So, if I am totally risk averse and travel with a 13 month old (aka need transportation from airport, don't want to rent car/deal with care seat, etc) is it best that I just stick with the sure thing? Is anything on Hotwire pretty much a sure thing? My dates for August (check in 19th, checkout 21st) don't lead to anything that great. There is one priceline search that looks like coronado, but not being 110% scares the ceap out of me! I have an AP rate at POP already for a total of $225 for the 2 nights...not awesome, not horrible. We are going October 14-17 as well. Currently booked at Coronado. Should I just keep watching daily for those rates? I cannot even book a reservation at Coronado on the Disney site right now. I don't care if we are at Coronado, but an even better rate would be great
I am looking for advice from a well versed person. I found this thread 2 days ago, and it has intrigued me ever since!!
I'm not necessarily well versed in HW/PE, just someone who has spent 80% of my time learning/searching over the last few weeks
So while I have ideas about their pricing structure, I'm new to the wonderful land of opaque booking. The folks at betterbidding have more complete knowledge, though it is really community-driven by their users (so, some hotels we've seen on HW/PL are not on bb's "hotel list" and such). I recommend reading their Florida/Orlando forums and maybe posting, getting familiar with their "easyview" tool; their site mods appear very responsive in threads asking for help identifying. Also, their target audience is the moderately risk averse
So, if I am totally risk averse and travel with a 13 month old (aka need transportation from airport, don't want to rent car/deal with care seat, etc) is it best that I just stick with the sure thing? Is anything on Hotwire pretty much a sure thing?
If you are *totally* risk averse, opaque bookings will probably be stressful, which imo is hardly worth the potential savings. I think a lot of bookings on HW, Disney and otherwise, are pretty much a sure thing with enough research. BUT they can change star levels and reclassify zones at any time, so there's room for disappointment.
But if you are, say, 10% open to risk... it never hurts to shop around
Book at a (refundable) price you can stomach, and check for price drops (daily if you can) until the cancellation window 5 days before arrival. I understand this is time-consuming, though, which is why it matters to make the original booking at a price you like.
You have hotels booked at discounted rates, so you're already on the right track -- I say no harm in continuing to check. If I were risk-averse, I would stick to Hotwire because of the location and amenities features. Priceline has Disney hotels over a range of zones and I feel their listings are harder to decipher. (Betterbidding takes some guesswork out of Priceline, but still.) HW right now *nearly* guarantees onsite resort if you narrow choices to Bonnet Creek - airport shuttle - free parking - free internet and make sure there's no resort fee, inspect the "bed choice" carefully, think over the "last person booking this got" blurb, etc. That said, nothing is guaranteed with opaque booking except for the listed amenities, so with some googling, you can be more certain of the choice. Plus, with hotels that list the resort fee, a lot are pretty damn specific (like the Swan and Dolphin's odd-numbered fee).
As for whether you should invest time checking? I just searched for your Aug date on HW (using 1 adult) and you're right, nothing spectacular. I see Pop for $97/night before tax but it's more than $225 once tax is added. If you're happy with your current reservation, I would just keep it. Not worth the hassle if Pop goes down to $83-87/night (not guaranteed anyway).
If you're looking for a deal to maybe "upgrade" over Pop, you might find CSR at an attractive rate, and that resort is pretty easy to identify unless HW sees this and changes the amenities list.
It's hard to say because that's a weekend and there's likely to be higher occupancy already... I personally think it is likely to see drops because of the refurbishment and current posted rates when booking direct and transparent (Expedia, etc). Ditto other places, like POFQ or YC, but the valuation of hassle would be my prime concern.
We are going October 14-17 as well. Currently booked at Coronado. Should I just keep watching daily for those rates? I cannot even book a reservation at Coronado on the Disney site right now. I don't care if we are at Coronado, but an even better rate would be great
For the October dates, I wonder what their pricing will look like. People have been saying summer is now the "slow" season at Disney, which seems kind of true based on the discounts offered this summer. Then, for the fall, we've seen a lot of hotels not have much availability, and discount rates aren't as attractive... so far. I think it will depend on how the rest of August and September play out. Still, never hurts to check. I really doubt they will release deep discounts more than a week or two out, though, so I wouldn't spend time checking until mid-September. Just doesn't make much business sense to sell at such steep discounts any sooner than necessary.