Our New Year's Eve Trip

[Jodi1980]

I first made reservations at Dolphin ($124 per night plus tax), then I figured out that I probably won't be able to save that much money (6 nights). I was just about to make plans to stay at Pop Century at $89 per night but decided to try and call the Downtown resorts first and got the Hilton for $95 per night! I'm hoping it is a very nice resort to stay!

 

[Geoff_M]

If you're planning on doing NYE in a park, I won't be so quick to abandon the Dolphin (particularly at that rate). NYE is such a mad house at WDW that having a resort that you can walk back to after the midnight festivities would be the ONLY way I'd ring in the new year at WDW. Not having to stand in line for a bus, or fight traffic at 1 AM and being able to flop in a bed after a 15 minute walk would sound SO GOOD to me!

 

[Jodi1980]

We do not plan on staying at any park till midnight on NYE. I'm worried about getting enough money together for a $95 room
let along a $124 per night room and I don't think I can get any cheaper than the Pop Century. I'm just hoping that the Hilton is a better choice than the Pop Century.

I guess the biggest concern I have about the money is that we are staying at Shades of Green during March 2004 and I haven't started saving for that trip yet!

 

[kindredspirit]

We stayed at the Dolphin last New Years and I can tell you it was nice to just be able to walk back to our room. We have been the last three years in a row and stayed at three different places and we agreed that staying there made all the difference in the world. We didn't feel as rushed and it was the most relaxing trip ever. We loved walking out on the boardwalk in the evenings. The kids enjoyed the entertainers a lot. You will have fun though no matter where you stay. We love going at New Years, with a lot of planning we found it to be very manageable. We never waited more than 20 min for anything. We did use EE with every park except AK. That is another nice part about staying on site. I wrote a complete trip report for managing a New Years trip but never posted it. I thought we would be going the same time this year but we decided on a Thanksgiving trip this year since the kids are out for a week. Have Fun !!!!

 

[KCMiller]

It would be great if you could post that trip report, or perhaps just email it to me - I and about 500 of my closest friends <g> are going to be at WDW over New Years Eve this year with our children who will be marching at the Magic Kingdom on the 28th of December in the afternoon parade. Marching band, you know.

Any info about NYE trips would be MOST appreciated!

Thanks much,

KC

 

[CindyAnn]

Jodi - I'm not sure what your check in date was, but we're checking in at Pop Century on December 28th for 4 nights, and our rate is $114 per night plus tax (for a total of $127.11 per night). I was told that there are no discounts at that time, except for people who were fortunate enough to get AP rates and are checking in by the 26th, and I don't even think Pop Century itself was included in the AP promotion. Now, maybe I should be calling about a better rate, but I spoke with a great CM who was able to get AAA rates on my two continuing reservations at WL and the Polynesian (she also encouraged me to call back later about AP rates in January) and she really seemed to know what she was doing. I'm not sure if you're eligible for a different kind of rate, but if not, I just thought this may make your comparison easier. You might actually be comparing $95 at the Hilton or $124 at the Dolphin to $114 at Pop Century.

Did you get your Pop Century price via Expedia or another site like that?

 

[Jodi1980]

I have hopefully changed our plans for the last time - we are staying for the first 3 nights at Hilton, Downtown, and the last 3 (to include New Year's Eve) at the Dolphin. I'm very excited about staying at both. This way we will save about $120 which may not be a lot of money but for this trip, it will be!

I got the Pop Century rate through Shades of Green.