Thinking about heading to Orlando for the holidays? Normally, visiting during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's means paying peak rates at area hotels. But that's not the case this year at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort, where some of the lowest rates of the year are on the table during those weeks. This sprawling resort has a lot to offer families looking for a holiday that's laden with fun, including six pools, a 106-foot waterslide, 10 restaurants, and a
200-acre playground that’s home to holiday-themed activities for kids including sidewalk chalk angels, craft-making and trivia games.
The hotel is offering sizable discounts off its regular room rates from November 22 to 29 and from December 10 to January 2, 2010. Nightly rates during those periods start at $104. By comparison, standard rooms are going for as high as $369 a night from November 30 to December 9.
The trick is wading through the promotional smorgasbord on the hotel’s web site. We did the math for a four-night stay:
- 4th night free deal (nightly rate of $139 x 3 nights + $0 for 4th night = $417)
- Stay four nights, get 25% off (nightly rate of $104 x 4 nights = $416)
- Escape Family Time package, which includes free meals for kids 12 and under (nightly room rate of $139 x 4 nights = $556 - value of the dining perk). We figure that the free kids meals would save a typical family of four as much as $280 on a four-night stay (figuring $10 for breakfast + $10 for lunch + $15 for dinner = $35 x 2 kids = $70/day).
- Two-Room Package with a nightly rate of $189, which gives you one room with a king bed and a connecting room with two double beds
For a typical family of four with kids 12 and under, the Escape Family Time package will likely offer the biggest overall savings, thanks to the free kids' dining perk. Even if you spent most of every day at theme parks and ate only breakfast and dinner at the hotel, you would still save $50 a day on kids' meals, or $200 on a four-day stay.
Larger families in need some extra space should consider the two-room package, which lets them save $89 a night off the regular price of two rooms purchased a la carte (normally $139 x 2 rooms = $278).
As always, read the fine print as some of the rates require an advance purchase and are non-refundable.
