As of today Disney have stopped the practice of booking a room 499 days ahead.
You can now only book a room beyond the end of the current calendar year once packages are released.
Seems short sighted, and no explanation has been given.
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I saw that yesterday
My TA pals didn’t think it was a big deal
I guess I do more room only bookings than they do and I was very bummed about the change
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I will add that it occurred to me after some discussion that perhaps it won’t be a big deal going forward. And I don’t think it bodes well for APs returning. Because essentially the only reason you would ever do a room-only booking is because you already have tickets. I suppose you could also be planning to get tickets from a third party, but my room-only bookings are largely AP holders
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I assume some people book rooms to lock in a room at sought after resorts, with a view to possibly changing to a package later depending on whether a package is better value etc.
That way they can lock in dates and book flights. If this applies to the U.K. and international guests it could hit bookings pretty hard. It’s common here to book over a year ahead.
Anyone wanting to go in Winter is only going to be able to book 6-7 months ahead.
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that’s true too.
one person did mention booking room only at their preferred resort of choice for marathon
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This was my immediate thought. We used to book very far out, more than 8 months. And nearly always room only.
I wonder if this relieves some of their IT load.
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I would think it will create a huge IT load on the day packages are released. As well as all the people who were waiting for packages, they’ll have everyone all trying to book at the same time.
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Maybe they get paid for exceptionally long wait times so they want to create multiple opportunities to do that.
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Yep. That day is already insane and unmanageable
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A wise person will use a TA and never wait on hold 
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I always book room only without tickets. Also they brought APs back to Disneyland recently, I suspect WDW isn’t far behind. I think it has more to do with pricing than anything.
But you will on their behalf.
Exactly. But that’s what I am paid to do 
I wait so you don’t have to
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Only renewals came back you still can’t purchase a new one yet.
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We always do split stays, so I always book room only and then buy my tickets through UT or BW Ticketing. There are also very few rooms that fit my whole party, so I like to book at the first moment possible to ensure we get to stay where we (I) want to stay. I am super bummed about this change.
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I would never book a package, because I always plan on getting discounted tickets. This sounds like an attempt by Disney to reduce those getting discounted tickets as well by encouraging folks to get a package.
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It’s not going to work
If you’re a discount ticket person you’ll just get those tickets a little later.
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Any military families book room-only as well, because they get military hoppers.
Since we have DVC we don’t count at WDW, but at Universal I never book a package unless it’s through Costco. There’s not much benefit (especially post-shutdown) to booking a package at either place, really, and you have to worry about the 30-day cancellation. Since they’re not doing discounted packages or dining plans is there any benefit to a package right now?
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Not that I know of.
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