Help! I can't wait another 3 months to start planning!

[ducky_love]

Hi Everyone!

We are looking to head out to DL in October. (yes, we live at WDW. We are THOSE people. ) I'm so used to planning ahead that I am having trouble not being able to get things done now. Some hotels don't even have rates out there yet!!

It seems like discounts only come out 60 days in advance. So - what would you do? I'd really like to stay walking distance to the park but I want to get the best price. I'd love some advice from you guys that are there all the time.

I have been reading the Halloween superthread and the WDW vet's guide to DL. Great resources!! I really apprecaite it! Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[BecomingObsessed]

I think the most common hotel reccomendation you will get from this board is for the HoJo. They have super deals sometimes for the "entertainment rate" which is obtainable during certain dates with a card from the Entertainment Book. I've read you can buy the card only for around $5 on eBay. You can see the rates they have available at this website. Even if you don't see your dates now, check back because they sometimes update it with more dates closer to your travel time. If you decided to book here under their regular room rate and then they post some or all of your travel dates, they'll allow you to call and change your reservation to the lower entertainment rate as well.

Good luck with being patient, it's always hard for me too

 

[ducky_love]

Thanks! This is our 4th trip. Our first time we stayed at Candy Cane. I loved it but my DH didn't. The last two times we have stayed at the Embassy Suites South which was really nice. I just like the idea of not having to drive so I want to stay at one of the really close places this time!!

I'd love to get that $59 rate!! So far 2 of my potential dates are available - fingers crossed!

Any other secrets out there other than the ENT card? I'm wondering about Priceline and Hotwire.. but how could I know it was walking distance?

 

[ducky_love]

One last question - are the ENT cards specific to the city? It would be great to buy the Orlando book because I live here if I could still get the DL hotel discounts!

 

[LavenderPeach]

Thanks! This is our 4th trip. Our first time we stayed at Candy Cane. I loved it but my DH didn't. The last two times we have stayed at the Embassy Suites South which was really nice. I just like the idea of not having to drive so I want to stay at one of the really close places this time!!

I'd love to get that $59 rate!! So far 2 of my potential dates are available - fingers crossed!

Any other secrets out there other than the ENT card? I'm wondering about Priceline and Hotwire.. but how could I know it was walking distance?

I think the priceline and hotwire hotels are usually not within walking distance from what i've seen. We did priceline twice knowing it would be hotels further away. If you bid on the highest star for the area you get something like the Hilton or Hyatt (those are the 2 we got). Have you looked at betterbidding.com? You can get a good idea from that site which hotel you might get. I thought someone recently said they used priceline for a lower star hotel (forgot how many stars exactly, maybe 2 or 2.5?) and i think they got one that was closer but it still wasn't that close I don't think.

Sorry your DH didn't like CCI. That's our favorite place on Harbor.

 

[GrandBob]

One last question - are the ENT cards specific to the city? It would be great to buy the Orlando book because I live here if I could still get the DL hotel discounts!

The only hotel that I'm aware of that has a ENT card discount is HoJo's. For HoJo's, they don't care where the ENT card is from. You can buy any ENT card from any city in the US, and it will get you the ENT discount at HoJo.

I don't know how it works elsewhere. But the ENT card that comes with the ENT book is the same for all ENT books across the US. So if the discount requires the ENT card, you can use any card from any book. That's the way HoJo's works. But if you know of a specific hotel that has a discount coupon in the Orange county book, then clearly you'll need that book.

HTH,
Bob