Booking questions

[.snow.white.]

Hi,

I have booked my DLH stay for 8/15. I will be booking dining on 6/16 and adding park tickets at some point prior to our arrival.

I paid a 50% deposit on the room. If I make it a package, when do I have to pay the balance in full? 45 days or 30 days out?

Do I want to upgrade at 30/45 days in order to receive the lanyards etc that come with booking with DLR? Is there some advantage to upgrading to a package prior to booking dining?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Girimama33]

Best thing to do is price it all out individually and compare it to the package price. if the difference is minimal, it may be worth it to get a package for the extras. MTTMM and priority seating are nice perks.

 

[.snow.white.]

My question is not whether to change it to a package, I intend to for the perks, but when to change it to a package.

If I change before 6/16, will I have dining advantages?
If I change before 6/16, when will I have to pay in full? 30 or 45 days out?
If I change after the 30/45 day time period, will I miss out on perks mailed in advance of the trip?

Thanks again!

 

[Girimama33]

My question is not whether to change it to a package, I intend to for the perks, but when to change it to a package.

If I change before 6/16, will I have dining advantages? Are you referring to a free dining offer like WDW has? If so, you will not get dining advantages at DLR. They have not offered free dining.If I change before 6/16, when will I have to pay in full? 30 or 45 days out?
If I change after the 30/45 day time period, will I miss out on perks mailed in advance of the trip? You usually have to pay in full 3-4 weeks before your trip. This is when the tickets are mailed to you. I am not sure if you will miss out on the perks. If you complete it after the 3 week period, I have heard they send the documents directly to the hotel. Thanks again!

I would double check with the travel agent to be sure.

 

[.snow.white.]

In terms of dining perks, I was thinking more along the lines of upgraded seating or early booking with a package. I'm not sure whether we'll do a dining plan yet (still exploring and educating myself on pricing and vouchers-I'm a WDW girl and I'm leaning toward no). I feel like 'special character dining' is mentioned with the promotion of DLR packages and I didn't want to miss an opportunity because of late booking.

 

[nicolispicoli]

I would stick with keeping a room only reservation. I have yet to find a better deal for a package through WDTC. You can purchase those "perks" at the WDTC spot in Downtown Disney for something like $10/piece, much cheaper than you will see with a package. It's not as simple as having that room only reservation and adding the amounts of the tickets. You will see way more of a price increase, much more than just the face value of the tickets and $10 each for the perk booklets.

Do not do a dining plan at DLR, they are nothing like WDW and usually end up costing you money. There is not free dining at DLR. While you may get a free character meal, in the end, if you priced it our separately, you will see it was not worth it.

 

[hlbtimes2]

There is no dinning advantage at DL- doesnt matter if you have a vacation package or not! There are some really great old threads on this board comparing the two. You really dont need to book way in advance at DL. There really isnt a dinning plan (yes you can buy a plan, but its not like WDW at all...its just prepaid food vouchers, no savings involved). The only package I know of that includes character dinning is the costco package. I dont think there would be a way to use the deposit you made on your hotel toward the costco package. ACtually, I'm not sure you could do that with any of the packages without just canceling, getting a refund and starting over.

 

[TheZue]

I would stick with keeping a room only reservation. I have yet to find a better deal for a package through WDTC. You can purchase those "perks" at the WDTC spot in Downtown Disney for something like $10/piece, much cheaper than you will see with a package. It's not as simple as having that room only reservation and adding the amounts of the tickets. You will see way more of a price increase, much more than just the face value of the tickets and $10 each for the perk booklets.

Do not do a dining plan at DLR, they are nothing like WDW and usually end up costing you money. There is not free dining at DLR. While you may get a free character meal, in the end, if you priced it our separately, you will see it was not worth it.

So what is in the booklets you can get for $10 exactly? Do you have to be staying onsite?

 

[nicolispicoli]

No, I think anyone can buy them. They have the Aladdin, It's Tough to be a bug & Muppets preferred seating, toontown morning madness ticket. I think that is all except for some shopping coupons, someone please correct me if I am wrong.

You don't have to be staying on site to buy these booklets from them in DTD. You would get these "free" as part of your WDTC package whether you were staying on site or through a good neighbor hotel.

 

[nicolispicoli]

Hi,

I have booked my DLH stay for 8/15. I will be booking dining on 6/16 and adding park tickets at some point prior to our arrival.

I paid a 50% deposit on the room. If I make it a package, when do I have to pay the balance in full? 45 days or 30 days out?

Do I want to upgrade at 30/45 days in order to receive the lanyards etc that come with booking with DLR? Is there some advantage to upgrading to a package prior to booking dining?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I also wanted to ask, who did you book through, Disney (WDTC)? You say you made a 50% deposit on a room only reservation. They usually only require one day...unless your trip is only 2 days, then it makes sense. If you book a package, payoff is required 45 days out. If it's a room only reservation, you pay one night deposit and pay the balance upon checkout.

 

[.snow.white.]

50% because it's one night and we're staying two.

I booked through WDTC. On the preferred seating coupons, is it per person? So buy five booklets for my family of five or one booklet for my family of five?

Thanks everyone.

 

[nicolispicoli]

50% because it's one night and we're staying two.

I booked through WDTC. On the preferred seating coupons, is it per person? So buy five booklets for my family of five or one booklet for my family of five?

Thanks everyone.

Gotcha, makes sense now.

It would be 5 booklets, so $50, but if you make it a package, price it out, it would likely still be less doing is separately even with paying out $50 for those.

For your trip, I would definitely price check. I don't know your plans, but I was playing around with booking online and your dates in a package versus separate wasn't that much of a difference. Less than I have ever seen messing with it myself. I obviously don't know your details, but I played with it a bit. I priced out a two day stay at DLH for 5 people with 2-day hoppers (took a guess, did 3 of them over 10 and two under the age of ten). I declined insurance and it was in a standard room. WDTC priced it at $1963, when I did it separately with the new ticket pricing for 2-day hoppers, it was $1912. So obviously if you paid $50 for those passes, it would be pretty much exactly the same. I have gotten huge differences in my bookings before, like $400 when I needed passes, before I had an AP. Don't know your exact plans, but for you, it might actually be cheaper to book a package. I spoke too soon

 

[.snow.white.]

That was so nice of you, nicolispicoli (great name)! Thank you so much. And you nailed the under/over so I had the same experience. Off by tens of dollars so I booked it to hold the room and figured I'd call back for AAA, and website specials. I checked with one travel agent and they came in about $50 more. Three day hoppers doesn't make a difference. I hoped to wait for an end of summer special, but didn't know if waiting was going to create other issues, driving my question.

I'm East Coast, so I threw it out there before DLR/WDTC opened, and now that I'm back home on the computer again, I think they're closed, so you've all been a huge help.

THANK YOU!!

 

[Babybears]

Just to add a few answers to your questions.....

1. If you switch to a package, the full price is due 30 days prior to your arrival. A $200.00 deposit is all that is needed at time of reservation.

2. They mail you your tickets, paperwork, preferred seating booklets, luggage tags etc. to you 21 days prior to your arrival. They come FedEx and have to be signed for. The preferred seating booklets have a coupon voucher for your lanyards and pins that you can redeem at either DTD, Pin Trader store in Frontierland or Little Green Men store in tomorrowland. There is also a place at DCA where you can redeem it but can't remember where, but it states where on the vouchers. I just wanted to make sure you knew that they don't mail you the pins/lanyards.

Hope you have a fabulous time!!!

 

[nicolispicoli]

That was so nice of you, nicolispicoli (great name)! Thank you so much. And you nailed the under/over so I had the same experience. Off by tens of dollars so I booked it to hold the room and figured I'd call back for AAA, and website specials. I checked with one travel agent and they came in about $50 more. Three day hoppers doesn't make a difference. I hoped to wait for an end of summer special, but didn't know if waiting was going to create other issues, driving my question.

I'm East Coast, so I threw it out there before DLR/WDTC opened, and now that I'm back home on the computer again, I think they're closed, so you've all been a huge help.

THANK YOU!!

You're welcome! Sometimes Costco is a similar price and I think they work through WDTC, so if you get all those WDTC perks and then character meals, might be worth checking out.

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll find a deal for those dates. But, the good thing about WDTC is that if one comes out before 30 days out, you can call and they'll adjust the package price without a fee.