Book now or wait??

[shaynanick]

Hello All-
My husband and I along with our 4 children are planning a trip for fall 2013. We know they release the free dining plans in May for the fall but, we want to book soon so we can pay over time. However, should we book now and cancel and rebook when the dining plan is released?? Or should we just wait??

 

[mickeynut1]

If you are going regardless of whether or not free dining (or another discount) comes out, I would book now to be sure you get the resort you want. If you will go only if free dining is offered, I'd wait to book. Disney releases discounts to fill rooms, so booking a room now "in hopes" of a discount is one room closer to filling that resort, which in turn, can make that resort have few or no rooms available under a discount. With that said, if you do book now and book a package, there is no need to cancel/rebook. If free dining comes out for your dates/resort and has availability under the promo, it is easy to have the reservation modified to reflect free dining. However, if you book room only now and change to a package later, the room only will have to be cancelled/refunded and the package booked, requiring a new $200 deposit as money paid toward one cannot be applied to the other. HTH .

 

[fitzperry]

I think it depends on how flexible you are willing to be about your room arrangements. If the discount, should one become available, is more important to you than the particular resort or room category, then it might make sense to wait. But if you do that and they don't offer discounts, you may have difficulty getting the room you want, even at rack rate. I recently reserved our room for the first week of December because I want the CR garden wing. Standard rooms (my preference) were already booked, so I had to reserve a garden view, and now the website is showing no availability for those either. A nice discount might tempt us to switch, but for room categories that tend to book up its nice to have something reserved.

 

[AliceIn]

You never know if the week you want will be included in the FD. We were hoping to get one last year for the late summer/early fall offering, but the week we went was skipped entirely from any promos. We'd booked our flights at the same time as our hotel (airfare was ridiculously cheap), so we couldn't get the free dining. Not having FD wasn't a deal breaker for us, but it is for others.

What I would do is put your reservation in for the week you want, but don't do the airfare at the same time. You'll be able to keep paying on the reservation, but also have the flexibility to change it. I think it becomes a bit less flexible if you are less than 45 days prior to your vacation, but I don't know details.

 

[shaynanick]

Thank you I will just go ahead and book. I believe we will make it for CSR and chose the dining plan. If FD is offered later we might see if we could switch to the WL.

 

[mickeynut1]

Thank you I will just go ahead and book. I believe we will make it for CSR and chose the dining plan. If FD is offered later we might see if we could switch to the WL.

I'm not familiar with CSR and their room types or what room type you are going to book, but with 6 people, staying at WL will require you to get 2 regular rooms or a deluxe CL room as WL regular rooms only accommodates 4 + 1 under the age of 3, with the deluxe rooms accommodating 6. You may already be aware of this, but thought I would point that out just in case.

 

[Sue M]

If you are going regardless of whether or not free dining (or another discount) comes out, I would book now to be sure you get the resort you want. If you will go only if free dining is offered, I'd wait to book. Disney releases discounts to fill rooms, so booking a room now "in hopes" of a discount is one room closer to filling that resort, which in turn, can make that resort have few or no rooms available under a discount. With that said, if you do book now and book a package, there is no need to cancel/rebook. If free dining comes out for your dates/resort and has availability under the promo, it is easy to have the reservation modified to reflect free dining. However, if you book room only now and change to a package later, the room only will have to be cancelled/refunded and the package booked, requiring a new $200 deposit as money paid toward one cannot be applied to the other. HTH .

I go with this, and wait for discounts to be released before I book. Booking ahead and hoping for a discount, free DDP, etc works against you getting any discount, as mentioned. Disney looks at booking, and if enough rooms are booked, they won't release a discount.
I set up a vacay fund and make my monthly contributions for my trip that way. We calculate how much we need to be paid in full by the 45 day point, and make monthly payments to our acct.

 

[michelleiada]

I suggest booking now and when new promotion is released you call and get the promotion added to your ressie!