WDW Resort Hotel Prices

[Horizons '83]

Swan and Dolphin is where its at. The rate is $142 a night this weekend plus fees and taxes so roughly $170 a night for a just renovated hotel on property where you can walk to 2 parks. Its a win win in my book.

 

[rob0519]

Swan and Dolphin is where its at. The rate is $142 a night this weekend plus fees and taxes so roughly $170 a night for a just renovated hotel on property where you can walk to 2 parks. Its a win win in my book.

We've been fortunate enough to have been monorail resort people for the most part. I'm trying to convince the family on the Swan and Dolphin for the next visit just to see how it goes. Based on your example, I can get 3 rooms for about the price of one at the CR, Poly or GF.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Swan and Dolphin is where its at. The rate is $142 a night this weekend plus fees and taxes so roughly $170 a night for a just renovated hotel on property where you can walk to 2 parks. Its a win win in my book.

We've been fortunate enough to have been monorail resort people for the most part. I'm trying to convince the family on the Swan and Dolphin for the next visit just to see how it goes. Based on your example, I can get 3 rooms for about the price of one at the CR, Poly or GF.

The S&D rates are spotty at best and you can't rely on them with any consistency. For my next trip in January, a room at the Swan would be $300 per night, I'd have to prepay the entire thing in full, and I'd only get two full beds, not queens. Once you tack on the cost of a rental car, resort fees, and parking, I'm much better off staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which I consider a far superior resort anyways.

ETA: And that's with ZERO discount at DAKL. I expect at least a 25% room-only offer that time of year.

 

[Horizons '83]

The S&D rates are spotty at best and you can't rely on them with any consistency. For my next trip in January, a room at the Swan would be $300 per night, I'd have to prepay the entire thing in full, and I'd only get two full beds, not queens. Once you tack on the cost of a rental car, resort fees, and parking, I'm much better off staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which I consider a far superior resort anyways.

ETA: And that's with ZERO discount at DAKL. I expect at least a 25% room-only offer that time of year.

True, the rates are set at there highest months in advance. The S&D are really best when you are flexible. We booked our trip a little over 2 months ago for this weekend, mainly because the rates were so great. If you do go in January, the best (cheapest rates AS IT GETS CLOSER) is the after New Years rush (Jan 9 - 15) and after MLK week. We typically go the last week in January and rarely pay an all in rate of $190.

 

[Seanual757]

Just remember when I purchased direct Disney was offering if you purchased say 500 points they gave you an additional 500 points so you would be starting with 1000 points. When we purchased our new Poly contract this year direct again we were given the same promotion.

 

[rob0519]

The S&D rates are spotty at best and you can't rely on them with any consistency. For my next trip in January, a room at the Swan would be $300 per night, I'd have to prepay the entire thing in full, and I'd only get two full beds, not queens. Once you tack on the cost of a rental car, resort fees, and parking, I'm much better off staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which I consider a far superior resort anyways.

ETA: And that's with ZERO discount at DAKL. I expect at least a 25% room-only offer that time of year.

Thanks for that information. Maybe it's time to look at AKL or WL. Unfortunately, we don't have our next date planned. Damn medical bills cutting into our Disney money.

 

[bunnyman]

What you're describing is quite literally impossible and I'd encourage you to check your math. Even with banking and borrowing, you'd need almost a $100,000 contract to get $33,000 worth of rack rate rooms in the time frame you're talking about.

A one bedroom villa at VGF is approximately $1,000 or 53 points per night for a dollars-to-points ratio of 19:1. The ratio holds pretty strongly for two bedroom villas as well. If you ACTUALLY got $33,454 worth of rooms out of your contract, that means you spent somewhere in the nieghborhood of 1,760 points. Even if that's three contract years worth of points (2015, 2016, 2017), that's a contract of well over 500 points per year. VGF is priced at $180 per point, meaning you'd need at least a $90,000 contract plus about $9,000 of maintenance fees to get what you're describing.

This is why I hate DVC so much. People are tricked into buying something they don't understand and then they act as evangelists on the internet, spreading misinformation that will deceive others into making similarly misinformed decisions.

I invite @ParentsOf4 to check my math. Even the most hardcore pro-DVC people on this board will tell you there's zero chance you hit break even since 2015.

My sentiments exactly. We’ve looked at DVC several times over the years, and I could never justify the cost/math, especially when you take into consideration the annual dues you have to pay. We also went further and looked at the lists of possible trade locations we could use to match them up with other vacation destinations (i.e. skiing) we go to, and found that in most cases there were severe limitations (i.e. minimum # of night stays), not to mention the fee you had to pay to trade out of Disney. Given the latter, I wasn’t comfortable kind of being locked into an annual WDW vacation with unknowns such as the cost of flights, family situations, finances, etc. Knowing people who were in at the beginning in the early 1990’s they were the best off, as they got park passes for a number of years.

 

[Tinkwings]

Thanks for that information. Maybe it's time to look at AKL or WL. Unfortunately, we don't have our next date planned. Damn medical bills cutting into our Disney money.

I feel your pain.....but that is exactly how I think about those kinds of things.....told one child their braces alone cost a Disney trip.... .

DH has suggested we to the Fort Wilderness Campground in the future....and you know it would be quite a step down from the Lodge itself but the location remains intact and access to MK the same.....if push comes to shove? This fairy will have to fly there.....it's like DELUXE camping.....no pit toilets and real showers......electricity!....can't you just hear me trying to talk self into that?! Justifying if that's the only way to go.....I will have to sacrifice.....

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I feel your pain.....but that is exactly how I think about those kinds of things.....told one child their braces alone cost a Disney trip.... .

DH has suggested we to the Fort Wilderness Campground in the future....and you know it would be quite a step down from the Lodge itself but the location remains intact and access to MK the same.....if push comes to shove? This fairy will have to fly there.....it's like DELUXE camping.....no pit toilets and real showers......electricity!....can't you just hear me trying to talk self into that?! Justifying if that's the only way to go.....I will have to sacrifice.....

Fort Wilderness' access to MK is a myth. The internal bus and boat combined take far longer than a bus from even the most distant resorts.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We were considering DVC at one point, and then we saw what they could do with park prices last year - and I don't think it's a safe investment anymore. We could be stuck paying for DVC and the cost to go to the parks could double in 5 years.

 

[Seanual757]

We were considering DVC at one point, and then we saw what they could do with park prices last year - and I don't think it's a safe investment anymore. We could be stuck paying for DVC and the cost to go to the parks could double in 5 years.

True if I did not live 20 minutes from WDW and did not have 4 small children I would not have purchased DVC. Knowing how many times we stayed before DVC 4-7 times a year for us it made sense. With small children Disney will be our family vacations for the next 10 years. When my youngest turns 6 we will venture out to Aulani, and even with that I will fly to LA 1st say over night (head to Disneyland for the day) and fly out to Honolulu the next morning. We will tap the RCI portion of our DVC after that. So for now I have a good 15 years with the kids with our 4-7 stays a year at Disney.

 

[LongLiveTheKing]

Swan and Dolphin is where its at. The rate is $142 a night this weekend plus fees and taxes so roughly $170 a night for a just renovated hotel on property where you can walk to 2 parks. Its a win win in my book.

How is the theming in the Swan and Dolphin hotels? I know they're not run by Disney so I'm just curious how they compare to Disney hotels. They're also listed as "Other Deluxe Resorts" on the official Disney site, too, so I'm just curious.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

How is the theming in the Swan and Dolphin hotels? I know they're not run by Disney so I'm just curious how they compare to Disney hotels. They're also listed as "Other Deluxe Resorts" on the official Disney site, too, so I'm just curious.

They're very nice but not heavily themed. Their primary asset from a theming perspective is that they're on the Boardwalk.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Well seeing that we have had 7 different stays since July 2015 (with 1 more stay this year in October using DVC points, and 1 stay without DVC points) and running the pricing per Mousesavers with a mix of villas, 1 bedroom, and 2 bedroom stays we will be at $33454 if we had to pay out of pocket for our stays.

Based on the information you provided so far, I assume you purchased less than $33,454 worth of points at VGF and PVB, since you mentioned that your last 2 years of stays have paid for your VGF contract. For simplicity, I'll assume you paid $150/point which, I believe, is less than either DVC resort has been offered for, even with discount.

We also have to assume that you paid Maintenance Fees at both resorts, plus closing costs, so let's round this to $156/point.

I'll also assume that you paid cash so that there are no financing fees.

This comes out to a purchase of 214 points.

In addition, you mentioned that you've stayed at a mix of studios, one and two bedroom villas, and that Disney was offering one year of free points when you purchased. So, let's assume you have 428 points to use without borrowing from next year.

The lowest points-per-night at WDW are the BWV standard view Studios and the AKV value Studios at 10 points and 9 points per night respectively during the slowest season. These are extremely difficult to book for someone who does not own at these DVC resorts, so let's assume you stayed at your Home Resorts.

So, you have 428 points to spend at VGF and PVB.

You didn't specify when you went, so I'll assume the mid-priced Dream Season.

During Dream Season, 7 nights in a VGF one-bedroom standard view requires 308 points. 7 nights in a two-bedroom standard view requires 412 points. At PVB, 7 nights in a standard view studio requires 153 points.

Since you did not specify the mix, I'll assume an even distribution of all three room types, which works out to about 42 points per night.

Recalling that I estimated that you had 428 points to spend, this works out to roughly 10 nights.

This means that, to date, you've spent about $3300 per night.

I'm unaware of any rack rate reported by Mousesavers that comes out to $3300 per night.

Perhaps you can provide more details (how many points purchased, what price, etc.) and then we can work together to figure out where we went wrong.

 

[JusticeDisney]

They're very nice but not heavily themed. Their primary asset from a theming perspective is that they're on the Boardwalk.

Well, to be fair, they are NEAR the boardwalk, but they certainly are not ON it.