What's a better deal...

[Dewy]

The discounts are starting to confuse me.

We just booked at the Poly for the week of 10/16 - 10/23. The room only discount was even better than the 40% discount quoted. I tried it first with no discount and then with the discount. First time was $4107 then it came down to $2009 with the discount...both rates are with the tax. Unless I did something wrong that's 50% off!!

While that week does not have free dining we are starting to also plan our 2011 trip. What is usaully a better deal: the room only discounts or the free dining?

 

[Dewy]

Update: I just checked my email and i now have a Free Dining offer too????

 

[disneyfan55]

Update: I just checked my email and i now have a Free Dining offer too????

A FD PIN or with you res.? If you book the FD you pay rack rate and have to purchase at least a 2 day pass pp. Not sure what you mean, but FD has been extend through next Sept with some blackout times.

For the better deal, you what the discounted room plus dining will cost vs. FD which is rack rate. From what I have seen maybe unless you have 4/5 adults, with a deluxe the discount and buying dining is a better price but you have to figure it out.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

If you are getting significantly different numbers, my experience says they are different offers in some way. It may be a slightly different room category, it may be one includes trip insurance, it may slightly different park ticket features.

To complicate matters, different packages (and room only offers) have different default settings on park ticket options when you price them out online. So check ALL the DETAILS to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Everytime you go back and forth changing a date or something- the search engine goes back to it's default settings.

Also, a "package' offers a few little pluses that Disney charges you for: like arcade passes. The price on those little extras is small, but it's in there.

Beyond that...well...Disney math does have it's oddities. Always things will be off by a few dollars. - usually in Disney's favor. Simply put, you can't price out package deals exactly. They are packages. If you change the number of guests say, the price per person doesn't stay exactly the same when the package is discounted. (if you try to subtract say, the price of park tickets, which should be a constant)

 

[tarheel_girl]

I might be able to help you. I am staying at the WL in January. I was quoted a price and the next day the offers were released. So, I called AAA again. Here was the breakdown: AAA was saving me around $150 total for 2 adults, 2 kids age 4 off of the rack rate. Free dining would have saved me only $134 total. The reason? I can't get the AAA AND free dining. I would have to choose which discount. So, we did room only. Pricing room only at the WL and then adding the tickets and dining to it saved us $300 more than the AAA rate. Hope that helps. No question that room only was the better deal for us. Our final price was $400 off the rack rate that we were originally quoted on disney's website.