Resort booking help October 2017 please!

[Charolette]

I'm looking for some expert advice. I'm the Disney planner for my family my parents & I booked our reservations 6 months ago for CSR October 22nd - November 2nd. This week my brother decided he wants to join! There is no availability at CSR for October 22/23/24. I was able to book him in for the 25th -2nd. And am now checking numerous times a day for rooms to open up. We have the dinning plan so he can't just be registered in my parents room as all members in booking need to have same number of days on plan. The cast member helping me spoke to a supervisor & told me that he could stay in my parents room as a day guest & just have his tickets from the 25th stay activated to start early & pay OOP for dinning for the first 3 days. Not sure how we get his magic band early as we are Canadian & don't get them in mail but at check in. He spoke with magic express & they have made a note of him arriving 3 days earlier (with us on the 22nd & not on the 25th which is his registered stay). when I asked about FP the cast member said to just do ours & then he gave me a number to call to ask the my Disney experience people to mirror the fastpassess for my entire group to my brother ?! Does this sound right/doable? I'm really worried that they will just say no when I call & he will be left out. This all seems like a mess! I'm wondering if I booked an additional room only for him at a value resort then I could make fast passes for us & him on our 60 day mark & then cancel that room only booking. Do they then cancel the FP? I know dinning isn't canceled when booking canceled but not sure about FP. He has tickets on the CSR booking so the tickets wouldn't be canceled just the alternate room only booking. Being at the same resort is important to us. Also does anyone know if at CSR if there are convention rooms on hold & not booked how far out they are released back out to public? Hoping that is an option. Sorry this is so long if anyone actually read the entire post (lol) & has some advice I would appreciate it so much! Have heard too many stories of misinformation coming from phone cast members to have trust in them.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm looking for some expert advice. I'm the Disney planner for my family my parents & I booked our reservations 6 months ago for CSR October 22nd - November 2nd. This week my brother decided he wants to join! There is no availability at CSR for October 22/23/24. I was able to book him in for the 25th -2nd. And am now checking numerous times a day for rooms to open up. We have the dinning plan so he can't just be registered in my parents room as all members in booking need to have same number of days on plan. The cast member helping me spoke to a supervisor & told me that he could stay in my parents room as a day guest & just have his tickets from the 25th stay activated to start early & pay OOP for dinning for the first 3 days. Not sure how we get his magic band early as we are Canadian & don't get them in mail but at check in. He spoke with magic express & they have made a note of him arriving 3 days earlier (with us on the 22nd & not on the 25th which is his registered stay). when I asked about FP the cast member said to just do ours & then he gave me a number to call to ask the my Disney experience people to mirror the fastpassess for my entire group to my brother ?! Does this sound right/doable? I'm really worried that they will just say no when I call & he will be left out. This all seems like a mess! I'm wondering if I booked an additional room only for him at a value resort then I could make fast passes for us & him on our 60 day mark & then cancel that room only booking. Do they then cancel the FP? I know dinning isn't canceled when booking canceled but not sure about FP. He has tickets on the CSR booking so the tickets wouldn't be canceled just the alternate room only booking. Being at the same resort is important to us. Also does anyone know if at CSR if there are convention rooms on hold & not booked how far out they are released back out to public? Hoping that is an option. Sorry this is so long if anyone actually read the entire post (lol) & has some advice I would appreciate it so much! Have heard too many stories of misinformation coming from phone cast members to have trust in them.

You don't need to call to have Disney IT copy your FP over to your brother. You can do it yourself with the change party function in MDE. You make your FP selections for you and your parents first and then "change party" to you, your parents and your brother. The only requirement would be that he has valid admission media for those dates. I don't know if this will work if you booked a package for him and ticket is not considered valid by MDE prior to his check in date. Disney IT may be able to work around it but I would try the change party on my own function first. You never know how long it will take Disney IT to be able to assist you. And meanwhile other guests will also be booking their FPs and locking in their times.

 

[Charolette]

Thanks for your response. My understanding is that his fastpass window wouldn't open until his official check in day of the 25th Even though he will be staying with us the 22/23/24. This is why I'm considering a ghost booking but not sure if FP are cancelled with these I know dinning isn't.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for your response. My understanding is that his fastpass window wouldn't open until his official check in day of the 25th Even though he will be staying with us the 22/23/24. This is why I'm considering a ghost booking but not sure if FP are cancelled with these I know dinning isn't.

It doesn't matter when his FP window opens if you are using the change party function after booking your FPs. As long as he has a valid admission media attached to his MDE profile for those dates, you should be able to book FP for him right after booking you own by using that feature. It's there for the very reason that you wish to use it: to be able to book FPs for your entire party even if they are not already booked as an onsite guest. Why make a phantom reservation that you have every intention of canceling (and thereby preventing a real guest from being able to book a room) when you don't need to do it.

 

[Charolette]

Thank you for your advice I was not aware of this option I thought the only way to book FP was 60 days out from a registered stay. I certainly did not want to book another reservation but thought it would be the only work around to get his fastpass at the same time as ours. Thank you for your assistance. I will look in to this feature.

 

[Charolette]

He has tickets purchased separate from his resort booking they are connected to him on MDE & say valid through 2019 so I should be able to proceed as you've outlined. Thanks again!