Need Advice - To upgrade to Moderate from Value with Free Dining

[DisneyFleet]

Hello everyone. I am sure this has probably been asked a dozen times before however, I couldn't seem to find it.

Can anyone tell me what the difference in price might be (if any) to upgrade from Pop Century to a Moderate resort.

We are booked with free dining Sept 23-Oct 1, 2012 with an upgrade to the Regular dining (1 TS, 1QS and 1Snack) plus we plan on getting a fridge for our room every night. Our total came to approx. $2,444 for 2 adults and 2 children (DS6, DD4). Would it be worth it to upgrade since I seem to remember the Moderates had the regular dining included plus a fridge in the room.

Thank you in advance for all of your advice

 

[C&B Young]

My rough math says you'd save the following by upgrading to a moderate:

Fridge rental = $80
Difference in Dining Plan = $313
Total = $393

So you'd "save" $400 by upgrading to a moderate. You'll need to price out some moderates and see if it's worthwhile. Did you book the free dining with a PIN or the public offer? I believe the public offer is over now, so I don't know if Disney would let you rebook under the same public offer. In my opinion, booking a moderate would be worth it for a family of 4 (if the cost for the room doesn't greatly outweigh the savings), that hotel room can start to feel a little small after 8 days|!

 

[sahmoffour]

If you booked with the Canadiain free dining offer that was out the end of last year, did it include the regular dining plan for Moderates? Just asking as I know all the pins that are out right now are only for free QSDP for moderates, and it was my understanding that Disney is supposedly cutting back on the deals this year a bit and have so far only been offering QSDP for mods. I didn't see the Canadian free dining deal though, as we just decided to go about a month ago when that deal was already expired.

 

[glenpreece]

And keep in mind you might save money or get a bigger room but some of the mod's are really a pain to get around. Example we stayed at Carib Beach last year and the bus system is awful. You have to wait ages for a bus to the parks and depending on where you pick it up you'll have to wait another 10 or 15mins before you actually head to said park as it loops around the rest of the resort. I will never stay at Carib Beach again for that reason.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Hello everyone. I am sure this has probably been asked a dozen times before however, I couldn't seem to find it.

Can anyone tell me what the difference in price might be (if any) to upgrade from Pop Century to a Moderate resort.

We are booked with free dining Sept 23-Oct 1, 2012 with an upgrade to the Regular dining (1 TS, 1QS and 1Snack) plus we plan on getting a fridge for our room every night. Our total came to approx. $2,444 for 2 adults and 2 children (DS6, DD4). Would it be worth it to upgrade since I seem to remember the Moderates had the regular dining included plus a fridge in the room.

Thank you in advance for all of your advice

What I would do to get an accurate price difference is input everything into the disney website for your current offer (VALUE, REG Dining plan, park tickets, etc) - then change it up for the MOD resort - this should give you a better idea on cost differences than getting "opinions" on what the difference might be.

I considered the same thing myself for our trip in March, (upgrading from POP to a MOD) but as we wouldn't be spending much time @ the resort anyways I thought the extra costs were not justified.

 

[DisneyFleet]

Thank you for the advice. I am thinking I might just leave well enough alone. We really won't be spending a ton of time at the hotel but thought if the price was just about the same, it might be nice. Thing is, my IL are also coming with us so I would have to ensure they could switch too... I may try to call to see what the difference in pricing may be.
I booked the public offer in Sept 2011 and honestly, I cannot remember if the Mod had the regular dining plan.
Thanks again

 

[surfer_ed]

Personally I don't think the mods are worth the extra money. Stayed at carib and Coronado. Both times, while I liked the reort I thought POP and All Stars was nice as well and would have liked to banked the money for another trip.

Have you thought about renting a DVC? Say Animal Kingdom? Then you get a fridge and microwave and allot nicer resort. Only DVC units have fridges, unless something changed mods do not.

At that time of year you can prob get it for $150 a night.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Yes, the moderates give you the DDP if you booked by Dec 17, 2011. I know for sure, because I booked on Dec 17th at the CBR.

Without knowing your park ticket option, no one on DIS can price out the correct pricing difference for you.

Personally, we loved CSR. Last trip I originally booked POP with a fridge and upgraded to the free DDP. But we switched our ressie to CSR. Queen beds instead of double, fridge included and a great play area / pool for the kids. They loved the slide! We loved the resort. It was not big to walk around, and our room was around the corner from the buses. Plus, the buses have shelters at the moderates to shield you from the sun.

Hey, I just realized your profile says you are in Clarington. So am I!

 

[DisneyFleet]

Yes, the moderates give you the DDP if you booked by Dec 17, 2011. I know for sure, because I booked on Dec 17th at the CBR.

Without knowing your park ticket option, no one on DIS can price out the correct pricing difference for you.

Personally, we loved CSR. Last trip I originally booked POP with a fridge and upgraded to the free DDP. But we switched our ressie to CSR. Queen beds instead of double, fridge included and a great play area / pool for the kids. They loved the slide! We loved the resort. It was not big to walk around, and our room was around the corner from the buses. Plus, the buses have shelters at the moderates to shield you from the sun.

Hey, I just realized your profile says you are in Clarington. So am I!

Thanks for the advice. I actually priced out the difference correctly this morning and the difference will be a lot more than I initially thought (about $800). I incorrectly priced it with park hopper and water parks which we will not be doing so initially it looked doable. It will still be cheaper for Pop so I think we will stay there. Plus, will they change the ressie to Moderate and apply the free dining too?

We are in Bowmanville Disney Addicted, what about you? Nice to see someone else from around here.

 

[HeatherLassell]

I booked the public offer in Sept 2011 and honestly, I cannot remember if the Mod had the regular dining plan.

It did. I booked POP and then changed to POR and I have the free DDP from the Canadian offer. (the one that expired Sept 29 and had to be booked by dec 17!)

 

[sahmoffour]

It did. I booked POP and then changed to POR and I have the free DDP from the Canadian offer. (the one that expired Sept 29 and had to be booked by dec 17!)

Oh No!! That's great news for all those who booked with that offer, but man am I kicking myself now for missing it! I hope they come out with another free dining offer in the next couple months, and offer up the free regular DDP for the mods again since we'll most likely stay in CSR this time.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Plus, will they change the ressie to Moderate and apply the free dining too?

We are in Bowmanville Disney Addicted, what about you? Nice to see someone else from around here.

If you were looking at switching, yes - Disney would be able to transfer your ressie to a moderate and apply the free dining. As long as there is still FD room at that resort (which most likely there is).

POP should be fun however! With kids that young, we would not have worried about double vs queen beds.

I'm also in Bowmanville. And ironically, there's a mom at my son's school who is going to Disney in September. We were talking about Disney this morning and I mentioned you. My friend thinks you are someone she knows! That would be wild. Do you know a red haired scottish lady named Leigh?

 

[DisneyFleet]

If you were looking at switching, yes - Disney would be able to transfer your ressie to a moderate and apply the free dining. As long as there is still FD room at that resort (which most likely there is).

POP should be fun however! With kids that young, we would not have worried about double vs queen beds.

I'm also in Bowmanville. And ironically, there's a mom at my son's school who is going to Disney in September. We were talking about Disney this morning and I mentioned you. My friend thinks you are someone she knows! That would be wild. Do you know a red haired scottish lady named Leigh?

Well to change things up a bit, my DH cannot get his vacation in September when we had booked so now no Free dining for us unless they announce later this year.
Yes I do know Leigh, she lives across the street from me. My son went to the same school as her daughter in JK but we switched to OSPS when our DS started SK. I haven't seen her yet to let her know we have to switch our dates since this just happened yesterday. What a super small world we all live in. Are you planning on going back to DW this year?

 

[Disney Addicted]

Well, that's not good. I'm sorry your husband cannot get his vacation for September.

What about October? If I remember correctly, the FD offer ended on September 29th (Sat). As long as you check in on the 29th, it would be extended through your vacation (although no more than 14 nights). So you could go Sept 29 - Oct 7. Just throwing that out there in case it is an option you were not aware of, that hopefully might work for you.

Or did you switch your dates already?

While we are booked, I'm just not sure what our plans are - let alone if we will actually be going.

We are currently booked in Sept for 10 nights at CBR Pirate rooms. I was hoping for the option of a 4 or 5 night cruise pre WDW. But if we do not do the cruise, then I want to change our ressies to 14 nights and include a daytrip to Clearwater to see Winter. And maybe 2 days to Universal Studios.

I also keep debating if I really want to share a double bed with my DD13 or switch to a standard nemo room at CBR. OR switch to POR, which looks beautiful and has so many activities and the DTD boat ride!

It was not so hard to make up my mind last time... I'm sure Leigh thinks I'm quite nuts. I'm even at the point of wondering if it really would be so hard and/or take up too much time to split our ressie into 2 and stay at both CBR and POR.

 

[DisneyFleet]

Yes Disneyaddicted I did try to see if he could get at least the end of Sept but sadly, he doesn't have enough seniority. He managed to get Oct 24-Nov 6 off so I have to change dates this weekend. I was so super excited to have the free dining as we originally booked for Sept 23-Oct 1. I guess I just have to cross my fingers that another promotion will be coming out.
The Pirate room sounds great, my DS6 would love that room

Hope you work out your plans, I know there are so many darn decisions to make when it comes to Disney. This will be our 2nd trip and I think we are now officially a disney addicted family