Priceline Express Deals: Yacht Club and Coronado Springs
OK, people – grab your sailing caps and call your little buddies, the Yacht Club is calling!
For the last several months on Priceline Express, there have been some tantalizing deals: when you clicked on a 4-star resort in Bonnet Creek, you’d often see another deal for a 4* 9-guest rated resort pop up. However, as has happened with Priceline in the past those deals were ghosts: if you tried to book them you’d get a “Sorry! Deal is gone! Hahahahahah!” page. (I may have inferred the Hahahaha! part.)
Welp, Priceline has finally. . . (select all that apply)
__Fixed
__Updated
__Whatever Priceline does in the background, who knows
to their site.
You can now book these Yacht Club deals and they run from now all the way through Christmas! As an added bonus, you can also book a group of Coronado deals that had the same issue, but they are only out there in the last two weeks of October. (These Coronado deals are similar rates to those also on Hotwire right now.)
First: Check out these DVC Deals
Before we head into details, let’s jump out of the Priceline Express deals for a moment: with all of the various travel hub-bub going on, there are some terrific DVC deals going around. As I mentioned in my last post, you might want to check out DVC Reservations Flash Deals. Normally you’ll want to sign up for their email updates so you see these deals as they happen, since they seem to get snapped up quickly. But to handle the large number of last minute deals they have right now you can visit this page to see what’s available.
In the last update I just received, there was a Polynesian Studio for 9 days at $1599. That’s $177 per night!
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
Disney Math
Now, these Yacht Club deals are not “cheap” in a way that will make you climb on top of your house and yell “Woohoo!” at all your neighbors as they stare up in disbelief. (Not that I have any experience with that.) I am willing to spend money for good value and that includes paying a bit more when I plan to have some quality resort time, but these deals are all in the mid $200s and up, which, to be honest, makes my wallet itch.
But, in comparison to Disney rates out there right now, you can save some serious coconuts. The table below is a quick thumbnail of the various rates out there for October 1. (Disney World’s birthday and my own, which I have always assumed is no coincidence.)
These Express Deals all appear to be Water View rooms and say so right on the booking page so I’ve used those current rates in the table. (I suggest you double check that if you book yourself, things can change.) Also, note that the Priceline Express Taxes and Fees includes their extra fee (about 8% more here) so makes that a larger percentage of the rate than the Disney direct taxes.
That full rack rate price makes me want to cease my roof-Woohooing and jump, so I hope all of you wait around for discounts like the ones shown at the bottom of the table. Assuming most people’s best bet right now is that Magic is Here rate, saving $201 *per night* is a very incredible difference in my opinion. I also checked third-party sites and Priceline’s non-hidden rate. The best water view room rates I found for that date were in the mid-$500s and up. (Yowza.)
How To Find These Deals
So, enough chit-chat: Here’s how to find these deals, followed by some calendars to give you an albatross’s eye-view of all the rates.
As usual, when searching for Disney resorts on Priceline Express, you’ll want to limit your search to the Bonnet Creek and Disney Springs areas. There are non-Disney resorts in those areas, so being there does not guarantee they are Disney and you want to compare various variables like ratings and reviews. For the purposes of today’s search, Yacht Club and Coronado are both in Bonnet Creek so you can even limit your search to just that one area.
The Coronado deals should appear in results normally if they are available for your dates. However, these Yacht Club deals likely won’t be in the first search results page, so you’ll have to use the same technique to tease them out that I recently outlined for the Dolphin deals in November.
When scrolling through your search results, click on whatever 4-star resort in Bonnet Creek you see.
A new tab should open with that deal – you can ignore it tab for now. After you clicked, you likely saw some additional deals pop up below it. Look for a 4-star 9-guest-rated resort with prices in the mid-$200s or up. Here you can see there are two of them.
A Resort Identifying Sidebar
Let’s discuss figuring out this deal for a moment so that everyone reading is on board. You may want to get a beverage. We’ll wait for you.
From experience I know that Yacht Club for $150 is highly unlikely. Checking into that cheaper 9-guest deal I found it is actually for the new JW Marriott resort. If you click on it and go through to the booking page, you’ll see another clue it is not a Disney resort in the $35 mandatory (aka resort) fee.
Within Bonnet Creek right now, there are only four 4-star resorts with a 9-guest rating: the other two resorts are the Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge and Boardwalk Inn. When identifying hidden deals, a good tie-breaker to use is the review count, however these pop-up deals don’t show that. In this case, I would guess that Boulder Ridge is unlikely for that mid-$200s price and because it is much less common on Express Deals. That leaves us with this deal being either Boardwalk or Yacht Club – but because I am a geek and keep track of these deals, I know that Yacht Club usually has Spa as an amenity on Express Deals, while Boardwalk does not.
Things can change, but for now I am very confident that this deal is Yacht Club.
Back to Booking
Once you click the likely Yacht Club deal, you’ll be able to choose a room type – this block of deals seem to all be water view!
When you go to the room booking page and expect it to be a Disney resort, always make sure there is no mandatory fee charge. Also, don’t forget to Google around for any current Priceline promo codes you might use to save even more money.
Quick Coronado Tip
If you are trying to find the Coronado Springs deals I mentioned, look for a 3.5-star 8-guest-rated resort in Bonnet Creek with 400 reviews. (It currently has 495 reviews on Priceline, but they round that down in hidden deals.)
Now, the info you are waiting for – the deal calendars!
If you sail into any of these deals or have any questions, let us know in the comments!
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I think I’ve entered all the “deal” info into the filter (bonnet creek, 4 star, 9+ guest rating), but what resort do you think has a 2 queen bed resort view that accommodates 3 and a 2 queen bed room that accommodates 4? And why would a 2 queen bed room with resort view only accommodate 3? Thanks
Hi Monte,
Go up and check the section of the blog above labelled “A Resort Identifying Sidebar” – in it I discuss all of the 4-star 9-guest rated resorts.
The resort deals I see that has rooms that include “Queens with Resort View” appear to be the new JW Marriott Orlando resort. A way to tell definitively is to go to the booking page for one of the rooms and you should see a $35 mandatory (resort) fee there.
When it comes to some things on Priceline, you have to take the info with a grain of salt – there’s often info added I think designed to obfuscate resorts in hidden deals. Also, sometimes they just put wrong things in.
I just checked a deal for the JW Marriott and see one option that has “One King Bed” but sleeps 3, like the queen room in your question. I’m either going to assume there’s a pullout bed or sleeper chair in that room – but I’m not up on how the JW Marriott rooms are configured.
There are other rooms listed (at a much higher price) that specifically state “One King and One Sofabed” and “sleeps 3” – could be the same room I suppose, but costs more because you are selecting that configuration specifically vs you taking your chances with the cheaper rate and them just assigning you any old room with a King. However, I’m not sure if all the King rooms have sleepers too, so you’d have to do some resort research there.
But Anyway, if looking for the Yacht Club deals, those are all in the mid to high-$200s rates or higher as shown in my calendar, while those JW Marriott deals are showing up with prices in the mid to high $100s.
Another clue right now is to look for Airport Shuttle in the 4-star 9-guest deal’s amenities – that should tell you it is Yacht Club. But I find that no resort fee on the deal is a much stronger clue that it is a Disney resort.
IT WORKED!! Not just the upgrade to the Yacht Club, but the switch without losing the park reservation. And I was able to do it without even calling in. Very simple actually!!! THANK YOU!!! Just made that very tiny Touring Plans fee EXTREMELY worth it!! THANK YOU!
Lisa, Woohoo! Glad it worked out. 🙂
Thanks John! I will give it a try for sure!
Hi Lisa,
From all the reports I’ve heard, there shouldn’t be any issue with your park reservations. To be sure, I just confirmed with with some folks who have used the system and swapped room reservations after having parks reserved: no problems reported.
At this time I’d personally be very confident my park reservations would remain – but of course Disney’s systems do have their issues so I couldn’t say any transaction will be 100% without issue.
Also, if I were booking the PE deal, as a form of insurance I would be sure to add the new reservation to my MDE and make sure it was all attached correctly before I removed the old reservation.
Good luck!
Thank you John! What if we already have a reservation coming up at CBR (less than 30 days). Is there anyway to grab these deals and switch to these rooms? I know our Dining isn’t attached to our current room, but I think our Park day reservation is and we have a MK day on Halloween that we might not be able to get back if we drop our current resort. Thoughts?
Hi Audry,
Technically Priceline only guarantees room for 2 people to sleep. However, in Disney resorts that is typically not an issue with the vast majority of rooms (and in the unlikely instance they assigned you a King room, I think Disney would fix it.)
Normally the trick is to book the room for 2, then call Disney Wholesale (1-407-939-7671) to ask them to add up to 2 kids .
However, when it comes to 5 people – there’s a smaller pool of rooms at various resorts that handle that number. So, I personally I would not chance a single room on a hidden deal if I had to sleep 5.
I do know there are different room sleeping configurations at Yacht Club, but we can’t know what kind of rooms are included in the hidden room block. (Full disclosure: I have no experience with how the resorts handle rollaways.)
In the unlikely instance I found a hidden deal that Priceline specifically listed as a certain room type (a suite at AoA perhaps?) I suppose I might think about it, but that’s not very common.
I think my tactic if hoping for a hidden deal would be to find a really good room deal and get 2 room. (Bonus bathroom!) But of course you’d have to weigh the cost of that vs just booking a suite room.
Brian, FWIW: I just checked again a few hours later using a different browser (Chrome) and was able to get both the CSR and Yacht Club deals to load all the way to the booking page.
When I jumped back to Firefox, I was also able to get them to load there as well on my first try, but then they stopped. I think they are playing with the site so my advice remains: keep trying!
Priceline’s site can be infuriatingly inconsistent.
Is it possible to book these deals and have 2 adults and 3 children stay? How would I delineate a room option with 2 beds and a murphy bed/rollaway option? Thanks for this great resource!
Argh! We’re mostly at the whim of Priceline on that – I just tried it and see the Coronado deals are doing it as well.
Sometimes if you have been searching the site recently, clearing your browser cache of cookies or using incognito mode might bring up different results. Also, the mobile apps can sometimes have different deals available.
But this looks like they flipped the switch on them again – I suggest you check every once in awhile and see if they come back. This has happened in the past – there was one drop of deals last year that ghosted away and came back several times.
Is there anything you can recommend to avoid that “deal no longer available screen” you mention at the top of the article? I keep getting that message. I attempted incognito mode and that didn’t help….