Escape Hotel Requirement Question

[twenty3curls]

Now that my date has been confirmed (yay!), I have to make the reservations for our minimum 4-night stay to get my Letter of Agreement. Not really a problem; we know we want to stay at BWI the days surrounding the wedding.

The problem is my wedding is next March. 2010 rates have not been released, so if I book now I'm charged the highest 2009 rate for the room I want to book. The highest rates are obviously Christmas week and for BWI, it's $530/night. The deposit on a room-only stay is one night...so our deposit would be $530. Combined with the deposit for our wedding and our upcoming August trip, it's becoming a bit scary.

My question... is it stupid for me to book a Value room for 4-nights, so I can get a reservation number to give to DFTW. I would only pay a $145 deposit, which would alleviate some of my stress... Then, when the 2010 rates comes out (which for our week will be cheaper than '09 xmas rates) and I can apply an AP or AAA discount, change our reservation to BWI.

Is this risky? I don't know...just freaking out about all the money flying out the door all at once. For some reason I kept telling myself we had 8 months to save for the majority of our wedding spending...didn't think about the room deposit on top of the wedding deposit.

Opinions or past experience, please!!

 

[lurkyloo]

This sounds like a good plan to me!

Alternatively, you could book the BWI as part of a package, if I am correct in thinking that the deposit on a package is only $200, and then they would adjust the total price of your package when the actual rates came out.

But since you'll have an AP, you wouldn't really want a package, and, frankly I don't like to mess with 'em because they seem like such a hassle!

 

[PrincessShea]

Yes just make a pop reservation if you cannot afford a big deposit right now. It's very easy to change your reservation and cancel ones when the real rates come out.

I started out with a Contemp reservation...canceled it for the GF...then I booked Boardwalk Inn when the buy 3 get 4 deal came out...then I also booked Beach Club Villas when it suddenly became available. Then I canceled GF and BWI. So basically at one point I had 3 reservations at the same time. It was very easy and all the deposits were refunded promptly.

 

[D&R love Disney]

I changed my reservation after booking the wedding and had no problems. My planner just updated our new confirmation number onto the wedding agreement.

 

[twenty3curls]

Great! Thank you all for your help/experiences.

Just didn't want to get stuck with something that would be change/eliminate.

 

[lfama]

Silly question, and sorry to hijack the thread, but I plan on booking Pop Century for my 4 night min. I will probably be doing this next month, so I understand they'll charge me the highest deposit, but when the real rates come out they will charge me the actual rates for April and not the highest, right, even though I booked before the newer rates were released?

 

[CharacterFan]

Silly question, and sorry to hijack the thread, but I plan on booking Pop Century for my 4 night min. I will probably be doing this next month, so I understand they'll charge me the highest deposit, but when the real rates come out they will charge me the actual rates for April and not the highest, right, even though I booked before the newer rates were released?

They will charge you the highest deposit, but you will be credited that full amount towards your stay, so you'll only owe what the April rate is.

In the past few years, the 2010 rates have come out at the beginning of Aug-threw mid August.

 

[PryncessChrysty]

In the past few years, the 2010 rates have come out at the beginning of Aug-threw mid August.

I just wanted to reiterate this. Rumors are swirling on some of the other forums that the 2010 rates will be coming out in the next week or two. So if you need to book a room now in order to keep your wedding date, go ahead and book a Value. You can change anything/everything on room/package ressie once it's made. I know this from recent experience. We had:

5 nights at the Poly with Free Dining for 2 adults and 10 day MYW tickets

and we changed to...

3 nights at BWV with a 35% off code, regular DDP, 3 adults and 8 day MYW tickets.

The CM I talked to was really nice and very helpful. So once you book your Value room and give the ressie # to your wedding coordinator, you can call WDW Travel back and change your ressie to pretty much whatever you want when the pricing is released, without having to cancel the original.

Congrats on getting your date set, btw!

 

[CharacterFan]

I just wanted to reiterate this. Rumors are swirling on some of the other forums that the 2010 rates will be coming out in the next week or two. So if you need to book a room now in order to keep your wedding date, go ahead and book a Value. You can change anything/everything on room/package ressie once it's made. I know this from recent experience. We had:

5 nights at the Poly with Free Dining for 2 adults and 10 day MYW tickets

and we changed to...

3 nights at BWV with a 35% off code, regular DDP, 3 adults and 8 day MYW tickets.

The CM I talked to was really nice and very helpful. So once you book your Value room and give the ressie # to your wedding coordinator, you can call WDW Travel back and change your ressie to pretty much whatever you want when the pricing is released, without having to cancel the original.

Congrats on getting your date set, btw!

that is true, the only time you have to cancel is if you go from a room only to a package. Even if you have a room only and change resorts you'll still have the same reservation.

 

[twenty3curls]

I just wanted to reiterate this. Rumors are swirling on some of the other forums that the 2010 rates will be coming out in the next week or two. So if you need to book a room now in order to keep your wedding date, go ahead and book a Value. You can change anything/everything on room/package ressie once it's made. I know this from recent experience. We had:

5 nights at the Poly with Free Dining for 2 adults and 10 day MYW tickets

and we changed to...

3 nights at BWV with a 35% off code, regular DDP, 3 adults and 8 day MYW tickets.

The CM I talked to was really nice and very helpful. So once you book your Value room and give the ressie # to your wedding coordinator, you can call WDW Travel back and change your ressie to pretty much whatever you want when the pricing is released, without having to cancel the original.

Congrats on getting your date set, btw!

Thanks for the help! And the congrats!

 

[pghloveswdw512]

I just booked my date yesterday (yay!), and I was told that since they aren't booking for 2010 yet, I could leave that part of the contract blank (or TBD) and give them my confirmation when I got it.

You may want to check that out. I hope the rooms come out soon though... I'd love to get that part out of the way!