Hello again, friends! Let’s talk about the best discounts for your Walt Disney World vacation. Each time that I have visited Walt Disney World, I have received some sort of discount. I have never booked through a travel agent, and I have never received a discount that was not available to everyone else directly through the Walt Disney World website. That is not to say that you should not book with a Disney Travel Agent. Most Disney Travel Agents are very skilled at finding the best deal available, and they don’t charge their clients any extra. However, I would like to share with you how to find the discounts directly through the Walt Disney World website and discuss which discounts I have benefited or saved the most money with. All offers are only available for a limited amount of time and have a limited number of rooms allotted for the discount.
First, to find the discounts on the Walt Disney World website on your desktop, you’ll want to hover over Places to Stay. Now, look under the Featured Items list to the left, and click on the bottom link for View Special Offers.
From there, you will be on the Special Offers, Deals & Discounts page.
On a mobile device, you will need to tap the three bars to the left at the top of the page. Then tap Places to Stay. Scroll down until you see View Special Offers, and there you are.
Right now, they have a Save Up to 35% on Rooms at Select Disney Resort Hotels When You Stay 5 Nights or Longer and a Last Chance to Enjoy a Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World Resort as the featured offers.
Other offers include:
- Disney Water Park Seasonal Pass for $79 that can be used through May 24, 2024
- U.S. Military Members: Enjoy Specially Priced Theme Park Tickets in 2024
- Save Up to 20% on Rooms at Select Disney Resort Hotels in Early 2024
- US Military Members: Take Advantage of Great Rates at Select Disney Resort Hotels in 2024
In addition, there are usually always Annual Passholder and FL Resident discounts available.
Save Up to 35% on Rooms at Select Disney Resort Hotels When You Stay 5 Nights of Longer
For now, we will discuss the featured special offers, starting with Save Up to 35% on Rooms at Select Disney Resort Hotels When You Stay 5 Nights of Longer. The discount is valid for stays most nights from July 08, 2024 to October 03, 2024. Up to 30% can be saved on stays shorter than 5 days. For stays more than 5 days, the amount of discount that you receive will depend on the resort that you stay at and when you stay. See below for the break down of discount amounts, dates, and resorts.
As you can see, your discount really depends on when you stay and where you stay. To save 35% on your stay, you would need to stay 5 nights or more sometime between July 08, 2024 and October 03, 2024 at one of the listed Deluxe Disney Resorts. Moderate Disney Resorts are seen under the 30% discount. Value Disney Resorts are seen at the 25% discount. You can only save up to 15% for Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Finally, the 10% discount appears to apply to a variety of Value, Moderate, and Deluxe level resorts.
The Value Resorts are usually the cheapest options. The Moderate Resorts are priced in the middle. The Deluxe Resorts offer the most expensive rooms and are part of Disney’s Vacation Club. Disney’s Vacation Club, often referred to as DVC, is like Disney’s timeshare program that is a points-based system.
Since the cheaper rooms may offer a lower discount, you would need to explore what options work best for you and your
budget. I will test this out by checking the cost of a vacation with a room and tickets for my family of five (2 Adults, 14-year-old, 12-year-old, and a 3-year-old) for a week long stay 09/15/24 – 09/21/24 and compare the costs for the Value, Moderate, and Deluxe Resort options with 5 base park tickets, no dining plan, and no memory maker. By the way, I would always recommend the memory maker.
For the Value Resort option for my family size, all that is available is the Art of Animation Family Suites at 25% off. The cheapest room is currently $403.25 per night. The entire package would cost $5,544.56.
For the Moderate Resort option for our family, I chose Disney’s Port Orleans Resort-Riverside and was able to save 30% off. The cheapest room would cost $225.05 per night. The total package would cost $4,341.76.
Finally, if we were going to take this trip to the Deluxe Resort level saving 35%, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is still available for as low as $509.60 per night. The entire package would cost $6,262.46.
Keep in mind that I chose the cheapest rooms available for each resort type. There are more expensive rooms for each type that include preferred rooms, which are closer to the main buildings and buses, or pool view rooms, or theme park views and club level rooms for Deluxe Resorts. Each additional comfort may add a little, or a lot, more to your grand total.
In our case, it looks like the Moderate Resort would save the most for our family, so Disney’s Port Orleans Resort-Riverside is likely where we would stay. I must say, there are cheaper Value Resorts that may offer a smaller price tag, but they were not available for my dates and the amount of room needed. Since most Disney Resorts only allow four people in a room, what is available to a family of four would not be available to our family.
Last Chance to Enjoy a Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World Resort
In addition to the Save Up to 35% on Rooms at Select Disney Resort Hotels When You Stay 5 Nights of Longer discount, the other featured offer is the Last Chance to Enjoy a Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World Resort offer. For this offer, Disney+ subscribers who book by 02/14/24 can take advantage of the free dining plan with the purchase of a non-discounted 4-night, 4-day Walt Disney Travel Company package that includes a room at a select Disney Resort hotel and a theme park ticket with a Park Hopper option—for arrivals most nights from July 1 to September 30, 2024. The website also states that Packages may be available for longer lengths of stay. You must sign in to view offer details, so you should sign in with the email that is attached to your Disney+ account.
The difference in this offer and the packages that we just discussed is that this offer will include park hopper and dining. Depending on the resort type that you stay at, whether Value, Moderate, or Deluxe, the type of free dining plan that you are eligible for may vary. Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan would be available to guests of select Disney Value Resort and Moderate Resort Hotels, while the traditional Disney Dining Plan would be available to guests of select Disney Deluxe Resort and Disney Deluxe Villa Resort Hotels.
Resorts that offer the Disney Dining Plan include the following:
Resort stays that offer the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan include the following:
Although you can upgrade from a Quick-Service to a Disney Dining Plan at an additional cost, we will explore the deal based on the same criteria as the last comparison aside from the park hopper option and the dining being included.
I will test this out by checking the cost of a vacation with a room and tickets for my family of five (2 Adults, 14-year-old, 12-year-old, and a 3-year-old) for a week long stay 09/15/24 – 09/21/24 and compare the costs for the Value, Moderate, and Deluxe Resort options with 5 park hopper tickets, an added dining plan, and no memory maker.
Checking the Value Resort option of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort first, for the cheapest room rate, 5-day park hopper tickets, and the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan, the total cost would be $7,014.79. This is a $1,470.23 increase from the other featured offer. However, you would have the freedom to park hop all five days, and the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan would provide you with two quick-service meals and one snack or nonalcoholic drink per person, per day, and one resort-refillable mug per person.
Going back to Disney’s Port Orleans Resort-Riverside to review the Moderate Resort option, for the cheapest room rate, 5-day park hopper tickets, and the Quick-Service to a Disney Dining Plan, the total cost would be $5,445.41. Again, that is a $1,103.65 increase, but you are getting the added park hopper option along with the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan.
Finally, let’s check out the Deluxe Resort option used in the last featured offer comparison, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Booking the cheapest available room, 5-day park-hopper tickets, and the Disney Dining Plan, we are looking at $8,567.29. The increase from the last offer is $2,304.83.
The difference in the Quick-Service Dining Plan and the Disney Dining Plan is basically the type of dining you would be able to do. The Quick-Service Dining Plan offers two quick-service meals, while the Disney Dining Plan offers one quick-service meal and one table-service meal. The snacks and resort mugs are the same.
To decide whether you would need the Quick-Service Dining Plan or the Disney Dining Plan, you would need to determine whether you plan on eating any table service meals, and how much it would cost you to eat there.
You can see the menus and prices of restaurants in Walt Disney World HERE!
My family loves character dining meals, not as much for the food, but more for the experiences. We were hooked the first time that we saw our kids’ eyes light up in ‘Ohana as they saw Mickey in person. That twinkle did us in! Since then, every time that we go to Walt Disney World, we reserve at least three, if not more, character meals. With a family as big as mine, character meals are usually well over $200 each after the tip. For a family that enjoys the character table service dining, or the Fantasmic! Dining Package, the Disney Dining Plan is totally worth it. However, if you are a family that will be on the go most of the time, then the Quick-Service Dining Plan is really all that you would need. If you do not plan on eating a table-service meal, I do not recommend the Disney Dining Plan. You would be spending more in that case than if you were to just pay out of pocket for your food.
The Best Discount for Walt Disney World
Comparing both featured offers, I would likely choose to stay in the Moderate Resort of Disney’s Port Orleans Resort-Riverside. The first discount is quite substantial, and what I would consider an incredible deal at $4,341.76. On our last vacation, we spent over $2,000 on table service, quick-service, snacks, and drinks. The Quick-Service Dining Plan and 5-day park hopper tickets for $5,445.41 would likely be our best option. However, as I said before, my family is big on Disney dining. Depending on our plans for the given trip, maybe utilizing the free Quick-Service Dining Plan and paying out of pocket for the table service meals may benefit us. If we chose to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan, the total cost would end up at $6,375.16, which is a total increase of $2,033.40. The difference in the Disney Dining Plan and the Quick-Service Dining Plan is $929.75. This would really come down to how many table service reservations that we had. In conclusion, the best discount for Walt Disney World for my family is the free dining discount.
If you decide that you do want to take advantage of the Free Dining Offer for Disney+ Subscribers, you will need to secure your reservation with your $200 deposit no later than 02/14/2024. CLICK HERE TO START BOOKING YOUR ADVENTURE AT THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE ON EARTH!
TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING ON YOUR NEXT WALT DISNEY WORLD VACATION, CLICK HERE!