Have the room only codes (AP/FL) ever been so BLAH?

[Anal Annie]

We're new at all this but here's our story. We just purchased our DVC membership this year and are already out of points and are now back to having to pay for cash ressies! ANYWAY, this has turned into a giant circle for us! First, we booked our vac. for this summer (Aug.) then we banked our points that were left & booked a cruise for next summer. THEN we decided we would want to add a few days at the parks pre-cruise. SO, with the advertised "perks" in mind such as possible room discounts, on top of the park ticket savings, we decided to go for the PAP's which we could use again next summer too. OK, so now we're just back from our Aug. trip and have decided that we REALLY SHOULD try to squeeze in just one more trip sometime - so we have booked a quickie trip over MLK weekend in Jan. (DS also has that Tues. off from school). Do you see my pattern here? Owning DVC leads to more freq. trips which leads to the AP which leads to even MORE trips etc.

But so OK, we couldn't decide for sure WHERE we want to stay in Jan. and I called to see what was avail. thru the DVC for cash ressies and have one made at VWL - but it's still a LOT, but a little less than rack rate at WL. OK SO then, since this is right after the holidays & I'm expecting cash to be tight, I also booked a rack rate room at POFQ 'cuz it's about $300 less. I am currently on the January AP / Code Watch 'cuz while we will pay full price if we HAVE to, we WERE led to believe that the AP room discounts WERE indeed a perk of the AP's when we made the AP purchase. We understand that they are subject to change / availability / diff. resorts but were told that they should exist in some form pretty much all year long. Therefore, we can and will change our Jan. ressies if and when a better deal comes out for something else. We're just hoping it will be for one of the two places we already booked. Of course, if nothing else comes along then we'll pick one of the ones we have and stick to it, but I really am hoping that the AP was a good purchase for more than just park admission. I understand that's the original intent of the AP, but it does get touted as having the room discount perks. I mean we were led to believe that we could expect some sort of a discount from time to time with the AP...........I'm just crossing my fingers something will pop up for January.

For next July we want to stay at AKL and have booked a rack room (no cash rooms avail. thru DVC). This is is where we want to stay and AP discount or not, that's where we're staying. We can still hope that a discount might show up - but since they're converting the top 2 floors of AKL to DVC units I doubt they'll have anything avail. that they need to offer for discount there any more...

 

[fla4fun]

I also booked a rack rate room at POFQ 'cuz it's about $300 less. I am currently on the January AP / Code Watch 'cuz while we will pay full price if we HAVE to, we WERE led to believe that the AP room discounts WERE indeed a perk of the AP's when we made the AP purchase. We understand that they are subject to change / availability / diff. resorts but were told that they should exist in some form pretty much all year long.

Of course, if nothing else comes along then we'll pick one of the ones we have and stick to it, but I really am hoping that the AP was a good purchase for more than just park admission. I understand that's the original intent of the AP, but it does get touted as having the room discount perks. I mean we were led to believe that we could expect some sort of a discount from time to time with the AP...........I'm just crossing my fingers something will pop up for January.

Just curious . . .were you led to believe that discounts were a year round perk of the AP by Disney, or by reading elsewhere (such as the DIS)? I know that Disney gives you a little benefit brochure/pass sleeve when you buy the pass, but it does state that the benefits are only good for a specific period of time, and the room discounts are offered at various times (and to refer to their website for specific details). I just wondered whether you were misled by Disney, or by someone else.

All the perks, including room and dining discounts, merchandise discounts, tour and recreation discounts, are subject to change at any time. There have been some years where there were room discounts pretty much all year, some years where there were sporadic periods with discounts, and some years with hardly any discounts at all. It just depends on how many rooms they need to fill. I'm hoping for a January discount as well, but if it doesn't come, I'll stick with my AAA discount and hope for the best next time.

 

[Anal Annie]

Just curious . . .were you led to believe that discounts were a year round perk of the AP by Disney, or by reading elsewhere (such as the DIS)? I know that Disney gives you a little benefit brochure/pass sleeve when you buy the pass, but it does state that the benefits are only good for a specific period of time, and the room discounts are offered at various times (and to refer to their website for specific details). I just wondered whether you were misled by Disney, or by someone else.

All the perks, including room and dining discounts, merchandise discounts, tour and recreation discounts, are subject to change at any time. There have been some years where there were room discounts pretty much all year, some years where there were sporadic periods with discounts, and some years with hardly any discounts at all. It just depends on how many rooms they need to fill. I'm hoping for a January discount as well, but if it doesn't come, I'll stick with my AAA discount and hope for the best next time.

I don't think we were "misled" I think we have high hopes. And for one place, the links on the top of the DISboards provide AP room discount info:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-ap.htm

http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-ap.htm#bestrate

I think if you re-read my post, I said we were hoping for a room discount as it is "touted as a perK" so we were hoping it will turn out to be an additional benefit of our AP purchase. We know the discounts are subject to change / availability - and we have 2 future trips planned and ressies made & we will be going, regardless of AP discounts (offered or not) we've booked flights and are going - but we may have to switch to a diff. resort if need be to take advantage of a discount. We're just still hoping after reading so much about them that there WILL BE ONE for one of the two future trips that we have planned that we'll be able to use it (esp. for one of the resorts we've already picked) since they're talked about so prominently on Codes & Rates boards on the DIS... I really want to stay at AKL next July & I just don't think they'll be offered there very often now that they're converting the top 2 floors to DVC units. They just won't have as much open. So our best shot is for them to offer a discount when we go in January. Obviously, there's no guarantee by Disney, the AP discounts are just made to sound like they're a pretty regular offering, but it's just that they vary a lot in what's offered. I get that part.

BTW - This is basically all the info. that's provided on the Disney website:

Passholder Benefits and Special Offers
Passholders receive special offers and discounts throughout the Walt Disney World® Resort. These include periodic Walt Disney World® Resort room discounts, merchandise discounts at select Downtown Disney locations, food and beverage discounts at select locations and so much more!