ahead and go for it.If it saves them money great because the suits in the WDW Corporation are only worried about how to make money for the shareholders not save you money.If you think any different,then you are really in Fantasy World.
BTW.......not that I agree with it,but how can you try to guilt someone out of doing it.When they make it a rule fine but until then big deal.