Help! Paying too poly much?

[meflymom]

Hello! I'm a 1st-time DISer, so I apologize if I'm posting my question in the wrong place. I booked a Sept 2009 trip to WDW through disney.go.com, and then discovered DiSboards--love it! Have since read posts by fellow DISers sharing low rates and great deals. Now I've got a sinking feeling that I'm PAYING TOO MUCH for the vacation I booked and prepaid in full. Since booking, I have also learned about bounce-back offers, but the cost of this trip will keep my family from being able to visit again any year soon. For 2 adults and 3 children (ages 5, 6, 11-their first trip to Disney ), I paid $4223.20 plus airfare. 7 nights, 8 days at Polynesian Resort, Garden-View Room. 8-Day MYW Ticket with Park Hopper and Free Dining. Anyone else paying a similar amount, or does this seem high?

 

[swald91]

Welcome! This is a great place to get info about Disney! First, you picked a great resort..I love the Poly...being that this is a deluxe resort it is more expensive than values & moderates. As far as bouncebacks, they are only good if you book your next trip before you leave & during the dates available on the card in the room. I really don't think that price is too high-but are you taking advantage of free dining or a discounted room?

 

[plutolovr]

If you're getting free dining, you won't get any discount on the room. I don't know what dates you have so I can't run the numbers myself. You may want to re-run the numbers using one of the room discounts that Disney has. Usually free dining in a Deluxe resort will be less of a discount than getting a room discount itself.

 

[swald91]

I must have missed your free dining note there....I think free dining works out cheaper than a discounted room rate-but we like the Poly. If you are staying at a different resort the discounted room rate my be a better deal.

 

[tink_lover]

I don't think that's bad. We paid more than that our first couple of trips (2A and 3C also) but didn't have free dining. Our first trips we stayed at CR and Poly so if it makes you feel any better - I think you did good! Disclaimer - now that I have made a "few" trips, I would always look for a better deal than that.

 

[Tisha_PA]

We're staying at the Poly in Sept also (2A 3C) for 8 days/7 nights with free dining. Our price is slightly lower than yours but only because we don't get park hoppers. I think what you're paying is about right. You can't use more than 1 discount at a time so you either go with free dining or a room discount. The room discounts that they were offering for Sept (think it was 35% off) made the price go higher so we kept the free dining.

 

[vicki_c]

As the others said, with free dining, you get no room discount, so for what you have, you have the best deal available. Here's some breakout of the package components:

Rack rate at the Poly, Garden View in September is $355/night x 7 nights = $2485.

8 day MYW hopper tickets for 3 adults (one of your kids is a Disney adult) = about $252 each + $50/each for hopping x 3 = $906

2 kids = $217 each + $50 ea for hopping x 2 = $534

Tickets = $1440

Tickets + room + free dining = $3925

My math may be off in there somewhere, but the price you had isn't far off what I came up with. Your quote might include insurance.

NOW ... if you got a general public room-only discount for say 35% off, then you could get your room price down around $1600 or so. AND I HAVE NO IDEA IF THEY EVEN HAD SUCH AN OFFER FOR YOUR DATES, OR IF THEY DID, THAT THEY STILL WOULD NOW - HIGHLY UNLIKELY, SO I'M JUST SHOWING YOU THIS AS AN EXAMPLE.

Then add tickets of $1400 = $3000

And you would still have to buy the dining plan for 5 people -
3 adults x 40/night x 8 nights = $840
2 kids x 11/night x 7 nights = $154
Dining = $994

Total around $4000 - looks like it's a wash with free dining.

Mousesavers is where I always get the rack rate for rooms and ticket prices. hope that helps!

 

[DebbyLof428]

Sounds about right to me but if you're not sure why don't you call directly and see if there is a better deal to be had. Hubby and I got a better deal than free dining by going with AP rate(plus passholder dining package), but we WILL be going back in the spring so this might not be an option for you.

 

[princessmom29]

That is about right for the poly. It is one of the more expensive resorts. You are paying for the convinence of staying on the monorail. If you were really interested in shaving costs and willing to go a little further from the MK you could cut that price in half by staying at a Mod., or by about $1000 by going with a standard room someplace like AKL. It is really about what is important to you. If it is worth the money to be in the Poly then do it. I personally would rather spend less on my room and stay longer, so we stay 7 days at a mod for what 3-4 at the poly would cost.

 

[tink_lover]

Forgot to add - I'd get rid of the park hoppers, especially with the age of your kids. Get to a park early, leave and enjoy the pool/grounds of the Poly and relax or head back into the same park. It really adds a lot more to do the hoppers and we have found them not necessary if you plan correctly.

 

[NikitaZee]

We are going 10/31 to 11/7. We have Polynesian Garden View, 7 nights with 8 day park hoppers, and deluxe dining (not free - we added it on). We got this with a pin code for the 4/3 deal, and we are paying $4245 for 2 adults, 2 children, 1 infant.

 

[Jenjulia]

Hello! I'm a 1st-time DISer, so I apologize if I'm posting my question in the wrong place. I booked a Sept 2009 trip to WDW through disney.go.com, and then discovered DiSboards--love it! Have since read posts by fellow DISers sharing low rates and great deals. Now I've got a sinking feeling that I'm PAYING TOO MUCH for the vacation I booked and prepaid in full. Since booking, I have also learned about bounce-back offers, but the cost of this trip will keep my family from being able to visit again any year soon. For 2 adults and 3 children (ages 5, 6, 11-their first trip to Disney ), I paid $4223.20 plus airfare. 7 nights, 8 days at Polynesian Resort, Garden-View Room. 8-Day MYW Ticket with Park Hopper and Free Dining. Anyone else paying a similar amount, or does this seem high?

That is about what we are paying for 6 nights GVCL at the Poly w/ Park Hoppers and Dining plan for our Dec. trip. I agree, it is expensive. I guess it depends on what you want out of your vacation and how much money you want to spend. We were given the money to go to Disney, so it makes it easier for us to spend it. With little kids, the transportation options and room size was a big factor in our decision. DH is 6'2 and I'm 5'11 and both of us have some back issues. The full sized beds at POR were the final factor of what changed our reservation to the Poly from POR. We know we won't be going back to Disney for 3-5 years and I don't think we will ever stay on property again, so we were more willing to splurge this time around.

I think that it just depends on what you want out of your vacation. If you get a code or want to change your reservation, I think you can as long as you do it before 45 or 30 days before your vacation. Otherwise I think that you will probably have to pay a change fee if you downgrade your reservation. I am new at this but I worried about the same thing too, since we paid our trip off in May.

 

[meflymom]

Thanks to all who have already offered their awesome feedback. I'm grateful to now feel that, while I likely may have paid less if I had looked around, that I'm not actually paying a "crazy" too-high amount for my spur-of-the-moment vacation booking. Wish I had booked Poly Concierge Level, but I thought we may not actually have as much time to utilize it, with the free dining plan. Smart advice from Tink Lover to skip the expense of the park hopper option. I booked it thinking that my family would enjoy the park flexibility, but maybe we don't actually need to bounce between parks. Now I'm ready to tackle learning about possible park itineraries, special hours and events. Wish me luck!

 

[meflymom]

As the others said, with free dining, you get no room discount, so for what you have, you have the best deal available. Here's some breakout of the package components:

Rack rate at the Poly, Garden View in September is $355/night x 7 nights = $2485.

8 day MYW hopper tickets for 3 adults (one of your kids is a Disney adult) = about $252 each + $50/each for hopping x 3 = $906

2 kids = $217 each + $50 ea for hopping x 2 = $534

Tickets = $1440

Tickets + room + free dining = $3925

My math may be off in there somewhere, but the price you had isn't far off what I came up with. Your quote might include insurance.

NOW ... if you got a general public room-only discount for say 35% off, then you could get your room price down around $1600 or so. AND I HAVE NO IDEA IF THEY EVEN HAD SUCH AN OFFER FOR YOUR DATES, OR IF THEY DID, THAT THEY STILL WOULD NOW - HIGHLY UNLIKELY, SO I'M JUST SHOWING YOU THIS AS AN EXAMPLE.

Then add tickets of $1400 = $3000

And you would still have to buy the dining plan for 5 people -
3 adults x 40/night x 8 nights = $840
2 kids x 11/night x 7 nights = $154
Dining = $994

Total around $4000 - looks like it's a wash with free dining.

Mousesavers is where I always get the rack rate for rooms and ticket prices. hope that helps!

Thanks, Vicki C, for crunching the numbers. Wow. The amount of posts you've done is amazing. It must be wonderful to have helped so many people in so many ways. Thank you, thank you for all of your efforts!

P.S. I tried to send you a private message to thank you, but because I'm a new member, I haven't earned the privilege of being allowed to do that yet...

 

[rie'smom]

Thanks to all who have already offered their awesome feedback. I'm grateful to now feel that, while I likely may have paid less if I had looked around, that I'm not actually paying a "crazy" too-high amount for my spur-of-the-moment vacation booking. Wish I had booked Poly Concierge Level, but I thought we may not actually have as much time to utilize it, with the free dining plan. Smart advice from Tink Lover to skip the expense of the park hopper option. I booked it thinking that my family would enjoy the park flexibility, but maybe we don't actually need to bounce between parks. Now I'm ready to tackle learning about possible park itineraries, special hours and events. Wish me luck!

I agree with the no park hopping especially for a first trip. Just remember when you book your dining reservations, they must be in the park you visit that day because the turnstiles will not allow you into another park on the same day if you do not have park hopper tickets.
There are enough restaurants in each park for this not to be a problem.

 

[danceintherain]

It looks fine to me. Disney trips are expensive, and the Poly is one of the most expensive resorts. It looks like you saved around $1000 by doing Free Dining. If you had done a room-only or other package discount that was available for your dates to the general public your discount would probably be 20-30%, which would only add up to around $500 ($75/night) of savings. Even if you qualified for the deepest discounts (Annual Passholder) it would still only be about $100/night ($255 x 40%) which would only be $700 of a total discount.

As far as Park Hopper, it's probably too late to make the adjustment now, so don't worry about taking them off, even though it is your first trip there's a large chance you will find a way to use it, even if it's just your last full day and you want to hit some of your favorites before you leave. Also, the Animal Kingdom tends to close early (5pm most evenings), so it's nice to be able to enjoy another park on those evenings.

Just enjoy your trip! The Poly is one of my dream resorts. The grounds are lovely, and the proximity to the Magic Kingdom is great.

 

[vicki_c]

Thanks, Vicki C, for crunching the numbers. Wow. The amount of posts you've done is amazing. It must be wonderful to have helped so many people in so many ways. Thank you, thank you for all of your efforts!

P.S. I tried to send you a private message to thank you, but because I'm a new member, I haven't earned the privilege of being allowed to do that yet...

Just saw this now - you're welcome! I'm a relatively "quiet" poster compared to a few around here! (in reality, I just like to hear myself talk!).