Walt Disney World has released new Fall & Christmas 2023 resort room-only discounts for Disney+ subscribers that offers up to 35% off regular room rates. This post shares the details of these special offers, commentary about why there’s such a shortage of savings, plus sample pricing, analysis & other info.
This isn’t exactly unprecedented. Last summer and fall, Walt Disney World released two different discounts that were available exclusively to Disney+ subscribers. It’s not a surprise that this special offer is being released…it’s a surprise that it’s the first deal targeted at Disney+ subscribers in 2023. This seemed like a good way to incentivize fans to sign up for the streaming service and pad those stats.
Instead, we’ve seen a relative return to normal for Walt Disney World discounts, including with all of the other special offers released for October through December 2025. These include discounts for both Floridians and Annual Passholders, which are consistent with the last 3 years (and earlier), but with percentage savings that are 5-10% better across the board. More notably, Walt Disney World released the first general public discount for these holiday season since 2019. Now, there’s another Disney+ deal, encompassing some of those same travel dates…
Before starting, we’ll preface this with a reminder that these are highly popular travel dates among Disney fans, and availability is expected to go fast. When it comes to past October through December promos, we’ve had many readers report finding nothing at all–or higher prices–for their travel dates. Where there is availability, it often requires a room upgrade (e.g. from standard to preferred view, 5th sleeper, etc.), thus at least partially negating the benefit of the discount. Just something to keep in mind before getting your hopes up here.
On a different note, if you’re not a Disney+ subscriber, you still should check out this discounts. Unlike Annual Pass discounts, you don’t really need to “crunch the numbers” to determine if you would save more by one member of your party purchasing a Disney+ subscription if you don’t already have one. I can answer that for you right now: you almost certainly will.
The cost of Disney+ for two months is negligible, whereas this could save you several hundreds of dollars. That’s true even as compared to the 5% or so additional savings that this offers as compared to the general public discount Walt Disney World is offering for Fall & Christmas 2023. In all likelihood, the additional savings will exceed the additional cost.
For this Disney+ subscriber discount, Walt Disney World has brought back the “classic” You’re Almost in Orbit virtual queue, beloved among fans who like staring into space. This is used to manage website capacity when demand is expected to be here and, unlike with some past deals, they’re probably right here.
If you’re having an issue with your Disney+ account being recognized, try logging into Disneyplus.com first. You should be able to go into your Disney+ account and update the email address associated with that to match your My Disney Experience account. Should is the operative word, as this won’t always work. If it doesn’t, try calling Disney+ customer service at 888-905-7888. Do not call Walt Disney World, as this is discount drop day and hold times are no doubt astronomical.
Another option is logging into Disneyworld.com with your Disney+ account login, booking a room under that, and worrying about account consolidation at a later date. (Trust me, you do not want multiple Disney accounts–it causes all sorts of unanticipated problems.)
If you just signed up for Disney+, try again approximately 60 minutes after you subscribed. If you’re still having issues, log out of everything, then log back into Disneyplus.com. After that, visit Disneyworld.com. It should work then. You might need to try private browsing, too. (That’s what I had to do to get the above Canada issue resolved.)
Here are the official details for the new discount: Disney+ subscribers can save up to 35% on rooms at select Disney Resort hotels for stays select nights, October 22 through November 2, 2023 and November 26 through December 25, 2023. Book online or via a travel agent—and get ready for a great getaway.
There’s so much to love when you stay in the magic with the Disney Resorts Collection—especially during the holiday season! Plus, as a Guest of a Disney Resort hotel, you can enjoy early entry to the theme parks 30 minutes before opening to experience select attractions, with valid park admission and a park reservation (not included in this offer).
Here are resort by resort Disney+ savings rates:
Proof of Disney+ subscription required both at booking and upon checking into the resort. Disney+ subscriber with an active subscription must stay in the room. (In other words, you’ll need to subscribe to Disney+ for two months–this month and your travel month–in order to take advantage of this deal.)
This special offer for Disney+ subscribers excludes the following room types: 3-bedroom villas, Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Villas and 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.
If you want to take advantage of this discount, we’d recommend requesting a FREE no obligation pricing quote from Be Our Guest Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and having them book for you. They will be happy to assist you with the planning process, help you choose the most economical resort, room options & dates, best add-ons, and so forth. They also monitor reservations and can retroactively apply new discounts if a better deal is released to save you more money.
Below are some of the best available rates we found for this Disney+ Holidays 2023 discount:
This search is for the night of November 27, 2023, which is part of the “Fall” rate season at Walt Disney World. On the rack rate chart spectrum, this is the least expensive time to visit Walt Disney World in October to December 2023. Similarly-priced dates can be found most Mondays to Thursdays from October into early December 2023, and slightly higher (but still relatively reasonable) rates are available until mid-December.
We’ve had readers ask about finding these rate charts whenever we post them. Rather than going off-topic here, refer to 2023 Walt Disney World Resort Hotel Prices (the step-by-step process is towards the bottom). Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the lowest rates for all hotels. Some resorts listed above are showing prices for non-standard rooms.
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 2023? That covers price increases and other variables that impact the cost of a vacation beyond just room rates.
When it comes to commentary, we already covered all of the “usual suspects” about the exhaustion of pent-up demand when discussing the general public promo for October through December 2023 (see that for a thorough discussion of why these deals are so good). Suffice to say, Walt Disney World releasing 4 different discounts for the holiday season–typically the busiest time of the year–after offering table scraps for the last few years, is definitive confirmation that revenge travel is finished.
We pretty much already knew this. CFO Christine McCarthy warned investors of a slowdown in demand as Walt Disney World “lapped” the 50th Anniversary. Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro reiterated this recently, contrasting the performance of the Florida parks with Disneyland, which reopened almost a year later.
We’ve seen a slowdown in crowds ourselves, with wait times data being down relative to the same dates last year. Still, we wondered whether the last three months of the year would defy those trends. October through December always outperforms, even at times when the rest of the year is slower.
With the release of the best resort discounts since 2019, now we have our answer. Walt Disney World isn’t just anticipating a slow summer–they’re forecasting a downturn in demand for the remainder of the year, and perhaps beyond. In all likelihood, what “slowdown” means here isn’t some catastrophic drop in demand–it means a reversion to the norm from the stratospheric performance of the last few years.
What that means is you shouldn’t look at this sudden surge in savings and think you’re smelling blood in the water, and wait for even better discounts. October through December is still the biggest time of year for Walt Disney World resorts, and the company is pulling a lever to entice more bookings, not sounding a five-alarm fire. (We know a lot of doom and gloomers are actively rooting for Walt Disney World to fail as comeuppance for this decision or that, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.)
To that point, you might actually have issues finding availability with this or any of the discounts released by Walt Disney World for the final quarter of 2023. The longer your trip, the more likely you’re going to have issues finding the resort or room category you want. Even prior to this discount being released, we had been searching for ~4 night stays throughout the holiday season and were having difficulty finding options at our resorts of choice.
As such, we’d strongly recommend being flexible on travel dates or resort options. Get creative when searching Disneyworld.com, and embrace the split stay. (We are strong advocates of split stays, and they’re especially great during the holiday season!)
Some readers complained about the previous Disney+ deals at Walt Disney World, but we think that’s misguided. From our perspective, this is significant in it’s an affiliation offer with a very low barrier to entry. Subscribing to Disney+ is much cheaper than buying an Annual Pass or moving to Florida. (And as attractive as the latter option might sound to WDW diehards, it’s definitely not for everyone!)
Despite that, many members of the general public simply won’t even consider doing that in order to qualify for these savings. That makes no economic sense–spending $7 to potentially save hundreds of dollars on a hotel is an absolute no-brainer decision–but it’s how deals like this always play out. Any barrier to entry is too much for many people. That’s bad for those who don’t do their due diligence, but great for those who do–it means less competition. (This is the Walt Disney World vacation planning story, in a nutshell.)
As for why Walt Disney World is making it easier to qualify for an affiliation discount on rooms, the answer is simple: Disney+ is the company’s focus and fixation. There’s a misconception about Disney+ being incredibly profitable–quite the opposite is true. The company is literally losing about $1 billion on streaming services every quarter. I’m no math whizz, but that seems like a lot of money to me.
Disney+ is a strategic pillar that’ll be important to the company for years to come, but it’s still losing money as the company attempts to gain market share. In so doing, Disney is spending colossal sums on content and user acquisition. While this deal appears to be a perk for Disney+ subscribers, it’s also another attempt to incentivize new subscriptions. (Every single streaming service is heavily subsidized right now–none are viable with their present business models, so enjoy this while it lasts!)
Hence this Disney+ subscriber discount on Walt Disney World resorts.
It’s a way to juice Disney+ subscriber numbers, which will in turn help the company beat analyst expectations and impress Wall Street, which will in turn boost the company’s stock price. For better or worse, the company revolves around Disney+ right now. It is the big thing.
Ultimately, if you’re Disney+ subscriber who is eager for a Christmas vacation at Walt Disney World and you are not an Annual Passholder, these deals are as good as it’s going to get. With Hotwire and Priceline deals drying up and it being too late for renting DVC points (except for matching with a confirmed reservation), your only other alternative is checking out off-site or third party hotels, both of which do have better deals for holiday travel dates.
With that said, we will be closely monitoring what’s released in terms of early 2024 discounts at Walt Disney World, 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 room only discounts for Disney+ subscribers? Disappointed that this only encompasses certain dates between Halloween and Christmas 2023? 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!
