2 disney hotels /1 trip

[Elise79]

Well one thing is 100% certain: You would never want to take a holiday with me. I pack the night before and most years, have rushed home from a park quickly to shove all our belongings and into the suitcases 20 minutes before check out time. In 2010 I did a surprise trip for my DD but being so bent on keeping it a secret, told nobody meaning I couldn't enlist anyone's support - so as a full time working single parent, I finished work and 1 pm and ran home to pack before schools came out at 3

So maybe the packing is not such an issue for me with moving resorts

It's not the clothes I have an issue with as we don't take that many (wash them when needed as we stay in a one bedroom) it's all the 'stuff' - we have one OL full and take laptops etc with us as well and it's this that takes my time!

 

[zippy99]

Anyways can i ask what deal you got for Universal as we are now thinking of doing maybe 1st night cheapest hotel we can get nearest to Universal as we wont get in and settled till around 7 dont see the point in paying for an expensive room when we will crash early,Then transfer across to HRH or one of the other Universal hotels for 3 nights then do another cheapish I-drive hotel for the last 3 nights to do Seaworld and outlets as we dont think we will shop when we go Disney side as its too far!....

Cindy.

Sure, we booked hotel only direct with Universal/Loews, some may not think it a deal but we booked on their stay more save more package meaning we got a room at RPR for $168 a night. For us we looked at the ability to walk to the parks, not paying $16 a day parking, early entry and the FOTL pass and this swayed us. Also - we only had to pay $190 deposit (£120) and you pay the balance on check-out from a budgeting perspective this was really helpful. Plus you can always cancel 2 weeks before you go if you did need to change. Due to staying here we have decided to ditch our car hire so in our heads it balanced out. We are happy to also get the free shuttle to Busch that stops at Universal and we have access to City Walk in the evening for drinks etc..

For the reasons I love staying on site at Disney (being able to go back to the hotel during the day) I am also looking forward to this perk at Universal - plus there are no buses involved at it is all in walking distance!

 

[bex7583]

Another thing you could do, since you're going for quite a long time is not to do a 50/50 split.

I forget now how long you ended up deciding to go for but say it's 21 nights.

You could do 14 nights with park tickets and DDP at one resort and then go free of DDP or book the other one on the US site as a separate reservation (you could do this with or without tickets). If free dining is released for your dates in the US after you have booked, you can call and ask if there are any promotional rooms at your resort of choice with no penalty and apply the promotion to your reservation.

I note that you have a large family so for you, free dining would probably be a better discount than a room discount (something else they offer over certain dates, put only release the promotion closer to the time). What are your resorts of choice? Do you have an idea of where you want to stay and how you want to split it, or are you still at the stage of determining your options?

Planning is such fun

this is the new and revised plan , i took in to account the ages and my do everything plan wouldnt have been much use as they are too younng to do a lot of it , this new plan is just a 2 week disney onsite with only disney parks , the original do everything plan can then be posponed and also be easier to keep to a budget as i wont be bothered staying onsite for the big trip