AP resort discount exclusion list

[Kt75]

Does anyone have the list of resorts excluded when the AP resort discount is posted?

 

[LindyN]

It varies and no discount is ever across the board for all resorts and all room types. Usual discount blockouts are AoA LM, Villas at GF, BLT, Polynesian bungalows. Passholders get the 'leftovers'. Don't count on an AP rate, and there are times when there's no passholder rate for Friday or Saturdays, and a general public (GP) offer is the best deal.
Buy your AP for park admission and not discounts that may not materialize.

 

[adelaster]

Buy your AP for park admission and not discounts that may not materialize.

I keep seeing that on these boards, but the Disney website states first thing, "Enjoy a year of magic as a Walt Disney World Passholder and get discounts on dining, merchandise, recreation and tours —plus valuable offers for stays at Disney Resort hotels and special Passholder communications."

Then I read blogs about people preferring the Annual Pass because they can book discounts on short notice. I sympathize with the OP because even on sites like the often referenced https://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/ there is no information regarding actual availability for rooms.

Completely understand that the public's "general" discount comes first. Completely understand that discounts are offered to fill rooms, which keeps people on property and in turn increases revenue. Knowing that, it's easy to assume that the popular and/or smaller resorts are likely excluded from these deals. But that is not always the case! For example, a very helpful AP-holder here shared with me some of the deals they saw in the last year for POFQ, and there were definitely room discounts at certain times. So there is no hard fast rule for exclusions either.

As someone who is just learning about all this (speaking for myself, but maybe OP too) it is really difficult to navigate. It's easy to calculate if an AP would save you money on park visits- but the hitch is if you are out of state it's more difficult to get to the parks. Thus a room discount would be almost a requirement for those visits if you are flying in without a car. It's a bit of a catch-22 when you don't know what, if any, room discounts will be available to you. Present AP-holders and the many "old-timers" have the benefit of knowing what was historically offered to them with the exclusions, and are able to make a more educated decision about renewal based on that information. Non-AP-holders can only see how much was offered and what dates it was available. This is the first time I've even heard that weekends are excluded! It's really intimidating.

I just wish there was a way to view historical "fine print" on these offers, or have a better sense of what the overall trends are.

 

[cutigerlady]

It really does depend on where Disney needs to fill availability and if it happens to match up to your travel dates. The more flexible you can be on when you travel and the more persistent you are, you might luck out and find a great deal! Often times, AP holders get discounts but it's on the rooms nobody is booking - preferred, club, etc. that start with a higher per night rate anyway. I've seen discounts that are 35-40% off, but you really have to play with the travel dates and resort. Recently, I've seen AP pins that are historically low - $49 values/$129 CBR, but the travel dates are M-W or Su-TH only. I saw 35% off at the GF for June, while the vast majority of other resorts have no availability or only the suites.

I've been an out of state AP holder for 4 years and I look at the value in my park ticket/parking savings alone and the other hotel/merch/food discounts as an added bonus. For us, if we have two trips planned within the same year, the AP works out to be better for us. The last few years, I've been lucky enough to take 7-8 trips per year thanks to several business trips that put me in the area anyway. For most of those trips we have not used an AP room only discount because we were traveling in a timeframe that didn't have a discount, I found a better discount elsewhere, or we used our timeshare points.

 

[dkrauss]

While it won't help with what resorts are offering AP discounts, the Mousesavers website has a listing of historical/current discounts. It really helps (but is not perfect), in gauging WHEN a discount will be available. The list of resorts that usually don't get discounts, stated above is pretty consistent/accurate. Since the general public discount usually comes out first I start there. What we've done in the past (and in fact for our June trip coming up.... ) is we look at the where we'd like to stay..........get comfortable with that selection.

The key is being comfortable with the potential of NO DISCOUNT. We'll book our room before the discount comes out (this is a new strategy because of losing out on a room because I waited ). I then check the availability of discounts at the moment they come out (yeah I'm a discount stalker ). If I see something good I adjust my room reservation online, although sometimes I do call Disney When the AP discounts come out a week or two later.............I go back in............and review again.

Sometimes my initial resort selection doesn't have anything in the room type I've reserved........sometimes it does. For our June trip, we originally had a room at the WL............it wasn't a standard so I was paying a bit more than I wanted. When the AP discount came out I reviewed other resorts and I found a room at the YC for less than what I was paying at WL. So I took it. For this trip our YC price came to about $280/night with the AP room only discount. My wife and I were very pleased..........the only adjustment to our plans was we will now "just visit" WL during our afternoon break at the MK.

The point here is flexibility and persistence. Now some people don't wish to be discount stalkers..........that's fine. Also room discounts are not the only/primary reason we have the AP. We're doing 24 WDW days in the AP year so we're saving money, at least in our minds.

To the OP, how ever it goes hope you get what your looking for and have a great Disney vacation!!

 

[beck00]

Thanks for advice from all PPs! We're more like upgrading to APs in Feb 2018, and I've found this info/advice really helpful. We'll definitely be back Nov 2018 for a longer trip (and probably Aug 2018) so the AP makes sense for me.