Was it stupid to book so far in advance?

[emh1129]

I just booked a room-only reservation for Jan. 2-12, 2007. I know the rates aren't out yet, but she quoted $99 a night for all-stars. She made sure that I knew it wasn't a guaranteed rate, though. For 10 nights, it came to $1187.00

We wanted to go ahead and book so that we could start making payments as we are able, because otherwise we really wouldn't be able to save for the trip( I know that any money set aside would end up going to other things) and we have been looking forward to this trip (our first!) for a long time.
We have AAA, so she said we could call back in May or June and add that discount to our reservation.

We are interested in adding the package (dining/tickets) at some point, too. Would AAA be able to take over our reservation so that we could get a AAA discount on the package? (That's the only way to get a discount on the package, right?)

I see that some people are paying $64 for this Jan. so I'm wondering if it was stupid of me to jump the gun and reserve so early. We are scrimping and saving to be able to take our children there, so I need to make some smart decisions here

thanks for any advice you might have- we appreciate it!

 

[lark]

Well, I guess here's the main question: What would happen if you cannot get any discounts later or any discounted package? Are you still going to go, and will you be ok paying $1187 for the room?

If the answer is yes, then there's no downside to your having made the reservation now. You have a guaranteed room, and so you don't need to worry about not getting the dates you need. Just keep track of when AAA rates get released and call right away, and you should have no problem getting that rate applied to your existing reservation.

Now, if you absolutely know you need the dining plan, then having this reservation may be a waste of time. I think that AAA can actually take over a reservation, if you fax to disney a request to have it transferred. But even if they take over this particular reservation, I think technically what they'd have to do to get you a package with dining is cancel it an rebook. So whether or not you have this reservation is not really going to help you that much. I think the thing to do would be right now to call one of the good AAA agents who deal with disney, who people on this board can recommend, and tell them exactly what you want. They should be able to tell you what your best option is -- maybe it would be to have AAA book the reservation now, so that when you make a change, at least they've already got the reservation.

Bottom line to what you're asking: There's absolutely no downside to having this reservation. Whatever money you send in is going to be locked up, and you can use it later if you need to make a different reservation. But in order to get a discount, you're still going to have to be vigilant when discounts come out next year.