How far in advance do you book your next trip?

[m 'n c]

How far in advance do you book your next Disney vacation? Do you book it as soon as you know your dates or do you wait for codes or promotions to be announced? Do you book and then rebook if something better comes up?

Last time I booked a few months in advance during the free dining program since BF and I were discussing going on vacation and it just happened to work out. This time around we have a full year and a half month until our trip but since the packages are out and I have some gc's buring a hole in my pocket I am wondering if I should book so that we have a guaranteed vacation planned or should I wait in case a good promo is announced. We did not preplan or book a vacation this year (was going to cali wine country but due to a change in jobs that isn't happening) and we are missing out on a vacation because of it (wasn't prebooked and so he won't take vacation right now). So now I'm nervous and obsessive over our vacation for next year.

[bs4free]

Lets See! I have Booked our first trip 27 days before we went! Full Price Everything!
I Booked our second trip with 32 days before we went, with rerelase of FreeDining code.
I booked our thrid and fourth trips about 6 months out as soon as Free Dining Codes were release!

For the last two trips we planed around haveing codes released! and just waited.

The first two trips were not planned far ahead and were very special since we did not have to WAIT so very LONG!!!

[Hedy]

I booked my Dec trip in January, but my work's vacation rules are weird (you have to ask for a week before you can take a day, so I wanted to vacation dates so I could do that).
I figure you can always get your deposit back.

[Magical JenK]

I've booked the last two vacays 9 months prior just to start the excitment of planning! I say book it, put your GCs towards it & have fun planning it all! I'm a planner though. I like to see everything printed out in front of me (or online) for it to be real.

[zoodoyle]

We're planning on going in August of '08, and now that they've released pricing, I'm already getting antsy....I LOVE planning our trips!!!!! This time my parents and my brother and sister are going with us, so when I go see them next week, we'll decide on specific dates, and which hotel, and then when I get back I plan on making our reservation! I can't wait!!!!!!

[jnorth1007]

I booked in January for my December trip and then in February I got a discount postcard and went back and added my October trip. I like having a year to pay off the trip. I book exactly want my dream would be and put the 200.00 down and then I tweak as i go along. I add or remove days, changed the week on the December trip once and I am able to break the trip down into 10 equal monthly payments and make it a monthly bill.

[linanglab]

We always book the December or january before we go. We usually go in July, so that is about 6 months in advance.
Angela

[jnorth1007]

If anyone has a Disney Visa card they have discount right now so I would call to check your dates and if they are available I would book now.

[m 'n c]

Hey guys how hard is it to tweak reservations after you book it and start paying. ie if I save enough to add on a day or if they release free dining next April/May would it be a pain to tweak my reservation or cancel and rebook??

[jnorth1007]

The first thing to remember if you are going to be tweaking and fine tuning...DONT USE A TRAVEL AGENT. I did it the first time this time because I was new to the obsessive planning thing and thought that she would be able to get me better rates because of her position. However, with TGM I have found out about codes before she has and I am not, of course, her only client. I would have loved to be able to do all of the tweaking myself. That said, it is not hard at all to call Disney and make changes to your reservations if you need to. I changed my first trip by adding a day to the end. I changed my second trip by moving back one week. I changed the December trip from a family sweet at ASM to 2 connecting rooms at POP. From me and DH and kids and MIL to add FIL and BIL. I did all of these things on seperate occasions and transactions. Im sure my TA is wishing she could get rid of me. It would have been super easy and quick if I could do it myself but I couldn't. Even so all changes were made and confirmations sent. The other thing is that by booking through Disney itself you can see your trip info online. You cant do that through a TA.