Would you rather? (AKA - Someone needs to revoke my internet privileges!)

Walt Disney World
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What follows is the very long saga of me trying to pick resorts. It’s not as fun as a trip report, but it is as long!! I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice.

A little background…our trip (11/27 - 12/7) began with a plan to stay at Coronado Springs in standard rooms (2 rooms, 1 with DxDDP). Then they announced the tier changes at HS and someone mentioned that the club level fast passes could be a solution. So I switched the first half of our trip to club level standard rooms at Coronado Springs, still DxDDP on 1 room. Then they announced the opening date for RotR. My mom suggested we upgrade the rest of our trip to club level. I found a 5 person club level at BWI and booked that. Only 1 room though, so no more dining plan on the second half of the trip. No problem though, we were doing some repeat TS meals that I didn’t mind cutting out.

I started working on our touring plans. As I was putting in our transportation times I realized it was silly to be going to HS or EP while we were staying at Coronado. Why waste the easy access from BWI? So I put HS and EP on the second half of the stay. After some fiddling and ADR work I figured out that Monday, the day we would be transferring from CS to BWI would be a long day at HS for us. That didn’t make sense. It would be better to transfer on Sunday while we are at MK and would be done early. I figured this out yesterday. I meant to call to make the change, but the day got away from me. So before bed I quickly hopped on and booked a stay at BWI for the last 6 nights of our trip, figuring I would call today to shorten the CS stay, cancel the 5 night BWI stay, and move money around.

And then they dropped the room only discount!! I spent 3 hours on the phone with Disney and finally managed to get the discount applied for our BWI stay. At first it wasn’t available, but after the CM cancelled our 5 night stay, the nights we needed to make the 6 night stay eligible were available. I was the one keeping me from booking the discount!!

Well then I started thinking about our first 4 nights at CS. Based on our new touring plan we spend a lot of those days in the monorail area. So I started searching for rooms around MK. And now I’m booked at Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge. Here are the options that I currently have:

2 club level rooms (1 with DxDDP) at Coronado Springs ($412.75/night each)
1 5 person room (no more dining plan) at Contemporary ($682.33/night)
2 rooms (would add DxDDP to 1 room) at Wilderness Lodge ($431.10/night and 541.25/night) *if it opens up, I would book a 2nd room at the lower rate

The meals that we have planned that would be covered by the dining plan come to roughly $1,200 before tax and tip. Also before alcohol. And snacks. We’d be paying roughly $840 for the plan (1 adults, 2 children).

The plans for the first few days of the trip look like this:
11/27 - arrive late, go straight to bed
11/28 - Typhoon Lagoon, dinner at Artist Point, HEA Dessert Party
11/29 - afternoon at AK, hop to HS for JBJB Dessert Party (assuming they have it this year)
11/30 - tour monorail resorts, early early dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Ft. Wilderness for sleigh ride and golf carting around the loops
12/1 - MK (PPO at BOG)

So by leaving Coronado we would be giving up the club level perks. I can manage without the extra FP at AK (we can concentrate on Dinoland that day), and I can get the extra FP for MK if we want them because we move to BWI that day. We were gonna utilize the lounge for breakfast those first 3 mornings. Instead we could just use snack credits. Or bring granola bars.

The bigger dilemma I think is the choice between Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge. Cost wise it’s obviously cheaper to stay at the Contemporary, even factoring in what we would have saved with the dining plan (unless I can get that second room at the cheaper rate, then it’s just like a $200 difference). But all 6 of us would be in 1 room. At Wilderness Lodge we get 2 rooms to spread out in. We are all 6 going to be in 1 room at BWI, so we’re not opposed to it, but maybe it would be nice to spread out a little and have 2 bathrooms for that first part of our stay. I just don’t know what to do!!!

If you’ve read this far, thank you!! Which resort option would you choose?

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I love the Contemporary, but I would pick Wilderness Lodge for the 2 rooms. We’ve done 5 in a room once and tempers flared a few times. We felt like we were on top of each other. Both are great resorts so I would pick a little extra elbow room!

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Thank you!! I’m kind of leaning that way too. Although I do like the idea of the walk to MK from the Contemporary. Ahhh!! First world problems!!

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Have stayed and loved WL.

CLFP will help with tiering issues in HS and EP. Since there are no FP for SWGE, how do you plan to schedule FP for HS? We’re also CL at end of Dec. Thinking we need to split HS into 2 days - 1 for SWGE uncertainty and 1 for the rest of HS.

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This is my very ambitious HS plan:

https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=3669189

Because my mom will only ride TSM and DS4 is too short for RnRC, we can actually make all of these FPs work with some MB swapping. It is our current intention to RD RotR on the day it opens. But who knows, we may end up just skipping it altogether.

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Having been to none of these places, price and logistics make the Contemporary look better to me:

  • quicker back to the room after HEA dessert party
  • easier/faster to get to your PPO at BOG

If you weren’t doing the HEA Dessert Party I’d go for WL for getting back after Artist Point dinner.
And having more space at WL sounds good. My only question around that is – having had more room to spread out at the beginning is the shared room at BWI going to feel more cramped than it would if you’d been sharing a room all along?

Both sound better than CS to me, since you don’t need CL passes on 11/27, 11/28 or 11/30.

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This is an excellent question. More to ponder…

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The room that I had booked at the Contemporary was lake view. I just found a Theme Park view for about $75 more a night. I booked it. Of course I did. Somebody suspend my MDE account!!!

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It’s still cheaper than the CL Coronado Springs room, even accounting for the Dining Plan, isn’t it? And think of the excellent photos you’ll have of the view, which we’ll all enjoy in your trip report? #enabler

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Wilderness Lodge hands down. Especially at Christmas. Also, I realize you have PPO at BOG on 12/1 but historically Sunday’s are one of the EMM days at MK for Fantasyland. Booking that would knock out the big FP items in Fantasyland.

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It would probably be a hundred or two more with the food.

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I was actually getting the PPO for the empty park, not ride advantages. If they have EMM I would probably do that instead though.

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You’re cracking me up.
My trip would feel akin to camping to you. :joy::joy::joy:
At least you enjoy planning. :heart:

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I do love to camp! And I mean real camping, like in a tent in the middle of the woods, not at a campsite. Granted I haven’t braved that type of camping with 3 small children yet. We do the campsites as a family.

At the end of the day, I am my mother’s daughter. She’s never met something she wanted that she didn’t buy!!

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Are you buying the extra FPP’s with a club level package? I have never had that much luck grabbing that many FP’s in a day, but then maybe I’ve just been unlucky.

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Yes.

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As soon as I posted I remembered that Sunday the first is the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend this year. Disney has been perfectly inconsistent with that Sunday and EMM the last three years. 2016 they offered it, 2017 it wasn’t offered for all of Nov and Dec. 2018 it was originally sold but then cancelled. I really hope they offer it that day.

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Six people in one room would be tight. I’d go with WL for extra room. Plus, WL is so beautiful!

You obsess over your trip just as much as I do. I’m glad I’m not alone! :joy:

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3 of the 6 are only 2, 4, and 7. All together they are basically the size of 1 adult!

Which is actually why I’m hesitating. I currently have most of our resort time scheduled for while we are at BWI. I want to stay at WL when I plan to spend more time enjoying it!

You are definitely in good company here!!

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You can’t go wrong with Contemporary or WL. I have stayed in WL but not CR so I would encourage you to go there so I can live vicariously through your trip report! In fact, go ahead and book two rooms at CR! :wink:

I am going through the same cost creep for my 2020 vacation. I have gone from AoA>AKL>Cabins at FW>BCV over the last two months of planning. By the time I’m done I’ll be in a Poly Bungalow!

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