Resort Booking question

[DIS2014fullmarathon]

First question, go easy on me.

I have heard that you can book your Disney vacation (make actual reservation) and if the dates of your upcoming trip go "on sale" i.e. Disney announces 30% or whatever then you can call Disney reservations back and re-book at the reduced rate????

Any truth to this or is this common practice?

The long version is that we will be running in the 2014 marathon (i know super early) and want to stay at a monorail resort. I am a huge planner so I want to book by the end of the month. I got a mailer from Disney with a sale (off season, of course) with 2013 dates and the dates surrounding our trip for 2014 fall into that category. Again, hoping to book now about 7 days but will firm up the travel plans once we get airfare etc. reducing the trip to 4-5 days. Trying to cover the basis here.

Thanks!

 

[mickeynut1]

Welcome to the Dis .

Yes, if you book now and a discount comes out later for your dates, you can call Disney and have the discount applied to your ressie (no need to cancel and rebook) provided the resort/room type you have booked is available under the discount. Having a reservation already in place does not guarantee a discount can be applied, so sometimes you have to be flexible with your resort. Also, if you book now for January 2014, you will be quoted at the highest rate for 2013, which will be adjusted once the 2014 rates are released (which should be sometime this summer). You will be required to make a deposit equal to 1 night's room rate + tax, with the balance due at check in.

 

[DIS2014fullmarathon]

Thanks for being so helpful!

 

[minnie mum]

What the pp said is true- you can make a ROOM ONLY reservation for your dates in 2014. You CANNOT make a reservation for a package vacation. You will be required to pay a deposit equal to one night's stay, the remainder due at check in. When the 2014 resort rates are released later this summer your balance due will be adjusted accordingly.

If, before your stay, a ROOM ONLY discount is announced for your dates, you can call and ask that this discount be applied to your reservation. This may or may not require you to change resorts, since not all resorts or resort room categories are eligible for every discount.

If, before your stay, a VACATION PACKAGE discount is announced for your dates, and you wish to take advantage of this offer instead, you would have to cancel your existing reservation. Your deposit would be refunded. You would have to make a new reservation for the package which would require a new deposit of $200 with the balance due 45 days before arrival.

These 2 types of reservations aren't interchangeable- meaning they can't transfer deposits and partial payments from one to the other.

HTH

 

[mickeynut1]

Thanks for being so helpful!

You're welcome.....happy planning .

 

[sillyyankee]

I did that three years ago for our trip. I booked the rooms very early and would call every time a better discount came up. I can't say if anything has changed in three years.

 

[DIS2014fullmarathon]

What the pp said is true- you can make a ROOM ONLY reservation for your dates in 2014. You CANNOT make a reservation for a package vacation. You will be required to pay a deposit equal to one night's stay, the remainder due at check in. When the 2014 resort rates are released later this summer your balance due will be adjusted accordingly.

If, before your stay, a ROOM ONLY discount is announced for your dates, you can call and ask that this discount be applied to your reservation. This may or may not require you to change resorts, since not all resorts or resort room categories are eligible for every discount.

If, before your stay, a VACATION PACKAGE discount is announced for your dates, and you wish to take advantage of this offer instead, you would have to cancel your existing reservation. Your deposit would be refunded. You would have to make a new reservation for the package which would require a new deposit of $200 with the balance due 45 days before arrival.

These 2 types of reservations aren't interchangeable- meaning they can't transfer deposits and partial payments from one to the other.

HTH

I got some tickets from like 1999 that we are going to use plus with the marathon and all I doubt we go with the vacation package since we are there for the run and not solely the park.

Thanks all for the advice!

 

[redrosesix]

First question, go easy on me.

I have heard that you can book your Disney vacation (make actual reservation) and if the dates of your upcoming trip go "on sale" i.e. Disney announces 30% or whatever then you can call Disney reservations back and re-book at the reduced rate????

Any truth to this or is this common practice?

The long version is that we will be running in the 2014 marathon (i know super early) and want to stay at a monorail resort. I am a huge planner so I want to book by the end of the month. I got a mailer from Disney with a sale (off season, of course) with 2013 dates and the dates surrounding our trip for 2014 fall into that category. Again, hoping to book now about 7 days but will firm up the travel plans once we get airfare etc. reducing the trip to 4-5 days. Trying to cover the basis here.

Thanks!

True...

We stay during President's Week and we usually make sure we have something booked as soon as we have flights booked -- so when we've booked flights very early we had to book a room only reservation nearly a year in advance, when the actual prices for those nights wasn't yet known. I later changed them into a package to get a super great deal on our stay. I've also changed our basic room only reservation into different discounts eg. pin discount, 35 % off.

Last year I did this and turned our basic room only reservation into 3 connecting reservations to take advantage of the best deals on those dates -- room only special offer, pin code and Canadian discounts -- all at the same resort.

As with any booking after the discount is announced, whether you can turn your existing reservation into a special offer reservation depends on whether they have rooms left allocated to that discount. So just keep an eye out for offers that work for your dates and call them right away. And this is one of those times when you have to call -- you can't make this change online.