Walt Disney World Trip Planning

[benjamming]

We are planning on going to Walt Disney World before long so I need to book a room. I've looked at Embassy Suites ($89/night), Residence Inn ($89/night), & Hawthorne Suites ($79/night) in Buena Vista. I looked at Walt Disney World Moderate Resorts & they are $174/night. You get into the parks early & stay late if you are staying on their property. We aren't doing any the dining plan package. Do most folks book through expedia, travelocity, (recommend one) if they are staying on the premises? Any catches with doing that? I don't understand why I would go the WDW direct route. What gives?

What properties would you recommend if staying on the amusement premises? There is only the 2 of us. I would imagine the moderate rooms would be the only choices: Caribbean, Coronado, Port Orleans - Riverside, & Port Orleans - French Quarter.

Next step will be to get over the minimum 300% profit on everything there.

Thanks.

 

[Cutehumor]

if you go around labor day, it's the lowest attendance of the year. kids are back in school and the heat wave won't be as bad. You'll be able to get better deals around that time and get to ride everything twice with no lines

 

[EricZoom]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
We are planning on going to Walt Disney World before long so I need to book a room. I've looked at Embassy Suites ($89/night), Residence Inn ($89/night), & Hawthorne Suites ($79/night) in Buena Vista. I looked at Walt Disney World Moderate Resorts & they are $174/night. You get into the parks early & stay late if you are staying on their property. We aren't doing any the dining plan package. Do most folks book through expedia, travelocity, (recommend one) if they are staying on the premises? Any catches with doing that? I don't understand why I would go the WDW direct route. What gives?

What properties would you recommend if staying on the amusement premises? There is only the 2 of us. I would imagine the moderate rooms would be the only choices: Caribbean, Coronado, Port Orleans - Riverside, & Port Orleans - French Quarter.

Next step will be to get over the minimum 300% profit on everything there.

Thanks.


We've stayed at the Hawthorne Suites in Lake Bueno Vista 4x last year, and we liked it very much. The room was a nice size, and the breakfast was very good. I also got a great deal, because Fl residents get a discount. DO NOT stay at the location located near Universal Studios. That one was totally disgusting. It's hard to believe it's part of the Hawthorne chain.

 

[tomcat27]

are you sure you dont want the dining plan? we thought it was great!

 

[benjamming]

We plan on eating elsewhere in Orlando for dinner a few nights so dining plan doesn't really make sense. We'll be driving down.

The deal with hotels.com, etc. is that they charge your card immediately but there are no cancellation fees other than what Disney charges, namely a full night stay will be charged if stay is cancelled later than 5 days prior to arrival. We'll see how that goes. This is the slow season so evidently Disney lets these other sites sell rooms as well. For example, there are no rooms available in October from Expedia but plenty the last part of Aug & most of Sep.

How does the free birthday pass work? It appears that you only save $7 ($219 for 4-day pass vs. $212 for a 3-day place). I guess this only saves a real amount of money on a single day pass.

I think that we will stay at Port Orleans - French Quarter.

 

[wavinwayne]

My wife and I did the all-inclusive deal back in 2000 for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Grand Floridian, which I highly recommend. Good places to eat on resort are Narcoossee's, which is on the Grand Floridian property, and the Hollywood Brown Derby, which is inside one of the parks (MGM??). The fast-food places inside the parks are above average, IMO.

We're going back at Thanksgiving. I can't wait!!!