May 2014 Discout Watch

[cindermomma]

Good morning! I felt like I needed to come here and share what I recently discovered. I'm not sure if this will be deleted or moved, but I feel like this needs to be known.

I posted a while back about the awesome PIN I received through WDW. I started pricing out Animal Kingdom, Wilderness Lodge, etc. I found that even with the 35% off it was still way too much for me.

Then I came across a post about renting DVC points. I looked into that and WHOA!!!!!!!! I booked a Deluxe Studio Savanna View at Animal Kingdom Villas for about $1600 less than what I would've paid for a room even with the 35% off. Not to mention it has a kitchenette with a microwave, fridge, coffee maker and toaster. It sleeps 4 with a queen bed and a pull out sofa. I know many of you will be traveling with more than 2 people so there's also 1, 2 and 3 bedroom villas with full kitchens for rent. That would be great for a family to cook in some nights/mornings. If it was more than just my DS14 and I we would've gone that route also.

I rented from a DVC rental agency and have had a great response so far. I usually use vacation rental by owner website to rent houses/villas in the Caribbean so I wasn't nervous in the least using a rental agency. I did read up on reviews and found nothing but positive reviews about this particular company. I'm not sure if I can post the name here, but if you ask me I'll do it in a different post in case it gets removed. I'd hate for this entire post of information to be removed for one name.

Even though this may not be of interest to any of you, I thought I'd share since it was such a fantastic deal for me.

Edited to add what I paid. I figured y'all may want to compare prices to make sure. I'm paying $1988 for 8 nights (May 23-31). Also, I need to add I don't own DVC points nor do I work for any rental company. I'm just a single mom who loves sharing good deals when I find them!

PM'ing you - would love to know which company you use!

 

[DisneyMom0709]

I got a 3 digit code today for some sort of discount off a room, could of been more but hey it's a start

 

[hhill]

We booked our trip may 17 -24, staying at AOA LK suite, we got a military rate plus DDP. I wonder if we can get a better deal than that ?

 

[chinarider]

Praying for May discount. We are planning on going May 14-24th so hopefully, it's early enough that something will be available.

 

[medicgirl177]

Past experience has taught me that Room Only Discounts are in May and Free Dining isn't until fall/winter.

That said, if I may make a suggestion , anyone thinking about the dining plan should research where they are considering eating, what they are considering eating (rather than eyes bigger than stomach) then compare those numbers to the price of the DDP. Not always does it save money. Especially if you are walking away leaving credits, which you most likely will. That's just giving Disney your money for free .

I know that once we broke it all down, the DDP only allowed us to overeat anyway. We spent a lot less this past May than what the DDP would have cost us. I was surprised at the savings, and we ate like we normally do but never worrying about overspending, still came out ahead in the end .

On a separate note, renting points is definitely a way to save some money too, with a much better resort to choose from!

So eating as you normally would, and renting points instead of paying rack rate,...all ways to save money. After some research and reading the boards etc, I realized our trip could be every 12-18mths depending on work, and we vacation for 10-14 days.

Now if only we could figure out ticket discounts too...

 

[Shaden]

Past experience has taught me that Room Only Discounts are in May and Free Dining isn't until fall/winter.

That said, if I may make a suggestion , anyone thinking about the dining plan should research where they are considering eating, what they are considering eating (rather than eyes bigger than stomach) then compare those numbers to the price of the DDP. Not always does it save money. Especially if you are walking away leaving credits, which you most likely will. That's just giving Disney your money for free .

I know that once we broke it all down, the DDP only allowed us to overeat anyway. We spent a lot less this past May than what the DDP would have cost us. I was surprised at the savings, and we ate like we normally do but never worrying about overspending, still came out ahead in the end .

On a separate note, renting points is definitely a way to save some money too, with a much better resort to choose from!

So eating as you normally would, and renting points instead of paying rack rate,...all ways to save money. After some research and reading the boards etc, I realized our trip could be every 12-18mths depending on work, and we vacation for 10-14 days.

Now if only we could figure out ticket discounts too...

You and We are exactly the same. Have done the DP every time, although our last trip I didn't want to. But the wife wanted it all paid in advance, so we went with the DP. The first half of the trip, we were using all our credits, eating the most expensive stuff on the menu, even if we wanted something cheaper (like a salad, but why waste $20 ???). We were eating way too much as it was, and on top of it we were usually taking our deserts to go and shoving them in the already packed fridge in our room. Ended up feeling like crap from the over eating. Until about the halfway point, when my wife said "this is stupid", she cleaned out fridge and we just decided to eat what we wanted, instead of what we had to. When we left we had 6 TS credits left, and a few QS credits to boot. Despite wasting some on pizza delivery and snacks ... My wife promised next trip, no DDP. Sitting down to plan, she almost tried to argue for it again just so it would be "paid in advance", but then when we were looking at the places to book and she saw something she liked at a TS restaurant for dinner that was only 12.99 ... she remembered and said, "we aren't doing the stupid dining plan again" ... it was pretty funny.

On top of that, after considerable effort I convinced her to rent points for the upcoming trip. We are essentially saving 60% off rack rate, and paying $20 more for a deluxe Standard view studio than we would have paid for a King bed at a Moderate WITH 30% off. That's the kind of savings I like.

We KIND of figured out how to save on tickets. We are doing a 2 year rotation with APs. First year, buy APs and go May 15-30, Next year use the same APs and go May 1-14. Basically like half price tickets ??? well, maybe more if you were only planning on buying 10 day hoppers, I think those are like $800 for the two of us, and APs were like 1200 ? (though they were 1100ish when we bought them) Still a pretty solid savings, $550/600 a year instead of $800... Also this allows us to get a TiW card and save even more on food.

 

[medicgirl177]

@Shaden. Awesome savings!! I keep all our receipts in Manila envelopes (that I label at home and bring with us). We also stay an extended amount of time so it's easy to misplace stuff. I try to tell friends that a little pre-planning (besides what ride you want to go on!) can go a long way.

I really like the AP idea!! I toyed with it at one point, but I see how you are using it which really does maximize it. We love May trips, but I was considering a shorter trip of 4 days (in addition) to see the Christmas lights next year. That would be a very efficient way to do it!!

 

[KittyKat1978]

You and We are exactly the same. Have done the DP every time, although our last trip I didn't want to. But the wife wanted it all paid in advance, so we went with the DP. The first half of the trip, we were using all our credits, eating the most expensive stuff on the menu, even if we wanted something cheaper (like a salad, but why waste $20 ???). We were eating way too much as it was, and on top of it we were usually taking our deserts to go and shoving them in the already packed fridge in our room. Ended up feeling like crap from the over eating. Until about the halfway point, when my wife said "this is stupid", she cleaned out fridge and we just decided to eat what we wanted, instead of what we had to. When we left we had 6 TS credits left, and a few QS credits to boot. Despite wasting some on pizza delivery and snacks ... My wife promised next trip, no DDP. Sitting down to plan, she almost tried to argue for it again just so it would be "paid in advance", but then when we were looking at the places to book and she saw something she liked at a TS restaurant for dinner that was only 12.99 ... she remembered and said, "we aren't doing the stupid dining plan again" ... it was pretty funny.

On top of that, after considerable effort I convinced her to rent points for the upcoming trip. We are essentially saving 60% off rack rate, and paying $20 more for a deluxe Standard view studio than we would have paid for a King bed at a Moderate WITH 30% off. That's the kind of savings I like.

We KIND of figured out how to save on tickets. We are doing a 2 year rotation with APs. First year, buy APs and go May 15-30, Next year use the same APs and go May 1-14. Basically like half price tickets ??? well, maybe more if you were only planning on buying 10 day hoppers, I think those are like $800 for the two of us, and APs were like 1200 ? (though they were 1100ish when we bought them) Still a pretty solid savings, $550/600 a year instead of $800... Also this allows us to get a TiW card and save even more on food.

I am confused about the TiW card. You save 20%, but you have to pay an automatic 18% tip. Not that i wouldn't pay that much, but what if the service was really bad? Can you change the 18%?

 

[chcoley]

I just called and was told to expect May discounts to come out mid-December. I hope they're right!

 

[Shaden]

@Shaden. Awesome savings!! I keep all our receipts in Manila envelopes (that I label at home and bring with us). We also stay an extended amount of time so it's easy to misplace stuff. I try to tell friends that a little pre-planning (besides what ride you want to go on!) can go a long way.

I really like the AP idea!! I toyed with it at one point, but I see how you are using it which really does maximize it. We love May trips, but I was considering a shorter trip of 4 days (in addition) to see the Christmas lights next year. That would be a very efficient way to do it!!

Hecks yea that would be awesome, 2 Spring trips and a Short Christmas trip out of a pair of APs, that would be a great value !!!

 

[Shaden]

I am confused about the TiW card. You save 20%, but you have to pay an automatic 18% tip. Not that i wouldn't pay that much, but what if the service was really bad? Can you change the 18%?

You are exactly correct, you have to pay the 18% tip, BUT, since you were going to pay that anyway, you still save a little more.

For instance if the bill was going to be $100 I would tip 15-20 ..

The same bill with the TiW Card becomes $80 with an auto 18% tip of $14.0 ... so instead of paying 115 or 120 I pay $94.40.

 

[badora]

I just called and was told to expect May discounts to come out mid-December. I hope they're right!

Interesting, I just got off the phone with reservations and was told end of January.

 

[ajwolfe]

Getting started on planning a May 2014 trip and I'm toying with doing something new.....

So if you rent points for a DVC property, do you still get into the parks earlier or get to stay later like when you stay on a regular Disney property or no? I see the DVC members can purchase a DDP but can you if you rent points?

Thanks!!!

 

[Piglet99645]

Subscribing....... would love to hit WDW in May 2014. I love that there is always a thread for anything I need when I come to the DIS.

Piglet

 

[phewms]

I received a PIN for 25% off room rate good through 5/31. I'm suprised that it's good through Memorial Day weekend. To avoid the crowds and not pull DS out of school, our trip will be 5/26-6/2. So we will have to pay rack rate for 1 night. I'm still hoping for free dining!

 

[ciera321]

I received a PIN for 25% off room rate good through 5/31. I'm suprised that it's good through Memorial Day weekend. To avoid the crowds and not pull DS out of school, our trip will be 5/26-6/2. So we will have to pay rack rate for 1 night. I'm still hoping for free dining!

I'm also hoping for FD, but I'd take SPD if they extend that!!!

 

[KaLyn]

I'm also hoping for FD, but I'd take SPD if they extend that!!!

Agreed! But I'm not holding my breath for free dining. I'll take anything!

 

[hmvp]

HI, we are booked for AOA 5/10- 5/17 in LM room. Curious to see if there are any deals for this time, doubtful due to the room we are in. But, we can still keep our FC!

 

[mickeystoontown]

HI, we are booked for AOA 5/10- 5/17 in LM room. Curious to see if there are any deals for this time, doubtful due to the room we are in. But, we can still keep our FC!

So far, none of the special offers have included the Little Mermaid rooms. There's a pin code that's floating around (my very first pin code ever) that included those dates but, again, the LM rooms were excluded.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Not trying to get anyone's hopes up but over on Facebook some are speculating that a new free dining offer will be coming up that will include "Spring" dates. When I asked about specific dates someone said that they are guessing April 13th to June 13th.