Having a tough time with resort choice...help!

[nimbuscat]

We were originally booked in a Little Mermaid room at AoA. This is supposed to be a "not too expensive" trip, but we did decide to splurge on the Deluxe Dining Plan.

Well, we just saw January discounts, and we can move to an Alligator Bayou room at Port Orleans Riverside and actually save a few bucks. Great! We now have a reservation there.

But now I'm wondering if it would be worth downgrading our dining plan to regular DDP (and cutting out a BUNCH of character meals) , and paying a bit more extra ($300-$400) to stay at Beach Club.

Keeping in mind we are going in early January and probably won't be able to take full advantage of the nice pool at Beach Club...do you think it would be worth it? I actually am LESS impressed with the resort theming/rooms (we love the little alligator murphy bed for our little one at POR!), but the ability to walk or take a quick water taxi to Epcot/DHS would be awesome!

What are your thoughts? If it helps give you more info for your advice, we are foodies and would take full advantage of the DxDP....though I have recently started a gluten-free/sugar-free diet for health reasons and can't be such a glutton anymore...

 

[Planogirl]

Of course only you can decide what you would prefer but I do want to sing the praises of PORS. We really enjoy the theming and ambience and that boat to Downtown Disney is pretty nice too but you probably already know that.

This is a hard decision! Would you miss the deluxe plan? Is the nicer pool area and that location worth giving that up?

 

[ToyStory3]

For us the resort is a lot more of the experience than the restaurants. We LOVE the Beach Club and there is nothing like being 5 minutes from Epcot. We aren't big on having lots of ADRs and being tied down. I would definitely do BCR and make it extra special. And most character meals are one credit right? So you could still do some. Either way sounds like a great trip.

 

[nimbuscat]

Of course only you can decide what you would prefer but I do want to sing the praises of PORS. We really enjoy the theming and ambience and that boat to Downtown Disney is pretty nice too but you probably already know that.

This is a hard decision! Would you miss the deluxe plan? Is the nicer pool area and that location worth giving that up?

I would miss the deluxe plan, for sure! However...I'm pretty sure we would make do and still very much enjoy our trip if we stayed at BC and had regular dining. Gahh, decisions, decisions!

I wish we could move the Alligator Bayou room with the murphy bed to the Beach Club location.

 

[MousePrincess]

I love POR! One of our faves. We are also dying to stay at BC but waiting for our kids to get a little older. We have done DxDP several times. We have finally gotten away from it because we feel each time we are too busy going from restaurant to restaurant and it's way too much food. I agree about January not being the best time to take advantage of BC. Our kids probably got in the pool twice the year we went in Jan and once the year we went in Dec and these were heated pools too. If I had to make your decision I would do POR and regular dining

 

[Mousemommy1]

We don't even like the regular dining plan...too much food so I can't even imagine the deluxe dining plan. We do, however, prefer the deluxe resorts. The choice would be easy....Beach Club all the way!

 

[DisneyPrncss27]

That's funny, because for my trip in November I started off in the AoA Little Mermaid room, then switched to Port Orleans Riverside. The free Mel plan came out and I couldn't get it while staying at Port Orleans, so now I'm at the Wilderness Lodge because it was the same money as staying at the Port Orleans and paying or the meal plan... However, I love the Beach Club, it is one of my favorite resorts on property. The walk to EPCOT is great if you plan on eating a lot of meals there and the pool is wonderful... But not sure how much use you will get from it in January... I never get the deluxe dining plan, it's just way to much food. I always use the dining points for dinner and just pay for the breakfasts because they are a lot cheaper.. I would definitely go for the deluxe resort over the deluxe meal plan... It just adds to the magical experience.. Good luck and happy planning!!'

 

[nimbuscat]

I thought for sure I would want to stay with Deluxe Dining, and wherever resort that put us, staying at a certain level cost-wise, I'd be fine with it. But now the Beach Club is in my reach! I just re-worked my imaginary ADRs and found that we'll still have tons of food...just looking at a lot more QS locations, obviously...which really, would be fine. Ahhh! Now just waiting on my TA to get back to me with an definite quote so I know for sure exactly how much the difference will be.

 

[DisneyPrncss27]

I thought for sure I would want to stay with Deluxe Dining, and wherever resort that put us, staying at a certain level cost-wise, I'd be fine with it. But now the Beach Club is in my reach! I just re-worked my imaginary ADRs and found that we'll still have tons of food...just looking at a lot more QS locations, obviously...which really, would be fine. Ahhh! Now just waiting on my TA to get back to me with an definite quote so I know for sure exactly how much the difference will be.

The Disney website is really easy to use if you want to price a vacation, use the " special offers " link to see if the free meal pan is offered when you are going. If they have a deal with a percentage off the room sometimes it works out to be less expensive even if you pay for the meal plan.... They only allow for one offer at a time... Play around with the numbers, it's real easy...
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/special-offers-deals-discounts/.

 

[rwdavis2]

For us, even the regular DP is too much food so I cannot imagine having to deal with the deluxe version. So I would drop the DDP. IMHO, Disney food is not good enough to get all hung up on it. In many cases good, but not great.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Walking to Epcot is really neat. If you are spending a good bit of time at Epcot or DHS, then I would definitely try to shoot for BC. And it's just really pretty over there in general.