My advice to pretty much everyone, all the time,
is as follows
Have at least one person in your party get an annual pass. You'll be able to book up to 3 rooms at a big discount (depending on the type of resort and time of year, it can be 40% or more), and if you wind up going back in less than a year (even if you just go next year, one week earlier than last year), you're covered with admission. AND you'll still get discounts on your room.
Also, get a Disney Dining Experience membership. It's $50 for annual pass members, and you'll get 20% off most full service restaurants throughout the world, and even a few counter-service places as well. Anyone in your party will get the discount, too. It includes dinner shows like Hoop-De-Do, as well, BTW.
For August, Deluxe Resorts are considered Value Season, so the discounts should be pretty good then (though it's too soon to say for sure). I stayed in Animal Kingdom last year in august-september for about 105 a night.
Then, once you know what you want in terms of tickets and accomodations, see if Disney Visa will consider it a "package" and give you a zero % interest deal. Even if you don't get a discount using the Disney Visa card, depending on how much you use the card when you're there, the zero% interest can save you serious coin, too. I only put my annual pass on my Disney VIsa (not the rest of the trip) and got zero percent interest on my Disney Visa without knowing or asking for it.
I don't know about AAA deals now with WDW's new ticket-pricing structure. I've used AAA years ago, and their packages included all the add-ons, like water parks & PI, so how much of a "deal" it was depended on how much you were willing to take in during your trip.
