Yet another WDW hotel sticker shock story

What I found surprising is that a 5/5 house isn’t that much more than a 2/2 condo. We downgraded from a 5/5 house for 150/night to a 2/2 for about a 100/night. That is the all in price. I wish we knew someone that was going when we are. Originally we were going to travel with another family and split the house cost.

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I DEMAND! IIII DEEEEMAAANNNNNND!!!

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You all are convincing me to look seriously for something offsite if I go. I did look at other theoretically slow weeks and while there is more hotel availability, it is all moderate or above, so even more outside my budget.

I did visit last September, I actually booked the trip pre-COVID. I kept the reservation not deciding until the last minute and luckily then it was that dip between Florida’s summer surge and the national winter surge, so felt as safe as I could going. I felt sorta good knowing I got a trip in and Disney hopefully benefited from guests during that tough time. Now I feel they really don’t want or can’t accomodate any more guests.

Without the fastpass or early entry, it is either offsite or cancel the trip. We’re rapidly approaching the point where fastpass can’t have any value since it will be too late to give on-site guests an advantage. That leaves early entry. That would be the only reason and is that extra half hour worth over $100/day times ten days? I need to remember to add the $15/day parking when comparing to off property.

I’m a numbers guy and the numbers aren’t looking so good.

will

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Welcome arouge238! Yep, that has been me too, it’s been on-property ever since my first and only off-property stay 20+ years ago. I just felt “this is the way”, so kind of mind bending to be thinking differently.

will

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OK, did some looking around for some basic hotels nearby and including any amenity fees, seems to be on the order of $100-$120/night. They aren’t fancy, just Holiday Inn class, (neither is Pop if you just look at it as a hotel) which is fine with us, it is all about the parks, the hotel is just a place to sleep between parks. That saves us on the order of $1,500 for a trip this long.

In my digging I decided to go look at the Swan/Dolphin. I thought I had typo’d something when it came back with over $10,000 for a 10 night stay! There is something very weird going on. That was just the Marriott website, so sure some discounts are around, but $1,000/night??!! Looking outside the Disney bubble is definitely a new experience!

will

This trip will be our first time staying offsite. We were pushed that way by costs and the desire to limit the number of different places we stay. We are driving down and taking advantage of it to do WDW, UOR, KSC, and some national parks. We are renting a VRBO with a pool for about $200 a night (with all the taxes and fees). We will see if we wind up regretting this - it was nice to stay in the bubble. However, the last time we had a car and drove from AOA to the parks (except MK) anyway. Much more convenient than the bus.

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I just extended my trip by a day across the way at the Marriott Sable Palms. I know they have gone up in price recently, but a 1,200 sf condo for 8-nights with a five-minute walk to an amazing pool complex at the World Center for $264 a night is hard to beat. I’ll have to pay for daily parking at the parks as their transit system to the parks gets mixed reviews, but the full kitchen will cover that for breakfast money saved and meals outside of the parks. My last stay at Disney was OKW. It was nice, but the sub-par pool and exorbitant cost in comparison makes me doubtful I’ll stay on-site ever again. We are literally getting five-days of park tickets and 8-nights lodging for $1,000 less than just the lodging itself even renting though DVC.

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I just booked a trip for mid September 7 nights staying at sapphire falls at universal for 1279. I will Uber to Disney for my 4 Disney days. So that will probably be another 200 in transportation. I almost booked Portofino Bay because it is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. We are doing HHN at universal so it will be nice to be close to there.

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Interesting coincidence! This just posted on Disney Food Blog! :slight_smile:


Mostly just echoing everything said above. Only thing I realized that I didn’t have in my spreadsheet
was I need to budget theme park parking if offsite and driving in.
That’s and extra $200 for eight park days, but if saving $1,500, still not bad.

Still reeling from even thinking this way after two decades of always staying on property. I don’t think I need to decide either way just yet, but need to within a month or so–or if I see park pass reservations for September starting to fill up.

zientm, sounds like we’re in the same boat! Hope your trip goes OK.

will

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I am going to go against many in this thread and say that I would stay at Pop even at $200/night instead of offsite. I obviously love being in the Disney bubble the whole and you can’t put a price on that for our family. The biggest issue right now is that if you are indeed a rope drop family (we are for sure), you will be 20-30 minutes behind staying off site if things in Sept are the same as they are now. For example, from Pop you can be in DHS and on a ride by 8:15. The parking lots won’t let you in early enough to pull that off right now. If they do start the EMH in the morning by September it will be even worse, you’ll be 30-40 minutes behind. Plus in the heat of Sept we always go back to the room mid day and swim or chill, way easier from Pop.

There is no right answer, for us the extra $$ is well worth it to stay on property, we don’t spend a ton on dinners and eat a lot of quick service. For others the hotel savings are worth it. Just a few things to ponder.

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I am with @vedder32 in that our calculation always seems to fall on the side of staying onsite. I will say, however, that that calculation is because our manner of vacationing also looks different to many on this thread (i.e. we never rent a car, we love being in the bubble and never leaving, we love Disney transportation).

In any case, the one interesting thing that I am waiting to drop is the new plan for early morning entry for resort guests at all parks (at least - I think that is still planned?) Is that going to change the calculation at all? It will be interesting to see.

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Yes once that starts I’d be right back to staying onsite. It was easy to avoid one EMH park, there’s no avoiding this. Though that applies equally if you’re staying onsite but don’t want to have to get up early.

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Yes, I guess I also ignored the people that don’t rope drop. My family are all early-risers (my kids are up before six even when they are not at Disney) so for us we are always at the parks well before they open.

But to your other point - that was what I was thinking. You can currently easily avoid the EMH morning park (and let’s face it, many of us who were staying onsite were already avoiding that park because it was guaranteed to be the most crowded). All the parks opening to resort guests first will change the calculus significantly, especially in regards to headliners and new rides. Think of what a queue will look like (at least a physical queue) a full half an hour after resort guests have been allowed in? Virtual queues may look different, but these may get offered to resort guests first as well.

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I hope not! B/c ppl that stay off site are still spending a chunk of change to go into the parks and if they can’t get a BG to RotR, for example, there will be more angry/disappointed guests.

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I’m not saying they should! That’s a different conversation and certainly one I’m not paid to consider. But Chapek has not been shy about talking about catering to vacationers versus annual passholders, so I can see a similar conversation happening where the edge goes to those who elect to stay onsite.

Again, not saying that is right or fair or is the decision that should be made, just that, from a business perspective the people staying onsite are giving more of their money to Disney on a per day basis (for both accommodations and because they are likely buying more meals on Disney property) when compared to those staying offsite.

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all the money stuff is true… but I’ve been noticing more ppl are choosing to stay off site due to cheaper, better accommodations. And as an AP holder, I feel the hate from Disney all the time now :face_with_raised_eyebrow::sleepy:

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There’s definitely a debate to be had as to whether it’s the correct decision. And I know a number of very vocal people in the Disney blogosphere/trip planning/youtube community who are not at all amused by all of Chapek’s statements and actions against AP holders. If I were an AP holder I would be rip-roaring mad.

And while AP holders don’t necessarily spend the same amount of money per day as vacationers, there’s an argument to be made that you shouldn’t be trying to compare in this manner, especially AP holders who are locals and visit frequently.

Overall I was just commenting to say that I would not be surprised if similar decisions were made by Disney when it comes to resort guests versus non-resort guests.

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Yes we’re early risers, for us I would have much preferred the full hour at one park to continue. We didn’t always do it but I did love it, especially at HS and AK.

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Yes, but you won’t have to pay for resort parking!

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@Vedder32 and @Off2Neverland and @missoverexcited:
I agree EMH is the big and very tangible thing that would force a re-calculation. I am an EMH addict and luckily so is my family, so it does have value. If that does come back, even in this new form, I’d be re-thinking the call to stay off site. Just right now it is only a teaser and has been a teaser for so long that I’m jaded, kind of like Space 220s opening date. The plan of attack I’m thinking of is booking off-site with something cancellable and taking my chances. If they revive EMH and I can get a Pop room, cool. If not, then oh well. It just bugs me that for this trip the cheapest possible on-site accommodations (Pop through MVT) are more than half the total trip cost. There is a reasonable grumpiness about the Boo Bash being $150-ish for a 3-hour event. That is essentially the premium for that extra 30 minutes of EMH (and paying it every day) at Pop vs the offsite hotels I’m looking at.

On the new EMH plan, even though only 30 minutes, my hope is that by having 4x the parks to choose from that net-net you still come out ahead. Of course all four parks for 60 minutes would be nicer! :slight_smile: I get the idea of not concentrating folk, so very OK with at least the theory. Remember the Extra Extra magic hours fall 2019 where DHS was open for 3 extra hours and the other parks for a full hour? Oh the days gone by. We were lucky enough to have a trip that time, that was great.

will

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