When (and how) to book Disney Hotels (Florida)

[HuevosRancheros]

I am in the early stages of planning a trip to Florida WDW for August 2014

Planning to book the flights in September, as I understand that they are released 11 months in advance, and this is the cheapest way to get them.... is this your experience?

Going to stay mostly in a [privately owned] villa - when should we book this to get the best deal?

Also, I would like to stay in a Disney hotel for the first few days - at the moment thinking Polynesian - when should I be booking this? If I compare prices for this year vs. next year (currently looking at booking direct with Disney), this year seems much cheaper than next, so am I right in thinking I should leave booking this till next year?

One final question (!) - in the Unofficial guide to WDW, they talk about specific rooms being better than others, and asking for these, or at least requesting rooms with certain views etc. How do you do this? Do you need to book direct with Disney for this? Or contact them once you have a booking through e.g. Expedia?

Many thanks in advance, this is so new to me!!

Hello - I don't think leaving the booking for Disney will result in lower prices nearer the time, tbh. They are fairly fixed in their pricing (at least in LA with the original Disney).

I would book everything as soon as you have your flights fixed up, i.e booked. Then you can allocate accommodation to your exact needs.

Recently I have found that if you can find a phone number and speak to a real human, it makes the whole booking process a lot quicker and easier.

good luck anyway - sounds like a fun trip!

To be honest, I'd book disney once you have the flights and then see if any villa's have avaialbility. If you want a villa, The Dibb have some lovely villa's and you can put up a request and villa owners with availability will reply to you.

We're staying on Highway 27 at Westridge in an AOA villa with Thomas Cook for a reasonable price.