can you sign up for AAA or AP once a discount has been announced?

[bethclayton]

we are traveling to WDW in march 2010. my parents have never been there and my mother has been kind enough to purchase two rooms at GF RPC for all of us.

because the rooms are such a huge expense, i'd really like to save her some $$$. the $500 or less spent on an AP would be nothing in comparison to possibly saving almost $6,000, for example, with a 40% off code. <side note: she is the spender but i am very, very frugal! she is willing to pay the rack rate.> if an AP discount becomes available for those dates, can i (or my mom) just buy an AP at that point and take advantage of the discount associated with it? likewise, if AAA has a discount announced, can we just sign up for it and get the discount? and come to think of it, how about being a disney visa cardholder? can we do the same with that? or do you have to be a member for a certain amount of time beforehand to get the discount?

thanks in advance for your input! and as i said, she is more than willing to pay rack rate, so it is fine if no discounts can work out, but i'd love to help her out!

 

[pezaddict231]

I don't think I've ever heard of a AAA discount being announced, but you can ask Disney if there are any rooms available at the AAA rate, or you can call AAA and ask if they have any discounts for the dates of your stay. You do not need to be a AAA member to call and if you decide to book you can sign up then. You just need the AAA membership when you check in. I think you can do the same with AP. Last year when they announced the AP rates I had my AAA agent check to see if it would be worth it for us, but it turned out not to be so we stuck with the AAA rate.

 

[dogodisney]

Keep in mind that y0u have to pay a fee to become a AAA member. It's just not a matter of signing up.

 

[bethclayton]

Keep in mind that y0u have to pay a fee to become a AAA member. It's just not a matter of signing up.

oh, i completely understand. dh is a AAA member. i just know that at $2000/ nt. for the 2 rooms, it would probably be worth signing up for, for the cost of membership. however, if my mom signs up now, and then later a better discount is released to the general public, or an AP rate comes out, then she would have wasted the AAA membership.

 

[abc999]

As long as you have the AP before you check in, you will be fine.

 

[ancestry]

I believe that AAA gets a year round discount (or at least year round discount) on room only reservations.

From mousesavers.com regarding AAA Discounts:

The 2009 discounts seem to run as follows:

Value Season: 15% off at Value, Deluxe and Deluxe Villa (Disney Vacation Club) resorts; 20% off at Moderate resorts and Ft. Wilderness cabins and campsites.

Regular Season: 10% off at the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa (Disney Vacation Club) resorts; 10%-15% off at Value and Moderate resorts and Ft. Wilderness cabins and campsites.

Peak Season and Summer Season: 10% off at all resorts.

 

[disneyfan55]

If you decide on the AP discount, look starting in Dec to see if any will be out there. You can check on Mousesavers.com for any current offers as well as here. You will need 1 AP for each room though. They only let you book 1 room with each AP. Maybe you will get lucky and they will offer the buy 4 get 3 again!!

Yes, you can book with an AP discount as long as the passes are purchased before check in. We did this last May. We got there and went to EPCOT and got our passes and checked in!!

 

[sharadoc]

Hi. Just to clarify something - you do need the AAA membership number when you make your reservation, or within 7 days of making it, so you couldn't wait until check-in.

Could you use your husband's membership to make the reservation and hold the rooms? If you're buying a package, your mother would have to give you $400 to hold them, or the cost of one night for each room if you're doing a room-only reservation.

If your husband is on the trip, I think his membership is all you need. At check-in, or in payment in advance for a package, you can use whatever credit card you want, so your mother could still pay for it! No need to buy another membership.

Call sooner rather than later, because there are only a certain number of rooms available at the AAA rate.

I've used AAA for a room, so feel free to ask if you need any more info!

 

[bethclayton]

you guys are the best!!! thank you so much for all the helpful information!

Hi. Just to clarify something - you do need the AAA membership number when you make your reservation, or within 7 days of making it, so you couldn't wait until check-in.

Could you use your husband's membership to make the reservation and hold the rooms? If you're buying a package, your mother would have to give you $400 to hold them, or the cost of one night for each room if you're doing a room-only reservation.

If your husband is on the trip, I think his membership is all you need. At check-in, or in payment in advance for a package, you can use whatever credit card you want, so your mother could still pay for it! No need to buy another membership.

Call sooner rather than later, because there are only a certain number of rooms available at the AAA rate.

I've used AAA for a room, so feel free to ask if you need any more info!

thank you for that info. my mom has already made the room-only deposit. i just called dh (who will be on the trip) and his membership actually does not expire until after our trip (we are going march 2010 and his membership expires sept 2010). so we would be good to go. i wonder if they would let us change the name the reservation is under to his name so we can use the discount? or whether we have to completely rebook and cancel the other reservation?

 

[bethclayton]

If you decide on the AP discount, look starting in Dec to see if any will be out there. You can check on Mousesavers.com for any current offers as well as here. You will need 1 AP for each room though. They only let you book 1 room with each AP. Maybe you will get lucky and they will offer the buy 4 get 3 again!!

Yes, you can book with an AP discount as long as the passes are purchased before check in. We did this last May. We got there and went to EPCOT and got our passes and checked in!!

thank you for this info! i did not realize we would need two. although i'm pretty sure that my parents would not travel again within a year, i do think dh and i would come back again within the year if we already had ap's. if we purchased one for each of us, would we need to book it as though my husband is in one of the rooms and i am in the other, or is it sufficient to just say we need two rooms and two of us in the party will have ap's? does it natter if both ap holders are booked in one room and the other room has no ap holders?

 

[disneyfan55]

thank you for this info! i did not realize we would need two. although i'm pretty sure that my parents would not travel again within a year, i do think dh and i would come back again within the year if we already had ap's. if we purchased one for each of us, would we need to book it as though my husband is in one of the rooms and i am in the other, or is it sufficient to just say we need two rooms and two of us in the party will have ap's? does it natter if both ap holders are booked in one room and the other room has no ap holders?

Basically, from what I've heard, you must have an AP holder in each room. With an AP you used to be able to book up to 3 rooms but no longer. YOu could change your key cards if you like once you get the pass, I think. You also can get the Tables in Wonderland card that allows 20% off many WDW TS and a few CS places. You only need one of these. You should check out all the AP benefits on WDW site as well. The AP alone gives 10% off some TS during lunch on weekdays as well as merchandise discounts and free parking (if you ever stay off site)

 

[sharadoc]

you guys are the best!!! thank you so much for all the helpful information!




thank you for that info. my mom has already made the room-only deposit. i just called dh (who will be on the trip) and his membership actually does not expire until after our trip (we are going march 2010 and his membership expires sept 2010). so we would be good to go. i wonder if they would let us change the name the reservation is under to his name so we can use the discount? or whether we have to completely rebook and cancel the other reservation?

Can't hurt to call and ask. Tell them you'd like to request a AAA discount on your reservation. They may do the "cancel and rebook" for you, but it would be invisible as far as the deposit goes. They would just move the deposit, but you would get a new confirmation number.

Last year, I booked in May for a January 2009 trip and the rates were not posted, so I waited until the actual room rates were out to call about the AAA discount. I didn't have to show anything at check-in, they just needed my membership number for the discount to appear on the reservation.

If you decide to call now, let us know how it goes! I had a AAA reservation for our August trip, them switched over to a package and free dining so I lost the AAA.

Also, just curious, did you price out a suite? If you're paying $1,000 a night for two rooms, a suite would give you a LOT more space!!! Of course, not sure if a AAA discount would apply to those?

 

[bethclayton]

thanks so much for the help, sharadoc. i will call them today when i have a chance to deal with that godforsaken phone tree.

i did price out suites. they are about $300-400 per night more than the two rooms combined. i think the rooms are about $955 each per night and the suite is something like $2300. believe it or not, though, i don't think they have any more floor space than the 2 deluxe rooms. the square footage is only a little more than 1000 sf.

thanks again, and i'll post after i call to ask them!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Last month when my dad called CRO he got the AAA discount for our stay this December at the Contemporary. So all you do is ask them what AAA rates are available and if you get one tell them your AAA number over the phone. Finally when you check-in just remember to have your AAA ready to show the Cast Member.

 

[bethclayton]

ok, i called just now while the house is finally quiet.

i always take everything with a grain of salt when the cm's tell me something over the phone. but this cm told me the following:

1) to apply the aaa discount, we just need to make the principal person on the reservation my dh. the reservation doesn't change in any other way, we don't have to cancel and rebook. he said they do that all the time.

2) as for the ap discounts, he said only one person needs to have one, and that you can book multiple rooms with one ap holder. he said as long as the reservation is in the ap holder's name, it is fine if no one in the second room has an ap.

3) we can't get any discounts until they are announced, which will likely not be until the fall.

soooo, if all that is correct, that would be great! but i realize it can change depending on who you talk to.

thanks again for all the help, everyone!