May I vent about the AP discount?

[Miss Hunnybee]

I knew other Annual Pass Holders would get what I was saying!!!

Hope you end up getting a discounted room, Miss Hunnybee
I'm going in October (GF or another Deluxe) and hoping for a General Public code (APs expired in March). I don't do the Free Dining and I'm not going to pay rack rates. Might get an AP if GP codes don't come out for my dates.
Good luck!

Thanks for the luck!

I just checked with my TA today about this, just in case there is a public offer soon. I asked if we might have to change resorts or something to get a discount and she said:

If a future discount becomes available that will save you money, I will work to have the discount applied to your existing reservation. If such a change were to happen, it would be considered a modification and not a new reservation, so you would not have to search for availability again or place a second deposit.

??

This is EXACTLY what I was told by a Disney CM!!!! This is where my frustration begins!!! So I was responsible, I planned WAAAAAY ahead, booked my room and payed my down payments on a resort I've been wanting to stay in for some time, waited and watched for the AP discount that I was told could be applied and then BOOM! I was told, "NOPE, DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!" Be prepared, they will suggest you move dates, change resorts or anything else to get you that discount...EXCEPT just apply it to the reservations you already have. UGH! Best of luck to you!!!

I feel your pain!! POFQ has become harder and harder to score for a discount. I feel that Disney does not want the AP people. We do not spend as much as first time or infrequent visitors. Most of the discount rooms probably went to free dining. I was ticked because Disney released the AP rates the same day as free dining. It was impossible to get through to get a discount!! I am not able to get my AP discount at POFQ either. I will keep checking back and hoping for the best. If I can't get the discount, I will probably wait until Jan and try again. Good luck!! This will be the last year I mess around with the AP!!

I know!!! As one person suggested, I wasn't fast enough. Hmmm, obviously I wasn't the only one . Best of luck, hoping you get a discount at POFQ for January

I had a similar issue today. I looked online and saw the availability, so I called to have my bounce back changed (I wanted to add dates and change resorts, as well as converting from a BB to AP). The CM said she was sorry, but there wasn't any availability at the resort I wanted. So I said thank you and hung up. Ten minutes later, I had the resort booked online that I wanted at the AP rate. So now I need to call back and cancel the BB reservation. It made me wonder if all the people who had called and been told no availability could have gone online and booked just what they wanted.

Unfortunately, I was working. Couldn't get online from my place of business. Knew the discounts were coming out, so I kept my reservation numbers in my pocket. Please don't tell my District Manager By the time I got home (VERY late), there was close to nothing left for the week I was there. So frustrating. But I will keep trying! So happy it all worked out for you

So I booked my POFQ room back in Feb...rack rate and I was hoping and praying for a code for AP or FL residents

When the FL rates come out next week I am going to check and see what they have but something tells me it will be the same that the AP codes have

Back in the day you could get any room you wanted with an AP or FL code...now it seems they are limiting the resorts and then the number or rooms in that resort...

So to the OP, I feel your frustration!

THANK YOU!!! I knew some would understand!!! So true! I remember getting a Wilderness Lodge room for the second week of December at the end of November in 2008. I got a courtyard room for something like $200.00 a night with the annual passholder discount. Florida resident used to be awesome too! Now, we are at the bottom of the ladder - I blame those free diners (KIDDING!). Sadly, I heard the Florida resident discount will be around 20% off moderates, which still does me no good since there are no discounts for my dates. Best of luck to you

Couldn't agree with you more!


True, but there are more than a fair number of cm's who mislead by saying things like "Book now and when/if the AP rate comes out you'll be guaranteed to get it as all you'll have to do is call and make the switch." I know this is true because I was told this several times when I called in the past. They want you to book so some will tell you anything and if you didn't know...well there you go!

Yep, and I am the fool that fell for this

Here's what is bass ackwards about the AP discount and what in my opinion the OP is trying to say. First the OP acknowledges that it is a benefit and not a guarantee. But here is what I think (and what I think the OP is saying) is screwed up about the current system.

OP commits his time, money and family to a WDW vacation by booking months before an AP comes out. "I am committing doing business with you" is kind of what he is saying. Ok so then an AP discount happens to come out. OP is an APH. Why then does someone who made a committment to do business who is also somewhat committed by being an APH then have to play "Hawk the phone" and hope to get through to get a discount when they made every commitment possible to WDW? It's like Disney saying, "Thanks for agreeing to give us your business well ahead of time and more than likely ahead of many others but sorry we can't reward such loyal customers you'll have to play phone roulette like the rest!"

So I can see his point.

AWESOME! You hit the nail right on the head. Everything except for the "HE" stuff...I'm a chick
But it's all good. Thanks for getting what I was saying!

 

[skier_pete]

Understand your frustration...but look at it from Disney's point of view. I know this is just an example, but:

- POFQ is 95 % booked for your travel dates.
- CBR is 60 % booked for your travel dates.

If your running Disney, which do you do?

A) Add AP discount rates for POFQ, so that already booked rooms can get re-booked at a lower price?
B) Add AP discount rates for CBR, which is underbooked, and has plenty of space.

Now, you could argue that Disney should offer AP holders room discounts earlier...but they DID offer it before they offered any GP discounts, so they are still giving the AP holders a benefit that the GP doesn't get.

I guess what I'm saying is, being mad at Disney because they won't give you a discount at the ONE resort you want doesn't seem fair to expect from Disney. If ALL the moderates were booked, and they were forcing you into a deluxe or value, I would agree, but providing rooms at each level of hotel, but not EVERY hotel, seems more than fair to me.

 

[ElizabethB]

I've held an annual pass for many years. There was a time before the market crash in Sept. 2008 when the annual pass was almost useless for room discounts. Sometimes, no discounts were offered at all. If discounts were offered, they were offered long after public discounts were offered.

I saw a change almost immediately following the market crash in late 2008. Disney started to focus more on AP holders than they did in the past -- probably because they know that AP holders are loyal Disneyistas who will book a hotel room during the depths of a recession when almost no one else will!

Still, it was a surprise for me to see the recent AP discounts come out at the same time as free dining and prior to a public code discount being offered. In fact, we were caught off guard, as all the rumors centered around free dining. I'm no free dining fan either, but do like a room discount. AP discounts were out for a day before I realized it. I called and got the deluxe DVC one bedroom we wanted, but we are having to pay rack rate for the weekends, no doubt because we were late to the party. So, I'm hoping for a public discount before all is said and done.

One of the things that surprised me the most last year was AP holders were offered 42% off deluxe rooms, when the public code was only 40% off. That was a little "bonus" for AP holders, which was unprecedented in my experience.

I think we will see a public code for fall fairly soon. With the S&P downgrade of U.S. debt and the recent wipe out on Wall Street and continuing high unemployment, Disney is going to have to take action to fill rooms. Hence, the free dining offer and the AP discount. Free dining is definitely filling values and moderates that used to be available with AP discounts or public codes. But, with deluxes at 40% off, it makes the deluxes much more attractive.

In any event, annual passholders, in the past, often have had little or no discounts offered. So, the past three years have been a nice change.

And, finally, skier pete has a point -- if the resorts are already pretty well booked, Disney does not have an incentive to offer more discounts.

Or, as an Epcot executive who had had a bit too much to drink at a Food and Wine Festival Dinner once told us, "Why in the world would Disney offer you a discount? You will visit every year regardless."

 

[disneyfan'ole]

Or, as an Epcot executive who had had a bit too much to drink at a Food and Wine Festival Dinner once told us, "Why in the world would Disney offer you a discount? You will visit every year regardless."

As a AP holder, yes we visit every year but I will certainly take my business off site for a hotel if the rate is better.

 

[fla4fun]

Here's what is bass ackwards about the AP discount and what in my opinion the OP is trying to say. First the OP acknowledges that it is a benefit and not a guarantee. But here is what I think (and what I think the OP is saying) is screwed up about the current system.

OP commits his time, money and family to a WDW vacation by booking months before an AP comes out. "I am committing doing business with you" is kind of what he is saying. Ok so then an AP discount happens to come out. OP is an APH. Why then does someone who made a committment to do business who is also somewhat committed by being an APH then have to play "Hawk the phone" and hope to get through to get a discount when they made every commitment possible to WDW? It's like Disney saying, "Thanks for agreeing to give us your business well ahead of time and more than likely ahead of many others but sorry we can't reward such loyal customers you'll have to play phone roulette like the rest!"

So I can see his point.

I can understand where you're coming from, but it's really no different than all the commercials on TV that are for "new accounts only", "new customers only", "new subscribers only", "not valid on prior purchases", etc. I'm not saying it's fair or it's unfair - it just is. Disney isn't the only one, and really, they are allowing you to change your reservation, without penalty, if there is a discounted room you choose to stay in. There have been times I've changed resorts for a better rate, and there have been times I've accepted a lesser discount and remained in a particular resort because the resort choice was more important. But it's always been my choice to make. Sometimes I get to remain at my first choice resort and get the discount, but not always. Discounts are a bit like the clearance rack at your favorite clothing store - they may have your size, and they may have your favorite color, but they may not have your favorite color in your size.

I know that resort choice can be very important to many people. Depending on why I'm staying at WDW, it's important to me. If I'm going for an after hours MK party, then I want easy access to MK, not a bus ride from Pop, All Star, or AKL. If I'm going for F&G or F&W at Epcot, then an Epcot resort is a necessity. If I'm going for a long weekend just to get away from the real world for a few days, then the resort isn't as critical but saving money is. So I book whatever is the cheapest. There's really no right or wrong answer when it comes to your first, second or even third choice of resort. Every trip is different.

We had a lot of these same threads a few years ago (I'm thinking maybe 2007ish) when the late fall discount codes came out. Lots of people had booked WL assuming they could apply a code when it came out. When the codes came out, there were zero discounted rooms offered at WL because the occupancy was too high. So people either had to pay rack, cancel completely, or choose an alternate resort. So it's not like this hasn't happened before. I'm sure it will probably happen again, too. It's a risk to book in advance at rack hoping you can apply a discount, and it's a risk to wait for the discounts to come out hoping your resort will be available. You just have to decide which risk you are comfortable with.