Question about back to back reservations and multiple Magic Bands

[jhomuth]

We have reservations over Halloween, but due to the way we had to book them, they are 2 back to back reservations. I'm nervous about the whole check-out/check-back-in deal. It would be bad enough to have to pack up and relocate to another room if we were in a hotel. But to have to change sites mid-vacation with an rv...more than I can handle even thinking about.

So my question is, what are the odds that we'll be able to stay in the same site? I know lots of people at the Fort do multiple ressies due to the Fort's popularity.

Also, with 2 ressies comes 2 sets of Magic Bands. How on earth will that work? Will I have to get our passes re-linked with the new set of bands once our first ressie is done? And how do I do FP+? I had a major headache making ADR's due to our 2 ressies starting on different dates. I had to wait until I could book for our second ressie, to make ADR's for our whole trip, essentially losing 10 days or so to make ADR's. It was a big mess. It all worked out, but I really am not looking forward to that whole mess again when it comes time to make FP+.

And last, is there any way to merge these 2 ressies? I saw on another thread that it is possible, if you can get the right CM. But these were booked through a travel agent (not a booking site, but an independent TA), so I doubt Disney can do anything to merge them, am I correct?

 

[ilovedisneymm]

If you are staying 30 days or less, call and have them merge your reservations into one.

Merging will solve your magic band issue too.

I'm not sure how it works when booking through a TA but worth calling and requesting a merge, if Disney can't I would go back to the TA and have them take care of it. Why did you book through a TA instead of going through MDE and doing it yourself? Just curious?

I have two ressies just a week ago. It took one phone call and he was able to merge them, no problem. I could have just been lucky with that phone call but luck has never been on my side.

 

[garneska]

We did this in jan. We had two ressies back to back and for some reason the TA could not merge them. We had no issue staying in our same site. They had us checked in for both ressies. I did get two sets of magic bands. You can have 7 bands linked per person (depending who you ask it can be more, I stick with 7). You should be able to use either one interchangeably. They are linked to your MDE account and the ticket is on the account.

Only issue we had was our parking tag. They only printed the first week one so I went back to checkin to get the new tag for the tow. We do drive to parks some of the time.

 

[jhomuth]

Kris, thanks so much, this puts my mind at ease. Since we went through a TA, only she can merge the ressies and I'd rather not put her through that trouble if it's all no big deal in the end. I'll leave them as is.

 

[jhomuth]

Melissa, on our last trip, we couldn't get the dates we wanted. We knew of one of the TA's who stays at Disney and had her card...she was able to get us our dates with no problems. She's a super nice lady and I like to support people who help me out. Also, for this trip, we wanted to book early to make sure we could get in, but didn't yet know our exact dates. She helped us overbook our stay and then cancel the dates we ended up not needing. Something I could have done myself? Yeah, sure. But given how much I hate Disney's website, and don't like how much time it takes to do anything over the phone, it was super easy to just do it quickly through email with her.

 

[Goofy14sure]

We had 4 reservations in February, the last days only opened up right before the trip, Disney said they could merge them but I would loose all of my fast passes so I just let them stay the same. The only hassle was going to the front desk to checkout and check in for each reservation. It wasn't bad tho, everyone was supper nice, the only kink was that they left off charging privileges on the last check in, so I had to use real money!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

So my question is, what are the odds that we'll be able to stay in the same site?

1) I hate to say, "It Depends."
2) But, it depends.
3) If possible, we try to keep folks in the same room or on the same site.
4) But, not always possible.
5) Think of room/site assignments as a giant Rubik's Cube.
. . . trying to fit varying guests with varying checkin/checkout dates
. . . if you were staying 2-weeks would you wan tot move so someone else could stay 2 more days in their spot?
. . . gets REALLY complicated.
6) At this time, don't worry about it and just go-with-the-flow.
. . . best: you can stay on one site
. . . worse: you must pack up and move
. . . worst: mother-in-law decides to join you

 

[KristinU]

We had 3 or 4 reservations over Christmas this past year and didn't have to move. Our reservations were linked but not merged. I just had to swing by the reception outpost every "new" morning to check in again. Not too big a hassle, I did it first thing after walking the dogs, so probably by 7am I had it done and we could go on with our days. I should mention that all of our reservations were the same level of site, I think that would greatly improve your odds of not moving.

Multiple Magic Bands were explained to me this way, which really helped me understand: think of your MDE account as your bank account and your magic bands as your debit cards. You can have multiple debit cards on one account (ie. spouses) but they all come out of the same account. So it doesn't matter which one you use, they all work. We had another multiple reservation trip last November, so by the time Christmas rolled around we each had a handful of MBs.

 

[jhomuth]

TRS, thanks for the info! I totally understand it not being guaranteed, but I feel more comfortable just leaving them as is now. And hey, if we have to move, we move, and no big deal. That day is a Fort day for us anyway, so it wouldn't be throwing a wrench in our plans if we have to move. And yes, far better than having my mother-in-law (or stepmother-in-law) come with us lol!

KristinU, thanks for all of the info and your experience. And your description of the MB's helps a ton, thanks!