My Disney Experience question - bear with me

[umafuaba]

I have a trip coming up in September and I have many questions regarding MDE and my existing FastPass reservations. Here is my situation: I am the trip planner for a large group consisting of a total of 11 adults and 3 children. We booked a starting room-only resort reservation back in February, but due to changes in travel plans, changes in our desired resort, and pricing, I have since made additional room-only reservations with the plan being that I will ultimately cancel the ones I'm not using before the deadline and keep the main reservation. In certain situations, when I made a new resort reservation, I wasn't able to add the official MDE account on the guest list for the room (the person showed up on the drop-down menu, but would get an error message saying that this guest could only be added by phone), and in that case I would either add their name manually or just not add that guest to the reservation assuming I would be able to easily add it later. What this has created is many duplicate "Friends and Family" members in my list.

All park passes that have been purchased were purchased separate from the resort reservations. I have also made many ADRs for the group, and more importantly FastPass reservations. My goal now is to consolidate everything so that when I execute my MagicBand order everything will be linked correctly, but I am concerned that when I cancel my original resort reservation I might also be accidentally canceling my FastPasses.

I tried to call the phone number and I explained what I wanted to do but the CM was inexperienced and confused. After 40 minutes on the phone waiting for the CM to ask her superiors how to handle this I ended up having to hang up without reaching a resolution (my commute was over and I had to go into work).

I need to get this resolved but I am turning to this board to perhaps point me in the right direction and assist me with figuring out how to proceed. How can I cancel my resort reservations without sacrificing my FastPass reservations?

 

[Marionnette]

I have a trip coming up in September and I have many questions regarding MDE and my existing FastPass reservations. Here is my situation: I am the trip planner for a large group consisting of a total of 11 adults and 3 children. We booked a starting room-only resort reservation back in February, but due to changes in travel plans, changes in our desired resort, and pricing, I have since made additional room-only reservations with the plan being that I will ultimately cancel the ones I'm not using before the deadline and keep the main reservation. In certain situations, when I made a new resort reservation, I wasn't able to add the official MDE account on the guest list for the room (the person showed up on the drop-down menu, but would get an error message saying that this guest could only be added by phone), and in that case I would either add their name manually or just not add that guest to the reservation assuming I would be able to easily add it later. What this has created is many duplicate "Friends and Family" members in my list.

All park passes that have been purchased were purchased separate from the resort reservations. I have also made many ADRs for the group, and more importantly FastPass reservations. My goal now is to consolidate everything so that when I execute my MagicBand order everything will be linked correctly, but I am concerned that when I cancel my original resort reservation I might also be accidentally canceling my FastPasses.

I tried to call the phone number and I explained what I wanted to do but the CM was inexperienced and confused. After 40 minutes on the phone waiting for the CM to ask her superiors how to handle this I ended up having to hang up without reaching a resolution (my commute was over and I had to go into work).

I need to get this resolved but I am turning to this board to perhaps point me in the right direction and assist me with figuring out how to proceed. How can I cancel my resort reservations without sacrificing my FastPass reservations?

This is the mess that can happen when you start creating phantom friends to hold onto more than one room reservation.

The FP+ reservations are attached to the person/ticket combination that they were assigned to at the time of booking. If you re-assign that ticket to another name (even if that is the same person) the FP+ gets canceled. For example: Let's say that you have Francine and Franny as "friends". Both are the same person but Francine has been assigned a ticket and has FP+ reserved. However, in your final plans, it's Franny who ends up being the name on the room reservation that you decide to keep. If you re-assign Francine's ticket to Franny, all of Francine's FP+ are lost.

The only way around this would be to cancel those room reservations that you don't need once you are within 30+ days of your arrival so that they can be returned to inventory for someone who does want them. This won't cancel any of the FP+. Don't re-assign any of the tickets. Those people who now have FP+ under one name and a room reservation under another will have to use their tickets instead of their MB to access FP+ in the parks. Their MB will still be good for entering their rooms and for room charging (if permitted).

 

[umafuaba]

This is the mess that can happen when you start creating phantom friends to hold onto more than one room reservation.

The FP+ reservations are attached to the person/ticket combination that they were assigned to at the time of booking. If you re-assign that ticket to another name (even if that is the same person) the FP+ gets canceled. For example: Let's say that you have Francine and Franny as "friends". Both are the same person but Francine has been assigned a ticket and has FP+ reserved. However, in your final plans, it's Franny who ends up being the name on the room reservation that you decide to keep. If you re-assign Francine's ticket to Franny, all of Francine's FP+ are lost.

The only way around this would be to cancel those room reservations that you don't need once you are within 30+ days of your arrival so that they can be returned to inventory for someone who does want them. This won't cancel any of the FP+. Don't re-assign any of the tickets. Those people who now have FP+ under one name and a room reservation under another will have to use their tickets instead of their MB to access FP+ in the parks. Their MB will still be good for entering their rooms and for room charging (if permitted).

Upon arrival at the resort, is there a way to manually consolidate Francine's resort reservation with Franny's Park ticket onto ONE Magic Band, or will Francine/Franny be stuck for the rest of the trip using two different magic bands?

 

[Marionnette]

Upon arrival at the resort, is there a way to manually consolidate Francine's resort reservation with Franny's Park ticket onto ONE Magic Band, or will Francine/Franny be stuck for the rest of the trip using two different magic bands?

As far as MDE is concerned, they are two different people. Consolidating the two is an IT nightmare that you don't want to mess with while on vacation.

 

[umafuaba]

I'm willing to mess with it before the start of my vacation. Is this possible if I call the number, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Marionnette]

I'm willing to mess with it before the start of my vacation. Is this possible if I call the number, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

You would want to call Disney IT to see if they can fix this mess. However, they aren't the sharpest tools in the box. There's a good possibility that Francine/Franny could lose her FP+ reservations in the consolidations process. There are no guarantees.

One other possible solution would be to call Disney's reservation system and remove Franny from the room reservation and replace her with Francine. This can only be done once Francine's room reservation has been canceled and (this is a BIG one), Franny cannot be the lead name on the room reservation. The lead name is the only name on a room that cannot be changed without canceling the reservation completely.

 

[bumbershoot]

You would want to call Disney IT to see if they can fix this mess. However, they aren't the sharpest tools in the box. There's a good possibility that Francine/Franny could lose her FP+ reservations in the consolidations process. There are no guarantees.

I didn't find them to be unintelligent. At least not the phone IT people. They easily consolidated my two "sons" (I only have one, but one had stopped aging on MDE and he had gone into adult-ticket/dining-land), which also allowed all his MBs to be used seamlessly. We didnt' have FP+s made, though.

This is something to do ahead of time, though, NOT by the front desk.

 

[Tigger's ally]

This is the mess that can happen when you start creating phantom friends to hold onto more than one room reservation.

Tig's Ally really doesn't have anything to add to this thread, this old pirate just thinks it is so apropos that the post quoted comes from the person with a Pinochio avatar! Well done!