Booking a package for less than package price

[mrswh]

There have been plenty of threads where most of us agree that booking a hotel/ticket package costs more than booking each component separately. In addition, booking a package comes with stricter cancellation policies than a hotel-only reservation. But . . . if you book separately you don't get the extras like MM, character call, lanyard, VIP seating booklet, etc.

So here's the solution. I have done this twice and it works beautifully. Book a hotel only reservation. Then call back to add your tickets. Ask for a Passport Plus package. They charge you the promo price for the tickets (same as you would pay if you bought them online at promo price separately) and they throw in all the package extras. Ta da! I am not sure how this works or why they do it - I do know that both times, the person on the phone has had to speak with a supervisor to OK it, but both times they have given me the tickets at promo price and thrown in the extras. The cancellation policy for the tickets only is $200 fee inside of 30 days (no fee outside 30 days), which I don't really see as a problem since if I had bought them separately there would be no opportunity to cancel at all. And the hotel reservation still has the same policy - no cancellation fee outside of 5 days of arrival.

There is one caveat . . . both times, I have called back to add the tickets at a time when the package with my room category was no longer available. So it may be that this package is offered only as a concession when they are not able to change the hotel only reservation to a package . . . but who knows. It's certainly worth trying.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

FYI: MM aren't a perk of a package, they come with the tickets.

 

[SGDisneyFam]

FYI: MM aren't a perk of a package, they come with the tickets.

Perhaps the OP was referring to the MTTMM tickets?

 

[mrswh]

Sorry, I misspoke. Morning Madness not Magic Morning.

 

[Disneylandfan1]

Thank you so much for posting these suggestions! I will definitely give this a try.

I am in the middle of debating the same issue with packages. Last summer Disney did not announce their late summer hotel specials until after our 30 day window had passed, so the WDTC charged us $100 ($50 for each room) to "adjust" our packages price and give us the late summer discount for the PPH! We had to do it because we still saved money on the package. I swore I would never again get stuck in a package until I knew the specials, however now I feel like I might miss out on the perks that come with a package.

Great advice!

 

[blackjackdelta]

Just checked a Costco package vs booking the individual items/apples to apples and I still save $500 by doing it separately with out the varied cancellation fee's, etc.

Jack

 

[sonnyjane]

Just checked a Costco package vs booking the individual items/apples to apples and I still save $500 by doing it separately with out the varied cancellation fee's, etc.

Jack

I'll take $500 over a lanyard any day

 

[starshine514]

I'll take $500 over a lanyard any day

 

[dbbydk]

Just checked a Costco package vs booking the individual items/apples to apples and I still save $500 by doing it separately with out the varied cancellation fee's, etc.

Jack

Does take into account that you get the character meal thru a Costco package and a $20 gift card? Last October, Costco was giving 2 character meals. I know when I've looked at packages in the past, Costco was the same price as AAA, but AAA didn't include the character meal or gift card. I know this is a slight tangent off the OP saying that booking separately was cheaper.

We are going with another family in October, and I've been looking at Costco Travel for them, but the rates haven't dropped yet. I'll check booking separately thru Disney.

 

[JessicaKnits]

Maybe I did something wrong, but I just priced out our package vs. booking it separately. I booked our "package" directly through the Disney website. Hilton must be offering Disney one heck of a deal in May. We got our 4 nights of hotel and 5 day park tickets for $200 less than if we had booked just a room through Hilton for the same dates!