Hoping you guys can help. So, I am looking at booking dates 1/2-1/6 for 2019. Just starting to price things out for next post Christmas trip. We usually go for fall break in Sept., but the heat was too much this time. So, we are looking at either WL or AKL both standard rooms. I was surprised to see WL coming in a little less. Almost $100 less for the 4 nights. My question is, when discounts come out for that time frame will one of those resorts be easier to get the discount applied? I am wondering if AKL is more expensive because there will be a discount and WL standard is a little less, but there will not be any discounts. I know this is all a bit of a guess at this point. Just wondering if past experts have any thoughts? I tried to take a look at 2018 to get an idea but everything is booked up so I cannot do any comparisons. Thanks!
Here is my story from this January's AP discount.
We are going to be there from the end of December until January 9th. We stay at The Contemporary - which is actually totally full on Marathon Weekend (Jan 5-8). I booked the rooms last December. When the AP discount came out, there were no rooms available for the length of our stay. There were, however, a few night in January which had rooms available and had the AP discount available. I saw this online. I then called and got them to apply the discount to all of the nights in January on my existing reservation. This was more nights than showed up online because I got the rate applied for nights when there were currently no room available. This took me about an hour and a half and talking to 4 different people.
So - you can get discounts applied to existing reservations - but you have to spend the time on the phone finding someone who will do it. This will save you if there are no rooms available. But - you can never guess which rooms will have discounts applied to them I am seeing a definite trend towards discounting the higher priced category rooms at each hotel. For example - during our stay, I could not find any Garden Wing or Bay Lake view rooms with discounts. Theme park view, suites and concierge rooms all had discounts.
Also - you have to keep trying. Last December we stayed in the tower with a theme park view. I couldn't get an AP discount until a few days before we arrived. I tried for weeks - but none were available. One popped up a few days before we arrived, and I was able to get it applied to our existing reservation. Last year in December, I saved around $1500. This year in January will be around $1400. My March trip savings were around $1000. Our May trip also got a discount, but I can't remember how much it was for. Keeping looking is worth it.
My advice is to book where you want to stay early. Then if you can get a discount, great. If not, be willing to pay rack rate or to change your hotel.
Edited to add this - You also should book early for another reason - room rate increases. The Garden Wing room that I booked in December of last year for December of this year was at rack room rate. Because rates jumped so much this year, this rack rate was less than any discount that I found later in the year. 15% off of the new rate was still more than the old rate. Ouch!