question about booking room only

[Kidgoingon40]

Hi, I have a quick question about booking a room only from disney. We have never done this before - only done magic your way package. We are only going to be staying at disney for two nights, aren't doing dining plan, and only are getting one day ticket (planning to do mnsshp the other night).

I was wondering, if you just book the hotel room, do you have to pay the full amount ahead of time like you do with a package? Or do you just pay the one night amount and then pay in full when you check out? I am asking because I really don't want to spend the money on the trip insurance, but if I do have to pay in full beforehand I might as well get the magic your way package and will definitely feel the need to pay for the trip insurance. We have never had to use the trip insurance before, but I am really paranoid to have paid in full and not have it...I am planning on going with AAA because that would have some savings (I think it was round $130 or so), but if I could save a little more with not purchasing trip insurance I would be extra thrilled

Thanks for your help

 

[mmmears]

You pay one night's deposit and it has a 24-hr cancellation. You pay the remaining balance when you check in.

 

[Kidgoingon40]

Oooh, very good. Thank you so much!

 

[danceintherain]

If you do this, don't add tickets to your room, just buy them after you arrive. Tickets = package = early payment etc.

Otherwise you shouldn't run into any problems.

 

[J&J]

You must pay for one night ahead of time.

 

[jerseymom473]

This is a great benefit of room only - you are not committed, can cancel and you don't have to pay the whole thing off in advance. I think the cancellation policy is 5 days or lose the one night deposit. When we did this, I added the ticket the day before we left. You won't be billed for the remaining nights until you check in.

 

[mb187143]

we're AP holders so we do room only all the time, and it's really nice to just pay the one night's rate up front and then pay the balance at check in. One word of caution though - we did online check in for our room only reservation in December, and i added my credit card to keep on file when I filled out the online check in information. When we got to MCO, and I turned my phone back on after our flight, i had an auto-alert from my cc company that my card had been charged $500 (whatever the amount was for the balance of the room, can't remember the exact figure). I wasn't planning on using that card to pay the balance (i could have, it didn't cause any issues, that's just our vacation account and we were keeping it on file to pay for our dining, i was going to use a different account to pay off the balance of the room). So they charged the balance to the card before we got to the resort. In our case, 100% not a big deal, but I did send a note to guest relations when we got home that they really shouldn't do that unless you specifically agree to it. I'm pretty sure when i did online check in, the small print said my card would not be charged prior to arrival. In our case, it worked out fine, but I'm sure this could cause issues for someone down the line, so just a heads up if you're doing a room only and you add a cc during online check in!

 

[ols386]

I always do the room-only. You only pay for one night's stay upfront, and as another poster mentioned, there is a 5-day cancellation policy.

Although one time I had to cancel a couple days before my arrival, and I was refunded my full deposit (I cancelled because of a medical situation).

I don't think there's an advantage of booking the package in advance, unless you want to have the hotel, tickets, etc., paid in advance, before you arrive. There doesn't seem to be a cost advantage by booking a package rather than a room-only.