I was poking around the WDW website and looking at upcoming Room Discounts (AP discount I think?). So, for this year, they are doing a room discount on certain dates through the holiday season up through Dec. 24. This includes Deluxe Resorts. The Contemporary is listed as a 20% room discount right now.
While I don’t plan to go in 2019, I’m thinking forward to 2020. I will have a Contemporary room booked for December 8th. I already have it booked, in fact. But let’s say that NEXT September, Disney offers the same type of deal. How do you (can you?) apply the discount to an already booked room?
Do I just call up Disney and say, “I see you have a 20% discount for the Contemporary Resort. Can you please update my reservation with this discount?”
At the Contemporary, a single night with 20% off is no small chunk of change. It would save like $168.
Yes, you can apply discounts to an existing reservation as long as the same type of room you have booked is available on the promo for the dates you’ve chosen.
It’s easiest to book through a travel agent. They’ll monitor the discounts for you and can take care of applying it once it comes out. Saves you from calling the chaotic Disney travel number.
Sometimes there is a modify button on your reservation but I have always called and applied a discount that way. If you can see it online, know the number you expect it to be. I have found at times I have had to correct the quote. It does not happen all the time but sometimes they may add something you were not expecting. For example, one time they tried to add the dining plan to my reservation. Another time they quoted me the wrong number. I had to say, “I am looking at it online and the price is…why are you saying it costs…?
This is a part I’m unclear on. So, I’ve got a Theme Park View Contemporary room booked right now. But let’s say next September, they offer the discount…but all Theme Park View rooms have been booked, even though OTHER Contemporary resort rooms are available.
Does that mean that I’m out of luck? Meaning, I can only get the discount if they haven’t already booked all the Theme Park view rooms?
At least this year, the offer details just says that BLT rooms are excluded.
I’ve seen the ability to modify a reservation. (I actually had to use it immediately after booking because I accidentally set the dates wrong.) Wasn’t sure if that could be used for discounts. I don’t mind calling. (Well, I mean, I HATE calling, but I’m willing to put up with it for the sake the money savings!)
It is actually really easy to do on the website. And there do not have to be available rooms. That is why you call or update/modify your reservation. It works to call, use a TA, or to just do it yourself. Just do NOT cancel. Which is why it might be easier to call or use a TA. I did it online when they added the holiday discount this year. I also modified myself from one hotel to another. It does work.
That is also the way you can add things, or drop them, like DP, MM, or any other changes you want to make. The main thing is to be careful not to cancel.
One of the biggest advantages I have found to using a TA. As soon as a discount is released that covers my stay dates, she checks to see if the discount will save me anything and if so applies it. If it doesn’t she will let me know that she checked. She also knows that I am generally not set on one resort so if there is one she knows I have stayed at before or asked about, she will let me know if the discount is available there - even saying “It is not available for your booked stay at X, but it is at Y. Do you want to change or stay put?”
Last year I had a booking at Pop and a Disney Visa promo came out. When I looked for availability independently, as if booking a new reservation, there was nothing available for my dates. I called Disney and asked to speak to Guest Services and she just added the Disney Visa promo to my current reservation.
I guess I was a little unclear. I was responding on the fly between meetings. The discount/promo has to be available for your room type & dates. Not the room has to be available. So if they exclude your room category, or your dates don’t line up, or they have limited the number of rooms in your category that are allowed the discount and others have snapped it up, that’s when you wouldn’t be able to add a discount.
I still say use a travel agent… The ones who are good at Disney know the drill and will do the research for you, as well as snapping up that discount as soon as it’s available. You should be able to transfer an existing reservation to an agent, I think. And like LizzieAnne said, if there’s a simple way to get you the discount with a small change, the TA will know. Like if you need to add a night or arrive a day earlier or something like that to be eligible, or if all your nights but one are available and a split stay would let you access the deal, or whatever weird situation pops up.
When I booked my upcoming trip with free dining, I could get that discount for Dec 14-22, but the exact same package was not available for Dec 14-20 even though those dates also met the criteria. Like so much else WDW, Disney hotel reservations operate in a way that doesn’t entirely make sense to me, but that’s OK. The flights on the 22nd were cheaper anyway so I got 2 extra Disney Days. I’m far from upset.
I wouldn’t. But I think the advice is good for others to consider. I’m not sure it would be worth a TA’s time to book just a single night’s room on my behalf. But for others who might be booking a more extensive package/stay, I think going the TA route makes sense.
I’d try to transfer it to someone who’ll guide me through the discount maze when the time comes. I think there are some limitations, but transferring a reservation you made yourself to a TA is possible. I haven’t done it, I’ve just seen it mentioned.
But I would definitely not cancel and risk losing my room category!
One thing to keep in mind, if you have a room booked far in advance, and Disney does a price hike between when you booked your room and when they release discounts, your original price may be cheaper than the current room rate with a discount. This happened to me this year. We booked our room at the 490 day mark, and Disney then did two price hikes. When fall discounts came out this year, my TA checked them out but since I had booked my room so far back before 2 price hikes, the original room rate from 400 days ago was already cheaper than the current room rate plus the fall discount.
Yes, this happened to me. I wan’t looking for a discount but wanted to add a day, and the price difference would have almost obliterated our discount. I guess I could have just added a one-day reservation, but chose to expand our leading reservation at the Hilton instead, less hassle.
Disney has been raising prices ad nauseum. But I can only hope that in the next 12 months or so, crowds will continue to be a lightened trend as people hold off in anticipation for the 50th anniversary celebration. If so, they might be less inclined to raise prices. If they do, I’m protected at least. But if a discount becomes available that makes sense, I’ll try to take advantage of it.
If you transfer to a TA within 30 days of making the reservation, it can transfer as is. If it’s outside of 30 days, the reservation needs to be cancelled and rebooked by the TA
I just called Disney when they announced the recent one for our upcoming trip. They didn’t have one of our room types so I switched it (king to two queens) so we could take advantage of the savings. She even looked at the various deals available at the time to see which one made the most sense for our party. Very helpful. It only took a few minutes (day of announcement) and I was on the phone for maybe 20 minutes and it saved me $1,000 for our 4 night trip!!
