Advice for sharing a room with a friend

Pull up your carpet squares. It’s story time.

Way back in March I was whining on FaceBook about how little I got to see at Epcot during our family trip. The next thing I knew 7 of my long-lost college girl friends wanted to join me for a girls’ trip to Epcot Food & Wine. Yay! I booked a room for myself. Four of my other friends booked rooms. 1 friend desperately wants to book a room, but will have to wait until the last minute because of her husband’s work. 1 friend proceeded to have a full-on mid-life crisis all over FaceBook. I’ve stopped sending her trip planning emails and hope that she’s forgotten about us. This story is not about any of those friends.

This story is about the 8th person in our little group. I think I’ll call her NHH for Needs Hand Holding. She doesn’t want to book her own room. She wants to have a roommate to save money. I agreed to let her room with me. She asked me if she could pay me in WDW gift cards she would get at Target using her Red Card. I said no. She’s asked if she can wait to pay me for her half until later. She doesn’t want park tickets for every day. I found her an Orbitz 25% off code and figured out a way for her to get the same room as the rest of us for a significant savings. Nope. She’d rather room with me because that option is $60 cheaper.

What do I do? I haven’t added her to my room yet. Should I get her to pay for her half before adding her? Should I back out and say I’d rather have my room to myself, thank you very much?

Do any of you have stories about sharing a room with a friend that would shed some light on this situation? Feel free to share!

I’d set a deadline and let her know that after that date she totally can’t be added to your reservation lol.

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Good suggestion @ThatDisneyGuy_outer1 - so a combination of pay up front AND you must decide before X date.

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Sure… I hate late minute decision makers. And for all she knows you really can’t add her after a certain date. Some people need a set timeframe for making decisions otherwise they’ll him and haw all day long.

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This doesn’t sound like a good roommate situation. I think NHH needs her own room, but I would probably go with @ThatDisneyGuy_outer1’s suggestion and hopefully she’ll miss the deadline. :smiley:

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Do you want to have her in your room? Did you already agree to having her in your room?
Like outer says- I would say I need to prepay the room by this date, please mail me a check. I would be worried about her charging to your room and not paying you back if she is being a little funny now. Do you like this person and do you want to remain friends? It sounds like she might need to bail on this trip and let you go and have fun. I would hate to split a room with someone that I wasn’t sure how they would behave. Since she doesn’t want to do park days- would she like to stay off property in a nice place with hotel? I would call her and feel this out before adding her to the room.

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Of course, I wouldn’t be opposed to taking gift cards as payment and using that as spending money while down there. I would avoid the charges to the room and just tell them you don’t want to be able to do that.

I really wonder if I could talk my DH into letting me go down for a weekend with a friend or two. I would love to do that. Of course, I need to choose my friends wisely now- seeing your situation.

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@SallyEpp_cot I like what @ThatDisneyGuy_outer1 said, give a deadline for decision and deadline for money (maybe a bit later). I know how much you are looking forward to this trip and I would hate for you to have the excitement diminished at all. Maybe make the deadline mid-August so it will not interfere with FPP and you will still have plenty of time to trip plan, either with or without her.

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Yay! I’m not just full of :poop: lol

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Good advice everyone. I think I like her, but I don’t know her all that well. She was a part of my group if friends in college - mostly engineers and computer Sci guys - very few girls. We haven’t seen each other in 20 years. I think that’s part of the problem. I has a set of assumptions and expectations about personalities that are 20 years out of date. Your know what they say about the word assume. (Why can’t I find a donkey emoticon?)

Our original unformed plan was for all roommates on the cheap. Then everyone but her wanted solo moderate rooms for comfort. She said she could only do it with a shared room. I did the nice thing and offered to share. I never dreamed it would get more complicated!

I would just tell her that you decided to stay by yourself. You are sweet to want to offer her help but she isn’t going to make this a fun trip for you and there is NOTHING worse that getting stuck with someone you can’t get away from. As a college girl, I would have packed my room with friends BUT as an adult, one close friend would be the only person I would share with. I am too set in my old ways and I want to be happy and do what I want to do. I would want to be able to come back to my room, shower, lounge, watch whatever, set the alarm for whenever and do what I wanted.
Sounds like she could make this hard. Maybe plan another trip that is more in her budget.

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No, Outer- you aren’t full of it but men are ALWAYS more direct than women.

Yeah, the thing is the 5 of us who have already booked are wonderfully compatible. We are all introverts and very independent. Everyone is going to do their own thing and just meet for ADRs. It’s been so nice. I’ll send out an email with info and they just take care of their part. I’m very close to saying I want my own room too, but hate to change my mind now. She already bought plane tickets. I suppose I’ll start with the pay in advance by this date plan. Maybe she’ll cancel.

Ooh, you are stuck if she bought tickets.

Yep. What I can’t figure out is why she bought tickets for Mon-Fri! I’m the only one staying Mon-Fri. Everyone else is arriving Tuesday and only doing the two Epcot days. I planned a solo day in MK and now I’m going to have a roommate who has never gone to WDW. If she’s strapped for funds why do the longer version of the trip?!?

Oh dear, she has already bought her plane tickets AND the original plan was everyone to have roommates? I think given that you need to definitely approach this as needing the money by a certain date. With purchased tickets it sounds like she is committed. I am not sure you can just go the “I changed my mind and want my own room” route. Sorry you are in this situation.

I agree. I’m whining now, but I’ll do the decent thing. :slight_smile:

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Best of luck. I hope your trip is wonderful and I hope this friendship is rekindled.

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But if she doesn’t get you the money by the deadline you set than go ahead and tell her sorry but you cannot share a room. Also, no charging privileges if room is in your name (your cc on reservation) and you won’t be together much in parks.

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This sort of situation is always tough. I like the deadlines and I think it’s fine to say that you are doing certain days solo (you are happy to give her pointers of course.). Better to be upfront about it all.

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