disneyland specials (newbie question)

[MartinaC]

I was wandering if someone knows why disneyland doesn't offer discounts like Walt Disney World. Today I noticed the fall promotion is $400 off the disneyland properties for a 4 night stay. I checked what it would cost for a 4 night vacation in november for our party of 5 (dh,ds16,ds14,ds12 and myself) and it would cost us over $3000 to stay at the disneyland hotel.
We just returned from a week stay at the Yacht Club with the dining plan (not quick service) we stayed the last week of July and only paid $3900. about $800 difference but we were able to stay an extra 3 nights and that included our meals.
I know that there must be some reasoning for it so, I was just wandering if someone out there could enlighten me.
thanks everyone

 

[DLR29]

Just speculating but I can think of a couple reasons:

1) The main attendance at WDW is vacationers. Not so at DLR where a lot of people are locals who come for the day or have APs. My guess is that WDW attendance is lower because people are taking less vacations (blame it on the economy, but it is probably true), while DLR isn't necessarily hurting as much because they still get a lot of locals coming on day trips. The specials at WDW are to try and get people into their hotels and parks.

2) As for the prices, not sure what dates you plugged in for DLR, but late July is Yacht Club's value season. Some of the dates in November (around Thanksgiving) are "Regular season" or "Peak season" for DLR.

3) That 4/3 deal was probably the best deal that WDW has released in possibly forever.

Out of curiosity, I actually just checked the Disneyland website and for your party of 5, it came out to be less than $1800 with a standard room and 4 day park hopper. That was during the week during the value season part of November though. Even during Thanksgiving season the price was not over $3000.

 

[PinkBudgie]

They did have the 5 for 3 offer with tickets this summer and good neighbor hotels. It is possible they might do something similar coming up after this deal expires. Don't know.

And like the PP said, the make up of DLR guests is different form WDW.

 

[MartinaC]

All very good points. Thank you. I had checked for arriving on nov. 14 thru the 18th. I will have recheck.
I was not aware that july was value season for wdw I thought it started last week in august because that is usually when free dining is offered.
But, one comment does bring up another question. If a good percentage of there traffic is local day users why build disney's vacation villa's there?
I will recheck the prices.

 

[DLR29]

All very good points. Thank you. I had checked for arriving on nov. 14 thru the 18th. I will have recheck.
I was not aware that july was value season for wdw I thought it started last week in august because that is usually when free dining is offered.
But, one comment does bring up another question. If a good percentage of there traffic is local day users why build disney's vacation villa's there?
I will recheck the prices.

We've been looking at hotels for next summer (decided not to go with a hotel, but do an exchange in the end). And the seasons for WDW are different, depending on what type of hotel it is. The Deluxe hotels start their value season late July. The moderates and values start late August. Very confusing, don't ask me why they do it that way.

My guess is that they built DVC places just for the option of having nicer accomodations for those who really want them. Close to the parks, a place called Worldmark, a vacation company (we belong to it), just opened a little while ago. They are like DVC where they have 1BR, 2BR, etc. and have lots of flexibility. It's probably smart for Disney to build condos to attract more people who want "the comforts of home" and also make DLR more appealing to DVC members (especially farther away on the East Coast).