Who is really paying those room prices!

[gavvy]

I think part of it is they keep them high to make DVC look even better value, I've not been to a DVC meeting, but I bet they compare the cost of DVC to those rack rates to get the 'savings' you are making.

No Disney room is worth £400 a night, they are not really true 4* in either the rooms or the resort amenity's.

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by zavandor

I think paid FP are going to hit them in the back. You can stay offsite and use the money difference to pay for G+ and a la carte attractions daily and have a better experience than someone staying onsite.

See more...

See, here's where I disagree. For me not having to schlep on and off site is worth paying quite a bit more for.

We only stay in houses-with-pools for times when we're not visiting the WDW parks and regardless of how close the owners of those houses claim them to be to WDW, it's always felt like a major faff to get to WDW to, say, visit Disney Springs or head to the Cali Grill for dinner.

If we were visiting the WDW parks from those houses - the thought of having to drive to the MK parking lot, walk to the TTC, wait for a ferry/monorail and then take the ferry/monorail to the MK before we could enter the park feels like a major joy-drain.

We also like to slip back to the hotel for a swim/chill in the afternoon, so we'd have to reverse that journey late lunchtime to then do it all again for our evening park time.

On top of all that, we're on holiday so will be enjoying adult beverages in the parks and with meals - you can't do that if someone has to drive "home".

So, yes, they are expensive and could not justify those pricing levels if they were not in the Disney bubble. But they ARE in the Disney bubble so will still be where we stay for the part of the holiday where we intend to spend our time in the Disney theme parks.

For other parts of the holiday, where we're done with the WDW parks, we'll most off-site to other hotels or, more likely, to a house-with-pool.

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by gavvy

No Disney room is worth £400 a night, they are not really true 4* in either the rooms or the resort amenity's.

See more...

No Disney room?

[gavvy]

Originally Posted by Bozza

No Disney room?

See more...

If You can get that for £400 I want to know where haha

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by gavvy

If You can get that for £400 I want to know where haha

See more...

Indeed, but it's worth £400 (and a bit more besides) right?

I've just checked back through emails and our 10 nights at the Beach Club in August 2019 cost £4,040, so pretty much on your £400/night rate.

I can't remember if we got free dining with that or not - we possibly did - which clearly influences the price/value a fair bit but, for us, the Beach Club is certainly worth £400/night for the enjoyment we get staying there.

[YorkshireT]

I’ll always remember I was in BLT on NYE I think it was, in a 1 bed suite (DVC dues cost about $200 a night) at the front desk and a fella came in wanting just a studio for a few nights (I wouldn’t believe people would just turn up and ask at the front desk but they did). I recall he was quoted $650 a night I think, plus tax, plus parking. He happily handed over his credit card. One beds at BLT are usually priced twice studio amounts, and I was glad I had DVC as there’s no way I’d be paying that money.
I bought DVC always predicting that come the 50th, prices would be through the roof, and free dining could go, but I never saw Coronavirus as the forthcoming cover to Jack prices and cut things like free dining quite like they have.
It made little sense if you had the money to buy DVC to go year after year paying money for deluxe. Now DVC has shot up in price (between 2016 and 2022 one of my SSR contracts doubled in value) it’s a more difficult call, but still likely worth it if paying all that much dead money every year. You can always sell the DVC and you won’t likely lose much, and possibly it will go up more over time, but don’t buy as an investment. Just to save money on effectively pre paid holidays. And chose resort wisely, for example buying Boardwalk now direct is difficult to justify vs renting points.
An alternative is to rent points- often not as popular with U.K. people due to free dining, that I think is changing.

[SleepingBeauty]

Disney charges what the market will bear. Always has, always will. Someone is paying.

[Shooby doo]

But eventually the scales tip & it's all down to the emphasis that you place on that "Disney bubble"? A lot of arguments are around ease of getting too & from the parks etc but you could stay at Universal & get taxi's too & fro twice a day & still be over £2500K to the good & that's a lot of "adult beverages" Even on Disney property there's the Bonnet Creek resorts & you will pick a suite up there for approx £200/night.
We are using 2 years worth of points for our stay so effectively under £2k for 33 nights in a studio (total) & that is really why we own DVC,nothing to do with bubbles
SD

[gavvy]

I've been waiting for those scales to tip for a number of years and they haven't, it seems the higher the prices and the less offered the bigger the crowds.

I think it will take a big recession in USA for attendance to drop and for Disney to go back to offering more, however a recession in the USA none of us will want.

It would not surprise me if Bob spins the parks off at some stage too so he can concentrate on Disney plus and content, but who knows!

[Gelatoni]

It depends on the resort whether you make a saving with DVC.

I think we worked out we just about break even based on a 1 week 1 bed CCV or OKW stay per year.

Use the points at VGF, however, and we would save 50%.

But for us, it's not just about saving money but trying all the different resorts too. I'm sure at the end of our contract, we'll have saved a little bit regardless.