Annual Pass Holders - How Good are the Hotel Deals?

[CarolinaGuy21]

Hey everybody,

My GF and I are in our early 20s and love spending time at WDW, particularly Epcot. I’m considering saving up and getting us annual passes for 2019. We visited a lot last year and determined we would easily get our monies worth if we got the passes.

My questions is how good are the hotel deals that AP holders have access to? We live about 7 hours so the hotel prices are our biggest concern. We typically like to stay at the moderates but sometimes we splurge and go for a deluxe. Thanks for the help!

 

[loves to dive]

I've found it sort of hit and miss. In over 5 years of having an AP, I've used the discount twice and I go at least 3 times a year. I've been able to get better deals with either the general discount or using an Orbitz discount stacked on top of the general discount. They don't release a whole lot of rooms with the AP discount. I always tell people to get the AP for ticket price alone, do the math and if it costs less than your tickets would cost get it. Don't count on any of the discounts and compare apples to apples. If you normally don't get hoppers, use the single park price. If you normally get Memory Maker, factor that price in since it's free with the AP. If you don't stay on site but drive to the parks, factor in the price of parking since that comes with an AP.

 

[emilyindisney]

I've found it sort of hit and miss. In over 5 years of having an AP, I've used the discount twice and I go at least 3 times a year. I've been able to get better deals with either the general discount or using an Orbitz discount stacked on top of the general discount. They don't release a whole lot of rooms with the AP discount. I always tell people to get the AP for ticket price alone, do the math and if it costs less than your tickets would cost get it. Don't count on any of the discounts and compare apples to apples. If you normally don't get hoppers, use the single park price. If you normally get Memory Maker, factor that price in since it's free with the AP. If you don't stay on site but drive to the parks, factor in the price of parking since that comes with an AP.

I second this poster! The hotel deal are hit or miss. In my experience most of the hotel deals were put out with short notice (6-8 weeks prior to the travel window) though it sounds like you drive so that may not be as much as an issue as it was for me (struggled to get a good flight deal.) I would say that nearly all the AP hotel deals I saw offered were for the value resorts- specifically the All Stars. The rates were pretty cheap (less than $100/night) but I don't recall them often including weekend dates.

I got my AP because the cost of that was less than the individual ticket packages I would have had to buy for each trip. The merchandise, food and hotel discounts I got (if any/applicable to the trip) were just an added bonus!

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Very hit or miss. Sometimes they're good but in my experience (6th year as an AP) you get the best deals last minute. I would absolutely not buy the pass just for the hotel discounts. For example, for the late summer discounts that just came out, the rack rate was cheaper for the hotel I wanted. But, if you went multiple times last year and it's cheaper for you to buy the AP vs multiple 3-4 day park hoppers, go for it! Just know that they're not discounts across the board like if you're buying merch at one of the (qualifying) stores. It's based on availability, and AP discounts are the last to come out. :/

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

If you don't stay on site but drive to the parks, factor in the price of parking since that comes with an AP.

Also don't forget now you ONLY save on parking if you stay off site. Staying on site now you get "free" parking at the theme parks but you pay at the hotel, so it amounts to the same thing, especially if you're at a Deluxe resort. So without the AP you either A. Pay to park at the hotel if you're on site or B. Pay to park at the parks if you're off site. So keep that in mind when doing the math.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

It’s not just hotel discounts. Don’t forget Dining discounts too (and the ability to purchase TIW if you eat out there a lot).

As for room discounts, obviously it depends on when you are going. I’m getting 20% off my POP room next month. Mods were about 15% off (except CBR because of the construction). BWI & AKL seemed to be the biggest deluxe discounts (30ish percent).

 

[Lynne M]

Moving this to the Discount Codes & Rates board.

 

[Sue M]

Very hit or miss. Sometimes they're good but in my experience (6th year as an AP) you get the best deals last minute. I would absolutely not buy the pass just for the hotel discounts. For example, for the late summer discounts that just came out, the rack rate was cheaper for the hotel I wanted. But, if you went multiple times last year and it's cheaper for you to buy the AP vs multiple 3-4 day park hoppers, go for it! Just know that they're not discounts across the board like if you're buying merch at one of the (qualifying) stores. It's based on availability, and AP discounts are the last to come out. :/

Ok I’m curious now! How could AP discount be more expensive than Rack rate? Isn’t rack rate the most expensive price

Also don't forget now you ONLY save on parking if you stay off site. Staying on site now you get "free" parking at the theme parks but you pay at the hotel, so it amounts to the same thing, especially if you're at a Deluxe resort. So without the AP you either A. Pay to park at the hotel if you're on site or B. Pay to park at the parks if you're off site. So keep that in mind when doing the math.

The biggest bummer, paid resort parking

 

[Sue M]

AP room discount isn’t what it once was. WDW has become very stingy with their discounts. I haven’t booked with AP discount in awhile as I use other discounts. But if you’re going multiple times be sure to look at bounce back offers in your room to book your next stay.
Once BB offer was better than the AP offer for room discount because BB included weekends and AP discount was only for weekdays, making weekends rack rate

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Ok I’m curious now! How could AP discount be more expensive than Rack rate? Isn’t rack rate the most expensive price

Because what they'll do is discount only the Club Level rooms. So rack rate at YC for example (where I'm staying in September) could be $400/night, but when you search using the AP discount it'll show you YC is $525/night. That's because the standard rooms are available at rack rate, but the discounted rooms are Club Level. I wouldn't pay for club level because I wouldn't use it, so it's cheaper for me to book the rack rate standard room.

 

[Sue M]

Because what they'll do is discount only the Club Level rooms. So rack rate at YC for example (where I'm staying in September) could be $400/night, but when you search using the AP discount it'll show you YC is $525/night. That's because the standard rooms are available at rack rate, but the discounted rooms are Club Level. I wouldn't pay for club level because I wouldn't use it, so it's cheaper for me to book the rack rate standard room.

Yes, I wasn’t thinking about different category discounts. I was thinking of equal rooms. Sometimes with AP I could book higher category - say garden or pool view for same price as I was paying for standard view.

 

[Sarahslay]

I got an awesome 35% AP deal for my August solo trip at GF, but at CR it was barely 17%. Some room categories will have much better deals, but they are usually the already expensive rooms meaning the deals just make them less expensive (but still expensive), if that is the room you had your heart set on it's fantastic but otherwise maybe not the most helpful as far as getting a bargain room rate. I don't bank on getting a good AP discount, I generally book a general public discount and then if an AP discount comes out that is better I'll change it. I live about 8 hours away and will have about 6 trips on this AP, and it has more than paid for itself room discounts or not.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We have gotten some excellent AP discounts that averaged 30% off for a deluxe resort. We most often get the best deals in January and February. We most recently got 32% discount at the YC for the 1st week in July. We have also gotten a very good discount at POR. The AP discount lets you book up to three rooms for your trip dates and I was able to save a lot of money for my sister when she traveled with us. The AP discount can be 10% or higher than the general public discount, which adds up when you have multiple stays. On top of that you get merchandise and dining discounts, which help, too. The AP has definitely been worth it. The only downside is that it makes it to easy to return to WDW again and again.

 

[Disneytam]

In years past the AP discounts for our travel dates and the hotels that we stay at we're wonderful, up to 45 percent off. The past couple of years they have been non existent. We stay deluxe resorts and on our past two trips calling early morning on the day the discount came out and not a single deluxe room to be found with the discount. Mind you there were all kinds of availability without the AP discount but when I tried to apply the discount no availability.

We are not renewing our AP when they run out this year.