AAA room only or disney package?

[peaches0313]

We are looking to book a trip next September 2014. I was going to book a package through disney.com (room, tix, and possibly dining). I know that *sometimes* Disney has been known to offer free dining in the fall, which I know I would be only be able to take advantage of if I have booked a package. I still am not sure if I'm even going to do a dining package (although of course I would love to take advantage of the savings if they do offer free dining next fall which with my family could potentially save a lot of money). Would I be better off booking a room only reservation with my AAA discount? But then I don't have the possibilty of securing free dining. Has anyone had any experience with which way to book. Also, if I book a room only through Disney w/ my AAA discount, how do I add park tix? Undercover tourist or somewhere like that? Thanks!

 

[GrammyJudy]

I suggest you call Disney directly at 1-407-wdisney. Book it through them and then watch for a discount.

 

[Zim]

How old are your kids? You are booking so early, you could sign them up for the YES program and buy your tickets through that. The programs are inexpensive and at least when we did it last September the tickets were remarkably discounted. I don't know if that's changed, but it was worth it then!

Read the YES program threads for details - there are restrictions, number of tickets you can purchase ratio, no cancellations, etc.

We ended up getting a hotel package anyway (I can't recall why) - and we used our YES tickets and kept our base 2-day package tickets which don't expire (we're using them this December). We got room only this time around, although I canceled our AAA room direct with Disney this morning. I saved $70 by going through ebates and cheaptickets for the same room. Hope I didn't screw that up by not booking direct through Disney - the third party retailer sites always make me nervous...

 

[peaches0313]

Thanks! What is the YES program??! I will have to look into that... my kids will be ages 3 and 5 at time of travel.

 

[Zim]

Thanks! What is the YES program??! I will have to look into that... my kids will be ages 3 and 5 at time of travel.

Hm I think that's too young... It's a school age thing they started doing for home school kids and then last year they opened the program to anyone. But look into it for the future they programs are terrific.. My dd15 did marine biology and they got to walk along the top of the giant aquarium - it really was a great experience.

 

[DJFan88]

2 trips ago I booked our room only reservation in Feb. using a AAA discount.
In May, Free Dining came out. I called back. They checked the availability which there was, and then I just changed to the package with the free dining.
Same resort/room type. However, I believe there are a certain number of each thing reserved for different promos, so be quick. My thought, was that If nothing happened, at least I got my 10-15 %. Because those too have a limited availability.

Last trip, I just booked the whole package from the start, but had a 25% PIN discount to begin with and free dining was never offered anyway.

I believe you can turn your room only into a package anyway, given a certain amount of days ahead.