Pop overnight v. park parking—is what CM telling me sound right?

TRAVELQUEEN

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
We have a full package (tickets/room/free dining) set for 11 days in September staying at Pop—we are renting a car for the full 3 weeks we are in Orlando (Disney Cruise/Disney/Universal)—we have been gifted an offsite 2 bedroom timeshare for 2 weeks which falls during the exact time of our Disney stay—not canceling out of reservation but now have no intention of spending the night at Pop during any of the Disney package given the now better accommodations available—called Pop and spoke to a rep to make sure that we would still be entitled to free parking at Parks during our stay and not be assessed any overnight charge for our rental vehicle as we will not actually be parking there overnight and frankly probably will not be even using the room or resort at all—she said no that we would lose park parking privileges since we would not be paying the overnight resort parking fee and that we could go to Disney Springs park free there etc—did not argue with her but this does not seem to be the way the policy is written nor fair—your thoughts?
 
If you have a reservation you should get free parking at the parks. But I don’t understand why you wouldn’t cancel a Pop reservation. You’re holding on to it to get free parking and meals at the parks :confused3 doesn’t make sense.

It would be way cheaper to cancel Pop and buy your tickets from Undercover tourist who freq have discounts on tix and pay for your meals. Sorry, I just can’t wrap my head around how paying for a room for 11 days you aren’t using is going to be cheaper than paying to park and meals.
Also I’m not sure how WDW handles an abandoned room. Even though paid for, it’s not occupied.
 


I have to agree with the others. Unless there is some other info that you have not included but I can't even think of a scenario that keeping a reservation at POP makes sense.

Parking...as long as you are an onsite WDW guest you can park for free at any of the parks. Your Magicband will allow for that.
 
Thanks to all glad to hear opinions on n/c park parking—perhaps I am missing something in not canceling my Pop reservation—but my total is 5884 for 3 adults which included 10 day water park plus and upgrade to deluxe dining—if I cancel tickets will be 1742 (10 day water park plus) park parking 220 and our ADR reservations are running approximately 4500 for the 3 of us based on what we are planning on ordering and what we have done in the past—this doesn’t even account for the dining sales tax saving or 2 snacks per day (which we actually plan using at Food and Wine booths)-still appears cheaper to keep reservation and save 588–also we lose EMH privileges that we always use—I will ck out Undercover to see if tickets prices there make a difference—if I am still missing something let me know—again thanks for helping
 


In the end I truly dont think the math would work out to keep the reservation- BUT - your bigger issue is them potentially cancelling your reservation.

I don't know if Disney does it but most places will cancel your reservation if you don't show up. I've even had hotels check me out when housekeeping saw I wasn't there for a few days (This happened when traveling for work and I had flown home for a few days before coming back).

If it were me, I'd cancel the reservation and pay OOP for dining. You could also get one person in your group an annual pass and use that for free parking and discounts on food and merchandise.
 
To the OP, I would go to the resort & check-in. If they ask are you parking a car the answer is no. Just dropping you off. That’s not a lie. You aren’t parking there. The room is yours. You paid for it. Once you show up it’s nobody’s business whether you sleep or shower there.
 
To the OP, I would go to the resort & check-in. If they ask are you parking a car the answer is no. Just dropping you off. That’s not a lie. You aren’t parking there. The room is yours. You paid for it. Once you show up it’s nobody’s business whether you sleep or shower there.
Basically, you can’t. They do daily security checks and if the room is unoccupied they will look into it and cancel everything. People where trying that angle a while back to get free dining and it got shut down very quickly. The only scenario that a phantom reservation works is when it’s for one night only. People do it to get advanced FP+, EMH and DME. Not my cup of tea but....
 
I don't know if Disney does it but most places will cancel your reservation if you don't show up. I've even had hotels check me out when housekeeping saw I wasn't there for a few days (This happened when traveling for work and I had flown home for a few days before coming back).
.
Correct...WDW does this
 
Basically, you can’t. They do daily security checks and if the room is unoccupied they will look into it and cancel everything. People where trying that angle a while back to get free dining and it got shut down very quickly. The only scenario that a phantom reservation works is when it’s for one night only. People do it to get advanced FP+, EMH and DME. Not my cup of tea but....

That’s silly. The room is paid for. What you do or don’t do in the room you paid for, so long as it’s not bothering, endangering, damaging to anyone or anything and nothing illicit or illegal going on, it’s really none of anyone’s business. Maybe the OP could stop by on the way out each day and mess up the beds. So dumb. If anything, it saves the resort money in utilities. See? These room checks...where does it cross a line? I’m just not so sure anymore.

Wouldn’t a phantom booking be one you make to get the FP advantage but cancel before a penalty is incurred?
 
Thanks to all glad to hear opinions on n/c park parking—perhaps I am missing something in not canceling my Pop reservation—but my total is 5884 for 3 adults which included 10 day water park plus and upgrade to deluxe dining—if I cancel tickets will be 1742 (10 day water park plus) park parking 220 and our ADR reservations are running approximately 4500 for the 3 of us based on what we are planning on ordering and what we have done in the past—this doesn’t even account for the dining sales tax saving or 2 snacks per day (which we actually plan using at Food and Wine booths)-still appears cheaper to keep reservation and save 588–also we lose EMH privileges that we always use—I will ck out Undercover to see if tickets prices there make a difference—if I am still missing something let me know—again thanks for helping

I see your point about saving money, but this would be way, way too much risk for me. It all depends on Disney's policy on unoccupied rooms, and I have no idea if the current policy is to cancel no-shows. I would absolutely not trust the phone CMs to give you the right answer on that, BTW.

They'll know that the room is not in use because housekeeping or security will be in there every day. I suspect they'll know that your magic bands aren't being used to open the door. Will they let the room sit unused for 11 days without cancelling? I don't know. If they do cancel, you'll lose all of your dining credits and probably your tickets too, as package reservations are non-refundable if not cancelled at least a day before your arrival.

It's a gamble - you risk almost $6000 to save $600. I'd be looking at other ways to save money, if it were me. @KayKayJS 's suggestion is a good one, to get an AP and use that to get free parking. and meal discounts.
 
That’s silly. The room is paid for. What you do or don’t do in the room you paid for, so long as it’s not bothering, endangering, damaging to anyone or anything and nothing illicit or illegal going on, it’s really none of anyone’s business. Maybe the OP could stop by on the way out each day and mess up the beds. So dumb. If anything, it saves the resort money in utilities. See? These room checks...where does it cross a line? I’m just not so sure anymore.

Wouldn’t a phantom booking be one you make to get the FP advantage but cancel before a penalty is incurred?
I get your point and I agree that if you paid for it, it should be yours to use or not use. Unfortunately, WDW doesn't agree.

Some people want more than just the FP+ perk and will pay for the room and either check in or not check in based on what additional perks they want to use. If they want EMH they have to check in. Either way they keep and pay for the reservation.
 
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I see your point about saving money, but this would be way, way too much risk for me. It all depends on Disney's policy on unoccupied rooms, and I have no idea if the current policy is to cancel no-shows. I would absolutely not trust the phone CMs to give you the right answer on that, BTW.

They'll know that the room is not in use because housekeeping or security will be in there every day. I suspect they'll know that your magic bands aren't being used to open the door. Will they let the room sit unused for 11 days without cancelling? I don't know. If they do cancel, you'll lose all of your dining credits and probably your tickets too, as package reservations are non-refundable if not cancelled at least a day before your arrival.

It's a gamble - you risk almost $6000 to save $600. I'd be looking at other ways to save money, if it were me. @KayKayJS 's suggestion is a good one, to get an AP and use that to get free parking. and meal discounts.
This is what I thought, that if room is unused a few days WDW considers it abandoned. There was a post a few years ago about it.
 
That’s silly. The room is paid for. What you do or don’t do in the room you paid for, so long as it’s not bothering, endangering, damaging to anyone or anything and nothing illicit or illegal going on, it’s really none of anyone’s business. Maybe the OP could stop by on the way out each day and mess up the beds. So dumb. If anything, it saves the resort money in utilities. See? These room checks...where does it cross a line? I’m just not so sure anymore.

Wouldn’t a phantom booking be one you make to get the FP advantage but cancel before a penalty is incurred?

I agree. Perhaps they should decline housekeeping and use the room for their afternoon breaks/leave a few suitcases there, although that may leave them open to resort parking fee questions. If security walked and saw them in the room they could hardly consider it abandoned.
 
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We had a joint reservation a couple of summers ago. We never once slept CBR, though we did some naps and showers there. If you are paying for the ressie, I wouldn't think Disney would care how often you were or were not there. They didn't have any issue with taking our money for those 10 days!
 
OP here—always planned on checking in and frankly didn’t even think about using room daily for mid day pool breaks and showering which we normally do anyway in the Sept heat—perfect solution—now just the issue of not being charged for overnight parking when we will not be parking overnight!
 
OP here—always planned on checking in and frankly didn’t even think about using room daily for mid day pool breaks and showering which we normally do anyway in the Sept heat—perfect solution—now just the issue of not being charged for overnight parking when we will not be parking overnight!

Park at the park, take the bus over to POP for the afternoon break and bus back to the park. Might not work if you are hopping but it is a thought.
 

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