Pre Book Disney Hotel or wait to see if Free DD is released - Aug 2020

[emsparkles]

Ive pre booked a garden room only at the Yacht club through WDTC. It is a room on its own and it looks like one person is staying in there with no park tickets dinning plan etc. It cost us £50.00 per person per room. Should the free DDP come out and what we want (A standard or Garden view room) is available at the Yacht Club, we shall book this package and cancel the room we have booked as even though we would loose £50.00 deposit we would still end up saving ££ with the offer of free DDP. Should our ideal room and resorts (as long as it is an EPCOT resort area hotel) not be available for our dates then we shall just add more people, park tickets and then decide if we want to pay OOP for the DDP on the room we have already booked BUT at least we have the option. I didnt want to run the risk of all the rooms going that we would want for these resorts and us been left with crazy 2 bed suites in club level! For £50.00 its worth the gamble to me.

[Andybear]

I'd definitely wait. Travel agents just want the sales. I've heard of too many instances where a travel agent has told someone they'll add on free dining if it's available but haven't done so.

[abfatboy]

Ok, heres the logic from the TA behind pre-booking, what do you think (its Travelplanners by the way), quote from their email to me today -


'With regards to Disney we know that the special offers will be released on 25th April, what Disney are advising is for you to get your rooms confirmed as Star Wars is opening and availability is going to be very tight for next year especially in Summer dates so you are best to get in early and get the cheaper room type confirmed, then once the offers are released we can get everything all switched over, all you will pay is if there is a small difference in the room rate which is normally between £200-£400, we won’t charge you any admin fees to switch it over so it means it’s win win for you and means that you can get in early before everyone else so you can get the cheapest room type confirmed.

You can by all means wait another couple of weeks but would you want to pay another £300-£400 for a different room type as well as the difference for the special offers?'

[abfatboy]

The quote is from the 20th Aug 2020 returning on 9th Sept, flying with Virgin from Manchester, 3 adults, 1 child aged 8.

10 nights POFR standard room, inc tickets
5 nights Universal Adventura inc tickets
5 nights Lido Beach hotel Sarasota Car hire for last 5 days

10178

On top of this if free dining is released I'd upgrade to the standard dining for another £500/£600.

Thoughts?

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by abfatboy

Ok, heres the logic from the TA behind pre-booking, what do you think (its Travelplanners by the way), quote from their email to me today -


'With regards to Disney we know that the special offers will be released on 25th April, what Disney are advising is for you to get your rooms confirmed as Star Wars is opening and availability is going to be very tight for next year especially in Summer dates so you are best to get in early and get the cheaper room type confirmed, then once the offers are released we can get everything all switched over, all you will pay is if there is a small difference in the room rate which is normally between £200-£400, we won’t charge you any admin fees to switch it over so it means it’s win win for you and means that you can get in early before everyone else so you can get the cheapest room type confirmed.

You can by all means wait another couple of weeks but would you want to pay another £300-£400 for a different room type as well as the difference for the special offers?'

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Funny that Disney are advising TAs to do that, but not doing it themselves

[teachx]

Originally Posted by abfatboy

Ok, heres the logic from the TA behind pre-booking, what do you think (its Travelplanners by the way), quote from their email to me today -


'With regards to Disney we know that the special offers will be released on 25th April, what Disney are advising is for you to get your rooms confirmed as Star Wars is opening and availability is going to be very tight for next year especially in Summer dates so you are best to get in early and get the cheaper room type confirmed, then once the offers are released we can get everything all switched over, all you will pay is if there is a small difference in the room rate which is normally between £200-£400, we won’t charge you any admin fees to switch it over so it means it’s win win for you and means that you can get in early before everyone else so you can get the cheapest room type confirmed.

You can by all means wait another couple of weeks but would you want to pay another £300-£400 for a different room type as well as the difference for the special offers?'

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Disney would certainly not be advising people to book before the offer release as Disney would much prefer you to book with them, so it would not make sense for Disney to do that! This is exactly what VH did last year at this time, and many people took the bait. When Disney released the offer then VH found that they did not have the allocation that they had guessed they had and chaos ensued as people that had booked in good faith found themselves in different resorts because their originals were overbooked because they jumped the gun without knowing the exact room allocation that Disney subsequently released. Many on here were caught up in it, not me I add as I always book direct with Disney and waited for the offer and booked and got exactly what I wanted for this year.

[abfatboy]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

Funny that Disney are advising TAs to do that, but not doing it themselves

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I am very suspicious to be honest but on this site there are a lot of positive reviews of travelplanners which is why I haven't written them off just yet.

Thanks though.

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by abfatboy

I am very suspicious to be honest but on this site there are a lot of positive reviews of travelplanners which is why I haven't written them off just yet.

Thanks though.

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Yes, they do. However, they also get commission, and it's probably easier to get someone to book when no-one else is offering what they want than it is when everyone is offering it and they can shop around for the best price. Locking people in before the offer goes live by promising to honour the offer make life easier for them as there's less competition right now and they know people get twitchy and are eager to book.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by abfatboy

Ok, heres the logic from the TA behind pre-booking, what do you think (its Travelplanners by the way), quote from their email to me today -


'With regards to Disney we know that the special offers will be released on 25th April, what Disney are advising is for you to get your rooms confirmed as Star Wars is opening and availability is going to be very tight for next year especially in Summer dates so you are best to get in early and get the cheaper room type confirmed, then once the offers are released we can get everything all switched over, all you will pay is if there is a small difference in the room rate which is normally between £200-£400, we won’t charge you any admin fees to switch it over so it means it’s win win for you and means that you can get in early before everyone else so you can get the cheapest room type confirmed.

You can by all means wait another couple of weeks but would you want to pay another £300-£400 for a different room type as well as the difference for the special offers?'

See more...

The problem with this is that historically when free dining has been released the room categories available have often been different to those available prior to the offer. I’m not sure I’d want to take the risk.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by abfatboy

The benefit sold to me was that when (if) free dining is released it will be so busy (compounded by Star Wars land release)

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Star Wars Land is opening on 29th August 2019 (this year). Not in 2020.

Anyone who is desperate to visit Star Wars Land will have already booked their holiday, probably for later this year sometime.

The TA is just using this as a way to panic you into making a booking now, rather than later. The sooner they can get you to commit to booking with them (and the sooner they can start getting money off you), the better it is for them. It also gets you to book with them rather than waiting and booking with someone else (eg. Disney).