Once you go Deluxe, do you ever go Moderate or Value?

[fairestoneofall]

We've stayed at all three levels, plus Shades of Green. We tend to choose based on that trip's budget and our plans (plus, how long the trip is). My kids' favorite was the AoA suite (Cars), but the price on that room has jumped significantly since our late 2015 stay.

We have a long weekend coming up with our youngest and we'll be staying Value. We're trying to keep things down because we have a few non-Disney trips coming up.

 

[ErinsMommy]

We've tried - we started our Disney addiction many years ago at All Stars, took daughter to start her addiction at POFQ, then for DH's birthday treated him to the CR. Booked a few trips after that - some of which started off back at POFQ, but we always went back to CR and now the Poly.

 

[Texans_loyal]

We stay at AKL every Jan and Values for the rest of the year.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I like to make each trip unique, so we've stayed at each level and offsite. I don't find that the level matters much, other than transportation around the resort (both lines and convenience). I set a budget for each trip, then decide length of trip, then decide where to stay.

 

[KELLY]

I stayed at the Poly in 2016 and AKL 2017. Going back to pop this year. It isn't hard for me at all. But I like the values and the moderates. Actually pop is my favorite. Deluxes are fine but I could care less either way.

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

I stayed at the Poly in 2016 and AKL 2017. Going back to pop this year. It isn't hard for me at all. But I like the values and the moderates. Actually pop is my favorite. Deluxes are fine but I could care less either way.

Why is POP your favorite?

 

[Southernswthrt]

I am struggling with this very question right now myself! Our last several trips over the last 3 years have been Deluxe (Poly and CR), and for our next trip with a larger group, everyone is leaning towards POR. And I just don't know if I can do it! I know we would have a good time with our family and friends at POR but I am not sure if I can "set my expectations" accordingly. I've become spoiled!

 

[Shanti]

If you usually go Deluxe, do you ever go Moderate or Value for following trips? What do you base this on and are you satisfied if so?

I've done mostly deluxe resort trips & plan to keep it that way. We spent a week at Pop for our second stay, while our first had been Wilderness Lodge. We disliked our room at Pop, but that wasn't because of our prior experience at WL- we just never would have liked our Pop room, regardless. We tent camped at Ft. Wilderness for the next trip and liked it- nicest campsite we've ever camped at (Cub Scout family). But we've only stayed deluxe since then.

I think anyone who has ever stayed in a comfortable hotel has sampled what the deluxes have to offer, minus the Disney theming. In fact, the deluxes are less luxurious than most upper-tier hotels. It's less about the deluxes being amazing, and more about the mods & values being more like glorified motels. And at my age, I am very done with motel stays. I'd rather stay home.

 

[aVASTGrl]

If you usually go Deluxe, do you ever go Moderate or Value for following trips? What do you base this on and are you satisfied if so?

I usually stick with the Deluxes, but for shorter trips, I don't hesitate to go back to POFQ (so beautiful) or CS (the business class rooms are really nice) It depends on who I'm with and what else I'm spending $$ on at the time. I've never stayed Value, and have no desire to.

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

I am struggling with this very question right now myself! Our last several trips over the last 3 years have been Deluxe (Poly and CR), and for our next trip with a larger group, everyone is leaning towards POR. And I just don't know if I can do it! I know we would have a good time with our family and friends at POR but I am not sure if I can "set my expectations" accordingly. I've become spoiled!

I have the same dilemma if I were to ever go with friends. Which is why I don't go with friends to some extent. It's too important of a trip to not be happy how I am spending my money.

 

[disneyvoice]

Yep! While we love staying a deluxe resort it's the kind of trip we are taking that determines which resort we choose. If it's just me and my husband we stay at a deluxe, unless we decide we would rather not spend quite that much for some reason - so we will stay at a moderate. If our 16 is with us then we always stay in a Family Suite at All Star Music - having two separate rooms and two bathrooms is absolutely necessary for us and a Family Suite is cheaper than a 1 bedroom suite at a deluxe. When our 16 year old, our oldest son and his girlfriend are with us we get a Family Suite at All Star Music and a regular room at All Star Music. It just gets way to expensive for us to get a 2 bedroom suite at a deluxe.

So oddly, the majority of our trips are usually either deluxe or value. I've never been disappointed staying at a value after staying at a deluxe - I would much rather be staying at a value resort with my family than not staying anywhere at all.

* We just moved right near WDW so we won't be staying on property much at all anymore. It's great though because now family and friends want to visit us ALL the time - that was what we hoped for!

 

[RangerPooh]

This is something that we occasionally contemplate when booking our stays. We really like POR and recently stayed at CBR and liked it too. However if given the chance we'd definitely stay at WL, AKL, and Poly. We're also DVC members so we get spoiled there in terms of amenities, which only adds to our debate. All said, we've never stayed in a value, but did spend a month one summer in our pop up camper at the Ft. Personally wouldn't do that again, but have stayed in the cabins and really liked them and love the fort.

 

[lauritagoddess]

We started in the values, did some moderates and some deluxes, but not we're going back to a value. Granted it's a monetary issue at this point, but I really have no problem going back to the values. Honestly, it's the moderates I'm not that fond of. It's kind of like they're neither here nor there in terms of amenities between the values and deluxes and are just way to spread out for me. But while I really enjoyed staying in deluxes, I've enjoyed the values too. And it's all Disney, so that's good.

 

[Silvermist999]

I like to make each trip unique, so we've stayed at each level and offsite. I don't find that the level matters much, other than transportation around the resort (both lines and convenience). I set a budget for each trip, then decide length of trip, then decide where to stay.

I agree with this. Not only did we go deluxe for our first ever family trip with our kids, but we went deluxe with monorail. We got spoiled. We've only done deluxe on all our trips but did try a non monorail deluxe once (WL) but found ourselves not completely satisfied lol. If there is ever a moderate on the monorail line, I think we'd definitely try it out.

 

[buzznina]

We have stayed all 3 levels and find that the Mods offer our family everything we need without busting the bank. We spend a lot of time at the resort and the Mods have great themes, amenities and we much prefer a good FC over TS,

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We had only stayed at a moderate up until last trip. Then we stayed deluxe and I would honestly prefer to stay at a deluxe every trip because of location. Walking to Epcot and DHS or a short monorail to MK is awesome! But I wouldn't hesitate to stay moderate and I refuse to pay rack rate or anything crazy for a deluxe. Next trip we are doing two nights at POFQ followed by BWV on rented points for 7 nights during Jersey Week/F&W. If I couldn't rent points we would have booked POFQ for the entire stay and been absolutely happy with that.

I've never done value and have no desire to do values due to small rooms, no pool slides, no hot tubs and uncovered bus stops.

I will always try to stay deluxe if available at the right price but have no issues going moderate. I think the mods have lovely resorts. My kids actually prefer the CBR over the Poly pool but SAB is their favorite!

 

[cwis]

We sometimes do Moderates for a change, at the beginning of our trip. We don't think we could spend more that one night or two in them, for the following reasons:

• Air Condition is so noisy (there is a block inside each rooms)
• no private window/balcony
  
• food options are poor
• transportation not always that good

On the other hands, some of the moderates provide exclusive amenities, that no Deluxes can offer, and are definitely worth a shot:

• Port Orleans provides boat access to Disney Springs
• quiet pools at the moderates are sometimes deeper
• moderates tend to be less busy, especially when you spend some time at the farthest quiet pools (hello Spyglass Grill I'm coming)
• refillable containers in the bathrooms help save the world by reducing plastic waste (well, no, I'm just kidding on this one)

 

[JEH33]

If you usually go Deluxe, do you ever go Moderate or Value for following trips? What do you base this on and are you satisfied if so?

We haven't been able to go Moderate or Value. We stayed at Beach Club the first time we went with our kids, maybe that was a mistake because it's been hard to switch things up. The second trip with kids, we booked AOA because of the family suites. Though having two bathrooms was awesome, the beds were incredibly uncomfortable (and on top of that, they closed the pool for maintenance the second day we were there), so we switched to AKL (beds much better). I rented DVC points last year and we stayed at GF, but it's hard to switch things up once you find your favorite! We love the location of BC/YC so much- so it basically boils down to the beds, pool (we prefer to have a slide) and the location of for us - although I wish I could do the 30 stays in 30 days like the Bucket List family did last year, that looked awesome!

 

[lauritagoddess]

We had only stayed at a moderate up until last trip. Then we stayed deluxe and I would honestly prefer to stay at a deluxe every trip because of location. Walking to Epcot and DHS or a short monorail to MK is awesome!

Having access to the monorail is nice, but yeah staying at an Epcot resort and being able to walk into Epcot from your resort from the international gateway is a huge plus, probably the best part from when we stayed at Boardwalk and Yacht Club.

 

[Doug S]

AKL last year was my first deluxe after doing only values & moderates. It did not completely sell me on doing only deluxe from there out, but I did enjoy my stay. I'm booked at POFQ for 6 nights in December and it will be perfect for my family. My parents are visiting WDW for the first time in 12 years and the majority of our trip will be in the parks. We needed a room 3 adults could comfortably fit in, so that threw the values out. We also wanted plenty of room in our budget for dining and renting a car (we booked before the resort parking fee was announced). I feel like if you want to get the most of a deluxe, you need to be willing to be more focused on the resort than the parks. For returning visitors, that's great! I thoroughly enjoyed spending a few hours out of my days last year exploring AKL. But for people like my parents who are not Disney regulars and get slapped with the price to get into the parks, the extra money to book a deluxe gets lost.