Packages vs. Specials

[Soarin' Mama]

I know that Disney announces it's packages for the next year in August/September, but do they include the various "specials" in that announcement, or do they dole those out one at a time with no warning? I guess right now there is a deal where kids are free. That's a special, right? And that's different from a package? Would that special have been announced last August/September?

And if not, what are the advantages/disadvantages of waiting for a special to catch your fancy versus planning it a year or 9 months in advance?

If we want go to WDW in May of 2011 and find a special in April for free dining or free kid admissions, what are the odds of getting to stay in the resort/room type we would want? If we plan and book a trip within, say 30 days, do we lose a lot of the control of our experience?

I hope this made sense! Thanks!

 

[Monty]

Plan as far in advance as you can. Then book the resort/room you want as early as you can. If deals come along, you can usually apply them to your already-booked reservation if they're available for that resort and room type, you might have to choose between keeping what you have or changing to take advantage of the deal.

A good Disney-knowledgeable Travel Agent [Kingdom Konsultants are sponsors here and are great, but there are others] can keep track of what you book and what's offered and make changes that are better for you without changing what you requested "automagically" or call if it requires a decision. I had Marie doing my bookings in the past and I'd tell her in advance what I was willing to change if necessary and what was cast in stone and she was great for getting me some incredible deals.

 

[Mikester71]

We have a trip planned for March 2011 and I went in to my local CAA/AAA office and made a room-only reservation for Pop Century back in March. I have done this for the last couple of trips actually and then we wait for the new package prices to come out in August and have our CAA agent switch it over for us. She does all the phone work for us and makes sure to keep our room requests the same and then just gives me all the paperwork with the new balance owing on our trip. We usually will pay the balance at that time and then if a new, better special/promotion comes out, I will go back in and she will apply it for me and we end up either owing less on the balance (assuming we still owe on the trip) or as was the case with our March 2009 trip, WDW actually sent us back a cheque for the difference since we had already paid off the entire balance.

Like Monty said, book as early as you can and make changes accordingly. Easy enough to do and can't really think of any disadvantages to doing it this way actually.

 

[Soarin' Mama]

Thank you!

So does that work even if we want to do the dining plan and make ADRs? If a free dining promo comes along before the 45 day before our trip mark when the balance is due, they'll go ahead and change it easily enough? And I can change it after I've paid and get a refund for the balance? Wow! I was afraid there would be change or cancellation fees, or at least in inability to change my ressies after a certain amount of time.

 

[Master Yoda]

Thank you!

So does that work even if we want to do the dining plan and make ADRs? If a free dining promo comes along before the 45 day before our trip mark when the balance is due, they'll go ahead and change it easily enough? And I can change it after I've paid and get a refund for the balance? Wow! I was afraid there would be change or cancellation fees, or at least in inability to change my ressies after a certain amount of time.

The short answer is yes but like most things there can be a wrinkle here or there the closer you get to your travel dates but 99% of the time that will not be an issue.

Here is a quick breakdown of how things work.....

Your dining reservations are not tied to your reservation. You can change or cancel your room reservation and your dining reservations will remain unchanged.

You can modify your reservation up to 45 days out for a package and 5 days out for a room only without penalty. Many times you can modify them inside those dates without penalty but it is on a case by case basis. For the most part the only time you will get penalized is if you outright cancel inside of those days.

If you have already paid in full you will be credited the difference. When this happens is largely up to your CC company. Disney will issue the credit in less than 48 hours but some CC companies can take up to 2 billing cycles to issue the credit.

If you would like to PM or email me your details I will be more than happy to put some numbers together for you.