Ap's and Hotels.

[Rainasunshine]

DBF and I are planning on buying Ap's this year as kind of a one time deal to see how it goes and with time and what not and we had several questions about them.

If we bought them lets say today but we didn't use them until march would the expire next year in january, or on the day we first used them?

For our first trip with the Ap's we would be going with both of our families, and they would have everything booked through the travel website so they can get a better deal. But when we try to book a hotel through the same website all we get are the onsite hotels. Is there anyway to book a good neighboor hotel through them and still get the "better" price, or are we just
stuck with paying a little bit more to get our own room?
For this earlier trip we are okay with seperate hotel rooms because a few of us plan on staying a few days longer and they would just join us in our room.
But for a trip further in the year we plan on going with a few friends and was wondering how to go about buying the pakage deal type thing through the website with some of us having Ap's and some of us not.

Sorry for all of these questions guys! But I have just one more How great are the discounts on the onsite hotels for Ap holders and how would I be able to check that without actually having the Ap yet?

Thank you guys very much in advanced and any extra tips and pointers on this would be great! You guys rock

 

[skiingfast]

You AP will expire a year from when you activate it by entering the parks, so in your case a year from March.

It is almost never better to buy a package through Disney. You will rarely get the best hotel rate on a good neighbor hotel booking it through Disney.

 

[Rainasunshine]

Oh really? The last time we went it ended up being cheaper for us to book the hotel and tickets at the same time through the website rather than seperatly and through the hotel. How would you suggest going about it then?

Thank you!

 

[bumbershoot]

The APs aren't active until you use them the first time, BUT I've read that the vouchers expire. This means that you would get the value that you paid for those vouchers towards an AP, but the AP likely would have increased in cost.

I wouldn't buy an AP until you're ready to go, or just wait until you get there.

You can call Disney to check on AP rates.

I was just looking at the hotel-only booking, and they show obvious onsite options, but then there's an area that says Book a Room Only Stay at a Good Neighbor Hotel over to the right. There's a button with "Book Now". It takes you to a website powered by Travelocity...

You could probably do better for yourself, as an AP holder, by looking at the area hotels' websites themselves, though! Or at least make sure you're comparing them.

Once you have the APs, there's really no point in doing a package, since packages at Disneyland include tickets.

 

[Badge]

We have always found that the packages from Disney normal cost more. This is true for both DL and WDW. One time when we were planning a trip to WDW, it would have cost us just over $100 more to book their "package deal" than it did to book the room only and then purchase tickets. Everything was the same, length of stay, length of tickets, etc. but the package was just more. I guess Disney thought getting everything all at once was worth the $100 extra fee

I ALWAYS search around when it comes to the rooms and stuff. There are a ton of off site hotels that you can not book on the Disneyland website with a package as well. The HoJo hotel normally has really great rates, and they even give you a discount if your an APH, however Disney makes no mention of this hotel on their website.

 

[sonnyjane]

The APs aren't active until you use them the first time, BUT I've read that the vouchers expire. This means that you would get the value that you paid for those vouchers towards an AP, but the AP likely would have increased in cost.

I wouldn't buy an AP until you're ready to go, or just wait until you get there.

You can call Disney to check on AP rates.

I was just looking at the hotel-only booking, and they show obvious onsite options, but then there's an area that says Book a Room Only Stay at a Good Neighbor Hotel over to the right. There's a button with "Book Now". It takes you to a website powered by Travelocity...

You could probably do better for yourself, as an AP holder, by looking at the area hotels' websites themselves, though! Or at least make sure you're comparing them.

Once you have the APs, there's really no point in doing a package, since packages at Disneyland include tickets.

March isn't very far away so I wouldn't think the vouchers would expire before then, but I agree that there's no real need to buy them now if you don't need them until March.

OP I just want to confirm what everyone is saying... a room-only reservation is absolutely almost always cheaper than booking a package. If you want to stay on-site, they can book you at the AP rate even if you haven't activated your pass yet, just have to let them know you'll be doing so at the parks. If you're staying off-site at a Good Neighbor hotel, your AP discount won't apply. I'd book directly with whatever hotel you choose, as they usually take no deposit or a deposit of one night only. Travelocity and Expedia require you to pay in full up front, so I wouldn't book through them unless it was considerably cheaper or unless for some reason you wanted the trip pre-paid.

 

[Malcon10t]

I have always found it to be more expensive to book a package. I can usually put it together cheaper.

 

[Aust]

I bought an AP online just after Christmas and it has to be activated by 31st Dec 2012 - so if you bought an AP now it would be fine for March activation.