Crazy to pass up the FD offer to keep resort/room?

[POROct2013]

We are booked at POR for the end of October. We have booked a RGR-River View and we've already paid for the DDP. If the FD offer comes up for that time (which really sounds like it will), and if we don't get the room that we have already booked, DH said to not bother. He said we have already paid for our holiday and our daughters will LOVE the RGR so he wants to stay there and keep our reservation as is.

Has anyone ever done this? It would save us approx $700 to get FD (we have paid for the DDP already).

Are we absolutely stupid/crazy?

 

[pigletto]

If your heart is set on a Royal Room then I would stick with a Royal Room. I do find however that the particular view category really doesn't matter much in the long run. You won't spend a whole lot of time looking out your windows, and there is no balcony. It's a quick jaunt to any view you want. So to save as much as free dining could save I would definitely move to another view category (like Standard or Waterview).

That being said, we booked a studio at Wilderness Lodge Villas on points for our Christmas trip. Then not 3 days later I got the pin code for free dining and it covered our dates. Didn't matter. One, for our very first Christmas trip I have always wanted to stay at Wilderness Lodge so I am getting that. And two, if I had used free dining it wasn't going to save me all that much if anything because I'd have to pay rack rate for the room we're in and it's over $500 per night

So I definitely understand wanting the room you want. I just would switch if you can get another view. We were in a Standard view Royal room in February and it was lovely. I was still surrounded by foliage and gardens.. just on the back side of the building. I would definitely have not given up free dining for garden view which was almost the same anyway.

 

[POROct2013]

I should have mentioned that we would be fine changing the view but we reallly want to keep the room!!!

 

[ciera321]

Having the room you want at the resort you want makes a vacation better for me. If the money isn't that big of a deal to your family, then stay put. I, however, would change resorts for FD because of the savings, but that's me. POR is a big resort and is usually included in the specials, though I'm not sure about the specific rooms. Good luck, and enjoy no matter what you choose!

 

[tiger4me2]

If your DH said he want to stay and it is paid for then stay. I always prefer a certain resort (have three) and won't change unless it is a really big difference. But for us FD is not worth it but a % off room is a big deal.

Go with what you got & enjoy !!

Sometimes a view & how much you want to stay at a certain resort make a vacation great. MHO.

 

[hsmamato2]

I don't agree.... I think you'll be kicking yourselves for paying $700 for a couple of wall decorations....... I'd switch it,and buy the kids a few princess items to play with,hang in the room,and enjoy my savings..... essentially it's a little different decor inside the room,right? I guess if that's worth 700.00,then keep it. Or get a room virtually next door in a 'regular' mansion building....but that's just me......

 

[sweetnjmom]

I don't agree.... I think you'll be kicking yourselves for paying $700 for a couple of wall decorations....... I'd switch it,and buy the kids a few princess items to play with,hang in the room,and enjoy my savings..... essentially it's a little different decor inside the room,right? I guess if that's worth 700.00,then keep it. Or get a room virtually next door in a 'regular' mansion building....but that's just me......

I agree here. We haven't paid our balance yet (due mid September) and have a room in POR in a River View category with a request in for a regular mansion building. I am hoping that when the FD is live, we'll be able to stay where we are but I'm willing to change to save $700-800 dollars. For the week we're going, it's a difference of @$3300 down to $2500. I'd rather have the extra money for souvenirs for my son.

 

[Rustyroo]

Not saving the money sounds pretty crazy to me, but I'm with the posters who would rather save the money. Disney has so many tools at their disposal to pry money from you, why not take this one from them when you can get it? Of course, if you can swing it and don't mind knowing you could have that money back in your pocket while there, go for it. I would take the savings and run...

 

[SunnyP4Disney]

With FD, the standard rooms tend to go first, then on down the categories. There usually are more Royal Guest Rooms left because they are a higher price point, and free diners love clown car-ing people into the cheapest room to get their maximum savings. I have a feeling you will be able to switch easily if/when FD comes out for your timeframe.

 

[Nutbean]

I would be willing to switch rooms, even resorts to get the free dining.

 

[sweetnjmom]

With FD, the standard rooms tend to go first, then on down the categories. There usually are more Royal Guest Rooms left because they are a higher price point, and free diners love clown car-ing people into the cheapest room to get their maximum savings. I have a feeling you will be able to switch easily if/when FD comes out for your timeframe.

That makes ME feel slightly more confident that I'll be able to keep my room type, with a river view as our category. Hoping you're right!

 

[antmaril]

I would be willing to switch rooms, even resorts to get the free dining.

I agree. $700 is a big savings just to have a certain decor in a hotel room. I have stayed in a RGR at POR and it was cute, but not $700 cute. Granted, we were two grown women, but still, that is a lot of money. I would use the money to do something special with your children. You would still be WAY ahead.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

I understand your situation. We have a RO booked at POFQ (standard) and I would take any room view at POFQ for free dining. But I don't want to switch resorts. I might do POR preferred, but I am not even sure about that. We have been to WL and BC and I am already a little nervous about a moderate, but POFQ looks cool. The others look way to large!

 

[Marthasor]

If a Royal Room is available under the discount, I would take it. As another PP noted, the view doesn't really matter at POR. Another thing you may want to consider, if a room-only discount comes out at the same time as free dining, you may want to price your package out using the room-only discount (then add tix and dining) and with the free dining discount. Depending on the discounts, sometimes the room-only discount (with tix and dining added) comes out less than the free dining discount.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I don't agree.... I think you'll be kicking yourselves for paying $700 for a couple of wall decorations....... I'd switch it,and buy the kids a few princess items to play with,hang in the room,and enjoy my savings..... essentially it's a little different decor inside the room,right? I guess if that's worth 700.00,then keep it. Or get a room virtually next door in a 'regular' mansion building....but that's just me......

I also agree - $700 is a lot of extra $$$$ - No way would I give up that extra money for the inside décor of a room.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

If a Royal Room is available under the discount, I would take it. As another PP noted, the view doesn't really matter at POR. Another thing you may want to consider, if a room-only discount comes out at the same time as free dining, you may want to price your package out using the room-only discount (then add tix and dining) and with the free dining discount. Depending on the discounts, sometimes the room-only discount (with tix and dining added) comes out less than the free dining discount.

Even if it were just 2 ppl staying in that room and no children, a free dining ($110 a day for 2 ppl) will always be a better discount than a room only discount. Have you ever seen ANY room discount that would save you $110 a night in a mod? No.

Now if you add in children to the mix you save even more with free dining.

The only way a room discount will save you more is if it is only 2 ppl in a deluxe room that costs more than $300 a night and you have a 35% off room code.

 

[POROct2013]

Thank you again for all your replies. I am very tempted by the $700 savings. My DH, not so much. It isn't like we are made of money but he really wants our girls to stay in a RGR. I don't think I can win that argument!

In any case, I have crunched the numbers and if I have done it correctly, the FD would save us about $700. If we went with the room discount instead, it would save us about $330 (factoring in that we have already paid and the room rates have gone up a bit since we booked many months ago).

I will cross my fingers to see what happens next Thursday.

 

[OurBigTrip]

Even if it were just 2 ppl staying in that room and no children, a free dining ($110 a day for 2 ppl) will always be a better discount than a room only discount. Have you ever seen ANY room discount that would save you $110 a night in a mod? No.

Now if you add in children to the mix you save even more with free dining.

The only way a room discount will save you more is if it is only 2 ppl in a deluxe room that costs more than $300 a night and you have a 35% off room code.

The $$ saved is only worth it if you will make full use of the DP. On our last trip, we looked at buying the dining plan because we already had a great room discount, and for us, it was easy to see that it wouldn't be a good value.

It all depends on how a family tours, what their dining preferences are, etc. For us, I'll take the room discount over free dining any day, so long as I can get the resort that we want.

 

[ColonelHathi]

I would keep an open mind. FD is a pretty decent deal. That being said, I think you will find more availability at POR in the RR category for late Oct. We have a GV room booked for that week and I definitely want to stick with POR too, so I get where you are coming from. Given the length of our stay, we have decided against the RR when we booked. We are hoping for mansions though. Our DD loves Princess and the Frog, and each category at the resort has small touches of the theme. We're actually thinking the opposite, that the RRs might have more availability and we might have to upgrade! Preferred and Standard rooms are already booked for our dates, so that's probably out. So definitely check into FD and hopefully POR will be available!!!

 

[ColonelHathi]

I would keep an open mind. FD is a pretty decent deal. That being said, I think you will find more availability at POR in the RR category for late Oct. We have a GV room booked for that week and I definitely want to stick with POR too, so I get where you are coming from. Given the length of our stay, we have decided against the RR when we booked. We are hoping for mansions though. Our DD loves Princess and the Frog, and each category at the resort has small touches of the theme. We're actually thinking the opposite, that the RRs might have more availability and we might have to upgrade! Preferred and Standard rooms are already booked for our dates, so that's probably out. So definitely check into FD and hopefully POR will be available!!!

We're only saving like $200 with FD which includes shaving off 3 ADRs in OOP.