Gary, I booked the August dates at the Grand in mid March using the “25% off stays of 4 nights or more” deal Disney is running, and at the time I booked all of the room types were still available so standard view rooms were going for $475 a night. Now when I look the two lowest tier room types are no longer available to book (i’m sure they only allocate so many of each room type for the discount offer) so the rooms are all in the mid $500’s and above now. Would love it if Disney had this same offer for Labor day week again because I would be curious to see how much of the crowds last year were a product of the Run Disney event. That said the “crowds” for that week were quite manageable and the mornings during early entry and for the first several hours of the day were very light and pleasant. Using lightning lane later in the day and then enjoying the park up to closing was downright delightful compared to how I’ve seen it
get other times of the year. I just miss the true “ghost town” days of yesteryear!

Same experience for us last year. We went Labor Day week, and to our surprise, the Monday holiday was the least busy compared to Tues. – Thursday. How did you get a room at CGCH for under $500 a night? Cheapest rates for a standard room around that time I see are $560 a night.

Whatever discounts they do, they shouldn’t go overboard. As someone who works M-F during business hours, I like that I can pay to go on the weekend and still expect to get a decent experience. It costs more but at least I’m not waiting in 2-3 hour lines all day like the weekends from my youth. The key to any discounts should be to maintain the smoothing of crowds between weekdays and weekdays as they have been doing.

What discounts they offer should be targeted toward getting more families and kids in the park to counter the whole Disney adult narrative, which is what the $50 ticket deal does. It doesn’t go far enough though, and the age should be raised to 13. I also think a degree of dynamic pricing should be applied to the kids ticket deal. Make the weekends about $70-$75 and the lightest weekdays even lower around $35-$45.

My favorite thing on either menu is the Al Pastor Pork Chop (Chef’s Special). I’ve had that twice and it’s been fantastic both times.

With that said, I’d still choose brunch. Deeper menu with more can’t miss dishes, great for sharing–just fun all around! (I also hesitate to recommend that pork chop too enthusiastically because there’s the risk someone else gets it and it’s dry.)