What if AP rates NEVER come??

[C.Ann]

I'll tell you right off the bat that I am not an "on-site" person.. Lots of reasons but no need to go into them here..

However, I have been watching the threads on the AP rates issue for awhile now and I can see that some of you are REALLY distressed and anxious about this..

I'm just curious what will happen if the AP rates DON'T come.. Will you stay off-site? Will you buy AP's again?

And most importantly - especially for those who are going soon - have you made back-up reservations elsewhere?

I'm not even staying on-site and I'm getting anxious waiting for you guys to find out one way or the other!! LOL

I really, really do not like the way Disney holds their customers hostage for every shred of information - be it AP rates or park hours..

 

[katypop]

when i bought my AP it was because i was going for 13 nights so it was the best value for me, even just for one trip. i booked what i could afford (csr with aaa discount) and was happy. i did watch for AP rates and had given up, when 5 days before my trip they came out!!! i was ecstatic i was able to split my stay between AKL and CSR and still save money i have now decided to go back since i do have the AP and once again have booked what i can live with, WL with aaa rate. i am watching again for AP rates and hoping of course, but i will stay on-site regardless. next trip may have to be at the all-stars, but that's okay. this way it's exciting when i get a deal and i don't spend my planning days(i love to plan all stressed out . works for me

katypop

 

[magicmouse2]

Have you ever stayed on site C.Ann ?

At the minute I am paying rack rate for my upcoming trip. No matter what I would have stayed onsite this time (b.day trip). In the future ? I will either stay at ASMO or rent points for DVC. I stay on and offsite during my vacations in order to see the rest of the Orlando parks and (not pay Disney hotel prices)
I will still be financially better off buying APS as we take extended vacations 2 weeks usually / twice a year. I dont know what will happen next April. I have booked POR however they may close it for renovations.

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by magicmouse2
Have you ever stayed on site C.Ann ?

At the minute I am paying rack rate for my upcoming trip. No matter what I would have stayed onsite this time (b.day trip). In the future ? I will either stay at ASMO or rent points for DVC. I stay on and offsite during my vacations in order to see the rest of the Orlando parks and (not pay Disney hotel prices)
I will still be financially better off buying APS as we take extended vacations 2 weeks usually / twice a year. I dont know what will happen next April. I have booked POR however they may close it for renovations.

------------------------------

No - I've never stayed on-site - and I can honestly say I have no desire to do so.. I personally feel it's terribly overpriced (even with discounts); I can't bear the thought of being cramped up in a room (however, if Disney ever dropped the prices on the FW cabins to $59 a night I "might" be tempted - LOL); and I absolutely, positively could not deal with the transportation system.. Also - like you - we do LOADS of other things while in Orlando, so again, the value just isn't there for me..

I had thought about buying an AP myself - on the REMOTE chance that I might get to go back to Disney sometime within the next year (right now we're scheduled for Dec. 2nd - 11th) - but it's not for the room discounts - just a way to save money on buying park tickets all over again..

If they're going to release the AP rates I wish they would do it soon cause I'm really getting stressed - watching all of you getting stressed !!!! Someone said maybe tomorrow - so I'll keep my fingers crossed for all of you..

 

[erikthewise]

It doesn't bother me if Disney can sell all their rooms at rack rates. More power to them. HOWEVER, if they

-- offer discounts only to UHP-package guests and not to others, and/or
-- make it difficult to get room-only reservations,

then they are telling us that AP holders (and park-hopper buyers) are not welcome at WDW resorts. It can be no surprise if these people then choose to stay off-site. From there it's a small step to deciding to go somewhere else for vacations.

 

[skiwee1]

If AP rates don't come out I will still be going to the Poly in October but paying rack rates. I booked the hotel I could afford in the first place so I wouldn't be disappointed if AP rates didn't come out. I will still renew my APs as I only really get them for the good value in going so many times. That is the purpose of them to begin with.

 

[Pugsley]

I stay onsite when I feel I’m getting a fair price, and if there’s no discount I stay offsite. I won’t pay rack rate, not because I can’t afford it, but because I don’t see it as a good value for the money. I normally go in the off-season, so I don’t really need to worry about a back-up reservation. I can always wait until close to the trip and use Priceline, where I can stay at a resort hotel for the price of the All Stars. I had planned to stay at CSR this October, but instead I’ll be staying at the Dolphin for the same price. If the Swan and Dolphin keep offering such good prices, I’ll just plan on staying there and not even consider Disney resorts any more. I just can’t see where this is a good business move for Disney. If room only discounts are eliminated, what will happen in my case is 1) I’ll stay offsite when I do go and 2) I’ll go less often. I have to think there are plenty of people who feel the same as I do. But maybe Disney doesn’t care as long as they can get enough people to pay rack rate and buy the packages.

 

[nowellsl]

If AP rates don't come out for my trip in October, hopefully FL residents rates will, or special rates throught my Disney Visa - if not we'll go off site again. On site is nice but it's hard to pay rack rates once you've gotten used to discounts!

 

[jacksonsmom]

We brought our APs in June for the reason that we were in Disney for 13 days, so it was the best price for tickets for us.

We are going again in December (for a long weekend). We do already have Comptempory ressies for our stay. Of course I am hoping AP rates come out BUT even if they don't we do plan on staying at the CR. It is only for 4 days, now if it were for 10 or more days, we might think about splitting our stay between two resorts to bring the cost down.

We also have planned a trip next June (right before our passes expire) & again we are hoping for a good rate at the CR. We have talked about it we can't get one we may split resort stays since we will be there for 12 days.

As far as renewing our APs, No, we have no plans on renewing. Like I said the ONLY reason we will brought them was because our first Disney trip was 13 days. The ONLY reason we are going in December is because we got EXCELLENT airfare & we already have tickets to get inside the park. As for June, we are just bumping our vacation up a few weeks before the passes expire so we don't have to buy park tickets.
So we are jut trying to get the most out of our APs before we don't have them anymore

 

[nuts4sn00py]

I bought an AP for the 1st time last year because we were going to Orlando for 2 weeks & at least one of those weeks would be @WDW. I decided on the AP because they offered such a good rate at the BC Concierge with the AP that I couldn't resist ! I than went back in May & got another good room only rate with AP, so I have no complaints. I have since let my AP expire, but will buy a new AP in December due to the great rate I got at the Swan for AP holders. I couldn't beat the price to stay onsite between Christmas & New Years. My original plan had been to rent a vacation home since we are 2 families going to WDW, but I love the Boardwalk area & therefore opted for Swan AP rate. I am a believer in booking what you can afford & if you get a better rate than that's money in your pocket! JMHO Kathy

 

[DisOrBust]

Honestly I will split my stay with Universal. I don't want to be "forced"into the parks every day for 10 days because we have UHP. Yes we can afford rack rate but I don't need my head examined,lol! I would only pay Rack rate over peak not during value season. The value is just not there anymore to justify the rack rate in value season. If park hours went back to what they were I might consider it.

 

[sherry8253]

Hi - We are going to check out Universal this trip. If we like it, we will probably begin splitting our stay between Disney & Universal so there will be no need to buy AP in the future. We will also stay at the Swan or Dolphin if their good rates continue. If not, probably off property.

 

[Miffy]

My dh and I bought APs for our January 2003 trip because we were staying 10 nights and we like touring the parks at our leisure and not counting the days on park hopper passes. We spend our entire trip at WDW. However, without AP rates for that period, I doubt we would have stayed on site, and we certainly wouldn't've been able to swing 5 nights AKL savannah view. The AP discount--which was in effect when I booked our room-only reservation--made a significant difference to our trip planning.

Because we already had the APs and the airfare in December was really cheap, we decided to take another WDW vacation this year. Without the APs, we would never be considering this. We were planning to stay at WL this trip, but can't afford rack rates there and I'm constitutionally unable to book rooms in the hopes of a future discount (just the way I am--no moral judgment here at all). So we booked the Swan, which has great AP rates for the period of our upcoming trip. We've decided that even if AP rates come out for our dates (or if we get a postcard or email), we're not switching resorts, because we're happy with things as they are.

We like staying on-site because we enjoy a car-less vacation, but if discount rates on-site disappear, we'll stay off-site. And, I'll just throw in that although WDW now has "value" resorts, having stayed once at ASMu, we are not going to stay at an AS again, even if it means staying off-site and renting a car.

--miffy--

 

[susy]

We have three rooms at WL for Thanksgiving. My rate right now is 244.20 (woods) a night for five nights. My inlaws are coming in for the last two nights and my mom says if she can't get some kind of a discount she may have to end up canceling the first three nights and only coming for the last two nights, as well.

I just put in our dates at hotelkingdom and came up with a lot of good rates available for offsite hotels for Thanksgiving. One that looked VERY tempting was Caribe Royale 1 bedroom suite for 104.50.

I think since we've always gotten good rates from Disney, we've never looked into offsite.

An interesting point that Kathy brought up.
Book what can pay for and if you get a good rate, then it's money in your pocket. However, in my case it will always go into Disney's pocket.

With our AP's we have 6 trips planned with 19 nights. If I can save on this trip, the money just goes to the next trip. If we don't save enough between trips, that next trip is canceled. We do not like to "buy now, pay later". We save the money FIRST, then vacation! So, Disney gets our money either way. Obviously, they get less if we cancel a trip, because they aren't getting the $$$ we spend while there.

 

[palmtreegirl]

Originally posted by skiwee1
If AP rates don't come out I will still be going to the Poly in October but paying rack rates. I booked the hotel I could afford in the first place so I wouldn't be disappointed if AP rates didn't come out. I will still renew my APs as I only really get them for the good value in going so many times. That is the purpose of them to begin with.

Ok, all I have to change in your post is the month to Feb. and it's my thoughts exactly. lol.

 

[TDC Nala]

well.. I need 3 nights in November to stick onto the end of a DVC trip, me and a friend and her 4 year old. We wanted AKL but it doesn't look good. We will have to be onsite because we won't have a car. The Swolphin has no discounts for our dates (not for government employees anyway, I will probably call and check AP rates).

I think if nothing comes of the AP rates for mid-November I will book us into Coronado for rack rate... my friend loves Coronado and we're splitting the cost, so it won't be too horrible.

I'm glad most of this trip (9 nights) is on DVC points.

 

[bsears]

Definitely check out the AP rates at the S/D. I got a room there in November for $139 with a free upgrade.

 

[ILOVEDVC]

Originally posted by bsears
Definitely check out the AP rates at the S/D. I got a room there in November for $139 with a free upgrade.

Hotwire is coming out with Swan/Dolphin rates at about $109, and in the past few months about $65 - $70 on priceline. There is a posting here on the DIS Boards about this. Just FYI in case.

 

[alyssa810]

If rates don't come out soon we'll probably have to split our stay too. right now we're booked at the BC with the AAA rate, but it's likely we'll book some nights at CBR to defray the cost. We leave 3 weeks from Saturday and we're hoping rates come out this weekend...

 

[AdventurerKat]

I will probably still get an AP simply because I like to go to WDW as much as I possibly can and at least end up spending a few days in the parks each trip so it does pay for itself in that respect.

What it WOULD change for me is where I stay when I go. My strategy now would be to rent DVC or book S/D if they have a good rate or one of the DTD hotels. I like to be able to walk to Pleasure Island when its one of my "adults only" trips so its fine to stay at DTD for those. That being said, I would miss the WDW ambience and the chance to stay at different resorts simply because, like so many others have said, I refuse to pay rack rate. Its not worth it.

I was hoping to see a decent rate at the Poly for my September trip. I have never stayed there, I am going with a friend who has never even been to WDW before so it seemed like a great idea. But day after day, no AP rates so I gave up waiting and rented DVC. Now a really nice woman in Ohio is getting the money that would have gone to Disney for my hotel room and I am staying at a DVC I love, OKW, and thats just fine with me.


If Disney discontinues AP rates and room only rates for the general public, well so be it. But I won't be staying at their hotels. I can do better elsewhere.