Some questions re: Disney wedding, honeymoon and AKL

[epcot.girl]

Helloooo!

Having booked to return to WDW next year for our wedding/honeymoon , I have some questions that can only be answered by the knowledgeable DISers!

We booked with Virgin Holidays to stay at a standard view room at AKL.

- Virgin Holidays is currently running an offer for a free invitation to the V-Room for people who book next years holiday before June 30. When we booked there was no option to add this to our booking.. will they just send the invitation with the travel documents next year?

- On the page where you choose the room/board basis, we selected the 'honeymoon couple' option in the special requests box. Is this the equivalent to contacting the resort directly a week or two before we arrive, or should we still do that?

- We chose standard view because Disney UK are charging approximately £1000 more for pool view for the 20 nights we're going. US visitors are charged $10/night extra, which is not equivalent to £1000 While I'm happy to stay in a standard view room, if there are rooms available will it be possible to pay the $10/night difference to upgrade to pool view? (I know there may be nothing available and I'm not expecting a free upgrade, but if there is we may pay the extra $200 if we're allowed.)

TIA

 

[wayneg]

Can only help with upgrade. Where you heard $10? it is possible they get charged $10 same as we got upgraded free but on the other hand they could get charged $70/night(+tax) or more.
Just looked at price on Disney.com for this August a std room is $240/night a Savanna view $310, $70/night more, over 20 nights with tax and converted thats £1,100 Virgin look to have the price about right.
Massive risk for a 20 night stay, upgrades tend to be on shorter stays, although long stay upgrades are not unheard of. We were only there 3 nights.
I wouldn't know what to advise, I would only stay at AKL with a Savannah view but I would not pay $70 +tax/night upgrade for it. If you are happy with a std room probably risk it and wait until check in.

 

[irongirlof12]

I personally would not pay that price to upgrade, just how long can you look at critters?? i think the novelty would wear off and you can get the same or better views from the viewing areas anyway- IMHO. i would pay for 2-3 nights but not for a long stay.

There is plenty to spend your dosh on, such as romantic meals,photopass, I would tell them at check-in that you are a wedding/honeymoon couple and make sure you get the pins that say so. some folks also buy the bride and groom mickey/minnie hats.

have you also checked out the disneyflorist info for some in room gifts?

Happy planning!

 

[torsie24]

Is it your first stay at AKL? If so and you've not had savannah view before then you'll be happy with any room, chances are you wont have a car park view as these are pretty limited.

We were lucky in october and got upgraded to a Savannah view in a location so perfect I couldn't have picked better if they'd have given me a resort map, I phoned up a couple of weeks before and said it was our wedding planning trip and we were celebrating our engagement, I'm not sure if that helped. We were there for 14 nights, so they do happen on longer stays.

Where is your wedding?

If it's in WDW then your planner will be able to make notes on your reservations which should help you get a little extra pixie dust too maybe.

All I can say is once you've had savannah view once you'll pay for it the next time, I think this is why they give the upgrades. We've booked for the first portion of our wedding trip and have paid for Savannah this time. So they have made the money back from our upgrade already!

 

[epcot.girl]

Can only help with upgrade. Where you heard $10? it is possible they get charged $10 same as we got upgraded free but on the other hand they could get charged $70/night(+tax) or more.
Just looked at price on Disney.com for this August a std room is $240/night a Savanna view $310, $70/night more, over 20 nights with tax and converted thats £1,100 Virgin look to have the price about right.
Massive risk for a 20 night stay, upgrades tend to be on shorter stays, although long stay upgrades are not unheard of. We were only there 3 nights.
I wouldn't know what to advise, I would only stay at AKL with a Savannah view but I would not pay $70 +tax/night upgrade for it. If you are happy with a std room probably risk it and wait until check in.

The upgrade to pool view is $10 more per night - as seen on previous threads on the DIS Resorts board and on the Disney US webiste while Virgin/Disney UK are charging about £1000 more for the same upgrade over 20 nights (£50/night!). The upgrade price of savannah view is out of the question for this visit (for a number of reasons!)

I know it's a big risk, and I'm not expecting any availablity TBH, I was just wondering if it's something I could do if there was any availability.

some folks also buy the bride and groom mickey/minnie hats.

Oh we'll definitely be doing that!

 

[epcot.girl]

Is it your first stay at AKL? If so and you've not had savannah view before then you'll be happy with any room, chances are you wont have a car park view as these are pretty limited.

Yeah, first visit. Until now we were CSR devotees. Unfortunately on this trip savannah view is out of the question (I'm a full-time student!), but a (paid!) upgrade to pool view would be nice if it's available.

Where is your wedding?

If it's in WDW then your planner will be able to make notes on your reservations which should help you get a little extra pixie dust too maybe.

Yeah, we're planning to do an Escape wedding - hopefully in the Canada pavilion in Epcot We'll get our planner to note it on our reservation - thanks for letting us know, we didn't know you could do that!

 

[torsie24]

You might find once you get to your 8 month mark and do you LOA that the wedding rates will work better for you at AKL.

I know for us the wedding discount makes AKL cheaper than any of the UK prices. Although I'm not 100% that Escape packages get the same discount rate.

TBH I wouldn't bother paying for a pool view, if I couldn't get Savannah I'd just got for standard and keep my fingers crossed and ask about upgrades at check in if you don't get one.

 

[gemmybear83]

I *think* escape brides get the same room discounts as wishes brides now, but as with wishes brides you have to guarantee a number of nights on site for you and your guests. We avoided doing this as we found better offers elsewhere and I didn't want to feel like I was forcing people to stay on site.

I would have a look on other sites too, we managed to get an awesome deal on the yacht club through booking with expedia, you also get an annual passes for booking a Disney wedding you could wait until 3 months or so before you travel to get discount rates (no ideal but the current discounts are 45% off!) or you could rent dvc points from here to stay at animal kingdom villas?

Hope that helps!

 

[Disney_Sarah]

Hey
Just to say me and my partner will be in Disney celebrating out honeymoon too...think we will be there when you arrive!
x

 

[tinkandonaldfans]

we stayed at AKL in september. My then DBF was planning on proposing to me and contacted the hotel to see if they could look into upgrading us from a standard view room or getting a standard room with an obstructed savannah room.

on arrival they gave us the standard room until my dbf said he called before. He went out the back and gave us a pool view for free. When we got to the room, we were not impressed it was a roof view with only the sound of splashing but we were not going to complain.

However, after being in the room for a few minutes we saw hairs in the sink and the room just didn't look like it had been cleaned which is when i stepped in and called the front desk. I said i wasn't impressed and thought that a deluxe had a better standard than this. She then said there wasn't any pool views left and would we mind having a Savannah room instead!

I was like yeah i'm sure we could live with that( but inside i was jumping up and down)

Well my point is that even if you were to pay the extra just be cautious as to where they put you becaused even a pool view can have a crummy view!

 

[epcot.girl]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

We've already booked the holiday, so I'm not sure any of the special room block wedding discount stuff could be applied now.

Disney_Sarah - have a wonderful honeymoon! I'm trying to get excited but I'm in the middle of exams so I need to focus lol

tinkandonaldfans - that worked out really well for you guys! My bf has no problem complaining if he thinks things aren't right (unlike me - I'm painfully British like that!).