Minimum Room Requirements??

[patiruss]

Does anyone know if staying at "Shades of Green" would count toward meeting the minimum room night requirements for a wedding? The wedding is planned for August 2004.
There are a lot of family members who are military and it would be great if they could take advantage of the affordable rates offered to them through "Shades of Green"? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Misti]

Hmmm...I'm not sure about that. I'm inclined to think it wouldn't count. While the resort is owned by Disney, it is leased and managed by the gov't. That is worth checking into with your wedding planner.

Good luck!

 

[figmentvi]

Unfortunately, just as rooms at the Swan or Dolphin don't count towards the minimum, neither do rooms at SOG, because just as Misti said, it's managed by the gov't.

I hate the fact that there's a room minimum. I feel like I'm spending a jillion $$$ for my DD's wedding, why should I also guarantee rooms for them too????

I also hate that I have to pay an Illuminations viewing fee of $12.00 pp for our guests attending the reception in Epcot. I mean really, isn't paying $100.00 pp for food and beverage enough??????

Ooooops......sorry...nothing like hijacking a thread with a little vent.

 

[marn913]

Pattirus,
Disney will send you a list of the resorts where you can block off rooms. SOG was not included -- as far as I've heard there can be a good waiting list for rooms there sometimes too. However, they do offer reduced rates at all the regular Disney hotels for you to block off rooms. You will block off rooms just before you sign your contract (your room block will be guaranteed as part of the contract). We blocked off all of our rooms at the All Star Movies hotel in order to offer the largest amount of rooms at the lowest rate possible to all of our guests. Our rate was $84/night before tax, our wedding is during regular season. Disney is fairly flexible regarding the room block requirements. We invited 50 people (30 are attending) and have a minimum of 25 room nights to fill. We were allowed to block off 50 room nights total. Fortunately we won't have a problem meeting the required minimum. In addition, we made our honeymoon reservations through dreams unlimited (and were able to get the annual passholder rate). Our sales manager told us that if we didn't meet our minimum with our guest reservations that they would just take our honeymoon reservation number and count our 11 nights towards the room block because we are staying in a Disney hotel. Good luck with your planning.

 

[sgtdilbert]

Just curious, but does anyone know if Disney has gone through the effort to collect from a wedding that doesn't meet the minimum room requirements?

I was taken aback when I read this requirement. I'm having a hard time trying to guess how many people will actually make the trek to Florida for our wedding, and to sign a contract that guarantee "x" amount of rooms is worrisome.

I guess if you don't sign the contract until 8 months out anyway, that you'd pretty much know how many guests are coming, and could plan accordingly or try to negotiate down the number of nights required.

Just curious...

s.

 

[ahutton]

We found it very easy to meet the minimum number of room nights for our custom wedding. We had several family members that stayed for a total of 4 or more nights, many for over 7. They allowed the extra time for a travel day, rehersal day, wedding day and a recovery day - that combined with our nights of having a short Disney trip pre-wedding and plus returning to Disney after our cruise (our original coordinator included these nights for us) we had almost twice the required nights with no trouble at all. We actually found that the few Florida resident guests we had also took advantage of the reduced rates and ease of transportation (we provided a bus for guests) and stayed a night or two also.

 

[figmentvi]

sgtdilbert.......FTW has been known to revise the minimum requirements on rooms if it looks like you won't make your minimum. I haven't heard of any couple that has been penalized for not making their minimums.

Some couples also post here and on other Disney sites offering up discounted rooms to others to help fill their minimum. It works out well for both parties.

Hope this helps,
Linda

 

[sgtdilbert]

Hmmm,

figmentvi, that's my gut feeling. That FTW uses this "requirement" to qualify prospective weddings. Clearly, only the truly serious would sign a contract with a room guarantee requirement. It seems that maybe this is used more to weed out the people who are just browsing than actually enforcing the rule.

s.

 

[Ziggie]

While they will negotiate the minimum nights stay requirement, I do believe you are expected to make up the difference in park ticket purchases.

 

[ahutton]

Has something changed? We did not have a minimum number of park tickets to buy...

We did have to meet a location minimum of 30 for our Illuminations dessert party, so we paid the per person rate times 30, but even for the wrist bands to enter the park we only paid for the number we guaranteed 3 days prior to our wedding. That was the "drop dead" date at the time, for your final headcount that you are charged for the per person rate for dinner, cake, etc. which gave some flexibility as we had a family member not able to make it at the last minute.

 

[Ziggie]

As a Florida resident, we were asked to purchase a specific number of park tickets because we weren't going to meet the minimum nights stay requirement. You'll find my posts in other threads here that explain the details.

What actually happens is Disney collects twice.. in a manner of speaking. They collect from the bride & groom and also from their guests.

Disney is a wonderful place to get married... but as a Florida resident it's a little more complicated.

 

[Bob NC]

Originally posted by Misti
While the resort is owned by Disney, it is leased and managed by the gov't.

SOG is not owned by Disney. It is wholly owned by DoD.

 

[Ziggie]

What is DoD?

 

[ReneeQ]

Department of Defense

 

[janiejo]

I am a lurker, but thought I might be able to help. Our daughter was married at the pavilion June 14th. Our sales manager told us a year out (and before we signed the contract) to try to get an idea of how many people we would be planning for, because the contract is signed based on that. Through our conversations with him, we realized we could not just "guess." We sent a "save the date" letter out a year before the wedding and asked for a response. We included a reply card with a stamp, asking people to give us an idea of whether they would like to join us for their wedding. We gave three options: yes, we would like to plan to attend, count us in; no, won't be able to attend; not sure - keep us informed. Based on the replies we received, we signed the contract with Disney. We had to guarantee 75 room nights. We more than met the requirement. Yes, we were scared to start with - 75 room nights seemed huge. Our sales manager assured us with the number of people we were expecting, we would have no problem meeting that requirement. We had 120 guests at the wedding, and quite a few people stayed off-site. However, it didn't take long to get the 75 nights, since most people came for the wedding events and stayed a few days for vacation. We did select a hotel from each price range: value, moderate, and deluxe. We thought for sure most people would stay at the value resort. We were surprised at how many people stayed at the moderate and the deluxe choices. FTW even counted DVC member rooms toward the grand total of room nights! So, plan ahead and underestimate. You can always add to your count.

We had a dessert party for Illuminations and at first thought we should take the smaller terrace (smaller minimum number of people.) However, once we heard back from our guests, we had to switch to Italy terrace because we needed the larger space. Also, if anyone used a park pass or had APs, they will not charge those guests the viewing fee.

Our daughter's wedding was everything she hoped for - and then some! It was great working with FTW - we were able to relax and enjoy the entire weekend of events! Good luck and happy planning!

 

[Ziggie]

janiejo, what a wonderful story! It definitely sounds like a dream come true

Our daughter's wedding is right around the corner and we are so excited!

 

[sharktums]

Wow! That did sound like a dream wedding! I'm getting married at Disney in November and am also hosting an Illuminations Party, however we only have around 50 guests so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we can get upgraded to the bigger locations (which look so nice!) if they are not in use!

Elissa