Changes ahead for 2008 room bookings!!

[marivaid]

What I dont understand is why is summer months in the value season? If they are all about bringing in the big bucks, you would think summer months would be peak season, to bring in more money and make the other months value season, as a way to bring people to the parks during the school year. Thats why they offered free dining during september. To help bring in more people during that month since it used to be slow. Take any hotel. Best Western, Marriot, etc. and throw them into a city where there is a theme park. During the winter months, their rates are low. But once summer hits, their prices jack up. Dont be surprised if Disney ends up doing this. Changing their seasons so that value is during what is now peak or regular season and regular or peak season is during the summer months. They wanna keep their parks filled year round. And that would be a good (not for us, but for disney) marketing tactic (sp?) they could use. Most people go down during the summer since school is out. Well, they could offer cheaper rates during the remainder of the year to help bring in guests.

Only the Deluxes are in Value season in June & July. The Values & Mods are in what they call "Summer season" - higher prices than Value, but lower than Peak. I'm guessing it's because many of the guests who come in the summer (families with school-aged children) stay at the value resorts.

Last year they didn't have any AP discount for moderate resorts but this year they have. While ASMO and ASMU, and a lot of the Deluxes, are both booked full for next month, 3 out the 4 Mods still have rooms available in several room categories.

If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they added the Mods to the "Value" season in the summer,it looks like Disney's having a hard time filling them at Summer season rates.

 

[Disney8704]

Value season starts in August for Value & Mod resorts. Value season starts at the beginning of July for deluxes.

They changed the start of value season this year. In the past value season didn't start until late August. Now it starts early August.

In the past, many schools in the south started school prior to value season. This year many start in late August. As a result many more families can take advantage of summer value season rates.

I'm pretty sure it won't be long before disney moves it back to the end of August.

It doesn't matter how great the rates are during the school months, some of us will not pull out for a trip to WDW.

 

[Disney8704]

I think reason being, Disney has a hard time filling Mods year round. Generally the values and the low cost Deluxes like AKL and WL fill up first and the fastest. I think Values fill up 1st then Deluxes for the main purpose of being a cheaper resort to stay at. And a lot of people spend the whole day at the parks and dont see the need to spend a lot of money on the resort. Deluxes on the monorail line fill up for those who have young kids, because of the monorail. Easy access for breaks and to get strollers on and off the monorail. For those who can afford the low price deluxes they figure they minds of well stay there instead of a mod. Mods arent much cheaper then WL or AKL. Looking at my AAA book for 2007 for value season AKL standard room is $218 and CBR standard room is $196. Well AKL and WL are the same prices and CBR and CSR are the same prices as well. So for only $22 more a night, someone can go from staying at a Mod to a Deluxe. I dont know about anyone else, but I would rather spend the extra $22 and stay at a nicer resort, especially AKL since it does have it own buses and doesnt share. I dunno if the Mods share or not. Im guessing POR and POFQ probably do and I know the All Stars do.

Only the Deluxes are in Value season in June & July. The Values & Mods are in what they call "Summer season" - higher prices than Value, but lower than Peak. I'm guessing it's because many of the guests who come in the summer (families with school-aged children) stay at the value resorts.

Last year they didn't have any AP discount for moderate resorts but this year they have. While ASMO and ASMU, and a lot of the Deluxes, are both booked full for next month, 3 out the 4 Mods still have rooms available in several room categories.

If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they added the Mods to the "Value" season in the summer,it looks like Disney's having a hard time filling them at Summer season rates.

 

[fey_spirit]

Actually Walt didn't like Unions because he saw them as a slap in the face. He considered everyone who worked for his company to be something of an extended family member. As such it hurt his pride and his sense of integrity to think that anyone in his employee felt the "need" to organize.

What can I say - I got really bored and anxious waiting for my trip last year and read every biography I could get my hands on.

Yeah that's why he actively engaged in union bashing... it brought "magic" to his employees LOL!
Walt was a great man, but the view of him as this saint who only wanted to bring "magic" is probably not accurate. And the truth is that given Walt's attention span..... he would have long ago abandoned theme parks for his next adventure.

 

[marivaid]

Looking at my AAA book for 2007 for value season AKL standard room is $218 and CBR standard room is $196. Well AKL and WL are the same prices and CBR and CSR are the same prices as well. So for only $22 more a night, someone can go from staying at a Mod to a Deluxe.

Yep I saw that months ago when I first booked our trip, and couldn't believe my eyes. Even without AAA it was only $30-$40 more to stay at WL/AKL instead of POFQ.

Did they have Summer Season last year or is this a new thing for 2007 ? It needs some work...

 

[Disney8704]

I honestly cant remember if they had a summer season or not. I dont remember seeing it in my AAA 2006 book but then again I wasnt looking for the summer season rates either. I only saw that they had the summer season this time only because I sat down and took the time to really look through the book.

Yep I saw that months ago when I first booked our trip, and couldn't believe my eyes. Even without AAA it was only $30-$40 more to stay at WL/AKL instead of POFQ.

Did they have Summer Season last year or is this a new thing for 2007 ? It needs some work...

 

[fey_spirit]

BTW I don't buy Walt as a Saint either...
I think on some levels like all true creative genius he was a bit disturbed.
I don't think Walt would have moved on from the Park business - he never actually moved on from any business, he just kept expanding his various interests while continuing to re-invent the one's he was already engaged in.

That said - my only point of contention was the orginal statement that Walt Disney World was orginally created to bring in tons of money... that may be what it's about now, but it's actually not what Walt or Roy (who thought the whole thing was a bad idea to start with) had in mind when the parks were created. Thus making "It started out that way" - a factaul error.

Heck I'm not even sure where I stand on the "is it ok that it's that way today?" issue just yet - just know this aint how it started.

Yeah that's why he actively engaged in union bashing... it brought "magic" to his employees LOL!
Walt was a great man, but the view of him as this saint who only wanted to bring "magic" is probably not accurate. And the truth is that given Walt's attention span..... he would have long ago abandoned theme parks for his next adventure.

 

[skater]

Combined with the dining plan changes, this might convince me to take that long awaited trip back to Yellowstone. (Free dining could draw me back though!)

 

[Deb & Bill]

Combined with the dining plan changes, this might convince me to take that long awaited trip back to Yellowstone. (Free dining could draw me back though!)

You'll need to make a reservation at Yellowstone pretty quickly (or as soon as they open the 2008 reservations) if you intend to stay at one of the hotels there. They book up very quickly. And they are more expensive than Disney. Beds are usually doubles and some are ancient. In some of the rooms at the Old Faithful Inn, your bathroom is in the hallway and you share with other guests.

Go to the Xanterra Website if you are serious about Yellowstone.

 

[jmkrat]

You'll need to make a reservation at Yellowstone pretty quickly (or as soon as they open the 2008 reservations) if you intend to stay at one of the hotels there. They book up very quickly. And they are more expensive than Disney. Beds are usually doubles and some are ancient. In some of the rooms at the Old Faithful Inn, your bathroom is in the hallway and you share with other guests.

Go to the Xanterra Website if you are serious about Yellowstone.

You make Yellowstone sound darn appealing

 

[marivaid]

You'll need to make a reservation at Yellowstone pretty quickly (or as soon as they open the 2008 reservations) if you intend to stay at one of the hotels there. They book up very quickly. And they are more expensive than Disney. Beds are usually doubles and some are ancient. In some of the rooms at the Old Faithful Inn, your bathroom is in the hallway and you share with other guests.

That reminds me I'll be paying £55 (roughly $110) in London later this month. For a room with one twin bed, shared bathroom down the hall. Prepaid deal, regular rate would have been £65 ($130).

London is the capital of overpriced hotels. After that, Disney almost seems cheap.

 

[Kira G.]

That reminds me I'll be paying £55 (roughly $110) in London later this month. For a room with one twin bed, shared bathroom down the hall. Prepaid deal, regular rate would have been £65 ($130).

London is the capital of overpriced hotels. After that, Disney almost seems cheap.

I was just researching beach hotels in New Jersey and Delaware for August, before I booked our WDW trip. Holy cow! WAYYY more expensive than Disney for what you get!!!

 

[Colleen27]

Figuring out the cost of a WDW trip is turning into a shell game. Room prices vary, dining plans vary, tickets vary. What a pain in the butt for newbies.

And don't forget "Disney Math", where the price of a package never quite works out to exactly the summed cost of the individual components!

Look on the bright side - it is more for all us DIS'ers to obsess over.

 

[Colleen27]

I was just researching beach hotels in New Jersey and Delaware for August, before I booked our WDW trip. Holy cow! WAYYY more expensive than Disney for what you get!!!

Yeah, but Disney's competition isn't in New Jersey. Look around at other Orlando hotels and compare prices - you can get a lot more for the money offsite. I'm currently debating a 3 bedroom villa vs a Disney deluxe. The difference? If we stay on site, it will cost us $1300 more to stay in one standard hotel room with no privacy. If the rumors about the changes to room rates and to the dining plan, and I suspect we won't be the only ones who won't even be thinking about staying on site next year.

 

[Poohbear123]

What if Disney is thinking of only charging higher Friday and Saturday rates for guests who are only booking a weekend stay.

Maybe that is that is what they are considering.

I think guests may be having a hard time booking longer stays because too many locals and DVC'ers are booking weekend only stays at Disney's resorts.

Maybe guests who stay 4 or more nights will not be charged extra for Friday and Saturday.

Let's wait and see before we jump to the wrong conclusion.

JMHO

That would be nice, but, I don't think they will give us a break. Lets see what happens if a Big Hurricane comes along, or another 9/11 I bet they won't be able to fill any rooms than.

 

[bookgirl2632]

You know, I'm going to Vegas in three weeks for a friend's wedding. I'm staying at the Luxor Monday through Friday. Those four nights I'm staying for $89 a night. Friday and Saturday, it jumps to about $149 or so. And I noticed some nights in the month of July are as low as $59 and as high as $239.

My point is that Disney is just doing what the entire hotel industry has been doing for some time. And before we jump to conclusions, this may end up being a good thing. In value season, we could be paying much lower prices during the week than we have been. Sure, the weekends will be more, but I think it will even out and we'll probably be paying, in total, about the same as we are now. Besides, it sounds to me like they are trying to get more money out of the weekend trippers.

 

[G8r4evr]

In terms of the change of seasons, but, unless they make the week-day rates cheaper when they jack the costs of week-end rates, that won't be the case for the other aspect of the change. I won't hold my breath on them making Sun-Thurs night stays "cheaper".

This was my first thought as well. If they would actually make the weekday rates cheaper than they are now, I could really like this new pricing. However, something tells me that both weekdays and weekends will go up, weekends will just go up farther.

 

[G8r4evr]

Yep I saw that months ago when I first booked our trip, and couldn't believe my eyes. Even without AAA it was only $30-$40 more to stay at WL/AKL instead of POFQ.

Did they have Summer Season last year or is this a new thing for 2007 ? It needs some work...

Wow, I guess Ive been spoiled by Expedia. Every time I have booked a moderate on Expedia is has been $145 and Expedia definitely doesnt have WL or AKL for $165ish, but more like $220ish. I guess I just assumed that was normal and didnt realize that Disney prices has the moderates and low end delxes pricing out much closer to one another.

 

[G8r4evr]

Everyone keeps saying this...but I priced bunches of WDW-area hotels (I'm pathetic, wasting my free-time this way, lol), and didn't find a single one yet that charges more for Fri/Sat nights. Can someone who knows of some WDW-area hotels that does this please post an example of the price differences? I would think WDW would structure their own difference to be similar to hotels in the same market.

The onsite Universal Resorts upcharge for weekends as well. The difference is that alot of the hotels that do upcharge weekend, have really low prices for the weekday to even things out. My concern is that Disney is going to keep its already high prices on the weekday and then just make them even higher for the weekends.

For instance, I just returned from Royal Pacific at Universal and used the Fl Resident rate....While I paid $189 for Friday and Saturday, I paid a measly $139 for Wednesday and Thursday....something tells me that weekdays at Disney arent going to be $139 a night.

 

[Tink10]

This thread has been very interesting......

I really don't think Disney is out of line to convert to the industry norm and I really don't think they'll suffer from it whatsoever. There is such a huge demand for WDW resorts and even those here who say "I'll never stay onsite again", will undoubtedly be back onsite when WDW offers some sort of promo like half price dining and the tips will be included. (If you don't understand that, just check out the DDP board)

My prediction is that we'll see room rates go up, more than the norm, but we'll see catagory specific values added for resort guests, giving people more reasons to stay at the Deluxes. Maybe something along the lines of the tiered fastpasses or even different DDP's based on your resort catagory.

It may not happen in 2008, but I think that eventually we'll see something like it. They're going to want to fill the Deluxes and give people more reason to buy DVC.