It's making me crazy!

[tyniknate]

OK - how much madness do you put into figuring the best deal? There are sooooo many variables and I want to get the best deal, but at what mental cost? This date compared to that date, this hotel or that one? Which public offer to use or waiting for pin codes. Free dining versus hotel percentage off?

How do you all do it? Any secrets to share? I'm making myself crazy!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

For me it's not too bad.

I don't do dining plans - free or not. They don't fit the way we eat.

I've been several different times of year. When I'm going with the family, the only choice I have is June because my husband won't go back during major holidays and we can no longer pull the kids out during the school year. July has all the tour groups and I dealt with those at US/Seaworld one year and don't want to go thru that again if I can avoid it.

On my solo trips, I've done early December and in late spring. Liked them both so as far as times, I just decide what I feel like and see if there's a discount. No discount, I pick a different time.

I prefer room only over packages. So I look for room only discounts most times and order my tickets from undercovertourist.com through the mousesavers.com link.

I don't like the value resorts. So I decide based on the amount of money I estimate that I will have for the trip so that helps me choose moderate or deluxe.

That's how I start my planning. I know for my next solo trip I really want it to be in October but the dates I can go in October don't have discounts. I went ahead and booked a room only for September so I can still do MNSSHP. Maybe I'll move it later if I can get an October discount.

I wanted to add that now that I have my dates, I booked using the discount that is out there right now. As others show up, I'll do the numbers and decide if I want to change to another room only discount.

And that's how I decide. Good Luck!

 

[bcbmommy]

OK - how much madness do you put into figuring the best deal? There are sooooo many variables and I want to get the best deal, but at what mental cost? This date compared to that date, this hotel or that one? Which public offer to use or waiting for pin codes. Free dining versus hotel percentage off?

How do you all do it? Any secrets to share? I'm making myself crazy!

This is exactly how I'm feeling with booking our flight. My head literally hurts right now from spending all day looking at different airlines, scenarios, etc.

 

[LaurieN]

For our family it's pretty easy as to when we will go. We won't go when it's too hot because my kids don't deal with the heat very well, so that rules out a HUGH chunk of time. Then we factor in school (when will they miss the least amount of work) and finally our busy times at work. That doesn't leave us too much wiggle room. We have decided on Thanksgiving thru the following Saturday (went in '09 and LOVED IT).
As for discounts: going on Thanksgiving there are really no discounts although in '09 we did get Free Dinning with our Disney Visa card. IF there were a discount I would prefer a room only over free dinning (free dinning really doesn't fit our eating habbits very well).
The resort was our only planning problem. While we wanted to stay at the Beach Club, I had a hard time spending all that "extra" money for the deluxe as opposed to a moderate. WELL, after debating back and forth over CSR and BC I decided to save the money and stay at CSR. Needless to say this time around we will be staying at the Beach Club because while CSR was great it wasn't what we REALLY wanted.
Happy Planning, just remember as crazy as it seems it's all part of the fun
Laurie

 

[trsamilliken]

OK - how much madness do you put into figuring the best deal? There are sooooo many variables and I want to get the best deal, but at what mental cost? This date compared to that date, this hotel or that one? Which public offer to use or waiting for pin codes. Free dining versus hotel percentage off?

How do you all do it? Any secrets to share? I'm making myself crazy!

I agree! I had made the plans... which were OKAYED by the hubby, then he kinda freaked at me, over the cost of it all!
I am now feeling like maybe I could've done better somehow, but I have looked at the discounts and like you said about everything else involved.

I have come to realize I am not gonna stress about it. If he finds something else than he can do it!! I am happy looking at all the wonderful things that are going to come with MY vacation

 

[vicki_c]

My secret. I bought DVC so I really don't have to pay attention to any special Disney offers (not that I ever did much anyway - we used the 4/3 one time and that's about it).

 

[Amy&Dan]

I start out booking the first deal that comes out. Generally that is some sort of room only. Then if a package deal like fd or 4/3 comes out, I switch. But I always book the first deal that comes along. If I don't and nothing else comes out, I'll be a basket case!


Another thing I now do is book my airfare on Southwest. They don't charge change fees so that way if an awesome deal comes out for different dates, and if the airfare isn't too much higher than my orig. fare, I can change.

Right now I am in agony hoping for Free Dining for our June dates. We miss the offer that had to be booked by Decmeber by just a few days. But I could not tweak dates in this instance, my son has finals and those cannot be messed with!

But by booking Southwest I can help keep some of my options open. I don't have many, my kids are past the age when we can pull them for more than a day or two.

I really envy people that live close enough to drive, it leaves more in the way of flexibility and saves money.

I also am always willing to change resorts. No resort is set in stone until we get there! I lost CSR when free dining came out last year so switched to CBR then had to switch to ASMU when we had a flood that cost a lot of expense.

I spend a lot of time running scenarios, praying for a pin (never happens) and checking disboards. I swear, its like a full time job/obession.

 

[FosterA]

OP, I can totally understand the head-spinning overwhelmed, where do you start thing! Fortunately I only had to go through it for a week or two. What happened is that I am planning our first ever trip and husband was not on board and really isn't interested in Disney so I just sort of figured I'd have to plan it and save the money and "surprise him". He would go of course but I figured he wouldn't have a scrap of input so I started going about all the crazy planning. And trust me...I was utterly mind boggled with all the "apples to oranges" comparing and deals and dates and resorts etc etc
WELL....one night hubby was drinking a few too many margaritas and was in a good mood. I was watching the Disney free DVD and he peeked over my shoulder when they were showing the Poly resort. He said "ok, if we go, we need to stay there or I don't want to go". That was that. I didn't go into explanations on how that is a "delux" yada yada When he makes up his mind, he makes up his mind. So....biggest decision was just made! Then....the date. Well since he still isn't interested, I figured I don't want to go when it's hot and really tick him off and make him miserable so that crosses off about 7 months! Then, toss out the spring break crowded times and the iffy "too cold" Jan and Feb times (would like to use the pool) and it really narrowed down! lol
So..by process of elimination, I narrowed things way way down (mostly dates since Hub decided resort problem). I ONLY will go to WDW during a couple months NO MATTER what deal is thrown our way. I refuse to go in August and roast just to get free food or whatever. So...my planning hasn't been too hard once we firmly decided where to stay no matter what and basically chose a range of 2 months to go in. Right now, we are pretty nailed down to Nov 16-22 but I have wiggle room in Nov/Dec to play with any deals that come out but that's it. Once you firmly make up your mind on no more than 5 weeks or so that you want to go and firmly make up your mind on which resort, it's very EZ. We've never been before and I think we'll only go once in our lifetime so I wanted to do what I wanted to do and make it all count which actually made it easier to decide. I suppose if we went often, it would almost be harder because I'd be tempted to stay at a "not my favorite" resort but "they have a special going on" or something like that with the comfort of knowing that "next" time you could always stay at another place. This is probably it for us so I don't want to say "we should have/could have/next time we need to go here or stay there.....etc etc"

 

[tyniknate]

We have picked the dates we will be going. I've decided to pull my kids from school for 4 days so we can go right after Thanksgiving. I know that upsets some, but they are good students and I believe this will not hurt their education. We will take work along with us.

I didn't realize you could make changes with Southwest and not have there be fees associated. PP - I would really appreciate any more info if you have it. We are unsure if we will leave on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Was really dependent upon if/what specials there are and when they start. And it also depends on the airfare, which days are cheapest to fly.

I received a pin for 35% off room rate and I've applied it to our reservation - but we are really hoping for free dining since there are 8 of us, and 7 are considered adults. Would really help out with the food bill if we were to get free dining. Will just cross my fingers now and hope that it is released for our dates. I guess 35% off is better than nothing, though.

 

[FosterA]

Op, we're still not sure of EXACTLY what day we will fly out. Right now I just have a pkg reservation at Poly for NOv 16-22 which is a Wed-Tues. We'll probably do Jetblue because they have a non-stop out of here. Maybe SW, but jetblue seems to be cheaper. I'm holding off on the plane tix for awhile because for one, they haven't released out that far yet and for two, I'm holding out for a PIN or discount around my time in which I may shift our dates by 1-4 days. We're also pulling kids from school and as it stands, they will just miss 3 days, going to school on a mon and a tues and then missing the 3 remaining days of the week. If a great pin comes, we may add in another day at the beginning and then they'd miss 4 days. If no pin, I'd rather them miss only 3. sheesh. I still have some slight shifting that will happen but it's a big relief to have resort chosen and basic week chosen. Now, it's just shifting by a day or two hinging on specials and plane ticket prices once they are released. I do know for sure that if we alter the dates it will be at the beginning of trip because I don't want to be there past the 22nd of Nov because after that crowds surge in and the per-night resort cost shoots up so any adjusting will be to the beginning of the trip. We also chose this week versus the after-Thansgiving week because I studied our school calendar and they tend to do lots of work and testing at the end of a "6-week section" so we wanted to avoid missing the end of that section and the week before Thanksgiving is only "week 3" in the 6-week section. Plus...the closer to Christmas the more broke and hectic I get. lol

 

[Amy&Dan]

We have picked the dates we will be going. I've decided to pull my kids from school for 4 days so we can go right after Thanksgiving. I know that upsets some, but they are good students and I believe this will not hurt their education. We will take work along with us.

I didn't realize you could make changes with Southwest and not have there be fees associated. PP - I would really appreciate any more info if you have it. We are unsure if we will leave on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Was really dependent upon if/what specials there are and when they start. And it also depends on the airfare, which days are cheapest to fly.

I received a pin for 35% off room rate and I've applied it to our reservation - but we are really hoping for free dining since there are 8 of us, and 7 are considered adults. Would really help out with the food bill if we were to get free dining. Will just cross my fingers now and hope that it is released for our dates. I guess 35% off is better than nothing, though.

Yes, you can change your Southwest Airfare. I do it a lot so I ought to know!

If you look at the Southwest homepage, you'll see that over towards the right under Quick Air Links it says "change flight". Click on that, you'll need your confirmation numbers. Then you will check one or both your flights (sometimes I only end up having to change one lge, sometimes both, it lets you do either). You'll then put in the new dates you want to travel, pick the flight and then at the end it will tell you how much it will cost you to change if the new flight is higher in price or it will give you how much of a credit you now have if the new flight is cheaper. You can then click "I want to make these changes" and go from there.

You can change as many times as you need to (My current WDW flights have been changed 3 times now thanks to my son's summer mission trip date change, my husband's vacation time change and then the fact we decided to add a day to our trip".

You can also cancel your airfare. In that case, the total amount you paid will go into your Southwest account giving you that many travel dollars to book a new flight. Those travel dollars are good for one year from the date you originally booked.

If you booked the full price fare (which I doubt since they are so expensive) you can actually get a full refund I believe.

All other fares, including the "Wanna Get Away" flights (the cheapest ones) can be changed but not refunded.

I hope that helps!

You can also check out the transportation board here on the disboards for lots of good information on Southwest or any other transporation questions you have (Magical Express, getting around WDW, getting to other Orlando parks etc.).

 

[DCbride]

Since we go a few time a year. I book based on room only discount (we have APs) and just keep looking for the best discount.

We usually book FD once a year and use those tickets towards renewing our passes.

We have 3 off sites booked for this year due to the timing of the trips do not go with any discounts. If a discount comes up I will switch to onsite, if not we will stay off as I would rather go a few times than only 1x at a rack rate.