Planning help needed

[Minnesota]

After this many trips to WDW I am finding it amazing I keep running into things I don't know how to go about planning. There are 3 of us planning to go in mid october 2006. My question/problem is that I am currently the only one in the state of Minnesota, the other two are currently working out of state and will be flying home the beginning of October. How do we go about planning this trip when Cell signal is spotty and internet connection only happens about once a week, sometimes less. Time Zones also cause problems in that we both work mornings usually but with the time zone difference there is only a few hours where we could call on a land line that is shared by several other family members there.

Has anyone else planned a trip via snail mail? Any suggestions? The two other people trust me to plan but they want to pay their own parts and such to reap credit card benifits so we have to have some contact in purchasing.

Thanks for the help,
Minnesota

 

[Jrabbit910]

If you didnt book the vacation yet I would call up a represenative from Disney &/or a Travel Agent; let them know your situation and what you are trying to do. Since most of the CM's work round the clock they might be able to help you and contact the other two. Everyone will be able to supply there own information and you would be able to keep the log of everything that the Rep/ TA did. Once the tickets are payed for and the hotel is booked, you can plan the rest of the trip.
As for picking out the hotel, just think of the ones that you would like to go to throw them in a hat and pick out a name... (and the winner is........)
I hope this helps you out and GL planning.

 

[Darian]

After this many trips to WDW I am finding it amazing I keep running into things I don't know how to go about planning. There are 3 of us planning to go in mid october 2006. My question/problem is that I am currently the only one in the state of Minnesota, the other two are currently working out of state and will be flying home the beginning of October. How do we go about planning this trip when Cell signal is spotty and internet connection only happens about once a week, sometimes less. Time Zones also cause problems in that we both work mornings usually but with the time zone difference there is only a few hours where we could call on a land line that is shared by several other family members there.

Has anyone else planned a trip via snail mail? Any suggestions? The two other people trust me to plan but they want to pay their own parts and such to reap credit card benifits so we have to have some contact in purchasing.

Thanks for the help,
Minnesota

Hey there Minnesota I'm soooo jealous you get to go during the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival!!!! Don't worry, I'll help you anyway!

First of all, will any of you be sharing rooms? If you do, its going to be tough splitting up the costs. I've never heard of anyone putting multiple credit cards - from different people - on the same room account. Don't know about WDW but it sure didn't work for me at the DLR out in CA. So, if you are sharing rooms expect to just be reimbursed by your friends with a credit card check or normal check or cold hard cash.

If you are NOT sharing rooms you can make reservations for all three rooms, all under your reservation number and your credit card. When you and your friends check in, the cards for their rooms can then be changed to whatever credit card they choose. There should be no problem with this. I've done it before and it was no big deal. Now if your friends can get a special price for the rooms with one of their credit cards they would probably have to make their own reservation as special pricing like that is often subject to room availability. I may be wrong about that, but better safe than sorry.

OK so its hard to connect with your friends by cell phone, internet or land line and the only reliable method is snail mail right now, correct? Try your luck with cell phones (you can often get better reception by going outside or being upstairs away from your computer) and arrange exact dates for your trip and where you all want to stay. With just that decided upon you can proceed to make your plans. I'd encourage the person who has to share the phone with other family members to be the one to call you. If the family member is a teenager, they often have phones surgically attached to their ears and may need "motivation" to get them off the phone.

Just think, soon you will be walking around the World eating and drinking your way around EPCOT. I'm sooo jealous. I said that already but I'm really sincere. Best of luck!

 

[Mickeefan]

First of all, will any of you be sharing rooms? If you do, its going to be tough splitting up the costs. I've never heard of anyone putting multiple credit cards - from different people - on the same room account. Don't know about WDW but it sure didn't work for me at the DLR out in CA. So, if you are sharing rooms expect to just be reimbursed by your friends with a credit card check or normal check or cold hard cash.

I read another thread about this exact thing. It stated that your room cards (if sharing a room) will be "numbered" such as, card #1, card #2 and so on. Then if all cards have charging priveleges, the computer will show each purchase on whichever card is used. Then, they said that if you go to the desk the night before you are to check out, they will print you a list of everything charged to the key cards. It will seperate the purchases by cards (i.e. Card #1 purchases, card #2 purchases, etc.) I do not have first hand experience with this, as our trip is not until September. I am very hopeful this is the case, however.

Hope this helps.

 

[Minnesota]

Thanks for the quick replies here are the answers to some of your questions so that maybe someof you can continue to help me.

We have not booked yet - probably will do that about August to see if there are any deals like free dining.

As for the resort - 2 of 3 of us picked out the Coranado Springs Resort so the third person is just going to have to live with that we live in a democracy after all

We will be sharing a single room - I know I have been able to pay online with at least 2 dredit cards but the two I used had the last name in common, I don't know if they will let me do it with different last names. If it comes down to one or two of us oweing someone else so be it - we've worked it out every other year (every year since 1999)

As for the dredit card benifits - I get disney dollars they get airline miles so there wouldn't be any room discounts on theirs, maybe mine (hopefully) in that case it would all go on mine so we all could get the better deal

Cell signal is great for me here in Minnesota - they are in Alaska where things like mountains get in the way. Thanks for the advice though

Last - sorry you can't be at the Food and Wine festival. This will be my second time to it and second time to the Halloween party and can't wait to introduce my two friends to it. They didn't get to go with me last year (my first experience with the two events)

Again Thanks for the help,
Minnesota

 

[Mickeefan]

I book through Dreams Unlimited and you can make online payments. I would think that you could each make your own payments on their website. I would also think that you could each access the website to look at the reservation and the itinerary. All it takes is the reservation # and the password. I don't know if the travel agent would want to receive emails with questions and/or requests from all 3 of you. You might want to make one person in charge of contacting the agent.