AP Discount Watch and FAQ 2023. 10% - 40% off select nights July 11 - Sept 28; Oct 2 - Dec 25

[V.I.N.CENT.]

Question... Planning to Upgrade my ticket 1st day of trip 6/5. I’ve already purchased Memory Maker and questioning whether or not it’s nonrefundable???

I would cancel before the trip if you know you will be upgrading day one. I would not want to waste park time going through a potential hassle to cancel/refund.

 

[cakebaker]

So I just checked room rates again this morning and the AP rates are back to "normal" (Friday and Saturday nights are now discounted again). Maybe just an anomaly yesterday that I happened to stumble onto?

Ugh! I was looking last night, didn't book and this morning it's back to rack rates on the weekends. This is crazy. I had the resort in my cart, went to check out and the price jumped. Guess I'll wait and see if it changes again and not hesitate if it goes back to discounted weekends. I've never seen this happen before.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

Ugh! I was looking last night, didn't book and this morning it's back to rack rates on the weekends. This is crazy. I had the resort in my cart, went to check out and the price jumped. Guess I'll wait and see if it changes again and not hesitate if it goes back to discounted weekends. I've never seen this happen before.

I’m just seeing your post as I was not able to view much today; thanks for the data point. What the heck is going on here?? I thought I was nuts when the price was increased the other day and then went back to showing discounts yesterday. Now today it’s back to rack rates? I have a bad feeling that there may be more going on behind the scenes here than we want to believe.

At this point, I’m back to leaning toward my initial assumption that this is related to SWGE and the desire to discourage local, or somewhat local AP holders, from booking rooms for the weekends in hopes that it will keep inventory open for week long bookings by first time or rare guests. There could be some trial and error going on here by Disney before the proverbial “you know what” hits the fan in late August.

The other thing is, if you weren’t tracking rates like some here are, one could have easily booked a week long stay that includes the higher weekend rates without realizing because the average price shown is lower than rack rates. You have to actually click on the details to see the rate per night. Clearly an AP holder looking only for the weekend, may very well be discouraged when seeing only the non discounted weekend rates.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, but I don’t have good feeling for the foreseeable future

 

[NoviceMouse]

Ugh! I was looking last night, didn't book and this morning it's back to rack rates on the weekends. This is crazy. I had the resort in my cart, went to check out and the price jumped. Guess I'll wait and see if it changes again and not hesitate if it goes back to discounted weekends. I've never seen this happen before.

I’ve been following this as well and been watching the fluctuation. I wondered if this has happened before- I’ve never seen it

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

So I’m doing some spot checks tonight, they are basically going to dynamic pricing much like the current ticket pricing system. They’ve always done this to a small degree, but the price fluctuations are now very extreme. Around SWGE opening, there are nights for all of the resorts I randomly checked that are actual higher than the stated average rack rate for the given resort. It’s almost like there are no more rack rates, just whatever they want to set rates at for a given night or timeframe.

Of course this artificially raises average “rack rates” and really makes you wonder the value of any potential future discounts.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Ok, I found my folio from our President Weekend stay at CSR (AP rate) We did pay a higher rate for Friday & Saturday (appeared to be rack rate)

 

[cakebaker]

It's not unusual for weekend rates to be discounted less than weekdays- in fact it's the norm. The 40% off AP I used 2 weeks ago had higher rates for the weekends. What's different here is that they didn't have the weekends at a higher rate to start, then have fluctuated back and forth but only to change them to rack rate- no discount at all. It's really frustrating when you're trying to make final decisions and they keep moving the goal posts. I just won't book for hundreds of dollars more than I would have had to pay yesterday. If it doesn't change, we'll book off site for our first and last nights, then just book 5 nights AP rate for the weekdays.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I have 6 room reservation confirmation emails (don’t ask; all have been cancelled but one) all booked when the AP rates came out, and the weekends are a couple dollars higher per night. Those same nights were at rack rate on Monday, discounted to my booked rate on Tuesday, and now back to rack rate again today. The weekends have typically always been included in the discounts. This is now something very different.

 

[shoreward]

Same scenario here with AP booking made awhile back with all nights discounted, including weekend; it now shows rack rate, when starting change process.

 

[cakebaker]

The weekends have typically always been included in the discounts.

I agree. What I usually see is a higher rate, but a discounted one for weekends. It was unusual to see this latest discount that didn't have a higher weekend rate but I've never seen rack rates for weekends using an AP discount, or any other discount for that matter. Fingers crossed it's just a screw up that will sort itself out, but I'm not about the pay rack rate for a weekend. It makes the general summer rate just about the same as the AP. I could twist myself into pretzels, book the AP for the weeknights, the summer discount for the weekends, but I'm not messing with that.

 

[suzywindy]

I am a long standing AP holder and I have never seen or caught Disney charge rack rate for weekend days during the discount. Seems sneaky and distasteful. I had booked under Summer Fun for August trip and when AP came out switched. My weekend rates were discounted the 35%. Now when I look it is rack rate. Glad I booked when I did but not happy thinking moving forward I have to carefully scrutinize the deal they are marketing to make sure I am not suckered in. They should just be transparent - it is ok to say AP Summer rates apply only during week days. Let me decide if I need or want to stay the weekend instead of trying to hide this latest scheme. I wondered when I went into the site to look up adding a day why the rate was higher than when I first booked a month ago and looked and saw the rack rate on the weekend but thought I probably just did not notice. Only realized this was something once I read the posters here who are always on top of things. Thanks for opening my eyes.

 

[cakebaker]

Rack rates for weekends is still in effect this morning.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

I don’t know why people keep saying this is new. I literally paid $100 more per night for a CSR room booked on an AP rate over a holiday weekend this past February. The room was booked as soon as AP rates came out in fall of 2018 and never changed.

 

[cakebaker]

I don’t know why people keep saying this is new. I literally paid $100 more per night for a CSR room booked on an AP rate over a holiday weekend this past February. The room was booked as soon as AP rates came out in fall of 2018 and never changed.

Because it is new. Yes, weekend rates are often higher than weekdays with or without a discount. They have never been set at rack rate though and they don’t bounce back and forth - one day they’re rack rate, the next they’re the same or close to the weekday rate. As you say, once the rate is set, it doesn’t change. With this discount they are. My price literally jumped hundreds of dollars from what I had in the cart when I went to check out.

Also, the summer general discount is the same price for weekdays or weekends.

 

[focusondisney]

I don’t know why people keep saying this is new. I literally paid $100 more per night for a CSR room booked on an AP rate over a holiday weekend this past February. The room was booked as soon as AP rates came out in fall of 2018 and never changed.

You are right, this isn’t new. I found this on our last 2 trips so it has been going on since last summer at least. We were there the second week in September. We had an AP rate for a YC club level room for Saturday to Friday. Friday night only showed at rack rate for any YC room when I booked. I was able to get a discounted room for Friday night in a regular room at Beach Club. I continued to look right until our trip & Friday night was never discounted at YC.

We also were just there for Easter, April 20-27. I originally found public & Disney Visa discounts as 3 night & 4 night split stays in YC club & regular rooms. When the AP discounts came out, I was able to get a single stay in a club level room, but Saturday the 20th & Friday the 26th were at rack rate. Late one night I did find a single night discounted AP rate for the 20th. I quick booked it called CRO the next morning asking to drop the full rate Saturday from my existing reservation. The CM contacted guest services who did drop the full rate night from my existing reservation. So I had a single reservation for Saturday at the AP discount & a 6 night reservation with AP discount from Sunday to Thursday & Friday at the full rack rate. I continued to check, but Friday night never showed up with any available discount.

For what it’s worth, the CM who helped me when I called about dropping the Saturday night didn’t initially understand why I wanted to drop the first night. She kept saying, but you have the AP rate on your whole reservation. She eventually looked at each night’s rate & saw that Saturday & Friday were at rack rate. She was quite surprised & said she had never seen that before. I think it’s been going on for awhile, but most people just look at the total cost & don’t pay too much attention to each individual night’s cost.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Because it is new. Yes, weekend rates are often higher than weekdays with or without a discount. They have never been set at rack rate though and they don’t bounce back and forth - one day they’re rack rate, the next they’re the same or close to the weekday rate. As you say, once the rate is set, it doesn’t change. With this discount they are. My price literally jumped hundreds of dollars from what I had in the cart when I went to check out.

Also, the summer general discount is the same price for weekdays or weekends.

I can’t speak for the bouncing back and forth, but I assure you, I paid rack rate for Friday & Saturday during a Wed-Tuesday stay in February 2019.

 

[cakebaker]

This is a multi day stay that includes Friday. Then a pic of the rate with no “discount”. And finally the summer rate for a weekend. This just never happens and unless you’re obsessive like me and pay attention, you wouldn’t realize it. It’s either a glitch or it’s out and out deceptive. Nowhere in the offer does it say weekends are excluded.

 

[cakebaker]

I can’t speak for the bouncing back and forth, but I assure you, I paid rack rate for Friday & Saturday during a Wed-Tuesday stay in February 2019.

I used the 40% off AP discount in early May this year for the YC. Weekends were higher, but they were discounted. It never happens that the AP discount is worse than a general discount. I can only speak to deluxe and villa rates as that’s all we ever book. And regardless, the rate shouldn’t bounce around and it is. I’m hoping it bounces one more time so I can book this thing!

 

[focusondisney]

Because it is new. Yes, weekend rates are often higher than weekdays with or without a discount. They have never been set at rack rate though and they don’t bounce back and forth - one day they’re rack rate, the next they’re the same or close to the weekday rate. As you say, once the rate is set, it doesn’t change. With this discount they are. My price literally jumped hundreds of dollars from what I had in the cart when I went to check out.

Also, the summer general discount is the same price for weekdays or weekends.

As you can see from my post above, this happened to me with last September’s AP rates. So it might be new to you, but it has been happening since last year at least. And last year, for the first time ever, Disney did change rack rates during the year. Rack rates for this year have been changed from their release last summer too. So yep, rack rates do change after they are set now. And having a room in your cart doesn’t “hold” that room or discount for you. So while it was in your cart, someone else may have come along & actually booked that last discounted night. So when you went back the next day, only a full price room is now available. It looks like the price bounced around, but really, what happened is there are just no more discounted rooms available for that night. Back again days later, maybe someone cancelled a discounted room.

And as for the general public discount being the same for weekends & weekdays, that is a different discount. Disney has always had different availability for different discounts. AP rates have traditionally been seen as being offered to fill rooms last minute. So if weekends don’t need to be filled at the last minute , they won’t be discounted to the same extent. Different discounts, different criteria.

 

[PolyRob]

I remember paying full rack rate for a Sat night under an AP rate back in October 2017. It was almost $300 more compared to all the other nights of the trip. It still saved me money overall so I just went with it.

I saw the same for a Poly studio this June. No availability when selecting two nights, but when selecting four nights, the Wed/Thurs were discounted and Fri/Sat were full rack rate.

I have also seen rates for Fri and Sat that claim they are "AP rates" when in reality they are full rack rate just labeled AP rates in a bold font. I've noticed this on the website since I got my first AP in 2016.

There does not seem to be a rhyme or reason, just what Disney wants to do