Now what? I've decided on all the things that require a decision before booking....dates, resorts, food, and theme park tickets. Do you guys book through the website, a travel agency, the phone?? And once that's done do you just watch for discounts, etc (like free dining, which I'm counting on!) and call your agent or customer service when you want to take advantage of those? Please tell me your process.
I price everything out online and then I call to book. When/if a discount comes out for our dates, I check online for availability and then call to have it applied (if available). If you book through a TA, you would have to call/email them to have them call Disney and check on any discounts. If you use an authorized Disney TA, most of them will check for discounts regularly and automatically have one applied should one become available for your dates. I prefer to book myself direct with Disney and have control over my reservation (but that's just my personal preference). Rumors start coming out here on the boards prior to discounts being officially released, so if you keep an eye out on these boards, you will usually get a heads up as to what sort of discount might be coming out for your trip dates .
I always wait till they announce a discount if I'm counting on one. The theory being that the more people book at rack rate, the less discount wdw will put out. Disney only discounts resorts/rooms that need filling. So booking ahead can work against you. Do you have AAA? You can book a room only with an AAA discount. I either book myself or use a TA that has the designation of Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. My first 3 trips I used a TA, very helpful for a newbie. And I still do use a TA from time to time. It's free, and they provide an excellent service. And they know when discounts come out, and automatically apply it to your reservation, no waiting on hold 30 min with Disney when discounts are released. Also, having a reservation in advance doesn't guarantee you a discount. Not all resorts or all room categories will get discounts, and it's like a sale. Only a certain # of rooms are released with discounts, and when the quota is reached, that's it. So you have to phone the moment discounts come out, and have to be flexible. I never book on line. Always prefer to speak with a person. I do check first online to see prices and availability.
Most always I have a budget set, I know where I want to stay, and a back up. Then I wait for discounts mostly because I remember wanting to stay at Poly but the RO discount that summer was 20% but at BC it was 30% so we went with BC. This year we did it different, DD and her boyfriend graduated from college and heading back to grad school in the fall so we went all out and decided to stay at Cont tower and whatever discount that came out we would be grateful, what a wonderful surprise when it was 30%! We were truly blessed with that discount.
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I have never booked without a discount and never will. We always stay deluxe so if there is not a discount we will go somewhere else. This has never happened though. There are always discounts.
