What would you do?

[debbie655]

We originally had reservations at the Royal Pacific Resort from Sun Aug 22-25 and then the Marriott Grand Vista from the 25-28th. Well our plans changed and I needed somewhere to stay on the 21st so we booked @RP. The problem is, we were able to get the Entertainment rate of $119 for the three nights but the Fri Aug 21st, the best rate I could get is $170 including tax. I have booked two rooms at that rate but now the the budget minded part of me is thinking maybe we should just stay somewhere else that first night? I'm thinking we could save at least $200 between the two rooms. We are driving from NY, leaving on Friday so probably won't arrive until after 7pm which makes me think it's not worth paying $170 for two rooms just to basically sleep. Then again, our vacation is pretty short as it is and it always feels like you lose a lot of time changing hotels? I'm not sure what to do? I'm going to discuss this with my family but was wondering what would you all do?

 

[LilyStar]

Hi there

I am from NY as well (upstate that is!)

Well, if it was me I would go with staying off-site the first night and saving the money. I chose to do this on my last trip in March. I had booked the Portofino for 2 nights and went back and forth on whether to bite the bullet and spend the extra $$ for the first night or not.

For one thing, if you aren't arriving until after 7pm, you aren't going to be taking in the resort anyway. You'll be exhausted from driving and will probably hit the hay early. If you plan on going to the parks the next day, you're probably going to go early in the day and you wouldn't be at the hotel anyway!

So what we did was stay at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas (got on hotelkingdom.com for $60) and had a beautiful suite for one night and checked out first thing in the morning, drove to the Portofino and left our luggage in storage and went to the parks. It worked out very well and we saved a boatload of money.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[RamseyTrio]

There's a couple of things I would do -

First I would call the hotel directly and ask if they'd honor the $119 rate you had with them for the other nights (even if they don't match they may decrease it some). Call back a few times if they say "no". Sometimes some people are more accomodating than others).

Otherwise I'd probably opt to stay someplace that first night and save the money. It is a hassle switching hotels so many times but you could alwasy pack everything you need for the one night in a small bag so you don't need to open your large suitcases.