Disney lost my money this spring

[dmart82]

I was looking for free dining or pay for 4 nites and get 3 free, but not even a pin code for our house hold. So Carnival got all my money this spring Disney missed out. We will still have fun, just not disney fun.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

This is why when we plan trips we just think of any discounts as a bonus. It is always nice to get those discounts but I never count on them.

 

[patty57]

Did Carnival give you a great discount?

 

[Happy99]

The buy 4 get three is only offered when they are desperate for business. The first time was right after 9/11 they offered it one other time but it was buy 5 get 2

Don't ever count on this type of discount especially over spring break, Christmas or New Years

 

[mel&me]

Codes and discounts are nice, but We would never rely on one to make a trip somewhere. We go where we want, any discount is a bonus. It does not dictate where or when we go.

 

[tiki23]

Why is it so often assumed that if you book a vacation other than Disney that it's because you can't afford one?

We LOVE Disney - we're having a family reunion at WDW in 2013 and we've titled the trip Disney Dorks "World" Tour 2013 LOL - but we've been to Disney quite a lot over the last 5-6 years and now I'm ready to look for value.

I'm totally with the OP on this one.

Disney may not always be the best vacation money bang-for-my-buck so I may book elsewhere that gives me a better deal....or do Disney a little differently, such as stay off-site, etc.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Well, based on the posts I've read here and my personal experiences, I think for a lot of people it goes something like this:

I've got $4,000 for a vacation this year........
We've done Disney for less than that a couple times now...
Oh, it's going to cost $5,000?
Wait! I see some people are getting pin codes and special offers and reports of CM's hinting at a new deal coming soon.......

If the $5,000 is in the budget and the trip is worth it to you. Book it. Great! Any discount is a "bonus".

If the $4,000 is the most you are willing/able to pay, wait for a deal! or......

Not! Go somewhere else and have fun! Like the OP.
Have a great cruise! Hope you got an awesome deal!

I think there are just a lot of people really frustrated with the pin code system!

 

[Mysteria]

The buy 4 get three is only offered when they are desperate for business. The first time was right after 9/11 they offered it one other time but it was buy 5 get 2

Don't ever count on this type of discount especially over spring break, Christmas or New Years

They did it in at least 2009 and 2010 as well according to mousesavers.

No matter though I agree about never counting on discounts. I try to set a budget and work with it.

OP I am sure you will have a great time. A break from Disney is not a bad thing!

 

[dmart82]

carinval gave us 8 day cruise to the bahamas and florida keys extended balcony for four of us for $2400. Can not even come close with disney even if we do a valve. This will be are 3rd cruise and second spring vacation away from disney. I do miss disney, but not enough to spend an extra $1000-$1500 just for a valve and do counter service dining

 

[susieq76]

We did that last year- we took a 7 night carnival cruise AND went to Cancun for a week instead of Disney (pretty much the same money spent). We all had a blast! But yep, can't wait to go back to Disney in September! This year we made the decision to get less value and more Disney.

Next year will probably not be Disney unless we get a value deal.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

Hey can you let us know how you like Carnival or PM me?

We've been thinking of doing a cruise in April 2013, but Disney is WAY overpriced and the only other cruise that I hear about all the time is Norwegian (I think!). I priced that out and it was a bit more expensive than our Disney trip. I asked around about Carnival and a few people said its a "party ship". With a 7, 5 and 3 year old, we are done with the "party ships". Would love to know your opinion

 

[marmalade]

Codes and discounts are nice, but We would never rely on one to make a trip somewhere. We go where we want, any discount is a bonus. It does not dictate where or when we go.

I don't really agree with this. I can only imagine a HUGE decline in packages book in Aug/Sept if Disney stops the free dining promo. A discount is a bonus yes, but with Disney when you see certain people getting pin codes for the same vacation you are taking and paying a lot less just because they were blessed with a pin code. If I knew others were getting a discount and I wasn't I would not pay to vacation at WDW, I will give my money to someone else.

 

[padawans]

Hey can you let us know how you like Carnival or PM me?

We've been thinking of doing a cruise in April 2013, but Disney is WAY overpriced and the only other cruise that I hear about all the time is Norwegian (I think!). I priced that out and it was a bit more expensive than our Disney trip. I asked around about Carnival and a few people said its a "party ship". With a 7, 5 and 3 year old, we are done with the "party ships". Would love to know your opinion

Go to "Cruise Critic". It is a very active discussion forum on all the cruise lines. You will find great info. Its very similar to the disboards just a different topic.

 

[TJA]

I think part of the problem with disney is that rack rates are sooo high that they almost need to offer a "discount" just to get in line with other vacation destinations. We have been pricing Easter rates for a while now, and due to it being blacked out so far this year, all room categories at all the resorts we are checking remain available (BC, Poly, WL, BWI). A standard room at BC is $510 + tax per night -- this does not include any food or park tickets. This is a very crazy price in our opinion. Perhaps people used to pay rack rate in the past, but this year most people are not paying it, thus all the room availability. Even hard-to-get rooms are available.....

 

[Schmoodle]

It just comes down to how much you have to spend and how much your options cost. As a PP mentioned, if you have 4K to spend and a Disney vacation is going to cost less than that with a PIN or more than that without a PIN, that's going to affect your decision. If you've gone the past 4 years with a discount, it's not really a discount, it's just how much you've come to expect that vacation to cost. The normal price for a Disney vacation for many people in recent years has been based on a discount of some sort. That includes me, and I don't think I'd vacation the same way if a discount wasn't involved. I'd rather stay offsite or consider other options. I pretty much know just how much I'm willing to pay for a Disney vacation, and it does involve a discount. Just the fact that Kohls has "sale" prices every single day, does not make it a "sale", even thought they give it that name. It's just their normal prices. If the market can bear it, the normal price of a Disney vacation will go up, and people will balance their budget and perception of vacation value against the new prices.

OP, hope your family has a great vacation!

 

[padawans]

I would not go to disney unless I can stay at a monorail or epcot resort. I may be able to afford rack rate, but I would never pay it. If I can't get 30-40% of of my room forget it. I have no desire to stay in a moderate or value resort. There are so many great places to vacation that don't require paying 500+ for a room that is not a deluxe room to begin with. I can't blame Op for spending her money elsewhere. You have to feel like your getting a good value for you money.

 

[AquaDame]

Thing is, as reports have said, Disney WILL offer less discounts this year since the economy is improving. They have new ships, new lands, new hotels, etc and have been doing very well. They can absorb the lag in attendance, if that even happens, and wait it out - odds are they will "win" the gamble if they can hold out until rack rates become the norm again.

I *feel* that the majority of people will simply alter their trip - if you stayed at a mod, you might go value, or not pay for the dining plan this year. Maybe knock a day or two off... if you were deluxe, maybe you'll finally try a mod or even offsite. I'm not certain what the new fast pass system will really hold when it launches but if it really is an added fee that is waived if you stay deluxe I bet a lot of families would pay the "Deluxe surcharge" to not have to pay it out of pocket like you would at a mod or value.

If we hadn't decided this was the year we are going to do a run on each coast for our Cost to Coast medal, we would not be going this year either, but there you have it. We already did the one in January in California, so they will get my money this time. Since I have the feeling this is our last trip for a long time I keep hoping I can stay deluxe, just this once, but even at a mod paying $200 a night is silly for us - we are used to paying around $100-$130 a night for very good hotels elsewhere or doing vacation rentals where you get a whole house for $80. I would pay maybe $300 a night, but not the $400 they want! We paid the same to stay at Aulani, you pay the same for the Four Seasons, the Hyatt in Tokyo, etc! I have NOT been impressed with any of Disney's hotels thus far. Yes they are cute, and fun, and magical, but that doesn't take over from the fact that they are all the same as far as dents, smudges, cracks etc go once you really LOOK at the room. Even after the remodel at POFQ there were marks all over.

This year I just feel rather sick thinking how much farther we could go for our dime... we might try offsite as well so I will know if its a once and done kind of thing or if it will make it so we can go every year or two as we have been doing still.

 

[TandLMommy28]

Enjoy your cruise!

I totally agree with you, OP. If Disney doesn't offer a price I'm willing to pay (and "willing to pay" is not the same to me as "what I COULD afford to pay"), I will go somewhere else on vacation. Disney doesn't own my vacation dollars. If they want them, they've got to earn them!

 

[Lyndsey]

I plan my disney vacations expecting to pay alot of money, any discount is an added benefit. I am not picky about what or where my room is, this is were we sleep. So we normally do value. We were lucky enough to get free dining this year for our March/April trip. With this we extended from our already 7 day trip to a 10 day trip. We also upgraded to a moderate all for 3500 for a family of 5. But if Disney did not offer a discount we would still have gone. My 3 kids are only young once, it helps that they do not need souvenirs because we have been there so many times. Enjoy your cruise!!

 

[lurkernj]

Even with discounts, the prices have gone up so much over the past 4 years. I was just looking at my spreadsheet from Sept 08 and 10 nts at POR with free dine, PH/WP for 2 adults and 2 disney adults was $2672. I priced out that same package for this Sept out of curiousity(assuming FD occurs), and the exact same dates/package comes to $3591. That's not including the $281 upgrade for a preferred location (we were in bldg 18 in 08, which is now a preferred room surcharge). That's a $919 increase without taking the large increase in airfare into consideration (more than doubled since our earlier trip).

Same for my POP trip in Sept 09. Me and DS (11 at the time) went for 6 nites with WP option and FD(no hopper), the price for that package was $1082. The exact same package (upgrading dining to reg since that is what we had then) comes to $1546 now.

We are currently planning to go in Sept this year, as we want to get in one more trip before DS17 goes to college, and the in-laws can still navigate the parks without assistance. Our trip will definitely cost a bit more than the 10 night trip we had several years ago. But this will probably be the last for us with our kids.