$150 gift card back for 2014

[sjt22]

I just a heads up went to book today for august this year and if you book hotel and tickets the $150 dollars is on offer. Sadly no free dining though.

Sarah x

 

[Portugal1000]

Good they are offering some incentives. Just priced up 15 nights at Saratoga Springs in a 2 bed, £4952 without tickets, compared to a much bigger 2 bed at Bonnet Creek £1312. Even with the supposed 40% discount, SSR has got so expensive. Use to love staying there but I guess those days are over.

 

[chmurf]

Good they are offering some incentives. Just priced up 15 nights at Saratoga Springs in a 2 bed, £4952 without tickets, compared to a much bigger 2 bed at Bonnet Creek £1312. Even with the supposed 40% discount, SSR has got so expensive. Use to love staying there but I guess those days are over.

I never quite understand the quotes people get around here.

for example, I just priced 14 nights at both SSR and WBC for october half term 2014

I get £1819 for WBC through Wyndham, and that's a non refundable rate (if I cancel, I lose it all) and I need to pay in full NOW.

and I get a quote of £2044 for SSR with WDTC-UK and I only lose a £150 deposit (3 guests) if I need to cancel before full payment is due 8 weeks out, and I'd even get a $150 gift card if I added tickets.

From my standpoint, with those quotes, booking SSR is a no brainer.

But what puzzles me is that I never seem to get the kind of quotes some people get. I get higher quotes when it's supposed to be a deal, and I get lower quotes when people tell how expensive something has become.
It's rather frustrating, especially when you're in booking mode, and you try to figure out what to do for your new disney fix ...

 

[zippy99]

I booked a couple of days before the $150 was offered - however, having called up to cancel our cruise transfers I was promoted to book our three days accommodation after our cruise so we decided as a treat (clearly AKL & the cruise was not treat enough!) to book Bay a Lake Tower magic kingdom view.

I was then asked to pay another £200 deposit - I thought I have just paid a massive deposit for the flight, hotel, OOP DDP & cruise. But their systems cannot cope with two resort bookings in one package - to make matters worse, having spent well over 2 hours on the phone to Disney to make my original booking their system crashed during payment and money was requested from my card twice! Only one deposit has been actually taken but the other deposit request is being held for 10 working days - so even if I had wanted to pay the additional deposit I was unable to as my money is being held still due to the WDTC system crash.... Grrr !! Whilst they held the BLT room for me pending my deposit this has now been cancelled and they are sold out of that room.

I have had to write to them to complain as I have now missed out on the room I wanted as I could not afford to pay it there and then because of the system error that has tied up my money. I have also asked if they can apply the $150 gift card to our booking - considering we are already spending in excess of £7k with them I am hoping they will be considerate and respond with a satisfactory response - sometimes I feel a bit captive as I can't vote with my feet and go elsewhere as this is a special trip for our wedding anniversary and we know we want to go to Disney.

 

[Sam1]

I booked before the $150 gift card, but they added it on after I emailed them. The offer I had stated it was running until March, but it doesn't exist any more and has been superseded with the plus gift card offer. It's the first time I've booked with Disney and my reason was 'their prices seemed, what you see is what you pay and it won't change within the date of the offer'. I didn't see any point in waiting around when it came out, so I booked that day.

I was slightly gutted when they added the gift card, not because it's a huge amount of money, more to do with them not being as transparent with their pricing as I thought, so that's why I got in touch.

 

[wayneg]

I never quite understand the quotes people get around here.

for example, I just priced 14 nights at both SSR and WBC for october half term 2014

I get £1819 for WBC through Wyndham, and that's a non refundable rate (if I cancel, I lose it all) and I need to pay in full NOW.

and I get a quote of £2044 for SSR with WDTC-UK and I only lose a £150 deposit (3 guests) if I need to cancel before full payment is due 8 weeks out, and I'd even get a $150 gift card if I added tickets.

From my standpoint, with those quotes, booking SSR is a no brainer.

But what puzzles me is that I never seem to get the kind of quotes some people get. I get higher quotes when it's supposed to be a deal, and I get lower quotes when people tell how expensive something has become.
It's rather frustrating, especially when you're in booking mode, and you try to figure out what to do for your new disney fix ...

What dates you looking for?

I have just booked a week in Sept at WBC for £490 in a 2 bed villa, can cancel upto 2 weeks before arrival for full refund. Through Wyndham it would have been £1,160 non refundable or £1365 with cancellations allowed.
OKW £1,939.00 (same size, 2 bed villa)

 

[DLPDreams]

What dates you looking for?

I have just booked a week in Sept at WBC for £490 in a 2 bed villa, can cancel upto 2 weeks before arrival for full refund. Through Wyndham it would have been £1,160 non refundable or £1365 with cancellations allowed.
OKW £1,939.00 (same size, 2 bed villa)

Half term is normally the last week of October (is in the UK anyway), so include actual Halloween during that date.

I haven't priced up for that time though, so not sure how much difference UK hols make. My children only get one week off at half term and therefore we wouldn't go then.

 

[wayneg]

chmurf has stated October school half term, so there probably lies the difference. Can you quote Sept prices against end October/UK school holidays/peak Halloween season... Half term is normally the last week of October (is in the UK anyway), so include actual Halloween during that date.

I haven't priced up for that time though, so I could stand corrected . My children only get one week off at half term and therefore we wouldn't go then.

I know the UK half term but chmurf is in France so wanted to confirm dates.
Thankfully UK half term doesn't make a great deal of difference to hotel prices in Orlando, UK visitors only make a tiny proportion compared to other visitors so while Halloween creates extra business our half term doesn't. Flight prices can be a totally different matter.

UK half term prices(7 days):
1 Bed villa $749 (£452)
2 Bed villa $920 (£554)

 

[DLPDreams]

Didn't know they were in France. That's a good price for UK October half term. Like you say, flights will be a different matter !!

You know Wayne, you might persuade me yet to look at WBC ;-)

 

[chmurf]

half term is a bit different here in France. We're looking at oct 18th - nov 1st as school breaks on the 17th and resumes on the 3rd.

But so far I'm only nosing around, since we won't be able to go in 2014, what I'm really looking at is a booking for oct 17th 2015 to oct 31st 2015, which will very likely be 2015 "halloween holiday" (oct 16th through nov 1st)

I'm just trying to "feel" the market, rates and deals, so that I'm ready to decide what and how to book once the FD deal comes out in a couple of months (if it's renewed for 2015)
FD, room discount, okw @40% + FD (wishing), staying at WBC (for example)

WBC would require at least 3 $5 round trip shuttle tickets to the parks per day, and since we take breaks, that's $30 per day to go to the parks on top of the room rate, and dining at Disney's would probably require us to factor in quite a large amount of taxi fare, as, knowing our family, there is no way we can make it to the shuttle in due time, lol)

It's all very confusing, especially since the new FP+ system is very convinient for our family and our way of touring. We need to take afternoon breaks, so having 3FP+ and an ADR for the afternoon/evening is a life saver. I double this up with my DAS card, meaning that we do not spend more than 3 hours at a time in a park, dining included (I can barely bear more)
so pre-selecting our FP+ is a perk that's worth a lot.

I know it's hard to justify to pay 2 or 3 times more for a smaller room ... but still ... am I willing to trade convinience for lower prices ?... I might be shooting myself in the foot....

Why does it have to be so complicated ?

 

[wayneg]

For the full 2 weeks a 1 bed villa is best value but for some reason the 2 bed villa has a big jump in price for the 1st week.
Do a search on Bookings.com you will see the prices, they used to be an expensive site to use but I now have 2 reservations with them this year.

 

[Portugal1000]

I never quite understand the quotes people get around here.

for example, I just priced 14 nights at both SSR and WBC for october half term 2014

I get £1819 for WBC through Wyndham, and that's a non refundable rate (if I cancel, I lose it all) and I need to pay in full NOW.

and I get a quote of £2044 for SSR with WDTC-UK and I only lose a £150 deposit (3 guests) if I need to cancel before full payment is due 8 weeks out, and I'd even get a $150 gift card if I added tickets.

From my standpoint, with those quotes, booking SSR is a no brainer.

But what puzzles me is that I never seem to get the kind of quotes some people get. I get higher quotes when it's supposed to be a deal, and I get lower quotes when people tell how expensive something has become.
It's rather frustrating, especially when you're in booking mode, and you try to figure out what to do for your new disney fix ...

The price I quoted was for 14th August for 15 nights. I got the SSR price directly from Disney website and the BC price is $140 a night then converted back to pounds. This is booked through www. Vacationupgrades. Com. The quote you have for 2 weeks at SSR, is that for a 2 bedroom. If it is I would go for it because I have never seen a 2 bed at SSR that cheap. If its for a 1 bed then we are not comparing like with like because a 2 bed at BC is so much bigger than a 1 bed at SSR. I do love SSR but nearly 4 times the price so just could never justify it.

 

[Portugal1000]

I just checked quickly and £2044 in October is the price I am quoted for 2 weeks in a studio at SSR which is basically one room with one double bed and one sleeper sofa, so cannot be compared to WBC. Also, for those dates at WBC its only $120 a night rather than $140 so would be cheaper still. You can cancel up to six weeks in advance.
Both are great resorts and without a car then SSR would definitely be easier. Saying that have used the shuttle a few times at WBC and very efficient, however that was when its was free and wouldn't make sense fo rus to use it now really as same cost to drive for the 3 of us.

 

[zippy99]

Just an update after my gripe earlier - Disney have added the $150 gift card to our booking and I also have my Contemporary room booked - actually in the main building which is what we really wanted.

So excited to start the proper planning now