Planning Session - How Far Out??

[shaylih]

My DF and I are planning two trips to the world before our wedding in Jan. The first trip will be in May and we're planning on staying at POR (our choice for the moderate). And our second trip will be In Sept staying 1 night at ASM and 2 nights at the Boardwalk and we will have our planning session(we want to stay at all the places we're offering to our guests). So Bob was reading somewhere that the prices are can be locked in once you do your planning session, but we're worried that in Sept, the "new" prices will be in effect, and it would make more sense to go again in July for our planning session so we could lock in a lower rate. I'm not sure I agree with him, since we have no idea when Disney raises they're prices, and July just seems like such a hot, busy, crowded time, whereas September is completely empty. Can someone give me advice?? Thanks in advance.

 

[KellyJo18]

If I'm not mistaken, prices are locked in when you sign your contract. When the Save the Dates are sent out to your guests they will receive a sheet listing the resorts you recommended and the prices Disney is offering at their wedding guest discounted rate. We signed our contract in early December and had prices locked in for our June wedding. The prices they sent to us in our contract were the same prices that were offered to our guests in the Save the Date. We are not attending our planning session until mid-March but our guests received pricing information in the Save the Date in early January. I hope that helps! Hopefully people will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that is how it works Good luck deciding!

 

[shaylih]

What about prices for the food and such? When are those locked in?

 

[pooh98378]

Prices for food, etc. are locked in six months prior to your wedding if you are having a custom. (I think your planning session must take place within six months of the wedding for this reason, but I'm not sure). I also believe that KellyJo18 is right -- hotel prices are locked in at the time of the contract. I'm not sure about ticket prices, though. Hope this helps!

 

[Janet2k]

Shaylih, give a call to the FTW folks. They are there to answer all your questions, especially ones about contracts, pricing, and when things get locked in. Don't leave anything to chance.

 

[disprincessatheart]

Why not do your planning session in May? We did ours at 8 months out because that was when it worked out for us to take the trip. Resort prices are set as soon as the room rates for that season are published. I think we had to wait until August to get room rates for our April wedding because the regular Disney rates for this year weren't set. I would assume you'll run into a similar issue - has nothing to do with your contract or your planning session, just a discount off the rates Disney offers at that resort for that season.

As far as the food prices, I do think that's locked in once you get your BEO, and the BEO comes after the planning session - in person or on the phone. I don't think there's a set time that the price of food would go up, but there might be a set time that the minimum expenditure for a wedding would go up - ie I think the minimum for food used to be $75ppn for a dinner, and now it's $100ppn. I think that minimum is locked in when you sign your contract, as well as the entire event min. Hope that helps.

 

[shaylih]

Thank you so much. I thought the planning session HAD to be 4-6 months out. It's good to know we can do it at 8 months. I'm a little anal about planning, and I just want to have as much as possible set. Thanks again.

 

[autumnbride2B]

Although you can have your planning session any time you want, food prices are locked in 6 months out. If you had your PS earlier than that, you wouldn't be guaranteed on the food prices. I think this would also mean that you couldn't get the BEO before 6 months out as the prices could change.

 

[disprincessatheart]

They won't hold your BEO - we got ours at 7 1/2 months. As far as when the food prices are guaranteed, I never asked. They haven't changed from what was in the BEO then.

 

[pixie08]

In our contract it says prices are locked at the six month point. regardless of your PS or not.