Walt Disney World has released new resort room-only discounts for Disney Visa Cardmembers for Winter & Spring 2024. This post shares the details of these special offers, which are both aggressive and early. Plus, commentary about the savings, sample pricing, analysis & other info.
This is one of a growing number of special offers that has been released thus far for 2024 Walt Disney World vacations. If you’re looking for general public promos, the big one is the “Free” Disney Dining Card Deal for 2024, which runs through March 2024. We suspect that’s a precursor to real Free Dining being offered in the late summer and fall of next year.
That isn’t the only deal available for booking right now–there are over a half-dozen different offers. For everything else, see All Current Walt Disney World Discounts (Late 2023 & 2024). There are promos available for pretty much all dates between now and Spring 2024, with even more available for next year if you take a trip this year. So that’s worth checking out if you’re debating a trip in the next several months…
Per Walt Disney World, here are the deal details: Stay in the magic at Walt Disney World Resort! Disney Visa Cardmembers can save on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels in early 2024.
- Save up to 35% on stays most Sunday through Thursday nights from January 9, 2024 through February 22, 2024; and most nights February 25, 2024 through March 24, 2024
- Save up to 20% on stays most Friday and Saturday nights from January 12, 2024 through February 24, 2024
- Plus, enjoy Cardmember-exclusive savings on select nights at:
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – Family Suites (save up to 30%)
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (save up to 35%)
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (save up to 35%)
When you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, you can enjoy the same legendary detail, storytelling and service found in the theme parks—along with an array of benefits.
Here’s the resort by resort Disney Visa Cardmembers rate discount chart:
Phew. To the best of my recollection, this is the longest one of these discount charts we’ve ever seen. Lots of different categories and quirks, such as Coronado Springs having its own entry–and going from the highest possible discount on weekdays to the lowest on weekends.
Additional eligibility details include the requirement that you use a valid Disney Visa Card or Disney Rewards Redemption Card to pay the deposit, and that the Disney Visa Cardmember must stay in the room.
Offer excludes the following room types: 3-bedroom villas, Tower Studios at Disney’s Riviera Resort, Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, and The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.
Additional per-adult charges may apply if more than 2 adults per room at Value, Moderate and Deluxe Resorts and Studios at Deluxe Villa Resorts. Maximum length of stay under this deal is 14 nights. Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion.
Reservations may be made by calling the Disney Reservation Center at (407) 939-5262 or via your Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. This deal is also bookable online HERE.
If you want to take advantage of this discount, we’d recommend requesting a FREE no obligation quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and having them book for you. They will happy to assist you with the planning process, help you choose the most economical dates, best add-ons, and so forth. Notably, they also monitor reservations and can retroactively apply new discounts if a better deal is released to save you more money.
Here’s what we found for best available rates for this Winter & Spring 2024 discount:
This search is for the night of February 6, 2024, which is part of the Value rate season at Walt Disney World. On the rack rate chart spectrum, this is the expensive time to visit Walt Disney World in 2024. Similarly-priced dates can be found throughout January and February 2024, and slightly higher (but still relatively reasonable) rates are available in early March.
For more on timing your trip to coincide with the lowest prices, see When’s Cheapest to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024? That covers price increases and other variables that impact the cost of a vacation beyond just room rates.
If you’re not sure of which hotel to book, be sure to check out our new Rankings of ALL Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World from Worst to Best. Several of the resorts with the biggest savings are in the top 10!
Another thing to keep in mind is the restoration of free parking at Walt Disney World resorts. For those who are driving or renting a car, not only are these savings more significant than discounts during the same timeframe last year, but there’s also the added bonus of not having to pay for parking. That should amount to a fairly hefty year-over-year decrease in total prices, which is exceedingly rare for Walt Disney World!
Speaking of on-site perks, don’t underestimate the value of Early Entry and (potentially) Extended Evening Hours. We’ve found that many fans dismiss the former due to it being “only” 30 minutes, but we’ve found Early Entry to be incredibly advantageous (see our Guide to Early Entry at Walt Disney World). For those who are eligible, Extended Evening Hours is absolutely fantastic (see our Guide to Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for strategy and other info).
Anyway, here’s the rack rates for standard rooms as illustrated below in the rate chart for Disney’s All Star Sports Resort:
Contrast the rates in January and February 2024 with those in late June or July or even this upcoming October through December, and you’ll see it’s a fairly significant difference.
We’ve had readers ask about finding these rate charts whenever we post them. Rather than going off-topic here, refer to 2024 Walt Disney World Resort Hotel Price Increases (the step-by-step process is towards the bottom).
Turning to commentary, the biggest story here is that Walt Disney World is once again releasing early and aggressive discounts. We’ve been discussing how the tides have been turning for several months, and pent-up demand is showing more and more signs of exhaustion. That’s really old news at this point.
But it still is worth pointing out that this round of discounts for Winter & Spring 2024 is coming about one full month ahead of when it would be released based on historical precedent. That’s not just based on the last few years, which have been weird–but dating back to 2017 to (early) 2020, when this type of discount usually came out in mid to late October. It coming out earlier, even if targeted to Disney Visa Cardholders, is indicative of Walt Disney World falling short of preliminary occupancy targets and/or wanting to juice revenue before the end of the current fiscal year. Perhaps both.
Another very notable thing about this discount is that the best rates are more remote–for “most nights” February 25, 2024 to March 24, 2024. By contrast, January through late February 2024 have very different discounts for the weeknights versus the weekends. Presumably, this is because bookings are already looking fairly healthy of the first couple months, and Walt Disney World doesn’t want to be too generous with savings.
That happens often, but usually not with January and February–two of the slowest months of the year outside holiday breaks. (It makes sense that some resorts–like Coronado and the All Stars–would have smaller savings on the weekends. There are a ton of cheer, dance, and other sporting events in the winter and spring months, and those occur disproportionately on weekends, and make select resorts significantly busier.)
The more interesting angle of this is that all nights in March 2024 are offering aggressive savings. This is an early ‘red flag’ month for us, as normal spring break crowds and Easter spring break crowds are going to be consolidated into March rather than spread out across March and April 2024. While this deal does end before Easter week, it’s really odd that it includes everything after the first full week of the month–and at the highest rate of savings!
Even with revenge travel burning out and a slowdown likely on the horizon, the final 3 weeks of March 2024 are going to be very busy. Occupancy for those dates being low right now doesn’t really mean much…people don’t start booking spring break trips in earnest this early. This just strikes me as Walt Disney World wanting the capture the bookings and revenue now, rather than letting momentum build gradually.
That impatience is great for Walt Disney World fans, though, as the discounts for mid-March 2024 wouldn’t be nearly as aggressive if these offers were released even a month from now! Along these lines, we’d strongly recommend booking this ASAP for the best availability if you’re planning a trip in March 2024. If Walt Disney World is smart, they’re going to artificially limit room inventory for that month under this discount, meaning your options will be limited for March unless you book quickly.
Before anyone asks, we’re still not expecting general public room-only discounts for early 2024 to be released until next month based on historical precedent. But they will be released–this is not the only discount that’s going to be available for January through March 2024, it’s just the one that Walt Disney World wants to push first.
It’s possible room-only discounts could come earlier if the company is starting to worry about 2024 occupancy numbers, but it’s also possible they’ll let this discount have the spotlight for longer if it’s selling well. (My expectation is that room-only discounts also drop earlier than normal, but that’s just a guess.)
As for my assessment of the quality of this discount, it’s largely very positive. The only real exception is Friday and Saturday nights in January and February, when a lot of the resorts have fairly paltry savings. But everything else is really, really good. Just look at the list of lowest prices above–All Stars for $87, Pop Century for $122, Coronado Springs for $150, and a handful of Deluxe Resorts for relatively reasonable rates.
Some Walt Disney World fans may disagree, thinking back to 2013, 2008, or some year in the distant past. And it is true that rack rates have gone up in the last several years. But not as much as everything else at Walt Disney World. (To the contrary, rack rates have increased by relatively modest amounts since 2020. It’s the lack of discounting that has made the effective prices people pay much, much higher!)
After this discount, there are many nights when the cheapest option at one of the Value Resorts is less expensive than anything at Flamingo Crossings and Disney Springs. That’s before factoring in the value of Early Entry and other on-site perks, plus transportation to the parks.
In many cases, you’re going to be hard-pressed to do better than the rates Walt Disney World is offering if you can find availability for your travel dates. For instance, under $100 per night for the All Stars–with the new rooms, perks, transportation, and free parking–is a very fair price, in our view. (If you can find it, Pop Century is a great pick, even at ~$150 per night.)
Of course, rooms are not as cheap as what you would’ve paid this same time in 2019, let alone 2016. Back in my day, the All Stars had off-season rates that were routinely $69 per night or less! Unfortunately, it’s impossible to book those past prices. (If you do have the means to time travel, I hope you’re using it for something better than saving an extra ~$20 on a Value Resort!) Even with that in mind, this isn’t too far from that when adjusted for inflation.
Ultimately, this is another discount that’s considerably better than what we were seeing in 2021-2022, which continues a trend that began at the start of this year and really accelerated with the last round of discounts. As always, plan on being flexible with your hotel choice, room category, and even travel dates for the biggest savings.
Walt Disney World offering more discounts to the general public is great news, and definitively demonstrates that travel trends are normalizing now after running hot for way too long. During that period of pent-up demand, Walt Disney World was able to ‘get away’ with pretty much anything and still see record guest spending and insatiable demand. Consumers now appear to once again have more leverage, and companies need to entice them to visit.
This should be an interesting saga to follow, and it’s almost certain that we haven’t seen the end of Walt Disney World’s efforts to woo back former fans and pull “levers” to incentivize more demand and guest spending. It’s still premature to predict the return of Free Dining in 2024, but between Walt Disney World releasing multiple deals for 2024 in September 2023 and the return of the Disney Dining Plan…it sure feels like things are trending in the right direction for that in the second half of 2024. (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!)
More broadly speaking, this normalization is obviously good thing for fans and Walt Disney World. Revenge travel was a distortion that had unhealthy consequences at Walt Disney World and beyond. Putting that in the rearview mirror is good for consumers and the long-term health of the company–especially its reputation and guest goodwill. Walt Disney World not doing record-breaking numbers regardless of the guest-unfriendly decisions and changes they make–and instead having to actually compete for customers–is a good thing.
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 Walt Disney World room-only discounts in Winter & Spring 2024 for Disney Visa Cardmember? 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 this deal enough to convince you to book a trip, or can you not justify these 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!
