codes. whats the deal....how do they really work????

[wiskband]

OK so i call up and try to make ressies for next January at the FW cabins for two of them. I did a little research on mousesaver and saw that from now until the mid of this year you can get cabins for as little as 149. a night! I believe the Disney site says about 229. a night ( for this year), anyway I call and was quoted alot more than I thought. I figure Ill wait and when I get a CODE later this year, I simply call up and apply it to my ressie and get the discount right? WRONG............ the woman from reservations says those codes cant just be used, that I need to receive one officially in the mail. She went on to say that they mail them out all the time .................thing is I never get them!

I have gone the past 9 consecutive years and out of all those times, my mom came once with us and the following year she recieved one! (of course I did use that one lol).

Anyway, this got me thinking and a bit upset because the woman also mentioned something about being a premiere an/or valued guest!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I assumed I was being that I go there so much! I mean disney catalog has recognized me from buying so much merchandise that I automatically became a value member.....why not the resorts? I wrote thema letter and got a return call and message from them saying that these post cards with codes are computer generated and randomly sent!!!!!!!!

IS this bull?



WHATS YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND OR EXPERIENCE WITH THIS SYSTEM AND OR CODES??????????




thanks
renee

 

[dzneprincess]

Go to www.mousesavers.com and look at the resorts section. Mary lists a;; codes that are available for general public, and the code needed when calling CRO. The codes that the CM was telling you about are postcard codes that are sent at random.

 

[Tess]

The reservationist was speaking about postcard rates. These are indeed randomly mailed and directed at a targeted sement of the population. In my case, my husband received a postcard because our vacations have been in my name for the last few years. Since he'd not had a reservation in his own name for a couple of years, we surmise that he was being enticed to return. The postcard rates are usually okay--certainly better than rack, but not all that great compared to an annual passholder's or other "code" discount for yet other segments of the population to which Disney is trying to market its product. Postcard rates do have an associated "code" on the postcard AND a PIN number that must be used when reserving a room. This is the control Disney has in place to assure the person to whom it is trying to market is the one who is actually using the rate.

The "code" discount is a promotional discount that is usually targeted at a specific group. This year, the target market was Disney VISA cardholders (first new card members and then original cardholders). The discount with this promotion was around 24%--better than the old Magic Kingdom Club, but still not as good as an annual passholders. After the new Disney VISA cardmembers were permitted a couple of weeks advance on booking, the rate was offered to original/present Disney VISA holders. Fast forward another two weeks and this particular code will be offered to ALL Disney guests in the know enough to ask for the "code" rates. {See mousesavers.com or this board tomorrow for the "code" letters to get the rate.}

It would be my guess that AP rates will be following within the next month or so for the same time period as this current promotion--April 18-July 4, 2004.

Now that I've totally confused you, the key here is Postcards with codes & PIN #s are NOT transferable; promotional discount codes may or may not be available to everyone--you need to read carefully and ask your reservationist if you qualify when in doubt. All Disney promotional discounts have a certain "code", it's just some are available to all while others are not.

Hope I'm not making you crazy with the explanation.

 

[Tess]

If you are booking for January 2005, there will not be a code available for that particular time frame until much later this year. I'd say around November, 2004, maybe a bit earlier or later depending on what type of year WDW is having.

You may be able to book with a AAA rate if you have AAA. Otherwise you could always book your cabin and then watch carefully until the promotional discounts, if any, are released toward the end of 2004. If you look on mousesavers.com, you will be able to find an historical list of when discounts were released last year for your time period.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Some codes are for anyone to use, and some aren't. There's really no way to know if a code will be available for your dates until it gets closer. Your best bet is to make the reservation, pay the full rack rate deposit for one night, and then hope for codes. If none come out then you can cancel up to 5 days prior to arrival.

 

[kda]

We never know what kind of codes will be available and for which dates. You can read "historical" information about codes on different sites, but there's no way to know if history will repeat itself.

As others have explained, there's quite a variety of codes, and the CM you spoke with was talking about the post card codes. I have NO idea what a 'premiere or valued guest' has to do with codes. That's a new one for me.

If you make a reservation for next January, you can try to have a code applied to that reservation (if and when codes are released). The discount will be applied to your reservation IF there's availability. Many, many people are successful at getting their current reservation changed to a discounted rate. But sometimes there isn't availability at a particular resort for the particular dates you're interested in. That's when you have them check for different dates and different resorts --- flexibility is the key. If you can't be flexible, perhaps part of the days are available at a discount and you can book 2 separate reservations and have them linked together. Or take the opportunity to try 2 different resorts.

Hope I didn't confuse you! Best of luck! Sometimes snagging a great rate turns into a real challenging game.