Priceline Express Deals: Dolphin Dives Deeper

We have determined you’d be definitely be delighted to dig down for more deals on the Dolphin!

Previously, On Priceline

If you haven’t been paying attention then get with the program Skippy no worries, we’ve got you covered. Back at the start of September the Dolphin was first re-opening. There was a a week of Express Deals at the start of the month hovering mostly above $110, followed by several weekends of deals around $123. Then I noticed a whole bunch of $115 deals during much of November.

Well, I’m here to tell you it gets even better. The current Dolphin deals out there are mostly around $18 to $24 less than the last time I blogged about them. In fact, on the last two days of the month the deals dropped to be $88 less than the previous round! As Goofy would say, Wahooohoohoo!

If this post makes you want to sharpen up your mouse and go find some deals to book, I suggest you go back and check my previous post More Dolphin Deals to learn a few tricks on how to tease out the resort on Priceline Express. Long story short: the Dolphin does not always show up in initial search results, so opening any 4-star deal in Bonnet Creek will often cause a Dolphin deal to pop up on the results page or show in the Similar Express Deals section at the bottom of the deal you just opened.

You’ll want to note that there are still Yacht Club Express Deals out there in November – as well as a nice batch of $139 Caribbean Beach deals as well.

DVC Interlude

In the name of providing you all with as many options as we can, here’s another place you may want to check to find some really good deals: DVCReservations has a real time Flash Sale page where they list emergency offers. Right now I see a Beach Club studio for 6 nights for $1,274 and an Animal Kingdom studio for 5 nights for $1,279. Definitely worth keeping an eye on those deals – they seem to go fast.

Beware the Scary Resort Feeees Glitch

Thought I’d get a little Halloween spirit in there, because I want to warn you about a weird glitch on some of these Priceline Express deals right now: you may find that on certain multiple day bookings that the mandatory (aka resort) fee on the booking page has an amount much higher than you’d expect for the Dolphin. (It is also happening on Swan deals.) I have not found any pattern to the problem, but below is an example of the issue.

You can see in this example that we are booking 5 nights, so would expect to see a mandatory fee of ($30 times 5) = $150. But the fee is almost double! I first noticed this was happening last week when the mandatory fee presented for these same dates was a whopping $571.83 – or almost 4 times the expected amount.

Oddly enough, when I try slightly different dates the fee goes back to normal. So, let this be a warning: (say it with me): Always. Double. Check. The. Fees.

I don’t know what sort of recourse one might have if you booked one of these deals and didn’t realize the fee was exorbitant. So, better safe than sorry (and poorer).

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it is also usually a very good idea to check the current rates at the resort’s own web site. Sometimes their own refundable deals can be close enough to the non-refundable Express Deals to make them worth considering, even for a few extra dollars.

The Calendar of Deals

Now that I’ve hopefully gotten you excited over deeper Dolphin discounts (and maybe scared your wallet into hiding from resort fee glitches), I’d like to present the new November Dolphin Deals calendar. And, for today only (because on the day you read this post it will always be today) I have included the previous Dolphin Express Deal rates so you can see the changes more easily.

The average rate of all the Dolphin Express Deals I’ve recorded over the last few years is $160. As you can see, these November rates are very nice.

If you’ve booked any of these deals or just need some post-resort-fee therapy, let us know in the comments!