Reserving through hotels.com or orbitz?

[Running_Bell]

Has anyone ever reserved a Disney resort through one of the online discount hotel places like hotels.com or orbitz.com? A friend of mine told me she does this and I had no idea you could even book through them with Disney property. But, sure enough... I checked and I can get reservations at BW for 379.00 per night verus the disney rate of 481.00.... $100.00 per night savings??? Is this real? Are they the same rooms? Would we get a different type of "greeting" at the resort when checking in? If I can save $100.00 per night... we can put a lot more in to enjoying things a Disney. Positive and negative feedback on this are VERY welcome. Thanks

 

[goofy4tink]

First of all.....I won't book through a middle man for a WDW stay. I much prefer to be the master of my own trip...so to speak.
But...I just went to Orbitz and priced out a trip for 2 adults, staying at BWI, Sept 15-21. The total for Orbitz was $2473.31
Same thing through Disney came to $2458.13

Not sure how either of these companies can give you such a lower rate. When I check for just a Sunday night stay, Orbitz gives me $358, and WDW gives me $405. But yet, when it comes to the final total? WDW rate is less.

 

[KittyKat1978]

The same thing happened to me. Must be Orbitz booking fees.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We booked our mid June stay at POFQ with Orbitz using a Spring 20% off promo. Which is no longer in effect. it was definitely 20% less than Disney, and since we need two rooms it is quite a nice savings at a resort that usually doesn't have good discounts in the Disney sales.

 

[trishadono]

Has anyone ever reserved a Disney resort through one of the online discount hotel places like hotels.com or orbitz.com? A friend of mine told me she does this and I had no idea you could even book through them with Disney property. But, sure enough... I checked and I can get reservations at BW for 379.00 per night verus the disney rate of 481.00.... $100.00 per night savings??? Is this real? Are they the same rooms? Would we get a different type of "greeting" at the resort when checking in? If I can save $100.00 per night... we can put a lot more in to enjoying things a Disney. Positive and negative feedback on this are VERY welcome. Thanks

This will be my 38th disney resort stay this April. I always booked either online or with disney via telephone. However back on 3/2 I read here someone saved on Orbitz so I checked it out. I am an annual passholder and saved more than $500 off my 5 night split stay.(2ngtCBR AND 3 PolyCL). I am going during Easter week so to get a discount then is amazing.
Here are some tips.
1. Book your ME on www.disneysmagicalexpress.com . You can use the 6 digit Orbitz confirmation number they will email you. Or call ME.
2. Call or email orbitz and ask for Disney's 12 digit conf #. I did the email and got my response same day. People that called often got frustrated and too often took a long time on the phone.
3. Go to disney online at new "my experiences" section and LINK your 12 #. Or you can call an add there too.
Now you can do everything as if you booked via Disney. ALSO many people posted no difference in room assignments so should not be a problem.

So if you can save and have time for a few extra things, go for it. You actually don't need those steps above that is just for us OVER PLANNER TYPES

 

[Mickfarland4]

I know it's not Disney but, I have ALWAYS booked for Vegas through these sites and have had absolutely no problems with airfare or my room reservations. I know we have used travelworm for our last trip. We were not treated differently there and they are just as big a vacation destination, just usually for adults only! I think it is worth looking into and have booked 5 nights in the middle of the strip with roundtrip(no stop) air for under $400 per person!

 

[goofy4tink]

We booked our mid June stay at POFQ with Orbitz using a Spring 20% off promo. Which is no longer in effect. it was definitely 20% less than Disney, and since we need two rooms it is quite a nice savings at a resort that usually doesn't have good discounts in the Disney sales.

I booked my end of May into June trip through Disney, getting the 20% off spring special. I just checked to see what Orbitz had for the same time frame...exactly the same price, and they listed it as the 20% spring discount price. My cost was within dollars of what the Orbitz cost is. I've never seen any totals with Orbitz that is significantly less than what I would get thru Disney...maybe $5. And I usually do better booking through Disney. I must be very unlucky!!

 

[WEDWDW]

I am using the Orbitz 20% off offer for my next trip.

I saved $100.00 from the AP rate!

After a few days,I emailed Orbitz requesting the Disney res # and promptly received it.

Easy process-definitely worth a $100.00 savings-that's a lot of Mickey Premiums!

 

[trishadono]

I booked my end of May into June trip through Disney, getting the 20% off spring special. I just checked to see what Orbitz had for the same time frame...exactly the same price, and they listed it as the 20% spring discount price. My cost was within dollars of what the Orbitz cost is. I've never seen any totals with Orbitz that is significantly less than what I would get thru Disney...maybe $5. And I usually do better booking through Disney. I must be very unlucky!!

The SPRING20 has ended but the SPRING15 was going on last I looked. That you add in promo box in addition to the sale they currently have. That's how I saved was by combining their sale with promo code. Good Luck!

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

I booked my end of May into June trip through Disney, getting the 20% off spring special. I just checked to see what Orbitz had for the same time frame...exactly the same price, and they listed it as the 20% spring discount price. My cost was within dollars of what the Orbitz cost is. I've never seen any totals with Orbitz that is significantly less than what I would get thru Disney...maybe $5. And I usually do better booking through Disney. I must be very unlucky!!

My trip starts June 16 so at that time the only Disney option for me was rack rate. Each trip is different! I intend to re price the trip when the new summer discount is open for booking..based on what I have read we Will probably have to select another moderate resort to realize a saving as rumor has it that POFQ will price higher...my Orbitz room is fully refundable...

 

[Mynamewastaken]

I booked POR RR with Orbitz when they had the addt. 20% on top of Disney's spring promo. I saved 216.00 booking with them. I got a disney ressie and plugged into the web site and I am all set. For me it was worth it but that was when they had the 20% on top of the 20%. Now it is only 15%

 

[jjas]

I booked our 2 night stay a couple of weeks ago through cheapostay.com and paid $88 per night at POP. The CM who checked us in was very nice - as I would expect - so I would say the treatment is no different. I don't think there was anything different about our room either.

 

[Megsie1000]

As was illustrated above, you have to do a little more work to sync everything with the Disney system, but depending on the amount you save you can really get some good deals through that Orbitz spring deal.

It didn't end up being worth it for us since we have 3 kids and Orbitz charges more for 3&4th people in a room (even if they are kids and even though Disney does not). Apparently people get around that by just booking a room for 2 adults and then having Disney add the kids later. But for a savings of only $100 (for Pop Century) it was not worth all that hassle and worry for me. However, if we had decided to go with Animal Kingdom Lodge (our original plan), the savings would have been much higher and I would have gone for it.

 

[Running_Bell]

I am so glad I asked this question.... someone mentioned fees from the online discount sites. Sure enough.... the room rate was almost 100.00 cheaper per night, but when I tried to checkout to pay... that's when all the fees were added. The "Tax recovery charges and service fees" added to the final cost... put it over Disney's rates by $13.00 total. So... with that I would rather go through Disney for sure. My mom always told me... if it's too good to be true.. it usually is

 

[policycobb]

Use Travel5 for 5% off. Better than nothing.

Save 5% on hotel stays
Promo code: TRAVEL5
Minimum stay: none
Book and travel by December 31, 2013.

 

[mouseketeermama]

I used Orbitz to book my June trip and I saved $50 a night over the annual passholder rate. I just had to call them to get the Disney reservation number and I was able to link it to the website and add my celebrations to the reservation. It's worth it to me.

 

[WEDWDW]

I am so glad I asked this question.... someone mentioned fees from the online discount sites. Sure enough.... the room rate was almost 100.00 cheaper per night, but when I tried to checkout to pay... that's when all the fees were added. The "Tax recovery charges and service fees" added to the final cost... put it over Disney's rates by $13.00 total. So... with that I would rather go through Disney for sure. My mom always told me... if it's too good to be true.. it usually is

WOW! Was that Orbitz?

They didn't add anything to my order when I checked out.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

No extra fees with Orbitz for us either...must be some other site...

 

[Weluvdizney2]

Reserved through orbitz for the first time. We check in in 17 days. I hope we are not treated differently.

 

[bltman]

Use ebates when booking through hotels.com and orbitz and get a few extra dollars back.

Always look for coupon codes for the two websites. 10% can often be found easily for hotels.com. Orbitz recently had the 20% off code.

Orbitz has the problem of counting kids as adults at Disney (leading to higher fees). So, always search inputting 2 adults only (unless you book a suite). While everyone seemed to overcome this problem by calling Orbitz and having their kids added on after I couldn't risk booking as I would have been hit with bad currency exchange rate if I needed to cancel.

The two sites will usually price match. I booked through Hotels.com with a 10% off code. Then I price matched to orbitz's 20% off code price. This was remarkably easy to do.