Heartbroken Disney Bride....PSA to all future Disney brides

[Nikolailuvswdw]

Good morning to you all. I would like to briefly share a shortened version of my story, in hopes of saving another future Disney bride the heartache and stress I have been feeling/through since January of this year. First of all let me start off by saying, I frequent Walt Disney World year after year and sometimes twice a year since I was 11. It is the only place I would ever consider getting married.

Last December of 2016 I booked a trip to WDW for July and December 2017, all before I got engaged! Immediately I knew where I just HAD to get married!! WDW!! I figured the July trip was too soon, and since Christmas is my favorite time of year, I chose our December trip. Now, mind you I had already had our resort reservations made because I just thought we were going to WDW at Christmas time for a vacation. I had let my daughter choose the resort because I had chosen our July resort at Coronado Springs. Anyway, got engaged at the end of December 2016, weeks after the trip was booked, chose the Escape package saw when we could talk to a Disney Wedding Consultant and we were ready to start planning.

January 2017 rolls around and everything went downhill from there. Disney doubled the $ deposit required and doubled the amount of the packages, even though I had spoke with someone there right around December 30, no one said a word about all those changes to come. Ok, so that is the least of the problems. So since I refused to get married anywhere else, we sucked it up and chose the Memories package (same price as what we would have paid for the package I originally wanted in the Escape package, getting waaaaayyy less now. I couldn't afford anything more than that because my daughter is set to go off to college and at the moment I am a single mom raising her for over a decade by myself, I will NOT sacrifice her college $ just so I can have an elaborate wedding.)

Here's where the real problem started, since it bumped us down to the Memories package, we now could not talk to a Disney Wedding Consultant until JUNE 01!!!!!!!!! ( I know because I tried several times in between January and June). It is now 10 months out for the Escape package because Disney had tons of complaints from future brides that 6 months is not long enough to p,an a wedding! But too late to do me any good . I tried asking MANY times on the phone if I should change our resort reservations then (because I did NOT want to stay at an All-Star resort for my wedding/honeymoon, remember my daughter picked before we knew I was getting married), and was advised EVERY time to wait until I spoke with a Consultant JUNE 01 just in case the date I wanted to get married was unavailable, I would have to change the reservations again. So, I waited and June 01 rolled around, picked my date and location with the wedding consultant, paid my deposit, and from that moment on its been a NIGHTMARE!!!

I immediately tried changing our resort reservations and was told FULL for everything for the week we were going (December 01-09, which is supposed to be the LEAST busy week at Christmas time)!!! And to keep trying back. I even tried for our sitting in my room at Coronado Springs in July, on my vacation when I should have been at the park. It was here that I also found out POP WARNER was to be at not only WDW that very same week, but at our All-Star Movies resort. If anyone has ever experienced this group, I know you understand where I'm going with this. I made the mistake 10 years ago to book a trip same week POP WARNER was there, same resort and it was the WORST vacation I have EVER had at WDW. The resort could NOT control these kids, no matter how many times other guests complained. It was HORRIBLE and now I find out I'm stuck with them again because I feel Disney put me in this position to begin with since I couldn't change my resort reservations months beforehand. And what I don't understand, Disney requires a two night stay on the property to even book a wedding on the property, but yet they don't even set aside rooms for the wedding guests?????!!!!! Thank goodness I did make some kind of reservations 6 months before for something else.

I have spent probably no less than 60 hours on the phone trying to get this rectified and I'm not getting anywhere. There isn't "anything " the wedding department can do either, ridiculous. I'm just SICK over the whole thing. Disney likes to pride itself on making dreams come true, especially to the brides to be, and this couldn't be farther from the truth. They also like use the motto, "we take care of everything for you, so you don't have to"!! This is NOT true, they have done NOTHING to make this right. I have never been so stressed out.

I have 6 weeks to pay the remaining balance on my December 05 wedding, but as I told the consultant, if we can't get other rooms, we may just have to cancel the wedding. So disheartening and disappointed in the place that is supposed to be the "Happiest place on Earth ". They have crushed my dreams for a Disney wedding. I just wanted to post my story to save other brides from this heartache, PLEASE book your rooms WAY in advance, no matter what, no matter whether or not you get your pick of dates to get married or not. I hope this helps someone down the road.

 

[Miffy]

OP: If possible, could you edit your post and break it up into paragraphs? It's extremely difficult to read as it is. Thanks!

I was unable to read your entire post because of this, but I will tell you that the first week in December, unlike in the past, is now an extremely popular time to visit WDW. When the AP discount rates for Nov and Dec came out a few weeks ago, there was basically nothing for the beginning of December.

I hope your situation, whatever it is, gets rectified in a way that's pleasing to you.

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

When

OP: If possible, could you edit your post and break it up into paragraphs? It's extremely difficult to read as it is. Thanks!

I was unable to read your entire post because of this, but I will tell you that the first week in December, unlike in the past, is now an extremely popular time to visit WDW. When the AP discount rates for Nov and Dec came out a few weeks ago, there was basically nothing for the beginning of December.

I hope your situation, whatever it is, gets rectified in a way that's pleasing to you.

Something happened to my paragraphs when I originally posted this, it made it into one loooong story. It should be fixed now as I switched devices to edit it and make paragraphs again.

Yes, I realize the first week of December is busy, but knowing this, for the Disney brides that couldn't even reserve anything until 6 months before (now 10 months), Disney should have thought this ahead of time, and since this was CLEARLY their doing, they should rectify it. They as much admitted to me 6 months was a ridiculously short amount of time, that's why they changed it to 10 months. And I have been trying since June 01 to change our resort, not when the AP rates came out.

 

[Miffy]

Now I understand about both the paragraphs and your situation. I know exactly what you mean about Pop Warner. Not at all the atmosphere one wants for their honeymoon, or really for any vacation. I hope someone will chime in on this thread who knows the right person to contact at Disney, since there are avenues to explore that I'm not familiar with. Surely someone at Disney can fix this for you. It's really outrageous and so un-Disney. Wishing you the best result. And a happy wedding!

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

Now I understand about both the paragraphs and your situation. I know exactly what you mean about Pop Warner. Not at all the atmosphere one wants for their honeymoon, or really for any vacation. I hope someone will chime in on this thread who knows the right person to contact at Disney, since there are avenues to explore that I'm not familiar with. Surely someone at Disney can fix this for you. It's really outrageous and so un-Disney. Wishing you the best result. And a happy wedding!

Yes, I'm even a school teacher, so it's not that I don't like children. Pop Warner is a whole different ballgame. And again, almost every cast member I have spoken with agrees, bad enough for any vacation, let alone your honeymoon/wedding. And even if they were not going to be there at the same time, this boils down to the fact that Disney locked me into that not being able to speak with a regular consultant until June 01, and then realized 6 months is too short to plan a wedding, yet they do nothing to fix their goof.

And yes Miffy, VERY un-Disney!!! And of course it would happen to me Thanks for wishing me the best. I will post on here whether or not the wedding gets cancelled.

 

[Cruncy Tortillas]

I agree, it's automatically going to be hard since the whole of December in general is one of the busiest times of the year for WDW. But I also agree, you would think there would be at least a little coordination between DFTW and hotel bookings, but there doesn't seem to be.

And yikes, Pop Warner! I know you are really anxious - hopefully someone has better advice than me - but I do think the closer and closer to the date, there will be more hotel room opening as people readjust their schedules, etc.

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

I agree, it's automatically going to be hard since the whole of December in general is one of the busiest times of the year for WDW. But I also agree, you would think there would be at least a little coordination between DFTW and hotel bookings, but there doesn't seem to be.

And yikes, Pop Warner! I know you are really anxious - hopefully someone has better advice than me - but I do think the closer and closer to the date, there will be more hotel room opening as people readjust their schedules, etc.

Yes, you would think there would be some coordination between DFTW and central reservations, but no. All my wedding coordinator could say to me is that they can't tap into the reservations system and basically I WAS ON MY OWN to get my rooms switched. Does that sound like DIsney service to you???? I was flabbergasted to say the least.

And yeah, YIKES!!! Pop Warner

I hope you are right, the closer I get to December it gets, I hope there are some cancellations, but I'm not going to hold my breath, for a week now I have been told by ALL Disney cast members that I'm now dealing with the hurricane Irma people rescheduling their trips. It just keeps getting better and better. And I only have until November 6, until the final payment is due

 

[Cruncy Tortillas]

for a week now I have been told by ALL Disney cast members that I'm now dealing with the hurricane Irma people rescheduling their trips.

I would emphasize that point next time you talk to someone. ^^^^^

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

I'm not sure if this helps but if you go onto the Disney world website and switch your location from the US American site to the UK English site there is availability for quite a few hotels for your dates for 3 adults.

I'm not sure if you can book it online with a US registered credit card but you could use a UK travel agent.

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

I would emphasize that point next time you talk to someone. ^^^^^

Yes, I definitely will!!

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

I'm not sure if this helps but if you go onto the Disney world website and switch your location from the US American site to the UK English site there is availability for quite a few hotels for your dates for 3 adults.

I'm not sure if you can book it online with a US registered credit card but you could use a UK travel agent.

That may be worth exploring. What I don't understand, is you say there are rooms available for the UK , yet the ONE and only time my Disney wedding consultant says she tried to help, which was 2 days ago, she supposedly call reservations herself and said there were NO rooms, not even one ( we need three for the wedding party), but not even just one for the bride??? That makes NO sense. I'm at even more of a loss?? So there are rooms available for people living in the UK, but not to Disney Brides??? Even more upsetting. Thank you for trying to help, I will look into it.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I used to work with brides and have to say that I left the business thinking that perfectly reasonable women IRL became a tad crazed when it came to their wedding day and the planning inherent.

Now take a big breath and let's think it through.

You have guests who don't have rooms to stay in and your DW wedding is scheduled to take place in approximately 3 months during the Christmas season.
Since your DD is getting close to university age and you can clearly see that priority I'm sure you'll ultimately see that your marriage is more important that the wedding. Just hard to deal with right now.Remember that Disney is a business with a really good public relations department. They want your money and try to be pleasant about it.

OK....let's go with worst case scenario: NO rooms are available at the price range and time your guests want - so now is the time to look off site.
Don't bother giving ultimatums to your DW wedding consultants that may be beyond his/her control. Focus on getting sleeping accommodations for the guests even if they are off site which will probably cost less than whatever bus/car access resort you can find at WD.

Best thoughts for your new life.

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

I used to work with brides and have to say that I left the business thinking that perfectly reasonable women IRL became a tad crazed when it came to their wedding day and the planning inherent.

Now take a big breath and let's think it through.

You have guests who don't have rooms to stay in and your DW wedding is scheduled to take place in approximately 3 months during the Christmas season.
Since your DD is getting close to university age and you can clearly see that priority I'm sure you'll ultimately see that your marriage is more important that the wedding. Just hard to deal with right now.Remember that Disney is a business with a really good public relations department. They want your money and try to be pleasant about it.

OK....let's go with worst case scenario: NO rooms are available at the price range and time your guests want - so now is the time to look off site.
Don't bother giving ultimatums to your DW wedding consultants that may be beyond his/her control. Focus on getting sleeping accommodations for the guests even if they are off site which will probably cost less than whatever bus/car access resort you can find at WD.

Best thoughts for your new life.

Funny, I have seen Bridezilla's and I'm definitely not one of them, I have never gotten mad or raised my voice at anyone in anger! I'm sure if you were in that business at one time, you've seen it all!! It turns perfectly nice girls into these evil doppelgängers!!!

My whole thing is that Disney made me wait, and as soon as I tried to get even one room for me, there was no room available. They even as much admitted to me it was wrong of them. That said, my whole point of this post was to strictly spare other brides from what I have gone through!!!

Yeah, we discussed staying off property, which I've done twice before, and did NOT like it. That is our choice. And as far as giving the wedding consultant ultimatums, that was never done, I just wanted to make sure we got back 100% of what we paid, even after our selections were made. We just simply will either not get married on the property now or wait another year (it's already been 8 years, what's another one)!

Thanks for your thoughts!!

 

[Mari0824]

I'm so sorry you are going through this.. would you be willing to move your wedding date to the new year? Maybe your consultant would be able to do this seeing as it's been so frustrating.

My advice for this issue to all future brides is that book your rooms way before you even talk to a consultant. I'm an AP and love all Disney Resorts and go 3-4 times a year! I sometimes book rooms just too book them incase I can go that week. Disney gives you up to 5 days to cancel with no penalties so it does not hurt to have a couple of stuff booked. I know it's money upfront but think of it as a savings plan so when you cancel you get that money back.

Also, the price change does totally suck! I have been speaking with a consultant about dates and Escape vs Wishes packages and finally got around to deciding on date and escape packages but Disney released price increases during the communication phases and now my consultant can't honor the $5k for Escape so I'm forced to pay the $7k. Nonetheless it's turned me off and I think I'm just going to wait all together! I don't think this is fair or right if I had been discussing with her options since April but decide finally in September! I don't even know who to reach out to regarding this because I do think it's not right if you have at least an assigned consultant you've been discussing options with.

 

[Nikolailuvswdw]

I'm so sorry you are going through this.. would you be willing to move your wedding date to the new year? Maybe your consultant would be able to do this seeing as it's been so frustrating.

My advice for this issue to all future brides is that book your rooms way before you even talk to a consultant. I'm an AP and love all Disney Resorts and go 3-4 times a year! I sometimes book rooms just too book them incase I can go that week. Disney gives you up to 5 days to cancel with no penalties so it does not hurt to have a couple of stuff booked. I know it's money upfront but think of it as a savings plan so when you cancel you get that money back.

Also, the price change does totally suck! I have been speaking with a consultant about dates and Escape vs Wishes packages and finally got around to deciding on date and escape packages but Disney released price increases during the communication phases and now my consultant can't honor the $5k for Escape so I'm forced to pay the $7k. Nonetheless it's turned me off and I think I'm just going to wait all together! I don't think this is fair or right if I had been discussing with her options since April but decide finally in September! I don't even know who to reach out to regarding this because I do think it's not right if you have at least an assigned consultant you've been discussing options with.

Yes, EXACTLY the purpose of my original post!!!!! Advise to ALL brides is to book way before talking to a consultant. Of course part of the issue was already changed by Disney , going from 6 months to 10 months... Unfortunately, I fell in the gap there. If I can save one bride from going through what I have, my purpose for this post has been done.

 

[Nancy121663]

I am wondering, did the tell you that you had to have a "block room form" before they even sent you the Letter of Agreement? We are having to do that before we even get to sit with an actual planner. We met once with I guess she was a consultant and decided that we wanted the Wishes. We had to fill out a room block form and once we returned it it took 7 days to get the letter of agreement. So I am hoping that means they are going to hold rooms for us! I will be calling tomorrow to find out! I wish you luck!

 

[Traveliz]

I am wondering, did the tell you that you had to have a "block room form" before they even sent you the Letter of Agreement? We are having to do that before we even get to sit with an actual planner. We met once with I guess she was a consultant and decided that we wanted the Wishes. We had to fill out a room block form and once we returned it it took 7 days to get the letter of agreement. So I am hoping that means they are going to hold rooms for us! I will be calling tomorrow to find out! I wish you luck!

It sounds like you have had a site visit with a sales person. I'll sure Disney has another name for them but that is the first visit and she will not be your planner. As part of the Letter of Agreement you have to set up a room block and they get those rooms from the convention block of rooms. But yes once that is set up and you have signed your agreement those rooms are set aside for you until a month before the wedding.

Your meeting with a planner is 6 months from your wedding date although you will have a phone conversation and perhaps some email exchanges before your planning day meeting.

Liz

 

[Kathy D]

I am attending a wedding at Wdw on 12/2. The only rooms available were the ones in the bride's room blocks. I cannot believe how busy that week is going to be

 

[Erzengel]

Honestly, I've been trying to book that weekend because I might be in town. It took a few weeks before a room popped up in my price range.

 

[karebear1]

I feel so bad for you! It is very frustrating to know that you have planned for this for sometime and on advice from experienced Disney reps changed what you would've done otherwise.

I have experienced this same frustration regarding special Disney event planning (although not a wedding situation) and have been let down and disappointed by the response we've received via Disney. I have emailed requesting the name and email of Disney operations manager for my event and have been told they cannot give me the information I am requesting. How do you resolve the problem when they will not hear it?

My advice to anyone planning any special event through Disney is to proceed with caution. It's not as magical as you may think.