Resort Discounts Scarce

[erikthewise]

When we became members in 2002, there was (as always) sage advice on this board to the effect that "discounts at deluxe resorts may not always be as good as they are currently". That has apparently come to pass much sooner than I expected. Numerous posts on the Resorts board indicate is difficult to find any availability for the latest round of codes.

Like many others, we had some excellent rates in 2001 and 2002, and like 99-cent gasoline (also in 2001!) these appear to be a thing of the past. We had Polynesian GVC for $229+tax -- now people are excited about getting this for $300 or more.

Instead of congratulating myself for buying DVC, I feel kind of sad. The only consolation is that WDW is getting high occupancy at many of its resorts and perhaps actually making money.

Quote from mousesavers.com

"Rooms are already booked up heavily for the October-December period this year, due to several factors, including:

tourism is finally recovering after 9/11 - more people are travelling in general

Disney has expanded its Food & Wine Festival and the number of nights of the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, making Fall a more appealing time to travel

many people have already booked the "buy 5 nights, get 7 nights" package that was offered back in May and June for stays through November

Disney has already offered many private e-mail discount codes that allowed the recipients to book discounted rooms through December

With all of these factors in mind, I'm actually a little surprised that discount codes were offered to the general public at all, particularly for October.

In any case discount codes must be thought of as a "clearance sale" -- if you want the discount, you have to be willing to take what's left over! It's important to be flexible with both dates and hotels, and to be persistent in calling back periodically to see if anything has opened up."

 

[Granny]

erik...I think your points are well taken. Though I can't honestly say I share your sadness. I'm not gloating, it's just that full resorts and busy parks means that WDW is a healthy, profitable place. It means that employee cutbacks and other fiscal belt-tightening shouldn't be as prevelant as they were after September, 2001.

I think the codes are reverting back to what they originally were intended for...which is exactly what you've said. They were intended to fill low occupancy periods and finishing off the occupancy of the resorts for any given time period.

 

[DrTomorrow]

Granny's right (surprising, eh? ). The '01/'02 discounts were special cases, due primarily to 9/11; now that things are settling down a bit, bookings are up and discounts are more rare.

Another point that was touched on that I'd like to amplify: As a DVC owner, I want Disney to fill as many of it's rooms as it can, and sell lots of tickets, too! Although discounts and empty parks seem like a good thing to some, they're really a bad sign. I want Disney to get full rack rate on every resort room, and sell lots of food, and have the parks filled with people. This way they can not only have the financial resourses to get the parks back to where they should be, like having all MK Lands open at opening time and having all attractions run year round, but they can continue to invest in improvements (Everest, Soarin, etc.) that will make WDW a popular tourist destination for decades to come.

Then I can start renting my DVC points for $20-30 a point!

 

[AFMom]

One reason we took a while to decide to buy DVC was Shades of Green and the military discounts sometimes offered on room-only bookings. But by the time we know when we can actually go on vacation - the military rated rooms are usually gone (or at least gone where we want to stay), and Shades of Green is booked months in advance from what I've found. Anyway - discounts are great if you can get them! But the really haven't worked out great for us. We've only gotten to use military discounts once on a trip to Disneyland.

 

[disney queen]

we are going the first week in december, staying the first 4 nights at VWL on points. thereafter, 2 nights in the lodge proper as a paying guest. sure would like that AP rate, but just glad we booked in may for december. just called again hoping for a cancellation at the lodge and was told that the lodge is sold out for our dates. also, in the past when we would already have a reservation and the APs would come out, we could just "apply" that rate to the room. now disney is not allowing that.

 

[uwate]

I know I for one was very disappointed in the number of rooms that were discounted. The day the AP and Florida resident discounts were announced I called looking for a mid December booking around 1pm and it went like this:

Grand Floridian Main Building Concierge? nope
Contemporary 14th Floor Concierge? nope
Polynesian Concierge? nope

I was told all those sold within 2-3 hrs after they opened at 7AM.

I ended up getting a Tower Room at the Contemporary.

I have never stayed at the Contemporary so I have my fingers crossed it will be a good time. Still I can't help but feel bummed :-/

 

[kimpossible]

I have a trip planned for 11/11-11/15 at the Boardwalk. I should not complain too much, because I did get a dicount for BWI because this was a business conference. I, however, was hoping for even lower through the discounts. No such luck. All was full.

Oh well, if my contract makes it through ROFR, worrying about discounts can be a thing of the past!

 

[d-r]

I think that more people know about "rates" and places like the dis boards or mousesavers.com, and there are more people waiting for "rates" than their used to be. There is so much posting of "Just buy the AP after you get there" etc.

Disney has talked in the press about how in the last couple of years people wait until "the last minute" to book, just a month or two before. It seems like Disney is pushing the date as much as they can, kind of playing chicken with bargain hunters - they were going month by month for Aug and Sept, then Oct only came out the last week in Aug.

It used to be, when the Mickey Monitor came out quarterly, the AP rates came out for the quarter. So if you had an AP, you go the MM, and it told you that the rates were out for the quarter.

Now, with sites like this, people know the morning they are out and they go nuts calling in. People were waiting 45-50 minutes on hold. There were a ton of people calling at the same time.

The other thing is, more and more guide books say to take the kids out of school, and more and more schools have a break in October.

So now you have a combination of more people willing to travel in general, calling up and getting the rack rate, and more people who are aware of rates trying to wait until the last minute. I'm glad the occupancy is up. Hope the parks aren't crowded.

What cracks me up is the people who say something like "They didn't have any rates at the resort I wanted for the date I wanted, good thing I booked a room already at the rack rate." Well, duh, they discount rooms that aren't rented out, not rooms that have already been rented. The reason for the discounts are to fill up rooms that haven't sold.

We have three 2-bedrooms starting a Sunday night in Oct., and we got 3 rooms at the pop century for people that would arrive the day before for $69 a piece. They also had rooms at AKL, Cont., YC, and Polly for that night when I called, but we figured that people that were just arriving early for the dvc stay would be fine in the value for a night, and more rooms would be better. Buy I wouldn't have booked them at rack rate.

The thing is, that week has been full since the 7-month window at dvc resorts, especially the epcot area. Actually, we have some points at WLV and BCV, and we didn't have enough this year to book all three rooms on just BCV points. So at 11-months, we booked two at BCV and one at WLV, and at 7-months we tried to switch the one at WLV over to BCV, and we've been on the waiting list ever since. We tried to add one more studio and that was full, too.

 

[spiceycat]

hope that means the resort of Pop Century will be opened this year instead of next year!!!

 

[d-r]

Originally posted by uwate

I ended up getting a Tower Room at the Contemporary.

I have never stayed at the Contemporary so I have my fingers crossed it will be a good time. Still I can't help but feel bummed :-/

Its going to be so nice to wake up and walk downstairs and get on the monorail. Or to come home on the monorail and just go upstairs to bed. You will have a blast.

 

[rinkwide]

Originally posted by DrTomorrow
Then I can start renting my DVC points for $20-30 a point!

Didn't you get the memo? Capitalism isn't PC anymore.

Originally posted by d-r
...people know the morning [discount rates] are out and they go nuts calling in. People were waiting 45-50 minutes on hold. There were a ton of people calling at the same time.

Ah, the good old days before DVC. Don't ya miss 'em?