Have Resort Prices Really Increased This Much?

[Animal]

I am getting priced out of Disney moderate rack rates but don't love the values, so I am booking alternative ways for upcoming trips. Including fees, I was able to get Dolphin for $234/night with an AP rate and AKL for $226/night renting points in the New Years / Marathon Weekend timeframe. I am renting one night at Poly and a few nights at Dolphin with an AP rate for the same cost as the entire stay at Caribbean Beach. Discounts are so far and few between, we used to always stay with room discounts and it wasn't so bad. I just cannot fathom paying $400+/night and still have to take the bus to every park. At least I will earn Marriott points with all these Dolphin stays! (And I've never stayed there, so I hope I like it!)

Edit: Looking back at emails, I paid $286/night (incl. fees) with an AP rate at AKL in early December 2019. I can't fathom finding a room for that price through Disney anymore. Seems crazy!

Great approach. Swan/Dolphin make a whole lot of sense now. I love the POFQ foodcourt, but it's easy enough to spend an evening at Disney Springs and take a leisurely boat ride there. I love the ambiance of the moderates, especially POR/POFQ, but come on...$400? That's a hard NO.

 

[DefnotDLav]

Oh and I forgot, back in 2017 that $502 stay included tranportation to and from MCO (Magical Express) and a complimentary Magic Band. So that $972 stay in 2022... add say $80 for Uber to and from MCO and then another $20 for a basic magic band and you come up to $502 vs $1,072.

Also included free parking at the resort. So at $15 for 5 nights tack on another $75, and you are at $502 vs $1,147 for a 128% increase.

 

[DefnotDLav]

Great approach. Swan/Dolphin make a whole lot of sense now. I love the POFQ foodcourt, but it's easy enough to spend an evening at Disney Springs and take a leisurely boat ride there. I love the ambiance of the moderates, especially POR/POFQ, but come on...$400? That's a hard NO.

Same. I love POR/POFQ. Hard to believe that in 2018 we got a priceline deal for $99/night at POFQ.

But would never, ever, never, ever, pay $400/night to stay there. Way too many options outside the bubble to engage in that madness.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Also included free parking at the resort. So at $15 for 5 nights tack on another $75, and you are at $502 vs $1,147 for a 128% increase.

Yes, free parking was included back in 2017, but in my comparison I used an Uber estimation as a substitute for Magical Express instead of having my own car on site. In my opinion its one or the other, not both. Including $75 for parking and a round trip MCO to Pop Centutry transportation is double dipping a bit.

 

[heresabe]

I think I recall paying $82/night @ Pop a few years ago. And that included the free Magical Express, free extra hours (not the extra thirty-minutes nonsense).

 

[Scalemaster34]

S&D&R have gone up on their "resort fees", that's at $40 and if you need to park a car it's another $35. Combined it's more than what we would pay for an All Star when we first started staying onsite in the 90's.

Resorts
Ticket
Meals
Genie+ & LL

Disney Trips are MUCH more than they were a few years ago... have to try and save money where you can, as it's a hard habit to break.

 

[Pinnochio]

I think I recall paying $82/night @ Pop a few years ago. And that included the free Magical Express, free extra hours (not the extra thirty-minutes nonsense).

I paid that same $82/night at French Quarter in 1993, and that was during Presidents week....for twenty years i did the same 10 nights during Presidents week and never paid more than $1,000 total....the times are a changing!

 

[Miffy]

I paid that same $82/night at French Quarter in 1993, and that was during Presidents week....for twenty years i did the same 10 nights during Presidents week and never paid more than $1,000 total....the times are a changing!

One thing that's gone that was always a huge help for us was the bounceback offer. We always did that.

 

[isabellea]

Going Dec 28th-Jan 4th and my first choice was the Dolphin but it's 500$ more then POFQ, our favourite moderate (I compare totals that include resort fees and taxes). This trip was originally planned for July and it was actually cheaper to stay at the Dolphin then. I'll keep checking the Marriott app but for now we will stay at POFQ and we already decided that it was our last trip to WDW. Not worth going there anymore and we will spend our travel money at new destinations instead (Europe, Hawaii, western Canada, etc.).

 

[LAJMommy]

Costco has great Swan & Dolphin deals which include all taxes and pesky resort fees.

 

[Hitchhiking Ghost]

I was looking at an old excel file that has several Disney vacation budgets on it. 2005 CBR stay I had $120 p/night, two years later paid $145 at POR. Last trip in 2015 was over $225. And a lot of those were done with free Dining Plan or Stay-Play-Dine packages. Our next stay will again be POR and without discount for December it was well into the upper $300's. I don't think this will be our final trip to Disney, but a very good chance it will be the last time on property. I've always been a big defender of the intangible and tangible value of staying "in the bubble" but as more and more tangible benefits are stripped away, the intangible is no longer enough to warrant the premium prices.

 

[StoweFoSho]

The post-COVID resort increases make me feel better about buying into DVC, especially when there were zero discounts on any hotels. Demand is so high right now that the discounts just aren't there to help offset the rack rates that much. 2022 DisneyWorld feels very different from 2019 DisneyWorld. I can live with Genie+, but can I please get MagicalExpress back, that was such a good program.

 

[Timandalicia]

Until COVID, we were going to Disney World every year during the week between Christmas and New Year's.

In 2018, a Garden View at French Quarter was $314/night before taxes and fees.
In 2019, the same room was $316/night.
This year, the same room is $411/night.

I'm a bit taken aback. At $311/night, Pop Century is now the price of what I was paying for French Quarter just 3 years ago.

I understand that this may be the new reality, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing something. Are the moderates really $400+ night nowadays during busy season?

Thank you kindly for your thoughts.

Yes. We are going to book December 16-22 and it is $900 and up for Beach Club. It’s where we always stay, but I’m having trouble doing it this time around. I’ve spent under 300 there just a couple years ago.

 

[Miffy]

Yes. We are going to book December 16-22 and it is $900 and up for Beach Club. It’s where we always stay, but I’m having trouble doing it this time around. I’ve spent under 300 there just a couple years ago.

We have the same sticker shock with AKL, where we always--I mean always--used to stay. Now we're staying at POFQ, whose rack rate is almost exactly what we were paying for AKL with a discount. I'm not talking about 5 or 10 years ago but 2019 prices.

Last December, because we hadn't been to AKL in 2 years, we paid an exorbitant price for it--over $700/night--and that was with an AP discount. That was one heck of a price to pay and get almost no housekeeping. We knew it'd be trash + towels every other day but what we didn't know is that we'd have to practically beg to have this every-other-day service, calling multiple times. During an 8-night stay the room was made up only once and we ended up taking out our own trash a couple of times.

 

[Timandalicia]

We have the same sticker shock with AKL, where we always--I mean always--used to stay. Now we're staying at POFQ, whose rack rate is almost exactly what we were paying for AKL with a discount. I'm not talking about 5 or 10 years ago but 2019 prices.

Last December, because we hadn't been to AKL in 2 years, we paid an exorbitant price for it--over $700/night--and that was with an AP discount. That was one heck of a price to pay and get almost no housekeeping. We knew it'd be trash + towels every other day but what we didn't know is that we'd have to practically beg to have this every-other-day service, calling multiple times. During an 8-night stay the room was made up only once and we ended up taking out our own trash a couple of times.

Same happened to us. We stayed 2 nights and moved to another resort, and we literally got no service.

 

[elaine amj]

Costco has great Swan & Dolphin deals which include all taxes and pesky resort fees.

I just tried to check Costco Travel for my upcoming Dolphin stay on Aug 19, but it simply doesn’t pop up. Actually only a 6-7 offsite hotels within 10 mins or so from Disney appear for that postal code. So odd.

I’ve also been checking my other travel portals and the Dolphin doesn’t show up either. Are all onsites so busy they’re not even posting rooms on major travel portals?

 

[Scalemaster34]

Yeah it's looking like Dec is going to be very crowded at WDW....

 

[focusondisney]

Are all onsites so busy they’re not even posting rooms on major travel portals?

I imagine it depends on your dates. I check Priceline. The first week of September has had several on-site resorts for weeks now from all categories. Not a big discount, mostly 10%, but it’s something.

 

[Miffy]

Yeah it's looking like Dec is going to be very crowded at WDW....

That could be true but it could also be true that WDW resorts are still so short-staffed that they can't operate at full capacity. I have no direct knowledge of this, it's just something I'm speculating about based on my last 3 trips to extremely understaffed resorts.

 

[Scalemaster34]

That could be true but it could also be true that WDW resorts are still so short-staffed that they can't operate at full capacity. I have no direct knowledge of this, it's just something I'm speculating about based on my last 3 trips to extremely understaffed resorts.

It's not just WDW Resorts but resorts in general in the area.

Plenty of Room right now, Sept and Oct.... but going into Nov and Dec and rates are up and availability is way down.