No orphaned rooms?

[Callsdodisney]

I've been stalking the Universal website for about 10 days trying to add one night on to my 4 night reservation spanning NYE. Since I want to keep the same room for my entire trip, I've been looking for the exact same room type for my one specific day so I've watched a lot of inventory come and go.

About 4 days ago, our hotel (RP) said rooms were entirely sold out for the one additional night I was looking for. However, if I go back and change my dates to be the true length of my stay (now 5 nights), I have 5 different room choice options! I know Disney works their system so they won't have random orphaned rooms for one night.... does universal do the same? Interestingly, the other two premier resorts do have one night options on that day....

 

[nighttowll]

Sorry, maybe I am misunderstanding, but can you not just book the 5 day reservation that is available and cancel the 4 days?

Even if you book the exact same room type, there is no guarantee they will not make you move, and you do still have to check out and back in.

This question has come up before with different people reporting different experiences. I called them about this same issue this fall and was told they can't merge reservations and there was no guarantee I wouldn't have to move. I don't really understand it but something about how the computer pre-assigns rooms. It has no way to know you are the same person and might give your room to someone else. That probably has something to do with how many people check in online. I don't get why they can't merge reservations.

 

[Callsdodisney]

Our current room (a king suite) isn't one of the rooms available to book for 5 nights right now, otherwise I'd do that as I know it's the safest course of action. That said, yesterday a king suite did come up for the one night we need and I booked it. When I searched, that was the only type of room available for the night of Jan 2. If I opened the search up to all 5 nights we are there, I had 5 different room type options (and a king suite was not one of them). Which makes me think that Universal is trying to do what Disney does and make sure there is max occupancy and no rooms were orphaned. I just got lucky yesterday that the "orphan" was what we needed, because it wasn't giving me the option to book any of the other (obviously available) room that night.

 

[fla4fun]

Our current room (a king suite) isn't one of the rooms available to book for 5 nights right now, otherwise I'd do that as I know it's the safest course of action. That said, yesterday a king suite did come up for the one night we need and I booked it. When I searched, that was the only type of room available for the night of Jan 2. If I opened the search up to all 5 nights we are there, I had 5 different room type options (and a king suite was not one of them). Which makes me think that Universal is trying to do what Disney does and make sure there is max occupancy and no rooms were orphaned. I just got lucky yesterday that the "orphan" was what we needed, because it wasn't giving me the option to book any of the other (obviously available) room that night.

Glad you were able to get the extra night you needed. It is frustrating when you can see rooms available and can’t book them.