Ask a Disney Question: Where are the discounts?

We’ve been hearing this a lot lately, so when Chip and Co reader Amy asked this question on the Facebook page, I thought I’d answer it here where everyone can see it:

Any word from Disney about discounts in the fall-winter time. I have stayed on property at Pop Century except when I worked for Hilton. If they are not going to offer discounts how can anyone afford to stay on property on the average persons salary.

We also hoped to hear something about discounts for fall by now. Last year, free dining came out for the October – December period on July 5.  This year, we haven’t even heard a bad rumor about discounts, much less anything credible.  I still think that discounts will come out, the question is really when and for how long.  A month ago I would have said that Disney will follow last year’s pattern, which was to release a large number of discounts for most of 2011 in August 2010. This worked out really well for people who plan ahead, but even those who plan last-minute trips were offered a handful of additional discounts as 2011 progressed. There truly hasn’t been that much to complain about as far as discounts go, even if they weren’t as good as the original discounts announced in August 2010.  Is this about to change?

Right now we’re currently 76 days away from having no general public discounts at all–this hasn’t happened in a very long time.  And because this hasn’t happened in a long time, people have gotten used to staying on property with a discount. And really, I think most of us probably internally “value” what a Disney resort room is worth and won’t–at least happily–go above that rate.  So what happens when discounts stop?  And if the company is concurrently limiting guest benefits (like using the monorail during evening Extra Magic Hours), when do guests start to feel unappreicated?

One of the key things that separates Disney World from other them parks is that they always take care of guests’ needs. It’s the small things that you don’t always notice:  Clean parks, innovative experiences, friendly cast members, and excellent service.  It all combines to make Disney better than other theme parks.  In fact, it’s more than a theme park.  Yes, there are bobbles here and there, but overall, Disney does an excellent job of what they do.  And in return for that, we’ll willingly pay more. It’s not like every seasoned traveler to Disney World doesn’t know that you can get a beautiful tw0-bedroom condo just off Disney property for half the price of staying off site.  It’s that we don’t care, because what you get on site is better. And so we shift around the budget and we figure out how to make it happen.  But at a certain point, the value will be outweighed by the cost.

Related articles

• Disney Value vs. Moderate Resorts: Worth The Cost to Upgrade? (couponingtodisney.com)
• Disney to cut monorail hours (orlandosentinel.com)

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