Sept 13-20 Can't get a decent price on a room

[pjhootch]

Look at Orbitz. You may find a decent deal. There are moderates on there but they are overpriced right now. There are some good offsite deals though.

 

[CAS239]

Where ya staying? Been playing around with a few trips and for fall ... and Disney is only coming up rack rate.

I believe Park Inn over near AK. I've stayed there a few times before and have had no issue. Believe it was 2 nights for $120 with tax included. Free parking and free Wi-Fi are a must for me

 

[Upatnoon]

I'm just curious as to why you booked airfare without a set plan of where you were staying.

I think it is much harder to find an affordable flight than an affordable hotel room around Disney. There are so many resorts and options, from hotels, to timeshares to house rentals.

Now if you limit your options to "Disney property only" then you may need to rethink your strategy, but if you want to save money on a Disney trip, airfare is where I would start.

 

[barbliny]

I understand not letting a good deal slip by, but you at least run a search for rooms on the same day before booking, right? Sometimes the price of lodging is so high that it negates the airfare deal, or vice versa. I'm not talking about Disney, specifically, but travel in general.

I'm fairly familiar with lodging options and availability around Disney.
I'm fairly open with where I stay.
I'm fairly familiar with the pattern of Disney rooms being dropped and opening up as your arrival day becomes closer.
I'm lucky enough to be able to include all Disney resort categories in my possibilities - I realize others may not and have more limited options.
I do have a preferred dollar amount I would like to spend per night, but for a short vacation 4-day vacation I can splurge a little more.
I am a veteran of split stays and do not mind switching resorts to get my plan to work.
I'm fairly familiar with Florida and Orlando is a pretty central airport - and if I could not get the accommodations I wanted, at the price I wanted, I was more than willing to drive to a beach town instead.

Also, in most cases (not this particular fare I was referring to earlier) I book on Southwest and there are no change fees and I will definitely be taking a trip to somewhere I could use the travel funds within 12 months from my original booking date.

Let's leave it at that, since the conversation is about Disney ...

 

[rkwells]

Depending on your price cap you might want to take a look at Hotwire.

I searched for "Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista", Chose "Airport Shuttle" under amenities, and "Bonnet Creek" for Area. Wed, Sep 13 - Mon, Sep 18, 1 room-2 adults (You would have to stay somewhere else the nights of 18th and 19th. Those 2 nights aren't available).

I came up with what looks to be Coronado Springs for $126/night.
"3.5-star New To Hotwire Hotel in Walt Disney World - Bonnet Creek area" 85% recommended.

 

[stickeymouse]

I'm fairly familiar with lodging options and availability around Disney.
I'm fairly open with where I stay.
I'm fairly familiar with the pattern of Disney rooms being dropped and opening up as your arrival day becomes closer.
I'm lucky enough to be able to include all Disney resort categories in my possibilities - I realize others may not and have more limited options.
I do have a preferred dollar amount I would like to spend per night, but for a short vacation 4-day vacation I can splurge a little more.
I am a veteran of split stays and do not mind switching resorts to get my plan to work.
I'm fairly familiar with Florida and Orlando is a pretty central airport - and if I could not get the accommodations I wanted, at the price I wanted, I was more than willing to drive to a beach town instead.

Also, in most cases (not this particular fare I was referring to earlier) I book on Southwest and there are no change fees and I will definitely be taking a trip to somewhere I could use the travel funds within 12 months from my original booking date.

Let's leave it at that, since the conversation is about Disney ...

Haha, your post gave me a chuckle. Thanks for that!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm fairly familiar with lodging options and availability around Disney.
I'm fairly open with where I stay.
I'm fairly familiar with the pattern of Disney rooms being dropped and opening up as your arrival day becomes closer.
I'm lucky enough to be able to include all Disney resort categories in my possibilities - I realize others may not and have more limited options.
I do have a preferred dollar amount I would like to spend per night, but for a short vacation 4-day vacation I can splurge a little more.
I am a veteran of split stays and do not mind switching resorts to get my plan to work.
I'm fairly familiar with Florida and Orlando is a pretty central airport - and if I could not get the accommodations I wanted, at the price I wanted, I was more than willing to drive to a beach town instead.

Also, in most cases (not this particular fare I was referring to earlier) I book on Southwest and there are no change fees and I will definitely be taking a trip to somewhere I could use the travel funds within 12 months from my original booking date.

Let's leave it at that, since the conversation is about Disney ...

Not really commenting on the rest of your comment (don't see an issue really with the whole comment either just chatting away) but the OP is looking for Values but didn't provide much information beyond that so I'm to assume they are looking for just the Values rather than having the flexibility of just going with what is available when they book, regardless of price point.

The values, for the most part, for my trip of 9/8-9/17 have been booked up for months and months though yes the OPs trip is the 13-20th.

Now splitting up the stay is def. a possibility as someone else pointed out but that does require the guest is completely open and willing to check out of one room and move to another room as of course they are treated as two different stays and staying in the same room for the whole trip may not be possible at that given time.

Now if we knew if the OP was completely open to advice as to what to do at this point (either consider splitting up the stay, going to a different resort category, going for offsite or looking for resorts other resorts on property but not necessarily eligible for full benefits of staying onsite, even adjusting dates if airfare/travel dates are able to be flexible) then there's been pretty good advice at this point from other posters.

 

[barbliny]

Not really commenting on the rest of your comment (don't see an issue really with the whole comment either just chatting away) but the OP is looking for Values but didn't provide much information beyond that so I'm to assume they are looking for just the Values rather than having the flexibility of just going with what is available when they book, regardless of price point.

The values, for the most part, for my trip of 9/8-9/17 have been booked up for months and months though yes the OPs trip is the 13-20th.

Now splitting up the stay is def. a possibility as someone else pointed out but that does require the guest is completely open and willing to check out of one room and move to another room as of course they are treated as two different stays and staying in the same room for the whole trip may not be possible at that given time.

Now if we knew if the OP was completely open to advice as to what to do at this point (either consider splitting up the stay, going to a different resort category, going for offsite or looking for resorts other resorts on property but not necessarily eligible for full benefits of staying onsite, even adjusting dates if airfare/travel dates are able to be flexible) then there's been pretty good advice at this point from other posters.

If you look back on the first page, this is the advice I gave the OP ...

I must have been doing room searches while you were typing.

If the stay is split 9/13 - 9/17 all 3 All Stars are available and then 9/18 - 9/20 also has values

My last response was answering a question that @stickeymouse directed to me, as to why I would book airfare without having a room in hand

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm just curious as to why you booked airfare without a set plan of where you were staying.

Most of the time we book airfare first then look for places to stay...but we are also planning typically months in advance and our place we are staying at isn't a large deal.

If we knew we wanted to stay at a specific place then the opposite would be done--a couple of reasons why: 1) if we are able to be flexible then we'll see what availability this place has and potentially have to adjust our travel dates if that is a possibility 2) We may have to consider spending more $ on the place if we are dead set on it considering deals may not be available.

Now this is all as a generality. With Disney, even having not stayed onsite before, I would find it prudent to check availability IF I was set on staying onsite. Yes it has ebbed and flowed with discounts coming out and whatnot but still. IF however my travel dates were flexible then I could work around what is available onsite and could wait to book airfare especially if I think I might get a good deal later on.

I don't really know but it's possible the OP is wanting to stay onsite but this was more of a last minute trip decision. I do know their signature says they've been at least once every year since 2000 so either they are used to getting really good availability last minute or they are used to staying offsite or I suppose another unknown reason.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If you look back on the first page, this is the advice I gave the OP ...



My last response was answering a question that @stickeymouse directed to me, as to why I would book airfare without having a room in hand

Ok...I'm not sure what you're getting at. I understood where your comment to the other poster was about...I was providing a comment based off of yours.

I did say there has been really good advice from posters (are you IDK annoyed or something that I didn't call you out in particlar for the splitting up the stay? I usually don't call out posters in particular when something has been said on the thread though with this thread others have also chimed in later on about splitting up the stay-ETA: sorry I didn't pinpoint that you were the one to say splitting up the stay but again I usually don't call out posters in particular but more speak as generalities.) but we also haven't had anything else other than the OP from the OP thus we don't know what they are open to which is what I was getting at since in your comment you went on to explain other things that you've done--which is all fine and dandy it's just we don't know what the OP is open to.

 

[stickeymouse]

Most of the time we book airfare first then look for places to stay.

I understand. I was just saying there is usually some degree of simultaneity when booking flights and lodging. I might book a flight and not book a hotel, but I will at least run a search to get an idea as to what is available and at what price point (re: lodging) before I commit to the flight. Perhaps I'm crazy?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I understand. I was just saying there is usually some degree of simultaneity when booking flights and lodging. I might book a flight and not book a hotel, but I will at least run a search to get an idea as to what is available and at what price point (re: lodging) before I commit to the flight. Perhaps I'm crazy?

No I don't think you're crazy

For us it just depends on what the trip will be like and that may or may not be similar-ish to how the OP does things. So I guess for us it's not a hard and fast rule of booking airfare first then immediately going to look at places to stay.

For example we booked airfare for our October Vegas trip in middle of May because the airfare dropped to a point where I knew my mom could financially go with us but we didn't book our hotel til something like late June-didn't even peek at the hotels. There were a variety of places we could stay at and we weren't tied down to wanting a specific one. Our dates weren't flexible (as it's a business trip for my husband being expanded into a vacation) but the place to stay at is flexible (though we had to book at one of the many places approved by his work-cost was sorta a thing only because we are responsible for paying for the hotel for the days he is not technically on business but it's easier to spread that out by 3 people and X number of days).

Conversely we booked a for rent by owner condo for Hawaii last September in late-ish March and then booked our airfare in the middle of June.

And then there are trips where we have booked airfare then immediately went and booked or at least searched for a hotel/place to stay and usually booked it within a week or so of initially checking.

But in the case of the OP it's one of those "you've got several weeks left there's not a good chance of getting exactly what you want" type situation regardless of booking airfare first or not.

 

[mamamelody2]

I understand. I was just saying there is usually some degree of simultaneity when booking flights and lodging. I might book a flight and not book a hotel, but I will at least run a search to get an idea as to what is available and at what price point (re: lodging) before I commit to the flight. Perhaps I'm crazy?

You are not crazy.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Don't forget about Swan and Dolphin. Or even the Disney Springs hotels.

 

[Maleficent53]

I'm just curious as to why you booked airfare without a set plan of where you were staying.

We knew that we could find a hotel offsite if not on property.....cheap airfare was the priority. We go to Orlando several times a year and this is how we operate!

 

[Maleficent53]

Guess we will be offsite this trip....we found a one bed condo for 100 a nite. At least we will have more space.

 

[Texans_loyal]

Depending on your price cap you might want to take a look at Hotwire.

I searched for "Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista", Chose "Airport Shuttle" under amenities, and "Bonnet Creek" for Area. Wed, Sep 13 - Mon, Sep 18, 1 room-2 adults (You would have to stay somewhere else the nights of 18th and 19th. Those 2 nights aren't available).

I came up with what looks to be Coronado Springs for $126/night.
"3.5-star New To Hotwire Hotel in Walt Disney World - Bonnet Creek area" 85% recommended.

that is an awesome deal! i have been looking at 9/20-9/21 for over a month now and Coronado hasn't gone below $200.

 

[Wilderness_Lodge]

Don't forget about Swan and Dolphin. Or even the Disney Springs hotels.

Just booked Dolphin for 2 nights during that time frame for under $200 a night including the resort fee....Cant beat that for the location, was planning on renting a car anyway