Sudden Change in Plans...What to do?

[Newfie2000]

I am so overwhelmed with this I'm not even sure how to explain it.

In September I booked a Disney vacation for my fiancé, brother and myself. My brother is a FL resident. For several reasons we split our stay across three different resorts, therefore creating three different ressies. Our first ressie has our tickets and each ressie has the Disney Dining Plan connected. I then made Dining Ressies and chose FP's in December. We are arriving to Disney in 2 weeks btw.

Now my brothers longtime girlfriend has had a schedule change and is able to join us for 3 of our 7 nights. I believe I can add her on to out hotel ressies (please correct me if I am wrong)- and she will buy a resident ticket separately. But I tried to create new dining ressies last night and can not get any within 3 hours of my desired time at any of the restaurants we were planning on. (Coral Reef, Whispering Canyon, Sci-Fi Diner and the Festival of Dining Parade Package at Tonys). So I don't know if I have any options left. If it were not for the dining plan we could just go to all counter service but I don't want to lose all that money. Im not sure if I can all the restaurants direct and try to change it. And if we show up and they cant seat us not only am I losing the dining plan benefits but wont I be charged the cancellation fee?

And what do I do about the FP's? If need be I'm willing to give those up to be able to include her in our plans. We are travelling with a dialysis patient and this was already complicated enough, but now all my planning just seems to have fallen apart. My brothers girlfriend has been in the picture for 15 plus years, so I don't want to tell her she cant go, but this is ruining my trip.

And if you all know of any other complications I could be facing please let me know - this all came up so fast and we are literally starting to pack to leave to go to Florida. I almost got so disgusted last night I was thinking about cancelling the entire trip.

 

[nkereina]

If you add the girlfriend onto the room reservation, it's my understanding she will need to also purchase the dining plan for the duration of that reservation. You mention you are doing a split stay, so if she will only be staying at one of the resorts, then I believe she'd only need to be added to the dining plan for that one reservation.

As for your ADRs, if you can't find any times for 4 that are acceptable, you can take your chances by showing up at the restaurant and saying you now have 4 instead of 3. It may work for your party because chances are you would have been seated at a 4 top table anyway, with 3 people. I don't see why a 4th person wouldn't be able to fit. Not sure about the package at Tony's though - is that a prepaid thing?

 

[momto4obkids]

Did you try to find new reservations for a party of 4 or try and modify your existing reservation?

If you haven't tried, go in to your ADR's and see if you can modify them to 4. Since you are booked as a party of three I would think most of them would be able to be modified to four without an issue.

 

[Newfie2000]

Did you try to find new reservations for a party of 4 or try and modify your existing reservation?

If you haven't tried, go in to your ADR's and see if you can modify them to 4. Since you are booked as a party of three I would think most of them would be able to be modified to four without an issue.

Okay this sounds really stupid, but how do I modify? I did not see any options to do that. I simply tried to make new ones. I'm going to log in now and try... Thanks!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

The first thing I would do is call Disney Dining and see if they can modify your reservations for you. If they can't and you have to leave them at 3 people, your options would be to either try walking up with everyone to see if they can seat you or making entirely new reservations at restaurants with availability for 4. If you try the walk-up and you are told no, perhaps tell your brother and girlfriend they may need to find alternate lunch plans? As long as SOMEONE shows up and eats at your reserved restaurant, you will not be charged the no-show fee.

For the hotel, your best bet is to add her at check-in so you don't have to pay for the same components (tickets and dining) for her that you have for everyone else on the reservation. This may mean she can't take Magical Express when she arrives (she can when she leaves as she will then be on the reservation - resort concierge can help you with this). A cab from the airport to WDW is about $50.

For the FP+, go to guest services and ask them to copy your FP+ so she can ride with you.

 

[momto4obkids]

Okay this sounds really stupid, but how do I modify? I did not see any options to do that. I simply tried to make new ones. I'm going to log in now and try... Thanks!

Log in to your My Disney Experience, then go to my reservations and tickets, scroll down to the reservation you want to change and there should be a link towards the right that says "change reservation" click that. Then you can change the party size once the next page comes up and search for times, it will give you whats available.

 

[Faldred]

Don't touch the dining reservations at all. Leave them at three, bringing a fourth will be no problem as you're already slated for a 4-top, and mucking around with the reservations will just invite problems.

 

[Newfie2000]

DisneyWishes14 -- Thank you so much! You have given me some hope! I have been trying to modify the dining reservations we currently have as momto4obkids suggested and I was able to change 2 out of 4 so I am getting closer.

She will not need Magical Express at all, so that is no problem.

I have never heard of adding her at check in? What do I do? Just show up and tell them we have one extra person? Do you have any idea what the charge is for that?

And I never ever dreamed that adding her to the FP+ was possible.. Thank you soo so much!

I will definitely give Disney Dining a call and see what they can do!

 

[lpizzuro123]

As far as reservations go, if anyone else has an account you can search for a reservation for 1 at the same time (or within a few minutes. We have done this a few times and it has worked for us. If you cannot get a reservation for 1 on the website you might try calling Disney Dining, they might be able to modify the reservation or make you a reservation for 1.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

DisneyWishes14 -- Thank you so much! You have given me some hope! I have been trying to modify the dining reservations we currently have as momto4obkids suggested and I was able to change 2 out of 4 so I am getting closer.

She will not need Magical Express at all, so that is no problem.

I have never heard of adding her at check in? What do I do? Just show up and tell them we have one extra person? Do you have any idea what the charge is for that?

And I never ever dreamed that adding her to the FP+ was possible.. Thank you soo so much!

I will definitely give Disney Dining a call and see what they can do!

I'm glad you were able to change 2 out of 4 reservations already! That's great!

When you check-in at the resort, simply tell the front desk cast member you will have another guest staying with you and tell them which nights she is staying. You don't mention where you are staying, but for most standard rooms (this excludes DVC villas, AoA and ASMu Family Suites and Ft. Wilderness Cabins), there is an extra adult fee when you have more than 2 adults (guests 18 and older staying in the room). That fee is $10 + tax per extra adult in values, $15 + tax in mods and $25 + tax at deluxes.

Also, if she has her ticket ahead of time, you could link it to MDE and see if you can find FP+ for 1 person around the same times you currently have your FP+. Even if the time windows overlap a little bit, (say your FP+ starts at 9 am and hers starts at 9:20), it still gives you a big frame of time to enter that FP+ line all together. If you can't find exact or overlapping times for 1 person, yes, go to guest services and ask for help.

Also, with the dining reservations, if you can't find tables for 4, you could also try to find two tables for 2 around the same time and then ask the restaurant hostess if you can all be seated together. No guarantee, but they will try to put you together.

 

[nkereina]

Also keep in mind that if you're all in the same room, you will be paying an extra person fee for two extra adults which is charged per night. No big deal, but just something to add to the budget.

 

[Newfie2000]

Also keep in mind that if you're all in the same room, you will be paying an extra person fee for two extra adults which is charged per night. No big deal, but just something to add to the budget.

I believe I will only be paying for the one additional adult. I would assume the other is figured in as my brother was included in the initial reservation, tickets and dining? Unless I am misunderstanding something?

 

[nkereina]

I believe I will only be paying for the one additional adult. I would assume the other is figured in as my brother was included in the initial reservation, tickets and dining? Unless I am misunderstanding something?

Rooms are based on double occupancy, meaning you can have 2 adults per room over the age of 18. For any additional adults in the room over the age of 18, you pay a set price per night for each person beyond two. I believe that the third person already on the reservation should be already be calculated in whatever your total was. So when you add the girlfriend, they will tack on her charges.

 

[Newfie2000]

Just wanted to say thank you!! I knew I could count on the great people on the DisBoards!
Using a combination of all of your recommendations I have been able to modify/update all of our ADRs!
As suggested we are going to wait until she arrives to add her to the hotels...
Now to try to figure out the FP's if possible!
Thank you all so much!!