31 days of Disney World: Let's Talk Money Pt. 1 - Disney's Promotions

Today's Disney World conversation is a little more tedious but isn't "How much will this cost me?" the question that's really on everyone's mind?  I'm dividing this conversation into parts for fear I'll just get SO wordy with all the details and again, let's be honest, how intimidating can an overly-wordy blog post be?  In the end I'll talk about Disney Vacation Club which is what we are a part of and it has saved us LOADS of money.  This conversation will be directed more towards people who go often and are looking to save money over years and years of trips.  And without further ado, let's discuss!

Disney's Promotions
Another word... all my insight is coming from experience and my only experience is booking through Disney and staying on Disney property.  In my seven trips, I've only ever left property twice to go to Target, Taco Bell and Whole Foods so I have no knowledge of Universal, Sea World, Legoland or any other Florida destination.  I know you can book rooms fairly cheap in the Orlando area, but we've always preferred Disney's property over Orlando because we love the atmosphere and how we feel like we're isolated from the "real" world.  Anyway...

Disney is great at running promotions.  Aside from our honeymoon trip in 2008, we've always booked our Disney trips using their promotions.  There three we've utilized are:

1. Free dining plan when you book at least x nights, x days.
2. Free gift card (amount depending on what level of resort you stay in) when you book x nights, x days.
3. x% off your hotel room the length of your stay (% based on what level of resort you stay in).

So first, let me talk about levels.  There's value resorts, moderate resorts, and deluxe resorts.  

Value - Includes Pop Century, All Star Music, All Star Sports, All Star Movies and the new Art of Animation (which is more costly per night than the others, but the rooms are suites for larger families).  These resorts are the largest and hold 10s of thousands of people.  

Moderate - Includes Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs (I've stayed their twice), Port Orleans Riverside, Port Orleans French Quarter (stayed there once).  These resorts smaller and all have rooms you enter from the outside (like you would an apartment).  They're themed and all have great pools.

Deluxe - Includes Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian, Polynesian, and the Contemporary. All of these are within walking/boating/or monorail distance to parks (except Animal Kingdom Lodge which is an under 5 minute bus ride/drive).  They're also the fanciest with the best restaurants and pools.

When Disney runs a % off package, they typically will do 15% off a value room stay, 25% off of a moderate stay and 35% off of a deluxe stay.  In my opinion, this is Disney's least inciting promotion.

When Disney runs a gift card promotion (which they haven't in awhile) it's typically $100 for a value, $250 for a moderate and $500 for a deluxe.  We did this promotion once while staying at Coronado Springs and used the gift card to pay for our food the week we were at WDW so the promotion was almost like free dining for us and we loved it.  This is Disney's second best promotion in my opinion.

Which brings me to the dining plan promotion... This promotion is to get Disney's dining plan for free as part of your vacation.  The dining plan includes 1 snack per day, 1 quick service (think burgers/fries, chicken nuggets/fries, pizza... like "fast food" - but tastier!), and 1 table service (MOST of Disney's AMAZING restaurants count and the food is awesome).  Dining plan is almost $50 a day per person ($15 a day for 9 and under) and you get it for every person your whole stay for free as part of your package.  This deal is by far Disney's best promo in my opinion because the food there is SO good and eating and enjoying food is such a big part of the experience and not having to worry about paying for your meal (except tip at the table service) is just a great feeling.  My husband and I selected $35 steaks for dinner we would have never been able to afford otherwise.  You also get a drink (non-alcoholic) with table & quick service and a dessert.  The desserts at the table services are AMAZING and like I said, since eating is such a fun experience it's nice not to worry about it while you're there.

So there you have it... my thoughts on Disney's promotions!  Check their website for them and watch for commercials because they'll advertise!  They run SOME type of promotion almost every season so please, please, please when booking try to find something.  You don't have to pay full price for everything if you find a great promotion.