Ask It Results: Are Preferred Rooms Worth It?

Over the years, Disney has found many new and interesting ways to encourage people to spend extra money for extra benefits. At Disney resort hotels, a variety of options exist, but are they worth the extra costs? Here’s what you thought about whether it is worth it to pay for location, view, or special features (or if it is never worth it to pay the extra).

Our Ask It question was:

What features are worth paying extra for a preferred room at Walt Disney World?

With more than 1,500 votes, here’s your results.

Special Features

This is certainly a hit-or-miss proposition for most people staying at a Disney resort. If you have a child who is a huge Pirates fan, or one who adores the Princesses, staying in a Pirate room at Caribbean Beach or a Royal Room at Port Orleans may be a one-time must-do on your list. For many people, if a room is mostly used as a place to sleep, all that extra décor doesn’t make financial sense, and its location may not be ideal if you want close and convenient.

View

For many people, it’s a big ol’ “it depends” whether a view is a plus or a negative. For me personally, I don’t know if I’d want to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge without spending the extra money to upgrade to a Savannah room. The main reason I love staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge is seeing the animals outside my room–having a glorious view of the parking lot just doesn’t cut it. For some families, having a Magic Kingdom view room so that you can watch the fireworks from the comfort of your own room is a plus, especially with young children. On the other hand, many people mentioned that having a “pool view” room, especially at a Value Resort where soundproofing in the rooms isn’t the best, makes for a noisy stay late into the night.

Never Worth It

Let’s face it–staying at a Walt Disney World resort is already expensive enough for many people. Spending extra money for a “better” room could be spent on a signature meal, extra souvenirs, or even another day of vacation. For many people, saving the money is the better way to go, and you can always hope for an upgrade when you arrive, too!

Location

Like real estate, sometimes it is all about location, location, location. At the end of a long day, where you likely have walked a half dozen miles or more, the idea of walking another quarter of a mile just to get to your room can be very unappealing. On one visit to Kidani Village, I had the second to last room in one of the wings. Walking from the lobby to that room truly felt like a multi-day trek across the Savannah! Being near to a bus stop at a spread-out resort like Saratoga Springs can be very helpful for minimizing travel time to different locations.

One way to get the best room to meet your needs is to send a room request shortly before your arrival. Don’t want the added hassle? Let TouringPlans do the work for you with our Room Request feature. Here’s a short video to show how you can have a room request automatically sent to your Walt Disney World resort hotel before your trip.

That’s it for this week’s results. Feel free to share your comments below. Have you ever paid for a preferred room and regretted it? Ever avoided paying for a preferred room and wished that you had shelled out? How’s your experience with the TouringPlans Room Request service? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

Next week’s Ask It is live now here and on Twitter. We’ll see you next week!