Originally posted by kirby428
The differences between the rooms in the price categories are significant. Disney provides an on-line view of the floor plan of the resort rooms on its Official web site. Explore these plans and note all the differences.
Note the privacy of the vanity areas. In the budget and moderate rooms, the bathroom sink is not enclosed and in full view of the entire room (and outside the room if the curtains are open).
Note the space granted to the toilet-shower areas. If one is sitting on the "throne", does the door swing collide with one's knees? Privacy and space is magic. Less privacy and space is less magic.
Note the amount of furniture provided in the room. The more horizontal space the more the magic.
Note the closet space. Is there a door to the closet? How much clutter will one's luggage and purchases need to occupy.
One little insight about the beds at the Port Orleans resorts. The mattress frame is wooden and stick out much too far from the edge of the mattresses. This means one's foot tends to slam into the protruded bed frame corners painfully and often. We had to re-arrange furniture (tables and chairs) so as to protect the tempation to step too near the corners of the bed. This ill-planned furnishing definitely removed some of the magic for us.
Nothing can compare to the pleasure and comfort of a stay in the delux rooms. We have stayed at the Contemporary twice and the Polynesian Resort this past September. The amount spent on the rooms were well worth it even for the little time spent during the day at the resorts.
Remember this. The time during which you will want to be most pampered so as to feel that a vacation is pleasant, memorable and magic will be at NIGHT when you retire and then again in the morning when you are most in need of a good night's rest on a big comfy bed in a room that is most likely to grant you the most amount of sleep. You will want good options for quick and easy morning grooming needs, access to a variety of breakfast options and minimum wait time for transport to the parks and back. Nothing meets all these desirables than the Delux resort especially the monorail resorts.
[h1]You get what you pay for. [/h1]
Yes, these may be improvements to all, but lets look at the math for my upcoming vacation to WDW.
I will be staying 19 nights at the, should I stay it, All-star Music and Movies. The first part of the vacation will be on AP rates, the last will be on the Come Back Offer.
When pricing out this vacation I checked at our beloved AKL and other properties, but eliminated the rest as if we want to upgrade to a Deluxe AKL is our main choice.
The best room rate I could get at AKL at the time was $189 for Savannah (gotta see the animals from teh room). Now I see where I could get the rook at AP for $149. So, I will use that price.
$149 x 1.115 (tax) = $166.13 per night (give a few cents incase I go the wrong tax level)
19 x 166.13 = 3156.47 for the AKL Room
My All-Star rooms are:
AP rate 54.82 tax included for 6 nights = 328.92
Come Back Offer $51.47 for 13 nights = 669.11
GRAND TOTAL - 998.03
Difference: 2158.44 Savings
During my vacation I have Priority seatings for most of the better restaurants, 2 wine pairing , 1 wine school and other wine fest features, Illumination cruise, CRT. Will be renting a pontoon for a few hours. And with all this we still haven't come close to spending the $2100 we saved on the room.
We will be going back to WDW in January and use what is left as the starting point of this vacation. Yes you do get what you pay for, but for me - I'd much rather have a decent clean hotel at a great price and be able to stay for twice as long and then get another vacation to boot for the same amount of money. Give me 30 days of vacation over a little luxary any day.
Now, if I can get a $109 rate again for AKL I will spend a few days there as my son loves "his" animals, but we learned as past resort snobs all levels of resorts offer Disney Magic and fun. The people who are around you make the most magic and pixie dust.
Just another point of view.
