AAA Discount vs. Free Dining

[golden1023]

Does anyone know if you can get the free dining with a AAA rate? I have already booked and was thinking about cancelling (taking the $100 loss) just to get the free dining which can save me alot more than $100. I can't find anywhere how much I saved other than the 15% or 20% on rooms. If anyone knows or has delt with AAA before let me know. I would love some input!

 

[mickeymaker2003]

You cannot get the free dining discount with any other discounts. I'm sure your AAA rate is not as good as the free dining deal. However, make sure you don't cancel your AAA room until you get the free dining booked. Some of the resorts do not have availability for free dining anymore.

 

[KennedyMcKenna]

I booked my Sept 26-oct 3 vacation through triple A and got free dining

 

[tiggspring]

I would switch not just for the money but because AAA been sub par lately.When I was watching the posts re the new online adr's I saw A LOT of complaints about AAA agents being extreamly misinformed and unwilling to do adrs except during office hours wich means your'll have difficulty getting popular spots.one AAA wdw specialist didn't know what a adr was! Guests have really needed good TA's with the system problems on adr's. Make sure you get a good TA that specializes in WDW they will save you money. I had a great one from small world vacations if you need a referal.

 

[stmize]

I booked free dining with my AAA agent. Now granted I never have her make my adr's as I prefer to do those myself.

 

[disneygirl1971]

I've made a room only ressie using AAA several times in the past and the discount is usually only 10% off the rack rate. You could go to disneyworld.com and plug in the same dates, amount of people, tickets, dining plan or not, and hotel as your planned vacation and see what it gives you as a price. You can then substract the difference and see what you actually saved using AAA as compared to regular price. Hope this helps!

 

[MyMuse]

My local AAA will not book reservations at all, though they do push the dining plan quite a bit.

In the recent trips I made to WDW, I have yet to book one with AAA. I usually go with an online travel agent.

 

[tiggspring]

I too booked most things myself in may. When online adrs started they were allowing online booking at 6am and phone booking at 7 am. Those with rooms booked by AAA and other ta were not able to self book becuause it was not recognizing home phones(affected dvc too). Also if you did not have some serious internet speed the systems was slow and often crashed. according to my TA the systems set up for agents was still working fine.I have not checked the online adr thread in the past week or so but the. Last time I checked there were still problems.. I would want a qualified and dedicated agent as backup. Mine was up at opening on a sunday and helped me snag a illuminations cruise by us both calling in and txtn each other when one had been resv. Had 2 boats for about a min! This adr prob would be a big concern for us because we love to eat!! Just a heads up...good luck on saving some cash and good adrs!

 

[dalton165]

I booked with AAA for our Sept 4-10, 2009 trip. I got the free dining and I made all the dining reservations myself - no problems. My TA was GREAT and we've spoken several times to do some changes - no problems at all.

 

[cgcruz]

helpful for me too

 

[golden1023]

Update! Got the free dining with my AAA discount. Yahhooo!! But never thought about the ADR's. Why would they have to do this? Can we just do it ourselves? As my AAA hasn't been the fastest, and I would prefer doing it myself. I have until Sept. but would like to get this ironed out! Let me know if all I need to know is the confirmation and home phone numbers so I can get those worked in to my 90 day countdown!

 

[tiggspring]

Yes you can do your own adr's and if you are not planning to book cindy's castle, princess meals, le cellier, chef mickey's or other limited or popular events you will be fine just calling. If you have high speed internet like fios online resevations might go fine as well. With that said there have been many problems with the system since online resevations started in june. I would follow that board for a few days and see how it may impact your planning.sorry I haven't figured out how to do links from my phone. It used to be listed under official online reservations thread. Good luck and congrats on the discount!

 

[golden1023]

Well, I have Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, and Storybook Breakfast on my list. Do you guys think I should just have AAA call or do you think I can call vs. online, myself. I am super particular about getting things done ASAP! I didn't realize they have limited reservations for those with the free dining. What would I do without the DIS boards!

 

[tiggspring]

The good news is that within your time frame there is no reason to have your TA do the ressies. The bad news is you are less than 90 days out. (Sorry just noticed your date) I would go online or call and see what is available. Storybook and CM might have some availability but you will need to be flexable.CRT has seating for 100-150 guests WDw has 60,000 hotel rooms plus outside guests. This means that unless you call exactly at 7am 90days out you have maybe a 10-20pert chance of getting in if you check frequently. Check 45 and 30days out when people tend to cancel vacas due to payments due. You should know dinner at CRT is fairy godmother and prince charming..no cinderella. Hope this helps

 

[SandrA9810]

Dinner with Cinderella is at the Grand Floridian, and CRT takes two dining credits. So I would opt for the Norway dining for princesses.

I've gotten into Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace with one week out in May, and grabbed a 1pm ressie for Le Celliers 3 weeks out (for july 28th).
If you want to dine some place, you have to be flexable with what time they have available.

Garden Grill is an easy character dining to get into. I love it there and some of the food is grown just below you. The salads are amazing. And the menu changes to what's in season.

 

[Braxtonsmom03]

I am a TA(became one a few months back I am considered a Disney specialist and have taken the college of knowledge course) and if you use AAA you either get their discount or the free dining you can not use more then one promotion at any given time, ever with Disney(even as a TA)! You can always call back and stay with your AAA agent and have them switch your ressie to the free dinning instead of the AAA discount but its not possiable to use both(if they tell you otherwise calculate your trip I gaurantee your not getting any discount other then the free dining). There is many problems with AAA agents not wanting to do the ADR's or that with their biz hours you "miss" the good Adr's. I see a lot of people saying whats the difference can't I do the adr's myself? Yes, you can but some people think that if your using a travel agent and its not costing you any different wouldn't you rather have a travel agent that is willing to get up at 7am to make your adr's rather then a travel agent that won't? Afterall you are getting the same vacation for the same amount of money since you are not getting a AAA discount on top of the free dining anyway. Also, until recently only TA's could use the online adr system so that also gave people the leg up to have their TA's schedule the adr's rather then themselve's since TA's could access the system once midnight hit and get that extra 7 hr's to help get the harder adr's. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them

Tiffany

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

I booked my Sept 26-oct 3 vacation through triple A and got free dining

Package rate with free DDP with my PIN for December was the same price through AAA or directly through Disney. I couldn't tell what the benefit to using AAA was, so I kept my reservation with Disney. We are flying, so preferred parking didn't apply. And the Disney CMs were much more friendly and easier to work with.

I was told by both Disney and AAA that you can't use the AAA discount with free dining. BUT, you could try to book room only with AAA discount, then pay for a DDP. I think the math would be in favor of taking the free dining, although I haven't crunched the numbers.

 

[golden1023]

It's hard because I haven't really found a benefit using AAA yet. Because I got the same $ amounts booking through Disney when I entered it in. And we are flying too so the parking and all that stuff seems obsolete. However, I did get the free dining and saved $600-so yeah me! I won't have to book my ADR's until Sept. so I am looking forward to being able to do this myself. I do like the good old telephone too! Think I will do that first! Thank you to everyone who has helped me on this thread!

 

[tiggspring]

Thanks for the infor. Hadnt been on the boards except by phone for awhile then saw your follow-up. The information about TA's will be very helpful my next trip. It also explains why so many who were booking there own ressies at 6am were having trouble. Good to know TA's can get online at midnight. I'll have to consider that when I return hopefully next may!

 

[Braxtonsmom03]

Tigg your so welcome! I'm glad I could be of help! If you need a TA next May I would love to help you out