Hi all! We were lucky during COVID as far as trip plans-we had none. But we are finding the increase in cost of things is making planning future Orlando trips…confusing. So much is up in the air about what will or won’t be available come spring break next year. We’ve already decided that the trip we thought we were going to do to Universal in October isn’t going to happen (too expensive, we’re going to spend the money to go to California for a long weekend instead, don’t feel sorry for us😂). I just started pricing resorts for next year and things are way more expensive!
Has anyone who normally stays in the deluxe resorts decided to stay off property because it seems like the benefits to staying on property are a lot less? Obviously, that might change in a year. At any rate- how are you all going about making your plans? Are you still doing it yourself? Using a travel agent (recommendations?)?
I’m feeling overwhelmed!
We have a trip scheduled for October at YC. I booked it quite a while ago anticipating discounts. I was just looking at changing our resort and or dates, and I am shocked by room rates and availability. I am considering off property or just not going. I just started looking at this yesterday and I have come to no decisions.
It’s really too early to tell what is going to be going on next spring. Whatever you decide I would go ahead and book something now while there is availability and keep checking for discounts to be released. There are lots of Disney travel agents out there, but most don’t have discounts much better than what is publicly available right now.
Another option is renting points for a DVC property. There are several sites you can rent from and some have dedicated rentals you can book at a discount.
Staying offsite is a gamble with rental car prices also extremely high and Uber/Lyft being unusually high as well with spotty availability.
We have Plan A and Plan B reservations for our Jan 2022 trip. I had been about ready to make Plan C reservations at POP but then they announced that the skyliner would be closed during out trip (late Jan 2022). Right now I am leaning toward a combo of Plan A & B, but I won’t be cancelling any reservations until probably December. So much is unknown.
For me the big question is, will there be any interesting on-site benefits? We drive there so have a car. In researching the offsite options I’ve read a ton of people say that they have been converted to off-site people from being committed to on-site. If enough people are like that, Disney will have to add on-site benefits back.
Funny story. In August we chatted with a woman at Volcano Bay. She was doing that (staying at CB and driving over to Disney). She had no idea it was next to a water park until she saw it from her room and decided to check it out.
By Spring Break next year the Early Morning Entry for Resort guests (or whatever it’s called) will be up and running.
The Touring Plans team have modelled that and shown it will save between 1-2 hours in wait times. And of course you’ll not be able to rope drop any park if you stay offsite (and not at one of the resorts which get those perks).
We loved the family suites. Hated the theme with a purple passion. But, the rooms had a nice layout. For example, the TV was on the wall between the living room and bedroom giving a little extra noise barrier.
We had the exterior entry family suites. I think we had the perfect rooms. We were building 1, first floor, first room. I think the room number was 1101. Our friends had 1102. So, from the lobby it was the first room on the right.
I love purple, it’s my favourite colour. But how does a purple passion compare with, say, a yellow or red passion? How do you rank your coloured passions?
Sapphire re-opened shortly after we left. I had looked into that for the same reason.
The cafeteria was surprisingly reasonable. One day we’d had Big Fire reservations and we ended up leaving because they couldn’t serve half the menu and they couldn’t serve every last thing that we planned on ordering. By that point, it was middle of the busy dinner time and we were hungry! Even with reservations at Big Fire, we’d had to wait for a little over a half hour. So we ate at the CB cafeteria and was pleased with our food and the price.
You will laugh at me because they are so different. On-site tent camping and Windsor Hills two-bedroom condo near the pool. Plan C was going to be on-site Value.
We are going late January so the weather should be nice and the rain minimal. DH is an expert camper. When we go camping my only jobs are to help tote stuff to and from the car and follow directions to get the tent up.