question on booking thru WDW w/AAA discount

[matt&jakesmom]

I have been reading other posts of diser's booking thru WDW and using AAA discount as opposed of going thru AAA itself. Is this correct? If so I am going to say that I am "stupid" for not every questioning that in the past. I booked thru AAA once years ago and hated the runaround that I got.The last few years, I called WDW direct and have had great service. I now have a trip booked in August during free dining. We are staying at the Sports. If I call WDW and let them know that I have AAA would the price drop? So confused so any help would be appreciated.

 

[nbodyhome]

You can book room-only with Disney with a AAA discount, not packages.

There isn't a AAA discount on top of free dining normally (though some people have said they received one in the past).

 

[VAN]

I believe that AAA discounts are only for rooms. Therefore, if you were to book a package any discount that AAA would offer you would be based on a discount applied to the room rate. We always book directly with CRO and request the AAA discount be applied. We've never made our reservations through AAA Travel Services.

I think I read somewhere that with the "Free" Dining offer you were paying rack rates for the package. Thus "Free" may not really be free when you consider you aren't getting discounts that might be available otherwise.

 

[matt&jakesmom]

Thanks, that clears up some of my confusion.

 

[buzz2400]

One other thing, when you book with AAA directly you get the diamond parking pass (for preferred parking) and diamond card (for discounts). Not really worth the hassle of booking with AAA though. I prefer to book directly with disney. If you book directly with disney, you can view your reservations online.

Re: discounted rate on package, I did ask disney and they said no if you have free dining.

 

[kelleigh1]

As someone else mentioned, you can only book a AAA Room Only reservation through Disney / CRO directly. If you want a package (room+tickets or room+tickets+dining), you have to go through a AAA TA.

Dining is only available as part of a package, so you'd have to book that through a AAA TA. However, if you want to take advantage of the Free Dining deal, you wouldn't get a AAA discount anyway, so it wouldn't matter who you booked with in that case.

Regardless of who you book with, there are still only a limited number of AAA rooms available during any time period. If you book through Disney/CRO for a room only, simply ask if the AAA rate is available and that you'd like to book that. (I did this last year. This year, we're getting a package because we want dining and I have one of the best AAA TA's available - she was recommended through these boards.)

On a side note: not all AAA TA's are worth the cost of membership. You need to find a good one who really knows there stuff, especially about Disney. Some may claim to, but they don't. Recommendations are always available through these boards, we just can't post the TA's contact info on the boards. And, you don't have to use a local TA. Mine is in SC and I'm in Massachusetts. Not even close.