January 2019



I’ll join in on the wait. Heading to Disney late January into early February. My birthday is June 28th so my birthday present to myself is booking my trip. :) I’m not holding my breath for a discount because I’m staying at POR and they don’t usually get discounts.
 
We typically book room only so we could book our 2019 dates (late April) by calling, since we're well within the 499 day window.

But I typically wait until online booking is available, in part, because I figure most people don't know that they can book room only by calling 499 days out (and I'd rather not provide an interest free loan to Disney any sooner than I have to).

That being said, I'm sometimes surpised to find certain room categories already booked for certain dates when online booking first becomes available. For example, I've often found this to be the case for theme park view rooms at the Contemporary (this may, however, in part be due to convention bookings) and at deluxe resorts in general now that a higher percentage of their rooms are DVC (e.g., Poly, WL).

The other thing I wrestle with is whether or not to wait until discounts come out to book. The arguments for doing this are: (1) you don't have to call to get the discount after you've already booked; and (2) by waiting, you sligthly increase your odds of getting a discount, as the resort occupancy will be sligthly lower.

However, the big argument for not waiting is that your desired room category in your desired resort may not be available (for that matter, your desired resort may be completely sold out).

Since we usually have our heart set on a certain resort, we usually don't wait to book until discounts come out (otherwise, we would).

So for us, it's usually the same drill. Watch and wait for rack rate online booking to be available, book online at rack rate, watch and wait for discounts to come out, and call to try to apply the discount.

Anyone else go through the same machinations?


I'm new to DISBOARDS but have made numerous trip to WDW, the first in 2000. We like to book ASAP once rates become available online. Being painstakingly patient right now waiting for 2019 rates to post as we are planning for early June. On a previous trip we took advantage of booking rooms only about 16 months ahead to make sure we got the resort and room type we wanted. However, when the new rates came out and we went back to add MYW package to rooms, we found out that the only to accomplish this was to have the phone agent cancel current reservations and then re-book. We actually lost the specific room type we wanted as someone else booked those rooms in the seconds it took the agent to cancel current reservation and book a new one. So, now we wait for rates to be published. Also have never been able to call and get a discount applied to a reservation after it has been made. Agents always tell me that our rooms or resort are not applicable even though they may show up on a current online search under a special or discount promotion. Any tricks out there for getting a discount added to a reservation made before the discount came out? Thanks!
 


Planning a trip down in January as well. I loved it last year. Going down the week before MLK Day this year because I’m planning to head to the world right after my brothers wedding. I know the parks will probably be packed that weekend, but planning resort days to minimize that problem.

As for the rate release day, last rumor I heard was possibly June 19. I have it in my calendar to check. I rented DVC points for this trip so I have my room booked, but waiting on dining plan prices for 2019.
 
Ugh I can’t wait! This week is going to be a rough one for me... mostly because I have a bunch of exciting things happening next week.

Me too!! I really don’t want to rush this coming week but I’m more excited about packages being released then my birthday and my wedding anniversary. Oops
 
I'm waiting patiently(ish) as well! We are debating dvc or standard room, trying to weigh price differences. So excited to start booking!
 

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