AAA Question

[WildcatDen]

Here is a question that may have been asked in one form or another. We are looking into a AAA membership and had questions about the price break for a Disney trip. Does anyone have experience with booking a WDW trip using a AAA discount? The basic question is. . .

"Is it more cost effective to book your trip through a AAA office or to book it through the Disney site and apply the AAA discount?"

We plan on going to WDW in November 2007 and stay at CBR. I heard that, booking through AAA, you can reserve (not request) a building and even a room. Any truth in that?

 

[Kristia]

I just received my quote from AAA today. If you go to their website (mine is the AAA Mid-Atlantic) they have a form to fill out for info on their Disney Packages. We are already AAA members, so I am not sure if they will do this for non-members. You can type in resort, type of tickets you want, if you want dining plan and how many rooms. I liked this because on the Disney web site you can only book one room at a time. Anyway, the Disney web site quote me a price of 2303.62. This was with no AAA discount since there is no place to put this in. My package was to include 7 nights at CBR, 8 day park hopper + water parks option and Magic Your Way with dining.
The AAA quote was $2079.80 for a savings of roughly $224. I thought that was pretty good and more than pays for my membership.

 

[MaxsDad]

If you are looking at booking a package, the following may not be helpful.

A room only reservation with the AAA discount booked straight through Disney is going to save you about 29 dollars a night. That memebership would pay for itself in two nights. You don't already have to have the AAA membership to ask if a discount is available (or book the room) with Disney Reservations Call Center, but you may have to show the front desk that you have it at check-in.

The Disney Web Site does not have a place to apply AAA rates at any place that I have ever seen, but the call center can on a room only deal.

BTW, congrats on the bowl win last month.

 

[WildcatDen]

BTW, congrats on the bowl win last month.

Thanks. It is nice to be talking about the Football team near the Holidays. That usually stops sometime in Spetember :lookaroun

Maybe they have turned the corner. Go CATS!!

Thanks for the info as well. I am going to have to research this but I thought I read on a discount site that you could apply a AAA code when booking on the Disney site. I believe everything I read. . . :hammer:

 

[mgraef]

We used AAA and the price drop was sufficient to cover us upgrading to the DDP without going out of pocket any additional money. About a 35% discount. We had to book just before the 45 day cancellation penalty from our first Disney website reservation, but had not real trouble getting ADRs.

Peace,

 

[CleveRocks]

My in-laws stayed at PORS last November and booked through AAA. They were able to reserve their room, location and all in advance. . .

I don't mean this to sound harsh, just stating a fact ... They were either somewhat misinformed, or they are not explaining it correctly.

I've read lots of posts from lots of people who thought they had an absolute guaranteed reservation for something, when it turns out they simply made a request that happened to be granted. For example, at POR you can reserve and pay for a water view room, and you can request a certain building or even a certain room. The water view itself is guaranteed if you pay for it, but AAA members and even AA members, for that matter, can't actually get a guarantee of exactly what building they will be in. Disney just plain doesn't have things set up that way.

I recall a thread on another board where a woman swore she had CBR reservations in a specific building, Martinique, because she paid for preferred location and they gave her a room in Martinique for 6 months from now. I explained that she had reserved and paid for a CBR preferred location room, but that she requested Martinique but would get a room in either Martinique or Trinidad North, the other preferred location village.

To answer someone else's question, it has not changed (as of 3 days ago, when I made my reservation with my AAA discount) that when you call CRO you can only do a room-only reservation with AAA discount, and if you want the discount off the entire package you must go through AAA itself.

 

[JPVonDrake]

To clarify...

CleveRocks is 100% correct.

The AAA discount offer is 10%-20% off regular rates depending on the season and Resort. AAA room-only discount offers can be booked directly with Disney or with any travel agent. AAA Vacation Package discount offers can be booked only through a AAA travel agent. Then number of rooms available on these offers is limited and once they sell out for a particular date / location, they are gone. If a Guest cancels a discounted room, that room will be re-sold at rack rate, it will not return to the number of discounted rooms.

Any request for a special room, location, etc. is just that, a request. It cannot be guaranteed by AAA or Disney. Your room assignment is made by the Resort Cast itself usually the day prior to your arrival, based on the available rooms on your arrival date. If the resort can full-fill your request they will, but you will not be able to confirm your room assignment until you are present at the resort checking-in.

 

[WildcatDen]

To answer someone else's question, it has not changed (as of 3 days ago, when I made my reservation with my AAA discount) that when you call CRO you can only do a room-only reservation with AAA discount, and if you want the discount off the entire package you must go through AAA itself.

Thanks. Not harsh at all. I think I got clarification to this last night. As you describe, you can get the AAA discount (10 to 15%) on the room only per Mousesavers. When I totaled this up, with tickets for 3 adults and 1 child (8 days), I arrived at a savings of approximately $190 compared to booking through Disney itself. I wonder if the savings of booking the entire package through AAA would be any greater?

I know you get a few 'goodies' when you book through Disney, but last time we only really used the voucher for the Lithograph. We did not play putt-putt, or use the food discount at some place in Downtown Disney. So, other than luggage tags and a poster, the 'goodies' were not all that good.

 

[tigsmom]

Thanks. Not harsh at all. I think I got clarification to this last night. As you describe, you can get the AAA discount (10 to 15%) on the room only per Mousesavers. When I totaled this up, with tickets for 3 adults and 1 child (8 days), I arrived at a savings of approximately $190 compared to booking through Disney itself. I wonder if the savings of booking the entire package through AAA would be any greater?

I know you get a few 'goodies' when you book through Disney, but last time we only really used the voucher for the Lithograph. We did not play putt-putt, or use the food discount at some place in Downtown Disney. So, other than luggage tags and a poster, the 'goodies' were not all that good.

Do you know anyone who is a AAA member who can call and price out the trip for you? You don't have to book it, tell them you are waiting on vacation approval. That way you can see what the savings would be.

 

[WildcatDen]

Do you know anyone who is a AAA member who can call and price out the trip for you? You don't have to book it, tell them you are waiting on vacation approval. That way you can see what the savings would be.

Good idea, Mad,

I will check with my sister in-law who did the PO trip this past November.

Thanks to everyone for the advice to date. We have broken through the "300 Day" mark and would like to get this ball rolling.

 

[bemusing]

This May will be our 2nd trip staying at Pop Century and using AAA. We saved more money this way than booking straight with Disney. I do not know why your were told that you couldn't use the discount for Pop. The Diamond card also saves you 10% off at some of the Downtown Disney stores :sohappy:

I am completely flummoxed. I booked Pop Century April 21-25 with Disney this past Saturday, and they said no AAA discount. I just spoke with a AAA agent this afternoon to get a quote for booking through them (I could always cancel Disney's reservation and rebook), and it is the exact same price. I questioned the agent and she said my "discount" was free upgrade to park hopper and water parks. Which is exactly the special that Disney has going. I wonder if different states have different AAA options since you and I are going near the same time at the same place.

 

[TwoTigersMom]

I had great success with going through AAA to book my upcoming trip. I wasn't a member of AAA, but I had heard about the discounts and I called them. I told them I wasn't a member, but would like to determine if it would be worth it for me to become a member to get the discount. All in all, after joining AAA, I am saving almost $1000 on my upcoming trip! :sohappy: I have used AAA for other discounts in the meantime too. Although, I called and priced my neice's trip and she would have only saved $75 on her trip. But hey, that's $75 to spend on something else. :lol: