Made a huge Disney mistake. Need advice.

[Kender]

What/Where is $159 the whole first week of January?

 

[GabrielMom]

Well I made this same mistake. I don't understand how this happened, just checked a few week ago and the whole month was available, now the whole month is booked! We have a 5 day hopper already reserved, but need one day ticket for dl on December 15. (Wanted 6 days total) what is the name of the app that notifies of availability? Is there a certain time of day to check for new availabilty?

 

[Geemo]

Well I made this same mistake. I don't understand how this happened, just checked a few week ago and the whole month was available, now the whole month is booked! We have a 5 day hopper already reserved, but need one day ticket for dl on December 15. (Wanted 6 days total) what is the name of the app that notifies of availability? Is there a certain time of day to check for new availabilty?

I believe it's Twitter - DL Stats

If you're staying in one of the Disney Hotels it looks like they still have opening for reservations.

 

[GabrielMom]

Thank you! I just downloaded twitter app on my phone. Unfortunately, we are not booked at a DL hotel.

 

[closetmickey]

Same boat
Last week plenty of availability for first couple weeks of December. Logged on yesterday to book a trip for my daughter that she had been working towards and earned and now there’s no availability. Seems like something odd going on? I feel so bad!
And to add… The one day that we wanted was actually available yesterday but only for hopper option and not one park. Just another cash grab…

 

[Geemo]

People!

As has been mentioned here on the DisBoards, RESERVATIONS are here to stay.

A trip to Disneyland NOW requires a shift in planning.
IF you know your park dates BOOK ticket reservations.

 

[cruisehopeful]

You may just want to book a Disney hotel. I've had to do that several times. Getting through this year with my Magic Key and then when that expires, I'll just plan months in advance and only visit a couple times per year. Disney wins in the end.

 

[pwillunlv]

Plus sign up for the app that notifies you when dates have cancellations show up.

What's the name of this app?

 

[GabrielMom]

I did not book DLH due to no magic hours, now the hotel is booked for my days. Dec 15 thru 21. I have been refreshing throughout the day and have seen days for December open, will keep refreshing today.. yes, Disney wins in the end.

 

[MikeRx]

We moved our January 14-17th trip to the Disneyland Hotel from the Trop so that we will hopefully assure park reservations. We plan to convert the last day of our 4-day PH ticket in December to a Believe Key (if it isn't sold out). We wanted 1 Dream and 2 Believe, but it looks like that will not happen... The reservation system is really driving everyone to a Disney Hotel as a forced perk.

Fortunately our Feb, April and October trips are at our DVC home (VGC).

 

[twodogs]

Yet another way for Disney to drive revenue, by forcing people to change to an on-property hotel or get a PH ticket to get a park reservation. I am not suprised by this, sadly, as they are behaving like most public companies, doing whatever it takes to increase shareholder value. They may lose some guests in the process, but it seems they have enough demand that they can afford to lose some (or even many) guests before it has a negative financial impact on Disney.

We always stay on-site, and I had a lot of trouble booking either DLH or GCH with only a few weeks notice, over Columbus Day weekend this year. I called, and they said it was basically hopeless to get a room on that late of a notice. I kept checking several times a day, and finally got a reservation at the DLH, but it was stressful. I think I got it about 5-6 days out, when the room-only reservations have to be cancelled to avoid a cancellation fee. I had the Hyatt booked as my back up. Not the way I like to do things for sure!

 

[Pluto468]

I did not book DLH due to no magic hours, now the hotel is booked for my days. Dec 15 thru 21. I have been refreshing throughout the day and have seen days for December open, will keep refreshing today.. yes, Disney wins in the end.

Keep trying-this happened to me with my January dates. I checked multiple times a day for like a week and today my dates were available. Also, not sure if you are only looking at DLH but you could try the other 2 if it's the only way to get tickets.

 

[GabrielMom]

Disney just opened up a whole bunch of December dates!!

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Can someone please explain to me how there is different park reservation availability when staying at one of the Disney hotels? How do you see the variances in park availability? Thanks for explaining it step by step!

 

[Geemo]

Can someone please explain to me how there is different park reservation availability when staying at one of the Disney hotels? How do you see the variances in park availability? Thanks for explaining it step by step!

Look here to see the various buckets of reservations
On this page will see four different tabs.

Reservation availability for Magic Keys varies too.
Magic Key Pass calendars can be found at here.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I am still in shock over how this occurred. Yes, reservations are here to stay, but I was watching like a hawk. All dates were open and two days later the calendar for December completely closed for base tickets. Generally I always buy hoppers, but with the hope of Genie Plus I thought we would be better off concentrating on one park a day since we were going to be there for 5. I'll never make that mistake again!

As far as how it is done, you have to do the following steps to make it work. I made my hotel reservation at Paradise Pier. Even though I was logged into my account, it does not automatically link your hotel stay. I then had to link it to my account. Then I purchased our tickets and then link them to the account. I couldn't do a package as my daughter is not staying the full 5 days. I then had to pick dates in January that were open. Once all the reservations were made for each day, I had to then cancel all my park reservations. Then I had to go to my linked hotel reservation and click on "make park reservations". From there I was able to get the dates in December that I needed. This was all under the direction of a Disney CM. I had to call three times to get a CM to understand what I was trying to do. Many CMs insisted that there was not a different calendar of availability for hotel guests. I got lucky on the third try. I could tell I got a good one as she was excited to leave for her Disney cruise the next day! I wish CM Melissa had an extension. She is a keeper, and a vacation miracle worker!

 

[twodogs]

I am still in shock over how this occurred. Yes, reservations are here to stay, but I was watching like a hawk. All dates were open and two days later the calendar for December completely closed for base tickets. Generally I always buy hoppers, but with the hope of Genie Plus I thought we would be better off concentrating on one park a day since we were going to be there for 5. I'll never make that mistake again!

As far as how it is done, you have to do the following steps to make it work. I made my hotel reservation at Paradise Pier. Even though I was logged into my account, it does not automatically link your hotel stay. I then had to link it to my account. Then I purchased our tickets and then link them to the account. I couldn't do a package as my daughter is not staying the full 5 days. I then had to pick dates in January that were open. Once all the reservations were made for each day, I had to then cancel all my park reservations. Then I had to go to my linked hotel reservation and click on "make park reservations". From there I was able to get the dates in December that I needed. This was all under the direction of a Disney CM. I had to call three times to get a CM to understand what I was trying to do. Many CMs insisted that there was not a different calendar of availability for hotel guests. I got lucky on the third try. I could tell I got a good one as she was excited to leave for her Disney cruise the next day! I wish CM Melissa had an extension. She is a keeper, and a vacation miracle worker!

I had several CMs tell me there was no "hotel reservations bucket" for the parks either. I could not decide if they were misinformed or just didn't care to figure it out. These boards are so valuable for that type of thing! I finally did get a wonderful CM who walked me through the process (similar to what you had to do) to help me straighten it out after the GCH finally became available right before our trip.

 

[DizMe]

I needed to make a park reservation for my last day in Nov staying at DLH. I already had 6 park reservations - 4 for Dec and 2 in Nov. I was afraid to cancel anything in Dec so I just waited until after I'd gone in the first day of my Nov trip to get a park res for my last day. Since my Dream pass was blocked out, I had to go to the front desk and ask them to help me book from the hotel bucket. The first 2 CMs at the registration desk assured me there was no such thing. When I showed them the link to it, they went in the back and eventually returned with someone else and they "fixed it" for me. I don't think they ever believed there was a hotel bucket, though.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I don't think they ever believed there was a hotel bucket, though.

That has been my experience, too. Even the club level guides were telling someone who was staying club level that he couldn't buy a ticket and get in to either park that day because the reservations were sold out. The hotel workers really have no idea.