So, I decided to go for it. Just booked the rooms with Orbitz and called to add my kids. She put me on hold to contact the hotel and came back saying that she couldn't add the kids and that I should cancel my reservation and rebook with 4 people. Well, that's not happening. I know this can be done. Wish me luck with customer service person number 2.
UPDATE: CSR number two did it! Disney must have been busy, because he was on hold with them for around 10-15 minutes (and came back twice to apologize that it was taking so long). However, he came back and said that the kids are added (though, he didn't ask their names, just their ages, so we'll see if I can deal with their names when i link up to
MDE....). I do have a Disney confirmation number now, so I'll get on that this afternoon when I'm finished taking down my Christmas decorations
Moral of the story...keep calling until someone can help you. I'm wondering if my first person didn't understand what I wanted, as she didn't ask the names or ages of the kids...though I did tell her I needed to add two children that were under 18. The second time I specifically said I needed to add my girls who were 10 and 12..,..
UPDATE 2: I've linked the new Orbitz reservation to MDE using the "12 digit starts with 4 Disney number" that I got from Orbitz when I added the girls. The number that shows in MDE is the Orbitz hotel ressie number, though. I never mentioned it, but that is how MDE handled it. I'm not concerned, just mentioning for others.
UPDATE 3: To continue sharing my experience. I finally got brave enough to believe all was well and cancel my original package through Disney. The CM was wonderful and it was done lickety split. While I had her on the phone, I mentioned that there is conflicting info about room requests and could I do that for my Orbitz ressie with her or did I need to call Orbitz. She said I should call Orbitz and there is also a place on MDE to note requests. I figure worst case, I'll just note it during online checkin....really I just want to make sure that the three rooms of our group are as next to each other as we can be, and try to have a ground floor to make things a bit easier for my MIL, who will be using a motorized
scooter when we head to the parks.