Priceline Express Deals: All-Star Movies and Coronado Springs
The last month or so in the Priceline Deals Annex has been one of much clicking and few results.
Speculation that the upcoming opening of Galaxy’s Edge would mean few, if any, new hotel deals has been countered by the reports that recent attendance at the parks has been down. The latter reports has given me some hope for at least a meager drop of hotel deals.
Of course, as the tiny Funko Pop Carl Fredricksen on my desk often says to me, “It can be hard to tell what is real or imaginary, when it comes to Disney information you hear online.”
But, whatever the case – the good news is that a limited release of Priceline Express deals have shown up in August!
You can catch a nice group of All-Star Movies deals in the $69 to $74 range, as well as a few days of Coronado Springs deals between $114 and $131. Check the calendar below for a quick reference to the deals I’ve found…
Please remember that the usual caveats apply:
- You may need to try different starting and ending dates to make some of these deals show up in results.
- No resort guess in Express Deals is guaranteed, but using the techniques we’ve written about in previous blog posts can increase your comfort level on knowing which resort you are booking.
- Priceline Express deals only guarantee room for 2 – but in the vast majority of cases at Disney resorts, this should not be a problem.
(I suggest you book 2 adults and add children later by calling the Disney Wholesale Department.)
If you or your Funko Pop figure have booked one of these deals and are super excited about it – let us know in the comments!
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This is an awesome post.
Not the gambling type but want to do this.
Thinking of a last minute trip for MNSSHP on 9/15 and leaving the next day.
Want to stay on property so we don’t have to worry about transportation.
When we do trips like this we book a campsite for $63 a night, take ME to the the fort and then go to the party. Leave the party at 12am and then hop on our ME at 2am for a 5am flight.
(This is still cheaper than an Uber from MCO and back).
Want to try to do this with a value but by trying to get one of these deals?
Thoughts
Hi Mauryn,
I was just down in Orlando this week so hadn’t checked the deals until just now – and I think you are in luck!
A quick peek at PE for 9/15 has an $87 deal that I believe is Art of Animation. There is also a $123 Coronado Springs out there for that night, FYI.
For the record, this one is not much of a gamble: from my tracking, the only 3* 8-guest rated resorts in Bonnet Creek are Sports, AoA, and Pop Century. In addition, the search results listing says the deal has “100 reviews”, which they round down to the nearest hundred. The only one of those 3 resorts anything near that is AoA with 114 reviews. (Both Sports and Pop have more than 400 reviews each.)
Finally, the deal I linked above only has 4 amenities: Free Internet Access, Restaurant, Outdoor Swimming Pool, Swimming Pool – a very sure sign of a Disney resort. Hope that helps you find a deal for your awesome sounding plan! (I did something similar last year, but did sleep in the hotel for a few hours.)
Gosh I feel like a dingus. I think I’m doing it right; searching for the dates in question (7/26-7/28), but I’m not at all confident in any Disney-owned hotels (including Swan/Dolphin). None have the 8+ rating that I see.
Is it that I just am not searching properly, or is it that there aren’t any to choose from right now?
Hi Roger,
Don’t beat yourself up – there are lots of moving parts to compare so it can take awhile for it to coalesce in your mind. 🙂
Right now I’m only seeing deals in August – I just tried your dates and none popped up. My unscientific observation is that all days in a weekend are a little less likely to have deals, especially in summer.
Sliding the dates around, the only thing I could get to appear that weekend was a 3*8 for the *single* night on 7/26 that I believe is Art of Animation – and that was $212! (I assume that is going to be a family suite, but don’t quote me on that.)
Worth it to keep trying, though – things come and go. Good luck!
Which areas do you refine your search results to in order to get the WDW & Disney Springs partner hotels? Thanks!
Hi Brian,
Disney resorts (plus the Swan and Dolphin) are in “Walt Disney World – Bonnet Creek” and “Walt Disney World – Disney Springs.”
Note, that looking in those locations doesn’t specifically limit you to partner hotels, but this Touring Plans page lists all of the hotels that offer Extra Magic Hours:
https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/hotels/extra-hours
I looked and none of the Disney hotels come up? Is it one of the “4 star” hotels listed? How do you know where you are booking?
Hi Nancy, There’s various steps to the technique of deciphering Express Deal resorts.
Quick version: Check into using the Hotel Canary Google Chrome Extension to help narrow down the resorts a particular deal might be. James Rosemergy’s post can get you started with that. Then you might want look through my previous posts here on the blog, as I try to put more tips in many of them.
Longer version so you don’t have to click around too much at the start: Value resorts have 3* ratings, Moderate resorts are 3.5*, and Deluxe are 4*. Priceline also list guest ratings for resorts, which are based on user reviews. (Guest ratings can change depending on reviews so sometimes you have to double check a resort if it is one that fluctuates.)
So, in results for August searches, I’m seeing 3* resorts with 7-guest ratings, and 3.5* resorts with 8-guest ratings, mixed in with a whole bunch of others. A clue they are likely Disney resorts is that they only have 4 amenities: Free Internet Access, Restaurant, Outdoor Swimming Pool, Swimming Pool. (A very few Deluxe resorts have some different amenities, but too much info for here.)
When I check one of the 3* 7-rated deals, Hotel Canary offers all of the Value resorts as possibilities.
But, when I visit the Priceline pages for Value Disney resorts, I see the only 2 Value resorts that have 7 guest ratings are AS Movies and Music, so that makes me fairly sure it is one of these two. Checking regular Priceline rates and comparing to the % off listed in the deal, along with other factors makes me believe this batch of 3* deals are Movies.
I use the same technique for the 3.5* 8-rated deals. The only Disney resorts in Bonnet Creek with that rating are Coronado and Caribbean Beach. (The only non-Disney resort is Orlando Bonnet Creek by Resortshare, but that has different amenities.) Again, weighing various factors, I’m betting these deals are Coronado.
As you can guess, it can take a little time to learn the technique, but it is easier than this response looks. 😉
Really, just comparison shopping. I hope that helps!
If you are still unsure, let me know what dates you are looking at and I’ll see if I can point out the ones I think are Disney resorts (if there are any for those dates, deals can come and go quickly.) I can’t promise perfection in guessing, but with some work I think you can make yourself fairly confident in deciphering the resorts.
Quick follow up: It appears a current Retailmenot code will take an additional 8% off Express Deals. (Appears to expire on July 15th.) You have to click through the link on the coupon site for the code to work.
Disappointing, needed 1 night for the 20-21st. What is your experience that more pop up over the next few weeks?
As always, amazing work! Thank you! I don’t get how they can release deals for Sun-Mon, then nothing Tues-Wed. Really bizarre. You would think midweek would dip in price.
I know, there’s really no pattern I can see for these deals much of the time.
Sometimes I get a feeling we’re all part of a Disney/Priceline psychological experiment. 😉
Hey Dan, Anything is possible – days within deals often come and go depending on when you search. Sometimes it even helps to refresh your search results a few times and see if anything new appears.
Also, good idea to click all of the deals in the results and see if any additional deals show up.
In deal drops since the beginning of the year, it has often been harder to find specific single days than if you are looking for blocks of days. Just keep swimming!
Hi again, Dan,
In case you are getting notifications from these comments – look like there’s a Movies Express Deal out there for 8/20 for $69 now! https://bit.ly/2xT3Wdb
Yes, I caught it the other day! Thank you!
Thank you! I just got Coronado for August 8-12th for $570 total. What a great deal!
Terrific! 🙂
I’m just having a bit of frustration getting Priceline or Disney to add my daughter to the reservation. Disney said I have to contact Priceline directly. And Priceline said they couldn’t get in contact with anyone who could add her so they were going to fax the hotel. We already have fastpasses and I’m renting a car, is it a huge deal if my 6 year old isn’t technically on the reservation?
In the grand scheme of things, probably not a huge deal if she’s not on the reservation, although you would not get a MagicBand for her.
It is frustrating to me that they can’t get this process down, I hear of people getting bounced around regularly. From various reports, the best way to get kids added to the Priceline reservation is to call Disney Wholesale Department directly at 1-407-939-7671, they should be able to sort it out. Good luck!
I was able to get my 3 kids added to the reservation by using the chat on the Priceline website.
I tried to do the chat this morning and the person said Disney couldn’t find my reservation. I think they might have been using the Priceline reservation number not the hotel confirmation number. Disney could see my reservation last week when I used that number.
Tried chat again and they were able to get it done this time! Phew.