booking room only with AAA with dining plan?

[Willowtrees]

I am confused about adding the dining plan. Is the dining plan added to your hotel stay or do you add it to the tickets? We want to book through AAA and have read that it is best to do a room only reservation, then tickets seperately. BUT we want to add the dining plan and am comfused as to where that is added. Also, I want to be able to apply any codes that come up before our trip and do not know if you can do that if you book a package through AAA. thanks for your help!

 

[SeaSpray]

In order to get an AAA discount AND add the dining plan, the package (which would also include park tickets), HAS to be booked through a AAA travel agents. You *can* call Disney directly to get a room-only AAA discount, but then you can't add on the Dining Plan.

Last fall I booked a room directly with Disney and used a AAA discount. Before the trip, a great discount code came out (this was a "general" code that anyone could use) and the package included the park tickets, room, and dining plan. After checking all the figures I saw that this new discount code package would only cost me about $60 more over what I already had, so I changed my AAA room-only discount, to a package that included the tickets, room, and dining plan. So basically the discount gave me an almost-free dining plan. Well, that's the way I chose to look at it. lol

If you book a package through a AAA Travel Agent, and then a good discount code comes out, I am not sure how easily you'd be able to switch it over. The travel agent is always a middle-man, you'd have to do everything through them. I am not sure how a new discount code would be handled if you were already using a AAA travel agent. Maybe someone who's done this before we reply.

 

[pooch]

calls all of her clients when applicable codes come out. They then figure out what the best deal is and she makes any necessary changes for them. I will still watch for codes on my own just to be sure but a good AAA TA should do this for you.

 

[d4est]

The key phrase there is "a GOOD AAA TA SHOULD do this for you."

They are able to, if there are still rooms available for the code. My old AAA TA was NOT on top of things & got quite unprofessional when a code came out & I wanted her to try & apply it. I ended up cancelling with her & rebooking thru a different AAA agent that IS on top of things...and is a Disney Specialist! Much better.

 

[minniedisney1]

I think to get the dining added to a ressie, you have to buy 1 day tickets. Then it is considered a package. This is what I am doing for our 12/06 trip. I figured that what we would spend on food, the extra $$ for the 1 day ticket is still less. Good Luck!!!

 

[indigoxtreme]

Correct you must have at least a 1 day ticket to get the dinning plan.

 

[mommykds]

The key phrase there is "a GOOD AAA TA SHOULD do this for you."

They are able to, if there are still rooms available for the code. My old AAA TA was NOT on top of things & got quite unprofessional when a code came out & I wanted her to try & apply it. I ended up cancelling with her & rebooking thru a different AAA agent that IS on top of things...and is a Disney Specialist! Much better.

Would you mind giving the name of the TA you used who was so helpful? Thanks!

 

[d4est]

I used Michelle Shears

 

[shafke]

This sounds like if you book a room for later in the year before any kind of possible packages are released that you should hold off on purchasing passes at the end of the previous year to head off increases in the cost of the tickets.

For example...
option 1: book AAA room only rate for Aug 2007. Purchase tickets in Dec 2006 before prices are likely to go up. Basically we would not then be able to do the dining plan for the trip since we would already have out tickets.

Option 2: book AAA room only rate for Aug 2007. Pray that ticket prices do not go up too much... a 5% increase for a family of four will probably add $40-$50 (10-15 per person) minimum to the ticket price. If a good package deal comes out change the reservation.

 

[Gillian]

shafke, we booked in fall 2005 for a 2006 AAA package with dining. We did not have to pay the increased ticket price. And I recently asked my AAA agent about making a change to our tickets (changing # of days) and was told it would be at the 2005 rate, not 2006.

One thing you would have to pay is the increased room rate if you booked before 2007 room prices are out. They will book you at the 2006 room rate and adjust when 2007 prices are set. But this is for anyone, not just AAA.

Actually, the AAA discounts are not usually available before early summer for the following year, so you have a bit of time to sort it out.

Hope that helps!