February 2018 - Should I Book a Room Now?

Stacy's a freak

wrangles snakes
Joined
Apr 15, 2003
We have finalized our plans to go during the week of President's Day in February, 2018. I know/think that a Princess marathon is towards the end of that week and I have seen that some have already booked rooms. I want to wait until packages are available for 2018 to book but I wonder if I should snag rooms as room-only now before all of the values are sucked up. (I understand that you can call and reserve rooms before the next year's packages/pricing is released and they will adjust the cost when the prices are available).

In everyone's experience, have you found it hard to book rooms for a busy time if you wait for the package pricing to be released? I would rather wait until packages are available so I can book with a TA who can be on the lookout for discounts if they are released. But I don't want to be stuck with limited resort options. Thanks!
 
You can book a room only now and when packages gets released, have your TA call to make a whole new reservation and cancel the room only.
 
Yes, if you know your dates book by phone now, especially since you're going at a really busy time.
 
Room only and package reservations are booked through separate departments which have separate room inventories so having just a room booked now will not help when packages come out. The room only will have to be cancelled and a package booked. You will have to pay a new deposit and the monies paid on the room only res will be refunded.
 


I would say book now. Yes everyone is correct by saying your room only deposit will be refunded and you put $200 down for the package. But I would book now. We booked next year's trip in April. We're going end of Feb/beginning of March.
What resorts are you looking at? I've been called a lot to get quotes for next year and always ask for availability too. As of April anyway CBR, CSR, and WL had a lot of availability.
 
having just a room booked now will not help when packages come out.

Having a room booked now will lock in a room reservation. Even though that room needs to be cancelled and rebooked as a package you don't take a chance of "losing" your room. You just have to wait for the credit for that original reservation to be posted to your credit card which just takes a few days. Many people have a specific resort or room type they want so it doesn't make sense to wait to book. (I know it takes that room our of inventory, lessening the chance of a discount on that room type...but I'm not a gambler so I book what I want as soon as I know dates.)
 


Update - I called reservations yesterday and spoke with an awesome CM named Cole. He gave me some room-only pricing for both POP and POR but I decided not to book quite yet. He said that package pricing should be released on June 30th so I think I will take my chances. We are not that particular about room location so I think we can wait it out a bit. I am hoping if I book a package with my Disney Visa, that will give me the chance, albeit slim, for discounts in the future. And by waiting, I am not artificially reserving a room that could make the resort look more fully-booked than it actually is. I'm sure that one room will not throw off the numbers, but in a tiny way, I feel like I'm doing my part to keep the public costs down - haha.

Ideally I want POP if our budget only allows a value resort (probably the case). But I really think that POP will have rooms available for our time and if they don't, we can certainly choose another resort. Given the way the refurbed rooms look in the pictures I'm seeing, I don't think I'll cry about it if we have to choose another resort.
 

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