Why you shouldn’t wait for a discount on a Disney trip

One of the reasons why I write this blog is because I travel to Disney a lot, and I love to share my passion for Disney and (hopefully) helpful tips! In addition to all of my personal trips I also know quite a lot about the planning and booking process due to being a travel agent specializing in Disney. I’ve helped hundreds of people visit Disney in as stress-free a way as possible, and I’ve learned a lot along the way that I want to share with you.

For this post in particular I want to talk about why I think you should book your Disney trip and you shouldn’t “wait for a discount.” What I mean by that is people who say “well, I want to travel to Disney but I want a discount when I go, so I’m going to wait until they release them.” If you ask me this is almost always a HUGE mistake, and I’m going to share why in this post. It’s nice to get a discount on a Disney trip, but booking early is almost always the key way to save money.

Ready to take your trip? Email me today at [email protected] to start planning! Booking through me is no extra cost and I can help with all of your planning needs!

Discounts are not released very far in advance

Typically Disney will release discounts for one season at a time (winter, spring, summer, fall). They usually only release these discounts a few months before – for example, you might see discounts for June-July come out in March or April. 

However, Disney is a vacation where planning in advance is extremely useful. If there are certain reservations you want for your vacation you’ll have an advantage with a reservation already booked. On top of that, prices are often lower when they are first released than if you wait with a discount.

For example, let’s say a room at Pop Century is $200 a night for a week in August when you check it in January. But that seems a little high so you want to “wait for a discount.” That discount might not be available until April, and in those 4 months more rooms at Pop are selling out and Disney is seeing demand so they raise the prices. As a result, a room at Pop for August in April is now $250. Then they offer a 15% discount for value resorts – so with the discount you are paying $212.50. Hey, that’s more than if you had booked it in January!

It’s tricky of Disney for sure, but they want to reward people who book early and will adjust prices due to supply and demand. So you certainly take a risk like that if you wait. Even worse, the hotels you want may not even be available by then. All the values for August could be sold out by April and you’ll have to pay even more for a moderate. It’s best to book what you want as soon as you can.

Discounts can be applied after booking

Here’s a key reason why you should book as soon as possible – any discounts that are released can be applied to your reservation after booking. So if there’s a cheaper deal later on down the line and you qualify for it, you can get money back.

This is where booking with a travel agent like me becomes ideal. I will monitor for a discount on a Disney trip and automatically apply any that you qualify for to your reservation. I’ve had guests who were asleep at 7am and woke up to an email that said “I just applied a discount and saved you $300 on your vacation!” In addition, I can look for options if you are flexible – for example, if you are willing to move to a different hotel that might be cheaper with a discount.

Discounts don’t apply to everything

I say “ discounts that you qualify for” becuase that’s very important. Disney is again tricky with their wording. They will say something like “15% off value resorts from April-June!” and will say that Pop Century applies. However, that doesn’t mean that Pop applies for that WHOLE time period. It may only have discounts for one week in May. Their advertising can be very misleading so don’t assume you’ll get a discount just because Disney is advertising them. If you’re staying during a particularly busy time (like Christmas or the 50th anniversary celebration) there probably won’t be discounts for those dates.

If staying at a certain resort is more important than saving $50, you’ll want to book that resort ASAP. If you don’t care where you stay, you can always book whatever is most affordable at the time and then switch it later if there’s a better deal available.

You’ll miss out on dining reservations and fastpasses

You get an advantage to booking both dining and fastpasses when you stay at a Disney resort. If you wait to make your reservation you might miss out on these advantages. As a result you may not get everything that you want for your vacation – especially if you’re aiming for harder to get things, like Cinderella’s Royal Table, Be Our Guest, or fastpasses for Flight of Passage.

You only need to put a $200 deposit down at time of booking

If you worry about committing to a reservation before getting a discount, keep in mind that with a Disney package you only need to pay $200 at the time of booking (that’s for a resort and tickets – if you’re doing a room only reservation the deposit is the cost of one night). The remainder doesn’t need to be paid until 30 days before you leave (or at check in for room only reservations). 

If you need to cancel your reservation for any reason you can do so without penalty for up to 30 days before you travel.

The only exception to waiting

If you are COMPLETELY flexible in every sense of the word. I mean if you don’t care when you travel, where you eat, what resort you stay at, or what rides you do. Most people prefer to plan more than a few months ahead of time, when discounts are released – to take off of work, book flights, get good dining reservations, etc. Especially if flying, you could pay more if you wait too long than you would save by getting a Disney discount. Only if you don’t care when you go (or where you stay) would I ever recommend waiting, and even then I think it’s risky when you can do such a low deposit and cancel if necessary.

Ready to take your trip? Email me today at [email protected] to start planning! Booking through me is no extra cost and I can help with all of your planning needs!

Have you ever gotten a discount on a Disney trip? How early do you like to book?