only 10 months?? Cuttin’ it kinda close ain’t ya? 
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Paying $200-$250/night for Pop…
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The one advantage to Pop is that it kind of acts like an Epcot resort in that you have the Skyliner access to get to HS/Epcot rather than simply walking. (Me, personally? I’m scared of Skyliner…but if you’re not afraid of heights like me, then you can just hop on Skyliner as opposed to walking if you were staying at BW or BC.
Pop was our back-up option if we couldn’t secure a BWV rental (which we did).
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What can I say. It was only our second trip. I didn’t know any better.
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We stayed at Pop on our first trip in 2012. The room is motelish but it will just be DH and me next time. We’ll see.
I’m afraid of heights but I rode the Skyliner in December. It was fine. Just don’t look down!
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Join the military.
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Thank you to all who serve our country! They deserve the discounts.
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Whenever we head to WDW I take a cursory look at properties and then book elsewhere. 
It’s so much money for a place we basically just sleep in…
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I know. I’m with you.
Dreaming and researching while our last trip is fresh in our minds…
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The resort fee can be a whooper of a killer! In December, we stayed 10 nights at the Hilton at Bonnet Creek. The resort fee was $45/night! But fortunately, we were staying completely on points so we didn’t have to pay the resort fee.
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Did you look at swan or dolphin? The week of Memorial Day is only about $220 + taxes and resort fees. It can vary a lot but you can get awesome deals there if you have any flexibility.
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For thanksgiving week 2019 I only paid 350 with taxes and resort fee for a huge deluxe alcove room. That place is hugely dependent on conventions.
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We are dreaming of going to the International Flower & Garden Festival.
For a Marriott hotel, I could work on accumulating hotel points.
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MVT has historically had pretty great Labor Day deals on deluxe resorts. I’m crossing my fingers that we can do that for our anniversary trip in September!
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Thanks for the tip! Congratulations on your anniversary!
MVT used to have great Labor Day rates but two years ago they were not as good and last year Disney released discounts that ended up being a better deal. They do have discounts at other times of the year in 2020 but they no longer offer tickets at a discount.
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You are really paying for the location where you are sleeping and it’s proximity to Epcot and DHS (not just a place to sleep).
If you think about it as being a place to sleep, then you will not be able to justify the cost. If you want to be able to consider justifying the cost, I think you need to think about it as paying for convenience and a time saver (getting to and from the parks faster has value).
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I think much of the perceived value lies in the perks you get for staying on site. For us, the perks weren’t enough for us to justify that expense again. We stayed on site last visit to get 60day FPP and early entrance and ended up regretting it. Our rooms were tiny and dated. We didn’t get the FPP we wanted (SDD and FOP) for any of the 8 days we were there and only got a late afternoon 7DMT FPP.
The early entrance was nice, but in the end we decided that we preferred staying at the Marriott with bigger rooms, several bathrooms, and a kitchen and not having early access to the parks but simply rope dropping the parks that weren’t offering extra magic on that day.
That all being said, we do not bat an eyelash at spending the big bucks to stay at Aulani where we really use the resort.
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For those of us travelling with disabilities, resort prices are pretty good for the ease of transportation alone. At an off-site resort, I factor in cost of room (or house rental), a car/van rental big enough to hold a wheelchair, Disney parking, Magic Bands for everyone (optional, I know), and the amount of time it takes me to disassemble and reassemble an ECV for each park day. Turns out that staying at AoA was about even with an off resort hotel. We lose the freedom of a vehicle of our own, but ease of transport, 60 day FP, and hotel amenities were enough to justify it this trip.
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Yes it was because DH is now disabled that we first stayed onsite. I wanted him to be able to take breaks whenever he needed and for us not to have to take the ECV apart every time we went anywhere.
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