Priceline Express Deals

[Louie7080]

Yep, AoA. So I don't get why they say 2 people.

From what I remember, Express deals have stated they are for 2 people for years so it is standard practice for them. Sometimes at least you can select room type based on number of beds so in that case you know how much sleeping room there should be. From memory, Disney won't charge extra for a family of four (2 adults and 2 children) for a 2 bed room unless there are more than 2 adults. In that case they may charge 20 extra per extra adult. So even if you book a room that states it is for 2 on pl express but have more people, Disney will allow it up to 4 for a 2 bed room or more depending on other room types. I have an extension on my Chromebook that tells me what the pl express hotels are. Seems fairly accurate but you would want to verify based on tips here and touring plans. The extension is called travelarrow.

 

[Louie7080]

So the values, CSR, and AKL are the usual resorts that have the Express deals for Disney?

That seems about right. I got CSR once (when they were going through a refurb) and remember many reports of AKL and the values (even POP before the skyliner) being ones people would regularly get. I would add the Dolphin and Swan to the list of usuals of the past. Pre-2020 I got the Dolphin twice for around 100 a night though not seeing good deals for them now.

 

[SL6827]

That seems about right. I got CSR once (when they were going through a refurb) and remember many reports of AKL and the values (even POP before the skyliner) being ones people would regularly get. I would add the Dolphin and Swan to the list of usuals of the past. Pre-2020 I got the Dolphin twice for around 100 a night though not seeing good deals for them now.

It's a wonder that CSR has not went into the DVC fold. But I guess the conventions there keep that from happening?

 

[Louie7080]

It's a wonder that CSR has not went into the DVC fold. But I guess the conventions there keep that from happening?

It seems too that most DVC properties have something extra special about them, near a park, alternative forms of transport, animals, etc.. Exceptions are the 2 original ones (I think they were the first 2) Old Key and Saratoga (is near DS though). CSR seems nice but not super unique.

 

[KValo]

Found a really great PLE for AoA in a family suite; when I do a search for 5 people the offer comes up. PLE bookings generally only guarantee 2 people, so what will happen when I import this thing into MDE? Will it give me slots for 5 or 2? If I increase my party size to 7 the offer no longer shows up, so it's aware that the room can't sleep more than 6.

Replying to this in case this info helps anyone else:

Despite Priceline saying the room was for 2, since I searched for 2 adults and 3 children, when I imported the reservation into MDE it did indeed populate with the correct number of slots for everyone! I ended up getting AoA for 45% off during the week of Christmas! This is saving me $2,500 off my original reservation for the exact same family suites!

 

[JJTNY]

Yep, AoA. So I don't get why they say 2 people.

That is just the standard policy for all Priceline hidden deals: the terms have always said they that only guarantee room for two.

Because the vast majority of Disney resort rooms accommodate 4 people, it really is not a problem for those locations, just a weird thing to be aware of and has no bearing on identifying a resort.

 

[Pluto777]

From what I remember, Express deals have stated they are for 2 people for years so it is standard practice for them. Sometimes at least you can select room type based on number of beds so in that case you know how much sleeping room there should be. From memory, Disney won't charge extra for a family of four (2 adults and 2 children) for a 2 bed room unless there are more than 2 adults. In that case they may charge 20 extra per extra adult. So even if you book a room that states it is for 2 on pl express but have more people, Disney will allow it up to 4 for a 2 bed room or more depending on other room types. I have an extension on my Chromebook that tells me what the pl express hotels are. Seems fairly accurate but you would want to verify based on tips here and touring plans. The extension is called travelarrow.

Travelarrow sounds like another extension I saw years ago.. something with a bell but I don't recall the name.. I don't think I can use firefox with it, can I?

As far as the P.L. 2 person limit, it does make me concerned since we have kids and when PL says we can only guarantee 2 people it is worrying. This is why I used Hotwire since it allows you to put all four people. It also seems a bit easier for me to guess accurately what we will get, of course there is always some element of risk to booking with a buy commitment, but that's why you can snag a great deal sometimes; it is a gamble.

 

[JJTNY]

Travelarrow sounds like another extension I saw years ago.. something with a bell but I don't recall the name.. I don't think I can use firefox with it, can I?

As far as the P.L. 2 person limit, it does make me concerned since we have kids and when PL says we can only guarantee 2 people it is worrying. This is why I used Hotwire since it allows you to put all four people. It also seems a bit easier for me to guess accurately what we will get, of course there is always some element of risk to booking with a buy commitment, but that's why you can snag a great deal sometimes; it is a gamble.

It is nice that Hotwire lets you search for more than 2 people on their hidden deals, but sadly they have not had any Disney resort deals in years now.

I have been tracking Priceline Express deals for years and helping people identify resorts (I write for Touring Plans) and out of at least hundreds of reports I can only recall one person who was assigned a King room on a generic hidden deal that had any issue insuring they got a room for 4 - but after calling in to the Disney Wholesale phone a 2nd time they were told they should be fine, and they were.

When it comes to an old extension identifying resorts, you might be thinking of Hotel Canary - which is long dead (RIP the Canary) and was pretty good, but by no means 100% accurate.

FWIW, if you have not seen it mentioned in this thread: I have a simple resort identifier for the Disney and UOR areas that should make resorts easy to spot. At any given point in time, very few of those resorts have all factors like location, star and guest rating and review counts matching, so pretty easy to tell them apart and should make things almost foolproof.

http://bit.ly/JJTPEDeals

Right now the only pairs of resorts that do have the same factors are:

Music & Movies
and
Pop & Sports

You can almost always tell which one the hidden deal is by looking to see what non-hidden deal matches the "full" price listed.
Also, Pop is almost always going to be a fair amount more $ than Sports, plus Sports will show up MUCH more often.
Haven't seen a real Pop hidden deal in a long time.

 

[Pluto777]

It is nice that Hotwire lets you search for more than 2 people on their hidden deals, but sadly they have not had any Disney resort deals in years now.

I have been tracking Priceline Express deals for years and helping people identify resorts (I write for Touring Plans) and out of at least hundreds of reports I can only recall one person who was assigned a King room on a generic hidden deal that had any issue insuring they got a room for 4 - but after calling in to the Disney Wholesale phone a 2nd time they were told they should be fine, and they were.

When it comes to an old extension identifying resorts, you might be thinking of Hotel Canary - which is long dead (RIP the Canary) and was pretty good, but by no means 100% accurate.

FWIW, if you have not seen it mentioned in this thread: I have a simple resort identifier for the Disney and UOR areas that should make resorts easy to spot. At any given point in time, very few of those resorts have all factors like location, star and guest rating and review counts matching, so pretty easy to tell them apart and should make things almost foolproof.

http://bit.ly/JJTPEDeals

Right now the only pairs of resorts that do have the same factors are:

Music & Movies
and
Pop & Sports

You can almost always tell which one the hidden deal is by looking to see what non-hidden deal matches the "full" price listed.
Also, Pop is almost always going to be a fair amount more $ than Sports, plus Sports will show up MUCH more often.
Haven't seen a real Pop hidden deal in a long time.

View attachment 896255

YES, it was called Canary. I guess the bird went 'feet up'...
Thank you for such an in depth and insightful answer - this is why I love this board!

The only other question I have is how far out in advance one should wait before trying this system? Too far in advance limits options on refundable searches, but too short may leave you with nothing left.

Thanks so much!

 

[Louie7080]

YES, it was called Canary. I guess the bird went 'feet up'...
Thank you for such an in depth and insightful answer - this is why I love this board!

The only other question I have is how far out in advance one should wait before trying this system? Too far in advance limits options on refundable searches, but too short may leave you with nothing left.

Thanks so much!

It is easy to check often with John's search tool. I think it can vary quite a bit. In 2018 and 19 I think I scored the Dolphin for 100 a night in August for trips mid November during Thanksgiving week. When I went over July 4th a few years back I got a deal for POFQ about a month out but I can't remember if that was Hotwire or PLE. From reading posts here it does seem around a month to a few months out though. I am not sure if they bulk drop deals and then sprinkle them in here and there. For example it seems that recently they dropped a bunch for October through December (maybe earlier) all at the same time and probably won't drop more for that time period but maybe?

 

[Leigh L]

They did drop a bunch in late August or early September for several WDW resorts for October/November and I think (?) early December.

As far as I can see, the offer for AKL was removed for several dates in November about a week to 10 days ago. I just missed the ball on it because I was waffling about going lol.

Our dates are for the week before Thanksgiving and I ended up going with ASports for $100 a night (it was $79-$85 if the weekend wasn't a part of it). CSR was only listing a king bed throughout the entire month otherwise I would have booked it for around $200 a night - I remember scoring that one for $125/preferred room including tax in 2019.

I've also recently seen random blocks of days for AoA suites on there and one random night of ASMovies during November too. Sports and CSR are both still widely available.

I briefly checked January, but only for the first week. Didn't expect to find anything

 

[JJTNY]

The only other question I have is how far out in advance one should wait before trying this system? Too far in advance limits options on refundable searches, but too short may leave you with nothing left.

I think the others covered a lot of it, but in general Priceline (and Hotwire if it ever comes back with Disney deals) were just so all over the place with hidden deal drops when they were more active, there really is no perfect answer.

I've always told people to start checking hidden deals one or two times a week a few months out, then step it up to every few days about 8-12 weeks out.

There have been many exceptions to that timeline though - once Priceline dropped an entire YEAR of sub $100 Swan deals. You just never know.

A good pro tip to make it really easy to check quickly: Set up your search dates, sort order, select Bonnet Creek and Disney Springs and hit search. Then bookmark that search - you can just click the bookmark from then on and not have to re-select locations etc each time. Once you look at the results and scroll through them a few times, you'll find the same non-Disney PE deals over and over and will eventually become obvious when a Disney resort does pop up.

I think the best overall tactic is to book the best REFUNDABLE rate you can for the room you want ASAP, then hope for a hidden deal to pop up. (And be sure to keep track of your cancellation deadline.) That way the worst case scenario if no Express Deals show up is you have a room and hopefully at least at a Disney discount price.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Travelarrow sounds like another extension I saw years ago.. something with a bell but I don't recall the name.. I don't think I can use firefox with it, can I?

As far as the P.L. 2 person limit, it does make me concerned since we have kids and when PL says we can only guarantee 2 people it is worrying. This is why I used Hotwire since it allows you to put all four people. It also seems a bit easier for me to guess accurately what we will get, of course there is always some element of risk to booking with a buy commitment, but that's why you can snag a great deal sometimes; it is a gamble.

It is nice that Hotwire lets you search for more than 2 people on their hidden deals, but sadly they have not had any Disney resort deals in years now.

I have been tracking Priceline Express deals for years and helping people identify resorts (I write for Touring Plans) and out of at least hundreds of reports I can only recall one person who was assigned a King room on a generic hidden deal that had any issue insuring they got a room for 4 - but after calling in to the Disney Wholesale phone a 2nd time they were told they should be fine, and they were.

When it comes to an old extension identifying resorts, you might be thinking of Hotel Canary - which is long dead (RIP the Canary) and was pretty good, but by no means 100% accurate.

FWIW, if you have not seen it mentioned in this thread: I have a simple resort identifier for the Disney and UOR areas that should make resorts easy to spot. At any given point in time, very few of those resorts have all factors like location, star and guest rating and review counts matching, so pretty easy to tell them apart and should make things almost foolproof.

http://bit.ly/JJTPEDeals

Right now the only pairs of resorts that do have the same factors are:

Music & Movies
and
Pop & Sports

You can almost always tell which one the hidden deal is by looking to see what non-hidden deal matches the "full" price listed.
Also, Pop is almost always going to be a fair amount more $ than Sports, plus Sports will show up MUCH more often.
Haven't seen a real Pop hidden deal in a long time.

View attachment 896255

Better bidding is a good one that helps identify hotels and is in use.

 

[Meredith'sMom]

Thank you everyone on this thread and especially JJTNY for the search tool.

Booked AKL today for the end of October. A huge savings from the AP rate.

 

[TQrtrms]

Well I wasn't really sure what I was doing never used priceline to book disney. I just went for it and booked 10/19-10/25 and ended up getting AOA. I am excited to save that much money, but I am a bit confused with the occupancy & bedding. It showed the sofa bed in the description part, but now after booking it doesn't show it anywhere. How do I determine what room type it gave me?

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Well I wasn't really sure what I was doing never used priceline to book disney. I just went for it and booked 10/19-10/25 and ended up getting AOA. I am excited to save that much money, but I am a bit confused with the occupancy & bedding. It showed the sofa bed in the description part, but now after booking it doesn't show it anywhere. How do I determine what room type it gave me?

Call Disney Wholesale (during business hours) and they can 100 percent confirm all the details.
407-939-7671

 

[cadenleesmom]

Call Disney Wholesale (during business hours) and they can 100 percent confirm all the details.
407-939-i

Call Disney Wholesale (during business hours) and they can 100 percent confirm all the details.
407-939-7671

when you link it to MDE it shows the room and lets you link each person (depending on how many you had on your priceline reservation) to a person on you MDE.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Just booked 1 night.....Oct 24th...with a PL ED.....got A/S Sports std room.....$105 all in.

All of my 5 percent off coupons had expired and this date had not shown up for many days in a row recently.

It gave me the hint that I had stayed there before so I was confident in what I was going to get.

I also found it odd that there were no transparent rooms that showed up.....but there was an ED room.

This 1 night stay adds an extra day to my late October trip.

 

[Leigh L]

Just booked 1 night.....Oct 24th...with a PL ED.....got A/S Sports std room.....$105 all in.

All of my 5 percent off coupons had expired and this date had not shown up for many days in a row recently.

It gave me the hint that I had stayed there before so I was confident in what I was going to get.

I also found it odd that there were no transparent rooms that showed up.....but there was an ED room.

This 1 night stay adds an extra day to my late October trip.

I did the same thing with AS Sports for November to add a night. Seems resorts are starting to pop in and out on dates for both transparent and blind bookings.

Random, but I used to love it when Hotwire would let you add a night for (generally) the price you booked. PL will let you extend in the app on either end of a trip, but it's at a much higher price, lol.

So I took the blind booking route for the savings and will try to see if they'll let me stay in the same room (never been a problem).