Have you ever extended your stay?

[TheVBs]

It's so hard to leave WDW at the end of each trip. We've often contemplated staying a day or two longer than planned, just because we didn't feel ready to leave, but we've never gone through with it. Has anyone done it? What did you do with your extra time? :mickey:

[Ian]

Multiple times ... but the best one was unintentional.

We had actually left WDW, returned our rental car, and checked in for our flight home. But lo and behold ... our flight was oversold! What's that you say, USAir? You want volunteers to take a flight home the next day? And you'll put them up in a hotel for the night? And upgrade them to First Class on the way home?? SIGN US UP!!

It was the best ... we ran out to Dollar Rent-A-Car, plunked down $40 for a car for a day, raced back to Epcot and were just in time to grab a beer at Rose and Crown and catch Tapestry of Nations and Reflections of Earth.

The feeling we got sitting there, knowing we were supposed to be on a plane home instead of soaking in the Epcot atmosphere ... it was the best!!

Another time I was down with just DD and my Mom. We were supposed to come home on Monday (my Mom was staying the entire week), but we just couldn't go so we ended up extending until Thursday instead. Got a great rate at the Boardwalk and thanks to Southwest it cost us nothing to change our flights.

Sigh .... those are the greatest memories! :mickey:

[Carolanne]

I've never done it but I've always wanted to.

I thought I was going to end up extending our September trip before we even get there, but turns out we were able to get the flight we needed.

[Mousemates]

Yep...when we realized that the season had switched from holiday to value we decided to stay an extra couple nights...went to the CR to get a room in the wings...and got a free upgrade to the tower.:mickey:

[IloveDisney71]

Nope - but I think about doing it toward the end of every trip! I always hate to leave.

[Marceline]

We really really really really wanted to last Dec. We called and asked the airline first.....to change our flight ressie would have cost us an arm and a leg.....but we thought, Who Cares!! We don't wanna leave!!

So I checked with the front desk at WL......and no go there. The Lodge was booked solid. I was put on a waiting list, but an opening never came. *sigh* So, instead we booked the Bounceback Offer for 10 days. Because in the case of WDW ......8 is NOT enough. :thumbsup::mickey:

[TheVBs]

Great stories! Ian, that must have been awesome. It must have felt like stolen time, in the best way imaginable. :mickey:

We drive which makes extending even more tempting.

[garymacd]

A few years ago, I made a mistake pricing out our first trip to WL. It appeared to me that nine nights at WL would cost the same as 10 nights at POFQ. I know: far-fetched.

This was compounded by a misunderstanding by a Disney Travel CM who also made a mistake on dates or calculations, I can't remember exactly now. When the itinerary came it was only seven nights at WL at the same cost of ten nights at POFQ.

After a lot of negotiations, we decided to stay eight nights at WL and Disney gave us some cash towards the trip because of the mistake with profuse apologies.

WL was wonderful. We had a bunk bed room which worked well for us since our daughters were getting too big to share a bed. The only thing we didn't like was the view of the wall at the Villas.

On our second last night, we received a message that WL would love for us to stay for up to two more nights for less than it would have cost to stay at POFQ! We jumped at the chance and went down to the front lobby to book our extra nights. Since we were driving, we didn't have to worry about rebooking flights and we had the extra days off before we had to return to work.

When we got to the front lobby the CM told us that the wing our room was in was slated to have external wall refurbishment begin the next day, we could stay there if we wanted, but we might be having breakfast on our balcony with the workers one morning. I said if it's going to be an imposition to the workers, move us.

He came out from the back room smiling and laughing and said that the only acceptable room with bunk beds was facing the courtyard pool. He gave it to us at no extra charge.

So, in the end, we got the length of stay we wanted in the resort we wanted with an upgraded room at a cost that wasn't much more than we budgeted for in the first place.

Don't you love it when either a plan comes together or serendipity steps in to make things right?

[Imagineer1981]

we may be extending this trip coming up...can't wait....2 days!!!

[javamama]

Dh and I did at the WL when we were dating, but it's easy for us since I work for the airlines, we had a msg from the front desk about extending our stay so we did:thumbsup:

[mousetrapper]

I would love to do that! We booked through SW - the "friends stay/play/fly free deal - and it cuts off on 11/24 because of Thanksgiving a few days later. I haggled a bit with the SW travel person - the information about the deal said "good through 11/24" but she said that no, it was only good through 11/23. Probably should have fought it but decided against it...

I think if we wanted to extend it would end up costing too much to change the flight, etc. But I'm considering looking into it!

[GBBT]

We did it in 2004 .Stayed an extra day to see Collective Soul at the House of Blues.What a night.:D

[tcswife]

Out of the last 4 trips in the past 2 years we have indeed extended 3 of them, and we have extended out upcoming trip in 25 days by 2 days since we booked it!! Even now still thinking of adding a room only night to the beginning and going to Sea World so we can get it out of the way and have the rest of the now 10-day trip at the parks!!!! We are "mouse-junkies":mickey:

[TheVBs]

Cool stories!! :mickey: We've never been offered an extended stay, I didn't know they did that. But, I can definitely see the logic of it. It would be far too tempting for us to pass up!

[blondeinbrandon]

We stayed an extra day once. It was amazing!
We were at CBR with my parents and my Mom said "Maybe we could stay one more night". She arranged the rooms and DH called work to get the next day off. Dad and I work for the same company and didn't need to be back and my boys weren't in school yet. Too fun!
Now the boys are in 4th grade and trips are planned around school vacations and missing no more than one day if we must. So no more added, spur of the moment trips. Well maybe when they leave for college!:secret:

[Tigerinvestigator]

Christmas of 2007 we added two extra days. We had allowed plenty of time to get home by Christmas Eve and the kids were out of school so we just kept adding days. It was a great feeling to be able to do that. We stayed a total of 9 nights and then returned home on Christmas Eve which was a great feeling as well. Made it a little easier to leave knowing we were going to be home for Christmas. The first time I added a night everyone was excited. The second time I suprised everyone and when we were at the park and everyone was sad because it was our last night, I told them I had a surprise and we were going to stay another night. Made the trip even more special!:thumbsup:

[BMan62]

Sort of... We just added 2 nights to our trip coming up in two weeks.

We had originally planned 9/15 - 9/23, now it's 9/15 - 9/25. (Wanted the 26th as well, but couldn't get the room at Pop!!)

12 days 23 hours!!!

[poohspal]

We did once, although I always want to. It was in February of 2005. We heard Ma was expecting alot of snow, so we extended our stay by 2 nights. It was during Feb vacation. I can't remeber if the kids missed school, or if there was a snow day.
We called the hotel, and our room was available for the extra nights. We flew on Southwest, so we just had to pay the small difference in flight prices.
We were definitely not sad to hear of snow that day.

Liz