Who cannot/will not book onsite without a code?

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I can't stomach the high current rack rate prices plus minimal discounts that came out for the first quarter of 2013. I was shocked when I priced out this year's trip. I think the price they are currently asking for a value room seems high at rack or minimal discount. Transportation perks are not a factor in my decision as we rent a car for cheap anyway. Neither is the extended hours, as we tend to hit the non-EMH parks anyway.

With the price shock, we actually started to explore other options and I have to say we are pretty excited about our upcoming trip which includes $0 being spent at disney. For the first time in about 6 years (about 7 Orlando trips), we are actually staying off site. Instead of onsite, we are opting to stay in a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit at Bonnet Creek for less than $100 a night, going to discovery cove and sea world, and seeing several spring training baseball games. My boys are going to be thrilled!

Our only disney thing will be Chef Mickey, but that is free to us with disney chase rewards $.

If free dining had come out, might be a different story. Disney probably would have gotten the majority of our $. We have been wanting to do Discovery Cove, the high price of Disney this year made us reevaluate how we spend our vacation $ and we opted for Discovery Cove. I think it will have a ripple effect for us though. After this trip, I have a feeling I will never convince my husband to stay onsite again. 2 bed/2 bath timeshare right next to the parks with nicer amenities for less than the price of a value room......Exploring other options this year has really opened our eyes and I am not sure we will ever do another exclusive Disney trip or stay onsite. Disney will probably only be a small portion of our trip at the most.

I agree with what you have said and I think for our family our first WDW trip last year was our last "exclusively Disney" vacation because the increase in the cost of park tickets and steady increase in the resort rates (with minimal if any discounts) just isn't practical for us. We love Disney and the all inclusive aspect of staying onsite was nice (particularly Magical Express); but I think Disney knows that once more people start opting for offsite options, those guests' eyes will be opened to the other great parks and lodging options in Orlando. It surprised me how they shortened the window for the free dining offer this fall and how for the first time in years free dining wasn't offered for Jan or Feb, but instead this S/P/D promo is out which does provide a nice savings but not nearly as much as free dining to keep our family onsite with the higher rates we would pay by going during "regular" season for our upcoming trip. We are booked at Bonnet Creek for our May trip and plan on spending time doing stuff outside of Disney (Sea World and maybe a beach day), which we most likely wouldn't do if we were staying onsite.

 

[tink1953]

I agree...Disney has overpriced themselves and we will be joining those staying offsite...transportation is not enough of an incentive to pay $1000 more just to stay at Disney...

we always stayed offsite in the past until I found the Dis boards and recieved a code for $49 a night at All Stars Movies...we couldn't believe we could actually stay at Disney World, we were hooked and started flying and doing just Disney, who needed to go anywhere else...then came free dining and we enjoyed places and food we would never have been able to do without this discount...
.well it looks like all that is gone and they aren't trying to entice us to stay with them....so Disney you win....we will not be staying with you anymore, until you start giving us a reason to spend our hard earned money with you...

thing is once they realize people aren't staying with them they will raise the parking rate to $25 a day and the food and tickets prices will soar to make up for
the rooms being empty

BArb

 

[pinkerbell]

I have never found onsite transportation a reasonable means of transportation. We like to dine at resorts and often go from one location to the next w/out a stop at the resort. This kind of travel will take up an entire day. It took me almost 3 hrs to get from A of A last trip (before we picked up our car) to Wide World of Sports and a walk to POP. Yes its a short walk, but ther are no sidewlaks and I had a child is a stroller as wheelchair, certianly not safe! There were no busses from AoA, (however, the cast member I first spoke to said there was???) ANyway, On the way back there was a woman calling on the bus who it had also taken hours and was about to miss an ADR due and was not going to pay the fee for missing it, I wonder how that all worked out???? So right now, I would stay onsite because????? Oh yea, that's why I'm looking into other options : lol

 

[Shaden]

I have never found onsite transportation a reasonable means of transportation. We like to dine at resorts and often go from one location to the next w/out a stop at the resort. This kind of travel will take up an entire day. It took me almost 3 hrs to get from A of A last trip (before we picked up our car) to Wide World of Sports and a walk to POP. Yes its a short walk, but ther are no sidewlaks and I had a child is a stroller as wheelchair, certianly not safe! There were no busses from AoA, (however, the cast member I first spoke to said there was???) ANyway, On the way back there was a woman calling on the bus who it had also taken hours and was about to miss an ADR due and was not going to pay the fee for missing it, I wonder how that all worked out???? So right now, I would stay onsite because????? Oh yea, that's why I'm looking into other options : lol

See this i dont understand. We stayed at Coronado last Feb for 8 days. The on site transport was phenominal !!! Never waited more than 15 mins for a bus.... busses were awesomely quick, clean, drivers were nice. I couldnt have imagined a better experience. The convenience of being on site and the sort of dual vacation feeling of being in a resort while at the resort and being at disney in just a quick bus ride was perfect. We are hooked, going back in May

 

[pinkerbell]

See this i dont understand. We stayed at Coronado last Feb for 8 days. The on site transport was phenominal !!! Never waited more than 15 mins for a bus.... busses were awesomely quick, clean, drivers were nice. I couldnt have imagined a better experience. The convenience of being on site and the sort of dual vacation feeling of being in a resort while at the resort and being at disney in just a quick bus ride was perfect. We are hooked, going back in May

Did you try to go from say a waterpark to downtown disney, you cant. Also not all resorts have transportation to WWofS we were running in 3 races and our hotel didnt offer transportation to it. Or from one resort say for a meal, to another for meeting up with friends, you also cant do that. If you are doing standard resort to park travel it may work better. But we do a lot of the "other" things, mini golf, disney quest, waterparks and like to travel from one to the other without the added time of going back to the resort.

I think it is done to keep people from parking in the "free locations" and taking disney transportation to the parks, but it very timely to those staying there and just trying to get around.

 

[Shaden]

Did you try to go from say a waterpark to downtown disney, you cant. Also not all resorts have transportation to WWofS we were running in 3 races and our hotel didnt offer transportation to it. Or from one resort say for a meal, to another for meeting up with friends, you also cant do that. If you are doing standard resort to park travel it may work better. But we do a lot of the "other" things, mini golf, disney quest, waterparks and like to travel from one to the other without the added time of going back to the resort.

I think it is done to keep people from parking in the "free locations" and taking disney transportation to the parks, but it very timely to those staying there and just trying to get around.

We did lots of other stuff, including WWoS. We went from our resort to other resorts for dinner, and yes sometimes that meant taking a bus to one place and hoping on another. We never had any problem, period.

Maybe it was just Coronado ... I don't know, maybe we just always got lucky with the busses showing up right when we wanted them, maybe you just got UNlucky and kept -just- missing the bus and having to wait the maximum time. I just know for us it was outstanding and we wont look back.

 

[pinkerbell]

We did lots of other stuff, including WWoS. We went from our resort to other resorts for dinner, and yes sometimes that meant taking a bus to one place and hoping on another. We never had any problem, period.

Maybe it was just Coronado ... I don't know, maybe we just always got lucky with the busses showing up right when we wanted them, maybe you just got UNlucky and kept -just- missing the bus and having to wait the maximum time. I just know for us it was outstanding and we wont look back.

That is great to hear. I am hoping maybe we can use the busses again here and theer as I enjoy them. DH, not so much. I like talking with people about their day and the kids think it's another ride .

It is true about hitting it right though, last trip 4 POP busses came as I was waiting for an A of A bus. By the time the 4th one came, I hopped on it, it was almost empty since so many had come before it, We ate at pop and then crossed hour glass bridge to A of A.

 

[twoplustwins]

With the new promo info that Danny25 just posted, I can plan an onsite trip!!

 

[reelmom]

With the new promo info that Danny25 just posted, I can plan an onsite trip!!

I know. I am so excited!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

It is nice that Disney will be offering something and I am happy for those who will be able to use this upcoming discount; but unfortunately for my family it is not enough of a savings to keep us onsite. If the "up to 30% off rooms" portion breaks down to be 15-20% off at the value resorts, the room and park ticket discount offer detailed in Danny25's post won't come close to what we are saving by staying at Bonnet Creek (even with our minivan rental reservation) and getting our park tickets through Undercover Tourist because onsite at Disney we have to get either two rooms or a family suite at a value resort, the resort rates are "regular" season rates in May, and two of my four kids are now at "adult" prices. I know the prospect of them offering free dining for the spring was a long shot, but I was hoping that they would at least extend the stay, play, and dine promotion; but I guess they don't have to fill rooms that much and the stay, play, and dine promo is going to be the offseason/value season general public discount and free dining will probably only be available to those who get it through a random pin code. It's all good though, we are still going to have a magical trip.

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

With the new promo info that Danny25 just posted, I can plan an onsite trip!!

What is this? Do you have a link?

 

[twoplustwins]

What is this? Do you have a link?

Look at the post "Ladies and Gentlemen . . . " in this same forum.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I would never pay Disney's rack rates. Not with all the great deals offsite.

We would have stayed offsite for our next trip, had it not been for the Free Dining pin I was lucky enough to receive. With 5 of us, 4 of which are disney adults, that was the best savings for us.

As these deeper discounts seem to be getting less and less, I think our next trip will be offsite, where we will enjoy the extra space of a condo.