WDW World without Reservations

[OhMari]

Do you think anyone ever did this and just showed up without ressie's or tickets.

Tickets would be no problem, you can just get them at the gate, but do you think anyone ever went to The Comtemporary and just asked for a room?

 

[Desnik]

We did! On our honeymoon too!! DH and I got married at the court house and drove straight to WDW!!! No plan, no ressies and it was in the middle of July!! Needless to say we couldn't get a room, at the time value resorts were the only option! We stayed at a best western, but we spent almost all our time at WDW. We bought or park passes at the gate.
we were clueless!! We have come a long way. I am a compulsive planner and we are now DVC'ers and go every year!
I'm sure it can be done sucessfully in the off season. We just came back from a "no PS trip" we had no plan and just winged it! It was great!! But I won't do it again, I need some sort of a plan!

 

[LindaR]

When I read your post..........this thought immediately came to mind.......

You can buy a car and pay the price on the sticker, but why would you do that?

Do you know what i'm getting at? You'd be willing to risk paying rack rate for a room instead of planning ahead and using discounts?

I would NOT go if I couldn't plan and have major discounts!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Grumpy92]

It can be done easily but it all depends on when you go. The resorts often have rooms avaiblable but you do not know what rate you are going to get. Sometimes the resorts want to sell out the house so they will decrease the rate, ofcourse if it is a holiday rack rate is what is available.

 

[DVC-Don]

I was checking into the WL in our pre-DVC days once in January when some guy walked in without a reservation. They had nothing for him.

 

[yusinskas]

We never arrived with no reservation, but we often arrived a day early, and tried to get a room. It was usually a very simple thing, due to other guests checking out early. We only had a problem once, when the only room available was Concierge. We sprung for it for the one night, which turned out to be a nice treat. :> This was also back when the Poly and the Contemporary were the only Disney hotels. I can't imagine that getting a room on short notice would be difficult with all the hotels that are available now.

 

[Woodcourt]

on our honeymoon there was another couple we met who had just gotten married who told us they did that...just drove on over. It was at the POFQ and it was sept, so there were rooms. Seemed funny.

 

[Lives4Disney]

We stayed at the Contemporary for a week (with a reservation), left WDW and headed to Vero Beach to visit relatives. After that visit, we decided we NEEDED more Disney World. We drove right up to the CR, headed to the front desk and got a tower room. It was LOTS cheaper per night than I paid for the reserved room rate. I believe that they almost always save rooms for "walk ins" and the rate is better if you can get the room. I really don't know if the walk in rate is better than getting a room with a code, because this was before I knew about codes, but I remember being stunned at the walkin price they quoted me.

 

[mjmcca]

This summer I drove down from NY with no ressies. I have a very close freind who works for Disney so i was 99%n sure i could get a CM rate on room. We spent our arrival night at her house and she got us a fantastic rate at POP. If she had not been able to get us rooms I would have stayed off site. You can almost always get a room in central Florida it just may NOT be on Disney property.

 

[lovethattink]

The closest we've come to doing that is same day reservations. We even got AP discount rate on the same day. This was during the off season, of course! I'd never just drive there without resies during the busy seasons.