Resort or Package Discounts & Booking

[jmdisney]

I read the link that showed the history of what discounts were offered when.
From what I can tell, discounts (for resorts or packages) for July, won't be coming out for at least another month or so. I wanted to lock in a package
before park tickets go up, in the next week or so. My concern is the price of the packages now, for July. are a bit pricey. I spoke with someone at the WDW travel company. She said, if discounts were offered after I booked, they would apply them to my reservation, IF THEY HAD AVAILIBILITY. I am sure many people have done this before. Does this work out easily? Have you been able to get discounts applied easily at a later date? I would roll the dice and book it now, if I was fairly confident that I wouldn't have trouble changing my reservations at a later time, to get discounts. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[msmama]

The biggest issue when applying discounts at a later date is that not all discounts are available for all resorts, rooms and categories. 9 times out of 10 it will work out just fine, but I would just say either be prepared to pay rack rate for exactly what you want OR be willing to switch resorts if they don't have exactly what you want.

Personally, it's always worked out for me, but there is always a chance that it won't.

 

[georgina]

I never book packages, but would check to see if you tried to add a discount later to a package, would you have to then pay the higher ticket prices also?

We have been successful adding discounts to our room only reservations after booking, of course there is no guarantee it will work. I always buy my tickets separately from a discount site.

 

[tooh8ful]

I've done this a couple of times. The first time I had no idea free dining had been offered, my travel agent found it and applied it on her own .

Since then I "plan" on a discount of some sort. I book at rack rate to get the room type/resort I want and so I can make payments for the year or so leading up to our vacation. Then when discounts come out have it applied to our reservation.

I look at historical discounts and exclusions so I can TRY to not book a resort (AoA for example) where discounts don't apply.

In the end, if for some reason our resort isn't included in the discount I'll look at what the cost difference would be, and what options are available. Then decide whether the discount is "worth" it to us or not. In any case, our package will be considerably paid down before the discounts are even available (takes the sting out).

 

[jmdisney]

I've done this a couple of times. The first time I had no idea free dining had been offered, my travel agent found it and applied it on her own .

Since then I "plan" on a discount of some sort. I book at rack rate to get the room type/resort I want and so I can make payments for the year or so leading up to our vacation. Then when discounts come out have it applied to our reservation.

I look at historical discounts and exclusions so I can TRY to not book a resort (AoA for example) where discounts don't apply.

In the end, if for some reason our resort isn't included in the discount I'll look at what the cost difference would be, and what options are available. Then decide whether the discount is "worth" it to us or not. In any case, our package will be considerably paid down before the discounts are even available (takes the sting out).

Are there certain resorts that are typically excluded from discounts?