Has anyone done this???

[Strawberryblush]

I was reading on another site where some people have booked their disneyland package through a different country to get it cheaper.

They go to the disneyland site...change the country to say France and the same package they had looked at booking through UK was a lot cheaper through changing the country. Their booking went through ok even though they used their UK home address too.

I'm wondering why it is a different price...when we are all staying in the same disney hotel and the price is nothing to do with travelling from a different country??? How fair is that?

 

[mommy2ash]

there have been some people on here who have booked that way.

with regards to price, disney offer different discounts to each country and they are well within their right to do so, some countries get very few offers and others get a lot. i think a lot of it has to do with how many visitors they get from each country. they may decide it isnt worth it to market an offer when they do not get a lot in return for it.

 

[Strawberryblush]

I personally think it is pretty bad they charge different prices for the same product regardless where you come from.
I got a quote from the UK and a quote by changing the country to France... it was £200.00 cheaper doing it the France way - that is totally shocking. It's not even like it's a small difference...we are getting ripped off.

 

[mommy2ash]

the countries that they get more visitors from get more offers. it might not be fair but its just good business. along with prices on a website these offers get advertised heavily and there is not much point in spending an absolute fortune when they will not see a return. generally the uk get very good offers. i think a lot of the 40% off dates have been taken as that offer has been extended but without extra dates added.

 

[MECH8T7]

I personally think it is pretty bad they charge different prices for the same product regardless where you come from.
I got a quote from the UK and a quote by changing the country to France... it was £200.00 cheaper doing it the France way - that is totally shocking. It's not even like it's a small difference...we are getting ripped off.

I believe the discrepancy between UK-resident and France-resident pricing has to do with the fact that DLRP quotes to the UK in GBP in their brochures and marketing materials and therefore locks into a euro/GBP exchange rate in advance and for 6 month periods at a time. So, if the GBP gets stronger against the euro in the meantime, it will be cheaper to book through any DLRP country specific site which prices in euros (i.e., not just France).

Sometimes the best discounts are not available on all DLRP sites. For example, the current 40% promotion was not available if you were trying to book through the U.S. or Canada-specific DLRP site. North Americans have had success accessing the UK DLRP offers by booking through the UK Expedia site. We live in Canada and, in my case, I called DRLP directly and asked them if they would extend to 40% to me and, after speaking with a manager, the CM advised that they could do that.

 

[marcus.ka]

We had this discussion regarding fairness very often also here on the board.
And I think mommy2ash sums it up very good.

But to be fair France and the UK get by far the best rates for DLRP! If you want to see real shocking or unfair rates you should get a quote for Germany! We have not had any promotions or offers (like the great 40% UK offer that Disney brings out every year) in years!

Last year I even booked through the UK to get the great rates. But usually you can not book this through Disney directly because they are very strict. And so we used another official (but not Disney owned site) and got also the 40%.

And also WDW gives great offers to UK visitors (free dining plan and many more) but if you book WDW you can use the offers from other countries because WDW is not as strict as DLRP. And so we booked our WDW stay last year also through the UK but this time on the official WDW site.

 

[Michael623]

I booked my family's vacation on the UK site. It saved us about $400USD or about 35%. I have also read about other people doing this successfully but I'm still nervous about it (11 days to go). I'm not sure that I agree with the "countries with more visitors get more offers" idea. How about people from the less represented counties don't visit due to a lack of offers? If you offered 30% off packages to (insert your country here) and it increased bookings by 50% don't you think it would be worth it? Especially in the off seasons. To see a 40% off offer for the UK and no discount at all for the US makes me feel that they don't actually want me there, or maybe their theory is if Americans can afford to vacation in Europe they can afford to pay full price. It seems a bit short-sighted to me. I'm not picking a fight here it just seems like they are alienating large groups of people with these country-specific offers.

 

[disney_princess_85]

To see a 40% off offer for the UK and no discount at all for the US makes me feel that they don't actually want me there, or maybe their theory is if Americans can afford to vacation in Europe they can afford to pay full price. It seems a bit short-sighted to me. I'm not picking a fight here it just seems like they are alienating large groups of people with these country-specific offers.

Maybe they think Americans won't want to visit because they have Orlando and Anaheim? It's like they've just written the country off and instead choose to focus on European visitors. You're right, it's very short-sighted. I'm sure there are many Americans who would love to visit but are put off by the price.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Maybe they think Americans won't want to visit because they have Orlando and Anaheim? It's like they've just written the country off and instead choose to focus on European visitors. You're right, it's very short-sighted. I'm sure there are many Americans who would love to visit but are put off by the price.

Yeah - I am staying off site because there were no deals worth taking on the US website for June. So for all you Americans out there it may be most affordable to stay off site and get an annual pass. But I would like to know how it works to book on another country's website.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

But I guess it all comes around doesn't - I just received a great 40% off PIN for WDW for dates this fall and winter and I hear lots of Europeans don't get PINS (don't really know if this is true). I probably won't use it though because I don't want to pay for airfare from Turkey - unless I go back to Texas for Christmas.

 

[scrappinmama22]

We visited DLP on May 16,17,18 and being from Canada we did not "qualify" for any deals.My original plan was to stay 1 night at one of the cheaper disney hotels. Then along came the 40% off offer and for us to book the New York hotel for 2 nights & 3 days was actually cheaper. I decided I would just try phoning Disney and booking. I used a phone card to do this as calling to Paris would be tres expensive!! Smart me--paid $5.00 for my phone card and still have many minutes left LOL. I was told that my booking would cost 1200 euros even though it would be 618 euros booking through Francais site with the explanation that offers for all countries differ and we could not book through French site unless we had a french address. Ta da, we were renting an apartment in Paris so we had an address and phone number to use. The New York hotel was great. We enjoyed our stay there and the children will remember it forever.

 

[Johnny_boy]

Apple got into a lot of trouble in the EU because they were charging less for songs on iTunes in Europe than the UK price and they eventually agreed to reduce the UK price to match. iTunes will only let you register for that country if you provide a credit card registered in that country so you can't switch countries to save money :-(

In the end the pound devalued against the Euro so they changed their mind and kept the prices as they were.

While I'm not surprised at Apple for doing that, I'm surprised other companies like Disney are able to offer substantially different prices within the EU.

 

[mommy2ash]

Apple got into a lot of trouble in the EU because they were charging less for songs on iTunes in Europe than the UK price and they eventually agreed to reduce the UK price to match. iTunes will only let you register for that country if you provide a credit card registered in that country so you can't switch countries to save money :-(

In the end the pound devalued against the Euro so they changed their mind and kept the prices as they were.

While I'm not surprised at Apple for doing that, I'm surprised other companies like Disney are able to offer substantially different prices within the EU.

the problem isnt with the price they charge it is with the discounts offered. they do not offer good discounts such as the 40% off offer to countries that they do not get a lot of business from. the base prices are the same for each country so therefore they are well within their rights to offer whatever discounts they want.