What AP hotel discounts?

[GatorChris]

When I first got my AP, I was excited just to save some money on two trips a year apart. Add in 10% of for food, and that's even better. But I was really excited about the "deals" AP holders get at Disney hotels.

So far, I haven't come across anything like that. The prices on the Disneyland website under AP - hotel rates and availability don't seem very discounted. In fact, I just check today for a week in October that I'm not even going, but.... The week nights at DLH were $370/night (that's the cheapest offered). I went over to Orbitz, entered a promo code and was able to get a Premium View room at DLH for the same nights for $366.

After hearing all this fluff about AP discounts, I've yet to see anything worthwhile. So I'll repeat the post title: What AP hotel discounts? Am I just doing something wrong or is there really even a discount to be had?

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Hmmm...well, first off, this year the onsite discounts seem to be not as great as they sometimes are. This is probably due to the higher demand for rooms because of the 60th celebration. However, in the off-season, you can still get GCH for under $400. It's better than no discount, right? Offsite, I've found that some of the hotels have some fairly good discounts. We got a 20% off discount at HOJO when we booked, though I think currently their discounts are only 10% off. Someone else just mentioned that Ramada has a good AP discount. I haven't stayed there, but it looks like you get early check-in and late check-out in addition to a discount. One of the other Harbor motels also has a good discount, but I can't remember which one...

A lot of the discounts depend on the time of year and demand. I think this year the discounts aren't as good as they sometimes are because of the higher demand for rooms.

 

[Sherry E]

In the heyday of the golden AP hotel rates, every year we could count on a promo code along the lines of "AP8" or "AP10" or something similar. It always brought the PPH and the DLH under $200 per night. In fact, sometimes the PPH was as low as $129 or $139 per night! On every other night of the year -- the nights that weren't extra, extra discounted -- AP holders got 10% off a hotel stay.

Over the years, the really good AP rates have almost disappeared. They are definitely harder to come by. If they pop up on the hotel calendar at all, they may only cover a few days in a month and then they are snapped up almost instantly. And because the hotels' rack rates have risen, the best discounts will still not bring the hotels down to the golden rates they once were. It seems like the best deals these days are connected to Dapper Days, Gay Days and conventions in town (like the pharmacy convention in Anaheim last December, which offered great rates for the DLR hotels because attendees were staying there).

Someone else in another thread about December AP hotel rates just posted that she was told by a Reservations CM that there are no AP hotel discounts at all now - http://www.disboards.com/threads/ap-discount-for-gch-in-december.3427213/#post-54007315.

 

[GatorChris]

We got a 20% off discount at HOJO when we booked, though I think currently their discounts are only 10% off.
A lot of the discounts depend on the time of year and demand. I think this year the discounts aren't as good as they sometimes are because of the higher demand for rooms.

We got the HoJo20% off last November and we were able to book it again this year before they changed it. It looks like 15% is the best that can be had for APs there now. It's that deal I grabbed that's keeping me there. If I tried to get the same rooms for the same dates now, it would be over $200 more for the week.

Unless DLH or PPH comes down drastically, there's no way I'll do it. For just over $200/night, I can stay at the new courtyard with an epic set of water slides. I even checked the Dapper Days site and their prices are considerably higher than what they were in Feb/March. Guess DL nailed it with this 60th thing.

 

[nicolispicoli]

We got the HoJo20% off last November and we were able to book it again this year before they changed it. It looks like 15% is the best that can be had for APs there now. It's that deal I grabbed that's keeping me there. If I tried to get the same rooms for the same dates now, it would be over $200 more for the week.

Unless DLH or PPH comes down drastically, there's no way I'll do it. For just over $200/night, I can stay at the new courtyard with an epic set of water slides. I even checked the Dapper Days site and their prices are considerably higher than what they were in Feb/March. Guess DL nailed it with this 60th thing.

I was just posting about this in another thread. I hear conflicting information that they did away with AP room discounts. I have heard conflicting information supporting both sides from cast members on the phone and through chat on Disney's website.

As far as Dapper Day, the rates were still low up until last week when they sold out. Now if you look, it just switched to 30% off rack rate. I booked GCH for DD for $249/night 9/17-9/21. Now it's sold out, but the PPH and DLH are upwards of $300-350/night.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Unless DLH or PPH comes down drastically, there's no way I'll do it. For just over $200/night, I can stay at the new courtyard with an epic set of water slides. I even checked the Dapper Days site and their prices are considerably higher than what they were in Feb/March. Guess DL nailed it with this 60th thing.

Agreed. We usually try to stay onsite at least once per year, but this year, we booked the new Courtyard, too. We're actually considering not even getting APs next year and just taking one long 5-day trip and staying offsite the whole time. I think this is the goal though for Disneyland because there are so many people with APs. Maybe they're trying to make it less appealing so that we'll consider skipping the passes. I really do love staying onsite though...not that they ever will due to the nature of the area, but if they built a moderate or value resort like they have at WDW I'd probably be more likely to stay onsite.

 

[Sherry E]

When Disney Destinations sends out emails, I always eagerly look in them to see if they are offering a nifty PIN code rate or something of that sort. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Today I got an email from them -- not targeted at AP holders, but just a "thank you for requesting a Vacation Planning DVD" sort of email. In it, they advertised $344 per night for the PPH (where I would normally stay), $460 for the DLH and $534 for the GCH. Yikes! I love the PPH and love staying there, but there is no way it is worth $344 per night!

I also got an email from Disney Visa, who is offering a 20% discount (most Sun - Thurs nights). Booking Period: 7/8 – 9/17/2015. Travel dates: 8/16 – 9/24/2015. Travel must be completed by 9/25/15.

The catch is that it's a package, and you have to get tickets with the hotel room -- not just a hotel room on its own. But you also get one commemorative "60 Years of Magic" photo frame per reservation.

I can only hope that with this upcoming $1 billion expansion to DLR, somewhere in there a cheaper Disney hotel option gets thrown in. Maybe they will Disney-fy the Carousel and make that the value/budget-friendly hotel.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I would love to have a value resort. I want to stay at a Disney hotel so bad but just cant fathom it. We can stay longer and have a day off and the day off when we get there. We can get a few more extras. I wish I would get the $199 pin deal I got a few years ago. I would be all for it.

 

[jina]

We've gotten a 30% off HoJo's AP rate our last 4 trips. That brought the 2 bedroom/2 bath kids suite down to ~$200/night. Never did find a decent discount for the on site hotels and our passes expire next month. Also found booking through Costco for Aulani was cheaper than the AP discount (room rate was equal but Coscto had some extras included like a $200 Costco gift card).

We did enjoy our AP discounts for food (15%), merchandise (20%) and tours (20%) and spent a lot more money at the resorts than if we didn't have the passes. We had the premium passes.

 

[ThisGirlLovesDL]

Anabella and Carousel offer AP rates.

 

[bumbershoot]

Anabella and Carousel offer AP rates.

Was just going to mention the Anabella ap rate.

 

[RKKUNK]

We have friends going in August that wanted us to go with them. They know we have an AP. They are staying at PPH and my husband wanted to stay at the same hotel. We booked a room at PPH and at the time there was no AP discount. I saw here on the boards that the Disney Visa was offering the discount so I checked and they were offering AP discounts at the Disney hotels.
Originally, our rate was $344, which I thought was totally insane for Disney's cheapest hotel! With the AP discount we are now paying $258. Which is still insane, but better than it was. I only agreed to stay there because of our friends.
Also, the cheapest I have seen the DLH with AP discount has been $274.