Room Block = Head Explode

[dewingedpixie]

We are currently working on the room block for our wedding and my head is literally ready to explode. So if anyone can help me it would be great.

1. How did you estimate how many rooms per night?
2. Are these room rates the rates or are they the rate before discount?
3. I thought february was not peak season? CONFUSED!
4. How do you decide how many room nights total?
5. What number am I obligated to book? Do I have to book any?
6. Art of animation isnt on here can we request it anyway?

Thank you Ladies!

 

[Museofire]

We are currently working on the room block for our wedding and my head is literally ready to explode. So if anyone can help me it would be great.

1. How did you estimate how many rooms per night?
2. Are these room rates the rates or are they the rate before discount?
3. I thought february was not peak season? CONFUSED!
4. How do you decide how many room nights total?
5. What number am I obligated to book? Do I have to book any?
6. Art of animation isnt on here can we request it anyway?

Thank you Ladies!

I know how you feel!!!!! My head DID explode when I worked on mine last week.
1) For numbers we've been operating under the estimation of 80 guests. So we went with 40 rooms the night of the wedding (Sunday feb 16th) we guessed that most people would also be there Saturday night. For Friday night we dropped the number in half, so 20 rooms total. For Thursday night and monday night we only blocked enough for immediate family helping us set up/taking gifts home etc.
2) the ones they quoted are post-discount
3) most of February is not peak however during presidents week when most of the northeast is off from school AND that's when the Daytona 500 is, that's one week is peak season. I believe for next year it's thurs feb 13 -sun feb 23. The night your block begins locks in your price (I had the same freak out so they had to explain it to me)
4) the spreadsheet they sent you should do the math for you. Make sure to download it and then open it on your computer. If you try to online open it, you won't be able to play with that
5) for a wishes wedding you're obligated to have 25 room nights.
6) no. It's too new to use for room blocks. I wanted it to be one of mine as well.

Best of luck! I hope my recent experiences were helpful!

 

[sambycat]

Don't explode!it does get confusing! I don't have the means to post links here, but there have been many threads on this posted here that you might search out and Carrie H aka lurkyloo recently had a great podcast on this topic! Her blog is at disneytravelbabble.com and I'm pretty sure there are podcast links there - also just try inside Disney weddings podcast. Good luck!

 

[bumbershoot]

Feb also has one of the Disney marathons. Busy month!

 

[dewingedpixie]

Feb also has one of the Disney marathons. Busy month!

I know I'm going to coast to coast the day before my wedding. I'm an endurance race junky.

 

[dewingedpixie]

Thank you I'm going to go dig this stuff up soon.

These prices are higher than I expected though which is making me queesy :/

 

[lurkyloo]

It's also good to keep in mind that nothing is set in stone. You can tweak your room block right up until 60 days out (as hotel availability allows) if you find you need to set aside more or fewer nights at certain resorts. You just need to get something on paper so they can start the contract process.

The show sambycat mentioned is called "Demystifying the Room Block", and it explains the whole process in detail, with tips to help you make educated guesses on which resorts to use, which nights to block, and how many rooms to block per night.

If you will be providing transportation for your guests, my best tip is to block at only one or two hotels (or at least, only tell your guests about one or two!). It can cut the price of transportation way down and keeps guests from sitting on buses for long stretches while they drive all over property collecting everyone.

 

[Cmdbuddy]

If you will be providing transportation for your guests, my best tip is to block at only one or two hotels (or at least, only tell your guests about one or two!). It can cut the price of transportation way down and keeps guests from sitting on buses for long stretches while they drive all over property collecting everyone.

This is a really good point, Carrie. I thought I would also let you know that if you're having a large guest count and need more than one charter bus, and a large quantity of your guests are at one hotel, you can designate a bus just for that hotel. So in our room block and bus charter, one bus is dedicated to POFQ alone. The other one will hit up Pop Century and Boardwalk.

 

[lurkyloo]

If you're already paying for 2 buses, that's a great way to cut down on guest wait time. For our small guest list, it would have doubled our transportation costs.

 

[dewingedpixie]

We are expecting 35-50 guests. I am leaning towards boardwalk since we're getting married in the vicinity at Seabreeze point, and pop century. We haven't picked a moderate yet, but will.