Would you rather...

[babybeag]

Given the fact that MOST of us dont have unlimited funds, would you/do you prefer to:

1. Spend MORE on a room and less on "fun" stuff (souvenirs, meals, etc)

or........

2. Spend less on a room and have more "fun" money (not funny money...dont start any rumors...lol)

And, why????

 

[Aidensmom]

Given the fact that MOST of us dont have unlimited funds, would you/do you prefer to:

1. Spend MORE on a room and less on "fun" stuff (souvenirs, meals, etc)

or........

2. Spend less on a room and have more "fun" money (not funny money...dont start any rumors...lol)

And, why????

Spend less on the room.

We only stay when we can get a FL resident discount (otherwise do day trips), and we have never spent more than $74 (plus tax) a night. We stay in moderates during value seasons at that rate, and value resorts during regular season. Our reasoning is that basically all we do in our room is sleep, maybe spend a little time at the pool. If we want to just experience the atmosphere of a particular resort, well, we can just drive on over and walk around for awhile. We do get the moderates when possible however, because there are some advantages such as better pools (pool slides), sit-down restaurants, and lounges.

However, lately, after reading about concierge at the deluxe resorts, I think it would be nice to do this if we are going to WDW just to stay at the resort a couple of days. It wouldn't, IMO however, be worth it to do this if we were only going to be at the resort from 10 pm - 8 am.

 

[LilMagic2000]

Up until very recently, we always stayed at the more moderately priced Disney Hotels because everyone in my family views the hotel as a place to sleep. No more.
I agree. I would much rather have some extra "fun" money to spend in the parks or at dinner than to get the expensive room that we only use to get dressed in and sleep. Other than that, when are you ever in your room? Like my DisneyMomma says "I didn't plan this whole trip and spend all this money so we can sit in the room."
We have stayed at the more expensive (Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary, Wliderness Lodge) but that's only in more recent years-and I never complain because I'm not the one paying-DisneyParents still take care of that but when it comes to my own money-I would much rather see it put to better use than on a room that I really don't spend much time in...like buying pretty things for myself

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

It really all depends. Because this is my first visit, we elected to stay at a Value resort (Pop) 3 out of the 4 of us have never seen any of the Florida Parks, so we're going to be wanting to spend our time in the parks rather than at the hotel. It didn't make all that much sense to pay extra when all we're likely to do at our resort is flop. So I guess we'll flop at the pop.

Now if I can just convince my family that the money we're saving will buy that big screen TV..... (sigh)

 

[stemikger]

We spend less on a room and more on fun. With the value resorts, Disney made it affordable for most people. And a funny thing happened with my family, we prefered Pop Century more then the moderates we stayed at.

 

[Mandabella]

Well when I'm not using my DVC points, we stay in cheapest rooms on property and usually don't spend too much time in them. When we stay in our DVC rooms, we relax more in our rooms and in the parks.

I think it depends on the vacation you want to have. If you are doing Park Commando, it doesn't make sense to spend more on your room. If you plan on hanging out at your resort more, then it makes more sense to spend a little more for nicer accomodations and more amenities.

 

[Acklander]

We prefer to spend less on where we stay - either a code for on site, or priceline/e-bay for off site, spend almost next to nothing on souvenirs beyond a few pins, but really, really enjoy dining so that's where my Disney money goes. I like 1 table service meal a day, and will spend money to buy a snack or a bottle of water as needed, instead of bringing (and lugging) snacks and frozen bottles of water. Many times we just go in the park thru the "no bag" line. We use the room for sleeping and showering only so spend as little as needed on that.

 

[cobbler]

I go both ways. Last year we spent less on a room - value - and stayed longer (9 nights) while this year we will stay a touch less and go up to a moderate.

It depends on what I really want to do and such. We really don't buy a lot of souvineers, mostly pictures.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Well, at first I was going to say "less on the room and more on fun," but I want to qualify that by saying, I could stay off property really cheap for about $40 a night, but I choose to pay more for a room and be on property and then I could stay in a Value, but my favorite Disney resort is POFQ so I choose to spend more on the room to stay there instead of the Pop or ASM, but when it comes to spending more to stay in Deluxe or not, I choose to save that extra money for fun.

I've stayed at Poly and LOVED it, but I also loved POFQ, so I can't see paying the huge difference between the two when I could have all that extra to spend in the parks and at DTD, ect....

 

[Leota]

That depends - It used to be Less on the Room - But, I also used to be very commando & use the room only for sleeping & getting ready to hit the Parks.

Now I am less of a commando & really do enjoy the amenities of the resort. I spend a large portion of my day at the resort now & want a nice pool, a balcony, nice table service restaurants etc..... The resort is part of my vacation experience as much as the Parks. Besides, I have acquired enoough souvies that I don't buy as much of those as I used to anyways.

So now, I spend more on my resort & restaurants and less on souvies.

 

[worm761]

i prefer more "fun money" than the nicer hotel. i am like Acklander, in that i dont carry drinks and snacks around the parks. just buy them as needed. i know that it is costing me more that way. but i just dont do the role of pack mule very well. we dont spend much time at the resort so it isnt worth it to me to pay the extra for ammenities i will not be using. i just need a place to sleep and shower, and prefer to be onsite. maybe as my son gets older we will start staying at the nicer ones. there are some that i would LOVE to stay in (AKL, CBR) but i just cannot justify the expense to myself. but that is just us. my DS would be happy to stay offsite, i am not. plus the less i spend on resort the more i have to spend on souvies!!!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

If staying in a value resort means staying longer, or being able to come more regularly, then it's a value resort for me.

Since I have never been lucky enough to get a code or somekind of pin, we stay in a value and are just fine with it.

Yes it is a little crowded, but it's Disney and I'm fine with that.

So if you consider that I always pay rack rate or get a small discount because of AAA and you put the currency exchange in there. It's not much of a bargain and we really cannot afford more even if we wanted to.

That said, I have always been very satisfied with the rooms at a value. The energy from the people staying there puts me in a happy mood.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Last year we stayed at ASMo, and this year we're staying at Pop. We looked at going back to CBR, but we really liked ASMo, the value resorts are fine for us. I'm WAY too cheap to pay for a deluxe, even with a discount!

 

[slk537]

Well...I have to say that considering we pay monthly for our DVC membership, we pay more for lodging than fun money...but in several years that will do a sharp switch.

However, we are definitely not commandos. Never have been. So we like to spend rest time at the resort and really just enjoy where we are staying. So that becomes more important to us. However, I can totally appreciate not wanting to spend money on a room you won't see. We are very economical with the hotel we stay at the night before our flight, and if we ever come down and don't use points we will definitely be checking out AP discounts, etc.

For now, the WDW resort is as much a part of our destination as the parks and we're happy that way. Makes it feel much more like "home".

 

[xterratri]

We're DVC so while I'm paying a fair amount for accomadations for a few years while paying off the initial contract and add on, in the long run Disney will make their money on us from food, behind the scenes tours, recreational activities, etc. We will continue to buy some of the pictures they take, some pins, but otherwise not spend a lot on souvenirs because hey we'll be back soon. Our ressies for the last two nights of Spring Break are for ASMo though and I probably won't switch it to a moderate even if good AP rates come out because we like ASMo and we are staying 8 nights on site so Disney will still be winning the battle for my dollars.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We don't spend a lot of time in the room, and if we do visit the pool at Pop I am sure DS will be perfectly happy with it.

We have added some fun extras like MNSSHP and a Family Magic Tour to our October trip, and it seems better to have those than to stay at a moderate resort. I know the rooms are a little larger, there is a coffee maker (which would be a HUGE plus), and a refrigerator in the mods but it isn't worth another $50 per night. I was really surprised that the beds are doubles in the values and the mods - you don't get two queen sized beds unless you go deluxe.

But part of our decision is based on our family and the way we do things. There are just three of us, so a value room isn't too crowded. We are using Magical Express so we won't have a grocery stop. We had one last time and it wasn't that beneficial to us. We eat most of our meals at the parks and we schedule a few meals at other resorts (Chef Mickey's, Boma, Ohana). For our purposes the food court at Pop is fine. More than likely we wouldn't take advantage of the extra amenities at a more costly resort so it just doesn't make sense. BUT I agree that is is definitely worth the extra to stay on site vs. off site.

 

[Aroura]

I was *so* scared before our trip last year, because on so many boards DH and I had been looking into just ran the All Star resorts into the ground, saying they were horrible etc. When we went last July, it was crowded, and boisterous, and plain lovely. We have two Ds's, so we're not crowded, and I would much rather spend my money on dining than the room I am crashing in. We did a character meal per day (sometimes two ) and I was more than happy to spend my money on those. We had rooms right near the pool in the Surfs Up building, and though there were swimmers that stayed sometimes till a little after midnight, we are very laid back people, and just didn't care. If you have more than two kids, it isn't really an option to stay at the value places unless you get the connecting rooms, so would go to a moderate, but until my boys are a lot older, or it is just me and DH, I can't picture myself ever spending the money on a Deluxe. *though Wilderness Lodge looks lovely).

I will be more than happy staying at the values throughout my stays.

 

[bytheblood]

Monty, I'll take door number 2.

 

[Laurajean1014]

We're DVC owners, so we get great accomodations that we no longer have to pay for, so we are able to go to all the great dinners and shows that we want and give the kids great souveniors.

So glad we joined. It took agonizing over where to stay and what to do, in regards to vacations.

 

[mking624]

We're not big on souvies and we really only eat at one full service restaurant per trip, so we'd definitely spend more on the room.