Question for all the annual pass holders?

[k5thbeatle]

Would love to hear from all annual pass holders regarding how easy or how difficult it was to get discounted pass holder room reservations during the Food & Wine festival?

I'm particularly interested in hearing experiences from those who booked during the month of October and for the Yacht or Beach Club but would welcome any pass holders who booked at any resort during the entirety of the F&W fest to please comment too!

Thanks

 

[shoreward]

It's difficult finding a BC or YC room during Oct/Nov F&W at any rate, this year, at this point. I'm doing a split stay and using both AP and UOC rates.

There were lots of changes and daily checking, till I finally was able to secure discounted room rates. Even the TA I sometimes use was astounded that they sold out fairly early for that period.

I think that I lucked into something about a day before the package cancellation deadline, when someone must have changed their plans

 

[suwoogie]

I was not able to get any kind of discount. My dates are October 1-6 at the Beach Club. I’ve been checking MyDisneyExperience several times a day and have been calling 3-4 times a week. There’s nothing. At least I have a reservation. Not happy about paying $600 a night but I’m still happy I’m going!

 

[k5thbeatle]

Thanks for the replies so far. Would love to hear from others. How easy/difficult is securing a room reservation with annual pass holder discount during Food & Wine Festival?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

This year F&W overalaps with two different AP resort discount windows (technically three if you count 8/31). Anecdotally based on chatter around here and my own experience, AP discounts for the first period (9/1-10/7) were/are more plentiful. The 10/8+ AP discounts have been far more limited. Obviously that’s a general comment and varies by resort, specific dates, length of stay, etc.

FWIW, I’m booked at Poly 10/5-10/9 with an AP resort discount, although I think one or two of those nights didn’t have a discount at all (caveat, that is Columbus Day weekend).

 

[emmabelle]

I found them much harder to come by this November than last November. I ended up doing a split stay at the end of November between AKL and at Universal's Royal Pacific because I couldn't get five nights together at WDW, even at rack rate.

 

[LovesTimone]

YC and BC are typically the hardest to get this time of year, everyone likes...no loves... the convenience of just walking out the back gate to their resort. We used to stay there or at the Swam or Dolphin then they to became harder to score at a good rate too...

So the last couple of years we have done couple of different things, Stayed at Bonnet Creek and enjoyed either going to one of the water parks normally Typhoon Lagoon, or laying by the pool during the day then using their bus, or Uber to get back and forth to Epcot during F&W. OR.... Using the AP discount at one of the moderates and making it a long weekend...

 

[cutigerlady]

This year the discounts have been much harder to get and if you are lucky enough to find them, you are going to have to be flexible on resort and play around with the arrival/departure dates. I noticed that when the discounts first are released the inventory is very small. They seem to add rooms to fill the gaps they need to, but it is liking looking for a needle in a haystack. I was looking for 10/25-10/31 and was never able to find anything. We are staying at the Dolphin instead. I'm going for a work conference and I was lucky my corporate rate was $160.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

The AP discounts have been awful this year. I've gotten 3 UOCs in the mail, and between those & my AP discount I still had a hell of a time finding a room. I just (last week) had YC & BC open up under the UOC. Nothing showing up for AP. My dates are Oct 7-11. I finally got YC for $338/night (including tax) for Oct 9-11. BC was $50 more per night before tax. AP discounts aren't guaranteed, and they're the last ones Disney releases. With so many people booking a year out and then saying they're going to "apply a discount", they finally broke the system. Disney sees 80% of the rooms booked at full price and they're not stupid, so the rooms they discount are insane suites that are $700/night with the "discount". I gave up on going in November and I'm staying off site at a super cheap hotel for December. I think the reason I'm finally having things show up for my October dates is all the people who booked at full price thinking they'd apply a discount later are now cancelling their rooms because they CAN'T use a discount.

 

[k5thbeatle]

The AP discounts have been awful this year. I've gotten 3 UOCs in the mail, and between those & my AP discount I still had a hell of a time finding a room. I just (last week) had YC & BC open up under the UOC. Nothing showing up for AP. My dates are Oct 7-11. I finally got YC for $338/night (including tax) for Oct 9-11. BC was $50 more per night before tax. AP discounts aren't guaranteed, and they're the last ones Disney releases. With so many people booking a year out and then saying they're going to "apply a discount", they finally broke the system. Disney sees 80% of the rooms booked at full price and they're not stupid, so the rooms they discount are insane suites that are $700/night with the "discount". I gave up on going in November and I'm staying off site at a super cheap hotel for December. I think the reason I'm finally having things show up for my October dates is all the people who booked at full price thinking they'd apply a discount later are now cancelling their rooms because they CAN'T use a discount.

Thanks for the opinion. The reason I posted this question here was that I have a friend who like me lives outside of Florida who is an annual pass holder. (I should say we used to be AP's but decided to give WDW a break for a while) I hadn't spoken with him in a while but had the chance to here recently and his opinion was very much like yours; "AP room discounts are almost impossible during F&W festival"? At least he noted it was for deluxe resorts especially those near the IG entrance to EPCOT. The AP discounts for this time of year usually come out around late Summer and as you too have pointed out, by then the rooms are all pretty much booked! When an AP discount does come out according to him you literally almost have to be watching your computer 24-7 and be at your computer when it does to get one?

Hence my reason for asking about this here to see if others were having a similar experience?

 

[cutigerlady]

I've noticed that they add rooms to the discount last minute (two weeks to a month out) and you have to want to stay the whole block that's available. Searching for them requires a good chunk of time and flexibility on location. When you see it, book it because it will disappear quickly!

I did see BW for late August-early September. I think there were a few for YC/BC but for only 10% off.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Thanks for the opinion. The reason I posted this question here was that I have a friend who like me lives outside of Florida who is an annual pass holder. (I should say we used to be AP's but decided to give WDW a break for a while) I hadn't spoken with him in a while but had the chance to here recently and his opinion was very much like yours; "AP room discounts are almost impossible during F&W festival"? At least he noted it was for deluxe resorts especially those near the IG entrance to EPCOT. The AP discounts for this time of year usually come out around late Summer and as you too have pointed out, by then the rooms are all pretty much booked! When an AP discount does come out according to him you literally almost have to be watching your computer 24-7 and be at your computer when it does to get one?

Hence my reason for asking about this here to see if others were having a similar experience?

I don't think you have to be at your computer right when it comes out, I feel like you just have to be willing to check every day. Just now it seems like a lot of yacht and Beach club rooms have opened up for the next couple of weeks, but if you looked a month and a half ago there was basically nothing. I don't remember it being like this in previous years, but for some reason the fall has been especially popular this year. Plus someone else was saying that due to construction at Caribbean and Coronado, there's a lot less rooms available at the moderate level and some people are upgrading to deluxe as a result. So maybe that is affecting our AP discounts

 

[honeymo78]

For non-Epcot resorts - I was able to get passholder room discount at POP for 9/30-10/7. We were originally booked at All Star Movies with no discount but at the beginning of Sept I randomly checked all resorts that had a discount available for our stay and lucked out with one at POP. While we are only saving about $200, that's more money to spend somewhere else.

 

[MsThumper]

We have had our reservation for the last week in October since February. We book thru a TA which offers discounted rates. We are AP holders and Florida residents, but I don’t want to stalk the discounts to scramble to get a room.

 

[figmentedfollies]

We have had our reservation for the last week in October since February. We book thru a TA which offers discounted rates. We are AP holders and Florida residents, but I don’t want to stalk the discounts to scramble to get a room.

Usually if you let your travel agent know that you are an AP holder he or she will do that stalking for you to get you the best rate possible.

 

[k5thbeatle]

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[LindyN]

Passholders typically get the leftovers and the AP rate is often blocked out on weekends. Book early with a general public rate and do the happy dance if you get a discount in October as these are pretty slim.

 

[richmo]

Totally struck out this year. Had booked a POR king room for September way in advance hoping for an AP or Disney Visa discount, but nothing ever came. (Some discounts came out, but not for the resort or room type I was looking for). Wound up canceling the room and happily stayed at a nice place offsite for 4 nights that was less than the one night deposit that was returned to me.

 

[wee-haggis]

If you have a room booked at the regular rack rate then call up when the AP rates come out ,are they obliged to apply the AP rate (after confirming the AP rate applies to your chosen hotel and room type) ? I have literally called at 7am EST on the day the AP Rates come out and found the AP Rated rooms all gone for my choice hotel and room type , but they are reluctant to apply the AP rate to a room I have already reserved. Am I too easy going in "letting this go" ?

 

[LindyN]

Are they 'obliged' to offer that rate? No. A discount must be available on a new reservation for them to apply it to one that has already been booked. In general if you can book a new reservation with a discount you should be able to ask them to apply it to your existing trip.