Southwest 2008 Price Analysis

[DaveO]

OK - Based on my other posts the past few days on the price of this trip and how expensive it was is killing me. So I spent the morning surfing the web and using a spreadsheet to find out the cost of all the tours, hotels, and dinners that are included in the package.

I have 2 adults and 2 DS's who will be 7 and 6 next summer. The assumption in my cost analysis is that we would get two rooms. If not you could save about $1500 on the trip. Here is my breakdown for the week. For the tours I looked up different tours at the respective locations via the web for pricing. For the dinner shows I used the Luau pricing at disney. For meals I used my experiences and old receipts based on past resort dining at any high end resort.

Here it goes:

Hotel = $3850
Meals = $975
Shows = $360
Tours = $1240
ABD Guides = $400 (I allocated $50/day to account for guides,tipping,etc)
Transportation = $600 ($75/day)

Total = $7425
Disney Cost = $7600 (Standard Season)

So I need to decide if no discount for quad and getting two rooms is worth the extra $1000 - $1500.

Hope others find this useful.

Dave O.

 

[3pirates]

Dave...

I was sorta doing the same thing about a European trip...but with exchange rates... . I found I accounted for a lot of the cost with Hotel, Food, Transportation. Enough that I figured we weren't coming out too far behind after we considered guides, tours, etc. Not having to worry about those sorts of details, especially in a foreign country, is a nice bonus. Also, we would definitely need two rooms, because my family has five people, so no issue there for us!

Thanks for doing a more complete job...

And funny, seems like I keep seeing more KS/MO people on this board...I'm from KC...although not any more!

 

[tammydel]

Dave,
Thanks for breaking this down.
There are two thing that are getting me right now - and I know I'll have to get over it because I can't change either. This is my therapy I guess.
1) No quad pricing. We are essentially PAYING for two rooms even if we take one. So the hotel charges Disney for one room and the extra $$$ goes where? Don't tell me, I think I know.
2) As I said (had to edit to fix my math) in the other thread, 44% price increase. Has Disney's costs for this trip gone up 44%? I think probably not. It is supply and demand. They are charging it because they can. Last year same faimly, trip, dates and early booking - the trip would have cost my family $5696; this year $8216. $2520 more than it would have cost me to go this summer. Guess my lesson is I should have went THIS summer.

Thanks for the therapy.
Tammy

 

[DaveO]

Dave,
Thanks for breaking this down.
There are two thing that are getting me right now - and I know I'll have to get over it because I can't change either. This is my therapy I guess.
1) No quad pricing. We are essentially PAYING for two rooms even if we take one. So the hotel charges Disney for one room and the extra $$$ goes where? Don't tell me, I think I know.
2) As I said (had to edit to fix my math) in the other thread, 44% price increase. Has Disney's costs for this trip gone up 44%? I think probably not. It is supply and demand. They are charging it because they can. Last year same faimly, trip, dates and early booking - the trip would have cost my family $5696; this year $8216. $2520 more than it would have cost me to go this summer. Guess my lesson is I should have went THIS summer.

Thanks for the therapy.
Tammy

I hear you Tammy . I am having a hard time on the no quad rates myself. The extra $1250 or so is bugging me. But I am used to DVC and if were doing this trip on our oun I would have reserved 1BR suites if I could. So I think I am justifying to myself the expense. When I went to San Diego last summer the 1BR suites at top resorts were $$$$$$$. I think it was about $400 not including taxes and other fees.

I will make Dinsey book me the two rooms. If I end up not using the second so be it - if I need to pay for it then I will use as extra batroom at least. They are not going to get my money. To bad we could not find a way to sublease the second room !!


3Pirates - I just moved to KS/KC Area in May from the Northeast. What a change !!! But we love it so far! KC area is really booming right now.

Dave O.

 

[kd2226]

Dave,
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I am also having a hard time accepting the cost of these trips. It is good to see how much food, tours, etc would come to.
The no quad occupancy is a deterent. Our kids are 10 and 7 and we have never, ever booked an extra hotel room, cruise cabin, etc for them. It adds far too much to the cost of the trip, and we don't see the value of the added space as we are always busy and hardly in the room anyway. So the extra room is not worth $1500 to us.
While I continue to love Disney, I wish they would be more family friendly in their pricing with ABD. - Like they are with their resort rooms (kids stay free with parents) and on their cruise line (deeply discounted rates for 3rd and 4th person).
I'm not meaning to complain here - just think that it would be good if people spoke out a bit to let Disney know what we want.
By the way, I grew up in Kansas. Kansas City continues to be one of my favorite cities and one that we always visit when we travel home. (I live in Australia now.)

 

[DaveO]

I just sent this email to ABD. I am also going to follow up with a written letter to ABD headquarters - anyone know the officer in charge of the ABD division?

Just a comment that I hope gets passed on to senior management. I was very excited to book the Southwest Trip for 2008. I am very disappointed to find out there is no difference in pricing for my family of four whether I get a quad room or two doubles. I find it disappointing that if I prefer a quad room it is costing me $1000 - $1500 more (based on $200/nt for a room) than the same trip with two rooms. I am willing to pay a slight Disney premium, but I will not pay for a room that I do not need or want. I am a big Disney fan and even own ‘a piece of the magic’ via the Disney Vacation Club, I was looking forward to the exceptional Disney service on a different kind of a vacation experience. I think I am leaning on waiting until ABD changes this policy before I try one of your adventures.

Thank you for reading this feedback and please forward to the appropriate management team, as I talk to other people interested in these adventures there are similar concerns about the pricing inequity.

I encourage anyone else who feels the same way to send a letter. Maybe enough feedback will cause them to make changes in 2009.

Dave O.

 

[tammydel]

Great idea Dave.
What e-mail did you use?
Tammy

 

[bicker]

This is my therapy I guess.

We'll try our best to help you get over it.

1) No quad pricing. We are essentially PAYING for two rooms even if we take one. So the hotel charges Disney for one room and the extra $$$ goes where? Don't tell me, I think I know.

I think that's not what's really going on. Rather, Disney probably has simply determined that they don't need to provide quad pricing. It's much more complicated to do so in this situation, where you are paying for so much more than just room and board.

2) As I said (had to edit to fix my math) in the other thread, 44% price increase. Has Disney's costs for this trip gone up 44%? I think probably not. It is supply and demand. They are charging it because they can.

Absolutely, and as they should. We shook our heads in wonder at how little we paid for our up-coming Southwest Splendors trip, when we booked it last year, and it was no surprise to us when there was a hefty price increase for folks who didn't book early. Disney seems to always introduce things with very generous pricing, and then increases prices rapidly until the pricing matches the value. It took three years for them to do so with the Dining Plan; it seems that it has only take a couple of years for them to do so with ABD.

 

[bicker]

(based on $200/nt for a room)

Where did you get that number?

Disney probably doesn't pay retail, at least not in Sedona nor Moab.

 

[Joan1]

I have gone to a couple of the hotel websites and compared the full non discounted rates per night with what we would spend on food each day, entrance fees, transfers, tips. I also figured what a private guide would cost each day based on what I have paid in the past for Europe. I am still coming up $500 less per day then what the ABD price is for Tuscany. Now if they offered the 3rd and 4th person rates like they did for 2006 and 2007 it would have been a wash. I did figure high on food and the guide so it really wouldn't be a wash but close to the cost but I am sure it is still high because Disney isn't paying full non discounted prices on the hotels.

Here is the form you can fill out to write to ABD
https://secure.disney.go.com/abd/en_US/general?name=ContactUsPage

 

[DaveO]

Where did you get that number?

Disney probably doesn't pay retail, at least not in Sedona nor Moab.

Bicker - I went to the Hotel websites. The rooms are actually about $225 not including tax. And that is for off season as I can not get the peak season rates now. So even if they are getting them at $125/nt - I would be happy with $700 knocked off the price.

And you are correct - it is supply and demand and I do not fault them for that. But as a consumer I might spend my vacation dollars somewhere else (still undecided). I hope enough people let them know so that they offer some sort of quad discount in the future.

Not sure why you would not think they book the amount of rooms needed with maybe a min guarantee? Unless Disney is booking the max number of rooms up front. Being a large company with smart laywers I can not imagine they have built the contracts with the vendors to be that inflexible.

Dave O.

 

[bicker]

Bicker - I went to the Hotel websites. The rooms are actually about $225 not including tax.

I went directly to Amara's website and got a $160 per night rate.