Add a day at the beginning - Can it be done?

[mickeyfan0805]

We have reservations for 9 night in October over Halloween. Plans are such, however, that I would like to be able to arrive Thursday. Everything I'm reading says they would have to cancel and re-book the entire stay, and that's not an option because all of the Fort is booked for Halloween. Is there any way to get them to add a day to the beginning of the ressie (there is plenty of availability), or am I stuck booking separately and having to move after 1 night?

 

[snowmedic]

Call the reservation line and talk to a CM about adding the extra day. It can be done without cancelling and rebooking.

 

[bama_ed]

We have reservations for 9 night in October over Halloween. Plans are such, however, that I would like to be able to arrive Thursday. Everything I'm reading says they would have to cancel and re-book the entire stay, and that's not an option because all of the Fort is booked for Halloween. Is there any way to get them to add a day to the beginning of the ressie (there is plenty of availability), or am I stuck booking separately and having to move after 1 night?

mickeyfan,

I did this exact same thing for my trip that I just got back from this week. What you do is keep your existing reservation as-is and go into the Disney reservation system and make a separate 1-night reservation for the date you want. You will make the 1 night's pay as a deposit (which is the cost of that entire reservation) and let that go through. This new reservation must be for the same type of campsite at the Fort (Premium, Preferred, etc.) as your longer reservation. I assume both would be room-only and not a package.

Then later call the Disney resort reservation line and ask to have your 2 separate reservations combined into one as I did. The CM promptly transferred me to "Guest Services" where I explained again what I wanted. They were able to do it and they moved the 1 day to the longer reservation keeping its reservation number. For the deposit I had paid on the 1-night reservation, they gave me the option to roll it over to the longer reservation (meaning I had 2 nights paid which I chose) or they will refund it back to you. You will see the change in MDE in a day or so - shorter if you choose the refund or up to 2 days if you choose to roll over the deposit.

That way you only have to check in once. It would be a good idea to make the 1-day now and get the combination made before you get to your 180+10 window for ADR's if you want to try for hard-to-get restaurants.

Bama Ed

PS - Disney makes it hard to drop days off an existing reservation with this whole cancel/rebook approach but adding days by way of a 2nd reservation then merging them is very workable.

 

[ggc]

Did the same thing recently. I called, added a day quite easily, and avoided all the on line "stuff". Dealing direct works for me.

 

[2goofycampers]

I'd try the call and add a day first, it worked for us recently. If not, try bama-ed's way. It depends on the CM you get.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) When adding an extra day, before r after, the reservation does not change.
2) You only have to worry if there is space available.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Thanks everyone - I appreciate the advice and input!

 

[bama_ed]

I tried to simply call and add a day to my existing reservation before I did what I laid out above. The CM was insistent that it would require ALL the dates in my entire reservation to be available. Seeing has how it included the marathon weekend which was already full, it didn't appear possible. I pushed back and the CM got as hostile as I've ever encountered over the phone. So I did the second reservation and had them merged later.

Whatever works. Hopefully mickeyfan0805 will have better luck with a CM than I did.

Bama Ed

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Just wanted to wrap up, in case anyone searches a similar question, and post that we were able to add the day at the beginning with no issues. Don't know why BamaEd had to go through such hassle, but it was a 60 second conversation and add for us. Thanks everyone!