You said it, NHBelle. There's been much gnashing of teeth around here over the exact same issue. I also initially thought that value season being moved up a week this year was a good sign for us, but now I'm thinking it may have hurt us. Someone on another thread pointed out that instead of the date shift meaning that they're slower in August (and thus, there's more chance of discounts), maybe in doing so, they convinced a lot of July travellers to shift their trips to take advantage of value season (so, they're busier, and less chance of discounts). Doh!
I wouldn't lose total hope. I made some ressie changes last night for my December trip and asked about August discounts. She said she did not know what was going to be offered but she did know that they were going to offer some kind of discount for value season travelers.
That's what I was counting on when I made our plans--that
free dining or a similar offer would coincide with
value season. If it doesn't start until the rumored dates, that's 3 weeks into value season, and not very helpful for many of us.
I think its also worth considering that some people may change their dates from early August to fit in with the free dining, this is turn will leave a load of surplus rooms for these date which in turn may be discounted.
This is both my hope and my fear. My hope, because we really want to go, and my fear, because it means we may not know for a couple more months. It would be really frustrating to have no good discount for early August, cancel all our plans, then have a last minute offer in June that we have to scramble to try to take advantage of.
Okay everyone cancel their ressies and tell them its because they are leaving us late summer folks out.
LOL, if I had resort ressies, I would. But I behaved, and didn't book anything with the hope that it would up my chances of getting free dining. Come on, karma!
(Caveat: I did book flights and a few ADR's, and my dh put in for his vacation time.)