Desperately seeking advice from you budget trip planners...

[polkadotladybug]

We are looking at taking a trip to WDW. We want to go over the summer - probably a week in early June. Dates are pretty flexible. We went July 4th week several years ago - crowded and hot - I imagine June is the same thing - no biggie. We live in Charleston, SC and it's pretty darn hot here - nothing new! It's DH, DD age 9, DD age 5, and me so 4 in our party.

We don't have tickets, military status, ap's, aaa or any other discount status. We would like to renew our aaa card, so I can consider that discount as well.

I am looking into a room only at one of the value resorts. I am researching tickets (we want hoppers, but no need for water parks - they are entirely too crowded and exhausting - we have summer passes for our local water park and that's plenty o' water parkin' for us) and have found that either Ticket Mania (w/MS discount) or undercover tourist.com has the best ticket price. Must have hopping - we usually do one park in morning - come back after lunch - swim, nap, shower and then go to another park.

I called Disney last night and got rates on June 2-9 at Pop Century. Standard room for 7 nights with a AAA discount would be $656 (93.71/night). Preferred Rooms would be $734 ($104.85/night).

We are not looking at the Meal Plan - we tend to eat lightly and maybe do one or two character meals. We bring breakfast and lunch fixin's (although we will eat at park if it's not reasonable to go back to hotel), and try to eat cheap - LOL!

So is that the best I can get for now? Would I get a better rate calling a AAA agent? Can a AAA agent book for me if I don't have a current AAA card (I would be willing to get one, but was planning to get one closer to the trip, but am not against getting one sooner if it will save some $$).

Does anyone see where I can save any more $$? Please feel free to advise where you see I can tweak my trip to save some $$! Would an AP get us a better rate?


FLEXIBLE - on dates (but must be some time between May 28 and July 31)
and resort choice (but must be on Dis Property) but I'm assuming the values are the most obvious choice. I have not looked into renting points at DVC, because quite honestly - that looks way too confusing for me - LOL! If someone can hold my hand, I'd be happy to consider that option although I seriously doubt it will touch the value resort pricing.

Thanks for any planning gurus!

Carol

 

[timandlesley]

I think you're doing pretty good. If you did May you'd save a bit of money and it would be less hot/crowded but with school age kids you probably chose June for a reason. It will be Gaydays week that weekend, so I always check gaydays.com for their schedule and do opposite parks of them for crowd reasons. AAA could possibly discount the room a bit for you, like 10-15% a night but unfortunately unless codes come out, like ALL of us are hoping for that is probably the best you can do. The only other thing is if anual pass rates come out for your date you could call Disney and see if you'd be better off buying an annual pass for someone in your party to get an awesome rate on the room and save overall. Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

 

[polkadotladybug]

Thanks Lesley - I forgot about Gaydays - will need to check their schedule. When you say we will save in May - when in May? If we went that last week, would we still save? My girls' last day of school is THurs, May 25. We can leave as early as May 26 although that might be a little hectic - LOL! But to save some $$ - I'm game! My older daughter is in an all-day gifted 3rd grade class, and there is no way she can miss any time from school (meaning all the classwork/schoolwork). Heck - they send home tons of stuff for her to complete when she's home sick (!) (who feels like doing that stuff when they are sick??) - we'd be doing homework and projects the whole trip and that's no vacation!

Carol

 

[Tissa]

May and June are both in Regular season so no savings by going in May although the earlier you can go the better you would be crowd wise. With the AAA discount you would save 15% off the room rate. I didn't find the AP discount to be worth it for us to buy the AP with a value room. You have to do the math and see where your savings would be. Check out Mousesavers.com to help you.
Good Luck!