Hello everyone! It is time to swim back over to the Dolphin for some nice deals in September and October!
If you recall, way back in February 2020 (approximately eleventy-two months ago) we posted some Dolphin deals you could find in the $130 and above range. I now scoff at those prices! Scoff!
If you are in the market for some nice weekday deals early in September, or any weekend all the way to Halloween, then Priceline Express is offering rooms at the Dolphin as low as $93, but most in the $107 to $130 range.
An easy way to spot the Dolphin in Express Deal results is to look for a 4-star, 7-guest rated resort in Bonnet Creek with 700 reviews. It is the only resort with that combination of ratings and reviews. (In fact, right now the only other resort in Bonnet Creek that is 4-star, 7-guest rated is Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani. I would be flabbergasted–and might even scoff again–if someone told me they saw a deal for that resort at these prices.)
Before I post the calendar of deals (not but maybe it should be), I need to post some additional info to help you find them. There are times that Priceline Express fails to include some deals in search results unless you jump through a few hoops. or maybe even hop a fence, in a friendly, non-trespassy kind of way. This is one of those times.
Here’s an example that should help you tease out these Dolphin deals without much fuss: I’m going to search Priceline Express for a deal on September 7. When looking for Disney or Swolphin resorts, you always want to limit your search to the Bonnet Creek and Disney Springs areas. Here’s a shot of some of the results.
If you look at the pair of 4-star resorts here, you’ll see that neither of these appear to be the Dolphin: the 7-guest rated resort is in Disney Springs and the other resort has an 8-guest rating. (Also, both have only 500 reviews.) What to do? Click the “Choose” button on the Bonnet Creek resort to open up that deal and you’ll find some additional deals pop up below it.
Now, that 4-star 7-guest looks like a good match for the Dolphin. BUT – We have another problem! Priceline is always making changes to their site and one of their recent updates broke the links on all those pop-up deals. If you try to use them right now, you’ll just get a blank web page. (They did the same thing last year and it took a few months for them to fix it.)
Luckily, there’s a way around that problem. Remember I asked you to open the 4-star Bonnet Creek resort deal – if you go the new new tab that opened, you can scroll to the bottom of that page and it will show you these same additional pop-up deals. (and maybe even a few more.)
If you open up that middle result, you’ll find it is indeed a Dolphin deal. One of the clues to look for when seeking the Dolphin are rooms with two double beds. You’ll also want to look for a mandatory (aka resort) fee – most often $30 lately, but Priceline does like to change that amount slightly sometimes to keep us on our toes.
My last tip: Don’t forget to try out any Priceline codes you see when you visit the site. The current code takes 10% off these deals – in this example you’d be getting the daily rate of about $85 (before adding on the resort fee, which annoys me no end I can tell you). That is the lowest rate I have recorded for the Dolphin in the 2 years I have been watching prices.
Now, you’re not likely going to see that low price on any of the other days below, but I think you’ll agree they are all still pretty nice deals for a 4-star resort. In comparison, if you booked this same night through the Swolphin’s own web site, you’d pay $156 (pre-resort fee) for a non-refundable pre-pay room. If you used the AAA rate, it drops to $140.
If you’ve taken advantage of any of these deals or have any questions, please let us know in the comments!
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