How early is too early to book?

[michelle1177]

I'm always reading along and have gotten some great tips from you guys for our past Disney trips and really appreciate it.

I am researching our trip for the end of April and I have found a deal that includes air from SEA to SNA, 6 nights at the Hojo and 5 day park hoppers for $2100. My husband is just telling me to book it but there is a part of me that wants to wait and see if I can do better. Do you guys think that I would be booking too early if I were to book now?

Thank you all so much for your help! I really appreciate it!!!

 

[runmommyrun]

We are WDW vets who are venturing to DL for first time in June. We normally must book very early for everything at WDW. For what it is worth, this month we booked our hotel and airfare for DL for JUNE. So if you are early, we are REALLY early. But I must say, it doesn't seem like you need to book DL in as far advanced as WDW (exceptions do apply, of course). I think if you find a decent deal, book it, especially if you can cancel/modify without penalty.

 

[8timesblessed]

Price it out seperately and if it's good I would book it. Anything around $160 for airfare is a good deal. Try Jet Blue into Long Beach and Alaska. Both will give you back your money in your wallet to use on a future trip if you see the price goes down. See what it is to book HOJO each night and add it up and same with park tickets. We booked in May for our December trip.

 

[Cinderpamela]

That sounds like a good deal to me... I am always happy with airfare under $250 and hoppers around $250 each. I would book it.

 

[michelle1177]

We are WDW vets who are venturing to DL for first time in June. We normally must book very early for everything at WDW. For what it is worth, this month we booked our hotel and airfare for DL for JUNE. So if you are early, we are REALLY early. But I must say, it doesn't seem like you need to book DL in as far advanced as WDW (exceptions do apply, of course). I think if you find a decent deal, book it, especially if you can cancel/modify without penalty.

Thanks for the advice!

Price it out seperately and if it's good I would book it. Anything around $160 for airfare is a good deal. Try Jet Blue into Long Beach and Alaska. Both will give you back your money in your wallet to use on a future trip if you see the price goes down. See what it is to book HOJO each night and add it up and same with park tickets. We booked in May for our December trip.

Thanks for the advice! When I price it out separately It comes to $2400. The airfare is actually a bit cheaper on Jet Blue to LGB which is $600, Hojo is $975 with 15% off code and Disney pass is $850. What is benefiting me for booking it through Alaska vacations is that they discount the Disney passes and they end up being $733 and the hotel is a bit cheaper (Hojo is not on the Jet Blue vacations like they were the last time we went so I can't benefit from a vacation deal). I do know that I'll have to pay for bags on on Alaska though, so that would make the price a bit closer.

I'm almost wondering if I should just do it and stop stressing!

 

[michelle1177]

That sounds like a good deal to me... I am always happy with airfare under $250 and hoppers around $250 each. I would book it.

Thanks for the advice! The airfare is good right now. I'm thinking I need to stop fighting with myself and do it!

 

[Magalex]

We reserved our flights to SNA for July 9th-16th. I am waiting until Jan/Feb to decide on a hotel.

 

[dledger]

I booked a few weeks ago for my trip from June 28-July 5th... flight, hotel, tickets, and car...

 

[danlkrim]

I like to book as early as possible to get the flight times or hotel times I want. Prices are usually better for hotels earlier too. We booked flights using miles in September and hotel in October for our Feb 2013 trip. I have been looking at hotels just to be sure and I find many of the rooms I would choose are now booked for my dates or are priced higher. I still need to book a rental car but feel that I can get a reasonable rate, especially after reading the threads here about it. There are only so many airline seats and hotel rooms. Rates will rise as demand increases. I also make sure I am aware of the cancellation policies just in case.

 

[C&B Young]

Coming from a WDW planning background, we booked a lot earlier than most Disneyland visitors would. We booked our hotel 11 months out, and our flights 8 months out.

With the hotel there was no harm in booking early, you could always cancel without penalty and rebook if something better came up (which we did). For flights we watched prices since booking our hotel in January, and when a great price came in in April we jumped on it. Haven't seen a price even close to it since.

So I would say you don't HAVE to book as early for Disneyland as you would WDW, but it can never hurt. If you think you've got a good price now go for it. The stress of monitoring prices for the next few months likely isn't worth the hundred bucks or so you might potentially save - and the bigger risk is always prices going UP!

 

[AshleeH]

We booked our late-July trip a few weeks ago. We'll be driving to California (2000 miles) and DLR is a surprise for the kids and the only time we have a set day to be at a set location.

In our situation, peace of mind knowing that we had a hotel and tickets, trumped potentially (and possibly not) saving money down the road and maybe not getting the hotel that would be best for us if we waited. We'll be traveling with an infant, so four days in a theme park means we need an easy hotel to walk back to for those breaks.