Preferred Location & Disney Visa - Worth It?

[CapnJacksGirl]

We're planning a vacation for Sept 08 at CBR. Is the extra $$ for preferred/water view location worth it? It's only like $90 so it's not a big deal - I'm just curious. And to those of you who have stayed at those locations, which is better. Any suggestions?

Also, is it worth it to get the Disney Visa for the vacation? I know I can get 0% vacation financing, but that's not a big draw for me. Are the occasional discounts worth getting the card?

Thanks for the answers. I know I can always count on you guys!

 

[CleveRocks]

We're planning a vacation for Sept 08 at CBR. Is the extra $$ for preferred/water view location worth it? It's only like $90 so it's not a big deal - I'm just curious. And to those of you who have stayed at those locations, which is better. Any suggestions?

Also, is it worth it to get the Disney Visa for the vacation? I know I can get 0% vacation financing, but that's not a big draw for me. Are the occasional discounts worth getting the card?

Thanks for the answers. I know I can always count on you guys!

At CBR, preferred location and water view are two very different things.

CBR is a very large resort. If avoiding long walks to and from the food court/main pool/shops is important to you, then you will want to consider paying for and reserving a preferred location room. Preferred location means having a room in one of the 6 buildings closest to Old Port Royale, the above-mentioned area. That is 6 buildings out of 33 guest-room buildings at the resort.

Water view means having a view of the lake or of your village's quiet pool (there are 6 villages, and each has its own quiet pool). My personal opinion is that water view at any of Disney's Moderate resorts is a waste of money. Your door and window open onto an exterior corridor, where people walk to get from one place to another (like a motel, only much nicer than your average motel). If you have your curtains wide open to enjoy your view, then everyone walking by has a great view of ... YOU! As a group, water view rooms are no closer to and no farther from OPR than standard rooms. In other words, a water view room's only advantage is the view ... the location relative to the rest of the resort is no different than for any other room.

And also, preferred location rooms are no different from other rooms except that they are closer to OPR. In other words, they don't have extra amenities, they aren't any bigger, etc.

 

[safetymom]

I think a preferred location is worth the money. I don't think the water view is. Some of the views of the water are quite creative. It could mean a view of the quiet pool.

 

[Princess April]

I can't tell you about the resort but I can tell you about the Disney Visa card. We have it and we just love it!!! The customer service is wonderful, the rates are good and the rewards are awesome. We use this as our main card and every year we save up the reward points and take my granfather to Epcot (for his Chirstmas present) and have a great time. Our reward points pay for his ticket and dining for the day. Also, having the Disney Visa opens up a "whole new worls" of vacation opportunities...(pardon the pun)... you will be notified of Disney discounts on vacations as well as other assorted Disney specials as soon as they are available, before the general public knows.

 

[Praise2Him]

I've stayed at every moderate and value and have never paid for preferred, but I can tell you that CBR is the only resort that I said "If I ever stay here again I'm paying for preferred!" That place is HUGE!

 

[lc1965]

I don't know about the preferred, but I can tell you that I HATED The Visa. It has been the worst customer service of any credit card I have ever had. I've never had a bank make more mistakes on my premium and been so utterly uninterested in it or in making good on it. It got to the point where they were throwing points at me to make me stay & I STILL cancelled the account. This went on for about 2 years, btw, before I finally gave up & closed the acct.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

I've never stayed at CBR, so I can't help you there, but I can say that I LOVE my Disney Visa. They have great customer service and great perks. We put a lot of everyday purchases on there and use the rewards $$ for spending $$ at WDW. the 0% on the trip isn't a big deal to me, either, but the double rewards points for booking using the card and double points at Disney Shopping is! Plus, they occasionally run discounts and othe perks for cardholders.

 

[miss_deville]

We love our Disney Visa Card. I think the benefit of 0% financing over six months for Disney trips is outstanding. It's so nice to have the reward dollars to spend when we're in the World. But, as with all credit cards, you get the best value by paying the balance off in full each month, except for the trip.

 

[stitchlover]

We got the Disney Visa earlier this year just so we would have access to the Discount codes that sometimes come out. We don't believe in using credit cards, if we don't have the cash, we don't own it. BUT with the Visa card we saved $372 on our March '08 trip with the code that came out last month. So I think it is worth it.

 

[wdwpixie]

I don't LOVE my Disney card, but I haven't had any real problems with it. They're not great at negotiating lower interest rates, but I, too, pay off my car monthly for the most part. The points you rack up are not great (compared to my airline card), but they do help some. We aren't able to get to WDW at much as we would like, so perhaps don't get as much use/benefits from it as others.

 

[klinlin]

We don't carry balances on credit cards as a rule, and if you do, you pretty much wipe out any of the reward benefits. But this trip I saved almost $400 by upgrading to BC with the Visa code, had $266 in rewards to use on our vacation, and had 6 months interest free to pay for the balance of our trip. Definitely worth it!

 

[Elmo888]

We have the card, and we like the rewards (which I will apply to our package next week) and the 0 percent for 6 months. We have money sitting in the bank to pay for the trip, but it can make interest for us for another 6 months before we have to pay for the trip.

As far as the discounts, I was able to use the Disney Visa discount for our last trip (Jan. 2007), but it was "sold out" this time (we are staying at ASMusic Family Suites, so I gather that there weren't a lot of those rooms with a code since there aren't a lot of those rooms). I did, however, manage to use the general public code after it was released a few days later. So, I can't say that the access to codes is great.

If you go to Disney often, it seems like it would be worth it. There is also a discount at World of Disney, and there are discounts at disneyshopping.com.

I don't know how often that we will go (we were only going to go January, 2007, but now we are going January 2008), so I am considering switching to an airline card (are any of them free???).

Have a great trip!

 

[GinnyFavers]

If you don't have a rental car, and will be using the Disney busses to get around, and especially if you plan on using the food court a lot, it's very much worth it to pay for a Preferred room location at any of the Moderate or Value resorts.

Water View, no, not worth extra money at CBR. The only time view comes into play in my book is at the Deluxe resorts. Joe still talks about a Water View room he had at the Yacht Club a few years ago, and Lagoon View at the Poly... ahhh. The water you look at at the Mods is not so special. It's nice that it's there, but it's not the Seven Seas Lagoon, they're more like nicely landscaped retention ponds. Maybe a few rooms in the Mansions section of POR or rooms in POFQ might be nice to have a Water View, but they have no balcony or patio, and there's a big a/c window unit in front of your one window, and the overhang of a walkway above... really cuts down on the value of the view when there's nowhere good to sit & enjoy it.