Shades of Green Overflow

[mbethel]

Has anyone been getting overflow rate through SOG? Are people getting CR or other options as well? Anyone heard of any specials for active duty families? We'll be going on a last minute trip the first week in May.

 

[lookingforward]

I just got the CR for next week. I was very surprised that they had availability but they said that with all the deployments for Iraq they have had people cancel. I know that if they have availability they don't do the overflow referrals. i don't know what specials they are running for active duty (my husband is retired) but I hope you get a great deal! Our military families deserve it. Have a great vacation.

 

[khawk]

I was given Best Western Lake Buena Vista as my overflow. We have 5 people in our party. I am calling SOG on friday and Im hopeing to get something else. I had my heart set on a disney moderate resort. I know POR will allow 5 people but when SOG found out it was 3 adults and 2 children they said we couldnt do that. I didnt ask why. Maybe with all the cancellations I will be able to get into CR. When I called originally they were booked for May 7-13.
Kim

 

[crazyforgoofy]

asked for PO FQ for June 11-18. We're thrilled with the resort and the rate. Would have loved the CR but this is fine.

 

[lookingforward]

khawk, did they tell you that the Best Western was the only hotel they had on overflow? I ask this because in my experience they have had MANY hotels available and would go over the list with me and give me the rates, etc. Perhaps they have more choices and were just pushing the Best Western. Are there moderates that house five per room? Is the fifth person a small child? Sometimes a child under three will not count as a fifth. Can someone advise?

 

[khawk]

They did not tell me that there were others to choose from. First they said POR. POR will allow 5 people but when I told them the 5 people were 3 adults and 2 children they said they couldnt do that and then offered BW LBV. My daughters are 9 and 11. I didnt think to ask them why we couldnt have 3 adults and 2 kids in one room. Me and my kids travel alot with my parents and we share hotels when we have too. I keep changing my mind and I just dont know what to do. I am getting BW LBV for 89 a night. I would like to stay at a disney resort but I would probably have to pay more and I like this price. I am going to call SOG and see if they have any cancellations for the contemporary for the week that I will be there. If not I might just stay at BW LBV. I called there today and told them that SOG said I was getting a room with 2 queen beds and a sofa sleeper. BW LBV was going to put me in a smaller room and then make me pay extra for a cot. Plus I think all their rooms have a balcony which would be nice. I called the swan hotel today and they gave me a good rate for military personel (even retired). They quoted me 129 a night. That is a great deal but 89 sounded better.
Kim

 

[SRyba]

mbethel,

Did they offer you the wait list for the CR? They close it at a certian point, not sure but I think it is at 30 days. Another option would be to call daily as you approach the 30 day mark. You have to cancel your ressies at 30 days or lose the deposit. Last year, we called right at 31 days and were lucky to get CR. We didn't have one night covered there, but they notified me two days later that that day had opened up too. I just stayed at CBR on overflow rate, and it was the same as rack rate at a value resort. At first he only mentioned two overflow rates for on-site hotels, but when pushed, he read me several more. Don't give up if you really want to stay on-site. I would also call POR directly and ask them about 3 adults/5 to a room. I also don't understand why POR would not allow this but CR would?
Again, be persistent and if you don't get an overly helpful person, call back later - I am sure they have bad days too, but they do have some really wonderful people working there!

Happy Planning!

 

[FirstNo]

Originally posted by SRyba
mbethel,

I just stayed at CBR on overflow rate, and it was the same as rack rate at a value resort. At first he only mentioned two overflow rates for on-site hotels, but when pushed, he read me several more. Don't give up if you really want to stay on-site. I would also call POR directly and ask them about 3 adults/5 to a room. I also don't understand why POR would not allow this but CR would?

I'll answer why POR doesn't allow 3 adults/2 children to a room but CR does, first. It has nothing to do with "3" adults. It has to do with the fact that the CR is a deluxe resort equipped to handle 5 people (no matter the mix) while POR is equipped to handle 4 people and one "light weighted" person. A trundle bed is not supposed to handle more than....40lbs (I believe that's what Disney told us while working as a res agent at SoG).

As to the "we had to push the agent to get more rates", let me explain the situation from an end I understand from having been there: There are, approximately, 30 hotels to choose from for overflow. Both on and off the property. Rates can range any where from $35 to well over $500 per night, not including tax. To have to sit there and say, "Well Madam, we have hotel a for this and hotel b for this and hotel c for this...." You can see where this is going. While, as annoying as it is for the res agent (notice I did not write travel agent) to sit there and read every, single rate, it is exceedingly time consuming. And when you have 9 out of every 10 callers making some snide comment like, "Gee, I didn't think any one was working there today" or "I had to wait 30 minutes to be picked up. Why don't you people answer your phones?" or something else similiar in content, the LAST thing you want to do is sit there and spend 30 minutes on the phone with one guest who doesn't know what they want.

From the guests' point of view (Yes, I was in the military and stayed at SoG as a guest so I know that view, too): you are calling to get the info you need to help you in your decision making. If you don't ask, you won't know!

I understand both sides, truly I do. However, there has to be a line that's walked to help accommodate both sides. Whenever I had a guest who didn't have a clue, I recommended they do some homework. Check out some websites to get information on the hotels and their 'normal' rates and figure out what they were looking to spend per night. Then, call back and we'd be glad to help. These people are NOT travel agents. They are not paid to sit there and help you sort through your vacation plans. They are paid to make reservations for the hotels they deal with and car reservations. Nothing more. Most of those people have never been in any of the hotels they sell. They can't tell you a "personal preference" because they don't have one and couldn't afford to stay in the hotels even if they wanted to (which many don't since they live within a 30 min drive of the parks any way). They can't tell you what the hotels look like or the theming, other than the name (and if they're smart, they have their little handy-dandy DW book nearby they can glance through).

I don't mean to sound harsh and it's not directed at the poster, but you really would not believe some of the people calling/emailing and the questions they would ask (ALWAYS loved the ones who wanted views of the beach....the beach either along the Gulf or Atlantic). There's nothing wrong with going that extra mile for the guests, but you do it when you can, not because a guest can't be bothered to figure out what they are looking for first. Just MO....

 

[madge]

you are calling to get the info you need to help you in your decision making. If you don't ask, you won't know!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have learned a lot from FirstNo over the past four years (back in the days of paying long distance for the call to SoG, LOL) and she is absolutely right about doing research before you make the call or send the e-mail. there are dozens of resources to get information about WDW resorts. If you are interested in overflow, do the following BEFORE you make the call or send the e-mail:

• decide what resort you want to book--there are dozens of places to do research about the WDW resorts. this board , www.disney.com, deb's site, etc. All the information about room size, occupancy, rates, etc. can be found on the internet. The guide boks have this information as well.
• it is a good idea to have 2 or 3 resorts picked, just in case your first choice isn't available
• come to the DIS boards, do a search on "overflow rates". there is a good possibility that you will be able to get a rough estimate of what rates people have been quoted over the past several months
• make the call to SoG **be sure to allow plenty of time and make sure that the kids are occupied so you can give your full attention to the reservationist **
• when you get through, ask the reservationist to check overflow availability for you. have your dates ready (checking in on xx date for xx nights. have your choices ready and a pencil and paper ready to write down prices for all the choices available.
• most likely, you will need to make a decision on the spot, as overflow rates go pretty quickly. There are also 3 levels of overflow rates--low, middle, and rack. I have found that after the low rate I can call CRO and do better with a code.

that just about covers it, I think...I have asked for dozens and dozens of overflow rooms over the past four years, so I know a little bit about what I am talking about. Like I said, I had a good teacher

Madge
who misses Noel at SoG

 

[CarolA]

Loved the beach comment! Sad, but true!

 

[crazyforgoofy]

but we got the room at PO-FQ for $89, figure the AP rates won't be any better than that when they finally come out for my dates. Paid $79 last year in early December using AP, don't expect the summer rates to be that good.

 

[mbethel]

We just booked POFQ with an overflow rate of $89. That resort was actually our first choice. Since CR was available for the dates we are going we didn't expect to be quoted any overflow. However, the lady we spoke to at SoG asked if we had any other resort in mind. After staying at CR and then POFQ on our last two trips we were excited at the prospect of getting POFQ again. She was a great help and seemed to appreciate that we knew what we were looking for. The hints listed in the previous posts were helpful in getting what we wanted. Thanks a bunch!!

 

[Proudmilitarywife]

I got the CR 8-10 - 8-16 for 73 a night plus tax I was so excited to get this rate ! We can not wait i just got this rate today for those dates . never though i would get CR but sooooooo glad i did !

 

[SRyba]

FirstNo,

Thank you for the information about why POR will not allow 3 adults but CR will, I had never thought of it in that context, especially since the daybed at CR seemed smaller than a normal daybed last year (but would definately hold more weight than a trundle). I am sorry if I sounded like I was knocking the agent, I did not intend it that way. I had done my research, and (like you said) after waiting for 30 minutes on hold, I did not think I was asking too much for 5 minutes of his time to get the rates for the hotels (and if they were available) I had on my list of choices.
I also understand and agree with your description of the people who are less than nice on the phones. I work in a customer facing position in another industry and know what you are talking about. That is exactly why I posted if you don't get an overly helpful person to try again another time, we all have bad days (often times caused by the 9 rude callers ahead of you).
If possible, could you please explain about the wait list and how it works? Since I called at 31 days out last year and got a CR room, does that mean everyone on the wait list had already gotten a room? At what point does the wait list end? Thanks in advance!

Madge,
Thanks for the great list of tips. I did not know about the three levels of overflow rates and will have to make sure I know what codes/rates are available next time I start planning.

 

[FirstNo]

Originally posted by SRyba
FirstNo,
<snip>
If possible, could you please explain about the wait list and how it works? Since I called at 31 days out last year and got a CR room, does that mean everyone on the wait list had already gotten a room? At what point does the wait list end? Thanks in advance!

Be happy to!! Please keep in mind I'm going by how things were when I was there. I haven't been there for 7 months now and things may have changed. I did hear a rumor that the agents were told to just overflow every one, but I don't know if there is a cut-off (as there usually is) number on the wait list for that.

The wait list was a list for the guests for rooms at "our" (CR for the time being) hotel. It's close out changed over the 3 yrs I was there, but the last numeral was "100". At that point, we allowed no one else on the waiting list UNLESS they all ready had a current reservation and were looking to extend their stay or add more rooms (the Xmas time frame is a completely different animal and that week and a half does not pertain to what's posted here).

In theory, the list was worked every day and the closer months (more specifically, the current month we were in and the following two) were worked hard. Guests were called and left messages, either with whomever answered the phone (if you think your child is old enough to answer the phone, then your child is old enough to take a message...can't tell you how many times kids took messages and didn't pass them to the parents) or on machines. Guests were given specific dates and times to return the calls. Depending on when we were calling for, call backs could be as little as 24hrs up to a week.

If we called and received a busy signal or no answer, we played baseball <g>. The guest was allowed to remain on the wait list for two more chances....after the third call (strike), you were off (out) the list.

Guests were not emailed they had come up on the list UNLESS they were overseas or a guest had specifically requested to be emailed instead of called (happened rarely, but did happen).

Guests are called up until the day before they are requesting (even for those on the inhouse wait list).

About calling 31 days out and getting a room, it either means the list was comletely cleared out for that time frame or there were still a few on the list, but there were more rooms than people. As long as there were more rooms than people, we had rooms to sell to any one calling/emailing. However if we had (for example) 30 rooms, but 70 people on the list, we were sold out. Those rooms would go to those who had been waiting on the list for months on end. But, if we were clearing the list out and getting good cancellations and had 30 rooms, but only 10 on the waiting list, then we could sell 20 rooms.

It's not a perfect system, but it's what we had found works the best to be as fair as possible to both those on the list and those calling in.

Hope that helps to shed some light on the fun that is the waiting list <g>.

 

[madge]

I did hear a rumor that the agents were told to just overflow every one, but I don't know if there is a cut-off (as there usually is) number on the wait list for that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

when I called on Monday, I asked specifically for overflow rates for nights that I didn't already have something booked. there was availability at the CR, but the agent was more than happy to check any resort I asked about and I could choose between the CR and overflow without a problem.

one other thing about overflow rooms and SoG--you can't hold a reservation at SoG/CR AND a reservation for overflow. You also can't be on the waitlist for SoG and hold a reservation for overflow. You can have a reservation from Disney and one from SoG, just not two from SoG. make sense?

 

[khawk]

Im just waiting for SOG to open...15 more minutes. Has anyone ever got a deluxe resort for under 100 a night? I am going to call today and hope and pray that there has been a cancellation at the contempory. I would love to stay there. If not I will ask them about another disney hotel. I will have to stay at a deluxe or keep the ressie I have at BW LBV. None of the value or moderates will allow 5 people (except POR, but my kids are older). Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Kim

 

[khawk]

Just got off the phone with SOG and there are no rooms available for May 7-13 at CR. I asked about other resorts but all the deluxe resorts start at 200 a night and I cant afford that. He told me to call back in April and maybe there would be a cancellation. I also thought about getting 2 rooms at a value resort and he quoted me 79 a night. That doesnt seem like a big discount. With the latest codes at mousesavers I think that is what the rooms are priced at. Has anyone stayed at BW LBV? Did you like it? I have heard good and bad reviews. I shouldnt be so bummed I dont plan on spending alot of time in the hotel anyway. I dont think BW LBV has a hot tub either. OH well.
Kim

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I was able to get into the CR in August for $95/night plus tax, but I called more than 6 months in advance. Some friends of mine decided at the last minute to go to WDW in Dec 2002 for New Year's, and SOG overflowed them to POFQ for around $150/night which is a slight discount from the holiday rates. While the wait for a reservationist was lengthy (thank goodness for their 1-800 number), I was very glad I called SOG. I can't wait for August! Second trip for both DDs and 4 yo DD is getting really excited!

 

[luvdisney14]

Does anyone know the site that gives info about SOG rates. Also, my father was in the military, but he is deceased, my mother wants to go to disney, would she be eligible for SOG? Does anyone know the phone number to get information. Thank you.