NEW Fall & Christmas 2019 Room Discounts at Disney World!
Walt Disney World has released new promotions for Fall & Christmas 2019, including room-only discounts for the general public, Florida residents, and Annual Passholders for September through December. This is in addition to the New Free Dining Dates for Fall & Holiday 2019 we’ve already covered here.
While we’ve been expecting room-only discounts for September to drop for the last several weeks now (historically speaking, this offer is actually a few weeks late), we’re a bit surprised by the range of dates available, specifically for December during the heart of the Christmas season, and after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opens.
However, we’ve already offered extensive commentary about the why of these new Walt Disney World promos, some thoughts on availability, and more in our aforementioned Free Dining post, so I’ll spare you the details here. Suffice to say, it’s likely due to concerns Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Now, let’s take a look at these Walt Disney World room only discounts…
Let’s start with the general public room only discount available at most Walt Disney World hotels. With this offer, you can save up to 20% on rooms at select Walt Disney World hotels, valid for stays most nights September 1 through December 24, 2019.
Here is look at the specifics of this deal, including discount rates and booking deadlines:
If you have trouble reading any of that, the same info can be found here on DisneyWorld.com.
Next, Florida residents can save up to 25% and Annual Passholders can save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels for stays most nights September 1 through December. These deals look pretty similar to the general public one, albeit with more attractive discounts.
Here are specifics on the Florida resident room-only discount and here are specifics on the Annual Passholder offer. Note that the booking deadline is more lenient for these offers, which is another plus.
Note that as of 6 a.m. EST on July 16, 2019, we cannot book any of these discounts online–at least, not for the correct prices. It’s unclear if this is just us or a widespread outage. It’s entirely possible that Walt Disney World did not intend upon dropping today’s deals at 4:30 a.m. (that’s when we first spotted them!) so the announcement is already in the system, but the prices have not yet loaded. Who knows.
What we do know is that Walt Disney World’s phone lines are likely to have long, multi-hour waits all morning as a result. Once the online system does start working, it will probably slow to a crawl given that several new deals have simultaneously been released.
Sometimes, on Walt Disney World discount release day, it’s okay to sit out the madness and wait for the system to start functioning smoothly to save yourself unnecessary stress for deals that aren’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today, especially with the holiday-time discounts.
This is totally speculation on our part, but we strongly suspect that inventory for October, November, and (especially) December 2019 is very limited.
Again, this is something we cover at length in the Free Dining is Back post, but we do not believe bookings are low for the Christmas season. (This is supported by the fact that we’ve previously searched for rooms and found several resorts and room categories sold out well before this deal was released.)
As we discuss in our massive Star Wars Land Info & Galaxy’s Edge Guide, we still expect to see elevated crowds from mid-October through December 2019, and likely for at least the first half of 2020. While we may have previously overstated the impact it’ll have on attendance, we do not think Walt Disney World will be a ghost town come November or December 2019.
To the contrary, our expectation remains elevated attendance in those months. This is something we also cover in detail in our 2019 Walt Disney World Crowd Predictions: When to Go & Avoiding Star Wars Land Lines post, which we’ve updated since Disney announced the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opening date.
However, it’s also entirely possible that Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot do not see precipitously larger crowds. Epcot, specifically, could have lower crowds than normal, especially if construction scares people away or Disney’s Hollywood Studios cannibalizes its attendance.
There are so many variables at play, and if the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland has taught us anything, it’s that this year is going to be a weird, wild ride in terms of attendance and crowd projections at the U.S. Disney Parks. Even if occupancy rates are high for October through December, off-site hotels and Annual Passholders are a huge unknown. If they ‘sit out’ the first few months that Star Wars Land is open, this holiday season could be a great time to visit Walt Disney World.
Once the dust settles and the online system is working, hopefully you’re able to book your desired room. If you are (or even if you are not), we’d love to hear from you in the comments. We always do test searches (and will be booking some dates ourselves!), but it’s far easier for me to crowd-source some of this data rather than fighting Disney’s system all day.
As always, if you want to save yourself the hassle and time of having to fight DisneyWorld.com’s online (or phone) system today, you can request a FREE quote from our recommended Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and have them do the work for you.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think about these new Walt Disney World discounts? Have you been able to price out anything–or book it–for the correct price after discount? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
To be fair – I had booked my original room at standard rack rate – so if any of you had purchased an already discounted room the discount may not work out to savings
I just got through finally only to speak to someone who barely spoke english and told me their servers had crashed and to call back at 4.
I had the same TERRIBLE experience. I am so incredibly disappointed in Disney over this. It is beyond frustrating to try for an hour to speak to someone only to realize they have no comprehension of “I need to modify my reservation to apply the Passholder Fall Discount.” My representative was utterly confused. She kept me on the line for more than 15 minutes and ultimately told me to call back later.
I ended up being able to book the deal as a separate reservation on the website and then cancel my original reservation outright. I hope you were also able to figure something out. Good Luck!
My reservation for two rooms for November 13-17 went up, about $50 each from when I booked the standard, non-discounted trip back in April. Not sure if it’s because Disney is slow in updating the 10% room-only discount, but there isn’t any new savings for me from this release.
This is unknowable, but I’d be really curious what percentage of existing reservations are more expensive with this discount, which in turn infers that the recent price hikes have been pretty impactful. Reading through the comments it seems like some folks had some great success, but most are finding this to be a “discount” in name only.
generally speaking, disney IT is subpar. for as massive of a company as it is, it should be at google IT standards. i have encountered several occasions for my upcoming trip that disney announce something, states “reservations will be available starting tomorrow”, then when my TA tries booking when it supposedly is open, there is nothing in the system. ran into to this with mini golf reservations were announced and with the restaurantosaurus burgers and ice cream booking. nothing ever showed up online, and it took her many days before she got an agent on the phone who located either option in the system. they all kept saying nothing was showing up. why announce something and not have it ready? same with the magicbands mess. this reservations situation is just another example. cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s before going live, isn’t that computer science 101?
Thanks for posting about the discounts! We just changed our booking using the AP holiday discount, and for the first part of our mid-December split stay, we upgraded from Pop to Coronado with no price increase, and for the back half of the trip, we saved $180/night on the Boardwalk Inn!
We are staying for the weekend of October 4-7 and the deals were next to non-existent for us. In fact, I noticed that Disney RAISED the rack rate prices on some of the rooms which would have diluted the discount.
We’ll be in the Dolphin and looking forward to walking to the resorts and riding the new Skyliner. Maybe a great Priceline deal pops up and we slip into Boardwalk or something (likely not though). Thanks Tom!
We had the same thing happen – we were excited about the room promotion, only to find that we couldn’t apply it to our existing booking, and to book the same/similar rooms today using the promotion, would actually price us higher than our current package (Nov 8 – 15 dates)
So not shocking, Tom.
First, Star Wars is not the smash every blogger and social media influencer has proclaimed in Biblical terms since before it was even announced. (Sorta like the Skyliner is no big deal beyond ruining sightlines and destroying wetlands.)
Second, there are fundamental flaws in our economy (which you, to be fair, have stated multiple times over the last 12-18 months) and in the American Disney Parks pricing structure (something you don’t really touch because if you said it’s insane and the place isn’t worth it, then you wouldn’t have a business and Zenia would hate you as much as she hates Corless or more since you have a veneer of sanity about you that he doesn’t possess.)
When people a think that $125 a night (plus parking) is not only not insane but a value at the Pop Century motel, that’s their issue. But there are fewer and fewer of them. You now have actual sources of your own. Ask them about bookings not just for summer, but for fall. They are down across the board. Yes, even October! Only December is shaping up to be a truly great month for WDW — but it is is every year.
The fact you can get rooms on Priceline.com for very reasonable by WDW standards rates should have been a tell, especially now that we are well into the second year of this. The fact WDW had their typical $49 a day for four day passes for FL residents in spring, but now has a $55 a day same deal for summer should also have been a tell.
But some people want to cling to notions that Batuu is so life-changing that people are waiting on it (in Anaheim I guess the excuses are everyone is waiting for RotR, which is truly beyond laughable or afraid of the crowds, no one would ever show up on a Friday night or Sunday if that were true!) … and waiting on the Skyliner … and waiting on whatever IP showcase is next (BTW, have you seen the plans for the EPCOT Blue Sky Odyssey Cellar and what’s going in there and what it means? I have.)
WDW is just a tired, overrated tourist trap at this point. It’s been like this for most of this century as ‘influencers’ like yourself have come of age wallowing in nostalgia of the 90s. Yup. They are finally spending billions of dollars on the parks and infrastructure. But it isn’t being spent wisely. Could the Gran Destino be any blander? At the same time, their money-grubbing ways are turning off so many millions of people in their key demos. And all your glowing reviews and beautiful pics of tiny $9 food samples isn’t going to change a damn thing.
Again, you wanna make a bet that Bob Chapek’s office isn’t held by Catherine Powell and Disney attempts a warmer, softer touch with fans before the end of the year? A pair of Orange Bird shorts? The pre-opening GE Anaheim tees that have been flooding FL outlets stores for months? A burger at that scary hip STK?
i do agree with your opinion of the grand destino. it’s a huge no from me on that design.
Generally, when do room discounts (or Canadian resident rates) become available for February/March 2020? I’ve been waiting for some sort of discount or package price for February 25 – March 2, 2020, preferably at Coronado.
I’m already booked for a room Oct. 26-Nov. 2. When I looked online the 20% discounted rate came out about $100 higher for room only. The package rate with tickets also came out higher.
I tried online to get the discount for my POR reservation in Sept, and it didn’t take. Now my only option is to call.
We have been looking at a December trip. I searched our dates (12/12 – 12/16) and found a room, but booking is not available right now. I guess if it’s still there when things slow down then it was meant to be! If not, we’ll try for another December.
Booking for December is working right now. Unfortunately for me, they don’t seem to have anything left at Wilderness Lodge and I’m set on it for my Dec 8-12th trip. For your dates I see booking open for art of Animation suites, POR, Coronado, Yacht Club, contemporary, Poly, AKL and more.
Good luck!
I have had an identical reservation on hold for 2 weeks over Christmas both in the UK and with a US agent in hope that free dining would be again released.
the US price with free dining and tickets comes in more expensive than me buying the dining plan and adding it in to my UK booking. So not a lot free there for us
For what it’s worth, I’m wondering if there’s more to it than low occupancy at DL and Star Wars crowd fears.
I travel a lot, and have noticed a sharp decline in the last few months of spontaneous trips: people are taking trips they planned 6-8 months ago, but not planning as many trips that far out right now, going on a spontaneous trip, or participating in as many luxuries. I noticed this when several travel companions didn’t want to participate in trips on the horizon, and also have noticed people getting more conservative with investments and luxury purchases.
I decided to Google it to see if it was just a local or imagined phenomenon, and apparently consumer confidence is fairly low right now compared to recent history. I’m wondering if perhaps Star Wars has opened at an unfortunate time, and with the added expenses of WDW right now people aren’t booking trips due to decreased confidence. Maybe it will bounce back, or maybe it’s the start of a longer term of lower occupancy (and thus more discounts).
That wasn’t worded in the most eloquent way, but hopefully you were able to follow my thoughts.
I wonder about this. Anecdotally, we’ve noticed some of the same, but it’s hard to make any sweeping statements from that.
Consumer confidence and sentiment have hit record highs as recently as May 2019, so I’m not sure the more recent drop would explain people not traveling. Spending less when they arrive at their destination, sure, but most trips today would’ve been booked before May. This could explain a decrease in locals spending/visiting the parks, though.
This is a topic I find endlessly fascinating, so if you find any good reads about it, please feel free to post them here!
I believe I accidentally discarded my long comment that essentially said “who knows,” but the gist was that I think it has had an effect on add ons more than bookings, particularly in the Oct- Dec timeframe.
I was able to get dinners at BOG, CRT, and Tokyo Dining yesterday in that order 12/29-12/31. That’s fairly arypical to get on your first shot two weeks after the reservation window opens during that time frame. I imagine these discounts are targeted more towards increasing add on booking merch purchases than occupancy rates.
My inclination, based solely on nothing, is that there’s going to be more free dining availability than room rate availability because “free” diners will be more inclined to spend more on arrival — there’s that disconnect because free diners only have the one large purchase (the rooms) and aren’t handing over money 3-4 times a day for food, so they’re more likely to buy more things or participate in more add-ons. I can’t understand why else they’d offer some of these discounts even during some weeks with fairly high occupancy.
Also, the CCI tends to lag by a month imo. May was bad for the markets, but had “high” confidence, but June was good and had “low” confidence. June jobs report and stocks were strong, so if CCI bounces back, I have no idea why general travel seems low (seriously, it’s not just Disney — hotels and experiences everywhere I’m interested in seem to have more availability than typical). If it stays low, I’ll be interested in what smarter people than me have to say about what’s causing it. Hopefully it rebounds (for the general public at least — it’s technically good for me and likely you on an individual level for CCI to be low for a while — it means discounts on travel and investing).
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/39687131
This is an interesting article. I have been wondering about theme parks overall as well as traveling in general.
Thanks Tom for this heads up! We had booked at Pop for 11/30-12/2. I was just able to upgrade to Coronado for close to the same price with my AP discount. So worth it since we’re not doing parks and wouldn’t have used the Sky Liner.
Pop Century didn’t have any rooms available for the room discount Dec. 1-6 and that’s one of the only weeks not eligible for Free Dining, so I was out of luck this time. :/
Wow. We are booked through DVC 9/7-9/13 but I wanted to see availability. Coronado was the cheapest room at only $168/night. Not a bad deal. I hope these discounts don’t entice enough people to book that it will make a difference in crowds. Looks like many people are just modifying their existing reservations.
Thanks to your newsletter update I was just able to save almost $200 on my reservation at CBR! super quick and easy this morning online!
I don’t understand. Can someone explain this to me? I still can’t get FP’s for Avatar Flight of Passage (which opened over two years ago) or a wait time under two hours on any given day but they are worried about attendance for Star Wars Land? I am still shocked about Disneyland but I just think Disneyworld is an entirely different beast. Am I completely missing something?
Just applied the room only discount to our previously booked CBR stay Dec 12-16 and was successful!
How did you do this? Did you have to call up to get your reservation modified?
I’m curious as well.
Are you staying in the pirate rooms? When I search for a new reservation that is the only room type available, and even with the new discount it’s more than what I paid when I booked a long while back.
Not sure if the other room types are available when you modify a reservation?
On a side note, the prices for Port Orleans looked pretty good, but I do really want to try the Skyliner/don’t think the modest savings tilt me away from CBR.
It seems to be nearly impossible modify a reservation online, as Disney’s web site has had more problems than any site I have ever used (I’ve been saying this for years and years), and I get the “Down for Maintenance” message if I get the random “Manage Reservation” button that occasionally appears next to my reservation. I tried calling this morning, and every number I dialed gave me the “all circuits are busy” message.
I should have said the “Change Reservation” button…
I just made a new reservation first and cancelled the old one.
Update: I finally got the “Change Reservation” option to work, and when I apply the “Fall and Holiday Room Offer” to my package, my overall package price goes UP approximately 5%. I assume this is because I booked my trip in December, and I know prices have gone up since then. So, the new 10% offer is meaningless to me, as it seems to basically say to me: “Here’s 10% off our newly increased 15% prices.”
Mark, does that mess up fast pass reservations to book a new room and cancel the old one?
Noel, I bet that would cancel your FPs 🙁
We use an authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and she was able to confirm what I saw this morning. That is (for us) the prices with the discount are higher than we booked initially. Granted Disney has had $200 of my money for a while now, but it doesn’t look like the discount outweighs all the price hikes they made since we initially booked. This again was for a Caribbean Beach Resort stay in mid-November. It might be an over generalization, and I get the time value of money thing, but I think I am firmly in the camp of just book a trip as far in advance as possible. You’ll probably forget about the $200 hold, and in some (many?) cases you might beat any future discounts anyways.
Drew: I’m with you on this. My Art of Animation trip actually goes up $160 with the discount! So, I’m not changing anything at this point…
Exactly! Used the change reservation button and selected the same room – preferred room with the fall holiday offer – came out $51 cheaper each night for our stay
I was able to see the fall discount on my booking however it ended up being $10more a night with the new price! So I just left it as is. With my second booking I was able to reduce the price down.
Wow thanks for the info! I updated my December trip to take advantage of the Passholder Room Only discount and was able to switch hotels to get our preferred location at the Contemporary.