How can I see room rates?

I will admit to being in a constant state of planning a trip to Walt Disney World.  Most of these trips never happen, but I like to consider different options regarding time of year, dates of travel, etc.

Part of this consideration is the price per night for the room.  But how do you find that, when the site always gives you the package price?  I'll show you!

Go to the Disney World website https://disneyworld.disney.go.com.
Put in your travel dates, number of guests, and resort in which you are interested. Click the  green View Rates button on the right side.

Next you will be presented with information regarding that resort's option.  Change the radio button to reflect "Room" and you should get something that looks like this:

Under the price, on the right hand side, there is a blue link that says "Rate Details" just above the blue Select button. Click on that link and you will get a screen that looks like this:

From here, you have two different paths you can follow.
If you are pretty sure you want to travel around the dates originally provided, then you can use the arrows on the right and left to move the dates forward and backward.  This is an easy way to look at the price differences for weekends versus weekdays or even what the following or prior week's prices are.

If you are really open on your travel dates, you can click on the blue link on the bottom left "View Rate Calendar". This will show you the per-night prices on a calendar.  Again, you can use the arrows to move forward and backward in time.

To go back to the prior window, simply click on the blue "View Price Per Night" link on the bottom left.

I hope this helps to give you some different options for reviewing room rates.  If you have questions or comments, please put them in the comments below and I will get back to you.

What is Pin Trading?

When you are in the parks, you may notice visitors wearing lanyards adorned with pins.  While it might just be a bit of bling, it might also be that those visitors are looking to trade pins with one another.

Like most Disney collectibles, pin trading can range from purely social and low-key to highly competitive and intense.  Because they are collectibles, different kinds of pins are available.  Some are available only in certain parks, some are limited editions, some are available only as sets, some are only available to cast members... Each one of these features changes the value of the pin to the more serious traders.

When we went to the parks with my daughter, we thought it would be fun for her to participate in pin trading. In order to participate, we needed to have the two primary elements: a lanyard and trading pins.  There are a number of ways to get these items, so I thought I might touch on a few of them for you.

When you arrive at the parks, many of the souvenir stores have prepackaged lanyard and pin combinations.  These are usually matched sets, where the lanyard and pins feature the same characters or there are sets based on characters from a specific movie.

Within the parks, you can purchase pins individually or sets of pins.  Sometimes the pins are sold as sets at a discounted price over the individual pins.  Again there are pins you can only get by purchasing in a set.  It is also important to note that the same pins are not available at all venues.

You can also purchase lanyards and pins outside of the parks before your arrival.  While I didn't see a large discount on the cost of the lanyards, I can say that you can buy pins at a greatly reduced price from eBay.

For our trip, I purchased regular sports lanyards from a local sporting goods store. I then purchased some spools of one inch ribbon (for a dollar each) and plastic identification badge sleeves from a local craft store.  Using my sewing machine, I stitched different ribbons to each of our lanyards to make them a little more Disney-ready.  I also attached one of the plastic identification sleeves to each of the lanyards to hold our park passes.

From eBay, I purchased a set of 50 pins (there were five of us going).  When you purchase the pins from eBay you can get them at a price of $1-$2 per pin.  In the parks, these same pins could cost $5 each.

Ready to Trade
Once you are in the parks, there are two primary venues for trading.  The first is trading among park guests. Most guests are open to trading if they are wearing a lanyard with pins.  Bear in mind that not all pins are created equal, so you can look forward to some negotiations.

The second is trading with cast members.  Each cast member has a fabric panel (called a hip lanyard)containing pins that are available for trade.  Some cast members wear a green or teal hip lanyard.  These cast members can only trade pins with children between 3-12 years old.

Each day we put new, trade-ready pins on her lanyard.  Each night we took off the lanyard the pins she wanted to keep from the trading she did that day.  By the end of the trip, my daughter had a collection of pins and fun memories of trading for them.

If you want some additional information about Pin Trading, check here.