MRYPPNS
Practically Prefect in Every Way
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2007
Budget continued…
Which hotel to stay at has been a huge question for me this trip. Off-site is out of the question…can’t risk a crappy room with no magic. I used to be a Red Roof Inn sort of girl. Not any more. Even Disney’s value resorts are steps above those places (and the prices reflect that as well). I thought about staying at a monorail deluxe, and then I went and priced out a week’s stay at one. That killed that idea right then and there. The monorail is not worth that much to me…even with a toddler.
Then using Fuzzy Disney Math (FDM) I reasoned that we could stay longer and rent a car if we stayed at a value resort. So that was my working plan for quite a while.
I have this thing in my head that I don’t want to repeat a Disney hotel until I have stayed at them all or we run out of the ones we can afford. This idea makes no sense as it limits where we can stay each trip but I can’t seem to get pass this notion of how cool it would be to be able to say that I’ve stayed at all the Disney hotels.
I have checked off my completed list: All-star Music, POP and POFQ (in that order).
So All-star Movies it is!
Until I got to thinking about how small the rooms are. 260 square feet me thinks. I keep my hotel rooms are neat as a pin. Everything has its place. I bring little baskets for the bathroom area. I set up a little kitchen area. Shoes go by the door. Dirty clothes go in a piece of luggage. I plan to try the over the door shoe holder idea this trip. If only my house was as neat.
All-Star Movies is not going to cut it. We’ll be in the hotel room more this trip then any other vacation we’ve been on because of DS.
Now the plan is a studio at SSR. Bigger room and so close to DTD for shopping and food. Not to mention that it’s a beautiful resort. We went to dinner at the Turf Club last year. Very nice. But way more money. Rack rate for regular season is $252/night.
But I refuse to pay retail for anything. We went out to dinner tonight and I had a $10 off coupon. Then I scored paper plates for DS’s birthday party in May for 50 cents a package. I cut coupons. I search online for free shipping codes. I haggle. (You should see me in action in the Caribbean!)
I have been saving my emails from Disney since last year when they send me an offer for a discounted room. So I have a pretty good idea of what they might be offering this year. The weeks that I have selected for possible vacation dates are what Disney calls their “wonderful weeks”. Translation is “these are the weeks that we can’t fill our rooms”. These are the period that we should be seeing Pin offers and other discounts. I could go into a whole discusion about fixed costs and why hotels will discount their rooms…economics blah blah blah. But since you can’t haggle with Disney I won’t bore you.
So I already have a pin code for 20% off (which I think is the same discount from AAA) which brings the rack rate at SSR to $189. Ouch! Other DISers are claiming they have gotten 40% off offers. That would make it $164/night (if I was lucky enough to get that offer). My emails from last year show that Disney was offering SSR and OKW for $149/night at one point. So I got thinking about renting DVC points for the SSR studio. I did some checking around. Points usually start at $10 and go as high as $13.
So I did the math. I started with FDM…since I had picked a way more expensive resort I need to cut a night from the trip. So now we are down to an 8 night stay. And the math showed that renting points for $13/point (needing 108 points) was cheaper then having a 40% off code (which I may or may not get). $1404 vs. $1476. You don’t pay taxes when renting points so that right there saves 12.5%. Check out the DVC board sticky threads for all kinds of info on renting DVC points if you are interested in learning more. Mouseowner.com is another great source.
So SSR studio renting DVC point it is!
Or not. I decided that I didn’t want the stress of renting points from a stranger. And in the process chucked the whole idea of staying at SSR. So back to the drawing board. In FDM I’m up to $1404 for the hotel. If I down grade the resort I can add the 9th night back on. I started looking at Moderates. 4 to choose from:
POFQ- done that, can’t do it again
Coronado Springs- convention resort- no thanks
PORS- nothing really special there for a toddler
Caribbean Beach – huge resort
After much online research (I can see you all shaking your heads going “oh really…couldn’t have guessed that”) I picked CBR. Since we are getting a car this time I think it doable…plus I don’t plan to eat there. The rooms are the 340 square feet, the biggest of the moderates. What I really like about it is the white sand beaches, playgrounds, kid’s water play area and hammocks.
Aaaahhhh hammocks. I love me some hammocks. I have one. Between the cold weather, black flies, mosquitoes and cold weather I get to enjoy it for about 2 months out of the year.
Remember in school you had to show your work in math class …here it is (I hope you can figure it out...I couldn't paste in the excel table):
Per Night ......... Per Stay with tax ............... add Fridge
AS- Movies
40%...... $59.00 ............ $602.69............. $692.69
20%...... $79.00 .......... $806.99................. $896.99
rack...... $99.00 ............. $1,011.29................. $1,101.29
CBR
40%......... $99.00 ........... $891.00
20%........ $132.00 ......... $1,188.00
rack......... $165.00 ........... $1,485.00
So unless all my hopes of pin codes and discounts fall thru we will be stay at CBR for 9 nights. And hopefully for $891 which is right under budget!
In the next update I’ll write about the food budget. DDP vs. Out of pocket. Thrilling stuff for the Disney planning obsessed.
Which hotel to stay at has been a huge question for me this trip. Off-site is out of the question…can’t risk a crappy room with no magic. I used to be a Red Roof Inn sort of girl. Not any more. Even Disney’s value resorts are steps above those places (and the prices reflect that as well). I thought about staying at a monorail deluxe, and then I went and priced out a week’s stay at one. That killed that idea right then and there. The monorail is not worth that much to me…even with a toddler.
Then using Fuzzy Disney Math (FDM) I reasoned that we could stay longer and rent a car if we stayed at a value resort. So that was my working plan for quite a while.
I have this thing in my head that I don’t want to repeat a Disney hotel until I have stayed at them all or we run out of the ones we can afford. This idea makes no sense as it limits where we can stay each trip but I can’t seem to get pass this notion of how cool it would be to be able to say that I’ve stayed at all the Disney hotels.
I have checked off my completed list: All-star Music, POP and POFQ (in that order).
So All-star Movies it is!
Until I got to thinking about how small the rooms are. 260 square feet me thinks. I keep my hotel rooms are neat as a pin. Everything has its place. I bring little baskets for the bathroom area. I set up a little kitchen area. Shoes go by the door. Dirty clothes go in a piece of luggage. I plan to try the over the door shoe holder idea this trip. If only my house was as neat.
All-Star Movies is not going to cut it. We’ll be in the hotel room more this trip then any other vacation we’ve been on because of DS.
Now the plan is a studio at SSR. Bigger room and so close to DTD for shopping and food. Not to mention that it’s a beautiful resort. We went to dinner at the Turf Club last year. Very nice. But way more money. Rack rate for regular season is $252/night.
But I refuse to pay retail for anything. We went out to dinner tonight and I had a $10 off coupon. Then I scored paper plates for DS’s birthday party in May for 50 cents a package. I cut coupons. I search online for free shipping codes. I haggle. (You should see me in action in the Caribbean!)
I have been saving my emails from Disney since last year when they send me an offer for a discounted room. So I have a pretty good idea of what they might be offering this year. The weeks that I have selected for possible vacation dates are what Disney calls their “wonderful weeks”. Translation is “these are the weeks that we can’t fill our rooms”. These are the period that we should be seeing Pin offers and other discounts. I could go into a whole discusion about fixed costs and why hotels will discount their rooms…economics blah blah blah. But since you can’t haggle with Disney I won’t bore you.
So I already have a pin code for 20% off (which I think is the same discount from AAA) which brings the rack rate at SSR to $189. Ouch! Other DISers are claiming they have gotten 40% off offers. That would make it $164/night (if I was lucky enough to get that offer). My emails from last year show that Disney was offering SSR and OKW for $149/night at one point. So I got thinking about renting DVC points for the SSR studio. I did some checking around. Points usually start at $10 and go as high as $13.
So I did the math. I started with FDM…since I had picked a way more expensive resort I need to cut a night from the trip. So now we are down to an 8 night stay. And the math showed that renting points for $13/point (needing 108 points) was cheaper then having a 40% off code (which I may or may not get). $1404 vs. $1476. You don’t pay taxes when renting points so that right there saves 12.5%. Check out the DVC board sticky threads for all kinds of info on renting DVC points if you are interested in learning more. Mouseowner.com is another great source.
So SSR studio renting DVC point it is!
Or not. I decided that I didn’t want the stress of renting points from a stranger. And in the process chucked the whole idea of staying at SSR. So back to the drawing board. In FDM I’m up to $1404 for the hotel. If I down grade the resort I can add the 9th night back on. I started looking at Moderates. 4 to choose from:
POFQ- done that, can’t do it again
Coronado Springs- convention resort- no thanks
PORS- nothing really special there for a toddler
Caribbean Beach – huge resort
After much online research (I can see you all shaking your heads going “oh really…couldn’t have guessed that”) I picked CBR. Since we are getting a car this time I think it doable…plus I don’t plan to eat there. The rooms are the 340 square feet, the biggest of the moderates. What I really like about it is the white sand beaches, playgrounds, kid’s water play area and hammocks.
Aaaahhhh hammocks. I love me some hammocks. I have one. Between the cold weather, black flies, mosquitoes and cold weather I get to enjoy it for about 2 months out of the year.
Remember in school you had to show your work in math class …here it is (I hope you can figure it out...I couldn't paste in the excel table):
Per Night ......... Per Stay with tax ............... add Fridge
AS- Movies
40%...... $59.00 ............ $602.69............. $692.69
20%...... $79.00 .......... $806.99................. $896.99
rack...... $99.00 ............. $1,011.29................. $1,101.29
CBR
40%......... $99.00 ........... $891.00
20%........ $132.00 ......... $1,188.00
rack......... $165.00 ........... $1,485.00
So unless all my hopes of pin codes and discounts fall thru we will be stay at CBR for 9 nights. And hopefully for $891 which is right under budget!
In the next update I’ll write about the food budget. DDP vs. Out of pocket. Thrilling stuff for the Disney planning obsessed.