How Early to get Trip Stuff Together?

[purplefern]

So, I'm planning a trip to DL for May 2020, and I'm wondering how in advance I should/can start buying tickets and reserving hotels.
Right now I'm thinking like 6 months? Am I worrying too much or not enough here?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

For hotels, I would start booking as soon as your dates open. Once SWGE opens, hotels during peak times will be hard to find at good rates. If you find hotels with no penalty cancellation policies, you can book and keep watching to see if the rates go down before your trip. If the rates go down, call the hotel to rebook at the lower rate. For tickets, keep watching the expiration date on the tickets being sold. Right now, it looks like tickets are good through early 2020. When the expiration date goes past your trip dates, then I would go ahead and purchase at the best deal you can find (after confirming that the expiration date does cover your trip dates). We just had a price increase which caught most/all of us off guard. (There was no warning at all this time.) If you can beat the next price increase, it would be to your advantage.

This thread has good hotel information: www.disboards.com/threads/choosing-the-right-hotel-for-you.3656512/.

 

[sherilaine]

I agree to book hotel as soon as your dates are available for booking and I'd book directly with the hotel. Unless you are staying on site there is no advantage to packages booked with Disney. Most hotels allow you to book a rate that is easily cancelled up to 24 or 48 hours so just watch for any "pay in full" rates. For tickets, I'd wait a bit longer unless you know for sure you'd be going within the ticket window even if your May date is cancelled so you can use them up eventually - and then I'd buy ahead of any increase there may be - which is likely to happen in the next 17 or 18 months.

 

[dina444444]

I second booking as soon as you can. I booked a room at a hotel on katella for D23 this summer for under $500 for 3 nights nearly a year out. If I went to book today with what’s available I would be paying about 125% more.

 

[tink89]

I book hotels as soon as I know i am going. And I book more than one that has no cancellation fees. If staying on site i also book as soon as i know I can always make changes up to 30 days before the trip. I also book rental cars asap on costco travel for the dates i t might be going. DH and I are going for MLK weekend i got a car about 3 months ago for $50 for the 3 days the same car type is now over $100. We are going again in Oct and since prices already went up I will just wait until April and see if any discounts come up.

 

[dina444444]

I book hotels as soon as I know i am going. And I book more than one that has no cancellation fees. If staying on site i also book as soon as i know I can always make changes up to 30 days before the trip. I also book rental cars asap on costco travel for the dates i t might be going. DH and I are going for MLK weekend i got a car about 3 months ago for $50 for the 3 days the same car type is now over $100. We are going again in Oct and since prices already went up I will just wait until April and see if any discounts come up.

For onsite if it's room only you have up till 5 days before check in to cancel.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I second booking as soon as you can. I booked a room at a hotel on katella for D23 this summer for under $500 for 3 nights nearly a year out. If I went to book today with what’s available I would be paying about 125% more.

Totally agree about hotels for D23! We booked almost a year out and rates at our hotel have skyrocketed in the meantime. Absolutely crazy!

 

[MrsD.Duck]

We are going this July and I booked the hotel in September along with tickets by doing so I locked in the prices before the increase. Now I am checking plane tickets and trying to get a meal plan figured out for us so I will be ready when the reservation times open up.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Are you planning to stay onsite or offsite? If you're booking through Disney, especially for one of the onsite properties, I prefer to get mine booked as early as possible. Rates for the upcoming year usually come out in July I believe. You can't book a DLR package through Disney with flights until maximum 330 days out, so if you're flying from somewhere, keep that in mind, too.

If you're staying offsite, I usually book my trip 3-6 months out, booking directly through whichever hotel I want to stay at. If it's peak season, definitely 6 months. Typically you get better rates the earlier you book, or if you book during a promotion. I would look for a flight as soon as the dates open up through whichever airline you use so that you can get better seats and a decent price.