Throwaway Room - Offsite to Onsite Stays

[hiroMYhero]

Recapping after the events of today:

Is it worth it?

UPDATED 2/22/2019

For most people, probably not.

However, if you were buying MB for everyone anyway, it might be worth it. If you can snag a tent site for $55 plus tax, you can add 10 people to the reservations and receive 10 magic bands ($14.99 value per band).

Also, you get free parking for 2 days ($50 value), not to mention 60 day FP+ availability for check-in through checkout dates.

Just remember that you only get EMH and Parking for your check-in and -out days.

I have seen people book throwaways for the entire length of stay to gain access to hard to find ADR's, and gain the 180+10 advantage especially during busy times. Considering staying at the Poly can be over $600 per night for a standard room, and you can find an offsite 2 bedroom can cost less than half that, I can understand the logic.

 

[mamaofsix]

@hiroMYhero , will the "merge window" still apply for booking 60 days ahead? (This past November we booked & paid for a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and were able to book 5 days of fp's at 60 days before the Monday because our check-in / check-out days merged.)

I still think it's worth it just for the MB's and parking alone, but curious about the merge window.

 

[hiroMYhero]

@hiroMYhero , will the "merge window" still apply for booking 60 days ahead? (This past November we booked & paid for a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and were able to book 5 days of fp's at 60 days before the Monday because our check-in / check-out days merged.)

I still think it's worth it just for the MB's and parking alone, but curious about the merge window.

The booking windows won’t be Merging. You’ll essentially have 3 separate booking windows.

 

[mamapenguin]

That's a fair question. When we started planning this trip (my kids spend their 10th birthday at Disney), it was a no brainer for me to stay on prop. Then in response to the Vegas shooting, Disney started going into hotel rooms as the wished all willy nilly. Now, please understand I know that hotels do have some privileges to go in your room for health/safety reasons. However the trips reports I saw had them coming in unannounced/disturbing people's sleeping in, otherwise disrupting them in their room. It seemed to be a daily thing.

That right there was a hard no for us. My husband travels with a lot of expensive tech for any work/emergencies he might have to tend to when we're in our room/overnight and beyond being disturbed/intruded upon for how much we spend to stay there, it was too much of a risk for sensitive equipment.

That being said, Disney also can't provide me with the accommodation experience that I want. Multiple bedrooms, FULL sized kitchen, full personal laundry. Even if they did eventually have full sized condos/single family homes for accommodations, because they are Disney branded, they would be OBSCENELY priced.

People will stay offsite regardless of what they do. Letting people pay for ala carte fastpass or wristbands to enter the shorter line would be one way to squeeze money out of those who refuse to stay on site. You'd think they would want to maximize where they can.

The people who will be happy by this change are already giving Disney their money. They'll lose money from the people who use this method/hack.

We had the kind of accommodation you described at OKW, it was like our own little house. 2 bedrooms, own laundry, kitchen etc. I have no idea what the rate was, my family had DVC at the time.

 

[mamaofsix]

The booking windows won’t be Merging. You’ll essentially have 3 separate booking windows.

Thanks for clarifying!

 

[mamaofsix]

We had the kind of accommodation you described at OKW, it was like our own little house. 2 bedrooms, own laundry, kitchen etc. I have no idea what the rate was, my family had DVC at the time.

Luxury Vacation homes (many twice the size of OKW grand villas - and come with their own personal pools and hot tubs) can often be 1/10th the price of on property. And that's not an exaggeration. $1000 for a week offsite in a villa, vs. $10,000 for a week onsite in a grand villa.

 

[Shughart]

Luxury Vacation homes (many twice the size of OKW grand villas - and come with their own personal pools and hot tubs) can often be 1/10th the price of on property. And that's not an exaggeration. $1000 for a week offsite in a villa, vs. $10,000 for a week onsite in a grand villa.

Exactly.

 

[Disneyliscious]

@hiroMYhero , will the "merge window" still apply for booking 60 days ahead? (This past November we booked & paid for a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and were able to book 5 days of fp's at 60 days before the Monday because our check-in / check-out days merged.)

I still think it's worth it just for the MB's and parking alone, but curious about the merge window.

We do throwaway rooms (camps) too but never considered the every other day routine. Is parking free at the parks on checkout day too?

 

[mamaofsix]

We do throwaway rooms (camps) too but never considered the every other day routine. Is parking free at the parks on checkout day too?

Yes, free parking on all check in and check out days. So, by booking and paying for M, W, F, we got 6 days of free parking.

 

[hiroMYhero]

We do throwaway rooms (camps) too but never considered the every other day routine. Is parking free at the parks on checkout day too?

Yes. Free parking for check-in through the very end of your checkout day. Onsite perks remain in effect until the last park closes on your checkout day.

 

[ldean503]

I just wanted to chime in, I have 1 night booked at a campsite for our first night on our next trip the end of March, the rest of our stay is off-site. I was able to make the rolling FP+ for our entire trip at 60 days out, however now (at about 40 days out) I am unable to modify any of the fastpasses beyond our check out day. I am able to modify the fastpasses for the check in and check out day, and everything is still there in my account, but I am wanting to change a few things around and I'm not able to. :-( It was driving me crazy until I thought to check the boards. Seems like we lucked out in being able to book the rolling Fastpasses when we did.

 

[disneylover102]

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[ckelly14]

Thanks for updating Hiro!

Going to an every other day strategy may still work for some people.

Many loopholes closed this year. I guess we should get used to it!

 

[ckelly14]

First post updated.

 

[MissCJ]

I love this concept and was seriously considering doing something similar before reading this thread and realizing I'm not the only one to think of an idea like this. I totally understand the concepts & perks here (parking, FP+, etc., but there's one thing I'm not able to wrap my brain around, and can't seem to find the answer throughout this thread, so here's my question:
We will be staying with my sister and her family off-site. There will be nine of us total, but we are two-three different family "units" (depending on how she is counting her adult daughter and their family) so we'll have several different cars, and at least two different (maybe three) MDE accounts. How would the Magic Bands work with one FW reservation work but two or three already existing MDE accounts? Would we be able to link the bands to the individuals in the already existing accounts? Or would they be linked ONLY to the new FW reservation where all nine individuals to receive the bands would be listed? Also, if I made two reservations (one for a Mon-Tues stay, then a Thursday-Friday stay) would we actually receive MB for all nine people for both stays (in other words, 18 total)?
I hope this makes sense... Thanks!

 

[mamaofsix]

I love this concept and was seriously considering doing something similar before reading this thread and realizing I'm not the only one to think of an idea like this. I totally understand the concepts & perks here (parking, FP+, etc., but there's one thing I'm not able to wrap my brain around, and can't seem to find the answer throughout this thread, so here's my question:
We will be staying with my sister and her family off-site. There will be nine of us total, but we are two-three different family "units" (depending on how she is counting her adult daughter and their family) so we'll have several different cars, and at least two different (maybe three) MDE accounts. How would the Magic Bands work with one FW reservation work but two or three already existing MDE accounts? Would we be able to link the bands to the individuals in the already existing accounts? Or would they be linked ONLY to the new FW reservation where all nine individuals to receive the bands would be listed? Also, if I made two reservations (one for a Mon-Tues stay, then a Thursday-Friday stay) would we actually receive MB for all nine people for both stays (in other words, 18 total)?
I hope this makes sense... Thanks!

-All people linked to the reservation would get MBs.
-All people linked to the reservation would get free parking (we had several vehicles last trip).
-You would get 2 sets of MB's, but you could cancel the second set on your MDE if you just want the first set. Both reservations/all fp's, etc. would work on the first set of magic bands. This is what we did on our last trip.

 

[NMK62303]

The booking windows won’t be Merging. You’ll essentially have 3 separate booking windows.

''

Hiro - we added a one night stay to the front of our res in June but they are still separate res numbers as it's the same room type and same resort but a different discounted rate. With this new policy do you think we will have a separate booking window for the first day and then the second-sixth days?

 

[Mish415]

Umbrella policy is gone as well? for booking your offsite friends with your own FP at 60 days?

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I love this concept and was seriously considering doing something similar before reading this thread and realizing I'm not the only one to think of an idea like this. I totally understand the concepts & perks here (parking, FP+, etc., but there's one thing I'm not able to wrap my brain around, and can't seem to find the answer throughout this thread, so here's my question:
We will be staying with my sister and her family off-site. There will be nine of us total, but we are two-three different family "units" (depending on how she is counting her adult daughter and their family) so we'll have several different cars, and at least two different (maybe three) MDE accounts. How would the Magic Bands work with one FW reservation work but two or three already existing MDE accounts? Would we be able to link the bands to the individuals in the already existing accounts? Or would they be linked ONLY to the new FW reservation where all nine individuals to receive the bands would be listed? Also, if I made two reservations (one for a Mon-Tues stay, then a Thursday-Friday stay) would we actually receive MB for all nine people for both stays (in other words, 18 total)?
I hope this makes sense... Thanks!

You need to connect all of the existing MDE accounts through Friends and Family. When you then link the Ft. W reservation to one of the accounts, you can then match the guest profiles to the Ft. W reservation. As PP noted, if you make two reservations, you can either receive MB's for both reservations or opt out of one reservation's MB's. Either way, all linked MB's will work with both reservations.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

''

Hiro - we added a one night stay to the front of our res in June but they are still separate res numbers as it's the same room type and same resort but a different discounted rate. With this new policy do you think we will have a separate booking window for the first day and then the second-sixth days?

Under the new policy, you will have two booking windows.

Umbrella policy is gone as well? for booking your offsite friends with your own FP at 60 days?

This has not been reported.