4 Night Budget Trip . . .Advice Needed

[Wish Upon A Star]

My story is a sad one . . .I had originally booked at DV 7/4 for October 27 - November 2 at Contemporary Tower...then, me and my big mouth . . .started suggesting how cool it would be to take a land/sea vacation during April 2005 vacation so that way we can go back to WDW yearly during April which we used to do. Well, DH said choose between the DV 7/4 or the April land/sea. Well, stupid me decided we'd do the April land/sea and cancelled the October visit.

Flash forward to now . . I'm in serious WDW withdrawal, haven't been since June last year . . .and April 2005 is forever away. DH said if I really want to go in October we can go for 4 nights only if I can obtain good rates.

Sooooooo I need help . . .when do late October discounts if any come out? Would it be better to book 2 rooms at a moderate resort or stay at WL or AKL? Our dates would be October 28 - November 1.

I would only need 3 day php so hopefully our May Mousesavers letter will offer those again through Ticketmania.

Any advice on how to keep costs down for this short trip?

[mad4themouse]

You can check here to see what codes were released in the past and when they came out. MouseSavers.com - Historical Trends (http://www.mousesavers.com/faq.html#codetrends)

Last year, it appears that there were no room-only discounts for the general public in October. There are never any guarantees that there will be. However, in 2002 the room-only discounts that covered October of that year came out in late July.

If this is a budget trip, I would book a nice room offsite, or one of the DTD hotels. Oct. 28 -Nov. 1 would fall in the regular season for all 3 resort categories. Rack rates for 2 value rooms would run you $198 per night plus tax. A deluxe would run a minimum of $239/night plus tax. You could find a very nice offsite place for way less than that. If room-only codes are announced for October, you can always cancel the offsite hotel and book a WDW resort.

[Belle1962]

If you are going in Oct and then land/sea in April--could you get AP's and reduce the cost of the April trip??? And use the AP code for Oct? That may not be an immediate savings but a savings in the long run.

I like the Marriott Village at Little Lake Bryan. I've stayed at the Fairfield and the Courtyard there. Rates for that period look to be running $55 - $89 per room per night. (With a coe you may be able to stay onsite tho).

I also think the hotelkingdom.com and the 2 bedroom unit at Cypress Point are a great deal. We've used this frequently. (I think around $65 per night for a full 2 bedroom condo no timeshare tour required)

[CheapMom]

My story is a sad one . . .
Sounds like a pretty happy story to me! Just joking.
Go to mousesavers and go to the section titled freebies... find an article title free and cheap things to do at WDW. We are in a similar position as you- we had a wekk at WDW planned for 12/04 SOMEHOW (my fault) it turned into a land sea deal. SOMEHOW we decided to also plan a little trip in the meantime (my fault again)
Anyway we are planning on doing more relaxing than park hopping. I want to explore some resorts, swim... We will only do 2 days of parks- have fun!

[Katiebug]

Consider off-site hotels or Priceline.