Our Plans, Version One
As I mentioned in my previous post, we were anxiously waiting for April to come around for Disney to release the free dining offer. I had hoped it would be late March like last year but that wasn't the case, nor was early April. April 19th then seemed to be the date mentioned a lot on here so I went to bed as usual the night before but couldn't sleep properly, so ended up looking on the dibb in the early hours of the morning. The main page had the story from ATD saying that free dining had been released, yay!
I was so excited and was wide awake now! I quickly skimmed through the story and it all looked good for when we wanted to go. Then I read it properly and all the excitement went away as I read the following -
Staying at a Disney Deluxe Villa Resort?
Book by 6 Nov 2018, for arrivals from 1 Jan – 07 April and 26 Apr – 16 Sept 2019**
We wanted to stay at SSR, but as this is one of the deluxe villa resorts, and our dates would be the middle of October, it seemed that this wasn't going to be possible. I had a look to see if there was any further information anywhere, or if there was anything on the main Disney site but couldn't find anything. I managed to fall back asleep and had another look when I woke in the morning but it seemed that this was going to be the case - our original plan of sharing a 2-bed villa with Ryan, Bethany and the kids at SSR was not going to happen. I sent a message on our family WhatsApp to let them know and tried not to think of what this meant.
For us and Ryan and Bethany, staying in a 2-bed villa and getting the free dining plan was the most affordable way for us to go, as when we have priced up two studios at SSR, a 2-bed always came out at a better price. Any time we have considered a villa, I have never found that the savings have been good enough, not when you take into account paying for food, parking, magic bands, etc., and the perks of getting a free dining plan, the ability to book Fast Passes (FP) at 60 days and being onsite and close to everything, it just seems like a no-brainer to stay onsite. As we don't go every year we like to make the most out of our time there, and I know that if we left a park to go offsite for dinner or back to the villa, we wouldn't go back to a park in the evening.
That only left us with one option - to all stay separately in studios. This wasn't ideal or what we had wanted (we really have been spoilt with the living areas, kitchen, multiple bathrooms and washing facilities of the 2-beds) but the only alternative was a villa, which wasn't a consideration. I started looking at the deluxe resorts that were available (to get the regular dining plan) and they were all so expensive. The least expensive was Animal Kingdom Lodge and though this is a stunning resort, I just find it is too far away from some of the parks and didn't want to pay all that money and not be happy with the location.
I started to look at the moderate resorts instead. I had heard and read many good things about the Port Orleans resorts so started here. I was surprised at the difference in price between here and Animal Kingdom Lodge (over £2000 difference). Of course, this only included the QSDP rather than the regular DDP that we are used to. The cost to upgrade the dining plans was around £800 for the two weeks so was quite a lot. We would also have to factor tips into the budget if we upgraded. Phil and I discussed what we wanted from the holiday and decided that we would like to try just having the QSDP, rather than being tied to the ADRs that are necessary with the restaurants we like and would want to eat at.
So on April 21st, we bit the bullet and booked two weeks at Port Orleans Riverside, for October 11 to October 25 2019! We booked with ATD as even taking the free $200 gift card offered when booking direct with Disney into account, ATD were still cheaper. They also offered free date changes. The deposit amount was £25 per person, so £100 for us.
Pics from google
I did realise the next day that in my rush to book the night before, I had forgotten the £35 discount that they were offering for booking a moderate resort, going through the link on here. I had a quick look on the dibb and found that people who had done the same as me had called and asked if this could be applied to their bookings retrospectively (and ATD were deducting this discount), and were also being given a £150 discount as they did not offer the gift card. I decided it couldn't hurt to call and ask if the same could be done for me. Within about 5 minutes of being on the phone to a lovely lady, I had a £35 discount and £150 price match applied to my booking and a new invoice was in my inbox!
Here is the price breakdown of my booking:
Total booking cost: £4064.00
Deposit paid: -£100.00
Less Dibb Discount: -£35.00
Less ATD price match: -£150.00
Balance outstanding: £3779.00
I have then split this further to show the separate accommodation and ticket costs. I have taken the discounts applied to my booking from the accommodation value:
Accommodation value: £2492.00
Less Dibb Discount: -£35.00
Less ATD price match: -£150.00
Balance outstanding: £2307.00
Less £100 deposit: £2207.00
Adult ticket value: £1194.00 (£398 each) Madison will be 11 so technically a Disney adult.
Child ticket value: £378.00 (£378 each)
Total ticket value: £1572.00
My lovely parents are paying for our park tickets as Christmas and Birthday gifts for the last few years so we just have the accommodation part of this to pay for.
So this is what we HAD booked……..our dates were October 11th to the 25th…..then a whole big issue with our schools half-term time meant that we would be away the week of half-term and the week after, rather than the week before and the week of half-term, which is my preference. We also looked at the flight prices with Thomas Cook and to change dates and go earlier would save us loads of money.
This meant that I wanted to change our dates, but with the lack of availability at most Disney resorts in October, this was proving problematic.
I'm going to leave this here as this was version one of our plans. I'll be back soon with version two!