We had the fabulous opportunity to tour the monorail resorts and Epcot area resorts during our trip in December. DH loves the Epcot area resorts and is entertaining the idea of staying there when we return to WDW someday.
We looked up how much it would cost to stay for a week this May, around Mother’s Day, at any of the Epcot area resorts. We were blown away by the costs, $350-$450/night! That price also includes a discount, 20% I think.
Many of you are very experienced at getting great prices for resorts. Please share tips on how we can make the dream of staying at an Epcot area resort a reality. I think $200-$250/night could be reasonable.
It is still unlikely you will find something in the 200-250 range, but this is probably your best chance. Be on the lookout for Beach Club, Yacht Club, or Boardwalk Villas.
If you are going to stay on Disney property, you are going to pay…a LOT. That’s why we don’t do it. Our 25th anniversary trip this December is a one-off event that I’ve been saving for for 3 years.
If you want to have a great time at a great price, stay OFF property and rent a condo or house for a fraction of the cost! Even if you go to the value resorts, you’ll be paying for a tiny room compared to renting a house/condo for the same price. Yes, yes…I know…no 60 day FPs. For our May trip, we’re staying off property. We’re fine missing out on some FPs when it means saving literally THOUSANDS of dollars.
$200-$250 a night is a reasonable price on Disney property… if you’re staying at a moderate hotel.
The Magic Kingdom and Epcot are hotels are all Deluxe or Villa level accommodations. You’re just not going to get that low of a price because Disney doesn’t have to charge that little to fill them. The major selling point of those rooms is first their location, followed by the amenities. You could look into the Swan and Dolphin, which, while not being actual Disney hotels do share some of the on property perks and are generally lower priced.
Your other option would be to rent DVC points and stay at Boardwalk, but you would need to plan about a year in advance for that (booking at 11 months is best chance to get what you want with DVC as that’s when the owner’s booking window for their home resort opens). Based on this year’s points chart, that would run about $1800 for a week in a standard studio at Boardwalk at $17/point, or roughly $250/night.
I think staying in the boardwalk area would be a lot of fun! But prices will only go up every year. If you want to stay there, why not give yourself extra time to save up for it? Maybe delay your next trip an extra year so you can put money aside slowly and then it won’t feel too painful. DH and I are staying at WL this month, and it took me 3 years to save up for the trip. Normally I stay at a value or cheap moderate resort. But the price WL is worth it to me for many reasons, so I don’t mind paying it. If the boardwalk area resorts tick off a lot of boxes for you, then go for it!
I do get that Disney is expensive. Congratulations on your 25th Wedding Anniversary!
We just celebrated our 25th Wedding anniversary at Disney last month. We stayed on points at the Hampton Inn off site but spent the money to attend MVMCP twice, do Amorette’s cake decorating, and eat at Fogo de Chao. No Disney perks at the Hampton but we didn’t need them.
The kids arrived on day 6 and we moved to the Hilton at Bonnet Creek, on points also. We got the Disney perks here. I gotta say, 4 adults in one hotel room is a bit much but we weren’t in the room that much.
Next time, it will probably just be DH and me. It’s not that we can’t pay for the resort. It just pains me to pay so much to basically sleep.
I think, in order to get the low prices you are looking for, it will require a DVC owner needing to cancel their existing reservation a few weeks or even days before the check-in date. They can’t get a refund, so they can try to resell on the website I listed. And they will probably discount more heavily closer to the check-in date, to recoup at least some of their expense. I’ve never done this, so I can’t speak to it. I just know its a possibility.
I didn’t do the math right in my head and thought renting points would have been more, but this is a great option. We stayed at the Boardwalk in October on rented points and loved it! The one caveat I will point out is that there are no refunds. You can get trip insurance though, e.g., DVC Rental Store offers a “Points Protection Plan” or something like that for I think $2/point?
I would definitely get the insurance… I’ve heard some horror stories about folks rentals being cancelled, and the brokers do the best they can, but don’t always get an equivalent room unless insurance helps cover the price.
I recommend renting all the time… and I’m an owner. We actually leave next Friday for a trip and had to rent an extra 130points to cover taking a bunch of family with us this time.
Yeah DVC rental is really the only option you got for staying in the Epcot area and not paying through the nose. DVCRental Store has “last minute” point availability which is what @NoBellePrizeWinner was talking about. For example, there’s a 166 points up for grabs at $13 a point. The tough part is the turn around on everything else to capitalize on them (flights, meals, room availability, etc…) I’ve also never done it, so I’m not sure how much of a headache it’d end up being.
This is an option, but DVCRental Store’s trip protection plan, I think, is very lame. Should you cancel earlier than 3 days, you only get half your money back, and within 3 you get nothing back. Does 3rd party trip insurance pay out better, or is that pretty standard?
EDIT: correct, the protection plan is NOT available on their discounted points it seems.
Our Cancel for any Reason Point Protection Plan is not available to be added to reservations booked using Discounted Points.
I just looked at BWI in a preferred studio (standard is not a reasonable expectation in my opinion) and it is about $315 a night in May. The swan and dolphin might be available in the low $200 range but there is a nightly resort fee plus other costs (transportation from the airport). You might also find Swan and Dolphin on Priceline.
I think we may lose some of the savings with last minute airfare from the West Coast. And we are still working. Last minute vacations may not work that well but in 10 years…
We always buy trip insurance if we paid for the bulk of the trip up front (airfare, vacation rentals…)
In December, the only things we paid up front were tickets and a little bit of the airfare. We didn’t buy trip insurance. Then I got the flu on the last day and had to stay another 4 nights on points and we had to pay to change 2 of our flights on Alaska ($800). Trip insurance would have ran us maybe $400.
