Save Up to 25% Off Disney World Hotels in Summer & Fall 2021!
Walt Disney World has released new hotel discounts through Fall 2021 with room-only deals. This post shares the details of these special offers, analysis as to how much money you’ll save with each, comparisons to other discounts, and availability info.
There is a tiered discount that’s essentially an “extension” of the previous promotions released for Annual Passholders, Florida residents, and the general public that offered up to 35% Off Hotels at Walt Disney World for Summer 2021. That deal is still available for booking and travel or stays most nights now through July 10, 2021.
There are obvious differences between the deals. The first is that the only discount that has dropped thus far is a general public room-only offer. Annual Passholders and Florida residents will likely see discounts released later, and will be left with the table scraps of unsold options…
Here are the official details: guests can save up to 25% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels for stays most nights July 11, 2021 through September 29, 2021. Walt Disney World’s summer room discount is available for booking through September 29, 2021.
This special offer excludes the following room types: 3-bedroom villas, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, and Little Mermaid Standard Rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. Additional per-adult charges may apply if more than 2 adults per room at Disney Value, Moderate and Deluxe Resorts and Studios at Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts. Maximum length of stay under this deal is 14 nights.
Here are the resort by resort savings rates:
Note that since reopening, Walt Disney World has been touting its relaxed “book with confidence” cancellation policy. However, this incredibly flexible refund option ended last month and the normal cancellation policy is back in effect. We’re fans of flexibility, but as more returns to normal, it’s probably not necessary to incentivize bookings.
It’s also noteworthy that there is no difference in the discount for weekdays versus Friday and Saturday nights, which has been the case with some of the previous room-only discounts from earlier this year.
The biggest difference between now and when the last Walt Disney World deals dropped is demand. For the first six-plus months after the parks reopened, travel was lethargic and bookings were anemic. That resulted in some above-average deals, but honestly, nothing quite on par with what we anticipated.
Now, travel has heated up–especially in Florida–and hotel bookings are picking up in a big way. Suffice to say, “Revenge Travel” has arrived at Walt Disney World. Not only is it here, but it comes against a backdrop of reduced park capacity and several hotels, literally half of Walt Disney World’s Value and Moderate Resort room inventory, still out of commission.
Low supply and high demand is not exactly a great recipe for scorching deals. That probably also explains why there’s no concurrent release of Annual Passholder and Florida resident rates. Ironically, it’s a reversal of what happened for roughly the same dates last year when Walt Disney World reopened, and there was nothing for the general public but great deals for locals (well, reversal minus the “great deals” part).
Unfortunately, the solution for this–reopening more hotels and in a hurry–is easier said than done. Walt Disney World has already recalled furloughed and previously laid-off Cast Members, and even posted tons of new job listings. They’re still having significant difficulties filling the necessary positions. This trend is hardly unique to Florida or Disney; you’ve probably seen similar stories on your local news.
However, it’s pronounced in Orlando since so many people are transplants, many of whom might’ve left the region when unemployment skyrocketed last spring and job openings dried up. Moreover, the International and College Programs are still on hiatus, so those sources of “renewable” labor are absent. All of that presents significant issues for Walt Disney World, especially given the number of employees needed and its slower pace at hiring than local competitors.
Moving along, in spot-checking availability for this room only discount…it’s not looking great. Granted, our searches are not exhaustive or comprehensive, and usually a clearer picture takes a few days or weeks to emerge.
Right now, we’re seeing plenty of availability at Deluxe Resorts for a variety of dates and room categories. That’s probably not universally true; I don’t search every date and resort combination. (That’s why it’s helpful when readers share their booking success/failures in the comments to these discount posts!)
However, what we’re seeing early on is a dearth of options at the Value and Moderate Resorts. Where there is availability, it often requires a room upgrade (e.g. from standard to preferred view…or the dreaded Pirate Rooms), thus at least partially negating the benefit of the discount.
This is not a huge surprise, and is pretty much what we expected. Pop Century, All Star Movies, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs all have been doing strong numbers since the start of spring break–so much so that they’re overbooked and frequently moving guests from those resorts to Deluxes. There’s also the reality that the lower-tier resorts simply don’t have as good of percentage discounts as the Deluxes & Villas.
Perhaps this is best illustrated with a visual–here’s a look at the lowest rates you’re likely to find, with these prices from the “Value 2” season after Labor Day weekend:
It probably doesn’t need to be said, but nearly $300 per night for Disney’s Caribbean Resort is not a great deal. Ditto the prices at Coronado Springs and Pop Century. (All Star Movies is not available for travel dates on the screenshot above, but it’s typically ~$9 to $16 cheaper per night than Pop Century in our searches.)
Suffice to say, if you’re hoping to book a Value or Moderate, you may want to temper your expectations and/or be flexible with travel dates. Even then, you may not have any luck.
Benchmarking these discounts as compared to historical offers is pretty easy, as a very similar slew of room-only discounts was released two years (we skip last year due to the closure) on April 24 that covered travel dates for May through August 28 with similar hotel options. Even that offer is not a great comparison since it ended prematurely due to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the opening of which was expected to be a big draw.
There are other slight differences since some hotels are currently closed, but you get the idea. That summer & fall discount offered 15%-25% off room-only rates for general public, 20%-30% off room-only rates for Florida Residents, and 25%-35% off room-only rates for Annual Passholders. There was also a free gift card offered to some bookings.
Basically, this discount is identical minus the AP and Florida resident rates, which is obviously a huge difference for those groups. Additionally, Caribbean Beach and All Star Movies have lower percentage savings, and the Art of Animation Family Suites have higher savings. There’s also no gift card (but I honestly don’t remember the circumstances of that, I just have a notation about it).
With that said, the biggest difference between then and now is something not obvious from the face of the deal: availability. I distinctly recall that deal from two years ago having a surplus of options at virtually any resort. I know this because we booked it several times and had no issues whatsoever getting exactly what we wanted, even weeks after the promo was released. That was a slow summer and early fall at Walt Disney World. This almost certainly will not be.
As with most discount release days, Walt Disney World’s phone lines will be jammed and the online system will likely slow to a crawl at peak times, with Stitch eating the occasional page here and there.
Despite that, we’d encourage you to book this deal ASAP, especially if you’re considering one of the Value or Moderate Resorts (see above commentary). Same goes for the Deluxe Villas, simply because Walt Disney World doesn’t have much inventory for those resorts, so those rooms in particular are likely to book quickly.
Keep in mind that if you already have a resort reservation booked under another discount (or no deal at all), you can modify your reservation and apply this deal. However, this requires a direct availability match for your existing booking under the deal, meaning that if there isn’t availability for the combination of your travel dates, resort, and room category, the deal cannot be applied retroactively. You can try modifying your travel dates, resort, and category to see if that’ll work, though.
Based upon reader comments, it would seem more people than normal are experiencing this issue. This is totally normal and happens with all deals, but can be confusing. Think of applying a discount to an existing reservation as somewhat akin to a price match. If the exact product is not in stock at the store that has it on sale, the store where you’re trying to purchase the item may deny the price-match. (Except in this case, both “stores” are Disney, so perhaps that’s still confusing.)
If you want to help determining what discounts are available for your travel dates and which resort will work best for your family, we recommend requesting a quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, a no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner that we recommend. The agents there will book your vacation and help take the stress out of planning.
Ultimately, some of these room-only discounts are fine, but there’s nothing groundbreaking here. A lot of people looking to book a Value or Moderate Resort are probably going to end up disappointed, as the rates and availability leave a lot to be desired for the two lowest tiers.
To that point, Deluxe Villa and Deluxe Resorts are going to offer the best savings—we’d skew towards the standalone properties rather than the add-on wings for maximum savings. Unfortunately, due to the loss of the extra 5% off plus higher room rates for the summer months, the net prices end up being more expensive. Nevertheless, if you’re eager for an escape to Walt Disney World in the coming months and don’t mind the in-park sacrifices and can’t find any better options via Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals (especially confirmed reservations) or Priceline Express Deals, this might be as good as it’ll get for you. We will be closely monitoring what’s released and will notify subscribers of our free email newsletter when any Walt Disney World discounts are released or rumored!
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 of these room only discounts for the general public? If you booked this, do you think you ended up with a good price or do you feel like you’re overpaying? What was available or unavailable for your dates? Is up to 25% off enough to convince you to book a trip, or is too much still missing from the full Walt Disney World experience to justify even those prices? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? 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!
With such room limitations on Value and Moderate Resorts (also seems that Disney is trying to play 3-card Monte with room selections by only allows higher cost rooms). In my opinion these discounts are not, but are rather insults. This is considering that most hotels outside the bubble are charging up to 65 percent off.
@Karalea K Price thinking the same thing. The perks have gone down (Magical Express too soon) and the prices have not gone down. I think there new target is not repeat visitors that do not have money
These changes and the increased rates are so discouraging. My family of 5 has gone to Disney in August and stayed in Port Orleans for the last 4 summers before the pandemic and have done the free dining plan which made the trip very worthwhile. We opted out of going last August due to everything and transferred our reservations to this August. Now it is going to cost more to stay at Caribbean Beach for the exact same length of time with no dining plan and even with the room discount, and the price is almost 2000 more than the offer last year in August with the room discount that replaced the dropped dining plan. Hard to justify going….
Tom I read your blog everyday love it you keep me updated on all the things I want to know about .
can you tell me if you think there well be more late August deals are do you think this will be it.
Discounts on rooms is great….IF you can get park reservations. I’m looking at an almost fully-gray calendar for when we visit, yet it’s totally green for season pass holders. I know many will disagree with me on this, but it’s disheartening to know that those spending thousands upon thousands on a once-a-year or once-in-a-lifetime trip to Disney are thought of less by Disney than those who live in the area & can go anytime without reserving an expensive resort room (or having to eat on site). We were a once-a-year family, but this has really soured me on Disney. We’re now looking at Universal for next year’s vacation.
We’re Annual Passholders who benefit from the current Park Pass calendar allocation, and even I totally agree with you. Walt Disney World should absolutely be prioritizing those who stay on-site and/or are booking once in a lifetime vacations. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can look at things objectively, separating out their own self-interest, and think that’s not what should be done.
I’m really surprised Disney hasn’t addressed that. It made sense to allocate more Park Pass reservations to APs last summer and fall when tourism dried up, but that hasn’t been the case for the last several months.
I searched for a Tuesday – Sunday stay at CBR, the dates available were 09/07 – 09/12 (I’d consider that peak off season?). It was the dreaded Pirate Rooms, and the room only rate was $1,675. I chose Tues – Sunday because I had been researching an offer at Universal. The dates there are 30 Nov – 5 Dec, (I’d say objectively a better time to visit central Florida) and a room only rate at Portofino Bay was $1,621. A room only rate at Royal Pacific was $1,370.
I know Universal doesn’t have all the trimmings of Disney, but it does (again objectively) offer more for it’s on site guests.
Disney’s current pricing is crazy to me.
Yeah, the Caribbean Beach pricing in particular is pretty nuts. In the past, I’ve largely ignored rack rates since Free Dining or room discounts totally changed the equation…but with only 10% off, those prices are absurd. And that’s coming from someone who LOVES Caribbean Beach!
Tried to apply this for my Beach Club reservation… no dice. Not really surprised because there’s no more availability for BC on our dates, but still disappointed. Hoping a passholder discounts comes out soon and maybe we’ll be able to snag that, otherwise looks like we may be moving over to Boardwalk (which is disappointing because we really wanted to spend some time at Storm Along Bay)
If there’s no availability for the general public, I wouldn’t hold your breath on an AP discount. Whatever is released there will likely just be the “leftovers” from this.
With that said, I would recommend checking back over the next couple of days/weeks, as courtesy holds will be released and Disney might add more inventory to the discount. In my opinion, that’s your better bet than waiting for an AP deal. Good luck! 🙂
Can anyone confirm if Old Key West villas are included in this discount? They’re not explicitly listed in the list of discounts, but they also aren’t explicitly listed as not included in the discount.
Yay! Discount is on the Fort Wilderness Campsites too! My husband will be so surprised when I tell him we’re going again!
Hi Tom,
Any idea when or if WDW will have discounts for November/December? Been waiting for those months to drop. Thank you for any insight you might have.
If past precedent is any indication, mid-July 2021 will be when discounts through December will be released.
However, I would not be surprised if that’s delayed this year due to the 50th Anniversary and so much still being up in the air. I could see Disney wanting to wait a bit longer, assessing full price bookings, occupancy, and room inventory for those months before releasing deals. Just a guess, though–that’s still two-plus months away and a ton could change.
I booked a deluxe studio at Boulder Ridge Villa a few weeks ago and was told at time of booking that if a discount became available that applied to our room/dates/etc we could get the discount applied. I tried this morning and it said “no availably” 🙁 Am I missing something? Thanks!!
Nope, you’re not missing anything. It just means there are no discounted rooms available under the promotion for your travel dates, resort, and category combination. If there’s no direct availability match for your existing discount, the deal does not apply. You can try modifying your travel dates, resort, and category to see if that’ll work, though.
What you’re experiencing happens all the time, and can be confusing. Think of it sort of like a price-match; if the product is not in stock at the store that has it on sale, the other store may deny the price-match. (Except in this case, both “stores” are Disney, so perhaps that’s still confusing.)
Re: the labor shortage: I’m really hoping they can still significantly increase dining capacity.
There will be a huge increase in on-site guests over the summer (Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge AND Polynesian all re-opening). Obviously, on-site guests are more reliant on on-site dining than off-site guests.
So without a significant increase in dining capacity, the already poor dining availability will really reach crisis levels. How do you tell huge crowds of on-site guests that there is no table service availability anywhere near their resort and that there is a 2-hour backup for mobile QS orders?
I’m also hoping that’s the case. Walt Disney World definitely has recalled and hired a lot of new Cast Members (training groups have become regular fixtures of park visits) but still not nearly enough. Beyond just the online job listings, I’ve noticed a ton more advertisements recently for this.
It probably doesn’t help that Disney’s pace has been so slow that they’re way behind the curve on hiring in Central Florida, so the available labor pool is significantly smaller than it would’ve been if they anticipated this and started hiring back in March. The return of the College Program cannot come quickly enough! (Never expected to say that as early as May 2021, but it’s been a crazy year.)
Do you think discounts will be released for late fall/early winter? I know the anniversary is during that time. We are booked for early December and a promotion would be great!
Do you think they will add any discounts for November?
Thanks Tom! Heard any rumblings about Disneyland discounts?
Thanks for the update. I concur on the
“It probably doesn’t need to be said, but nearly $300 per night for Disney’s Caribbean Resort is not a great deal. Ditto the prices at Coronado Springs and Pop Century”
they may be offering promos but its not real deal and my opinion with so many perks going away its no longer a deal. Glad I went many many times before.
Boardwalk Inn appears to have the most availability, unsurprising since bookings there just recently opened up.
Overall, there isn’t a huge amount of supply, even at deluxe resorts.
The mediocre discounts and recently announced BWI re-opening definitely point to strong summer demand.
But considering this obvious demand, it’s really really surprising Disney isn’t opening up more resorts, including AKL, Port Orleans, and more value resorts. “Covid capacity” shouldn’t be a huge issue — every expectation is that most restrictive mandates will be gone by summer. And even if you still had to limit the parks to 40-50% capacity, you would still have room for all those on-site guests, just would need to restrict more off-site guests.
So given this strong demand, why are so many resorts still closed?!
A few possibilities:
1 — WDW has a slow deliberate plan to re-open, and they are sticking to it. They aren’t going to “speed up” dramatically just because Covid cases are dropping. They are thinking long-term, not month to month currently. The announced re-opening of BWI was all the “speeding up” they are doing.
2 –“Labor shortage” issues are widely reported in central Florida and nationwide. Combined with the lack of the College Program, WDW may simply be unable to get enough staff for “full operations.”
3 — The number crunches would rather fill 60% of the hotel space with small discounts, than have 100% of the hotels open, requiring bigger discounts to get smaller occupancy rates. Limiting the number of resorts allows them to get more revenue per on-site guest, at lower cost.
And of course, all 3 of these factors may be combined.
If what I’ve heard recently is accurate, it’s almost entirely #2.
Another wildcard is the current “free night” offer for Cast Members, which is being used to fill unsold nights and increase goodwill among CMs so more don’t quit. I’m not sure to what degree this impacts July-September, but it’s definitely a consideration right now, particularly for last-minute deals.
@Adam – tip for you is to check each day separately for availability. The discount might be available for some of your nights. If so, you could rearrange it to pick up the discounted nights on a separate reservation. It’s a pain, but it may be that only one night is not available for the discount, so when selecting your date range it would show all are not available.
“Dreaded Pirate Rooms”. Haha. We dreaded them too. But on our last trip in February we decided to leave for WDW a day early and the only reasonably priced option was the Pirate Room at Caribbean Beach (booked one day prior with Passholder discount). It was not that bad. The bed was actually comfortable and we liked all the theming elements. Maybe we enjoyed it since we only stayed one night before moving on to Grand Floridian and Riviera, so we didn’t experience the bus waits and only did that long walk back to the main lobby and Skyliner once.
This is what we’ve all been waiting for! Step 1 in convincing people like us (on the fence) to actually go on a real vacation this summer instead of putting it off a year.
Tentatively have a split-stay trip booked in August and we were able to get the discount added to our Pop room and save a cool $150. No luck with Kidani Village for the second part of the trip (it says nothing is available), which is surprising because I think we’re staying at one of the lower demand times of the summer/fall. Somehow 3 nights at Boardwalk Inn is now $150 cheaper (w/ discount) than 3 nights at Kidani which seems bizarre…