Ok, this will be lengthy, but hopefully helpful, as I will give you the rundown on our Poly trip we booked for this past August/September 2017 (8/25 - 9/1). We originally booked in Jan/Feb., just to hold the room, with the plan of trying to get
Free Dining when it was released. As Free Dining rumored release approached, we also created a backup reservation with a Unique Offer Code we received, that I believe was about 15%. When Free Dining was released at the end of April, we were up at 4:00 am, checking it constantly until it came out around 6:00. There was NO availability in standard rooms (and I don't think any free dining availability there at all for what we could find).
So we went to Plan B. We started trying to figure out other options. Of course, most day selections we made did not have any availability with any discounts for a standard room, and even limited availability with standard period. In fact, the only discounted reservation we could make was using the offer code and booking a Poly Villa. This was why we ended up switching to a Friday - Friday date selection from our original Saturday arrival.
Now here's where it gets a little crazy - we have a family member with an annual pass, so she let us get on and search the passholder discounts. We were able to find a standard room with a passholder discount, for the dates above. However, since I did not yet have an annual pass, we were not able to book it online, or so it seemed. After spending hours on the phone with Disney booking, we finally got someone who told us the computers were down for the night, and would have to call back the next day (this was a supervisor - Guest Services I believe, since regular booking was not seeing the availability that we were seeing online). Since we were connected on Friends and Family, we had my cousin book the room that night but by selecting me as the primary room holder and not putting herself on there at all. When I spoke with the Cast Member the next day, she saw the reservation was there and looked like it was made for me. However, to play it safe, I had her book a new reservation with the passholder discount (which they can do, even if you do not have the annual pass yet - more on that later), and cancelled the other reservations.
I think the passholder discount ended up saving us about 25-30% on the room. Now for the logistics of the passholder discount - a CM on the phone can book a room with a passholder discount. You then are supposed to show the annual pass when you check in in order to keep the discount. So we booked first, then I purchased the annual pass (just for me, wife and kids had regular tickets). We got to the hotel and I asked if we could check in and then I could walk over to TTC to actually pick up my annual pass - they had no problem with that. In fact, when I asked if they needed to see it, they said they did not even need to see it after I got it.
It ended up working pretty well for us. The annual pass was an additional $330 over what a 9-day pass would have been for me. We save $180 on Memory Maker since Photo Pass photos are included with AP. Also, at the time we went there were numerous restaurants offering 20% AP discounts (including at the time, Captain Cook's). We even took advantage of the 30% discount that was being offered at Citricos. The dining discount has since gone back down to 10%. There was also, and still is, the 20% discount on merchandise at the Parks/Hotels and through the ShopParks app.
So with the food discounts and Photo Pass, we more than saved the difference in price, then were able to get the best room discount. Considering they're 3 weeks later than last year on releasing the AP discount for rooms in April/May, who knows when they'll release the AP discount for the fall.
Just keep in mind that the Annual Pass is a novel way to get a room (and other) discounts that's not often thought of/utilized.
Good luck.
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