When to book

[Madteaparty001]

http://www.dvcrequest.com/cost-calculator.asp trust me, sanity saver

 

[ArwenMarie]

Oh ok. Did not know that. Noticed wilderness lodge has a boat that goes directly to magic kingdom. May look at that. Those resorts on the monorail are a little too rich for my blood.

Now do they normally discount rooms in early to mid November.

They do. You want to keep an eye on this page.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/

Last year it looks like the room discounts came out in July. But you never know so keep checking.

Just a note on the Wilderness Lodge, there is a construction project allegedly permitted to start there in September. You might want to keep an eye on that too if construction is something that would bother you.

 

[Trinity88]

We're staying in a 1 bedroom at Bay Lake at the Contemporary using rented DVC points in November. It's probably too late though to book something like that now. But I wanted to add that we also stayed at POP recently and found the buses to be great. Nice and easy, direct from park to resort. If we didn't need the space (POP was just DH and I), we would do POP again in a heartbeat. So don't rule out a non-monorail resort, they really can be pretty convenient too.

 

[soar2014]

From the number of posts you have made I can guess that you need to read up a lot on the ins and outs of WDW. You will find that the rooms on-site at WDW will cost more than a hotel off-site. People who are not familiar with Disney may get sticker shock trying to compare a Disney room to other rooms. There is no comparison, it's apples and oranges.

 

[soniam]

You also don't need to wait for a discount to come out to book a room, as long as you are fine paying rack rate if a discount does not appear. I have booked room only reservations (not packages) 3 times and have applied a discount that came out after booking. Just call them up, and they will apply it if it's still available for your dates, room type, and hotel. Also, pay attention to dining reservation and fastpass+ booking dates to decided when you absolutely need to book to get what you want.

 

[mondragon]

Thanks for all the help. Been to Disney many times but never stayed on site. Since we have a baby now, it only makes sense to stay on site. Before baby we would not really care. Would really like to stay in a monorail resort (remember always going through the contemporary as a kid and wanting to stay there). How long do buses normally take to get to the resorts.

 

[rwdavis2]

Now do they normally discount rooms in early to mid November.

Not usually. November is getting busier by the year so there is no need to offer discounts. That $335 probably does not include the tax either.

 

[rwdavis2]

Thanks for all the help. Been to Disney many times but never stayed on site. Since we have a baby now, it only makes sense to stay on site. Before baby we would not really care. Would really like to stay in a monorail resort (remember always going through the contemporary as a kid and wanting to stay there). How long do buses normally take to get to the resorts.

There is the schedule and then reality. I think the goal is every 20 minutes. But that depends on crowd levels, etc. Most people seem to recommend allowing 30 minutes to any hour from the time you get to the bus stop until you enter a park.

 

[RustManFan]

I suggest that any questions about resorts should be posted in the Disney Resorts forum.... not Disney Theme Parks, etc. There you will find threads that answer many of your questions and some are specific to a certain resort.

http://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-resorts.12/

 

[gwb]

Got interested in the amount $1200/ night and double checked the prices, looked like you were looking at grand suites or villa rooms. Those are at that cost per night at Contemporary. The regular rooms were about $400 a night for that time in November. As stated by other PP and yo just recently look at Wilderness Lodge which has about a 10 minute boat ride to MK

 

[wdwjeffc37]

The room only discounts for late 2014 for stays, 10/4/14-11/25/14 and 11/29/14-12/23/14 were 15%-30% off room-only rack rates for general public (also bookable as package) with the booking window of 7/23/14 to 10/3/14 (source: Mousesavers). Thanksgiving week is usually blacked out for these discounts There is limited availability for these discounts and some room categories will be excluded. You can make your reservations now and when (if) they offer the discount, call and have the discount applied to your reservation. It takes one nights room rate as a deposit. There is always a chance that the discount won't be offered or you can't get the discount applied (no availability) you could still cancel without penalty and book at a less expensive resort. You can cancel a room only booking up to 5 days prior to check in without penalty. We find the deluxe resorts to be too pricey for us and we stay at the moderates, Coronado Springs is our favorite. That allows us to stay for a longer time and we don't mind using Disney transportation.

 

[Jfsag123]

Just FYI, to give you an idea of what you may be paying once discounts come out, I looked into it. Disney sent me a pin code (that I sadly cannot use!) for 30% dates between the end of August and Christmas. It actually includes Thanksgiving week as well. I looked into rates for a week in mid-November with the discount and found a Courtyard View at the Wilderness Lodge for $256 a night. The only thing listed as available at Contemporary was 1 bedroom suites, which run over $1000 even with the discount. A Standard View at the Polynesian was $363 and Outer Building Garden View at the Grand Floridian was $382. These prices are, of course, before taxes.

I know it's likely too late for this trip, but you may want to look into DVC point rental for future trips, as others have suggested. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower (attached to the Contemporary) in March on rented points and came out below $300 a night for a studio villa that costs much much more direct through Disney.

 

[mondragon]

Just FYI, to give you an idea of what you may be paying once discounts come out, I looked into it. Disney sent me a pin code (that I sadly cannot use!) for 30% dates between the end of August and Christmas. It actually includes Thanksgiving week as well. I looked into rates for a week in mid-November with the discount and found a Courtyard View at the Wilderness Lodge for $256 a night. The only thing listed as available at Contemporary was 1 bedroom suites, which run over $1000 even with the discount. A Standard View at the Polynesian was $363 and Outer Building Garden View at the Grand Floridian was $382. These prices are, of course, before taxes.

I know it's likely too late for this trip, but you may want to look into DVC point rental for future trips, as others have suggested. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower (attached to the Contemporary) in March on rented points and came out below $300 a night for a studio villa that costs much much more direct through Disney.

Sent you pm

 

[Farps]

Not usually. November is getting busier by the year so there is no need to offer discounts. That $335 probably does not include the tax either.

There was a discount offered last November,and in 2013 we received 25% off of our moderate and I belief that it was 30% off deluxe. I believe that this years room only discounts just haven't come out yet.