How is everyone booking?

[Deanie1]

I had booked one night at Pop, 9 nights at POR but just changed it to 5 at each resort. I love POR also but when I convert to CAD, . Unfortunately, I haven't paid much off yet, but I will be watching our dollar closely. This will be my last trip for quite a while. I plan to travel within Canada for a while.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Never mind... that's probably too political.

I'm with you. The dollar is making me rethink my vacation choices. WDW will still be there when the dollar rises again... someday... maybe when I have grandchildren.

 

[drag n' fly]

Aeroplan for the flights, cad ticket offer and room only. No free dining, no paid dining, no ro discount. Just little mermaid room with cad ticket. Putting Us cash on Disney gift cards and a food and wine wrist fob.

 

[dis_guy]

We always book directly with Disney and with whichever airline we're flying with, but the process is always the same since we typically book almost a year or so out;

1. Check resort availability for our desired dates.
2. Cross check airline fares.
3. Keeping an eye on flights, I book when I see a price I can live with.
4. Book our Disney resort. Take advantage of any offer(s) available or watch for new ones that we can apply.
5. Make all reservations within 24 hours of each other so you can cancel/rebook flights if your resort stay won't jive with your flights.

Economizing is about what others are doing. I have a change jar that usually has at least a few hundred $ in it by the time we travel. We limit out TS meals since those tips add up fast, which is why "Free Dining", isn't. Doesn't mean we don't get it if we can, though. By booking far in advance, we can nibble away at our balance gradually with less financial stress. yeah, the exchange rate is tough right now, so we're spreading out our trips more now so we can save a bit longer without compromising the way we like to do our trips. To be honest, I'm looking at a week in London for our next vacation. I know for a fact it will be cheaper than another week in Disney. YMMV.

 

[Kogo Shuko]

I am planning a vacation so far in advance (Sept 2018 or perhaps Feb 2019) that I plan on doing the following:
1. Buying three multi-day tickets with the Canadian discount right now.
2. Determining when we go.
3. Booking the hotel (Pop or All-Star Movies) as soon as I can, via phone.
4. Keeping an eye on flights and booking as soon as a good deal comes up.

I've never done Disney like this before - never stayed at a resort, never travelled with a child, etc. I'm used to staying with friends and going as adults, with no more than 3 days at the parks during the week.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I am getting Visa gift cards. I will purchase my groceries ( knowing that it is worth more than 100.00 ) and toss in the visa gift card. Yes it does cost me the 5.95 to activate it. Then I plan on going to our local AMA ( I'm in Alberta ) to purchase tickets with my visa cards. And yes, I called ahead to make sure I could use them before I started my plan. I'm keeping them stored in my hiding place in the house...my growing mountain of material and scraps from quilting lol. Even the hubby doesn't know I have them. And if someone did break into the house, I'm pretty sure they would stear clear of my project/quilting room lol

Gosh I'd be afraid my hubby would swoop the pile up in the garbage one day! Lol. I hide my stash of extra vacay cash and gc's in a locked cupboard at work. I'm the only one that has access to my office....so it's pretty secure there. Unless there's a fire..hmmm.. maybe I should get a fire proof cash box.

 

[Camilo]

For the first time since 2010, I'm thinking of flying from Toronto (versus Buffalo).
There are 5 of us flying from Jan 13th to 27th (that's our goal), 7 days in Orlando, driving to Miami, getting on a cruise and flying back from Miami.
I'm used to pay U$ 200.00 return on direct flights from Southwest.
Their schedule is not released yet but I'm checking prices for other months and they have REALLY gone up.
I'm finding the tickets from Toronto for CAN 2400.00 with one stop on the way there.
Will wait some more, though...

 

[deedubb]

Used CAA on our first Disney trip many years ago, then did everything on Expedia for a while. Now I just book everything directly. I use my Marriott Visa for everything as it doesn't tack on an exchange fee.

We usually drive to Detroit and fly Delta and have done this over March break many times. We're going twice this year with another trip coming up over Xmas. We're flying Westjet for that trip so we don't have to do any driving. Pricey, but everything is over Xmas. The savings flying Delta at that time year is minimal.

 

[minnie56]

Just booked Xmas ...were driving to Florida this time.
Airfare is nuts , sadly Canadian ticket offer doesn't work for us either but it is what it is.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

A little excited...I received a phone call yesterday morning...I won a small amount of money on the daily cash cow monthly draw from our local dream home lotto. Since I purchased the ticket, the hubby said the money was mine to use as long as I used it on something for everyone. There is enough for flights for the 4 of us to Florida. That was my one worry was the cost of flights from Alberta. Crossing my fingers and keep planning and collecting as many Am and Pc points I can to use towards tickets and hotels.

 

[jadephoenixx]

Late-February, we decided to change our vacation plans this year and went to WDW this past April because we needed to go somewhere warm sooner rather than later. Because of that, I didn't have as much time to save and research additional savings but did take advantage of the room discount offer from Disney and the 25% Cdn offer. For more savings, we flew out of Buffalo for about $400 less than what I could find out of Pearson and for meals, we either did cheap quick service or split our meals.

We are now planning for Disneyland May 2018 so I have a whole year to save and stick to our household budget! My plan is to put the money equivalent to my PC Points in a separate "Disney Account" and any "free" money such as for birthdays, Christmas, etc. will also go into that account. I figure I can save $500-600 on that alone and that will go towards our meals. For tickets, I'll be buying from a re-seller (LMTClub, aRes and Getaway Today gets good reviews on the Disneyland Board) - hoping for one of those buy 3 days get 4th free deals. I'm planning to fly out of Buffalo but who knows, maybe I'll get lucky with an Air Canada or West Jet sale.

 

[Jonas_Swe]

I guess that I am a proper Old School booker, and also since I love to have full control (not OCD just enjoying it a lot) of my reservations, dates and the complete process of getting to the vacation - I prefer to call myself, strike up a good conversation with the Disney reservations Rep. and as the time draws closer I call back to get into the details more and more until I have it all set (with room to change/re-plan on site).

I even make spreadsheets that I color code for each park and/or activity... LOL!

 

[Sue M]

I had booked one night at Pop, 9 nights at POR but just changed it to 5 at each resort. I love POR also but when I convert to CAD, . Unfortunately, I haven't paid much off yet, but I will be watching our dollar closely. This will be my last trip for quite a while. I plan to travel within Canada for a while.

For the first time ever I'm booked at Pop for all 10 nights. CAD is too brutal to stay at mod or deluxe. Booked with TA. Bought Canadian offer ticket. Still watching airfare.

 

[morrik5]

We booked our flights on WestJet (for a relatively cheap price for a family of 4) and directly on Disney for more control on what we are paying (and no hassle chasing down the TA for the reservation code)

How much did you pay for your flights? Watching for airfares for April 21st-28th next year for my daughter's family of 4 which must be non-stop.