Disney hotels and prices

[Mark7616]

Hello people, im looking at booking my holiday for next year and was looking at the complete Orlando site. Its our first trip and were planning on having a holiday to rememeber. Now origionally we were looking at booking the Caribean beach resort for 16 days with the DDP and car hire and disney 14 for 7 park tickets prices were coming in around £6500 give or take a bit. Now I did a check on the Disney all star music resort same logistics but this time for 3 weeks prices were coming in at £5500 give or take a bit. Now a few qustions 1. Are these prices making you choke on your dinner lol. 2. I like the idea of 3 weeks out there but what are the all star hotels like I take it they are more of a budget hotel but how do they fair. What would you guys look to do 3 weeks in all star or 16 days in the caribean resort???? Or am I missing some disney secret that only you more experianced people know about.

 

[2Tiggies]

Last year I decided to stay at All Star Music because there was a good deal on at the time I wanted to book. Actually, TBH, I only asked about it because DD had got hold of a brochure and loved the look of the themed pool, etc.

About 2 weeks before we left I had a small panic about what we were going to end up staying in ....! I need not have worried. The rooms are smaller than Deluxe, and marginally smaller than moderate resorts. There is no full service restaurant at the resort, but the food court was pretty good. We only ate there a couple of times in our 16 days because we were never there!

For friendliness and good service you could not fault them. We had such a good experience there last year that I am actually considering POP for next year - or even going back there. Now the curve ball for you is the quotes you got INCLUDE dining for the mod, but for the values you need to add the cost of your food onto it. So if you are going in a free dining time, often the mods work out cheaper. I didn't compare a value resort price with our cost of this year's trip but I suspect adding food on would have made it more expensive. It didnt matter before as we have never gone in free dining before so this was never a factor.

How many are you? I can be more specific if you let me know a bit more I will be happy to help you as much as I can.

 

[WiganTony]

If you do a quick calculation of how much meals would cost you for your 3 weeks, this would give a better feel for the true cost of your holiday.

Looking at various Quick Service Dining Plan (QSDP) menus, if you said around $12-15 per person per Counter Service (CS) meal, 16 nights (your stay at CBR) would work out at saving you around $450 each on meals for your 16 nights (probably around half that amount for kids).

A couple of other things that may be worth considering:

(1) Look into the cost of the other Moderate resorts, as sometimes Port Orleans and Coronado Springs are cheaper than CBR for some reason.

(2) Check if the 42% discount on Old Key West or Saratoga Springs is available, as you then get the free DDP (as opposed to QSDP) including one Table Service (TS) meal (albeit next year without dessert included ) included per nights stay - these can be used for character buffet meals such as Crystal Palace, CRT, 1900 Park fare etc.

(3) If you do want three weeks but cost is a problem, how about a split stay - maybe 2 weeks at a Disney Moderate then a week offsite where you should be able to get a hotel room for around £40/night, or 11 nights Disney and 10 nights offsite. Staying offsite would remove the pressure, to some degree, of feeling that you have to eat in Disney to get best value from the dining plan.

HTH.

 

[wayneg]

Did you get a price including flights? usually cheaper to buy separate.

Everyone likes different hotels, so difficult to advise. We stayed at All Stars Movies about 10 years ago, Disliked it so much took me another 8 years (14 trips) before we tried onsite again.
Since stayed at AKL & OKW and loved them, values are not for us but many love them. Back to OKW again this August for 3 weeks.

 

[Dimplenose]

Everyone likes different hotels, so difficult to advise. We stayed at All Stars Movies about 10 years ago, Disliked it so much took me another 8 years (14 trips) before we tried onsite again.

So true as we love the All Star resorts. Stayed there on our 1st and 2nd trip, had a villa for our 3rd and didn't like it so went back to All Stars for our 4th (but we did have 2 rooms as kids now 15 and 18). (Preferred the Sports resort to Music - refused to pay extra to stay in Movies so never stayed in that one).

How many people on your trip and when are you going?

 

[london75]

No offence if you are decided onsite is best but our 3 weeks trip next Thursday for 3 adults 2 kids is £6000 for Virgin Premium Economy flights, 6 bed luxury villa minutes from Disney, Disney Annual passes and Universal tickets and an 8 seat Ford Expedition (albeit due to a Hertz/Expedia web pricing glitch).

I would seriously consider if £5500 - £6500 is worth it for a budget hotel room!

 

[mollies_mum]

We stayed at all Stars Music with my 6 year old daughter and 4 year old nephew, they loved the theming, the pools were ace, great for kids. Now my daughter is 11 we have booked Animal Kingdom Lodge as she loves animals and we get the free Disney Dining Plan. Financially its going to be a stretch but we really want to try a Deluxe resort just once!
Maybe you could do a split stay like someone else suggested? That might work out cheaper over 3 weeks for you, it just depends what you want to do. We always stay onsite as we choose not to drive, we use the free disney transportation and then get a taxi to seaworld, Universal.
Do whatever suits your family, personally I would receommend the All Stars, we had a great holiday there, its basic but it was clean and the kids loved it.
Have fun choosing, its all part of the excitement even if it gives you a bit of a headache at times