What am I missing?

[crashbb]

Three friends and I are going to WDW for the marathon in January.

When looking at prices, one option was for the four of us to share (1 couple, two singletons) either a Family Suite at All Stars or a Deluxe Villa (2 bedroom). We are looking into the DVC point rentals.

However, I also looked into getting an AP. Based on last year, there will be an AP discount during the time we'd be there (likely 8-Jan to 15-Jan) and the discount was 45% for a Deluxe Villa and 40% at All Stars (since it is more than 4 nights). We'd save a ton of money over using the Marathon package and even save money over renting points (assuming $10/point - we'd save more if the points cost more). We'd even save if we went with a Family Suite.

I know that the 45% off is from a rack rate, but how much better do the prices get? We want Park Hoppers, so the AP is about $200 more than just the park ticket for one person. Surely, we'd save more than $200?

However, it doesn't seem like many people do this? What am I missing?

 

[dnbent]

We used to do this. Then we bought DVC!!!

We used to purchase annual passes, get the discount. We would also go one year early February and then the next year late January to get 2 trips out of one vacation.

We are from Wisconsin so we would do 2 week vacations each winter to Florida. We thought we got a great deal.

 

[HeatherC]

You could also stay at Bonnet Creek resort and just buy the regular hopper passes. You would probably save a ton of money by doing this. You can rent there through vacationupgrades.com or myresortnetwork.com.

Check out the bonnet creek thread. You would be pretty much onsite but not paying Disney prices. At that time of the year, I would think you'd be able to book it 60 days out and get the $120 a night rate for a 2 bedroom villa.

Just a thought....

 

[Worfiedoodles]

If you are going to be racing, I would definitely stay onsite. It is so much easier to use the Disney transportation to get to the race start, not to mention the Expo. Disney closes the roads to most traffic extremely early (i.e. you will probably end up taking a circuitous and confusing route to get to the race start if you have to drive).

I'm going for the race not the parks, so the AP isn't really much of a deal for me. We use our AAA discount, and that gets our moderate room rate down to about $129, which I find to be perfectly acceptable.

Maria