Modifying trip to save $$$

[hogie1]

Last Nov we booked our WDW trip thru AAA. We have an 8day/7nite Dreammaker Silver Package at the Swan. Does anyone know if AAA will allow us to modify out trip into the 5+2 Dreamaker (Silver) Plan they are currently offering?? Trip wouldn't change but we would end up saving $$ which we would end up as our spending $$ anyway. I called WDW Travel directly but they only told me the I'd have to contact my AAA travel agent to make any changes. She couldn't tell me if I would save some $$. I'm calling on Mon, but would like to know if anybody else out there has done this??? Thanks in advance.............

 

[Jasminesmommy]

Your travel Agent should be checking ways to save you money. Soundsl ike they are not doing there job. People do this all the time. I say go for it. My Travel agent never told me about it last year so I have a new one this year.

 

[Southern4sure]

We also booked through AAA. I thought I would save money with this deal and was excited........but with the silver package you have to pay for each person on the silver package for 7 days, instead of 5. We would have saved less than $50. 1 reason is because with the 5+2 deal, nothing is discounted....just 2 free nights and park passes (which is a savings to some degree) but for us, it wasnt enough savings to get all excited and change our original plans. I would be curious to know if this would be a better deal for you.

Southern4sure

 

[Miniefan]

I am a AAA member and I called yesterday and got some rates from them on the 5 plus 2 deal , and I have to tell you that I was not impressed. The quote they gave me was more expensive than the quote I recieved online at Disneyworld.com! AAA discounts do not apply to the 5 plus 2 deal, it is one or the other, having said that, your AAA agent is supposed to periodically check and see if any better rates or specials are available until the time of your trip. But, I also checked about the 5 plus 2 deal with a Cm from CR, and it was a good deal, these are the rates they gave me on Friday for 10/16-10/23, 2 adults, 2 children 4,7. POR, 5+2 deal $1,923.50 +silver add-on $3,449.36. POP 5+2 deal $1,680.04 +silver add-on $3,122.32. AKL 5+2 deal, $2,453.12, didn't check silver on this one. FTwcabin 5+2 deal $2,620.28, silver add-on $4,062.56. I do believe that the silver add-on is great but if your looking for a deal, like the 5+2, I believe that the two may not work, I have seen somewhere that the silver add - on is $68 per adult per night, and $35 per child per night so maybe you can figure this out on your own. Call AAA and check.
HTH
Kim

 

[hogie1]

Yeah, I'm interested to see what they'll tell me. I figured that the Silver add ons would stay the same, but I'll take the savings on the passes & the hotel for the 2 days. Even if it is short $$, I'll find a better use for it. I did do a search on WDW travel site for the package we've got but with the 5+2 deal, but it only came up with the Animal kindom Lodge Silver Pkg for about $3200. We're already @ $3028 at the Swan and it's cheaper & a heck of a lot better location wise.

I did find something else. The wife & I went to AAA to refinance our auto loans (3.49% for 60 months, no lie!). She picked up a AAA WDW brochure and it has a little blurb "with selected AAA Vacation packages or 7 or more nights @ the Swan/Dolphin Hotels-you get 200 Disney Dollars." That was the 1st I'd heard of it so I'm gonna be calling about that too!!!

(side note-AAA was wicked busy and our travel agent wasn't in anyway, so I figured I'll call Mon morning).

 

[bballmom56]

I'm not sure if Swan/Dolphin participate in some of the Disney promotions. I tried the 7/4 and they were not offering it. There were also a couple of other Disney promotions at the same time and they didn't have them either. But at the teacher rate, we did ok.

I went to AAA when I first began to plan our trip. Let's just say I was UNDERwhelmed! She didn't offer me any advice, tips, hints. She asked me where we wanted to stay, I said I was considering CSR. All she did was give me a price quote (written on a very small piece of scrap paper). She just called someone else to get her price quote and I figured, heck, I can do that! Then I found the DIS and the rest is history

 

[ceecee]

The first year we went and decided to stay on site we checked with AAA (this was many years ago) it was so expensive we decided to stay off site, then I decided to check into making my own reservations...we did basically the same as the package she quoted us and saved $1000.00 on the quote she gave us.

 

[hogie1]

I've done well w/ AAA. We don't do the airfare with them or the transfers, but the vacation package is quite good. So after booking our own airfare thru Jet Blue ($94 each way X2 Bos-Orl) and having transportation for 6 adults thru Tiffaany Towncar, we saved a lot of $$$. Our AAA package alone was $700 cheaper than any other for the same thing. So if your educated in the ways of WDW (thanks to great sites like DIS) you can make your bucks do the most for you with their discounts.

 

[mad4themouse]

Let us know how it works out, hogie1. When are you going? Have you paid the balance off yet? If the AAA agent can't change the ressie, you may be able to cancel it (assuming there's no penalty) and rebook using the "7 for 5" deal.

 

[Focusdude]

My last trip (in March 2005) was booked through AAA. Although I really liked my AAA representative, I was crazy to try to make changes! Basically, I would call him, he would put me on hold and call Disney. I would sit on hold while he tried to get someone on the phone at Disney (sometimes it took forever!), and then would come back on the line with me to ask questions, put me back on hold to relay the answers to Disney!

I am booking myself next time! But if you originally booked with AAA, you have to make all your changes through AAA!

Have a good trip!

 

[hogie1]

Well, I found out that we can't modify our trip to the 7 for 5 plan. Our travel agent checked and the Swan & Dolphin resorts are not eligible for that package. Kinda weird that we can get the Silver Dreammaker though? Anyways, we had only put down $200 to book the vacation and the balance is due next week. We're getting a great price already, so it wouldn't be worth it to lose that $$ only to pay more. The travel agent also looked into the @00 Disney dollars, but it's only if you get the basic dreammaker thru AAA at the Swan or Dolphin. He thought that was odd because we're buying more of a trip w/ the silver dreammaker, so he put a call into a WDW supv to see what he could get for us. We'll see what happens. Anyways, we've got 65 days to go!!!