CAA Booking Advise

[Intrepid]

Hi everyone. I've been a big fan of the DIS boards for some time now but this is my firts post. My wife and I are planning our first trip to WDW in the fall of 2006 to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We have pretty much decided to spend 5 nights/6 days at WL with park hopper tickets and the dining plan. According to Disney's website the whole trip will cost approx. $2000 US. Here are the questions I have:

1) How much can I expect to save on the trip if I book through CAA? I know I can save approx. 20% off the rack rate on rooms but how much can I expect to save on the whole trip?

2) Are there any advantages/disadvantages to booking the trip early? We should have the money saved by Jan/Feb 2006 and would like to book before we spend the money on something else.

3) Has anyone had any positive/negative experiences booking through a CAA TA? Can anyone recommend a CAA TA in the London/St. Thomas area?


Thanks in advance for any advise..............................

 

[OntFamily]

check out www.mousesavers.com for some great money saving tips on making your Disney vacation cheaper. sorry, can't help on the advice for a TA -- we always booked our own trips.

BTW -- you can get the CAA discount even if you book direct through disney (or any TA with any company).

 

[Reese]

We booked our first trip in Feb. through CAA. They were very helpful with our requests and I can just go into the office and pay it here in US money. I was unable to get the CAA discount for my room when I booked through Disney direct because I wanted the package with the dining. They only offer discounts on room only. If you book through CAA you get the room discounted.

Going through CAA we saved about $250 US for our vacation. If you go to their website they have their package prices per person so you can get an idea of how much you would save.

 

[Lisa Anne Colling]

We normally book our trip ourselves, but my parents (in London) were told by thier caa office that they could get them better rates. We had already booked, but the caa took over the reservation about 9 months before leaving assuring us they could get us a better rate. Never happened. I was calling her with the discount codes I was getting on line, and by the time she called nothing was available. They only have so many rooms available at a discount. This year we went again with our friends. We stayed at a DVC resort and they stayed again at the CBR. She watched faithfully on the mousesaver site for the different codes to come up and was able to get an AP discount and saved 50 dollars a night. Big savings! So be wary and check that site out first.

 

[Lisa Anne Colling]

I forgot to mention that the Caa Lady we booked through was a "disney expert"'. She knew nothing about the various tickets. Told us Canadians couldn't get AP's, Blah, Blah, Blah! Not much of an expert!

 

[Candismom]

Actually I just received a quote yesterday from CAA

I booked ASMO for March 8 -13 myself through Disney on weekend using my CAA and total for 2 rooms was $1096US

when I called TA at CAA yesterday she came back with a quote of $841.65 per room so $1683.30 Canadian
For a 6 day base ticket for adult I can get it for $201 US at Ticketmania and at CAA for the same ticket $254.54 CAN plus tax so guessing the 15%
Childs 6 day base is $204.48 CAN plus tax at ticketmania the price is $163US

(also I was curious about the dining plan it $47 Canadian per person and for the child dining $14

So doing it myself it's
2 ASMO 5 Nights - $1096
5 Adult tickets and 1 Child 6 day base plan $1163
Total $2259US for 6 People

CAA
Hotel $1683.30
Tickets $1688.60
Total $3387CAN for 6 People

So with the exchange it's still cheaper to do it myself. I'm hoping for a Canadina discount though. ) P

 

[Manon]

For our June trip I booked my self thru Disney.com, but for our upcoming trip in January I called CAA and they got me a quote that was 350$ US cheaper than Disney.com!!!! So I booked with them!

 

[OntFamily]

We booked our first trip in Feb. through CAA. They were very helpful with our requests and I can just go into the office and pay it here in US money. I was unable to get the CAA discount for my room when I booked through Disney direct because I wanted the package with the dining. They only offer discounts on room only. If you book through CAA you get the room discounted.

Going through CAA we saved about $250 US for our vacation. If you go to their website they have their package prices per person so you can get an idea of how much you would save.

Were you able to get the dining package AND the CAA room discount? How much are you paying per room? Disney says the dining package is only offered with rooms at rack rate.

 

[OntFamily]

For our June trip I booked my self thru Disney.com, but for our upcoming trip in January I called CAA and they got me a quote that was 350$ US cheaper than Disney.com!!!! So I booked with them!

Disney.com doesn't offer any discounts. Seems weird as they force people to call their call centres to obtain CAA/AAA discounts, etc (which costs Disney more in labour).