Points and the Disneyland Hotels

[mlshields]

My family and I will be staying in all three Disneyland hotels on points in Jan '05.

If I would like a room at the GC that had the bunk beds - are they a special request or are they a standard room?

We are staying at the GC for three nights and then the DL hotel and PP for one night each (this way we can get a taste of all three).

Any advice/suggestions?

All welcomed!

 

[MATTERHORN]

No advice and my only suggestion is to rent your points out and pay cash for the rooms. Points are a terrible value in DL. That time of year, you can find great rates and great annual pass rates usually, and figuring your points are worth roughly $10 a piece, you will most likely be way over-paying for the rooms if you use points. Example:

In October my friend stayed at Disneyland Hotel for 4 nights, cost her 200 points total. If she sold those points at $10 a piece, she would have had $2000.00. The hotel that week was $189 a night, making her entire 4 nights with tax be about $1000.00. Then she would have had $1000.00 leftover for tickets and food.

So what I ma saying is for 200 points she got just her room, when it could have paid for the entire trip. Just something to think about and good luck.

Andrea

 

[SusanU]

We too are thinking of going summer 2005 & using points. I had thought of renting out my BWV points and paying cash, but where is the best place to find rates especially for the Grand California. We can be pretty flexible with our dates, but I can't seem to find one location that would list rates & specials.Can't imagine not staying at the best when we are used to BWV in Florida. Wish they would put in a DVC on the West coast.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Summer 2005 is going to be tricky because I think the rates will be really high, especially right around July for the 50th birthday. As a matter of fact, the packages are now being sold for then, and I have a feeling after a lot of peole buy the packages, there won't be very many rooms left. Not sure about the other months though, so it really depends on when you were going. We already bought the package for 7/16 - 7/19, 3 nights at the Grand, 2 adults 2 children, tours, the special clock and 4 day park hoppers for all of us (one child is under 3 though) for $1800.00. For example, the night of July 16, 2005 will be 61 points at the Grand. So at $10 a point, you are paying $610 dollars a night for a standard room!!!! It is a better deal if you stay only weeknights at 34 points / $340 a night! So it's all in the point value, which is not very good out there. I love the Grand, but I would never even consider paying over $600 a night, especially for the standard view. Good luck on whatever you decide. I like to use getawaytoday.com or expedia, but with them you have to wait until it gets a lot closer and take your chances. But I have never seen over $400 a night on there for the Grand, so that's what I use to compare. Good luck and Have a great time.


Andrea

 

[Blackunicorn]

I believe that the bunk bed rooms are a standard, but you would probably be better off calling and asking.

What everyone is saying is true, if you can rent your points and use the cash to pay for your rooms, you will be getting a better value than if you use your points for the room. But of course, some people enjoy renting their points, and some people don't. (I'm one of those who don't.) So it's up to you whether it's really worth it!

 

[disgirl]

Hi! I remember when I made reservations for our upcoming August trip, I specified I prefered a room with 2 queen beds over the bunk beds because it is just three of us. I am not sure if bunk beds are standard, but I would def. request the type of beds you prefer when making the reservations. We are using points for our stay in August. We are new members and we had some points from 2003 that we did not get to use so we banked those and are applying them toward our DL trip to stay at the GC for four nights. I know it is not the best use of points, but we did not want to go through the trouble of selling points this time, so we are not looking at it as how much we could have saved, but just looking at it as a wonderful opportunity to stay at the GC for four nights for the first time ever. I know some people are probably thinking we are wasting money, but like I said, we are not looking at it that way. Using our points is so convenient and we look forward to it. Good Luck with your decision and have fun planning!!

 

[helenabear]

SusanU, check out mousesavers.com They will list all the good rates there and they also suggest going to expedia.com shortly before you leave.

I will say that with the near total lack of AP rates being released early this summer, I am glad that I am using my points for 4 weeknights (no way would I stay a weekend on points). I am not one though who wants the hassel of renting points so I value them at what I am currently paying and not "market value" so that makes a night in July at GC valued at about $220 a night and that's better than any rate I can find out there right now.

 

[dcfromva]

Originally posted by mlshields
My family and I will be staying in all three Disneyland hotels on points in Jan '05.

If I would like a room at the GC that had the bunk beds - are they a special request or are they a standard room?

We are staying at the GC for three nights and then the DL hotel and PP for one night each (this way we can get a taste of all three).

Any advice/suggestions?

All welcomed!

mlshields,
I would think most likely for a January visit you probably would be able to beat the points price with the cash price. (I have seen some really good deals in January)
We are going in a week (yay!) but could not get a better rate using cash no matter how we figured the cost of the points. (The best rate was $244.00 per night plus 15% tax and you have to add a $7.00 per night resort fee onto that. 287.60/night total) It cost 29 points per night for our standard view room. If we were to rent them out at $10 per point, it would give us $290. The $12.00 difference (for 5 nights) would not be worth my trouble.
Another interesting thing I found out. When my sister called to get her room using an AP cash discount, they did not have any availability (at any rate). I called back using points and I was able to make the reservation for her for her dates.

-DC :ears;