Is a Deluxe resort possible with this budget?

[baler31]

Swan and Dolphin is on my list to research more. As I understand it, you can get certain perks that come with Disney resorts, but not others with the Swan and Dolphin? No Magical Express, but all the other forms of transportation? No dining plan possible? Fast Passes, but maybe not able to book as far in advance as the other Disney resorts? Is that about accurate?

Swan or Dolphin will be difficult with your budget. Lowest I have seen anytime recently was $219 before $32 resort fee. Add taxes and you are almost $300 a night times 2. And that rate will most likely not be available for spring break or summer.

Try for a moderate with a discount. I would not do the Dining Plan. Offsite would be less expensive but with a group coming and going at different times the transportation is nice.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

5 day base Tix ($420.68) x 7=$2944.76
DDP (75.49) x 7 people x 5 nts=$2642.15
Total=$5586.91

With a budget of $7000, that would leave $1413.09 left over for the hotel, and also doesn't factor in auto gratuity at the restaurants on the DDP for being a party of 7. Ignoring that though, you'd have roughly $282/ night to spend on a hotel, or $141/room. For spring break or summer you MIGHT luck out and be able to get 2 rooms at the All Stars at a discounted rate and fit this budget, but that's also going off of 2018 rates for everything and they will undoubtedly increase next year.

QSDDP (52.50) x 7ppl x 5 nts=1837.50
+2944.76 (Tix)=$4782.26
$7000-4782.26=$2217.74/5nts=$443.54 or~$221.77/room/night

This option MIGHT allow you to bump up to a moderate hotel with a good discount, but you'd be downsizing on the dining plan. The only way it could maybe be possible to stay deluxe is if you rented points or you didn't get the dining plan and stayed at a cheaper deluxe (Akl, WL, SSR, okw). For a cash deluxe stay, that would only leave you with a couple hundred for OOP food costs though, and only if you could get a decent room discount.

Basically, going off of 2018 rates, after tickets, you have ~$4050 left for food and hotel. If each person eats 2 QS meals/day at a cost of $15 each, you're looking at $1050 on food for 5 days(which, honestly, I'd figure you'd probably spend a fair bit more than that on food), which would leave you with $3000 for hotel or approx $300/nt/room. I could be wrong, but I don't think you could even get Swan/Dolphin rooms at that rate for Spring break or summer. I would look into some off-site hotels/condos/rentals.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

I would look into the Doubletree Suites at Disney Springs & scrap the dining plan, pay for meals out of pocket & you'll be better off.

 

[Sue M]

I’d scrap DDP too. Eat quick service with maybe a TS sprinkled in one night. Look at the Disney Springs hotels. Sign up for Mousesavers.com newsletter. They often have extra discount links for their preferred hotels in that area. Most are walking distance to Disney Springs and they have a decent shuttle service to the parks running continuously every 30 min. We stayed at Doubletree with a good discount from Mousesavers that included free breakfast. The rooms are all pretty spacious suites. You should be pretty comfy in 2 suites. They are 1 bedrooms with kitchenette. Microwave, fridge, coffee, I can’t remember if it had toaster.

Look into a car service for airport pickup. They have RT rates. We’ve used Quicksilver. They include a 30 min grocery stop on the way to your hotel.

We always have breakfast in the room. Easy to pack bagels in suitcase, instant oatmeal packets, granola, etc. X 7 people that’s a huge savings.

 

[Mousemommy1]

You might be able to squeak it out depending on time of year. Our 10 night stay at GF with 8 day hoppers is just over $5k. No dining plan though, we are paying OOP for food.

 

[Nancyg56]

A budget of $200 per person all classed as Disney adults, per day all in for tickets, dining, and lodging will be very difficult on site. The table service dining plan alone is $75 per day.

We are just about at that number, however we were able to take advantage of free dining. 13,220 for 7 people, 8 nights, 9 day hoppers and free dining. I do not believe that it is possible to keep to a $7000 budget and have two rooms with tickets, especially given that all are older than 9 years.

 

[Miffy]

Unless you can get free dining, you should reconsider the dining plan. It's not intended to save one money--it's a "convenience."

My sister and I were just at WDW for a week and rarely spent $75/day between us, much less each, except for the day we ate at Tusker House, our most expensive meal. But even on that day, we didn't spend $150 total, which is about what the DDP would have cost us. We ate all our meals on site and had one TS meal nearly every day of our trip.

Look at some sample menus, figure out what you might eat, add it up, and see if any of the dining plans make sense for your group. I'm making a point of this because you're on a tight budget, and food is one place you can really save some $.

 

[Arielfan98]

No experience in this field what so ever, but I thought it might be useful to suggest getting a travel agent. My family uses MEI-Travel & Mouse Fan Travel. I'm sure Dreams Unlimited would also be a great help.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Swan or Dolphin will be difficult with your budget. Lowest I have seen anytime recently was $219 before $32 resort fee. Add taxes and you are almost $300 a night times 2. And that rate will most likely not be available for spring break or summer.

Try for a moderate with a discount. I would not do the Dining Plan. Offsite would be less expensive but with a group coming and going at different times the transportation is nice.

I agree that Swolfin varies greatly from season to season, but is usually over $200/night. That said, even $300/night is a better price than most deluxe resorts. The Swolfin works out to be comparable to the moderates in cash prices, but has a much better location than any of the moderates. What is the value of being walking distance to two parks?

Seasonal deals will depend on when OP is able/willing to travel. It seems like late August has some good deals, as families empty out of the parks and go back to school. I don't know where OP lives, but if her kids go back to school closer to Labor Day (rather than mid-August, as many southern districts do), she might manage to find some discounts in late August (either at the Swolfin or the Disney resorts).

Another angle to keep in mind is Swolfin is Sheraton/Westin, so it's possible to book through them directly on points or a combo of points and cash. We have been SPG Amex cardholders for years, and use it for EVERYTHING; if a business accepts AMEX, we pay for it with our SPG card, and we've had many free nights that way. The current sign-on bonus isn't great, but Starwoods and Marriott are merging, and the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus credit card is offering 100,000 points in sign on bonus if you spend $5K in the first 3 months. At the current rate of 3 Marriott points to 1 Starwood point, that gives you 33,333 points, which is about 3 free nights at the Dolphin. If OP has some larger purchases she could put on a CC, she could earn free nights rather quickly. Also, if you book 4 nights on points, you get a 5th night free. Even if she only paid for part of the trip on points, she could really help out her budget going this route.

OP, you might want to visit the Budget forum here to get some tips on other credit cards that might help your Disney budget.

 

[rwdavis2]

We would be open to off site, but I don’t know about two cars, because only one of the four adults feels comfortable driving in unfamiliar high traffic areas (two are elderly, one is just nervous lol—me)

The area around Windsor Hills where many vacation rentals are located is not really high traffic, IMHO. Take a look at a map.

 

[SharonZ]

Taking a discount on Deluxe rooms and paying OOP for food is usually a better deal than paying rack rate with free dining.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Taking a discount on Deluxe rooms and paying OOP for food is usually a better deal than paying rack rate with free dining.

Honestly, there are a lot of factors that play into this so it's not always the case. With 4 Disney adults in one room and 3 in the other, the value of free dining in each room would be $301.96 & $226.47 respectively. Going off of historical discounts for the general public, it's pretty rare to see greater than a 25% discount on select deluxes. Rack rate would need to be greater than $1200 for the first room and greater than $1000 for the second to even out with a room discount vs free dining, and given their budget, rooms at those rates wouldn't work. If they were able to get free dining on deluxe rooms that cost less than $500/ night including taxes, they could fit in their budget and the free dining would be a huge savings vs room discount. That's however banking on free dining being offered next year, the cheaper deluxes having availability for the promotion, and their dates being able to coincide with free dining.

Unless of course you're talking about how much they'd spend on food vs the cost of the dining plan, but that would still depend on where they chose to eat. For many people, they do spend less on food than the dining plan. For us, with having a ton of character meals, we saved a couple hundred dollars with the DDP when adding up the receipts. On our next trip, with the addition of alcohol, it will be more.

 

[Stigsmom]

Windsor Hills is awesome, can accommodate everyone OP wants to include, and could fit that price range. Also, we’ve stayed there twice and it’s not confusing to drive to and from. It’s right near Animal Kingdom. Just a couple turns out of Windsor Hills and you’ll be driving by Animal Kingdom area. No more difficult than driving around while at WDW resort.