AP Best Guest Rates released for Christmas week

[LakeAriel]

Basically it looks like you have to wait till about 4 months prior to get the AP rates. Is that correct? Do you book in advance and then switch at that time?

 

[justhat]

Hi all,
Our family of five has reservations at the Swan for Dec 29, 30, and 31st. The rate at theSwan is still very high and I am now second guessing if I should have booked 2 rooms at a value. Since I don't have a voucher yet I can't get into the passholder site. Could someone check AS Sports for those nights and see if they show availability and price? By the way, what is the proper abbreviation for All Star Sports? Is that really the abbreviation thats used? thank you!

I haven't had any luck getting availability anywhere with check-ins past 12/25. Sorry, but they seemed to have 12/26-12/31 blacked out for check-ins.

Oh, I've seen ASSp used as the abbreviation, but not sure what the 'right one' is.

 

[justhat]

Basically it looks like you have to wait till about 4 months prior to get the AP rates. Is that correct? Do you book in advance and then switch at that time?

No, you don't have to wait till 4 months out. That is the last day you can book. You have to book at least 120 days in advance, but you can do it well before that, whenever the rates come out. Right now you can book through 2/15, but can't book for trips earlier than 12/23 (I think that's the current date).

There's not really any point in booking a room in advance anymore since you cant' just 'apply a code' like in the past. You have to make a new booking on the website in order to get the best rate anyway so might as well just wait and book your room that way. We did book in advance this time because we didn't think there would be AP rates for our dates (12/25-1/1) but then when they came out, we booked online then called to cancel our other reservation without the discount.

 

[*Fantasia*]

We weren't all that thrilled about travelling on Christmas Day either, but the savings in our room more than paid for the AP. We had planned to get APs anyway since we'll probably be going back in early May for a couple of days, but didn't plan on buying one last week. Once we saw that we were paying over 50% less than what we would be paying we decided to buy the AP and change our booking. We initially had CR Tower, but that wasn't available with the AP rate so we switched to the Poly. We're paying $260/night now, as opposed to about $550/night before switching to the AP rate.

BTW, the AP cost us $420 (we didn't get the one with waterparks, just the 4 parks), so we made up that price in less than 2 nights.

Thank you so much for sharing the infos! You are so kind and greatly appreciated! I'll wait next month and get the AP and hopefully there will be more room available under the AP rate at BC... I might do Poly too since that is my favorite resort. But we are going to concentrate on doing MGM and Epcot so BC might be the best resort to stay at. Thanks again!

Telly

 

[justhat]

Thank you so much for sharing the infos! You are so kind and greatly appreciated! I'll wait next month and get the AP and hopefully there will be more room available under the AP rate at BC... I might do Poly too since that is my favorite resort. But we are going to concentrate on doing MGM and Epcot so BC might be the best resort to stay at. Thanks again!

Telly

I just wanted to let you know that you have to book 120 days in advance to get the best rate. I have heared they'll release regular AP rates like in the past, but I'm not sure if that's even going to happen and if it does if they may have limited rooms. So if you do want to book you'd need to order the AP on the phone and book within the next day or 2 cause I hink right now the earliest date you can book is 12/23.

 

[*Fantasia*]

I just wanted to let you know that you have to book 120 days in advance to get the best rate. I have heared they'll release regular AP rates like in the past, but I'm not sure if that's even going to happen and if it does if they may have limited rooms. So if you do want to book you'd need to order the AP on the phone and book within the next day or 2 cause I think right now the earliest date you can book is 12/23.

I thought I just read that it is now 60 in advance to book and it is not 120 anymore. I wish I could buy the AP now.. but we have a trip to California for my neice's wedding near Disneyland, so we are doing DL of course and to buy AP is kind of out of the budget for this month. And I just got back from WDW just two weeks ago. Thanks for the heads up!

Telly

 

[scoutsmom99]

*Fantasia* I think you are right I just saw that you can book best rate 60 dyas out on Mousesavers this morning, which is great news IMHO!

 

[Ergens2]

But the wedsite is stll on the 120 days. Does that mean visits booked after the posted 2/16 date? I wish they would make up their minds!!

 

[Ergens2]

oohh it IS 60 days now!!!!! I love being wrong about things like this!!! This has made my day!!!! My DH is even excited about this! Now we can go after Thanksgiving instead of fighting Christmas!!! And it is before our AP's are up(we are not renewing for next year because we are gong to Scotland and Ireland for 2 weeks next fall. I love my hubby! )

 

[Jen D]

We just booked the Poly GV 12/25-12/30!!!!! 260.92/night!!!!!

It's going to be a total surprise for the kids...we'll get up in the morning and have xmas and then head to the airport in the afternoon!!! What a christmas gift!

This is awesome. A great Christmas gift indeed! Now I'm fantasizing about doing a surprise like this for Christmas 2006.

Question for all of you flying on Christmas Day though.... do you just have to live with the horrible airfare prices or are there occasionally price drops even for holiday travel?

Looking at NYC fares for a route that often averages $150-170 (with a sometime low of $105) I see nothing lower at that time of year than about $450

 

[justhat]

Sorry about that Fantasia! I saw the 120 days on the website last night so I didn't believe the change. I had heard it was going to 60 days (when we called to cancel our 1st non-AP res. we were asking the CM about the program and she 'let us in on a secret' according to her) but didn't believe it since it was still the same yesterday. Wish I had known that too as we weren't planning on buying an AP right now either (we were gonna get them when we arrived), but I justified it by saying it would be less expense when we got down there, especially since it will be Christmas, right after we got everyone their gifts. It worked out for us, but another month or so would have been a great help!

 

[justhat]

This is awesome. A great Christmas gift indeed! Now I'm fantasizing about doing a surprise like this for Christmas 2006.

Question for all of you flying on Christmas Day though.... do you just have to live with the horrible airfare prices or are there occasionally price drops even for holiday travel?

Looking at NYC fares for a route that often averages $150-170 (with a sometime low of $105) I see nothing lower at that time of year than about $450

Our flight from DC is $196 and $216 (couldn't get the same rate for all the tickets) and normally we'd pay about $174 without any sales, but usually there are some (last Dec. we flew for $98/rt). So you can get good deals sometimes, but they're hard to find. My advice would be to keep looking.