DL & WDW in October 2015 - PTR

[bswift]

Hello

I'm going to both DL and WDW in October and am thinking about buying my tickets this week before the prices go up! I'm still undecided on a few things so I thought I'd seek advice from some more experienced trip planners.

For DL, I'll be going alone on the day of my arrival in the US and then on the following day. I'm currently tossing up between two options:

1. Arrive on Thursday the 15th of October, get a 2 day pass with hoppers, stay one night at the Super 8 on Katella, fly to my next stop on the Friday night (assuming there's a MHP and I'll need to leave at 6 or 7pm).

or

2. Arrive on Friday the 16th, stay at the Super 8 that night, attend MHP that night (enter the park at 4pm), get a 1 day pass with hoppers for the Saturday, fly to my next stop on the Saturday night.

I think both options are going to cost roughly the same but I'm not sure which would be the best value. MHP dates aren't out yet and won't be for a few months. I know it's not really enough time for DL but since I'll be going to WDW the week after, I'll just save time by not meeting any characters and avoiding rides that are also at WDW. My WDW dates are the 25th til the 29th, hopefully attending MNSSHP on the 25th and also going to Universal on the 30th. We're planning on staying at Sports and are hoping to add free dining to our booking if it's announced later.

Do you think I should buy my tickets now (either for 1 day or 2) or wait until the details for MHP are released?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hello

I'm going to both DL and WDW in October and am thinking about buying my tickets this week before the prices go up! I'm still undecided on a few things so I thought I'd seek advice from some more experienced trip planners.

For DL, I'll be going alone on the day of my arrival in the US and then on the following day. I'm currently tossing up between two options:

1. Arrive on Thursday the 15th of October, get a 2 day pass with hoppers, stay one night at the Super 8 on Katella, fly to my next stop on the Friday night (assuming there's a MHP and I'll need to leave at 6 or 7pm).

or

2. Arrive on Friday the 16th, stay at the Super 8 that night, attend MHP that night (enter the park at 4pm), get a 1 day pass with hoppers for the Saturday, fly to my next stop on the Saturday night.

I think both options are going to cost roughly the same but I'm not sure which would be the best value. MHP dates aren't out yet and won't be for a few months. I know it's not really enough time for DL but since I'll be going to WDW the week after, I'll just save time by not meeting any characters and avoiding rides that are also at WDW. My WDW dates are the 25th til the 29th, hopefully attending MNSSHP on the 25th and also going to Universal on the 30th. We're planning on staying at Sports and are hoping to add free dining to our booking if it's announced later.

Do you think I should buy my tickets now (either for 1 day or 2) or wait until the details for MHP are released?

Congratulations on having a two castles trip planned! It sounds like a fantastic trip.


Have you booked your airline tickets yet? If so, which day are you arriving in LA? Are you arriving on the Thursday or the Friday?

MHP dates don't get released until a lot later in the year. And there usually is a ticket price rise in the first part of the year. I would be tempted to lock my park tickets in at the exchange rate and at last year's prices.

One option...and hedging your bets....you could always get a 1 day hopper and then upgrade to a 2 day when you get there. But that will mean that you will need to spend time at Guest Relations sorting out that upgrade.

 

[bswift]

Congratulations on having a two castles trip planned! It sounds like a fantastic trip.


Have you booked your airline tickets yet? If so, which day are you arriving in LA? Are you arriving on the Thursday or the Friday?

MHP dates don't get released until a lot later in the year. And there usually is a ticket price rise in the first part of the year. I would be tempted to lock my park tickets in at the exchange rate and at last year's prices.

One option...and hedging your bets....you could always get a 1 day hopper and then upgrade to a 2 day when you get there. But that will mean that you will need to spend time at Guest Relations sorting out that upgrade.

I haven't booked my flights yet so I have flexibility at the moment! Currently my dates are around $1230 with United (on the new dreamliner which is my first preference) to $1300 with Qantas. I'm wondering whether it's worth waiting to see if I get a better price at the expo next month though.

Yesterday my friend and I actually decided we're going to skip Universal and just do an extra day at WDW because it seemed like a lot of money for just one day. This means I'll now have 5 and a half days at WDW. I'm thinking if I can find somewhere to store my luggage at DL (I know they have lockers but I'm not sure if they're big enough?) I might just do 1 day at DL and head to my next stop on that same night.

I think I might go with your suggestion and buy a 1 day hopper now and then add an extra day if things change

 

[bswift]

Just thought I'd update this to say I've half-booked my flights! I randomly checked the United website today and my flight had gone down to $1185 so I used their Fare Lock service to lock that price in without actually paying the full amount today.

I went with Thursday the 15th and have decided I'll spend Thursday and Friday at DL and leave around 5 or 6pm Friday night regardless of whether or not there's MHP.

I was hoping to book my WDW accomm + tickets tonight but I keep getting an error message! I hope it's not because they're changing the prices right now

 

[ColinA]

I was hoping to book my WDW accomm + tickets tonight but I keep getting an error message! I hope it's not because they're changing the prices right now

Probably down for maintenance. Keep trying.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I haven't booked my flights yet so I have flexibility at the moment! Currently my dates are around $1230 with United (on the new dreamliner which is my first preference) to $1300 with Qantas. I'm wondering whether it's worth waiting to see if I get a better price at the expo next month though.

Yesterday my friend and I actually decided we're going to skip Universal and just do an extra day at WDW because it seemed like a lot of money for just one day. This means I'll now have 5 and a half days at WDW. I'm thinking if I can find somewhere to store my luggage at DL (I know they have lockers but I'm not sure if they're big enough?) I might just do 1 day at DL and head to my next stop on that same night.

I think I might go with your suggestion and buy a 1 day hopper now and then add an extra day if things change

IMO The lockers at DLR are not big enough to store luggage.

Congrats on half-booking in your flight.


And I should point out that those golden tickets were very hard to get. There were a very limited number and people were queueing during the day and waiting to see if Qantas would announce another release.

 

[bswift]

I finally managed to get through last night and booked my tickets and accommodation! 6 nights at All Star Sports and a 5 day pass! Tbh the theming of Sports does not interest either of us in the slightest but hopefully we won't be spending too much time in our room.

I'm so glad I've almost booked my flights and that everything is falling into place now. I was planning on going to Houston for 2 nights but have instead decided to stay longer with my family friends in Sacramento, which is where I'll be heading after DL. This means I can tell myself the money I'm saving on accommodation is funding the DL part of the trip so I don't have to feel as bad about it

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great progress.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Sounds like a great trip!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Sounds like you are getting organised and will be a great trip with TWO castles and time with friends! Congrats on nabbing the flights. If they release a MHP you can go Thurs night if you want I presume? and at least you are doing MNSSHP in WDW anyway.

 

[bswift]

Totally forgot I had a PTR thread! A lot has happened since I last posted so I thought I should update it

First stop is DL, I have one night staying at the Super 8 on Katella and 2 day hoppers. I haven't done as much research/planning for DL because park hours and the details of MHP haven't been released yet. I have however decided that I want to eat ALL the foods.

For WDW, I was able to add free dining to our booking last night, so we now have 6 nights at Sports with 5 day PH and the QSDP. We weren't originally getting PH but an extra $160US to get a week's worth of food is well worth it imo. It now means we have more flexibility on MNSSHP nights. Speaking of, we also recently bought our party ticket for the 25th of October!

Tonight is our 180 mark and we were able to book lunch at 50s Prime Time and both lunch and dinner at BOG. The dinner will be our last meal at WDW

A few months ago I ordered a knock off of the Black Milk "tale as old as time" dress from Ali Express. I was originally thinking of wearing it to MNSSHP (since we won't be travelling with costumes) but I think I'll wear it to BOG dinner instead. It looks like this:

Almost everything is booked for my trip now, just a few more hotels (Tampa FL and Greensboro NC) and a flight from Tampa to LAX (waiting for the Southwest schedule to open up into November).

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looks like a great dress!

 

[bswift]

Bumping up my own thread because I booked our FP+ and paid off the last bit of our reservation today! We got all the FP+ we wanted, including A&E and SDMT twice. We also had no problem getting the ADRs we wanted a few months back (BOG lunch and dinner and 50s Prime Time). We also booked the Marceline to the Magic Kingdom tour. I'd love to do Keys to the Kingdom one day but it just didn't fit into this trip.

Tbh I feel like reading these boards made me more anxious about everything than I really needed to be. Sure the MDE website and app can be a bit glitchy sometimes (ie. I had to call this morning to pay off our reservation because I couldn't even get the account balance to show online!) but we managed to book everything we wanted without any issues.

50 days until I leave now! I'm waiting on my Halloween costume to arrive from Amazon (I ended up buying a Snow White one because I'll be wearing it to two events while I'm over there). Once it's arrived I'm probably going to get out my suitcase and start drafting a packing list... I'm a bit of weirdo in that I LOVE packing!