New AP holder with questions about booking resort stays

[dolewhipdreams]

Hey there. I recently purchased my first APs and am going to try to get a discount for an upcoming stay in late Jan/early Feb. I know the discounts haven't been released yet but I'm trying to get prepared.

In the past, are these AP room discounts something you need to jump on immediately to be able to book? We're looking at staying value, probably POP, during low season. I'm looking now at current offers on the website for stays during lower/regular season in November/December and there's nothing available outside of Deluxe resorts or campsites. Am I missing something or are all the other rooms really gone?

Is it normal to have to split your stay if you're trying to book several nights? Should I be looking to stay one night here, two nights there, etc in order to get good deals?

Any and all advice on this topic would be appreciated very much by this AP newbie.

 

[allsaintsatx]

Congrats on your new AP! We are also new AP holders. We had a trip planned for late Oct staying at the Poly rack rate, and after we got our APs they announced an AP discount on rooms. We were able to get a room at GF for less than our rr at Poly. I watched it obsessively to see how long those rooms were available at that price and it stayed open for about a week. Now it's gone. But, in doing that I noticed other rooms disappearing as well, CL went pretty fast as did most of the deluxe resorts. All that's left now for our time frame is value, some mods and 2 bedroom suites at deluxes!
We let the offer dictate where we stayed and now it'll be a new adventure for us! If you keep an open mind about where you will stay, and not be too strict with exact building in exact resort with exact view, your chances of finding a great deal will be much better

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

They don't go super fast (not like DragonCon hotels selling out in 10 minutes)....this year there weren't many to begin with. Way too many people booking at rack rate and hoping to apply a discount when it comes out! I have the page bookmarked and check it frequently. You can also check MouseSavers to see when the discounts historically come out, so you can keep an eye out when it really matters. It also depends on when you're going. This year, October-December is incredibly popular and sounds like it's going to be super busy. There haven't been many/any discounts for then. On the other hand, August had some great rates available! So my biggest pieces of advice are to be flexible and keep checking, because people cancel and change their dates constantly! Same goes for FP+ and ADRs, too.

As for your question about splitting your stay, in the past I've dealt with the opposite. Discounts wouldn't show up for a 3 night stay but they would with a 6 night stay. I just play around with my dates when booking to see which dates are best. If anything I would look into splitting your stay if you're going during a holiday. So if your trip starts on Thanksgiving, you may find a better deal for the week after and it might be worth it to make two reservations. That especially goes if they have blackout dates for the discounts. Hope that makes sense!

 

[loves to dive]

Welcome to the world of APs. One other thing to keep in mind, sometimes the general discount is better than the AP discount. You just have to look around.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Thanks everyone! That helps to know.

@allsaintsatx I will definitely be bookmarking that page. We definitely are flexible but really need a value for this trip.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Just a warning.... APs are addicting. I'm in my second year with an AP... you can see in my sig how my trip count took off when I got one! The AP has done nothing but cost me more money!

 

[IceQueen182]

We are new AP holders too and I'm waiting for a discount for our late-January trip this year. We also have an upcoming trip in late November at the Poly, and I tried to apply the holiday AP discount within a couple hours of when the discount was released - there was nothing available. The only AP discounted room that came up for our stay during my frequent searching was a 2 bedroom suite at the CR for over $1k a night... I don't think it was because the rooms went quickly, but that there were very limited discounted rooms available. Seems like the resorts are heavily booked for that time of year, so I'm with you in hoping that more discounts are available for APs in January!!

 

[Miffy]

We had a bounceback booked for this December and waited to book our planes until the AP rates came out, thinking we might change our dates. We looked the morning the AP rates came out for December and there was hardly anything available in any room category, and what was available was not well priced, so we kept the bounceback and our original dates.

But I got a great AP rate for a trip we took this past March--a better rate than any other discount. So as other posters have said, keep an eye out and be aware of all the different discounts available for your stay. As long as your trip doesn't coincide with Presidents Day or MLK, you should be in Value season (unless it's changed for 2018--I didn't check) and the discounts are usually pretty good. We used to go end of January/beginning of February, but a couple of years ago I got frustrated with all the attractions closed for refurb and we tried out early March instead. It's a little pricier, but we got to ride Kali!

 

[NikkiDP]

Hi everyone! New AP holder here too! What is this page everyone has bookmarked?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Hi everyone! New AP holder here too! What is this page everyone has bookmarked?

I think maybe they are referring to this: https://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

It's helpful to see historical AP release dates/patterns.

 

[NikkiDP]

I think maybe they are referring to this: https://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

It's helpful to see historical AP release dates/patterns.

Thanks!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I was referring to the Disney World special offers page here, but the mousesavers one is a good one to have, too!

 

[NikkiDP]

I was referring to the Disney World special offers page here, but the mousesavers one is a good one to have, too!

They are both good to have, thanks!