With Free Dining has anyone compared Value v/s Moderate costs?

[Beauty]

We have Pop booked but I'm thinking of changing my mind and going with a moderate. Have any of you compared prices? What differences did you find? Or even Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge or the Contemp. Wings.

What have you found to be the best deal?

 

[PoohHappens]

Value is best bang for the buck. Since you have to pay rack rate. I can give you an example:

Our possibilites
2adults one child

6 nights 7day with hopper free dinning
POP-1190.67
POR-1571.91
these are both standard view and nothing is different except the hotel.
Changing to AKL or WL sent it up over 2000 which was way out of our league because we have 8 people traveling and needed rooms for two more families as well. We went with POR and are very excited. Hope this helps.

 

[planning06]

We originally booked ASMo for 5 nights. Then we priced POR and it was only $317 more. WL would have been $680 more. All standard rooms. I found I could handle $300 more for a moderate but not almost $700 more for a deluxe. It was a spur of the moment trip that was taken advantage of because of the great dining deal plus I found great airfares. I just couldn't justify WL, though I will try it one day in the future on a well planned trip.

 

[swilphil]

The Contemporary Wing rooms are great, but I don't think I would ever pay rack rate. With a code or AP discount, you save quite a bit more more on the deluxes.

 

[DISNEYFAMILYOFFOUR]

Value is best bang for the buck. Since you have to pay rack rate. I can give you an example:

Our possibilites
2adults one child

6 nights 7day with hopper free dinning
POP-1190.67
POR-1571.91
these are both standard view and nothing is different except the hotel.
Changing to AKL or WL sent it up over 2000 which was way out of our league because we have 8 people traveling and needed rooms for two more families as well. We went with POR and are very excited. Hope this helps.

Totally agree. Right now we are booked at WL for 10 nights. When I originally booked it, I went with a standard room (and dining program) and I was always hoping for a great code to cut the cost down. Then, I was able to get the free dining with the e-mail code last month, but they did not have any standard rooms left so I had to upgrade to a woodview to get the free dining. That cut my savings in half. Now, I am toying with switching to POFQ just so I can actually see a huge savings.

 

[Disney Fans]

I agree with those of you that think paying an extra 1000 to stay at a Deluxe Resort is alot considering how much time we will be in the room. Plus I think it depends on each family.
We just went on the Disney L&S cruise and stayed at AKL which was part of our package ( got a really good deal). Don't get me wrong I love staying at nice hotels but, like in our case this would be a 2nd trip for us this year, and I want to go because the deal is so good, but for us not spending the extra 1,000 for deluxe pays for our airfare!
How many times can you say that for a family of 4 you can go to disney with everything included, Disney hotel, park hopper tickets, meals, airport service and air flight for just around $2300! for a week! Usually thats how much you could spend on just staying at a Disney deluxe hotel alone!
I just hope we don't run into a bad weather season like last year!

 

[Suzanne74]

Yes we compared.....

POP was $1389 for 8 nights, 9 days with 7 day hopppers (that expire) for 2 adults and 1 child.

The same thing at the moderates costed $1869. We were looking at $2699 for AKL standard view.

We originally planned on staying at the POP since it is the best bang for your buck (no matter where you stay the free dining is the same price) and I was ready to book for 5 nights and get 4 day hoppers. Then when I was online, I noticed for hoppers that expire, the price goes up only $1 per person until day day 7. Well I called DH and said, can we pretty please add a few more days, it will only cost us the room price?? So then we did and then I thought heck, I am saving with free dining and getting 3 more days of hoppers for all 3 of us for a grand total of $9 What a bargain!! So instead of being satisfied with my savings I decided to upgrade to CSR. Sure it isn't cost effective but I will be there for 9 days and will have more downtime and I wanted a place a little more relaxing and some more eating options (since there is free meals!!)

So that is my rational on why I went from a 5 night at POP to an 8 night stay at CSR.

My DH thinks I will come up with a reason to go deluxe and yet I already have - you are closer to all the other deluxe resorts with great restaurants so you won't need a rental car and it will be so much easier to eat - he didn't buy into that. Really though I wouldn't upgrade to deluxe for this package, not worth it. I can see moderate for a longers stay but thats it.

 

[Disney Fans]

Suzanne74
"We originally planned on staying at the POP since it is the best bang for your buck (no matter where you stay the free dining is the same price) and I was ready to book for 5 nights and get 4 day hoppers. Then when I was online, I noticed for hoppers that expire, the price goes up only $1 per person until day day 7. Well I called DH and said, can we pretty please add a few more days, it will only cost us the room price?? So then we did and then I thought heck, I am saving with free dining and getting 3 more days of hoppers for all 3 of us for a grand total of $9 What a bargain"
Hey,
Could you please explain this more? It sounds as if you are only paying $9.00 for all of you for the whole week? How is that possible, I would like to do that?
Thanks

 

[Suzanne74]

Could you please explain this more? It sounds as if you are only paying $9.00 for all of you for the whole week? How is that possible, I would like to do that?

No no - going from a 4 day hopper to a 7 day hopper only costs $9 more for the 3 of us. So since dining is free and the 3 more hopper days is only costing us $9, all we have to do is pay the cost of the room for the additional 3 nights we are now staying? There are no additional expenses

So in turn, anyone staying at Disney with hopper passes and free dining really are only paying for their hotel room as an additional expense from day 4 to day 7. Normally we do not stay longer just because the cost of food obviously goes up when you are paying out of pocket. But since this time, the dining if free - I wanted to stay for the 10 day max but DH can't miss anymore time at work.

Does that make sense to anyone???

 

[Disney Fans]

Thanks I understand now! We are staying for 6 nights with hopper added. So I guess from what you are saying it turns out to be even a better deal then the ad with the 4 nights and 5 days. The longer you stay the cheaper it becomes.