A Spirited Dirty Dozen ...

[ParentsOf4]

Isn't he comparing like to like? holiday weekends inflate the prices at Disney and in major cities. He also checked a regular weekend for comparison.



$200/night for a high demand location, high demand weekend for a clean/nicely decorated hotel room doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me. I mean, sure, WDW hotels are overpriced, but they are overpriced the same way in demand hotels are anywhere.

My experience is that high-end hotels in major cities cater to business travelers, which means high rates Monday through Thursday and during non-holidays but great rates on weekends and during holidays, the exact opposite for vacation destinations such as Universal or WDW.

 

[GoofGoof]

My experience is that high-end hotels in major cities cater to business travelers, which means high rates Monday through Thursday and during non-holidays but great rates on weekends and during holidays, the exact opposite for vacation destinations such as Universal or WDW.

Definitely true. It also depends some on the tourism draw of the city and the amount of business conducted there. I go to Houston a lot for work and it definitely has a huge discrepancy between weekend and weekday rates with the weekend being much cheaper. It's a big business market. For smaller cities with big tourism draws like Nashville or San Diego or Tampa there's little difference in price and at some times of year it's actually more expensive on weekends. My experience here in Philly is that the rates are not always significantly cheaper on the weekends but the hotels are much less crowded especially if there isn't something major going on in town. Orlando is definitely a tourism based market with higher rates on the weekend, especially near the theme parks.

 

[asianway]

Really? Excursions, bottles of water to go, wine with dinner, alcoholic beverages whenever, speciality dining? Last time I was on DCL, none of these was included (though it has been years now), but were available on my last four cruises.

It isnt, but other lines are worse.

 

[WildcatDen]

What is that? I know what its not.... its not a wiz wit.

It is the evolution of the species.

That cheez sauce from the places I had it in and around Philly seems appropriate for the creation of the sandwich, but the move to melted provolone seems to support Darwin's theory. . .

 

[The Empress Lilly]

People just don't realize that ads are the only thing that make money for websites to stay in business yet offer "free" services. How do you think @wdwmagic pays the hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month this site likely costs to stay online? .

Amongst others by travel agent sponsors who have editorial control over this site's content, including the forum.

Oh, and the Premium Member's Lounge, where people can gossip about others behind their backs.

 

[jpeden]

Amongst others by travel agent sponsors who have editorial control over this site's content, including the forum.

Oh, and the Premium Member's Lounge, where people can gossip about others behind their backs.

How does one join this lounge you speak of?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

How does one join this lounge you speak of?

You transfer $25 to my PayPal account, at EmpressLillyToWDW@gmail.com.

 

[TeddyinMO]

Hopefully you realize that Disney's Wilderness Lodge is WDW's least expensive Deluxe Resort with small room sizes while Universal's Portifino Bay is their most expensive with large rooms.

A fair comparison would be to use Disney's Grand Floridian. You'll find the Grand Floridian has significantly higher prices than the Wilderness Lodge.

Of course I realize there are variations in all categories. I wasn't going for the highest or lowest, but trying to get a good representation. I feel as though this chart does that. There were $1000+ options (including at Disney) in each city that could skew results. I didn't use those as I went with a reasonable option in each category. On the other hand, i chose not to use AKL even though it's cheaper and my favorite because you only have bus transport. You can spend more - or less - in any of these locations.

As @ParentsOf4 points out in another post, the fact that I chose weekends (one holiday) as the comparison definitely hurts Disney and Uni. I could easily find compare a random Tuesday at Disney or Uni to these same cities and make the theme parks look better on their pricing. The point wasn't to make Disney or Uni look good - or bad - at all. Just to point out that On site hotels at Disney are comparable to what you would pay in other locations on the whole, including down the street. Shoot, based on the comments on this site, I was shocked I couldn't stay at Uni cheaper. That doesn't mean I don't think Uni was out of line though. Their pricing, like Disney, was relatively in line with the industry.

I am not saying on site is the cheapest or best option for anyone. That's purely an individual decision. But the idea that Disney or Uni hotel prices - on the whole - are ridiculously out of whack with the industry is largely a myth.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Gossip?!? Talking about others behind their backs?!?! Sign me right on up

There's currently an entire thread running about you and that stunt you pulled last month!

 

[Cesar R M]

OMG I swear you people are being paid by the cruise industry LOL

I'll tell you what - if someone wants to pay for a cruise trip for me, I'll go. Otherwise, I stand by my statement that it's not something that interests me to spend my money on.

I was the same until I had a cruise. Its not about being "paid" by the industry.
If you dont try, you wont understand.

 

[Cesar R M]

You do realize that it's cyclical, right? The more people who block ads the more ads they have to show everyone else to make up for it. It's the only way for a website to be profitable.

not at all, the more popular the site goes, the more ads they will show. Regardless of adblocks or not.
That even happens on flash content sites (that are way harder to block ads from).
Android apps are the same too. Newer apps are literally shoving 3 different blocks of ads. Older ones used to have 1 block.

Feels like Iger trying to "cost cut" and "raise prices" to get as much as they can before the users move on to find a product alternative with less ads.

*edit*
As ford said.. theres also the problem of embedded payloads. I've seen so many ads that block the functionality of the site you're trying to browse that its not even funny. Like click here.. you get blocked by ads or poups.. another click? another ad.. and so on and on..
worse when they use hardcoded overlays that forces you to block entire source domains.

I'd rather contribute some money to the actual site than wasting money on ad-blocks, that's just me though.

adblocks are free. Theres extensions for most popular browsers that server this function.
Also opendns also offers block by ip/dns services via their dns servers.

paid suites are another different animal.

 

[Cesar R M]

Hopefully you realize that Disney's Wilderness Lodge is WDW's least expensive Deluxe Resort with small room sizes while Universal's Portifino Bay is their most expensive with large rooms.

A fair comparison would be to use Disney's Grand Floridian. You'll find the Grand Floridian has significantly higher prices than the Wilderness Lodge.

I tough animal kingdom was the cheapest?

There's currently an entire thread running about you and that stunt you pulled last month!

Will I ever be as popular as him? Will I get to have my own precious thread about my rants and drama?

 

[Cesar R M]

Really? Excursions, bottles of water to go, wine with dinner, alcoholic beverages whenever, speciality dining? Last time I was on DCL, none of these was included (though it has been years now), but were available on my last four cruises.

Excursions are not dependent on the cruise company. They are all third party, hence why noone includes them.
DLC as free alcoholic specials every day. (they are a rotation of 3 drinks per day if I remember correctly). Also you can get your own wine on board. Most cruise companies dont let you do this.
Dinning is included, Theres 2 specialty restaurants. RCCL even charges you for burguers or things as simple as guacamole!!. (hence why I said "almost everything". ) Bottles of water again are third party dependant. You can get free unlimited soft drinks and drinks that are not alcoholic. in RCCL you have to pay extra for the "beverage" packages.

 

[doctornick]

I tough animal kingdom was the cheapest?

I would be fairly certain that any cash rooms at Old Key West or Saratoga Springs would be the cheapest of any Deluxe accommodation at WDW. Granted, most rooms are used for DVC, but some make there way to cash reservations and those two places don't have the location benefits of the other Deluxe places (unless you consider walking to DS much of a perk) nor the unique nature (live animals!) of AKL.

 

[AEfx]

I was the same until I had a cruise. Its not about being "paid" by the industry.
If you dont try, you wont understand.

Like I said, pay for me to go on one. Otherwise, leave me the hell alone about it LOL.

 

[Cesar R M]

I would be fairly certain that any cash rooms at Old Key West or Saratoga Springs would be the cheapest of any Deluxe accommodation at WDW. Granted, most rooms are used for DVC, but some make there way to cash reservations and those two places don't have the location benefits of the other Deluxe places (unless you consider walking to DS much of a perk) nor the unique nature (live animals!) of AKL.

But old key west is DVC only right?
I dont think those count.

Like I said, pay for me to go on one. Otherwise, leave me the hell alone about it LOL.

Allright, but then dont badmouth about cruises if you haven't experienced them!

kinda feels like this! lol

 

[ParentsOf4]

I thought animal kingdom was the cheapest?

The Savannah view drives up the average rate at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge .

 

[AEfx]

not at all, the more popular the site goes, the more ads they will show. Regardless of adblocks or not.
That even happens on flash content sites (that are way harder to block ads from).
Android apps are the same too. Newer apps are literally shoving 3 different blocks of ads. Older ones used to have 1 block.

Feels like Iger trying to "cost cut" and "raise prices" to get as much as they can before the users move on to find a product alternative with less ads.

*edit*
As ford said.. theres also the problem of embedded payloads. I've seen so many ads that block the functionality of the site you're trying to browse that its not even funny. Like click here.. you get blocked by ads or poups.. another click? another ad.. and so on and on..
worse when they use hardcoded overlays that forces you to block entire source domains.

You just don't get it.

The more ads are blocked the more aggressive they are going to get to get around it because the only way most websites survive is because of ad revenue.

By blocking ads, you are freeloading - not paying your share of the costs of the websites you visit. So everyone else has to put up with more ads to compensate. If everyone did it, you wouldn't have websites to visit.

Do you realize how much it costs to run a website? To pay for bandwidth, constant software upgrades, etc. A site this size easily costs a couple of thousand dollars a month just to keep online.

The malware excuse is few and far between, and if you are running any type of security suite worth its salt it will be taken care of in the rare instance it happens. If you find it happening frequently, you really need to stop going to so many sites LOL.

 

[doctornick]

But old key west is DVC only right?
I dont think those count.

Both OKW and SS are entirely DVC resorts, but rooms do fall into the Disney inventory and used for cash reservations (regular reservations). So, if you really want to find the "cheapest" rate for Deluxe rooms, I would think it would be at once of those resorts.

 

[asianway]

Excursions are not dependent on the cruise company. They are all third party, hence why noone includes them.
DLC as free alcoholic specials every day. (they are a rotation of 3 drinks per day if I remember correctly). Also you can get your own wine on board. Most cruise companies dont let you do this.
Dinning is included, Theres 2 specialty restaurants. RCCL even charges you for burguers or things as simple as guacamole!!. (hence why I said "almost everything". ) Bottles of water again are third party dependant. You can get free unlimited soft drinks and drinks that are not alcoholic. in RCCL you have to pay extra for the "beverage" packages.

The drink specials arent free, but they are sub-$5, so not bad. And DCL has been tightening up the liquor allowed on board. I got the 3rd degree on a can of pop....

And the new Dream enhancements left us with upcharge bar food and the Sweet/ice cream shop which charges for all.

There is a creep going on here.