Park Reservations woes

[tjmw2727]

OP, I believe that you should be able to book a room only for the week you want using your AP discount. You should be able to then purchase a regular ticket, and add it to your account, and use that to make park reservations. You can then upgrade to your AP 60 days before. I don't know why this wouldn't work.
I don't believe the info you got from the CM is correct. If you don't want to attempt doing this by yourself online, try calling back and speaking to someone else.

This ^^

I had the same issue last spring, re-book the week you want with the AP discount if you still can. Then just purchase a ticket separately via MDE and link it to yourself, before you use the final day upgrade to the AP.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

The issue is:
1) we had Riverside booked at an AP discount rate.
2) I was VERY willing to just purchase tickets but the CM told me I could not do a "package with the AP room only rate". If I added park tickets it would be considered a "package" and AP DISCOUNT worthy. So this greatly increased our rate. The room for us would jump up an additional $150 per night + upfront costs of my tickets for 4 days. I would not get that AP rate. The room alone without the AP rate would cost me $900 more for same resort/same view.
So we re-booked the week previous at an AP rate (Coronado) but there is no availability for Christmas Party that week.
3) I believe AP renewal is 30 days prior or 60 days after your expiration date. If the CM and I am wrong on this please let me know.
If I am missing something please let me know what is the non issue? I was on the phone for 25 min with CM. She seemed very knowledgeable and sympathetic to my situation.

2. Why didn't you just purchase tickets? Why was a package brought up? I guess I'm sort of lost there. There was no need for a package at all. No idea why that was even brought up. Sorry. I'm not sure how no one was unaware that you can have a room reservation and just buy tickets. People do that every day, all the time.
3. Totally backwards. 60 days prior 30 days after. Both you and the CM.
CM was very NOT knowledgeable.
I've come across some dozies of bad CM and I think you may have won the award for one of the worse. So Sorry. Truly. You are stuck paying the price for some bad, bad info.

 

[lanejudy]

Apparently in order to make a park reservation you need a valid AP. Mine expires Dec 9th. So only 12/8 and 12/9 would I be able to make park reservations with my family. So we could not make all our park plans together. I offered the CM to buy regular park tickets at her suggestion but they she told me my room would jump an extra $900 for the stay + the up front cost of tickets. Once I chose to add tickets, I would forfeit the AP room only discount. So price of my trip jumped $900. Not fair considering this is all based on the fact I cannot renew my AP until 30 days prior (Nov 9th). Simply put......one must have a valid AP/ ticket for the dates they desire to make park reservations. I could make park reservation for Dec 8th and 9th........then I was blocked even despite traveling with a group and having a Disney room booked. Frustrating.

Unfortunately you spoke to a very poorly trained CM who mis-informed you on a number of points.

I've never heard of an "AP Package" -- a package includes Room + Tickets, those with an AP do not need tickets. Everyone on a "package" reservation must have the same components, so it is impossible to book you a package with just a ticket for you. (There is a "basic package" but that is room-only, no tickets for anybody.)

The AP renewal window is 60 days before expiration through 30 days after expiration. That entire 90-day period qualifies for renewal. You should be able to renew your AP in October (not November).

Call back. Speak to another CM. Book a room-only AP discount at Riverside for the week with the rest of the family. Then online buy a ticket for yourself. Make your theme park reservations to match the rest of the family. When October rolls around, call and renew your AP, using the separate ticket as a credit. They know how to do this (and if all else fails, leave it as-is and renew in-person once you arrive). What you want is definitely do-able. Please ignore anything that CM told you on the phone as it was so jumbled and incorrect that I can't even pick out the few words that may have been accurate info.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Apparently in order to make a park reservation you need a valid AP. Mine expires Dec 9th. So only 12/8 and 12/9 would I be able to make park reservations with my family. So we could not make all our park plans together. I offered the CM to buy regular park tickets at her suggestion but they she told me my room would jump an extra $900 for the stay + the up front cost of tickets. Once I chose to add tickets, I would forfeit the AP room only discount. So price of my trip jumped $900. Not fair considering this is all based on the fact I cannot renew my AP until 30 days prior (Nov 9th). Simply put......one must have a valid AP/ ticket for the dates they desire to make park reservations. I could make park reservation for Dec 8th and 9th........then I was blocked even despite traveling with a group and having a Disney room booked. Frustrating.

Here's what you do
Cancel whatever it is you've booked at the higher rates
Book your AP rooms at the dates you want
Buy tickets for the dates that are needed after your AP expires. Just buy them right now using your MDE account. No phone call needed. Assign them to you, and whoever else has an AP that will expire.
When you book your park reservations you will be given a choice to select which ticket media (AP or park ticket) is needed to use for the park reservation.
When you go to renew your AP have them apply the cost of that park ticket towards your AP renewal.
Don't call and ask any CM about this on the phone, not needed. All of this should be completed online using your MDE account without any phone interaction.
Sadly, there are too many CM that just give out bad info. There are good ones but there are bad ones. Avoid the headache. Do it yourself. It will work.

 

[MiaSRN62]

You should be able to purchase a ticket and use that to make reservations. Then upgrade it to your AP. If you were told that isn't possible, I think that person may be wrong?

It is possible....but I would need to forfeit the AP ROOM-ONLY discount. Me buying tickets, altered our AP discount to a "package" and we lose the discount. Thus bringing our bill for the same reservation up an additional $900. A bit steep for us considering this is all the fault of this park reservation system. I won't give Chapek another $900. It's just not right. Sorry I am not making this all clear. It's hard to write it all out. But adding tickets is a caveat to losing my AP discount and an additional approx $900 to my room bill (not including the tickets).

 

[lanejudy]

It is possible....but I would need to forfeit the AP ROOM-ONLY discount. Me buying tickets, altered our AP discount to a "package" and we lose the discount.

No. That was wrong information. The CM tried to force you into a package. You want a room-only AP discount for the resort. You need to buy the tickets separately. Do NOT add the tickets to your room, pay in full for the tickets as a separate transaction.

 

[patty57]

It is possible....but I would need to forfeit the AP ROOM-ONLY discount. Me buying tickets, altered our AP discount to a "package" and we lose the discount. Thus bringing our bill for the same reservation up an additional $900. A bit steep for us considering this is all the fault of this park reservation system. I won't give Chapek another $900. It's just not right. Sorry I am not making this all clear. It's hard to write it all out. But adding tickets is a caveat to losing my AP discount and an additional approx $900 to my room bill (not including the tickets).

I still think this is incorrect. I don't know why you can't book the room you want online using your AP discount. Then going back and purchasing a ticket and using that to make reservations.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

It is possible....but I would need to forfeit the AP ROOM-ONLY discount. Me buying tickets, altered our AP discount to a "package" and we lose the discount. Thus bringing our bill for the same reservation up an additional $900. A bit steep for us considering this is all the fault of this park reservation system. I won't give Chapek another $900. It's just not right. Sorry I am not making this all clear. It's hard to write it all out. But adding tickets is a caveat to losing my AP discount and an additional approx $900 to my room bill (not including the tickets).

No, it does not. You can go right now on to MDE and add a AP room to your cart and check it. Try it,. See for yourself

 

[wdw4rfam]

I don't know anyone who loves the park reservation system.

I do Then again I only come every 6 months and always stay on property. So I can book 10 days straight months out. We never go around when our passes expire because they expire in January so never an issue there either. I like the capped park attendance.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Here's what you do
Cancel whatever it is you've booked at the higher rates
Book your AP rooms at the dates you want
Buy tickets for the dates that are needed after your AP expires. Just buy them right now using your MDE account. No phone call needed. Assign them to you, and whoever else has an AP that will expire.
When you book your park reservations you will be given a choice to select which ticket media (AP or park ticket) is needed to use for the park reservation.
When you go to renew your AP have them apply the cost of that park ticket towards your AP renewal.
Don't call and ask any CM about this on the phone, not needed. All of this should be completed online using your MDE account without any phone interaction.
Sadly, there are too many CM that just give out bad info. There are good ones but there are bad ones. Avoid the headache. Do it yourself. It will work.

I did it....can't believe the room was still there at AP rate from 8:30 am! So room is booked. Now going to get those tickets. I am a FL RES......so I will have to upfront this cost when usually I just do monthly payments on my credit card. So that is another issue/ caveat of this park reservation stuff. But oh well. Just gonna do it. This is definitely one of the more difficult reservations I've had to do since this park reservation started. I appreciate it.......just putting more up-front than I wanted to (or should need to), but I am choosing to do it so I can vacation with family. Mine was the only one that would expire during our week (2 days in). Now to cancel Coronado. I hadn't even had my coffee yet when I called this morning.....but wish CM had suggested this. I will say there was a decent amount of mild frenzy this morning between the family that didn't have to happen if not for park reservations. Thanks again very much.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I do Then again I only come every 6 months and always stay on property. So I can book 10 days straight months out. We never go around when our passes expire because they expire in January so never an issue there either. I like the capped park attendance.

Guess you have never wanted to change your reservations while there?
I do all of the same things as you. Still despise it.
I've had too many days where we want to change plans and are stuck because reservations are no longer available

 

[patty57]

I do Then again I only come every 6 months and always stay on property. So I can book 10 days straight months out. We never go around when our passes expire because they expire in January so never an issue there either. I like the capped park attendance.

I don't feel that the parks are less crowded, so don't find any benefit to it at all.

 

[MiaSRN62]

2. Why didn't you just purchase tickets? Why was a package brought up? I guess I'm sort of lost there. There was no need for a package at all. No idea why that was even brought up. Sorry. I'm not sure how no one was unaware that you can have a room reservation and just buy tickets. People do that every day, all the time.
3. Totally backwards. 60 days prior 30 days after. Both you and the CM.
CM was very NOT knowledgeable.
I've come across some dozies of bad CM and I think you may have won the award for one of the worse. So Sorry. Truly. You are stuck paying the price for some bad, bad info.

Yep.....CM brought it up. She had me on hold for a bit then came back and said "lets do a package". Then that caused me to lose AP rate. Then she suggested the week prior......oh man. I was texting family and all at same time about what was going on. The CM was very nice but she went in another direction clearly..........

 

[lanejudy]

I will have to upfront this cost when usually I just do monthly payments on my credit card.

Paying upfront for tickets is definitely a downside of buying them separately -- but look at it this way, you'll have much less to pay for the AP next year.

You can check some of the authorized ticket resellers to get a little savings. All their tickets work the same as tickets direct from WDW and are upgradeable.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I did it....can't believe the room was still there at AP rate from 8:30 am! So room is booked. Now going to get those tickets. I am a FL RES......so I will have to upfront this cost when usually I just do monthly payments on my credit card. So that is another issue/ caveat of this park reservation stuff. But oh well. Just gonna do it. This is definitely one of the more difficult reservations I've had to do since this park reservation started. I appreciate it.......just putting more up-front than I wanted to (or should need to), but I am choosing to do it so I can vacation with family. Mine was the only one that would expire during our week (2 days in). Now to cancel Coronado. I hadn't even had my coffee yet when I called this morning.....but wish CM had suggested this. I will say there was a decent amount of mild frenzy this morning between the family that didn't have to happen if not for park reservations. Thanks again very much.

I'm so happy it worked.
I'm so irate at that CM.
There are no excuses for the P poor system that Disney has in place for their phone support.
I've manned a help desk before. Not a theme park but still, we had a key word data base where we'd enter the subject that was being discussed and that brought up the needed info so everyone gave out the correct info.
It won't work in every single situation like this but man, there's no excuse for them to not know about AP renewal dates. Or how to book a AP room and have them buy tickets to get park reservations. That should be in a system they all have access to read.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Yep.....CM brought it up. She had me on hold for a bit then came back and said "lets do a package". Then that caused me to lose AP rate. Then she suggested the week prior......oh man. I was texting family and all at same time about what was going on. The CM was very nice but she went in another direction clearly..........

I'm just furious at that CM for you.
Urgh! I often wonder if they are on a commission. I don't truly think they are but geeze that was an awful unneeded upsell
Oh curious, what number did you call? Just the general reservations?
I know there's a VIP Passholder support number but I've never tried it to see what they offer. Wonder if they can help with complex reservations like this and know more on how to do them if so

 

[patty57]

I'm just furious at that CM for you.
Urgh! I often wonder if they are on a commission. I don't truly think they are but geeze that was an awful unneeded upsell
Oh curious, what number did you call? Just the general reservations?
I know there's a VIP Passholder support number but I've never tried it to see what they offer. Wonder if they can help with complex reservations like this and know more on how to do them if so

My son briefly dated a Disney booking CM. She told me that they received compensation for booking packages, as opposed to room only. I didn't know her well, so have no idea if this is accurate or not.

 

[CarolynFH]

My son briefly dated a Disney booking CM. She told me that they received compensation for booking packages, as opposed to room only. I didn't know her well, so have no idea if this is accurate or not.

I have read more than one post from someone who thought they had booked a room only reservation and found out that they had booked a package. So I do think that the CMs get bonuses or some kind of compensation for getting people to book packages.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I don't feel that the parks are less crowded, so don't find any benefit to it at all.

They would HAVE to be less crowded if people are constantly saying they want to go to xx park and there’s no availability. If all those people were able to, they would be more crowded than they are. Common sense

 

[patty57]

They would HAVE to be less crowded if people are constantly saying they want to go to xx park and there’s no availability. If all those people were able to, they would be more crowded than they are. Common sense

Do you think wait times are less with park reservations? I think they are as bad, or worse, than they were prior to reservations. I don't think the "common sense" actually translates to a better experience in any way.