Best resort for money?

[Smittolis]

It all depends on what you 'value' as 'value'... as its purely subjective. For me the best 'value' is location and ease of transport too and from the parks as well as Magical Express, as a result the best 'value' for my family are the Monorail resorts or WL. But for others, the prices exclude this from ever being close to 'value'.

We've stayed at most places and the above still rings true for us. We are also using our favorite TA to get some awesome deals on hotels so that helps a ton. One tactic we use (and will be doing so this next trip also) is to split stay, 1 place that is financially economical and then offset that with where we want to stay. So our next trip we are staying offsite as a family for the first time for a week and then a week at the Contemporary Resort. This allows us to go for 2 weeks instead of 7 days at discounted prices. Looking forward to it!

But again, if you are asking what is the difference between $115 per night Value resort rooms and the moderates? or if the extra $100-200 per nights is worth it? That's a difficult one to answer! lol

 

[dreamit]

Last November I stayed at ASMu, with it being my first time staying at a Value resort. I had hoped for POP, but couldn't get it for my dates with the free dining offer. I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to the resort during that trip, but I was pleasantly surprised. The resort and room were clean and bright. The cast members were exceptional, and our experience with the bus transportation was great.

 

[Sarahslay]

What do you value?

Space? Stay off site
Amenities like a coffee maker? Stay moderate/above or off site
Proximity to a park? Stay deluxe
Price? value, or offsite even when paying for rental car etc.
Privacy? offsite

The wonderful thing is that there's a million ways to do Disney. I won't stay onsite unless it's for a conference and employer is paying for it. I value space, and I don't see the free airport transportation as a perk. Driving a rental car is just as quick as waiting for and a riding a Disney bus. I also value privacy and Disney does not, so all that adds up to me staying off site most of the time.

Pop has coffee makers in their rooms now, was just here last weekend. I think Pop is the next step up, but if I can get a discount and stay in that price range I would stay in a moderate. The AOA little mermaid rooms never have discounts, and the family suites are pricier than the moderates. They are remodeling ASMovies, so those rooms will eventually be on the same level as Pop.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Proximity to a park? Stay deluxe
.

I would disagree here. I find Pop Century in close proximity to all parks except MK. It’s much closer (or feels that way to me) to the non-MK parks than the deluxe MK resorts. Not to mention, I have found the transportation at Pop Century far preferable to the deluxe resorts (I even prefer the bus from Pop Century to the monorail from a MK resort to/from Epcot).

This (as well as the savings) is why we split stay most of our vacations. We start at Pop Century and visit all parks except MK. Then we move to a MK resort for resort and MK days.

 

[ajwilhorn]

Are you Costco members? Not quite sure how they compare price wise with deals, but I see them listed in their vacation brochures.

 

[Ben E N]

Within the Disney bubble, renting DVC from a place like David's gives you the most bang for your buck, but it is more than one step up from the All Star resorts and comes with some tradeoffs to get that good of a price.