Who WON'T go if there is no FD in Aug/Sept?

[KandyM]

Travel Dates: April 7  June 6, 2013 & August 18  October 3, 2013 (Blockout dates apply: May 2426, 2013)

 

[catnik]

I know, by saying this I am betraying WDW LOL. Our older kids wanted to go the univeral parks and we stayed at HRH for 3 days. The pool was sooooo awesome and my older kids loved both universal parks and citywalk. It is not a "them" vs "us" thing with Disney. I would have preferred WDW over Universal but my kids wanted the experience of the other parks. If Disney does not appreciate your business, look at other opportunities in Orlando. JMO.

 

[Palendat]

I found a great price on airline tickets so we are going to Orlando! BUT if no FD then we will try offsite for the first time. If that happens then we will go to Universal and Sea World too.

I have heard many people speak about dividing their trip between Disney and Universal/SeaWorld if Disney doesn't offer free dining. I understand this sentiment (I can't justify a trip to Disney unless their is a great discount like free dining, etc.) However, on our last trip with the kids we had free dining and also went one day to Universal and one day to SeaWorld. It added over $900 to our trip just for these 2 days, and this was only tickets, food, and transportation, no hotel. (We were a family of 4). So I'm not sure this is cost effective either. Not to bash anyone's choices (you may really want to go, then that's great), but financially you are not ahead in my opinion.

 

[KandyM]

I have heard many people speak about dividing their trip between Disney and Universal/SeaWorld if Disney doesn't offer free dining. I understand this sentiment (I can't justify a trip to Disney unless their is a great discount like free dining, etc.) However, on our last trip with the kids we had free dining and also went one day to Universal and one day to SeaWorld. It added over $900 to our trip just for these 2 days, and this was only tickets, food, and transportation, no hotel. (We were a family of 4). So I'm not sure this is cost effective either. Not to bash anyone's choices (you may really want to go, then that's great), but financially you are not ahead in my opinion.

I totally understand what you are saying and if Disney was your main or only destination I agree. For us, we will do 2 or maybe 3 universal days anyhow. We will also have a rental car anyhow. So those expenses don't factor in for us.

 

[Mikes:)Mom]

I have heard many people speak about dividing their trip between Disney and Universal/SeaWorld if Disney doesn't offer free dining. I understand this sentiment (I can't justify a trip to Disney unless their is a great discount like free dining, etc.) However, on our last trip with the kids we had free dining and also went one day to Universal and one day to SeaWorld. It added over $900 to our trip just for these 2 days, and this was only tickets, food, and transportation, no hotel. (We were a family of 4). So I'm not sure this is cost effective either. Not to bash anyone's choices (you may really want to go, then that's great), but financially you are not ahead in my opinion.

I'm staying 3 nights at HRH for only $460. I think I saved some money going to universal. If Disney doesn't offer a discount Then we wont be stay there. Too many great places to stay for a lot less money. It can be cost effective with discounts.

 

[nooneshome]

We have always gone to WDW with some kind of discount. I just can't see us going without something as good as FD. Now that the kids are almost out of school we can be more choosy.

 

[bartleby1]

I have heard many people speak about dividing their trip between Disney and Universal/SeaWorld if Disney doesn't offer free dining. I understand this sentiment (I can't justify a trip to Disney unless their is a great discount like free dining, etc.) However, on our last trip with the kids we had free dining and also went one day to Universal and one day to SeaWorld. It added over $900 to our trip just for these 2 days, and this was only tickets, food, and transportation, no hotel. (We were a family of 4). So I'm not sure this is cost effective either. Not to bash anyone's choices (you may really want to go, then that's great), but financially you are not ahead in my opinion.

We are one of those people thinking of adding universal if we don't get a good discount at Disney. For us, we usually go to Florida for two weeks. Originally, we spent 6 or 7 days at Disney and then spent the rest doing something else (usually the beach or other misc day trips). However, then Disney started enticing us with discounts to stay longer by offering free dining and deeply discounted tickets for longer stays. It used to be $3 per day per ticket to add on days after day 5 or 6. They eventually won us over for our entire two weeks in Florida. We have not done universal with our kids yet because Disney has made it such a great deal to stay at their parks so we always had trouble justifying the additional cost. However, Disney has now reduced the discounts, increased their room rates dramatically, and increased the additional ticket days so it is no longer as enticing for us to spend our entire stay there. While we do realize that universal will cost us quite a bit to add on to our trip, it is something that we have wanted to do and since Disney isn't as great of a bargain to add on the additional days, we are thinking this is the year to give it a try. Once I added up the cost of adding universal (which adds quite a bit of money to our trip) I started looking at other was to cut back to compensate and started pricing out offsite hotels for our disney portion of the trip and realized we can stay at buena vista suites for half the cost of our cheapest on site option' which is POR (family of 5). While we love Disney, there comes a point where the value just isn't there. If Disney doesn't throw us something decent soon, we will be booking buena vista suites for half the price and since we will be staying offsite anyway, we will not be eating every meal on site either. We prefer to stay on site, but half the price is hard to pass up. I am willing to pay a slight premium for on site, but not double. We will still have a great time but Our vacation budget will be split up between Disney, universal, offsite hotels, and offsite restaurants instead of Disney getting it all.

 

[Goseethemouse]

We might still go but how long/where/when really depends on FD. As we live overseas we usually stay at least three weeks in Florida and we have been going every two years. 2009 we stayed all three weeks at WDW and 2011 we stayed about two weeks there and also spent time at Universal/I-Drive.

With FD we'd probably stay again 10 - 14 days in late August/early Sept. Without it we'd more likely go earlier in August and just stay one week onsite or possibly offsite for the entire time. It isn't so much that we couldn't pay full price but we also enjoy other vacations and I do want to get a good value. The ticket prices are high but I guess fair enough (though I haven't seen the new prices yet). The prices for value rooms in value season also are reasonable (deluxe resorts on the other hand are quite overpriced in my opinion).

But it's the food prices I have a problem with. Our party consists of me and my two sons, one of which is ten and so a "disney adult". Dinner at Boma would run us almost $100 (without tip)! We could almost eat at a offsite restaurant for the tip alone. We love Boma and yes, it is worth a premium to us. But honestly not that much. And most of the other restaurants we enjoy are priced similarly.

The greatest advantage for me in staying onsite (other than the theming) is that we won't need a car/no need to drive. But if we want to eat offsite we will have to rent/drive a car anyway so might as well stay offsite for less money or get a much bigger room/apartment/house with a nicer pool for the same money.

Hope Disney makes a decision soon. Right now I can't do any planning and if we want to go we need to purchase airfare soon. As it is I am seriously pricing out some other options and everything is still open.

 

[jwboucher]

We are still going , since it was planned already expecting FD, but will cut our stay to 5 nights instead of our usual 6. This will be our 11 yr in a row and we haven't, up till now, had a problem affording it. Don't think we will be going next year. It will probably take a couple of yrs to save for another trip.

 

[DanInMN]

We are considering a no-kids visit this fall, perhaps resort-only. We will stay at POR if a significant discount is offered. A discount, plus the ME bus, makes staying on-site comparable in cost to staying off-site.

Without a big WDW discount we may stay at Bahama Bay, rent a car, and have many of our meals in the condo. We would spend much of our time at the resort and elsewhere, away from Disney.

 

[apooh812]

No FD dining means we won't stay in Disney resort and not going to 5 days of Disney parks. Every year we did the FD and it makes a huge difference in our budget. I guess we'll just stay at off-site and go to other parks like Seaworld, Legoland, Universal and may be just 1 day of Disney park.

 

[jpaxton1118]

We are one of those people thinking of adding universal if we don't get a good discount at Disney. For us, we usually go to Florida for two weeks. Originally, we spent 6 or 7 days at Disney and then spent the rest doing something else (usually the beach or other misc day trips). However, then Disney started enticing us with discounts to stay longer by offering free dining and deeply discounted tickets for longer stays. It used to be $3 per day per ticket to add on days after day 5 or 6. They eventually won us over for our entire two weeks in Florida. We have not done universal with our kids yet because Disney has made it such a great deal to stay at their parks so we always had trouble justifying the additional cost. However, Disney has now reduced the discounts, increased their room rates dramatically, and increased the additional ticket days so it is no longer as enticing for us to spend our entire stay there. While we do realize that universal will cost us quite a bit to add on to our trip, it is something that we have wanted to do and since Disney isn't as great of a bargain to add on the additional days, we are thinking this is the year to give it a try. Once I added up the cost of adding universal (which adds quite a bit of money to our trip) I started looking at other was to cut back to compensate and started pricing out offsite hotels for our disney portion of the trip and realized we can stay at buena vista suites for half the cost of our cheapest on site option' which is POR (family of 5). While we love Disney, there comes a point where the value just isn't there. If Disney doesn't throw us something decent soon, we will be booking buena vista suites for half the price and since we will be staying offsite anyway, we will not be eating every meal on site either. We prefer to stay on site, but half the price is hard to pass up. I am willing to pay a slight premium for on site, but not double. We will still have a great time but Our vacation budget will be split up between Disney, universal, offsite hotels, and offsite restaurants instead of Disney getting it all.

This is exactly where are family is right now. We have decided to stay off site at bonnet creek. The savings alone is astounding! Last night I told my husband that maybe we should take a day and go to Sea World. That is something I would of never considered in the past. We have always stayed onsite and it was Disney. Without discounts this family of 5, only one under 10, can not justify paying the amount they want.

 

[luvdisney77]

Here too. We are a family of 7, and usually have no problem staying strictly on-site for our full 7-9 day trips. Usually it was ASMu suite, two Pop rooms, or a cabin. We knew it was always a price jump to stay on-site, but felt the ends justified the means. We loved being right in the middle of it all, all of the time.

That is not so any longer. Although I'm still sad that it's getting almost impossible to stay on-site, even I cannot justify the price increases and lack of good discounts any longer. Now, I will say that I get a bit more of a discount (I'm a TA), but we can't add on Dining so usually I don't book with that discount anyways. I'll book with a GP dining offer because that's what works for us.

Universal is out. We're totally priced out there, but definitely going to explore the millions of other options in Orlando. Disney for a few days (I can't believe I'm even saying "few") and then Sea World, the beach, etc. I've been a diehard on-site, 24/7, completely WDW resort absorbed fanatic for YEARS now. :/

 

[bluejasmine]

I was saying w/o FD we wont go but really we will as long as their is SOME TYPE of decent discount.. Id prefer normal free DDP but... As long as we can go Ill be thankful

 

[pioneer89]

I'm of the same though as many of you. WDW has crossed that price/value ratio line a few years back. Without some sort of discount, I feel I'm paying just a little too much for what I get.

Disney has always been really good at making it super cost effective to stay the extra days on site rather than go to SeaWorld/Universal. (Their pricing structure has worked on me. 10+ vacations to Orlando, never been to Universal.) Without FD or Kids-Stay-Play Free, we will use their prices as an excuse to see/do the other things in the area this year.

 

[malacajo]

We have decided that if no FD comes out, we'll get our deposit back and wait until the 30 day mark and book a Dis Cruise.....

 

[bartleby1]

Well, I'm done waiting and I just booked offsite. I'm sick of playing the game. As it stands, our first 4 nights would have fallen under the current promo (8/11-8/14), and then we were waiting to see what comes next. Then, we'd have to do a split stay and possibly have to switch rooms. Also, if the next promo is free dining, we wouldn't be able to take advantage of it because we,d need our tickets early to use during our first 4 days. On top of that, if the next promo released doesn't start right on 8/15, then we would need to book a room with an AAA discount for in between our first 4 days and whatever disney s next promo is. Between the crazy price increases over the past few years, the lack of discounts, and the waiting games, they lost us. We will be offsite for the first time in 12 years. As much as I loved staying onsite all these years and would love to do it again, I'm done with the aggravation and stress of trying to get a deal. Our family of 5 can stay just down the road at half the price. It will save on food too since we won't be eating all of our meals on property.

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

Seems as though some people are turning their Disney vacations into plain old Florida vacations. Some places may be cheaper but the value and quality is just not there .

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Seems as though some people are turning their Disney vacations into plain old Florida vacations. Some places may be cheaper but the value and quality is just not there .

Some people feel differently.

 

[amccu18007]

I just feel like staying on site won't be cost effective without some kind of discount. I love Disney but honestly, what they charge is NOT comparable to the rest of the world. I understand that you are paying for an experience but I would rather have another vacation than pay rack rates.