May 2018 AP Rates

[Texans_loyal]

Pop is now cheaper than All stars for my date. Thanks for the head's up y'all!

 

[Lovinallthingsdisney]

The bounce back I have booked at Contemporary for May is a better deal At 30% than the AP discount. I stayed at AKL in early January with the Visa discount of 35%. I used “discounts” as a “reason” to purchase my AP, but so far have not had luck. Glad I have my other options available!

 

[AngiTN]

Was there a time when AP rates were really good? Like way better than other offers? I thought I read about people taking advantage of some pretty sweet AP deals a few years back.

I've always said that AP discounts are on avg, 10% higher than GP discounts. Some slightly more, some slightly less but it's a good avg to use when you are deciding if an AP purchase is good for you. That still seems to hold true

That Visa discount was so unusual I just don't consider it when evaluating past or future discounts since it's, so far, been a 1 time offer.

 

[Lsdolphin]

The bounce back I have booked at Contemporary for May is a better deal At 30% than the AP discount. I stayed at AKL in early January with the Visa discount of 35%. I used “discounts” as a “reason” to purchase my AP, but so far have not had luck. Glad I have my other options available!

I have a Disney Visa but have never received any info regarding a WDW resort discount how do you access this?

 

[AngiTN]

I have a Disney Visa but have never received any info regarding a WDW resort discount how do you access this?

I saw it on the Discounts board here, and many of the Disney at a Discount sites (like Mousesaver's, Couponing to Disney, etc) posted about it. I'm honestly not sure how or who got notice from Chase about it. I sure didn't. I get emails about everything else, even snail mail but never got anything about that specific promo

 

[sbrown29]

I'm with you- had a nice 35% discount at GF last June-- only 25% this June

 

[porschegrl]

Thanks to the great people on this thread, I was able to upgrade to a water view at BC for just a wee bit more than I was paying for garden view. Y'all are the best!

 

[bookbabe626]

Keep checking if nothing's available the first time you check.

Had a Sun & Fun standard room at BC. On my lunch break, checked the new AP discount, only club level was available at BC, but I could get garden view at YC for $30 less than my original total. Wasn't sure I wanted to switch, so I was stalling on it and got busy so I had to exit out of my search. Checked again when I got home from work. Club level at BC now sold out with the discount, but standard view was suddenly available. Saved $80, and get to stay in my original room/resort choice.

It's definitely worth it to keep checking until you get the room you want.

 

[laraashley4]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

 

[dansdad]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

In our experience, the Epcot area resorts are some of the best for getting to the parks. You can easily walk to Epcot, like 5-7 minutes. And boat or walk to Hollywood Studios. We have found the buses to MK and AK to be very quick and efficient.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

If you are depending on what shows up on the website as Available you may be misled.
I'm checking for our April dates, we have a Bounceback booked at BWI now.
The Bounceback rate at BWI is about $20/night less than the AP rate, close to the same but, I was checking over other resorts to see what rates are. One thing I hate about booking on the phone is I can't see each different resort and click back and forth and compare.
So I was looking and the page that shows All Resorts shows that POR is unavailable for my dates. However, I clicked on it anyway. Well, sure enough, it is available and it's available at the AP discounted rate. No idea why it's not showing on the list when you click All Resorts, this happens a lot I've found. I never assume that is correct any more, I always click on each resort and check the page that shows all the rooms for each resort individually. At least half the time I find rooms that don't show up on the All Resorts list. If you can follow what I'm talking about. It's rather hard to explain

I think you told people this before. I tried telling people that too. Another thing is, people don't compare apples to apples. They just don't go deep enough to look. I think you explained it well, but maybe you have to be a person to look, and many people just don't care to be that detailed.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Called in didn’t have a long wait, had fun and sun existing room reservation for Pop. CM couldn’t apply the AP discount to existing std room, only available was preferred room which was more than my current reservation. It seems stupid that they can’t just give me the discount on the room I already have.

The discounts are to sell rooms. Your room is already sold. No need for them to discount it.
Like Black used to say, the more rooms you book ahead waiting/hoping for a discount, the less rooms they have to discount.

 

[kmc8826]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

$2000 cheaper and you would still be at a deluxe resort. One you could walk to 2 parks?!? Even if money was not an issue I would choose beach/yacht for the convenience factor alone. At Poly you are still relying on transportation. Good luck!

 

[shoreward]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

The BC and YC are a short walk to the International Gateway (back entrance) of Epcot - about 5 minutes from BC and less than 10 minutes from YC. An alternate means of getting to Epcot, as well as DHS, is a very pleasant ride on a Friendship boat, which has its dock outside the back door of the YC. There is very good bus transportation to the parks and Disney Springs from both, on a shared bus. The first stop is at YC, then at the BC, before heading on to the parks. For guaranteed seating, I recommend boarding at the YC.

Both resorts recently completed room refurbishment. The only caution I'd have about the YC is the higher than normal bed height - about 4"-6" higher, than normal. That can be a slight problem for those who are of shorter stature, or for those who may have some mobility issues. The accessible rooms have lower height beds.

Both resorts share an amazing pool complex, Stormalong Bay.

The BC and YC are both a short walk or boat ride away from the Boardwalk, which has a number of good restaurants and shops, as well as free outdoor entertainment in the early evening. The setting of both BC and YC is beautiful, with views of Crescent Lake, the Boardwalk, and the Swan and Dolphin resorts. Views of fireworks from Epcot and DHS can be had from the beach, as well as from some room balconies (almost all rooms at the YC have large balconies with seating, while about half of the rooms at the BC have large balconies).

For more info on the YC and BC, visit https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...questions-room-refurbs-complete-2017.3400342/

 

[KSQmom]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

Did you check the studio villas at Poly? This happened to us last year and we stayed in 2 studio villas and we loved it- we were actually closer to the ttc for epcot monorails. For our dates in May I saw that the studio villas were discounted nicely, just under $500/night. We also did a split stay with Yacht Club that trip and ended up liking YC more.

 

[emilymad]

Ugh! I'm so torn. We are going late April and have two standard rooms at poly booked at rack rate. No AP discounts at poly our dates, but I can get two rooms at yacht club for almost $2000 total less. I know financially its a no brainer. But both sets of grandparents are going with us this trip and ease of transportation is a huge factor and we have young kids so multiple days planned at MK. We love the Poly and monorail for quickly getting to/from MK and Epcot and the fact that we don't have to fold up the stroller with sometimes snoozing kids. We have never stayed at beach/yacht club so I don't really know how the transportation will be. This will be the one and only trip with the grandparents. They are in their late 60s to early 80s and not in the best health, so midday breaks are a must.

Another positive for the YC is the inside hallways. April can be hot and the AC is much nicer than walking building to building at the Poly.

 

[winthropf]

Was there a time when AP rates were really good? Like way better than other offers? I thought I read about people taking advantage of some pretty sweet AP deals a few years back.

There was a time (10+ years ago) when the AP discount was pretty much the only discount available. Then the GP discounts and free dining started but the AP discount was released first and generally available. Now the AP discount is last to be released and extremely limited.

The perks associated with AP have been getting less and less over the last few years, especially with the large price increase a few years ago to include Photopass. It's not really free, Disney raised the price to cover it.

 

[Spridell]

People keep checking the website.

I have noticed the last couple of days rooms in different categories being added and or removed.

So check EVERYDAY

 

[EvilOne]

All this waiting on AP Rates for May, and now I’m not going till Fall! Ugh

 

[dtstampz]

After checking for days & days I finally found weekend availability for my potential solo trip! A little more $$ but airfare came way down for my dates. So now I’ll have a Pop/CSR
trip the first of May!!!