When to Book -- Discounts Later In Year?

[HBaney84]

Hi All, Not brand new here - I posted once before, I think.

I know when my family will be headed to Disney. I have been there a few times before but this will be the first for my husband (other than a day trip when it rained, they had no sweatshirts, weren't allowed to buy any and cold when he was a teen... ), our kids and his boys. My parents will also be coming with us! (I'm excited and its not even until NEXT September...) I'm an early planner.

But - I do have a question, if I book soon... I'm thinking at the year mark, as soon as we get the definate yes, we are off work - what happens when close to that time the "free dining" may come out, or the save 30% on rooms (as is/was going on for September 2016) - is that lost money, or is there some way, I could also save if I already booked dining, or reserved rooms at the regular rate.

Thank you so much! You'll probably be hearing more from me in the coming weeks!

 

[Aliceacc]

HI and welcome!

I always book as soon as we know we're going and the prices are out.

Our travel agent keeps an eye on discounts, and applies them as they come along without a problem.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Personally, we don't tend to book until we have a rate we are happy with. That usually means discount.

We are going in August of next year and I probably won't book until fall.

 

[focusondisney]

Disney has discounts to fill vacant rooms. Many people think the more rooms booked at full price, the less rooms Disney will need to discount. That said, there has been free dining or a room discount in September for a many years. But recently, even September is getting busier & discounts seem to be decreasing. The best advice seems to be: if you are going no matter what & want a specific room type or resort, book at rack rate whenever you are comfortable. Then if a discount for your dates comes out, you can either try to apply the rate to your existing reservation. Or change resorts or room types to take advantage of th discount. But just having an existing reservation won't guarantee you will get to apply the discount. Ex: if you have a standard too booked at Pop, but there are only preferred rooms available with the discount, you will either have to keep your rack rate or upgrade to a preferred room to get the discount.

Depending on if you had a room or package reservation already booked & what you get with a discount, they will either refund the deposit you already paid & you will need to make a new deposit, or they will apply your deposit to the new discounted reservation. Any penalties with you losing part or all of your deposit don't happen til less than 30 days for a package & about 5 days for a room only reservation. So no worries about losing money if you change before those timeframes.

Edit to add: if you book before a discount is available, you should probably only book whatever resort & roomtype you are actually comfortable paying rack rate for. There is no guarantee a cheaper room will be available for your dates if you book a resort you can only stay at with a discount.

 

[Alpineslide]

I was about to ask a similar question. We just returned from Disney World last week and would like to plan another trip for late May / early June of next year.

 

[dis_guy]

DW is a teacher so our dates to travel are restricted to her school vacation times. Because of this we book as soon as we know when we can go as it's usually easier to find reasonable flights then. If and when an offer we like comes along its easy to apply it online. For our next trip we got a nice offer via email asking us to "come back to the magic" after our last trip. I'll still watch to see if a better one comes along!