Payment options/Minimum nights/Resort "hopping"/Fort Wilderness Campground

[chipperdini]

I have been considering using Dreams Unlimited for part of a November 2004 trip to the Walt Disney World Resort but have a few questions:

(I would be wanting room only reservations, as I plan on staying offsite approximately half of my trip, and will have Premium Annual Passes.)

1) Is payment by credit card the only option? I do have a debit card I can use as a credit card, but I much prefer to pay via personal check. Is this acceptable?

2) My anticipated vacation is for a very special occasion, and therefore is a bit "unusual" perhaps in my plans for accomodations. I am at this point planning/hoping for 5 nights at the Fort Wilderness campground, 2 nights at the Caribbean Beach Resort, 7 nights at an offsite vacation home I've already booked and 2 nights at the Polynesian Resort, in that order. I noticed that another online Disney travel service similar to Dreams Unlimited states that there is a 3-night minimum required. Does Dreams require a minimum night stay? If so, would I be able to "combine" my total nights onsite to meet such a requirement, or would I need to have "x" number of nights all at the same resort?

3) I anticipate "hopping" a bit between onsite and offsite accomodations as noted above. When requesting a quote from Dreams, must I request a separate quote for each resort I hope to stay at? Is there some way I could get a combined quote that would include, for example, both a stay at CBR and the Poly? I would expect when booking to have to put a deposit towards each individual resort I'd like to stay at, i.e. if Dreams is able to go through Central Reservations Office and book 2 nights at the CBR and 2 nights at the Poly for me, I would need to pay a 1 night's deposit for CBR AND a 1 night's deposit for the Poly, correct? I guess what I'm mostly interested in here is how to use your online quote application when desiring to split one's stay between more than 1 resort. Can I just indicate that when I request a quote, or is it just best to do separate quotes? (I was concerned that doing separate ones might have me working with different agents or be confusing in some way, and I just want to keep things as organized as possible.) My apologies if I'm not being clear enough with this set of questions. :o

4) I read at one point that you do not do reservations for campsites at Fort Wilderness. Has your policy changed in that regard? Just wondering, because it would be nice if I decide to book the CBR and Poly with Dreams Unlimited services if all of my onsite accomodations could be handled by Dreams. I wondered if there are any "exceptions" to the rule (besides the FW Cabins) if a client is also booking nights for other Disney Resort Hotels.


I will greatly appreciate your time and efforts in answering my questions. :)


Thank you,

Heather

[John]

Hi Heather

Thank you for considering Dreams Unlimited Travel.

Let me try to answer your questions in order.

1. Yes, you can pay for your vacation with a check. However, please keep in mind that when you work with Dreams Unlimited Travel you make all your payments direclty to Disney through Dreams Unlimited Travel. Payments are never made direclty to DU (this is for your protection). So, you would need to make sure your check, made out to Disney, reached our offices in more than enough time for us to then forward it to Disney. This would be most important when making your deposit. This is also why we prefer if you could pay by Credit Card, or a debit Card with a Visa or Mastercard logo, as this would eliminate any possibility of your payment being posted late and your reservation cancelling.

2. Dreams Unlimited follows the exact same guidelines as Disney when it comes to booking rooms. So, no you would not have to book a 3-night minimum stay if you are looking for 'room-only' accomodations. Disney does require a 3-night minimum stay for packages (i.e. inclusive of park tickets, etc.) but it does not sound like you want a package - just the room accomodations. For 'room-only' reservations you can book as little as one night if that is what you want.

3. Your best bet for obtaining the quote you want would be to submit one quote request and in the 'special requests' box on the form explain exactly what you want. The agent you work with will have to split your request into seperate reservations in our system due to the different resorts - but he/she will be able to keep them linked with Disney as well as for your itinerary. Even if you do decide to submit different requests for each portion of your vacation we would make sure you are assigned the same agent for your trip planning.

4. Dreams Unlimited currently does not book reservations at the Fort Widlerness Campgrounds. We do book the Wilderness Cabins - but not the campsites.

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

John

[chipperdini]

Hi John. Thanks for your prompt, informative and helpful reply. :)

A few comments, further questions:

1) I'm glad to hear that a credit card is not the only option for payment. I am aware that my payments would go directly to Disney. You note concern that payment reaches Disney in time to avoid cancellation of a reservation. Am I correct in thinking that Disney allows 14 days from the time of booking to receive the deposit? If that's true, so long as Dreams is timely in forwarding (can you offer any assurance that Dreams has had a successful record insofar as promptly forwarding payments received via "snail mail"??), I can foresee no reason why Disney wouldn't have my payment in time, as I am very prompt (24 hours or less) when mailing a check that needs to arrive somewhere within a specific time frame.

2) I got to thinking about it afterward, and it dawned on me that the 3-night minimum stay was in some way related to Disney packages. No, I definitely do not want a package, as I will (hopefully) be visiting the parks for more than two weeks in November 2004, and then returning as I am able for some shorter visits in 2005.

3) Thank you. I preferred to do it as you suggested--asking for one quote, then making note of the rest in the "special requests" box--as this seemed to me the most convenient and least confusing way of doing it.

4) Okay. :) Never hurts to ask. ;) As the campsite portion is very important to my overall plan, I have no interest in the cabins at this time. Should I expect to be "on my own," then, in securing those nights with Disney directly, or do you have any other recommendation in how to go about reserving a campsite at FW where I might receive help with Priority Seatings and other activities (e.g. behind-the-scenes tours, etc.)? May I ask why Dreams does not book the campsites? The only reason I could think of would be that perhaps Disney won't give commissions for those? Just curious.

I know I might not have been clear enough in my initial post, so I'll rephrase and ask this question again:

5) If I book room-only for 2 nights at the CBR and 2 nights at the Poly, am I correct in thinking that I will need to send a one-night's deposit for EACH individual resort? Assuming that's so, will I need to send those deposits separately, i.e. make out two separate checks and mail them separately? Please pardon any ignorance on my part, but I'm very much a "newbie" when it comes to such things, and am not "travel-savvy."

Two more question sets:

6) I may be very interested in upgrading the level of my accomodations at a later date if my budget permits, or perhaps if some good discounts become available. How would this work, exactly, if, for example, I booked two nights standard view, non-concierge at the Poly, but later decided to upgrade to standard concierge for one or both nights, or even possibly a concierge suite for the second night? Does my initial deposit get added to the upgraded price, and then I send in the difference?

7) When do Dreams' services "kick in" and when do they "end" with respect to check-in and check-out of any accomodations I may book with Dreams Unlimited? For example, if I book with Dreams and they are able to secure the resorts/nights I want, I'll check into the CBR on Friday, Nov. 26 and will check out on Sunday, Nov. 28 and a week later in December, I'll be checking into the Poly on Sunday, (I think) Dec. 5 and checking out of the Poly on Tuesday, Dec. 7. Will Dreams book PSes, etc. for me for anytime on the 26th, 27th and 28th and the 5th, 6th and 7th? Also, does Dreams only book rooms, packages and certain tickets? Can I book "extra" paid/"hard"-ticketed activities and events through Dreams even if I'm not staying in a room on that day that I've booked through Dreams? To clarify, what if I wished to get reservations/tickets for things like Cirque Du Soleil, Candlelight Processional Dinner Package, Fantasmic! Dinner Package, MVMCP, fishing excursions, behind-the-scenes tours, etc. while I'm staying at the campgrounds or at the offsite vacation home mentioned in my initial post? Can/Would Dreams be willing to help secure these things that require additional $$$ to regular park admissions? Just wondering, as I'm trying to determine what value it will be to me to book with Dreams vs. doing it all myself.


Thanks again for your efforts. I look forward to your response. :)


~Heather

[John]

Hi Heather

Your check would be forwarded to Disney as soon as we receive it in our offices and we would call the appropriate department at Disney to let them know it is on it's way. As you might imagine I cannot guarantee 100% that something beyond our control might not happen that may delay your check from reaching Disney in time, but again we would do out best to ensure it leaves our offices ASAP.

As I mentioned previously our policies for deposits, cancellations, etc. are the same as Disney's. Since Disney requires one-night's deposit plus tax for each individual room-only reservation, and since each resort/date change would be considered a different reservation in Disney's systems, they would require one-night's deposit plus tax for each of your separate reservations. So in your example you would have to pay a separate deposit amount for your CBR stay and for your Poly stay. We would recommend that you write-out separate checks for each reservation and note the reservation numbers on the check - this will help to avoid confusion later on when they are received by Disney and processed. Of course, you can send your checks for the bookings you make through Dreams Unlimited to us in one envelope.

Since Disney requires the one night's deposit of the actual accommodations you book, if you do decide to upgrade they will require the price difference between what was previously booked and the new room cost for the deposit.

Dreams Unlimited's services are from the day you check in to the resort until midnight of the day you check out of the resort that is booked through us. So we would be able to make your PS arrangements, help you get show tickets, provide you with an itinerary etc. for those days. Since Dreams Unlimited, and subsequently the agent you will be working with, only receive compensation through commission paid by Disney for the dates you actually book through us it is our policy to only provide our services for the dates you book as well as the party size you book. However, we will leave it up to your agent if they feel that purchasing tickets for days you are not booked with us would be something they would be willing to do. They cannot, however, make your PS's or behind the scenes tour reservations for dates that are not booked with us.

Thanks
John

[chipperdini]

Thanks again, John, for your prompt and helpful reply. You've answered all my major questions/concerns at this time regarding booking with Dreams Unlimited. Sometime in the next 2-3 weeks I'll be acquiring a AAA membership, and I will most likely contact Dreams for a quote once I've done that. :)