Paying rack rate, ugh

[heimlichfan]

Well, I am officially throwing in the towel for ANY kind of discount for our September trip. I was holding out for an AP discount, but we are now only 28 days from our vacation. This is the first time IN YEARS that I will be going and paying rack rate. We booked for September 27 - October 1 back in April banking on some sort of discount based on historical discounts. Shame on me!

I get why there are not discounts offered during peak times, popular weeks, etc. I get that I will be going the first weekend of Food and Wine Festival. I get that Disney is narrowing their discount windows. I don't get why there is NOTHING for my travel window. There is availability at every single resort for my days as of today.

I guess the perk of this is that crowds might be beyond wonderful!!!! Anyone else arriving in the "no discount for you!!!" window?

 

[Jacie]

Are you at least booking with a Room Only discount for the 29th, 30th, and 31st?

 

[Sheilby]

You picked a time that usually bridges between two different offers. If you had switched it before the end of July you could have gotten free dining which they were offering until September 27 or 29 (I forget which one). As long as your stay started before then you would have qualified. At the beginning of August the deal changed to FD for select days starting after September 29th. There is also a deal on up to 30% off room only rates starting after September 29th.

You could have done 3 things:

1) chosen the FD back in July and not adjusted your days at all
2) moved your trip back a couple of days once August rolled around to take advantage of the FD or the up to 30% off room only rate
3) kept your dates the same and apply the %off just to the days from the 29th and later

 

[heyitsmejosh]

may as well just wait it out a few more days, last year they posted around the 28th id give it a few more days before i gave in

 

[TDDisney]

Well, I am officially throwing in the towel for ANY kind of discount for our September trip. I was holding out for an AP discount, but we are now only 28 days from our vacation. This is the first time IN YEARS that I will be going and paying rack rate. We booked for September 27 - October 1 back in April banking on some sort of discount based on historical discounts. Shame on me!

I get why there are not discounts offered during peak times, popular weeks, etc. I get that I will be going the first weekend of Food and Wine Festival. I get that Disney is narrowing their discount windows. I don't get why there is NOTHING for my travel window. There is availability at every single resort for my days as of today.

I guess the perk of this is that crowds might be beyond wonderful!!!! Anyone else arriving in the "no discount for you!!!" window?

We are in no discount from Disney spot....check in oct. 5th at POR. No FD bc dates are blacked out and no ro discount bc tix price increases negated the 5% discount for POR. We switched our ressie to travelocity to save a couple hundred dollars, but wish we didn't....not happy with travelocity ressie...but it's non-refundable.

 

[Sheilby]

We are in no discount from Disney spot....check in oct. 5th at POR. No FD bc dates are blacked out and no ro discount bc tix price increases negated the 5% discount for POR. We switched our ressie to travelocity to save a couple hundred dollars, but wish we didn't....not happy with travelocity ressie...but it's non-refundable.

What are you talking about? The RO discount for POR is 20% at that time. Yes the free dining is blacked out, but the RO discount is 15% for value, 20% for mods and 30% off for deluxe.

 

[hgeisler]

What are you talking about? The RO discount for POR is 20% at that time. Yes the free dining is blacked out, but the RO discount is 15% for value, 20% for mods and 30% off for deluxe.

Yes...but do they have any rooms available?...and it's for select resorts. Sorry, OP, I know exactly how you feel. Same thing is happening to my family, it's very frustrating, but at least we'll all be at Disney having a great time, in the end

 

[Sheilby]

Yes...but do they have any rooms available?...and it's for select resorts. Sorry, OP, I know exactly how you feel. Same thing is happening to my family, it's very frustrating, but at least we'll all be at Disney having a great time, in the end

I have run many dates and I still find rooms under the up to 30% off, but since the offer has been on for over a month, you would have to be more flexible with resorts now. I first looked back on the 5th or 6th and every resort I looked at had openings.

Besides the OP booked the room way back in April, when the FD offer was first released months ago for that time period, he/she could have switched to it. It was available until the end of July. Once August rolled around a new offer came up. He/she was no longer eligible for the free dining because of the start date of the reservation, but could have qualified for the %off on the nights from the 29th on. I don't get it. If the OP booked so long ago and has been looking for deals, why didn't he/she jump on either of the two deals that were released since then?

 

[heimlichfan]

I'm the OP.... here's why I couldn't switch anything. (Chose not to I guess)

I am traveling with a large group and we all booked airfare for the 27th - 1st. I did check into changing our dates to get free dining but the cost to change negated the amount we would save.

Free dining ended on September 26 and started again on the 29. We couldn't do a split stay because that would leave us only two nights which isn't enough to take advantage of free dining.

Yes, we could have done a split stay to get a RO discount for the last two nights. However the group we are traveling with has never been to WDW and trying to do a split stay with newbies is tricky.

 

[hgeisler]

I have run many dates and I still find rooms under the up to 30% off, but since the offer has been on for over a month, you would have to be more flexible with resorts now. I first looked back on the 5th or 6th and every resort I looked at had openings.

Besides the OP booked the room way back in April, when the FD offer was first released months ago for that time period, he/she could have switched to it. It was available until the end of July. Once August rolled around a new offer came up. He/she was no longer eligible for the free dining because of the start date of the reservation, but could have qualified for the %off on the nights from the 29th on. I don't get it. If the OP booked so long ago and has been looking for deals, why didn't he/she jump on either of the two deals that were released since then?

Maybe the op is like my family. Didn't want to switch resorts, because he/she is loyal to that resort. Some people may think that is dumb, but I do not. We are in a situation where there were ZERO room types for discounts at our resort (which every single deluxe except for two had), and it would be nice to get a discount when it is offered. Just because you are loyal to a resort you shouldn't be punished for it.

 

[hsmamato2]

Well, it sounds like there are discounts, but the 1st rule of discount traveling is adapting to the sales,not the other way around..... So it sounds like OP got what they wanted, the exact room on their dates. The truth is, when you want a discount,you usually work around what is offered....i.e. trying a new resort,or dates/or a combination of both.....at least you're going! In our case, we adapt to what is on sale to get where we want to go,and tailor our dates around that too.

 

[sweetnjmom]

What are you talking about? The RO discount for POR is 20% at that time. Yes the free dining is blacked out, but the RO discount is 15% for value, 20% for mods and 30% off for deluxe.

If POR has a 20% room only discount, it's limited availability. I looked into that, during my stay (original resort was POR) but I couldn't get a good discount there for my stay. I could have gotten 5% which wasn't worth it to me to stay there. So I switched to WL with free dining for about $100 more for the week.

 

[Sheilby]

I'm the OP.... here's why I couldn't switch anything. (Chose not to I guess)

I am traveling with a large group and we all booked airfare for the 27th - 1st. I did check into changing our dates to get free dining but the cost to change negated the amount we would save.

Free dining ended on September 26 and started again on the 29. We couldn't do a split stay because that would leave us only two nights which isn't enough to take advantage of free dining.

Yes, we could have done a split stay to get a RO discount for the last two nights. However the group we are traveling with has never been to WDW and trying to do a split stay with newbies is tricky.

Ah, that explains things, I was just wondering how you missed all the deals and wanted to make sure you new that you could at least get in on part of the % off deal. The deals usually do seem to stop at the end of September and then start up again so it is risky to overlap that time period. Sorry you didn't get a deal.

 

[Sheilby]

Maybe the op is like my family. Didn't want to switch resorts, because he/she is loyal to that resort. Some people may think that is dumb, but I do not. We are in a situation where there were ZERO room types for discounts at our resort (which every single deluxe except for two had), and it would be nice to get a discount when it is offered. Just because you are loyal to a resort you shouldn't be punished for it.

You aren't being punished for being loyal. Disney offers deals to fill empty rooms. If you pick a resort that doesn't have many empty rooms they have no reason to offer a deal on that resort.

 

[Sheilby]

If POR has a 20% room only discount, it's limited availability. I looked into that, during my stay (original resort was POR) but I couldn't get a good discount there for my stay. I could have gotten 5% which wasn't worth it to me to stay there. So I switched to WL with free dining for about $100 more for the week.

I just ran your dates and if you want to switch pack to POR there is a standard room available with 20% discount for $192 a night. Sounds like you got a great deal with wilderness lodge though. Hope you have a great time.

 

[sweetnjmom]

I just ran your dates and if you want to switch pack to POR there is a standard room available with 20% discount for $192 a night. Sounds like you got a great deal with wilderness lodge though. Hope you have a great time.

So weird... whenever I ran the dates, I got nada. But it's all good, especially since my DH has always wanted to stay at WL and we're not switching back.

 

[hgeisler]

You aren't being punished for being loyal. Disney offers deals to fill empty rooms. If you pick a resort that doesn't have many empty rooms they have no reason to offer a deal on that resort.

My resort did have rooms available at the time both the fd and ro discounts were released, they just never had any room types for the discounts:/ I am still overjoyed we are going with our children for the first time

 

[Sheilby]

So weird... whenever I ran the dates, I got nada. But it's all good, especially since my DH has always wanted to stay at WL and we're not switching back.

People who had them might have canceled? I also heard that when the discount was first released there was some glitches and it made it looked like everything was booked up, then a couple of weeks later a whole bunch opened up. Maybe you were looking for them during that time.

 

[Sheilby]

My resort did have rooms available at the time both the fd and ro discounts were released, they just never had any room types for the discounts:/ I am still overjoyed we are going with our children for the first time

Oh, you were looking for a special type of room, that explains things. Yeah, you definitely have to be more flexible when booking the discount. I was surprised by how much was left when I first started looking (which wasn't on day 1).

 

[TDDisney]

What are you talking about? The RO discount for POR is 20% at that time. Yes the free dining is blacked out, but the RO discount is 15% for value, 20% for mods and 30% off for deluxe.

The discount at POR is only 5%. The general description of fall discounts lists it as you did above. However, there are exceptions to that...POR is an exception to that, and only has a 5% discount. To top it off, if you booked prior to the tix increase this summer, it will actually cost you more bc the increase cost of tix if higher than the 5% discount. I know this for a fact bc I had it booked through Disney. I called when fall discounts came out and was told I was "one of those strange situations" where it would cost us more. Go to the Disney website and check their specials. It says "SELECT Disney resorts....20% off", then if you click on that you will see POR is NOT listed. Port Orleans - French Quarter is.