how far in advance do u book?

[princessap]

How far in advance does everyone book their resorts?
I am pretty sure of what i want and want to make sure we get a mK view. Wondering what everyone here does?
If I book and then change and decide to rent points if available can i cancel my reservation with disney with no penalty?!
thanks! this is probably our one and only time staying at disney (dh is against it based on price, so will only get this chance once. He doesnt get why I want to stay there when we can stay at bonnet
creek for 700 for the week!) so i want to go all out!

 

[ancestry]

My booking length varies. Sometimes we do last minutes trips.

For trips way in advance that I know we will be taking, I book as soon as there is a discount available at a price I'm willing to pay. I refuse to pay rack rate so I usually can't book a year out as there usually aren't any discount available that far in advance.

We will be going multiple times in 2012 with various combinations of family members. I really wish I could book everything now but I have to play the discount waiting game instead.

 

[MickeyNicki]

As soon as I know our dates I book, sometimes that is almost a year from when we are going and sometimes it has been a day or so before we go, once it was on the car ride up there

 

[princessap]

ancestry....quick question....why dont u book in advance and then if a
deal comes out apply the deal to your reservation? I am getting the impression that this is hard to do.
I am not sure how often discounts happen for CR

 

[ancestry]

ancestry....quick question....why dont u book in advance and then if a
deal comes out apply the deal to your reservation? I am getting the impression that this is hard to do.
I am not sure how often discounts happen for CR

Because the deal can't always been applied. Often it involves canceling a reservation and then rebooking with the discount. I think it is a hassle to do that.

We usually will not go without a discount so it doesn't make sense to me to book without one. Plus Disney offers discounts when they believe they need to fill rooms. If a lot of people book at rack rate then Disney doesn't see that it needs to offer great discounts to fill the resorts.

 

[3pletprincesses]

Our trip last October was booked in September, our trip for this past May was booked last November and next month's trip was booked last June LOL It totaly varies from tiem to time. this August was suppose to be the only trip for the year but since free dining was out last summer, dh had booked F&W festivale but then he was not able to go due to work so I went with the girls, When the kids play free came out dh booked again as a "surprise " for our wedding anniversary and August was our annual trip LOL

 

[mkoerner]

For us it depends on how many of the kids are going with us. When it's just my husband and me, we book a few months out. If it's 5 or 6 of us and everyone has to schedule vacation time, then it's a whole year. Owning DVC allows more freedom also, as we have AP and use points instead of having to pay up front when we reserve.

 

[KeroKero]

Since we don't have kids yet, we usually do all WDW trips last minute. However we're thinking to do your next booking at least 300-200 days in advance to allow us more financial ability to stay at a Deluxe Resort which is something we've never done.

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

I book as far out as I possibly can so the first half our June 2012 trip was booked July 1st. Still waiting for BLT to become available to the GP for our dates. If I am correct, I should be about 2 weeks away from booking.

I would have booked sooner but I wasn't aware that Disney changed the booking time. It's now 499 days out. I am a planner and we already have our dates in play for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

 

[Missytara]

I book the week I return from my annual trip the week after Thanksgiving.

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

Since we don't have kids yet, we usually do all WDW trips last minute. However we're thinking to do your next booking at least 300-200 days in advance to allow us more financial ability to stay at a Deluxe Resort which is something we've never done.

This is the main reason why we book as far out as possible. Gives me plenty of time to pay off our vacation without feeling the stress.

 

[patches07]

I book as far out as I possibly can, I just booked 3 weeks a go for our upcoming trip in November 2012.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

We also make our reservations as far out as possible. For example next month for our stay at the Boardwalk Inn we reserved that back on Janurary 1, 2011 because I found out WDW came out with a brand new 35% room only discount. So we wanted to make sure we got their Deluxe Club Level Room since those sell out very fast and because they have a limited number of those rooms.

Now if we are at WDW and there happens to be a Bounceback rate in our room and the dates available for that rate will work for us then we have no problems making our next reservation before getting home from our current WDW vacation. Although with the Bounceback rate you need to reserve it before leaving WDW since that's the only catch with that type of deal.

 

[mirage0306]

Our last trip we booked about 7 months out, I think. We did it because we could use free dining for our dates.

For this upcoming trip, I booked it a little over a year out. We had our dates and booking that far out offered us a good amount of flexibility.

 

[trekker93]

I started doing this a few years ago because of the bounce back offers and then realized it gives us a year to pay off the trip and budget for any extras we may do! It is a great way of doing it. So basically we book 1 year out!

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

I started doing this a few years ago because of the bounce back offers and then realized it gives us a year to pay off the trip and budget for any extras we may do! It is a great way of doing it. So basically we book 1 year out!

Gotta love those bounce back offers. We were able to use them when our DS15 was younger but taking him out of school now is out of the question. In a couple more years we will be able to take advantage of the BBO once again.

 

[princessap]

How do you know when BLT is released to the general public? it is one of the properties i would like to book at!

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

How do you know when BLT is released to the general public? it is one of the properties i would like to book at!

Back on 2009 I booked BLT on 8/2/09 when the rates were released. That was 10 months out for our June 2010 trip. Spoke to a CM about a week ago and she said that it should be 10 months out. I go on the Disney web site every day and see if I can book my dates which are 6/28 - 7/3. They are only up to June 17th. So it's getting closer. Happy Planning..

 

[princessap]

Back on 2009 I booked BLT on 8/2/09 when the rates were released. That was 10 months out for our June 2010 trip. Spoke to a CM about a week ago and she said that it should be 10 months out. I go on the Disney web site every day and see if I can book my dates which are 6/28 - 7/3. They are only up to June 17th. So it's getting closer. Happy Planning..

Did you love it there? It is my dream place to stay at disney! Is there lots for kids to do there vs CR?

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

Did you love it there? It is my dream place to stay at disney! Is there lots for kids to do there vs CR?

I was reluctant at first as I was not a CR/BLT fan. The reason why we stayed there was for our DS15 as this was an 8th grade graduation present for him and he was able to bring his BF15. CR is our DS's dream resort. We were first booked at CR TPV CL room but then started looking into BLT. With the space the cost wasn't much more than the standard room at CR. So we switched. When we got there, I still wasn't feeling it but then we we entered the villa, boy was I in love. It was fabulous. We had a 1 bdrm villa LV and there was so much space it was fantastic. There was even 2 full baths. I know this may sound silly to some but being able to go home with clean clothes and not having to do wash when I got home was priceless. Sorry but I really didn't pay too much attention to the activities for younger children.

We are doing a split stay next June. First is the GF (3 nights) and then we are headed to BLT (5 nights) and we can't wait.