Question about upgrading...please and thank you

[alexisbrady]

Hello...thank you in advance for any responses.

My family of 4 are traveling to Disney on December 10th through the 14th. We are staying at the CBR.
I called this morning to see if I could upgrade to AKL. They said that in order to upgrade for 4 nights it would cost an additional $521. I realize this is upgrade to a Deluxe hotel but I thought it would be a little cheaper. I could do a total extra cost of $300 but can't justify over $500 for just 4 nights.

My question is does Disney ever lower their hotel prices as they get closer to the dates liek last minute deals? Is it worth it for me to keep trying or are there prices usually pretty standard? I would assume they would want to sell the Deluxe rooms and if they could get an extra $300 out of me.

A little help would be so appreciated. Thank you

 

[ancestry]

No they do not do last minutes deal in the manner in which you are asking.

Do you already have a room discount? - I.E. % off the room rate? I'm guessing you do or the difference would be more than $521.

 

[mb187143]

Disney opened up a "room only" discount that must be booked by this weekend for dates Nov 26- Dec 23 for up to 30% off at deluxes, etc. This is how they fill those room nights, they won't offer you the room for $300 - they'll fill it themselves. This is their version of a "last minute deal". You could go into their special offers and see if you can get a better deal that way though.

 

[TaraPA]

Disney does not offer any last minute deals for rooms. If anything, they will be rack rate if you wait any longer. The $521 difference from a mod to a deluxe for 4 nights sounds like it might be a discounted rate already...when I plug in random numbers between those 2 resorts with no discount I come up with a higher amount than $521 as the difference.

 

[alexisbrady]

I'm not sure if I have a room discount...I have free dining so I assume that's the only discount I will get. I just thought booking with AKL would be cheaper because they are usually the cheaper deluxe and their normal room rates are only $50 more than CBR during my dates, unless I read that wrong.

I appreciate your responses...it was worth a try.

 

[Miffy]

I'm not sure if I have a room discount...I have free dining so I assume that's the only discount I will get. I just thought booking with AKL would be cheaper because they are usually the cheaper deluxe and their normal room rates are only $50 more than CBR during my dates, unless I read that wrong.

I appreciate your responses...it was worth a try.

Out of curiosity, I just looked up the 2011 rack rates for CBR and AKL for your dates (Dec 10-14). This is "fall" season.

Rack rate for a standard room with a standard view at CBR is $164 during the week; $174 on the weekend.

Rack rate for a standard room with a standard view at AKL is $280 during the week; $290 on the weekend.

This is $116/night difference. Perhaps this answers your original question.

If you are getting the free dining offer, there's no room discount. You might want to try pricing AKL with the 35% off room-only discount and consider ditching the dining plan if that would work out for you.

Hope this was helpful. Surfing the waves of Disney resort pricing can be confusing!

 

[Greysword]

I'm not sure if I have a room discount...I have free dining so I assume that's the only discount I will get. I just thought booking with AKL would be cheaper because they are usually the cheaper deluxe and their normal room rates are only $50 more than CBR during my dates, unless I read that wrong.

I appreciate your responses...it was worth a try.

If AKL is $50 more per night, this is a $200 difference. Why not call CRO, cancel the CBR reservation, and book the AKL at the slightly higher rate?

 

[DebbieB]

Out of curiosity, I just looked up the 2011 rack rates for CBR and AKL for your dates (Dec 10-14). This is "fall" season.

Rack rate for a standard room with a standard view at CBR is $164 during the week; $174 on the weekend.

Rack rate for a standard room with a standard view at AKL is $280 during the week; $290 on the weekend.

This is $116/night difference. Perhaps this answers your original question.

If you are getting the free dining offer, there's no room discount. You might want to try pricing AKL with the 35% off room-only discount and consider ditching the dining plan if that would work out for you.

Hope this was helpful. Surfing the waves of Disney resort pricing can be confusing!

$116 x 12.5% tax x 4 nights = $522, so that sounds right. No discounts with free dining.

 

[ppony]

$116 x 12.5% tax x 4 nights = $522, so that sounds right. No discounts with free dining.

Yeah. Honestly that's not bad at all going from a mod to a deluxe. It's a significant difference in a mod. to a deluxe so expecting less than a hundred and change more per night isn't very realistic. Even if it is the "cheaper" of the deluxes. It's NOT a cheap resort at all. From what i've noticed, the closer you get to your dates, the higher then price goes. Like airfare. Discounts are usually gone by then and then they know they've "got you" to pay rack rate. Not to say one can't luck out but I'd think you'd spend an awful lot of time and energy after a lost cause.

 

[jskacoc]

I am going those same dates. Even started out booked at CBR but upgraded to AKL to surprise my DH who really wanted to stay there but didn't want to spend the $500 difference. Since I have read it can be almost like it's own attraction I opted to only get 2 days of base tix to get the free dining. Maybe if you take a day off your tix or take of park hopper if you have it, it will help with your price. Don't know what can be done without being charged a fee now that it's under 45 days.

Just as a reference, we have 2 adults, 2 kids under 10 and one infant in a standard view room, with free dining and 2 day base tix and the total came to $1931. I had a 35% pin code and it was only about a $50-100 difference between both options. (can't remember exact number) So I opted for free dining so we can eat what we want without worrying.

Good luck!

 

[Marthasor]

I'm not sure if I have a room discount...I have free dining so I assume that's the only discount I will get. I just thought booking with AKL would be cheaper because they are usually the cheaper deluxe and their normal room rates are only $50 more than CBR during my dates, unless I read that wrong.

I appreciate your responses...it was worth a try.

Unfortunately that CM quoted you the rack rate difference and not the Fall Room discount offer difference. When you called on 11/17, the fall room discount offer was still in effect and, quite possibly, there was an AKL room in that inventory. Even so, the free dining offer is long gone, so even if you had gotten closer to a $300 difference between CBR and AKL using the discount, you would have probably have had to give up free dining and that would have skyrocketed your overall costs.

I hope you will enjoy CBR!