Best place to book a package from?

[LitlbitWraps]

Hubby is putting a down on our vacation trip on Friday and was going to do it from the resort site. Is there a better place to go and purchase low cost package deals?
Staying Wed-Sunday and want to make sure we get the early entry and also the character breakfast & the meal plan.
Please let me know your pros and cons about any travel agencys etc.
Thanks,
KimberlyAnn

 

[Queenbillabong]

I believe the only place to get the meal plan is from Walt Disney Travel Company. You can get everything else, including character breakfasts and two early entries instead of one from getawaytoday.com. The only way you would get more early entries would be to stay at one of the three onsite hotels, and then you would have three for your dates (Thurs-Sat-Sun). Getawaytoday.com also has a payment plan (I think up to four payments).

FYI - with the meal plan, there are no savings. We did this in May and you get vouchers - some specific dollar amounts ($5, $10, $15) and some for a character breakfast (which usually has a dollar amount printed on the front), breakfast in the park (I think it's like $10.50 or so printed on the front), character lunch (I think it's $27 or so), and then a voucher for dinner at Goofy's, which for us had no dollar value printed on the front (we did not want to go there, but had to go or lose the money because there was no dollar amount on the front and we could not use this coupon anywhere else insteady!). The character lunch could be applied to any other sit down restaurant as it did have the face value printed on the front.

I think the meal plan is okay if you just want to prepay your entire vacation, keeping in mind that you will not get any change back from vouchers if you do not spend the entire amount and will probably end up owing a bit extra (ie. breakfast in the park) from the face value. I know they can print out face value coupons only, because a supervisor offered to do this for me when I complained about the Goofy's coupon (I would have preferred to use the $30 towards Blue Bayou, for example), but it's not something they offer on the site.

With the WDTC, you get the actual park hoppers mailed to you, rather than a receipt to p/u your tickets at the park, which is very nice.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I liked our meal vouchers my dh did to even more then me so were getitng them again. As far as i know disney is the only place that has them.

 

[spaddy]

If you belong to Costco their packages come with a free character breakfast. I know we saved over $100 with that alone. If not, sometimes AAA has discounts too. Dreamsunlimited sometimes offers gift certificates too.

 

[bumbershoot]

We used Costco and were happy with it.

You can buy the meal plan, such as it is, through Costo (or AAA or getawaytoday, I believe, since they all go straight through WDTC...when you call the Costco Disney people after you've booked, you're actually talking to CMs in Anaheim that just answer their phone with the Costco brand added on).

The main components of the package are basically the same...if Disney is offering a "dream coin" still they'll likely all have that. Each company will have a lanyard for each person that you pick up at certain stores with a voucher, along with a commemorative pin. With Costco you get a "free" (not with my package...it priced out to about a dollar less than AAA + a character b'fast for each of us) character breakfast, Preferred Seating vouchers for some shows in DCA, and vouchers to get you in to Mickey's ToonTown Morning Madness. The others have slightly different things...like with getawaytoday you get 2 Magic Mornings assuming your package is at least 3 days long in the parks, but you don't get MTTMM vouchers.

You just have to know what you want, grab a notebook, and check out prices and exact things in the packages, and decide what's important to you!


And FYI, if you're booking an onsite hotel, the extra MM day with getawaytoday isn't important, b/c you'll get MM each morning it's offered during your stay just by staying at the hotel.

 

[Queenbillabong]

At getawaytoday.com, you cannot purchase the dining plan (at least not on the website) - only specific character meals. costcotravel.com does offer the meal plans (and the dream coin;-) - but you can only book for four nights at a DL hotel for some reason...

 

[honeymom]

I find that it really helps to price out the different options and then compare. The one with the most savings depends on which way the wind is blowing that day.

 

[Pinkstarblm]

When my mom and I went in April we booked through costco.. Got a 150 disney gift card and a free character breakfast of our choice

 

[avalon451]

Before you go with a package, I would price out what it might cost you to book it separately (i.e. air, hotel, park tickets, character meals).You could save hundreds of dollars booking separately.

I just looked at what our package would be if we'd booked it through Disney. I'm sure there's lots of variables, including airline price depending on where you fly into and when you book... but with the basics all the same, the difference is $690 for us.

 

[LitlbitWraps]

Ohhh - Costco!
I didn't even think of them
Thought of AAA but I will for sure check out Costco.
The way our family is, the meal plan would work best for us but we for sure want the best deal. We would love to have everything paid for before we go but would also love the pmt program to take the pressure off a tad.
Thanks a bunch.
Oh - has anyone stayed at the Jolly Roger?

 

[nun69]

I booked through AAA and have been very impressed with them and you can add the meal plan through AAA if you want....last year I di it all on my own and am glad I did it through AAA this year~

 

[Husker Mickey]

We have always gone through getawaytoday.com. Check out their website. We always call and place our order on the phone so that if we have any questions, we could get those answered. Their customer service is very good! Good luck with your plans!

 

[janc]

I go through the Disney travel company. AAA, Costco and Disney were all around the same price. You do get different perks using different companies.

Getaway today looks good to but I really like the meal plan. Just easier having it paid in advance.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i didnt even know i could get the meal plan any where else glade to know but we just think doing it all though disney will be better we do hotle seprate and just get park hopper and meal plan this time though them

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

Before you go with a package, I would price out what it might cost you to book it separately (i.e. air, hotel, park tickets, character meals).You could save hundreds of dollars booking separately.

I just looked at what our package would be if we'd booked it through Disney. I'm sure there's lots of variables, including airline price depending on where you fly into and when you book... but with the basics all the same, the difference is $690 for us.

Gail - I am glad someone said this. I looked at our hotel and tickets through various package places, and booking them myself was a huge savings because of the Entertainment rate at the Hojo. I am such a bargin hunter when it comes to our vacations - so we can go on more! Flying Southwest was $69 each way from Denver to LAX for our dates. (Although on our trip home, I bought the $108 for a better time)

Please don't assume that you will get a better price going through places. I even tried Costco - but because we don't want to do a character breakfast, it was more $ than what I could do on my own.