Reservation frustration x.x

[Delphinidae]

Ugh I'm so mad at myself and frustrated!! When I booked our trip, I looked at the calendar wrong and set up our arrival/departure days off by one day. I have us checking in at POFQ on Monday, September 24 and checking out on Sunday, September 30, when we actually need to check in on the 23rd and leave on the 29th. I have been calling the resort once or twice a week for about 2 months now trying to tweak it by JUST THAT ONE DAY and they still have nothing available. I have been trying to wait until we got that fixed before making dining reservations, figuring out what day in which park, etc, but I am afraid I am not going to be able to put that off much longer...

Anyway, that whole ramble was to get to this one question: If we aren't able to push the reservation up by one day, and are already in town Sunday night, can we go to our resort and check in early Monday morning? I know our room won't be ready at that time, but will we be able to get our dining credits and whatnot so we can go ahead and head to the parks that day?

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

Have you tried just adding a room only reservation for that first night without any discounts? Maybe they are just sold out on rooms for the discount. The only thing is I don't think you can get your tickets early any longer so that probably wouldn't work.

To answer your other question though I do think you would be able to get your tickets that morning of the first day you have your package booked.

 

[purple figment]

To answer your specific question about checking in early on Monday morning: yes, you can check in anytime after 6 AM to get your tickets and dining plan credits. Your room may or may not be ready, but you'll be able to go to a park and they will text you when your room is ready.

Regarding the additional night you're trying to book: Are you trying to book it with a discount (room rate or free dining?). It's possible that there are no more rooms available with the discount. You might have to forego the discount and book that one night as a separate room only res and ask to have it linked to your existing Sept 24-30 reservation. If nothing is available at POFQ, you could try booking the one night at a different resort.

You mentioned that you've been calling once or twice a week, but you might want to try calling more often. Your call is actually going to the reservations call center and not POFQ so they can check availability at other resorts as well. You could also check online yourself.

If you have tickets as part of your package you can pick them up on Sunday even though your package won't start until Monday. At the top of the Theme Park Attractions and Strategies board there is a ticket sticky that has information on how to pick them up early.

 

[Allison]

Have you tried just adding a room only reservation for that first night without any discounts? Maybe they are just sold out on rooms for the discount. The only thing is I don't think you can get your tickets early any longer so that probably wouldn't work.

To answer your other question though I do think you would be able to get your tickets that morning of the first day you have your package booked.

Actually, you can get the tickets early.

 

[Delphinidae]

Thanks for your replies! I actually have not tried to book a room only reservation for that Sunday, didn't even think about it honestly & didnt realize we could link it to our existing reservation. We are getting a military discount on the rooms so I have been trying to shift the whole thing up by a day, maybe that is the problem. Surely one night without a discount won't make a huge difference. We won't get dining credits for that night though, will we?

I will already have our park tickets because I'm getting them from our ITT office here on base. I was mostly wondering if we would be able to activate our dining plan so we could eat in the parks if we do an early check in on that Monday, & from what y'all said it looks like I should be able to. I will try to add a room only stay for Sunday night. Thanks!

 

[Order66]

I will already have our park tickets because I'm getting them from our ITT office here on base. I was mostly wondering if we would be able to activate our dining plan so we could eat in the parks if we do an early check in on that Monday, & from what y'all said it looks like I should be able to. I will try to add a room only stay for Sunday night. Thanks!

If you want, you can add the DDP to a one night stay. I had a similar problem. We are using the military discount too and I found a cheaper flight to come in 1 day earlier. Nothing at our resort for the day before. They did offer me POP for a one night reservation. We aren't doing the DDP because with my kids it's cheaper to just pay, but the CM did offer it for the one night room only. For most it's not worth it because they have to buy a ticket too, but for us using the military discount, we don't have to add that ticket to make it a package.

In the end my flight on the original day came down to close enough to the day before, so I just bought them and canceled the 1 night at POP.

 

[Greysword]

Depending on arrival time, I would make a reservation at an off site hotel as a backup on arrival day. If there was time, I would visit DTD, the Boardwalk, or maybe a few resorts to pass the time. I would probably eat meals outside the park on this day (evening).

After a night's sleep, I would get up early and head to the resort and check in early. They should be able to give you the KTTW card with dining credits and everything. Then, you just head to your park of choice for rope-drop.

Good luck!

 

[sndral]

If you're flying and want to use DME (I see you're from Texas) you might want to go w/ a Disney resort for the pre-vacation arrival, even if it's not POFQ, so you can use DME. They'll transfer your luggage, I believe, from say, a value to POFQ the next day, and you can just stop by POFQ that am, grab your KTTW card for dinning that day and head to a park then head back for an afternoon break and call down to Bell Services to deliver your luggage.

 

[Delphinidae]

I just took some of the earlier advice and booked a one night room-only stay for the 23rd, and dropped one night off the end of my previous reservation so we will still check out on the 29th. Hated having to pay rack rate but we did lose one night and one night of dining credits so it really wasn't too much of a change really. The person I was talking to suggested I still keep trying to call back and see if any rooms with the discounts open up so that I can book the whole week together and have the discount and dining plan on the whole stay, so I'll probably do that, even though I don't have much hope lol.

I did think about staying offsite for the night but, eh, I think once we get there, I just want to be THERE. It will most likely be Sunday evening when we get in so we will probably just eat QS at the resort for supper and pay OOP. Would love to go to DTD if we have time or maybe just get some time in the pool that night and relax so we can hit the parks early! Now I just need to start making dining reservations and cross my fingers that there are still openings. Oh, and we are driving, not flying. God help us.

SO EXCITED!

 

[sndral]

What's great about POFQ and DTD is that you can take that nice relaxing boatride to DTD and eat @ Wolfgang puck express or Earl of Sandwich for a nice relatively inexpensive meal and wander around DTD for entertainment.