Book a longer reservation then needed anyone?

[Nic119]

So trying to narrow down dates in august, want to do a week in mid August in a monorail hotel only but want to be able to get any discounts or free dining that might be offered in future. But not sure what dates the discounts will be available for. Thinking about booking two weeks instead of the one we want just to guarantee us a room and possibly make the reservation available for discounts. Is that crazy? Anyone ever do that? Super excited to go but trying to save as much money as possible.

 

[sponica]

If you're flexible on the where you stay and when you go you can probably wait until discounts are dropped.

 

[Marionnette]

So trying to narrow down dates in august, want to do a week in mid August in a monorail hotel only but want to be able to get any discounts or free dining that might be offered in future. But not sure what dates the discounts will be available for. Thinking about booking two weeks instead of the one we want just to guarantee us a room and possibly make the reservation available for discounts. Is that crazy? Anyone ever do that? Super excited to go but trying to save as much money as possible.

Booking 2 weeks now does not guarantee you any advantage when discounts are announced. If getting a discount is your focus, it is better to wait until they are made available.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you will only go if there is a discount, your best bet is to wait until discounts are released and then price out dates and resorts at that point. As PPs have pointed out, having a reservation now in no way gives you an advantage in applying a discount. Also, if you are really only traveling for a week and you book a two-week trip, there is zero guarantee your booked resort and room category will be available for the week you ultimately want to travel. WDW will not simply drop dates from an existing reservation. If the room isn't currently available for your preferred dates, they can try to get guest services involved, but they may say no. I know it may sound illogical - you have the room booked for those dates, they should let you reduce your number of days - but it doesn't work that way with WDW.

 

[sndral]

No advantage to that strategy anymore. When discounts drop you'll have the same opportunity to book as someone w/out an existing reservation.
Disney used to be flexible with modifying reservations to reduce stays - but that stopped a couple of years ago, most likely because the practice had become too widespread.

 

[_19disnA]

Even when Disney offers a discount, you can't assume it will be for every type of room at those locations. Discounts are partly offered to help fill up unsold rooms. There is no guarantee the type of room you reserved will ever go on a discount.

 

[vinotinto]

The room has to be available to be booked with the promo as a new reservation in order to apply the promo to the current reservation. I would book what I want at a price I can and then, if the promo is available switch to it (which may require changing resorts or room types).

Edit to add:
Also, shortening dates isn't as easy as it used to be. The new dates have to be available to be booked as a new reservation in order to shorten an existing reservation. So, no advantage there either.

 

[Nancyg56]

The room has to be available to be booked with the promo as a new reservation in order to apply the promo to the current reservation. I would book what I want at a price I can and then, if the promo is available switch to it (which may require changing resorts or room types).

Edit to add:
Also, shortening dates isn't as easy as it used to be. The new dates have to be available to be booked as a new reservation in order to shorten an existing reservation. So, no advantage there either.

Boy is this true! I needed to reduce the number of nights in my BB stay and while it was still less expensive than simply keeping the additional nights, I needed to upgrade my view because that remained in the inventory.

OP- you are going to have people on some FB pages insist you will be able to simply apply any discount offered, but please listen to the feedback here. Some poor person was encouraged to book her room and get airfare because she would be able to apply any discount offered when it dropped. THis is no longer true, but people will insist it is.

 

[Sarahslay]

I had an issue last year when just trying to modify a trip due to a snow storm that blew in unexpectedly the night before we were meant to travel. I wanted to just have us arriving a day later and add an extra day on to the end knowing I would probably have to book at another resort or in another room category. We already had 7 nights booked I thought, we can keep 6 at WL and then do the 7th at another resort. Easy. Nope. They were going to have to completely cancel the trip and rebook the rooms, they could only do 4 nights at WL and the other 3 would have to be somewhere else (much more expensive btw, some of the only rooms left were CL and it was going to cost us $1500 more than what we had already paid). It is just not as simple as it would seem. We ended up just keeping our reservation as it was and booking an additional night on its own somewhere else so we could use all of our park tickets, much cheaper that way. As others have said, if you must book a reservation just to have a room book one that you are willing to pay for without a discount, or wait for discounts to be released if you just have to have a certain room. It also allows for that room category you want to show more availability so there could be better discounts if not as many rooms are booked, you booking for two weeks could make disney go "well we have people in those rooms, we don't really need to discount them as much", it's why I book value and then wait for discounts in deluxe, I have never had a problem getting a room I want that way.

 

[Belleandtinker]

I always book longer than I plan to stay. To get dining ADR, I book 180+ days. We normally fly Southwest and they don't publish flights that early. After we book flights then I change my reservation dates.

 

[vinotinto]

I always book longer than I plan to stay. To get dining ADR, I book 180+ days. We normally fly Southwest and they don't publish flights that early. After we book flights then I change my reservation dates.

If you modify early enough, there’s likely availability for the new dates.

 

[clayfolks]

Have you thought about renting DVC points? Each of the monorail resorts has a DVC component. Might be cheaper than a discount or frree dining.