Got a Great Rate at DLH

[Tonyspad]

Hello to all. Last night I switched our PP reservations to the DLH for the same rate. I bought an annual pass and used the currect discount for the switch. I could not have afforded the change without this discount. The DL reservation assistant spent 55 minutes with me to make the switch-- I love the people at Disney.

We are staying is a standard view concierge room in late June and have never visited DL (over 20 visits to WDW) for four nights Monday-Friday. Please provide us with any info on the lounge and hotel.

 

[damaris13]

I see you live in CT, all the way across the country, yet you bought an annual pass? How many days are you going to be in the park? Did it work out cheaper to buy the annual pass than just for the number of days you will be there?

 

[Tonyspad]

We are planning on spending 5 days in the parks. The annual pass was only $100 more than a five day pass, but gave me a 30% discount on the room.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

What was your nightly rate? (if you don't mind sharing, that is).

I don't have an AP and secured a 30% off rate for the Grand Californian for five nights in June. I booked through disney as well. The promotion raised to 25% the next week, so I am glad I booked when I did. (I booked online through disney.com).

If you look at Disney.com there is a spring offer right now for 25% rooms, and there seem to be plenty left. I think the Disneyland Hotel is not as booked up right now due to the construction of the pool area.

I have found that often when I call disney I get quoted a higher room rate than is listed at disney.com. Not always, but often it is the case. I always check both before booking.

You can also get a reduced rate by waiting until they sell out at Disney.com and then go to Orbitz or Expedia to check for rooms. This is more of a risk (as they may not have the dates you want)--but you can get a really good deal. I got the Disneyland Hotel last summer (upper pool view room rate) for 195.00 per night, with an additional 10% off coupon code from Expedia.com. I think the rate with the discount was about 179.00 per night. we stayed for 4 nights.

Of course the AP can be useful for getting discounts for dining and other items, but it is costly so you always have to balance it with what you are paying for it. Since you live so far away, it might make more sense not to have an AP, unless you plan on going to Disneyland at least twice a year.

 

[nana50]

With my AP and the right timing I've stayed at the DHL for $129.00 I love having an AP.

 

[oumagic]

With my AP and the right timing I've stayed at the DHL for $129.00 I love having an AP.

That makes me want to get an AP before we actually go down there in Oct. I am hoping that I can get something reasonable in Oct. at an on-site hotel. $1900 for 5 nights is where GCR is at right now for October and I am booked at HoJo for $450 (great deal, IMO). I am willing to pay more, but not that much! Of course, the 25% deal expires before Oct and maybe they will have an even better fall deal? My fingers will remain crossed.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

That makes me want to get an AP before we actually go down there in Oct. I am hoping that I can get something reasonable in Oct. at an on-site hotel. $1900 for 5 nights is where GCR is at right now for October and I am booked at HoJo for $450 (great deal, IMO). I am willing to pay more, but not that much! Of course, the 25% deal expires before Oct and maybe they will have an even better fall deal? My fingers will remain crossed.

The way to check the AP rates for your dates is to call Disney direct, and tell them that you are thinking of upgrading to an AP and you want to know what the rate is and if it is available.

You have to check for availability--because although we are upgrading to APs this trip--when I made my reservations for GC (I made them in April for our June stay), they said that there were no more AP rates available for the GC for our dates. We still got the rate of 30% off because of the spring rate promotion.

They said they could book our AP rate for us over the phone, as long as we bought our APs before our travel. But there were no AP rates left. If I had chosen to go with the Disneyland Hotel I could have gotten the AP deal, but I knew I didn't want to stay there again with the pool renovations this summer (Peter Pan pool will be under construction, and I have had enough of that!).

I hope this information is helpful to you. Have a nice trip.

Lisa

 

[emacat]

This really is a great deal! I'm in the same position as the pp. We're booked at Hojo, but I would love to do DLH in December. However, I can't justify 2600 vs. 600....just crazy.

Do you know how long the 30% is? I hate the Disney doesn't have discounts posted for further than a few months out....

 

[LisainCalifornia]

Do you know how long the 30% is? I hate the Disney doesn't have discounts posted for further than a few months out....

I got my 30% off of the GC by just booking through disney.com. Now the rates are at 25% off. The Disneyland Resort often has discounts, but you need to wait for the new ones to come out. You can also book now and then have them change your rate when a new promotion comes out.

Here is some good information on how the discounts work (including AP's--which are not always the lowest rate out there):

http://www.mousesavers.com/dlresorts.html

 

[Tonyspad]

I was able to secure a 30% discount and I am able to change my reservation upto 5 days before arrival without any penalty, so if an even better deal comes out I am change. I was told that ALL pool and outdoor construction will stop or be finished by May 25, then start again after Labor Day. Since we are arriving in very late June there should not be an issue.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

I was told that ALL pool and outdoor construction will stop or be finished by May 25, then start again after Labor Day. Since we are arriving in very late June there should not be an issue.

I was told something different when I called. Sometimes what disney vacation planning tells you is not correct--as they are located in Florida. You would think they would have up to the minute information on the hotels, but it isn't always the case. We stayed there in April, and were told that all of the construction (including pool) would be mostly complete.

This is what it looked like:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/821/disneylandhotelconstruc.jpg/
and here is the video I shot from our room in the Wonder tower:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqq6rcssH9Q
The new rooms were lovely as usual, but the noise and dust and loud machinery took away from our hotel experience considerably.

This is what I heard about the pool area at DLH when I called:
The Monorail shallow (kiddy) pool with slides will be open at end of May if all goes well. At the same time, the Peter Pan Pool will close down for construction to begin on it. I read this same thing on another thread here yesterday.

Your information may be correct, but you won't be sure until you go and see it yourself in June. You can try calling the DLH directly (without being transferred to Florida), but often they transfer you automatically for any information regarding the hotel.

I hope you have a great trip! We felt lucky to get our 30% off too, although last summer the 5 nights for 3 was even better. Disney.com will undoubtably roll out a new promotion (maybe not 5 for 3) for the summer season soon. They almost always have something going.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[disneydenisel]

So I just switched our one night in June from the GCH to DLH. It saves us $145.08. I am wondering for mid-June if we will regret the change due to construction dust, noise, missing pool, etc. We are actually in the Villas for two nights and will have to change. What do you think? Should I switch back or save the money. Actually, I will have to buy an AP, but was planning to do that anyway. We will have a Deluxe View at the DLH...are all the rooms renovated? We have never stayed there, but have stayed at the GCH twice.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

So I just switched our one night in June from the GCH to DLH. It saves us $145.08. I am wondering for mid-June if we will regret the change due to construction dust, noise, missing pool, etc. We are actually the Villas for two nights and will have to change. What do you think? Should I switch back or save the money. Actually, I will have to buy an AP, but was planning to do that anyway. We will have a Deluxe View at the DLH...are all the rooms renovated? We have never stayed there, but have stayed at the GCH twice.

I think only you can make this decision, depending on what is most important to you. I typically love the DLH, but am staying at the Grand this summer due to the ongoing construction. But this is because we stayed at the DLH in Nov and April, and both trips were disappointing due to the construction issues--and if I am paying to stay at a resort, I want it to be a resort experience.

If you booked a Deluxe room then you should get a renovated room. You can request a Downtown Disney View so that you won't face any construction at all, but we did this twice and both times were given a pool view despite our polite requests for DTD facing rooms. (I always request at the time of booking, then call again 5 days prior to our stay for requests).

I personally think 145.00 is not that much extra money to stay at the Grand--but only you can decide what works for you. Some people are not bothered by the construction like I was and have good experiences staying even with the construction going full force. Read some trip advisor reviews. I posted our recent trip review on there.

Lisa

 

[disneydenisel]

I think only you can make this decision, depending on what is most important to you. I typically love the DLH, but am staying at the Grand this summer due to the ongoing construction. But this is because we stayed at the DLH in Nov and April, and both trips were disappointing due to the construction issues--and if I am paying to stay at a resort, I want it to be a resort experience.

If you booked a Deluxe room then you should get a renovated room. You can request a Downtown Disney View so that you won't face any construction at all, but we did this twice and both times were given a pool view despite our polite requests for DTD facing rooms. (I always request at the time of booking, then call again 5 days prior to our stay for requests).

I personally think 145.00 is not that much extra money to stay at the Grand--but only you can decide what works for you. Some people are not bothered by the construction like I was and have good experiences staying even with the construction going full force. Read some trip advisor reviews. I posted our recent trip review on there.

Lisa

Thanks, Lisa! I waffled back to the GCH ! I did book the AP rate that became available for the standard view at just $41 more than the DLH, so that was sort of a no-brainer (it was not available the other day!) which means I will need to get an AP. So now I have an AP question. Can I buy a 4-day hopper, use two days, and upgrade to a Deluxe AP before I check-in to my GCH reservation?

So I would

1. Pay $201 for the 4-day hopper.
2. Use Day 1 and 2 (Day 2 is a block out day for DAP)
3. On Day 3, upgrade to a DAP for $128 (is that right?)
4. Still use my DAP on Day 3 (not a block out day)

Can I apply a DVC discount of $20 to this DAP purchase?

 

[LisainCalifornia]

1. Pay $201 for the 4-day hopper.
2. Use Day 1 and 2 (Day 2 is a block out day for DAP)
3. On Day 3, upgrade to a DAP for $128 (is that right?)
4. Still use my DAP on Day 3 (not a block out day)

Can I apply a DVC discount of $20 to this DAP purchase?

Hi Denise,
I don't know all of the ins and outs of the AP process as others do here--because this will be our first trip purchasing an AP as well. I do know that if you have a parkhopper, they will upgrade you to an AP by you paying the difference in price from your parkhopper to your AP. Your calculations seem correct to me. 201 for parkhopper + 128= 329.00 (cost of AP).

I don't know the answer to the DVC discount of $20.00, but I am sure there are many here that could answer that question for you--as we have many DVC members on the board.

We will be there around the same time! We are staying June 13 at the GC for 5 nights. Have a great trip!
Lisa