Disney World Hotel Packages

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Visiting Walt Disney World soon? Of the one million visitors each and every week, we welcome you to Orlando home of the Mouse and in this article, we will look at Disney World Hotel Packages.

First of all Disney World is huge! It covers 21,000 acres, much of it is woods with a theme park here and a water park there. Once you enter the park, you could be as much as ten to fifteen minute car ride to the theme park of your choice. Hotels inside the park are most plentiful. There are 31,911 hotel rooms inside the Disney World complex. Of this number 25,333 or 80% of these are actually Disney World owned hotels. When you add this total to that of the city of Orlando (over 60,000 rooms), Orlando ranks second only to Las Vegas in number of hotel rooms offered to the public.

When looking for hotels, there are segments, you will need to explore. A segment is broken down as to the budgeted amount you might choose to spend.

Value Resort rooms owned by Walt Disney World and inside the park are as the segment states. These are rooms that are on the lowest end of the rate structure located inside the Disney World complex. Rates here will range from $92 to $159 depending on low or high season. Note: these hotels all carry the distinction Of All Star in their name.

These limited service hotels do not offer the amenities such as a restaurant or lounge. The rooms are a bit smaller than standard. Each room offers two double beds, a safe, hairdryer, mini fridge, internet access, iron and ironing board.

The average All Star Hotel has 2,300 rooms. Price is the motivating reason this is one of the most popular segments in Disney World.

The next segment are Disney owned Moderate hotels. Again these are inside the park. In this segment there are a total of 7,089 rooms and some of the brands are: Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach Resort and Port Orleans. The average nightly rates for these hotels are $149 to $169 in low season and $264 in high season.

The Moderate priced Disney owned Resorts offer King or two extra large doubles, a vanity with two sinks, ceiling fan, safe, internet access for a small fee, hairdryer, iron and ironing board, mini-fridge and coffee maker.

Staying with the Disney owned hotels, we find the next market segment up in price to be those designated Deluxe. In this segment some of the popular properties are the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Boardwalk Inn, the Contemporary Resort, the Grand Floridian, and the Polynesian Resort. Rates for this segment will be between $310 to $530 in low season and $780 to $1,915 a night for high season.

The Deluxe hotels and resorts inside Disney World offer far less rooms with the average being about 500 rooms per property.

This article mentions the seasons of tourism…you might ask what is meant by seasons? Orlando has a number of dates where the demand from the public will be either up or down. The best way to explain this is when school is out….whether it be Christmas, summer break or spring break that period is designated as high season. When the kids are in school such as the fall months, or after the Christmas break, this is referred to as low season. In any given year, there are generally three months of high season and nine months low or shoulder season.

Inside the confines Walt Disney World Resort are other first class hotels that are not owned by Disney but are on the grounds. These hotels generally as a rule carry flags that we are all familiar with: Hilton, Doubletree, Holiday Inn and Best Western just to name a few. These hotels are smaller in size than a Disney owned property however, they are held in most part to a higher standard than what their franchise agreement might require. Walt Disney World is very proud of their brand, to that end, they inspect all hotels not only theirs but others and require that the standards be kept normally above that of franchised hotels in the area.

The first thing you will notice when dealing with franchised hotels inside the Disney World gates are the prices. I took an average of the prices for four hotels: Doubletree, the new Holiday Inn, the Hilton and the Best Western.

In low season, staying in a franchised hotel inside the grounds the average nightly rate for the four properties so listed was $129. During high season the average nightly rate increased to $189. It was interesting to note, the amenity package so offered at the hotels were similar in scope to what Disney offers in their Deluxe rooms.

A question arose as to the extra hours that Disney World is promoting if a guest stays at a Disney World Resort. Disney World offers their guest, those staying in a Disney owned resort, the ability to enter the theme parks an hour early each day. They also permit guests staying at their resorts, the opportunity to exit the parks and hour after normal closing. This priviledge is not offered to guests staying at franchised hotel inside Disney World but not owned by Disney.

The final group of hotels that should be considered would be the national franchised properties that are right at the main gate to Disney World. These properties are not on the Disney’s grounds but are in the market area. Almost all of them carry flags such as Sheraton, Marriott, Embassy Suites, Radisson, Quality, Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn to name a few.

In looking at these hotels, one would want to see if they are “Good Neighbor Hotels” ranked by Disney World. This distinction means that when Disney World is booked up, they will refer business to these hotels for they meet the standards so established by Disney World.

This group of hotels are located outside of Disney World have to really work hard to garner what business they can from those hotels inside the park. One of the ways they do this is by rate. I took a few of the national chains and did a rate study of their offerings in both low and high season. You will notice that hotels located at the entrance of the parks are more competitively priced than one would imagine.

Again, as stated these hotels have to “try harder” to get business. As a rule they offer the same amenities as do properties inside the park (excepting for the extra park hours found only at a Disney owned hotel), and they have to do this at half of the nightly rate charged by their counterparts inside the park.

When we look at packages as a rule two items make up a package. In this case most people looking for a Disney World Hotel Package are looking for hotels and tickets to the theme parks. Some even are looking for airfares to be included in their package.

If you arte desiring airfare in your package you would be best served to contact the major carrier serving your home town. Most all of these companies have a tour or travel desk. They bundle the airfare along with the hotel, the attraction tickets and the rental car to provide you with a one-stop shop to complete your vacation plans.

For those desiring just tickets and hotel, they can find that their local travel agency or possibly a tour operator in Orlando to be most accommodating in assisting with the vacation. If you choose your local travel agent, you will find they will not be familiar with the various deals and discounts offered in the city. They will provide you a nice hotel and attraction tickets which are priced at gate prices.

The Orlando based tour operator or travel company specializing in just Orlando and Central Florida would be a better choice if you are trying to find a deal on tickets and hotel. They are familiar with the hotel resorts and they normally work with the very best discounts on Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld attraction tickets.

So lets sum it up…what have we learned:

• If staying inside the parks Disney World offers the most choices
• Rates are higher inside the park verses a hotel near the entrance
• Franchised properties inside Disney World have high standards
• If staying outside the park make sure the Hotel is a Good Neighbor
• To get airfare included in a package contact the airlines
• To search for deals contact an Orlando tour or travel operator
• There are a lot of choices when it comes to hotel packages

Call 1-800-641-4008 to book your Disney World Hotel Packages Today!