Evening Magic Hours for Deluxe Guests Only

[Uncle Coaster]

I mean thats whats great about this.. Disney is a vacation its a optional thing to do.. if we hate it and see no value in our money we dont have to go anymore. but disney will not care if we dont go becasue someone else behind you is still gonna pay. Its gonna take a HUGE wave of legit no one going for them to change there current mind set

Agreed. And that’s the beauty of Disney. They are excellent at adapting. When market conditions change and they need to do something to provide more perks to more people or offer savings to induce more visitors. They’ll do it.

Disney gets what they can for as long as they can. And then they adapt. They’re among the best at it ever.

 

[MillauFr]

Now Chapek has decided the more you pay the better perks you get.

Government works that way. Why wouldn’t Disney?

 

[SL6827]

Do you think that there will be a decline in people booking the Moderate resorts now? With booking the Deluxe you get this perk and when booking the Value resorts you getting the cheapest pricing. So I wonder if the Moderate resorts might take a hit?

 

[Meglen]

Do you think that there will be a decline in people booking the Moderate resorts now? With booking the Deluxe you get this perk and when booking the Value resorts you getting the cheapest pricing. So I wonder if the Moderate resorts might take a hit?

I wonder if they will be like " ok guys.. Deluxe get a few extra nights at the park, Mods get Free quick service dining and than all 3 tiers get free fast passes back. So if the food is more important than stay mod but if park time is than deluxe.. idk lol we shall see I see Disney doing some crazy stuff soon.

 

[RNTeacher]

Disney is in it to make money. Period. The guests are numbers that bean counters plug in to some system to predict how much each will spend and how much they will tolerate and how far to push. Availability is tight especially staring this fall. Dining reservations are filling with no dining plans and Boo Bash broke the internet with people trying to get tickets. The complaints will fall on deaf ears until enough people stop going and spending and doing. We complain (really, not much) but then save and save to be able to go and are going in January. It still holds magic, especially for me. We go every couple of years but it is worth it TO US. It might not be to someone else. That is ok. We may get to a point where we say, “That is too much” or they have eliminated too many things, but we are not there yet.

 

[Jacq7414]

Do you think that there will be a decline in people booking the Moderate resorts now? With booking the Deluxe you get this perk and when booking the Value resorts you getting the cheapest pricing. So I wonder if the Moderate resorts might take a hit?

Maybe. The week we are going next year (around easter) all of the standard rooms, aside from AKL, in the deluxe resorts are already booked. I don’t know how it works though. They say that there are no rooms available for the dates at the Polynesian. Do they have like a cap or is legitimately every room filled?

 

[cakebaker]

Do you think that there will be a decline in people booking the Moderate resorts now? With booking the Deluxe you get this perk and when booking the Value resorts you getting the cheapest pricing. So I wonder if the Moderate resorts might take a hit?

If they do, it will because people are moving to Deluxe and that's Disney's goal. True enough some might drop down to value, but there are moderates that give some deluxes a run for their money in the way of ammenities - not so much value to moderate.

 

[SL6827]

Maybe. The week we are going next year (around easter) all of the standard rooms, aside from AKL, in the deluxe resorts are already booked. I don’t know how it works though. They say that there are no rooms available for the dates at the Polynesian. Do they have like a cap or is legitimately every room filled?

Ya, the Moderate resorts not seeming to have an advantage now could make an impact on their numbers, who knows?

 

[Jennasis]

Doubt it.........Food, merch, up charge events, etc.........They make money on all those things and they only sell more with more people, not less

"i'd like fewer customers" = said nobody ever

Not true. As a business owner we have had to happily cut back on the number of clients we have because it put undue pressure on our resources.

 

[JakeAZ]

I can’t imagine the uproar if they go to tiered or paid FP. The boards might blow up.

Stick around. You’re gonna find out.

 

[JakeAZ]

I've seen a lot of questions on here about renting points. More people will probably start to look into this as a way to get access to this Deluxe benefit.

Here is our experience with renting (so far).

We were set to go in April of 2020, but obviously that didn't happen. It's 3 families. We all wanted to stay at Contemporary, due to the location. 2 families booked through Disney and got the cheapest rooms in the garden wing. I rented points through DVC Rental Store and got a standard view 1 BR Villa at BLT for $800 more, in total (6 nights). I felt that was worth it for a separate bedroom, kitchen and extra bathroom. When Covid happened, everyone scrambled, but in the end DVC Rental Store gave everyone, who had a room booked while the entire resort was closed, credits to use over 18 months. The whole renting process was very easy. 40% up front and 60% (I believe) around 45 days out. Also, in the end, they did the right thing with the credits for Covid.

When we finally rescheduled the trip, for this Thanksgiving, we decided to see if we could get a 3 BR Villa at BLT so we could all stay together. We were able to lock 6 nights in for a total of $40 more (total, not per night) than 3 standard view (garden wing) rooms at the Contemporary for 6 nights each. It fit the budget we were already going to use, but we completely upgraded the room. 3 full bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a full kitchen, a common room and floor to ceiling (2 levels) windows.

So, yes, you can get substantial savings. All the posts about Deluxe rooms for moderate (or even value if you can get lucky enough) prices, are accurate.

The downside is the cancelation policy. Yes, you can buy insurance, but the closer you get, the less you get back.

Also, to get the popular resorts, popular times and popular room types, you need to be ready to book at the 11 month window.

For us, the no cancelation policy was outweighed by what we were able to get. Baring some catastrophic event, we are going. We did purchase the point rental with credit cards that offer travel insurance in extreme situations. And it would take an extreme situation for us not to go.

We used a rental company. You can get better deals dealing with owners directly. Assuming this rental goes OK, I would look to find an owner next time, if it's just my family of 4 and I didn't have to worry about 2 other families.

Obviously in this example I'm using going from Deluxe to higher end Deluxe, but it absolutely works for going from Value / Moderate to some of the DVC studio rooms too.

 

[jennyq87]

Do you think that there will be a decline in people booking the Moderate resorts now? With booking the Deluxe you get this perk and when booking the Value resorts you getting the cheapest pricing. So I wonder if the Moderate resorts might take a hit?

Will be interesting to see! We typically stay Deluxe, but will be at GDT in December. We specifically chose this resort because we love it and haven’t yet experienced the tower during the holidays. But definitely had a quick flash of “maybe we should switch to a Deluxe” when I saw this news. If this after hours thing turns out to be a pretty significant benefit, it might not stop us from staying at GDT because we love it enough, but it’ll probably stop any nostalgic trips back to Riverside in the future

 

[MillauFr]

Disney is in it to make money. Period.

In Washington State our state government transportation agency works the same way. They are rolling out special lanes on many of our freeways that varies tolling rates based on demand. The plan is to eventually convert every lane on every freeway in the Puget Sound to a variable tolling system. They are planning on doing the same thing on city streets in downtown Seattle.

 

[igrsod]

Yup.

I mean, ask just about anyone who owns DVC why they bought in....i bet you'll get, "because disney is just so magical, we love it here".

I wonder how many of those people started out by going to values and moderates.

That was us. We always stayed value and mod, we splurged and did an AKL trip and then we started looking into DVC. We now stay at the deluxe resorts for less than the price it would cost us for a value per night currently. I am so glad we bought when we did.

 

[emonade8]

Just for fun, I looked at March 20-26 2022. Spring Break season. Pop for that week is 1567 for the cheapest room. AOA LM room is 1751. Or you could rent DVC thru Davids that SAME week at Old Key West, have a bigger room and this Deluxe perk, for 1786. So for $85 more, you could have a Deluxe resort for that week. I know it's not the same EVERY week all year. But it absolutely is doable for less than 1 single meal at Disney.

*IF* it's available. There's nothing available to rent for my dates in January. Literally nothing. We're 6 months out and I checked to see if we could switch so we'd be staying deluxe, in case they decide to take FP+ in the same direction as EMH. Nothing.

 

[Jennasis]

*IF* it's available. There's nothing available to rent for my dates in January. Literally nothing. We're 6 months out and I checked to see if we could switch so we'd be staying deluxe, in case they decide to take FP+ in the same direction as EMH. Nothing.

What dates are you looking for and what room type? Most of January has availability at Saratoga for studios and 1 bedrooms.

 

[emonade8]

What dates are you looking for and what room type? Most of January has availability at Saratoga for studios and 1 bedrooms.

January 6-15. I need 3 real beds. Can't do pull out couches. Murphy beds are fine. Was looking at a 2 bedroom but those are gone from what I've seen. Right now I have 2 rooms booked at CSR.

I'm basing availability on what I'm seeing on a rental site. Everything says partial. It's during the marathon so I know it's probably hopeless

 

[Marionnette]

Ya, the Moderate resorts not seeming to have an advantage now could make an impact on their numbers, who knows?

Moderates have pool slides, TS restaurants and there are rooms that sleep up to 5 people, unlike the value resorts. There will still be guests who find the price difference worth it just because of those things.

*IF* it's available. There's nothing available to rent for my dates in January. Literally nothing. We're 6 months out and I checked to see if we could switch so we'd be staying deluxe, in case they decide to take FP+ in the same direction as EMH. Nothing.

January 6-15. I need 3 real beds. Can't do pull out couches. Murphy beds are fine. Was looking at a 2 bedroom but those are gone from what I've seen. Right now I have 2 rooms booked at CSR.

I'm basing availability on what I'm seeing on a rental site. Everything says partial. It's during the marathon so I know it's probably hopeless

Don't rely on those rental sites for real time availability. Their websites only show a snapshot from a single point in time.

FWIW, 6 months out is "late" in terms of booking DVC. If you want the so-called premium resorts, you need to book at least 7-11 months ahead. If you're traveling at a popular time, even the larger resorts (OKW, SSR, AKV) will have limited availability at <7 months out. This is especially true this year as DVC owners scramble to use up points that will expire soon.

 

[SarahWI]

I know my thoughts are a bit off topic to this thread but with all the talk of renting…..

We used a rental company. You can get better deals dealing with owners directly. Assuming this rental goes OK, I would look to find an owner next time,

We are DVC owners and have never rented points so I don’t know a ton about the process. I’d be cautious with direct rentals - granted most people are honest and things go fine. Right now though over on the DVC forums someone is posting about how they got scammed by doing a direct rental.

FWIW, 6 months out is "late" in terms of booking DVC. If you want the so-called premium resorts, you need to book at least 7-11 months ahead. If you're traveling at a popular time, even the larger resorts (OKW, SSR, AKV) will have limited availability at <7 months out.

agreed - for most popular resorts/times/views, 11 months out is the best bet. I know this is a barrier and we have friends who can’t buy into DVC because they can’t plan that far out and/or risk a late cancel (and losing points). So with renting people need to plan ahead and be somewhat confident about not having to cancel.

 

[smallworldnh]

Meanwhile AoA suites go for $500 a night at times but are considered value.... no emh for you, even though your room costs $3,500. for the week... yep this system makes total sense...

Exactly!! This is a huge slap in the face for those of us who don't want to or can't pay 800-1000 a night for a room!! I always loved evening EMH and was looking forward to this returning. It is, but we "lower classes" won't be able to enjoy it. it stinks!!