who do you book through???

[juliana023]

Hello!

I'm new to these forums, and am in the beginning process of planning a family trip for October...this is my first trip since I was a kid. We have 3 kids who will be 7, 5, and 1.5 at that time. My parents will also be joining us for most of the trip.

We are looking to stay on-site....so far i'm thinking that the WL is the best bet for us. Would love to get free dining, and some sort of discount of course!

My question is...where do you guys get the best deals? We are not DVC members. I do have a chase disney visa card. Do people generally book through Disney, or use other sites like Orbitz and Expedia? What about the all of the travel agencies that specialize in Disney travel? Has anyone had great experiences with them (and which ones in particular)?

Also, if I do book a package and other discounts come out (such as buying a package with the dining option, and then having free dining promo come out) is that able to be applied or am I locked in? Is this the same with room rates?

Thanks in advance and sorry for all of the questions! Any and all info is greatly appreciated!!

 

[msmama]

I, personally, book myself through Disney with whatever deals they have. It's possible that I might be able to save more by booking elsewhere, but I like knowing that I'll only be dealing with Disney if something goes wrong (not a third party or travel agent).

If you book now, you can add a discount later, BUT you have to call to do so. They don't apply it automatically (and if there are several discounts offered at the same time they will work wit you to find the best one). At times discounts can only be on certain room categories so it's possible you might have to change something to get the deal.

Booking with your disney visa gives you 6 months 0% apr also (I've never used it personally). Often (though not with this last announced discounts) card members are told about discounts a few days before the general public.

Good luck!!

 

[worm761]

Hello!

I'm new to these forums, and am in the beginning process of planning a family trip for October...this is my first trip since I was a kid. We have 3 kids who will be 7, 5, and 1.5 at that time. My parents will also be joining us for most of the trip.

We are looking to stay on-site....so far i'm thinking that the WL is the best bet for us. Would love to get free dining, and some sort of discount of course!

My question is...where do you guys get the best deals? We are not DVC members. I do have a chase disney visa card. Do people generally book through Disney, or use other sites like Orbitz and Expedia? What about the all of the travel agencies that specialize in Disney travel? Has anyone had great experiences with them (and which ones in particular)?

Also, if I do book a package and other discounts come out (such as buying a package with the dining option, and then having free dining promo come out) is that able to be applied or am I locked in? Is this the same with room rates?

Thanks in advance and sorry for all of the questions! Any and all info is greatly appreciated!!

I book through Disney myself. IF you book through a travel agent then that agent owns your reservation. That means any changes you would like to make must go through the agent. I would rather just own my own reservation.

As for the part I bolded, you can only have one discount at a time. So either free dining or a room discount but not both.

 

[Spunky946]

I'm a Disney travel agent, so I book my own. As an agent I don't charge my clients, I get paid by Disney,

Last year discounts for the fall were released in May. There was a free dining discount and a room discount You can choose one or the other not both. Depending on where you are staying and how many people determines which discount is best for you. You can price both out and see which saves you the most money.

If you book soon, you can alway add the discount when it comes out.

A travel agent will sit on the line for you and make the changes instead of you sitting on the phone and doing it. I also make adrs if a client wants and the same with fast passes, or if they want they can do it. It's up to the client.

The often open up the discounts to the chase card holders prior to the public, but not always.

I've heard of people getting discounts through third party sites, but along with good prices comes a lack of customer service, such as if there is a problem one may have a hard time getting it resolved.

Whichever way you go, this board can offer a lot of good advice. If you want to use an agent, I'm happy to help.

 

[Lincolnshire]

We booked thru Orbitz last time because they offered a big discount on rooms at the time, but it was such a pain to do anything with the reservation after that since we used a third party booker (like adding requests to the reservation for the room, for example). This time we are renting DVC points thru David's. If I were not renting points I would book directly with Disney because you can easily add any discounts thru them. I would do the math on what saves your family more, room discount vs free dining - depends on the person.

 

[MandiC]

We book through a AAA Magic Creator. She was recommended by a good friend of mine. We actually booked through Disney originally last time and then found her and found out she could save us several hundred more so we transferred the reservation to her. Stay-play-dine came out after we switched to her and she was the one who spent all the time that morning switching our reservation over She gave some great advice and even gave us her personal cell phone # in case we needed any help once we got down there.

 

[BethanyLynnFit]

Have always booked through Disney (didn't realize I could book through others until this past year). Booking through Disney again for our next trip since my DD is dead set on a Little Mermaid room at AoA and there's never any deals for those anyways.

 

[adrienne21snow]

In the past, we always booked through the Disney site. However, Orbitz was offering a promo that gave us 15% off Disney's already discounted rate for our upcoming trip. The process was fairly seamless-we were able to link our tickets and resorts and book fast passes on MDE without issue at 60 days out. Orbitz also had a great deal on tickets (5 day park hopper for the price of a 3 day).

The only hiccup involved adding our kids to the hotel ressie. My kids are (almost)2 and 5. Disney doesn't charge for kids in hotel rooms, but the Orbitz site was charging. I had to book the room for just my husband and me and then call Orbitz to have them call Disney to add the kids to the room. It sounds worse than it was-the whole process took maybe 5 minutes because I had a great rep on the phone.
I checked MDE about 2 minutes after I hung up and my kids already appeared on the reservation.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I always book through Disney. My first trip I did through AAA but since then I always call and book through WDW. I always have done my homework and basically know what our budget is and what we want to do but I am always open to any suggestions that the CM offers and I always ask about any discounts I might not be aware of. We have tried and loved some resorts that I would have never considered and we found our favorite when a CM got us a moderate for a value rate! The best part of booking through them is hearing, "Have a magical day" at the end of the conversation.

 

[tcherjen]

I have always booked through Disney.

 

[kermitman18]

In the past, we always booked through the Disney site. However, Orbits was offering a promo which gave us 15% off Disney's already discounted rate for our upcoming trip. The process was fairly seamless-we were able to link our tickets and resorts and book fast passes on MDE without issue at 60 days out. Orbitz also had a great deal on tickets (day park hopper for the price of a 3 day).

The only hiccup involved adding our kids to the hotel ressie. My kids are (almost)2 and 5. Disney doesn't charge for kids in hotel rooms, but the Orbitz site was charging. I had to book the room for just my husband and me and then call Orbitz to have them call Disney to add the kids to the room. It sounds worse than it was-the whole process took maybe 5 minutes because I had a great rep on the phone.
I checked MDE about 2 minutes after I hung up and my kids already appeared on the reservation.

Everything this poster said is right on. We always booked through Disney in the past, but for our upcoming May trip I was turned onto Orbitz with the additional 15% off the already offered room discount by Disney. So far everything has been seamless and I made the same call to have the kids added after the fact which was no problem.

The biggest reason we used Orbitz is because they were offering way more room categories than Disney was. For Port Orleans Riverside Disney was only offering Royal and King bed rooms. Orbitz had all categories available so we upgraded our original booking at POP through Disney in a preferred room to a garden view at POR for only $68 more! You can always get cheap tickets at Undercover Tourist as well. Good luck!

 

[Levitrice]

This is great information. We always book through Disney because it was easier and we got the FL discount rate. Thanks for sharing, because now I will check other sites.