My reservations (and anxiety) are a mess!

Longtime lurker, occasional poster. I need some wisdom and/or reassurance that all will be ok! Months ago, I booked two rooms for October at Boardwalk for 5 nights as packages with tickets. One room for me and DH, second room for my parents. Then two weeks ago, adult sister decides she wants to come, parents say sure, you can stay in our room (like it’s just that easy!). But sister can only go if we arrive day earlier due to her work schedule and she will only be staying for half of the trip (for purposes of this post, I am not including all the family drama and how I feel about these demands - just the facts lol) So I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday trying to make all of this work, but of course no availability at Boardwalk for that extra day. And nothing available for the entire trip anywhere at the Epcot resorts (as we are all adults, we are going for F&W so that’s where we want to be but willing to stay at BC or YC as well). Ultimately, ended up breaking the package for parents’ room because sister’s ticket wouldn’t match (and even though they told us on a previous trip you could fix that at check-in, we had a terrible experience at check-in last time trying to do and ultimately it didn’t work so I was adamant I wouldn’t be trying that again). Also booked first night at Beach Club - 2 bdr villa for all of us that happened to have 1 night open. But then have to move to Boardwalk for next 5 days…and as of now parents and sister have no tickets so they lost park reservations I had with their package since I was hesitant to buy tickets yesterday in case someone isn’t onboard with this plan of switching and decides they don’t want to go. My husband and I have tickets but starting day 2 and linked with BW which won’t work since we will definitely want to go to park on arrival day. I know I still have time to rebook/cancel and hope something pops up where we can be in the same place all 6 nights but I feel like at some point, we just have to make a decision because the nonstop checking is driving me crazy…and we have to book flights so dates will then be locked in. The OCD in me hates this feeling of plans that are all over the place and incomplete. I guess I would like some opinions on how inconvenient the move will be for 1 night, whether people have had success with rooms opening up before the 30 day mark, and of course how disappointed we will feel after being in 2br villa for first night then “downgrading” to regular rooms (j/k, not really). Also as a side note, I had a 3rd room for the same original dates that we cancelled at BW and I checked constantly and I never saw it go back to available so that makes me think they might already be oversold or holding back for some reason. Sorry this is a lot!

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{{{{{hugs}}}}}} take some deep breaths. I’m so sorry this has happened to you. I have had split stays and they aren’t that big a deal, really. If you pack one suitcase with everyone’s first day stuff, and the rest of it for the two different places, it should not be too bad.

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It may be a shot in the dark, but you may want to check all of the dvc point rental sites to see if they might have a dedicated reservation for rent that happens to line up with your dates. You might also want to see if there is availability to rent points for a villa at Boardwalk for that one night that you need. Also a longshot for October, but might be worth a check as they could have dvc availability even if there is no cash availability.

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First question… are you actually benefiting financially by booking a package vs room only and discount tickets through a reseller?

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Take a deep breath. I’e gone from a 2br to 2 regular rooms and it was fine. It did make us decide to buy DVC though, so there’s that.

I’ve planned many trips within 30 days and things do sometimes open up, but even if they don’t a split stay has always worked out well. Last year we originally had Poly studio for the first 3 days, then we had Boardwalk studio for the last 3 days… 10 days or so before my waitlist for Boardwalk the first 3 days came through. Upon check-in, even though it was 2 separate reservations they were able to give us the same room for the whole 6 days. Then, midway through I was notified by Southwest that my flight home could face multi-day delays, so we rebooked for 2 days later. It was Star Wars race weekend, and even though the actual race didn’t happen everything was totally booked. The desk and DVC team managed to not only get us a place to sleep, but they keep us in the same room for the extra 2 days!

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Not really - I had only booked the package because I like knowing that the tickets are fully refundable as long as you cancel prior to 30 days.

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Given that you’ve already scrapped the package for your parents room, I would go ahead and book tickets for them and sis and get them park reservations.
Buy them as stand alone, starting the day before your current package starts. Then get their park reservations booked.

After that you have to make a decision. Or your family do.

At this point I do have a question. I’m not clear. Have you told sis and parents that you’ll change dates? Have you told them the only option to do this is to move?

Sure you can hope for something to open, but at this point don’t tell them that. Otherwise they will get their hopes up and then could be disappointed, with sis pulling out etc.

So tell them the only way we can go a day early is by moving resorts. End of.

If they agree then go ahead to the next stage. If not then just cancel the single night

At that point you’ll need to change your package to a room-only and buy tickets immediately. That way your parks are safe.

As to the rest.

How easy is to transfer? Pretty easy. You could even wheel your bags over if you want. Or let Disney do the transfer. Or Uber.

Will something open up within 30 days?
I wouldn’t count on it.

Last thing. Have you tried the Swan or Dolphin, either for the one night or the whole stay?

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Thanks for this! I think sometimes I just need to step back and think, this is vacation!!! It shouldn’t be the source of so much stress!

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That’s where I’m at currently…basically, in order for my sister to go we have to move rooms and if something opens up in the next few weeks then that’s just a bonus. I never thought about just moving bags ourselves…I feel like I’ve heard some less than stellar stories about split stays and bags not showing up…but you are 100% right - we could easily walk from BC to BW with a few bags in the morning and even “check-in” before we go to the parks, knowing that room won’t be ready that early, but at least we’d get a text when it is! Thanks!

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In which case I would buy the tickets and book parks asap. Worst case you can use your sister’s ticket another time.

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