Booking through AAA vs. Disney

[mommy2aprincess]

Hello....I was wondering what the pros and cons of booking our package through AAA were compared to booking through Disney. I booked our last two trips through Disney but recently got AAA and just got a quote from them for our upcoming trip. Their package price was the same as Disney's. Now I need to decide who I should book through. Thanks for your help!

 

[vicki_c]

With AAA you might get a few freebies thrown in extra, like the AAA parking (gives you a special closer place in the park lots to park - you still have to pay - well if you're on-site you don't pay anyway), the AAA storytime, I can't think of much else.

But you can't do anything with your reservation once it's made - any changes must be made through AAA because they are your travel agent. Disney won't talk to you about the reservation at all.

I booked thru AAA quite a few years ago for a few trips and my experience was nothing special - I'd rather do it myself.

 

[jobie61]

Get the AAA Visa, and use it to pay for your vacation and you'll get a 2% discount. A 4000.00 vacation package, you'll save 80.00 by using the AAA Visa.

 

[mbsquirrel1198]

Do you have to pay for the whole trip up front with AAA? I know I can pay a deposit with Disney and then pay monthly as long as it is paid in full a certain number of days in advance. Anyone know AAA's policy on payment? Thanks in advance.

 

[tspnmb]

we have used AAA 3 times.. We make all of our own ADR's etc.. the only thing our TA did was the room package.. I added more days so I called her and she basically did it on the spot and I received an email confirmation.
We also made payments on all of the Disney trips. The timeline's for payments were the same.
I am not sure if all AAA TA's are the same but that is how ours worked,,...

 

[babydovesx2]

We got a discount by booking with AAA. We make payments thru AAA just like booking with Disney. You get the AAA Diamond Parking and a few other freebies. Any changes I made I just emailed my AAA rep and she made the change for me. We are staying CL so I will book my ADR's thru Poly IPO so I don't know how booking your ADR's are affected by using AAA.

 

[dislover8943]

Does anyone know how much of a deposit is required by Disney or by AAA? We wanted to book our trip by December 2011 to get the free dining offer but, that isn't very far off. Too close to come up with 3000. Thanks!

 

[vicki_c]

Does anyone know how much of a deposit is required by Disney or by AAA? We wanted to book our trip by December 2011 to get the free dining offer but, that isn't very far off. Too close to come up with 3000. Thanks!

Disney packages (whether booked direct or with an agent) require a $200 deposit, balance due 45 days out. (Room only reservations require a one nights stay deposit, balance due at check in.)

 

[dislover8943]

Disney packages (whether booked direct or with an agent) require a $200 deposit, balance due 45 days out. (Room only reservations require a one nights stay deposit, balance due at check in.)

Ok this is going to sound like a stupid question so ill apologize in advance. In order to book then would I call on the phone or can it be done on the computer? Thank you

 

[catne]

I used to book through AAA, but after our last experience I just book direct now. Although you can get a AAA discount -- that's only if you take no Disney discount. The AAA discount is only 10-20%. Typically the Disney discount offers (like Free Dining or room discounts) are higher than 20%. You can book the Disney discounts through your AAA agent, but then you get just the Disney discount, not both. And our AAA now charges a $10 booking fee, so instead of getting the same price as Disney, we pay $10 more to book through AAA. The other disadvantage we ran into is we had to go pick up our Disney packet from our AAA office, which was a 90 minute round-trip drive...they didn't want to mail it because of the chance it wouldn't get to us in time? And it supposedly wasn't available for pick-up until 8 days before we left. I know when you book through Disney, they mail directly to you & you get the packet about a month to 45 days before, so I suspect our AAA office got the packet from Disney and just "sat" on it. Also I went to upgrade our value hotel rooms to moderate hotel rooms...and AAA charged $10 per room to make the change (we had booked 2 rooms) even though it was about 8 weeks out so not within the 45 day period. I've upgraded several times with direct Disney reservations and have never been charged a fee to upgrade, even when I upgraded less than a week before arrival.

 

[dislover8943]

Disney packages (whether booked direct or with an agent) require a $200 deposit, balance due 45 days out. (Room only reservations require a one nights stay deposit, balance due at check in.)

Ok this is going to sound like a stupid question so ill apologize in advance. In order to book then would I call on the phone or can it be done on the computer? Thank you

 

[MHSweb79]

I've booked directly and through AAA. The last two trips I used my AAA travel agent - she's great. Our local office does not charge the fees reported by the above poster. I made my own ADR's but she put in my room request and ME requests (extra tags, etc.)

Please note that if you are booking a free dining package, the price will be the same whether you use Disney or AAA because free dining is only offered with full-priced packages. If you are looking for some discounts, without free dining, then check out the AAA room rates. We added "free" dining both times to our AAA package, and both times we ended up paying the difference. In our case it worked out to "half-price" dining which was still an OK deal.

 

[Lillian Gracey]

Ok this is going to sound like a stupid question so ill apologize in advance. In order to book then would I call on the phone or can it be done on the computer? Thank you

You can book online or you can call. Go to disneyworld.com if you want to book it on the computer.

 

[snykymom]

You can book online or you can call. Go to disneyworld.com if you want to book it on the computer.

That's only if you want to book through Disney without a AAA discount. If you want the AAA discount on a room only through Disney, you must call. To book through AAA, you need to see if you can book directly on your local AAA website. (In New England, there's no way to book through AAA online.)

 

[Lillian Gracey]

That's only if you want to book through Disney without a AAA discount. If you want the AAA discount on a room only through Disney, you must call. To book through AAA, you need to see if you can book directly on your local AAA website. (In New England, there's no way to book through AAA online.)

Oh yeah. My bad. I thought she was asking if you can book online in general.

 

[dislover8943]

[color=blue]Oh yeah. My bad. I thought she was asking if you can book online in general.[/color]

I was. Thank you very much everyone!

 

[BDL]

Do you have to pay for the whole trip up front with AAA? I know I can pay a deposit with Disney and then pay monthly as long as it is paid in full a certain number of days in advance. Anyone know AAA's policy on payment? Thanks in advance.

I just finished paying off my vacation via AAA. And I made my payments as I could. No scheduled dates. No set amount per payment. Juts has to be paid in full by 45 days before your check in date.

And my AAA TA was the utmost professional. And if she didn't know the answer right off the top of her head, she would email me the answer later that same day AND any supplemental info that I might need.