Maggie,
Quick question since you are a WDW vet, what are these codes, and can you go back and apply them if you have already booked and paid for your trip? i booked mine and pd w Disney visa, and have already pd it off. thanks for the info!
Carrie
You asked a great question that has a bit of a long answer, if you are wanting to know all about codes. First, let me send you to the one place that probably details saving on
Disney vacations better than any other spot on the internet,
Mousesavers.com because Mary Waring does a bang up job of keeping folks updated on any current deals available on Disney vacation bookings. Second, there is a board on the DIS devoted to watching for codes it's the
Codes and Rates board.
Let's tackle the basics of your question now! Yes, you can indeed go back and apply a new discount code to an existing booking,
IF there is a discount available on the exact room with the exact dates that were originally booked. Sometimes, you have to do a little tweaking of your booking in order to take advantage of a code. Codes have sometimes encouraged me to try a new resort or even stay a day longer or a day or two less depending on the circumstances. Usually, if you have a deposit in place, there is no need to get a refund or put down any extra money as long as you are still more than 45 days out.
In my case, I say
usually because the code that I used to save almost an additional $400 over what I was already saving by booking through
AAA, we had to do some major voodoo to make the deal work. See we originally booked with a non-Disney credit card. Then we paid the trip off with the Disney credit card before the 45 day mark. But, because of the way that AAA does it, they take the money on the payment in full and then they pay Disney the balance.....I can only assume this is because of the commission that they get to keep for making the booking....I could be way off on that one though. So, anyways in order to make the Disney Visa code work, which had EXTREMELY LIMITED availability for the Poly, we had to credit the $200 deposit back to the card that Disney had on file, which was the non-Disney credit card and then they had to charge the Disney Visa the $200 again as our new deposit because the code only worked if you used the Disney Visa card to pay for the deposit. The entire balance of our fully paid package was then refunded to AAA and they in turn had to pay Disney again to make us paid in full and also issue a check back to us for the almost $400 that we saved by applying the code. Like I said, there was voodoo involved, but it was worth it to save the money.
Now, don't be discouraged by what you just read. This had to have been the most complicated code application that I have ever done, because usually, we don't have AAA involved or a fully paid off package and from now on, we will have the Disney Visa in hand when we make the deposits.....we didn't get the card until a few months after we had already booked. Usually, it's a pretty simple phone call, sometimes a call or two to get what you want and you are done. I hope that answered your question. Maggie