PLEASE help me decide! My head is spinning!!

[weesignlanguage]

Hey guys! Well, I've had a ressie at POFQ standard room for a while with 10day ph and reg dining plan. Total was way out of our league but we were hoping for free dining to fix that! Then today's offer came around. I've been trying to figure this out and I can't get it in my head!! Here's my situation! Please help me decide which is best for us! Our dream budget is $3300.00. Going over takes away from our spending money and some Christmas budget fun.

We are a family of 2 adults and 1 child (age 8.) We want the regular dining plan and need the park hopper for now unless I change dinner ressies. We want to stay from Thursday Jan 10-Mon Jan 21 but our original quote was for the 11-21 b/c we didn't know at that time that my son has Friday, the 11th off and we could go a day early. Here is our original quote:

**FRIDAY, Jan 11- Mon Jan 21- 2 ad, 1 ch, 10 day ph and regular dining plan @ POFQ STANDARD room for a total of $4429.07


So, today I called and just had them change our original quote from no discount to the visa discount. I assume (though it wasn't ever said) that I got the stay/play/dine deal. Here it is:

**FRIDAY, Jan 11- Mon Jan 21- 2 ad, 1 ch, 10 day ph and regular dining plan @ POFQ GARDEN VIEW room (said standard didn't apply or wasn't available) for a total of $3,592.17


It's about 200.00 more than we budgeted. I booked it anyway till we could decide what to do.

So, I called back later today and asked for a quote for AS Movies except I added the Thursday night arrival. SO this quote has an extra day added to it:

**THURSDAY, Jan 10-Mon Jan 21, 2 ad, 1 ch, 10 day ph and regular dining plan at AS MOVIES Preferred (said no standards available) for a total of $3343.55.

So, I am torn. Do we cut the trip short and stay at POFQ or go an extra day and stay at AS Movies? Do these quotes look right to you?? Is there any possibility that a standard room at POFQ may open up when General public discount comes out?? That might be a compromise. Should I call back and see if a standard room has opened up?? I don't know what to do!! I need good solid Disboard advice!!

Thanks in advance if you were able to decipher my rambling post here and took the time to answer!! I appreciate it!!

 

[weesignlanguage]

Bumping for some much needed advice.

Wondering if I should just wait on the AS Movies to see what else "may" come out (like FD but highly doubt it) on Oct 10...and if I could maybe find a standard room at POFQ with the general offer for stay/play/dine if FD is not an option. What would you do??

 

[focusondisney]

I have never stayed at a value, so I can't help with All Stars. But we have stayed at POR & loved it. Maybe you can see if there is a standard room available there? Same area as POFQ. Since they are sister resorts, you can use the pool & food court at FQ. And you still get the boat to DTD.

If you really want FQ, why not play around on the dining website & see if you can rework your ADRs & drop the park hoppers? Maybe it will work out that way.

It's hard to advise someone what to do. Our situation is very different from yours. Our kids are grown & we are able to spend more & like to spend time at our resort. So a value resort isn't our preference. But I also understand the need to stay in budget.

And also, keep checking. Sometimes different resorts/ room categories do show up.

Sorry I can't help much more. Good luck & I hope you get it all figured out & have a Magical vacation!

 

[MMS1125]

since your original trip is 10 days I'd stay with POFQ. I'd wait until you can price out your different options online on the 10th to make any changes just so you can see all your options.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I would ditch the PH passes and that will save you the $200 or close to it. Rearrange your dining ressies to fit your parks plan. Why pay to hop just for dining purposes?
We never hop and never miss it.

 

[MMS1125]

I'd miss hopping if we didn't have it. We often do a park in the AM, relax a bit at the resort, dinner, then a different evening park. I love MK EMH after an AK day or something. It would only save them $150 for 3 people

 

[adventure_woman]

You sound about what we are doing. Couple of options:

You are staying 2 weekends. Can you somehow cut out a weekend by going earlier or staying later? You pay premium during the weekend.

We are staying at ASMusic - I love it there. My next choice would be POFQ, but I couldn't see paying an extra $500 to stay there.

To give you an idea - we are going 1/28-2/7 (10 nights), 2A, 1C, regular dining, 10 day ticket with park hopper, ASMu, NON-preferred room = $2811.95. Ours is about $200 more than what it would be with FD.

Personally - I would stay at value ...the more days the better.

 

[canopynut66]

change your dining to match your parks and drop park hopper to us after 65 trips it just waste time running from one to another and we get a lot mre done staying in a park. you can reneter the same park in same day. POR is a fun resort.ASM is nice but smaller rooms and we like value but prefer POP over the AStars and we have stayed at all of them. is just more spread out and bus service really good. favorite of all deluxe and values though is POR but not worth the difference in price to us anymore

 

[everythingALICE]

I agree with the other posters who suggested dropping the PH. I don't think it's necessary in January, and then you could save a bit to stay at POFQ.

As for the standard vs garden view, I *think* that only the garden view rooms are eligible. I could be totally wrong. I called last night to change my reservation from a LM room at AoA (since those are not included) and asked them to price out rooms at POFQ or POR in comparison to POP (ended up going with POR!). They said that they had garden rooms availabl at both POFQ and POR that they would price out. Couldn't hurt to call and ask if the standard is included though.

 

[SarahD]

So many days...no need to hop if you plan ahead. Just make sure you check parade, firework, etc dates so you're at the park when the ones you want to see are being performed.

 

[2TxAgs]

What about splitting your stay up? Disney makes it easy, ASMovies is so fun for kids, and it might save you the amount you need to keep your budget in check. Almost all of our trips have been split between 2 hotels, and those have only been 5-6 day trips, not 10 or 11.

Enjoy!

 

[weesignlanguage]

Thanks for all the great advice. I had a heart to heart with the family and we decided to bump down to AS Movies. We may take PH option off closer to the 45 day mark if money is tight but for now we got an extra night and kept the PH and saved the 200.00 we needed. POFQ will wait till another trip!! Just gives us a good excuse to plan another trip! HA!

 

[steph0808]

Also wanted to point out that starting on Thursday the 11th, marathon weekend rates kick in and that is going to bump up the prices for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Maybe bump back the vacation a week and you could probably save the $200 you need.