Walt Disney World has released resort room-only discounts for the remainder of 2024, covering travel dates this Halloween and Christmas seasons for the general public. This shares the special offers savings, a comparison to last year, commentary about availability and the slowdown, sample pricing, analysis & other info.
This isn’t the only new discount to drop. If you’re eligible for them, there are also discounts of up to 35% off for residents of Florida and up to 40% off for Annual Passholders. Of course, many of you don’t reside in Florida or are not an Annual Passholder, so this is your best bet. Thankfully, it’s a good one! Beyond that, Free Dining is already available for a subset of these same dates.
These new discounts for Halloween and Christmas also aren’t the only deals available to book right now–there are over a half-dozen different offers. For everything else, see All Current Walt Disney World Discounts in 2024. There are promos available for pretty much all dates between now and Christmas 2024, so that’s worth checking out if you’re debating a trip anytime this year, except the week leading up to New Year’s Eve…
Here are the official details from Walt Disney World:
- Save up to 30% on rooms for stays most nights from November 24 to December 25, 2024
- Enjoy other savings for stays most Sunday to Thursday nights from October 6 to November 21, 2024
Here’s the resort by resort savings chart provided by Walt Disney World:
Offer excludes the following room types: 3-Bedroom Villas; Deluxe Suites; Cabins at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge; and Bungalows and Island Tower Rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.
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 online, by phone, or via your Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. If you’re looking online, expect to encounter the “We’re Almost in Orbit” virtual queue page; if calling, you’ll likewise encounter a wait time.
If you want to help determining which discounts are available for your travel dates and which resort will work best for your family, we highly recommend requesting a quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, a no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. The agents there will do the math for you, booking your vacation with the best-available special offer, and monitoring your package for future discounts that can be applied retroactively. Beyond that, they help take the stress out of planning and will assist with itineraries, dining reservations, and much more.
Here’s what we found for available rates for this discount:
This search is for the night of December 2, 2024, which is part of the “Winter” rate season at Walt Disney World. On the rack rate chart spectrum, this is the second-least expensive time to visit Walt Disney World in October to December 2024, right after the “Fall” rate season.
However, the discount is better for this rate season–so I opted for this. Also, it’s our favorite week of the year at Walt Disney World and when we’ll actually be visiting, so I was curious about prices. As it turns out, the options are pretty good at the lower end of the spectrum–much more hit or miss as we move up.
The least expensive rack rates dates will be most Mondays to Thursdays from October into early December 2024. Base prices are slightly higher (but still relatively reasonable) until mid-December. Depending upon your resort and room category, the discount discrepancy could end up making the difference more or less a wash. (I found post-discount rates to be best during non-holiday weeks in October and November before Thanksgiving, but YMMV.)
Friday through Sunday nights are all going to be more expensive, and less consistent. In general, Friday and Saturday will be the most expensive days of the week, with Sunday through Thursday costing less–but still more than Monday through Wednesday nights. Holiday weeks–and dates closer to Christmas–are also more expensive. Basically, room rates are higher any time when kids are out of school.
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.
As noted above, this discount overlaps with some Free Dining dates, so some of you are likely debating whether to book this or that. We’ve discussed this before in Is Walt Disney World’s Free Dining Deal Actually Worth It?, but a room-only discount is going to offer superior savings for a lot of parties. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that Free Dining is always better. It often isn’t.
All we can offer is generalizations–you’ll want to do the math for your own unique circumstances–but as a general matter, room-only discounts are better for smaller parties staying at higher-tier resorts. When comparing these two discounts, look at party size, guest ages, and room cost.
Free Dining is best for those who can maximize the number of guests staying in one room and minimize their rack rate resort cost. Conversely, a room-only discount tends to be better for solo travelers and couples at higher priced hotels–as well as parties with lighter eaters (remember, the Disney Dining Plan is only worth as much as you’ll use it, which is not necessarily its full face value).
These are generalizations and not hard and fast rules. We just want to reiterate this because there’s a lot of allure in Free Dining. After all, who doesn’t love something that’s FREE?! But in reality, there’s no such thing as a free lunch–you’re giving up a room-only discount to get that ‘free’ Disney Dining Plan. Even though it’s the more boring discount, a lot of times, the room-only deal is the better special offer.
Turning back to this discount, one very pleasant surprise here is that all of the Value Resorts, including Pop Century, are in the 15% or 20% off tier, and Animal Kingdom Lodge (the cheapest Deluxe Resort and a great option at Christmas) is in the highest tier.
Total prices can end up being as low as ~$135 for the All Star Resorts and ~$187 per night for Pop Century. At $408 per night, Animal Kingdom Lodge is also an excellent option. Unfortunately, where we really want to stay–Wilderness Lodge–has very few standard rooms available, and as a result, costs $600+ per night for many dates during this deal.
I’m less inclined to book Caribbean Beach Resort this time, but another sleeper in the Moderate Resort tier at Christmas is Coronado Springs–Gran Destino Tower looks fantastic, and is great for a proper holiday season date night. We found several weeks when the Moderates were in the ~$260 range.
If you need help choosing where to stay, be sure to check out our new Rankings of ALL Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World from Worst to Best. Several of the resorts mentioned above–and with the biggest savings–are in the top 10!
When it comes to the heart of the Halloween and holiday seasons, these discounts are almost identical to last year. The biggest difference is that the maximum savings for this year occur from November 24 to December 25, 2024–whereas last year the peak savings were limited to December 10-25. So even though this discount is otherwise largely the same, its best savings encompass more dates.
It’s worth pointing out that last year’s discount offered the best October through December room deals we had seen since late 2020. That was a sharp contrast to what was available the previous two years when there were no general public discounts between October and December.
That was a major reversal–and kicked off a trend of discounts that have been on par with or better than their counterparts in 2019. Since then, we’ve pointed out several occasions when Walt Disney World is “pulling from the 2019 deal playbook.” This is another instance of that, but we should note that the 2019 version of this deal maxed out at 20% off.
Objectively speaking, this is a slightly better discount than last year or 2019 and significantly superior to what was available for the same dates between October and December from 2020-2022 when there were only offers for APs, Floridians, etc.
If you’re a member of the general public pricing out an on-site Walt Disney World vacation for the last three months of 2024, you should find the totals are slightly higher than last year despite the same percentage savings–that’s due to rack rate price increases. Looking back further, there’s a near certainty you’ll pay less for an apples to apples vacation than you would’ve in 2021 or 2022. About the only way that’s not the case is if you’re dead-set on a resort or room type that’s excluded from the special offer (in which case…don’t be so dead-set?).
With that said, we’ve already noticed that there’s limited availability for some resort/room/date combos. That’s fairly common with the October through December promos, as it’s a fan-favorite time to visit. Point being–book sooner rather than later and be flexible in your resort and room preferences. Don’t be complacent since special offers, generally, have had better availability in 2024. There’s a good chance that trend doesn’t continue for the heart of the Halloween and Christmas seasons.
There are a lot of times when we advise you to not be part of the ‘drop day’ madness, and instead sit back and wait out the chaos. This is not one of those occasions. For the best resort and room availability, we highly recommend booking ASAP. We could be wrong and reservations could be even softer than expected, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
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 $140 per night for the All Stars–with the new rooms, Early Entry, transportation, and free parking–is a very fair price, in our view.
Oh, and don’t forget the return of the on-site advantage of ride reservations! If you’re going to purchase the new line-skipping service, having the 7-day window (plus length of stay–up to 14 days) is huge. It’s probably going to be make-or-break when it comes to booking Slinky Dog Dash, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and other headliners. See our Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World FAQ.
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 $79 per night or less! Unfortunately, it’s impossible to book those past prices. Even with that in mind, this isn’t too far from that when adjusted for inflation.
If your travel dates are flexible and you’re wondering which dates are best, check out our Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025. Four of our top 10 weeks of the entire year are covered by this promo, and as we explain in those rankings, another week during the holiday season would’ve probably made the list if we weren’t trying to spread out the dates a bit more.
That should underscore precisely why and how these dates between October and December are popular with longtime fans. These are qualitatively the best times of the year to visit Walt Disney World, and can be from a quantitative (crowds) perspective if you plan wisely. But I’m probably preaching to the choir–you are reading a Walt Disney World fan site, after all! (If anything, some of you are probably shouting “don’t give away our secret” at the screens with posts like these. 😉 )
Ultimately, there are some pretty good savings at Walt Disney World between now and Christmas 2024, with these deals continuing the trend of increasingly good discounts–especially for the general public. You can still do better with Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals, but the gap is closing–and that assumes you can find DVC availability in the first place.
If you’re on the fence, definitely do NOT wait for something better. Even though occupancy has been trending downward this year, that likely won’t hold true for the holiday season. As always, plan on being flexible with your hotel choice, room category, and even travel dates for the biggest savings. That’s doubly true here, as there have already been several discounts that have dropped for this date range–including the fan-favorite Free Dining deal!
Walt Disney World offering more special offers 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. If bookings remain soft for 2024, it’ll be interesting to see what type of more unique promotions (beyond room discounts) are released for October through December 2024…it sure feels like things are trending in the right direction for even more aggressive offers! 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 Walt Disney World resort room discounts for October through Christmas 2024? 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!
