Does anyone else struggle with room only reservations on the WDW Website? Why don’t they allow payments online? Why does it take a long time for changed to appear? Why do I always have to call Disney instead of just taking care of it myself online? Because I’m an AP, I book room only. It drives me crazy that I have to call to make payments. Today I wanted to change the second guest on my reservation. The only option was to change the reservation to 1 person. Now I have to wait for the website to update before I can add the new person that is going on this trip with me. Is it just me?
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I frequently have issues with the Disney website, though not necessarily the same ones you mention. When I run into problems I always try using a different browser (like Edge) that doesn’t have any of my cached information. Disney’s site tends to be adversely affected by cookies.
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Room only bookings are not set up in the same system as packages and I have been told room only bookings have never been designed to be prepaid (that is why you have to call).
I remember a long time ago being told they are booked through different company divisions, that is why the reservation codes start with different code sequences? An example of this was precovid- if you wanted to add a fining plan to a room only reservation, they had to cancel your room only and then book it as a ticketless package.
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Is this a new WDW money grab? Fining folks for booking room only 
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Ahhh that makes sense. It’s stupid. But I understand what you are saying. I just find every time I try to do something to my room only reservation I can’t do it online by myself I have to call. I HATE talking on the phone!!!
This is a frustrating but easy thing to answer.
When you book a room only reservation, you’re booking with a different bucket within the company then when you book with a full package.
Packages are allowed to be paid for and managed online but room only reservations have always had to have a call in two guest services to manage modifications or payment
Trust me, I understand as a travel agent just how frustrating that is. I have many guests who book room only for various reasons and it requires a lot of calling that I wish I didn’t have to do. But it’s not a malfunction of the site. It’s a feature, not a bug.
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The current issue I am having is trying to change the second guest on my reservation. The only options I had was to change the # of people to either 1 or 3. I changed it to 1. It’s still showing the second person on the reservation. I did it this morning. This seems like a glitch. I’ve tried different browsers. It hasn’t solved it yet. I’m hoping it will update by tomorrow and I can add a different person to the reservation. I’m impatient. I admit it! I just don’t want to have to call. It’s a PITA.
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It doesn’t really change the math, but it does change the terms.
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I think he was ribbing you for the “fining” typo. 
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Thanks, now I see it but now I am leaving it.
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When I have had guests who have added a person or changed a person to their reservation, whether a package or a room only, that has required a call to guest services each time
I will say that I’m very rarely use the booking engine as a member of the public. Although we see the same things, I do believe that we have different functionality in some cases and this might be one of them.
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Has anyone been able to change a room only reservation only when booked through a bounceback? I keep trying and never works, have to call and spend a long time on the phone.
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Room only always has to call. Doesn’t matter the rate you got. Room only ALWAYS has to call.
Availability for all discounts is limited. The closer you get to the travel date, in my experience, the less likely you are to find one. But, I just got a great WL discount in Dec only about 2-3 weeks before I traveled. So it’s possible.
Only you can decide if the potential savings is worth the time suck. My advice is to call as soon as lines open or toward the end of the night. And then just leave your phone on speaker and go about your life while waiting.
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I’ve only ever booked room only when onsite and the last time I did it I was actually surprised at the level of what I could do online (compared to past years). I mean, we don’t ever pay until the folio settles on checkout (that’s just our style) so it works for us, but I was suprised I could assign in MDE the kids & husband across our 2 rooms and I could see options for online check-in and I think even a cancel option? But it was definitely a room only (and we had convention tickets that we linked).
But the cookies thing is endless for me and I only use Edge for Disney as a result. It’s what I use to book any and everything and look up anything for Disney. And it does reasonably well for me. Much better than Safari or Google Chrome.
I do most everything online. Rarely call. Always book Room Only well in advance. 3 to 6 months), When special become available for the dates I have booked, I modify my reservation for the special. Last time it would not let me modify but I reserved a new reservation for same dates under the new special offer. Then I cancelled the old reservation.
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Yes, but once you’ve done that, if you wanna make changes, you have to call. At least that has been my experience with guest reservations that are room only.
Yes, this is also a thing
Not in my experience. To modify or cancel reservation requires a call.
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I very much trust you, and could very well be mixing up the possiblity that I could cancel my room only WDW onsite stay with either a west coast onsite stay a couple years before that or with a tickets or ADR reservation (the last time we were onsite we did still have to reserve dates for convention tickets… I think). But I do know I was very surprised by how much I didn’t have to try to do over the phone because in the past I have had to call, particularly for two rooms for our one household (unless I log in to my DH’s MyDisney account separately and book half of us there and half of us with me). This last time around room only onsite at WDW was a little bit more seamless than previous attempts. And even though I’ve ony stayed onsite 3 of our trips, I’ve attempted a whole lot more stays (we cancelled so many trips between 2018-2022 trying to get back after our first trip in 2016, and all of those required calls)
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