December room & with Cdn resident tickets?

NewbieMouse

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 13, 2010
I originally posted this in the resorts thread, but then it occurred to me that my fellow Canadians may have more experience with this issue .... 🇨🇦

We are Disneyland regulars (go every year) but are considering a different December trip next year which incorporates WDW instead (have been there once but can fit it on with a larger driving trip in the SE). With the Canadian Resident ticket offer (which must be bought by February 7th), I know you can call and have that combined with a package, but right now naturally there are no room offers for December yet. So I am thinking that I should buy the tickets, and wait and book the room separately. The question I have is - how late in December would room offers typically be valid, if they come out at all? We'd be checking out by December 20th in any trip model I'm coming up with, and would be staying at Yacht Club or Beach Club.

TIA for your help. :goodvibes
 
The room discounts for December (room only) won't be out until July. I have my resort booked for next year and getting the tickets as well. I believe you can combine or get the room discount applied once the offers are released.

Edited to add: I think the offers wrap up around the 20th? I think I read that on a thread in the resort thread.
 
Here's what i would suggest you do, if in fact you KNOW you're going to head there next year:
  1. Buy the tickets before the sale is over
  2. Book whatever room type you want right now
  3. Stalk the resort board and watch for the drop date for discounts
  4. Obsessively check the Disney site once the promo launches and see if you can change your reservation (yes it is simple, I did it just a few weeks ago and only needed to pay the difference between the room i had and the one I wanted)
  5. Want a dining plan as well? Then you need to call in and ask them to apply it to the room you have booked, might take a bit and it will actually create a new reservation but POOF, you have what you want at a price you like!
 


Here's what i would suggest you do, if in fact you KNOW you're going to head there next year:
  1. Buy the tickets before the sale is over
  2. Book whatever room type you want right now
  3. Stalk the resort board and watch for the drop date for discounts
  4. Obsessively check the Disney site once the promo launches and see if you can change your reservation (yes it is simple, I did it just a few weeks ago and only needed to pay the difference between the room i had and the one I wanted)
  5. Want a dining plan as well? Then you need to call in and ask them to apply it to the room you have booked, might take a bit and it will actually create a new reservation but POOF, you have what you want at a price you like!

This.

We did a trip in December 2019. 3 days at AKL, a B2B2B Disney Dream cruise, then 3 days at CCV. Our only park ticket was MVMCP, so we didn't have that issue to deal with. However...

We booked AKL 499 days out, obviously rack rate.

We initially booked WL instead of CCV at 499 days out, rack rate, so we knew we would have a room for the dates we wanted at WL, the resort we wanted.

When it became possibly to book CCV at about 10 months out, we changed the WL to CCV, still rack rate.

When the room only discounts were announced for December, we were able to change our AKL room from rack rate to the discount rate via the WDW website.

There was never a discount available for the CCV studio, so we paid rack rate. If we had wanted a one or two bedroom we could have gotten a discount, but even with the discount, they were hundreds more than rack rate studio, so we stayed with the studio. If we had been flexible with our resort choice we would have had other options at the RO discount rate, but we were not, so rack rate it was.

This, my suggestion is to book the room now that you want at the resort you want, that way you know you HAVE IT. Then, if discounts come out you can see if they can be be applied / change your booking to the discounted rate. And if none are available that you are ok with, you still have your rack rate room that you are happy with at the resort you want.
 
Yes, rates right now are almost $700 a night, so we need a deal for sure. That's what makes me nervous about buying the tickets....
 
Given that it is 11 months out, would renting DVC points at an AKL studio be a better price? I didn't look them up for December, but those AKL studios are a good price at other times of the year!
 



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