Ticket Price Increase soon - book now??

[Meldev]

Help me out as I've heard some conflicting information.

If I book a package for late November today, and ticket prices go up next week I should be fine. However, if I call in the summer to take advantage of an offer, do my ticket prices go up then or do they stay at same rate?

Most on Dis have convinced me not to book (so disney has a reason to give offers later) but if I'm locking in a lower price I want to make a reservation. Maybe it's only 6% increase but there are six of us it's adds up over a week long trip.

TIA

 

[aaarcher86]

Help me out as I've heard some conflicting information. If I book a package for late November today, and ticket prices go up next week I should be fine. However, if I call in the summer to take advantage of an offer, do my ticket prices go up then or do they stay at same rate? Most on Dis have convinced me not to book (so disney has a reason to give offers later) but if I'm locking in a lower price I want to make a reservation. Maybe it's only 6% increase but there are six of us it's adds up over a week long trip. TIA

If you change your reservation in any way, including adding a discount, you get bumped to the new ticket prices. If you didn't change anything you'd be locked in.

 

[dmunsil]

Most on Dis have convinced me not to book (so disney has a reason to give offers later) but if I'm locking in a lower price I want to make a reservation. Maybe it's only 6% increase but there are six of us it's adds up over a week long trip.

I don't really think withholding your specific booking (or even the bookings of all the people on the DIS boards) is going to make a difference as to which resorts have availability for discounts. It sounds like a great idea - "everyone stop booking resorts and then they'll have to offer discounts!" Realistically, the folks on this board are a tiny, tiny fraction of the people traveling to Disney.

You should do what makes sense for your situation, and not worry about which hotels will or won't have discounts; that will be decided by the collective actions of tens of thousands of people you can't control, and who will mostly just book what they want when they want it.

Figure out what you would book if you couldn't get a discount. Would you go ahead and book your favorite resort and pay rack rate? Would you drop down to a Value resort? Would you book a smaller room or one fewer day? Whatever it is, book that as your backup reservation. When or if discounts come out for your dates, see if there's something that works well that you can switch to.

Bottom line: get a back-pocket reservation. There's really no downside.

 

[dis_guy]

If you change your reservation in any way, including adding a discount, you get bumped to the new ticket prices. If you didn't change anything you'd be locked in.

I always thought that once your trip was paid in full prices were locked in. When we've added free dining or a discount in the past I don't recall any price increase. I might be wrong. For sure our reservation number remained the same.

 

[aaarcher86]

I always thought that once your trip was paid in full prices were locked in. When we've added free dining or a discount in the past I don't recall any price increase. I might be wrong. For sure our reservation number remained the same.

Your res number would stay the same.

But the prices are only locked in for the reservation that you have. Once you add a discount or change it, it's not the same reservation.

 

[cakebaker]

Why book a package? Just wondering why you wouldn't just buy tickets separately so they aren't tied to your reservation should you need to change anything. I know that Undercover Tourist announced their prices are going up next month. That tells me that Disney's are too. We never book packages, so I have no experience in how that's handled as far as making changes.

I also agree that I wouldn't wait to make a reservation- While a lot of people will tell you that it cuts down on the chances of discounts, I've never found that to be true for us. We haven't booked in years that at some point a discount didn't come out for the resort we were booked at. In theory it makes sense, but it practice it makes no difference at all. We book what we know we will go with if no discounts are available, then wait and see. I'd much rather run the risk of no discounts than look up and find that there's no availability at any of the resorts I would want to stay at.

 

[aaarcher86]

Some people prefer packages. I've never used them, but there are some benefits like 2 free water park visits and 2 free mini gold games, etc that you get.

If someone wants FD it's required that they have a 2 day ticket through Disney as a package. Same with SPD. Sometimes it's just easier to have it all in one place, and as a package it's refundable up to 45 days out without a restock fee like UT.

 

[cakebaker]

Some people prefer packages. I've never used them, but there are some benefits like 2 free water park visits and 2 free mini gold games, etc that you get.

If someone wants FD it's required that they have a 2 day ticket through Disney as a package. Same with SPD. Sometimes it's just easier to have it all in one place, and as a package it's refundable up to 45 days out without a restock fee like UT.

Thanks. We never book packages and I really was interested in why someone would, especially if you risked paying more because of price increases if you made changes to it. I totally forgot about the free dining. We never wanted the free dining option so I never looked into it.