We are planning a trip for March 2020. We will have a group of six since we would be bringing two of our daughters’ friends, two adults and four teens (13-16).
Trying to decide between booking two rooms (probably at Pop Century) or a family suite (probably at Art of Animation). The two room option would save us about $400 (off the currently listed price). I have a few questions/concerns about booking two rooms.
I assume we would need to book one adult in each room with two teens although we would likely have the adults in one room and teens in the other room for actual sleeping. Is there any way to be able to access both rooms with one magic band? Or would we just need to make sure that one person who is technically booked in the room is always present to open the door? Mostly a concern if we don’t get connecting rooms.
Can both rooms be under one reservation/confirmation number? Will this mess anything up with the MDE app?
If they have to be two reservations can I still book all of the fastpasses for the entire group? Would I have to set my husband up with his own MDE account? Currently the whole family is under my account.
If we get the dining plan, does having two rooms affect how the credits are distributed? Would I only have access to half the credits and my husband to the other half?
It has been said that Disney will “assure” you get connecting rooms if you have more kids than adults.
But yes they will probably have to register one adult in each room
You can have as many room reservations on one MDE account as you want.
This is good for the door thing, as your MDE can open you hotel doors.
You can book FPP for anyone on your account, even if they aren’t staying onsite.
DP having 2 rooms could help ( I will get to that later) , but in general you can use credits across rooms. How it can help: You can have one room with 2 people and get the DDDP and that will give you 3 meals a day and 2 snacks,(so 6 meals a day in a room for 2) that you could all use. That might be cheaper than the DDP for both rooms.
I’d say rent a house with a private pool with that many people, but failing that, go with the two rooms. Remember that the family suite actually has a pullout couch and a large murphy bed. I don’t think it’s meant for 4 teens.
This! The couch might be fine for 2 teens if they’re in the small side, but I wouldn’t say that the murphy bed would sleep 2 very well at all.
The tip about getting the deluxe dining plan for one room is a good one. Anyone registered in the DDP room would be able to scan their band to use meal credits, so if you were going to always have one of the DDP people in each group then the group would be able to use the plan credits. I.E. if you and 2 teens are at MK while husband and 2 teens are at the resort then you or husband could scan your band for meals. If you and husband are having parents’ time while the teens are out doing their thing then whichever one of the adults is registered in the DDP room would scan for your meals, and one of the teens registered in that room could scan for the teens’ meals.
We are a family of 6 and have had two rooms for our last two trips. It is wonderful to have that much space, 2 bathrooms, a door to hang somewhat closed for noise reduction and privacy. And of course the cheaper price is awesome! Looking at the AoA suites, I don’t imagine your teens would be in love with the theming, either. So I recommend the 2 rooms!
One trip we booked online ourselves using my MDE account and DH’s MDE, so we had 2 reservation #s, 1 adult and 2 kids listed on each room. We called and got a traveling with number added and our rooms connected. At checkin the front desk thought we weren’t, couldn’t switch us after trying, and said they would move us the next night. Turns out our rooms already connected. The magic bands were only set up to unlock one door.
Our second trip we booked through an MVT TA, who also booked us 1 adult 2 kids in each room and we had 2 reservation #s. Each Magic Band could only open one room, and I specifically asked this time to switch a band and they couldn’t. We were with a big family group, so when we arrived our rooms were next to each other but didn’t connect. The front desk switched it for me.
So based on our experience, you can’t book two rooms on one reservation # (unless a CM can do it if you call), one adult has to be on each room, Disney will do their best to get you connecting but they also seem to not know which of their own rooms connect (so checkin as early as you can and ask to switch if not connecting!), you can’t have a magic band open a door not assigned to it, yes you can book Fastpasses for friends & family, and I would research the sharing dining credits between rooms thing. I thought I recently saw that there was a flurry of people being told at Disney restaurants that they can’t do this anymore. I’m not up to date on how that resolved.
All that said, I do still really like having 2 rooms!
For us, the math on two rooms didn’t work out. We wanted to stay at an EPCOT area resort and ran across the deluxe club level room at the BWI. Although it was very expensive, it worked out to be less costly than two rooms. A big factor in selecting this room was the fact that the pullout couch was a queen. So, the room consisted of 3 queen beds, and extra square footage- really an extra room.
I was in the same dilemma last year when booking my trip for this past February. There were seven people in my group: three adults, two teens, and two toddlers. I priced the Art of Animation suites and compared it to the price of two rooms at Pop Century. The two rooms at Pop Century were cheaper than a suite at Art of Animation. In both situations, you will have two bathrooms, but you get more beds and room space with having two rooms. We stayed in two connecting rooms in the 60’s section of Pop Century. Each room will have a separate reservation number. Both rooms were under my MDE account, but I could only be assigned to one of the rooms if that makes sense; therefore, my Magic Band only opened the door to the room to which I was assigned. I was still in charge of all dining and fastpasses for all seven of us through the MDE app though so all the dining credits from everyone in the two rooms would be pooled together. I’d recommend not using the dining plan though. It’s so much food. There were times we skipped a meal because we were still full from the previous meal and/or snack. Since none of us drank alcohol or pigged out on snacks, it saved us money paying out of pocket. Also, if you plan on getting Memory Maker, you only need it for one of the rooms as it will work for everyone in your party whether they are assigned to your room or the other room.
Thanks so much everyone for all of the replies. It is definitely helping us to make our decision! I told my husband that we would get the best information from this forum.
Was just thinking about this situation and BoM said that it was easy enough to get an extra magic band at the front desk. I haven’t tried it, but if we don’t get connecting rooms I will probably try this.
