August 2014 watch

[megmatthbeck]

Hi Folks! We are DVCers, but want to add a weekend on to our August 17-24 trip in cash, maybe at AoA ( our DD 2 loves Ariel). How do you get pins? Do I have to call all the time? We haven't stayed outside of DVC in a long time, so this is all new to me. Any tips?

 

[michlyn]

This pin has been out for awhile starting on the 17th and I booked it awhile ago, almost when it first came out, and I was not able to get my first choice resort/room choice, so some availability may be affected. For example, I wanted a standard or garden beach club room but they only had the higher price rooms, which sort of defeated the discount for me. But I booked early enough that I was able to get a garden room at Yacht club, so similar, luckily, or wouldn't have been able to do this, since I could only do the deluxe with the discount.

Do the rates change? I just pulled up my dates again for the grand floridian and I swear the prices were a bit more than a few days ago - The avg rate listed though per night is definitely higher

Ugh! why didn't I book then.

ETA: hmm looks like the pricing is the same per night (or pretty close to it). The "avg" rate per night is higher. It's not really an average at all since they are listing the night rate for a weekend, which isn't the bulk of our trip.

Also got a great quote from Shelly at ***!!!

 

[sgirls09]

Looking for deals to for Aug 2014. We went in Aug 2011 and we stayed at Colorando Springs because we got a great deals including half of the hotel and free dining. Hope for such a great deal again...fingers crossed. Good luck eveyone

 

[littlestars17]

Just booked ssr last week of August with 35% room pincode, a mama can hpe for Fd or an even better room rate

 

[stinky minky]

I am just jumping on the end of this, although I have a funny feeling that because we are early in august there won't be any deals. but fingers crossed.

when do they normally start to send out discounts for august?

 

[maddiebee]

Booked our plane tickets for aug 24-31! Totally thought I got a pin in an email this week but it was only 3 letters What do pin emails look like? I also sign my bf and I up for every possible mailing list and we never get Disney mail! I'd take any kind of Disney mail any day!

 

[ixmnrs]

Booked our plane tickets for aug 24-31! Totally thought I got a pin in an email this week but it was only 3 letters What do pin emails look like? I also sign my bf and I up for every possible mailing list and we never get Disney mail! I'd take any kind of Disney mail any day!

That's awesome. We're going the same time, but I'm still waiting for reasonable fares to come up. When I used my PIN for last year, it was actually a series of numbers (12 or so) When you click on the booking link, it links to a page which then asks you to verify your pin code and postal code (zip code) as well. The 3 letter codes, I believe are the general public codes.

 

[maddiebee]

That's awesome. We're going the same time, but I'm still waiting for reasonable fares to come up. When I used my PIN for last year, it was actually a series of numbers (12 or so) When you click on the booking link, it links to a page which then asks you to verify your pin code and postal code (zip code) as well. The 3 letter codes, I believe are the general public codes.

What does the email as a whole look like? Like what other content does it have? Every time I save a trip on the Disney site it sends me an email with resort photos or whatever. Is it something like that or is it pretty obviously like "hey look at this discount!"?

 

[ixmnrs]

What does the email as a whole look like? Like what other content does it have? Every time I save a trip on the Disney site it sends me an email with resort photos or whatever. Is it something like that or is it pretty obviously like "hey look at this discount!"?

I went to search for the email but I had already deleted the email. I believe it had a subject line of a special offer for the ****** family; but I could be wrong. Maybe someone who has a current PIN can shed some more light on this for you.

 

[Aliceacc]

In the past, mine have come from "Disney Destinations."

 

[Aries14]

Just booked our August 17-23 stay at Beach Club!!! So excited

 

[huggiebear23]

Its been 3 years since my last trip to my Happy Place. Thankfully my girls are not doing competitive cheer this year. Hoping we can afford this trip the discount would help. My hubby has a business trip in Orlando in August so we are hoping to add in a trip....

 

[pony2wild]

Just called Disney Reservations and had them apply the AAA 2014 discount of 25% to our room only at THV!!!! Saved almost enough to buy our tickets.

Still going to troll the boards here though to see if Disney offers a better discount before then

 

[pony2wild]

Another topic: While applying our AAA discount to our reservation (which is a room only reservation, no tickets or package or dining), the very nice lady on the phone told me that I might want to think about getting our tickets ahead of time to be able to book our fastpass+ reservations.

She explained that I could CALL the Disney reservation number (nothing online!) and ask to purchase Key to the World tickets and have them linked to my existing room ressie number. My credit card would be charged for the tickets at that time. I then at 60 days out, could make our fastpass+ selections.

She went on to say that if for any reason we had to cancel our trip, I could do so up to the day before we left and have the Keys to the World tickets credited back to my account.

Anyone else ever done this?

 

[Nurse_Mommy4]

maddiebee could you just pay OOP for food? Maybe just putting aside the cost of the DDP and then using that during your trip.

That is unless you have FD, then you would have to decide if FD is more important than a deluxe resort.

We thought about using *** and moving to BC/YC but I would have to give up FD and with my crew free food is a much better deal! In fact since we have 5 "disney adults" we would need a 100% RO discount at POR.

 

[phoebec]

Who has been in August before? We are thinking in the range of 12-19. How is the weather? crowds? any hope of a free dining pin then?

 

[maddiebee]

Who has been in August before? We are thinking in the range of 12-19. How is the weather? crowds? any hope of a free dining pin then?

We went August 18-22 last year. The crowds are heavier the first three weeks if August according to josh at easywdw but it really didn't seem too bad while we were there. The only ride we didn't get to because of lines was Soarin. But it was hot. really really hot. We just kept really hydrated and made sure to take advantage of air conditioning whenever possible.

Historically free dining has only happened in August around the last week I believe?

 

[MillauFr]

so hopefully the Poly is doing everything they can to keep things quiet!

We will be there too from Aug 21-26. Hopefully you won't get a room next to our family if you want quiet.

Usually the first night on vacation my son likes to wake up at 5:15a and asks to go on "PIRATES!" Hopefully the three hour time difference will make him sleep in a bit.

I would guess the construction is just during the day while we are at the parks.

 

[disnut1149]

We went August 18-22 last year. The crowds are heavier the first three weeks if August according to josh at easywdw but it really didn't seem too bad while we were there. The only ride we didn't get to because of lines was Soarin. But it was hot. really really hot. We just kept really hydrated and made sure to take advantage of air conditioning whenever possible.

Historically free dining has only happened in August around the last week I believe?

We had free dining one year and it started around August 14th, but that was about four years ago. Now it does seem like it's the end of August. Bounceback for this year I think starts on Aug. 20th.

 

[tink97]

We'd prefer to visit the last week of August so it doesn't interfere with school but we REALLY want FD!! I guess we have to make a decision soon (w/in 1 month) as we'll be 6 months out re: ADR's.

What do you guys think the chances are for FD re:
Last week of August?
Third week of September?

Last time we went (2011) we were able to book FD over 1 year in advance!!

Thanks