Holiday August 2005

[PrstnKaren]

Hi
We're in the UK and want to stay at All Star movie Resort from 10 August 05 for 21 nights. We need one room for three adults and one child aged 16 years.

Will we be better off buying annual passes for all of us or premium annual passes as we will want to visit the water parks on three occassions and also at least one trip to pleasure island and a couple to disney quest?

What happens if we make a reservation now and then discounts are offered for annual passholders? Presumably the discount for annual passholders also applies to premium annual passholders? When are discounts usually announced?

My husband is a civilian teacher with the Air Force and my daughter is at uni training to be a teacher will this give us any discounts?

Are the payments made in US dollars?

Sorry for the list but just trying to get things sorted!

Thanks alot.

[Penny Brailsford]

Hi Karen

Considering the length of time you plan to be visiting I would definitely consider a Premium Annual Pass, especially if you were to secure a room discount with this as these can often run to up to 40% off the rack rate!

The good news however, is that you do not need to make that decision now :) You can go ahead and make your reservation for All Star Movies now if you wanted without having your Annual Pass (or Premium AP, both passes qualify for the room discounts) in hand. Should discounts become available later (Disney usually announce them anytime from 1-3 months in advance of the offer period) and you have booked your room through Dreams then we will <i>automatically</i> check for those discounts on your behalf and apply them to your reservation when possible - your annual pass does not need to be purchased before securing this discount.

Unfortunately there are no teacher discounts available at any of the Disney owned resorts and whilst there is currently an time-sensitive offer running for military personnel this is for US military only.

Yes, all payment will be paid in US Dollars (which is a good thing for you right now as the exchange rate is currently to your advantage!) and can be done via Credit card. When booking you will be required to pay a one night deposit with the balance payable at resort on arrival, however should you find the exchange rate dropping and wish to take advantage of it (or you simply just prefer to have things taken care of before departure), then it's fine to fully or partially pre-pay your stay in installments at any time if you preferred.

I hope that helps but if you've any further questions, please just fire away! :)

Penny
DREAMS UNLIMITED TRAVEL

[PrstnKaren]

Hi Penny

Thanks for answering my list of questions!! I hope you don't mind but i have some more!!

Would we all need to have the premium annual passes or could the other three have ultimate park hoppers and if so how much are they please?

We can't book our flights until Sept as scheduled flights are only released 11 months ahead. If we make a reservation now can the dates be tweeked by a day or two if we can't get a flight on the date we originally said and would we be charged if we had to do this?

Can we get Universal tickets through you?

If i book through Walt Disney UK the price at present is about £100 less than the rack price you are quoting what are the chances of discounts throu you next August? Sorry to sound mean but it all adds up!!

Thanks very much and I look forward to hopefully booking with you soon.

Karen

[Penny Brailsford]

Hi again Karen :)

No problem!

You don't <i>all </i>need to have PAP's (Premium Annual Passes) in order to get the room discount, just one will do, however for the length of time you are staying there it works out cheaper.

The current cost of a PAP with tax included is $531.44 - when comparing that to an UPH (Ultimate Park Hopper ie. Length of Stay ticket) then you would break even at about the 12 night/13 day stage, at which point the UPH becomes a more expensive option.

If you made your reservation now, it's no problem to tweek, move or rearrange your dates later on when your flights become available and there is no charge or penalty for this - just let us know! :)

We do not currently offer Universal Tickets, but we do have a vendor we recommend who you can buy discounted tickets from directly.

It most certainly <i>does</i> all add up! Obviously discounts cannot be guaranteed as this is something Disney offer and is completely out of our control, however using history as our guide the chances are good that there would be some sort of Annual Pass discount offered for your trip (for instance, they are offering Annual Passholder discounts for August this year at <i>up to</i> <b>40%</b> off of rack rates!!) As I mentioned previously this is something Dreams checks for on your behalf automatically and there is no charge or admin fee if we were able to apply the discount.

Hope that helps but if you've other questions please don't hesitate to ask :)

Penny

[PrstnKaren]

Hi Penny

Me again. I am about to book our flights in the next couple of days- hurrah!! Just before I request a quote could you please answer a couple more questions?

1. If our stay goes into two price bands is the whole stay charged at the higher band - we will be staying from 8th August to !st Sept next year?

2. If ther are discounts for PAP like this year does the discount only apply for part of the stay or would all the nights be included?

3. As you advised before we intend buying PAP for all four of us, when is the best time to buy these as presumably they will go up before next August so we would like to purchase them before the price goes up? Also how do we purchase them?

Do you deal with car hire as well or will I have to arrange this myself and if not do you recommend any particular company?

Many thanks and I hope you have not been too badly affected by the hurricanes.

Take care

Karen

[Penny Brailsford]

Hi again Karen,

Woohoo! Congratulations on being ready to book your flights, always a great position to be in I think :)

In answer to your questions then...

1. If your stay crosses over two price bands then the whole stay would be based on the rate you have the day you check-in. However, what we can do if necessary is actually book it as 2 reservations for you. One for the first part, then when the rate changes, we book another reservation starting the first day of the new rate. You would have to check in at the front desk again for the 2nd reservation, but we would link the reservations meaning <i>hopefully</i> you shouldn't have to move rooms!

2. If there are discounts offered next year then there may be restrictions on the number of nights you can use the code for - for instance, this year you could only book a maximum of 10 nights with the code. Again, to take advantage of the codes this may mean making more than one reservation for you as above (As with any of Disney's discount codes, the more flexible you are prepared to be, the better chance we have of being able to apply one - getting a discount for part of your stay is no guarantee that they'd be available for all of your stay).

3. Annual Passes last went up in March 2004 so they may well go up again in price around that time, though that's not a definite and prices are subject to change at any time!

You can buy your passes directly from Disney by calling 407-WDISNEY (407-934-7639), so to call that from the UK you need to add 001 to the front ie. dial 001 407 934 7639. They will then mail you vouchers for each pass you buy, then when you arrive at Disney you can exchange the voucher at any WDW theme park or Guest Services at Downtown Disney for the actual AP which is then activated at that point.

4. Unfortunately we do not offer car hire, however being in the UK I recommend you purchase this in advance rather than on arrival due to the high cost of insurance they charge. I assume you are familiar with the Disboards? (www.disboards.com) - I suggest you visit the UK Trip Planning Forum and do a search on "car hire", this should throw out a number of companies/options that are more suited to UK visitors, and from people who have actually experienced using them first hand.

Thank you so much Karen for your concern regarding the recent hurricanes :) Dreams agents work from home and so are spead from the West Coast to as far as the UK, therefore many of us (myself included) were not directly affected by Charley, Frances and Jeanne's visit to the Mouse House! Naturally we do have a few people located in the area, but thankfully they all weathered the storms as well as WDW did, and came through it safe and sound!

I hope that helps, if not do feel free to post here or when you request a quote from our site your assigned agent will also be happy to assist you with your questions :)

Penny

Hi Penny

Me again. I am about to book our flights in the next couple of days- hurrah!! Just before I request a quote could you please answer a couple more questions?

1. If our stay goes into two price bands is the whole stay charged at the higher band - we will be staying from 8th August to !st Sept next year?

2. If ther are discounts for PAP like this year does the discount only apply for part of the stay or would all the nights be included?

3. As you advised before we intend buying PAP for all four of us, when is the best time to buy these as presumably they will go up before next August so we would like to purchase them before the price goes up? Also how do we purchase them?

Do you deal with car hire as well or will I have to arrange this myself and if not do you recommend any particular company?

Many thanks and I hope you have not been too badly affected by the hurricanes.

Take care

Karen

[PrstnKaren]

Thanks for your help Penny. Flights now booked so Mickey here we come.
Am about to ask for a quote and than book.

Will my agent automatically split my booking to take advantage of the two price bands that our dates encompass or do i need to ask for this ?

Will they also autoamatically split my booking if discounts are for a limited number of nights( if they have any) as obviously on a 25 night booking if discounts were available we would like to split the booking to take advantage of them!!

Thanks again for answering my many questions.

Glad to hear that you were not affected by the hurricanes.

Take care

Karen