It’s so unique.
Some feel like it’s inconvenient to share transportation. Or share a bathroom with kids.
Or. Or. Or.
so hard to compare! 
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I appreciate your perspective.
I know that things are not always about the bottom line. I need to rewire my brain for the $300+/night, though.
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I’m with you. The Disney perks sounded really good when we were planning our December 2019 trip!
In real life:
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In 7 days, we used EMH once.
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We couldn’t get FOP at 60+1.
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We got SDD at 60+4 for 5:30 PM, SDD at 60+6 for 9:15 AM and 7DMT at 60+7 at 8:45 AM.
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Less than a month to go, MK opened an hour earlier at 60 and I picked up a 7DMT for 8:30 AM, and HS opened an hour earlier at 60+4 and I moved SDD to 8:45 AM. I didn’t need Disney perks for either of these.
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When we were there, I had to cancel ALL HS FPPs for 60+6
because we went to the rocket launch! I rescheduled FPPs for 4 days later and was able to pick up an early AM RNR but later in the afternoon Tier 2s. I couldn’t move any of the Tier 2s earlier when we were in HS on December 23rd, CL 10. We were bookended by dinner ADR at CG at 5:05 PM. -
On the morning of 60+7, 3 of us were nursing a cold and couldn’t get up to get to our 7DMT FPP before 9:45 AM and I had to cancel!!!
We did have a good time but the Disney perks weren’t all it was hyped up to be and life got in the way while we were there to fully use the Disney perks (This isn’t Disney’s fault).
Staying at an Epcot resort wouldn’t necessarily be about the Disney perks or the convenience of being there but more so about the experience, I suppose.
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I know, it’s not easy. In 2009, I paid around $350 per night for the Grand Floridan in November. Granted, there were a lot of discounts at WDW in 2009. Now, for that same time of year GF is about $725 per night. I can’t wrap my head around that so I won’t stay there now. The costs for the deluxe resorts have escalated dramatically the past 5 years.
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If that is the case, then I think I would pass. The deluxe hotels are fine, but they are nothing great in terms of experience. For the cost of a deluxe at WDW, you can stay at a really nice hotel on a different vacation elsewhere.
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I’m all about enjoying perks elsewhere.
WDW is a different vacation.
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Having paid $133 a night for Pop and $146 a night for AoA this past October, $68 a night for AS Movies (via Expedia) in Dec 2014, and $103 a night for the Ramada Gateway in July 2011 (my last three WDW trips), I would definitely struggle to justify paying over double that for a nicer room with (perhaps) better accessibility to a couple of the parks.
We have considered the Coronado on seeing it at $184 a night, and if we got a particularly favourable rate would love to stay at the AK Lodge or Polynesian. We have also heard good things about the Caribbean Beach - all of these would have to be in the $250 a night band to be worthwhile, so the advice in this thread is useful in knowing how (again perhaps) to make this happen, thank you.
I did, however, pay $379 for a single night at the Royal Pacific at Universal (through Hotelopia) also this October - simply because this was cheaper than buying two days of Express passes. Still, compared to the $50 a night we paid for the Holiday Inn Express nearby (through Loveholidays), very expensive, and I could not justify another night myself. It is purely a function of personal value I suppose!
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This has been an interesting thread! Some of the prices are absolutely mind blowing. I’m wondering what my parents paid per night for us to stay at the Contemporary in 1987. I thought Coronado was fairly reasonably priced ($230 water view, free dining) and I loved the resort last summer.
I’m deal hunting for the second week of December right now. Have an on property value reservation, but trying to see if I can use DH hotel points to get a better deal at a hotel with Disney perks, but so far that doesn’t save me as much as I’d hoped it would. It’s a super short kid-free trip (2-3 nights) tacked onto DH’s Orlando conference, and I’m going for thrifty.
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This is how we are staying at poly for our trip and it’s still 400 a night. Same room w discount for our last night is over 600. Still outrageous but with a toddler it’s worth it for us
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We have stayed at deluxe twice. Once at the Poly for $300 a night using David’s DVC rental and the other time at AKL with a pin code making it $280 a night. The cheapest deluxe deal I could find for our March trip was $450 a night. Prices have increased significantly in the past 2 years.
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You and me both. We always get a condo. Many times it is closer to the parks than some of the cheaper resorts. We can make meals in the condo to save on costs (plus try to eat a little healthier a couple of days). And now with Disney charging for parking at the resorts, the parking at the parks is really a wash. Plus the kids and parents can escape each other for a little bit each night.
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It is such a personal decision. I am willing to pay extra for the convenience. I’d rather go one or two fewer days and stay onsite than save the money staying offsite. That said, we also hate crowds so our trips will always be during the less expensive times of the year.
We are going to do Epcot area for our next trip in 2021 for many of the reasons described above (walking access to two parks, access to many food options), but we are going to rent DVC. I haven’t seen the 2021 resort rates yet, but if the savings are similar to our trip this year the cost of renting DVC at BC or BW should be similar to staying at Pop and cheaper than AoA. If the cost is similar I’m going to pick a Deluxe with TS options (especially if you can hop to Epcot) over a Value with only QS.
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Deluxe prices are certainly steep. It’s not something everyone can afford or prioritizes. For families on a budget, you have to make choices of what you are willing to spend your money on, and what has to give. Some choose to stay at Value or Moderate resorts; others stay offsite and forfeit Disney resort perks; others reduce the frequency of their trips; others try to snag last-minute deals but sacrifice carefully curated itineraries.
For my family, we only go to WDW every 3-5 years. In the past we have stayed offsite or at a Moderate resort, but this time we chose to use DVC to stay at a 2BR Villa at BC. It is costing us an arm and a leg. We can afford it, but it definitely hurts. I can justify it because if I paid for the same villa out-of-pocket I’d pay like 50% more, and we won’t be taking another trip like this one for another 3 years. But don’t judge me if we’re back in a year or two. 
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Are you using points and cash? Because points alone is a substantially savings.
Points alone gets me one night only. Whomp whomp. My husband says apparently we’ve used most of them on our most recent out of town excursions 
. So savings would be $150 over what I’ve already reserved. But historically free dining has been offered during the days of our stay, so that would offset.
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At home, we rarely go out to eat. I rather not cook on vacation. We do have instant bowl noodles with a handful of spinach thrown in. Or we roll up lunch meat and cheese to take to the parks. Just me…
We can pay for deluxe. But it just hurts. I’m trying to get options on how to pay less 
for a deluxe. We would love to stay at an Epcot resort for the mega expensive experience. Don’t judge us on that please…
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Last year I stayed semi-onsite (the cheapest available good neighbor hotel) exclusively because of EEMH. It was a 3 day stay, so 60 day from check in FP availability wasn’t that much better than 30 days (I did luck out and got FOP for 8 people at 8am because Disney updated FPs due to park hours). Normal EMH aren’t that good either (just one park, and not early enough to detract people), but 3 hours on DHS with very few people? That made it worth it.
Good neighbors don’t have “free” transportation nor magic bands, but paying for ride shares and MBs OOP ended up being significantly cheaper than the price difference to upgrade to All Stars. The one place in which ride shares is much less pleasant than Disney transportation is when leaving Magic kingdom.
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