How much is acceptable for a value, moderate etc

[Tink415]

We own DVC and I really like all of the Disney resorts, I'd be happy anywhere. I'm also willing to pay more for a Disney room than I would any place else.

Having said that, we went for 2 weeks the end of December 2015. 6 nights Disney, 3 nights Universal, 5 nights Disney. I really, really wanted to stay at Disney resorts for the 6 & 5 night stays. I just couldn't do it as the rack rates were too ridiculous and I couldn't find any better prices. For example, as I recall, ASSp preferred room was about $170(plus tax) a night the 19th-24th. Even with ME and transportation to parks included, there just wasn't enough value to make the price worth it, for me.

If ASSp had been about $150 or less I probably would have considered that worth it and stayed there. I kept checking until early December and remember the moderates were all booked up but value and deluxe resorts had lots of availability.

I just booked an April stay for my dd as a gift. I was looking at a value for $103 night or a moderate for $205 night. I thought the moderate was a better $$ value so booked that. I also gifted her a couple nights at Poly dvc. If I had had to rent those points it would have been $405 a night at $15 point, too much, I wouldn't have done it!

 

[Misha72683]

Last week of October we paid $225 a night for CBR, which was rack rate and then we had free dining (which for our party of 3 adults and 1 child was a better deal than the room only discount would have been). I was happy paying $225 a night for room and food and found the room to be a decent size and the resort quite nice.

 

[Lynne M]

Of course, people can and do interpret categories as they choose, but Disney's intent in creating the resort categories was to group resorts by amenities offered. Value resorts have food courts, and do not have table service restaurants. Value resorts have basic pools, without slides. Deluxe resorts all have some sort of pool slide, with at least one feature pool. Deluxe resorts generally have multiple table-service restaurants. There's sometimes a little blurring of the lines, but those are the general groupings.

The categories don't reflect pricing, either. There was a big flap on these boards a few years back when Disney added the Fort Wilderness Cabins to the Moderate category. People said, "no, that's wrong, you can't have a moderate resort that costs $250-$300 a night!" Well, you can if Disney didn't intend the categories to fit a certain price range. That was a case of guests having their own category criteria that didn't match up with Disney's.

The same thing happened when AoA opened. People thought it was too expensive to be a value. They got caught up in thinking that "Value" resorts meant "a good value", meaning "a low enough cost that it will fit in my budget". By Disney's criteria, AoA is a Value resort. It has pools without slides, a food court, limited bell service, no valet parking.

 

[scrapquitler]

Just wondering for the cost of a room

edited to be be more clear

For me, on most vacations, $250 would be the maximium that I would be comfortable spending on a hotel room. Of course that would vary by where I am because there are some places that hotels are simply more expensive than others. I'd rather keep the price under $150 most of the time.

As far as Disney...the hotel prices are not just a 'hotel' price because of the theming and decor, plus you get extras like the great pools, the airport transportation and the park buses/monorails, etc. So yes, obviously more expensive. When we stay at Disney, I prefer to always stay in the values. I'm not really that concerned about the size of the bed, the size of the room or amenities like the table service restaurants. When I'm at Disney, I just need the room to sleep and shower.

That said, on my upcoming trip I am paying the price for a deluxe ($450 a night!) for two nights. It's sort of killing me when I think about it, but we are planning a special birthday surprise for my sons 13th birthday at Animal Kindgdom Lodge, and it's going to be a one time thing.

And I don't see the other deluxes as being so special that it would warrant me paying that price for the others without the extra bonus of the savanna view we will have at AKL. My husband stayed at the Boardwalk last year for a conference and said it was no better a hotel experience than our usual stay at ASM or Pop. His employers deal for the conference would have allowed us to extend our trip and stay at the Boardwalk or Beach Club for something like $250 a night and we opted instead to spend our extra nights at Pop for half of that price and were perfectly happy.

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

The categories don't reflect pricing, either. There was a big flap on these boards a few years back when Disney added the Fort Wilderness Cabins to the Moderate category. People said, "no, that's wrong, you can't have a moderate resort that costs $250-$300 a night!" Well, you can if Disney didn't intend the categories to fit a certain price range.

As a frequent camper at the Fort I love the moderate status -- for $50+ LESS/night than a typical value room my family of 5 (which can't even stay in a regular "value" room) has access to moderate amenities at a fraction of the cost! Water slide, splash pad/mini water park with slides, hot tub & table service restaurant, a bar, PLUS the location of a Deluxe with boat access to the MK or boat to Contemporary for the monorail. We call our motorhome our DVC on wheels

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Love WDW resorts, but we have stayed in 5 star resorts around the world for half what Disney charges for their "deluxe" resorts. I would rate WDW Deluxe and Moderate resorts as 3 stars, and Values as 2 stars. Why would I not rate deluxe resorts higher? Room size. I have never stayed in a 4 star resort with rooms even close to the size of WDW deluxe rooms.

 

[Nancyg56]

I disagree but anyway

I understand that you may not like the way Disney groups their resort hotels, but that does not change how they are classified within the WDW system. Once you begin to try to compare them to outside hotels, you see that none of the prices vs the rooms sizes, etc will match. I think that when you compare resort categories within WDW you are comparing apples to apple, but if you try to make these comparisons, and gosh try adding "seasons" and you move beyond apples to apples and are wading into apples to Watermelons territory.

 

[Dis703]

For myself staying value I look to pay right around or under $100. Mod I might go up to $175 and Deluxe around $300. But we've only stayed Deluxe twice and if we want to keep going back it's not likely we'll manage to do it again.

 

[MudQueen22]

Although we would normally stay at a Holiday Inn, Hampton, LaQuinta, or the like, we veer toward the values at Disney World. My Dh calls the values a Motel 6 with Disney theming, but we spend so little time in our room that we prefer to save money on lodging. And the values are clean and well kept.
Honestly, I think the values, other than AoA suites, are a good deal. The theming is good, the food courts are good, the pools are nice with great theming, and bus service is provided.

 

[Nancyg56]

Although we would normally stay at a Holiday Inn, Hampton, LaQuinta, or the like, we veer toward the values at Disney World. My Dh calls the values a Motel 6 with Disney theming, but we spend so little time in our room that we prefer to save money on lodging. And the values are clean and well kept.
Honestly, I think the values, other than AoA suites, are a good deal. The theming is good, the food courts are good, the pools are nice with great theming, and bus service is provided.

I agree. The values are good, clean, basic rooms with a lot of Disney tossed in. They do remind me of Motel 6, but I like them too!

 

[AdamEfimoff]

For me, on most vacations, $250 would be the maximium that I would be comfortable spending on a hotel room. Of course that would vary by where I am because there are some places that hotels are simply more expensive than others. I'd rather keep the price under $150 most of the time.

As far as Disney...the hotel prices are not just a 'hotel' price because of the theming and decor, plus you get extras like the great pools, the airport transportation and the park buses/monorails, etc. So yes, obviously more expensive. When we stay at Disney, I prefer to always stay in the values. I'm not really that concerned about the size of the bed, the size of the room or amenities like the table service restaurants. When I'm at Disney, I just need the room to sleep and shower.

That said, on my upcoming trip I am paying the price for a deluxe ($450 a night!) for two nights. It's sort of killing me when I think about it, but we are planning a special birthday surprise for my sons 13th birthday at Animal Kindgdom Lodge, and it's going to be a one time thing.

And I don't see the other deluxes as being so special that it would warrant me paying that price for the others without the extra bonus of the savanna view we will have at AKL. My husband stayed at the Boardwalk last year for a conference and said it was no better a hotel experience than our usual stay at ASM or Pop. His employers deal for the conference would have allowed us to extend our trip and stay at the Boardwalk or Beach Club for something like $250 a night and we opted instead to spend our extra nights at Pop for half of that price and were perfectly happy.

450 is a lot of money!!!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A while ago I saved some information on my Pinterest board.

Here's a link regarding the 2016 Resort Pricing Seasons for all (it lists that the season for pricing vary depending on the resort category and due to the date it was created I don't know if the information is fully accurate) because this really does affect the pricing. http://**************.net/2014/09/24/disney-world-2016-price-seasons/

Value resorts start at $89/night Value resort but that is for the lowest season price..for example in mid-Sep 2016 the All-Star Movies is almost $121/night for a standard room 2 adults. I would assume this is because the dates selected were 9/16/16-9/25/16 and according to the link (for the year 2016), and in regards to this hypothetical trip only, 9/16/16-9/17/16 is considered "Fall Pricing" but 9/18/16-9/25/16 is considered "Regular Pricing". You would think Sep is an off-peak season but Disney does it differently.

Here's another link entitled: "What is the difference between Value, Moderate, and Deluxe Disney Resorts" http://www.couponingtodisney.com/di...ifferences-between-value-moderate-and-deluxe/ I know your original question is about costs but this might help out. I wouldn't take to heart the prices listed for the resorts on that article (as that part is outdated).

Last time my husband and I went in 2011 we found an off-site hotel for mid-$50s/night in price for a double occupancy room with free shuttle to WDW and UO but I know I will pay a significant amount more for the Disney touch and benefis.

Hope this helps out some!