Deciding when to book...

[osugal]

I realize you can't book last minute and expect to get exactly what you want. But, does Disney ever lower their rates as it gets closer in hopes of filling the rooms? I'm nervous about booking really early because I'm worried that they will have less incentive to give me a pin. And, we've gotten pins the last few years. I really want to go to the Poly and stay CL in October 2013. But, if we don't get a pin it's out of the question. We like to stay CL and not do the DDP so the free dining doesn't really appeal to me as much. Thoughts???

 

[reiella]

They may offer general discounts, however, they've been having a lot of luck with the Free Dining discounts so I imagine if they offer again, it'll be free dining.

 

[Missyrose]

I realize you can't book last minute and expect to get exactly what you want. But, does Disney ever lower their rates as it gets closer in hopes of filling the rooms?

In answer to this question:

Mo. Disney does not run any last-minute discounts. And booking a room doesn't seem to have much bearing on whether you get a pin. Lots of people have reported booking a room and then getting a pin and calling to have it applied to their reservation.

The other thing you can try, that has reportedly worked for other people is to save vacation quotes to your Disney account. Disney will start sending you emails about the resorts in your saved vacations and sometimes those emails will include a pin. It's not a guarantee, nothing pin-related ever is.

 

[mmmears]

I can't figure out the PIN thing either. My plans and even logging on the WDW website don't seem to affect it one way or the other. If we really want to go, then I book a room that we can afford without a PIN, then upgrade if a discount code or a PIN comes along...

 

[baler31]

I realize you can't book last minute and expect to get exactly what you want. But, does Disney ever lower their rates as it gets closer in hopes of filling the rooms? I'm nervous about booking really early because I'm worried that they will have less incentive to give me a pin. And, we've gotten pins the last few years. I really want to go to the Poly and stay CL in October 2013. But, if we don't get a pin it's out of the question. We like to stay CL and not do the DDP so the free dining doesn't really appeal to me as much. Thoughts???

Disney does not offer last minute deals of any sort.

Travel to Orlando is very strong right now and in the first three months on 2012 the occupancy rate for all Orlando area hotels (not including WDW owned resorts) was 75%. This is well above the national average. WDW owned resorts typically run between 85%-90% lately, so there is little incentive for them to offer any discounts. The last quarter reported included an overall level of 82% occupancy overall. Value resorts occupancy was higher with deluxes logging the lowest occupancy.