Disney Vacation Package or Expedia Hotel Only

[JeannieNM]

Hi Everyone,
I am going to DL with my DD, Nephew and Nephew's family July 12-17. In the past we have always booked our hotel directly and then bought tickets from another vendor. With the pay for 3 get 5 nights, I can not book just the room through Disney. So if I book with Disney I have to book the vacation package. What I do not like is that the package can not be cancelled without penalty and they charge you to make changes if there is a price drop. Otherwise it is OK. I can book just the room with the 5/3 pricing through Expedia. I have never booked through Expedia so I have no idea how it works.

Should I go with the Disney package or the Expedia Hotel only?

We need two rooms at GC.

Thanks for the help
Jean

 

[lark]

Wow -- I didn't know the 5 for 3 pricing was available through expedia on room only. That's a really great tip.

I've booked stuff through expedia before -- particularly at WDW. I was treated exactly the same. The only problem is that to make any changes or requests or whatever, you need to do it through expedia. Disney won't (at least last time I did it) access the reservation for you. They view it as through expedia. The only real downside of this is that sometimes you can be on hold for a while trying to get through to expedia, and they have phone trees and stuff that are somewhat annoying.

I priced out a 5/3 vacation package through DL direct, and it really is a great deal for a 5 night trip. One thing to consider is that when you make the reservation that way, you get some extra perks if I remember correctly. Like, I think the package came with toontown early entry or something. Also you can purchase a dining add on if you want.

 

[LuLusApple]

I have and would book thru WDT if I need tickets and hotel room. I know many on this board prefer seperate booking.
You do get some extras with WDT but may not be worth it ?
You get a DTD fun card that gets you discounts on food and merch at DTD.
Free lanyards and a pin per lanyard, per ticket. Luggage tags, PS at some shows and a few more discounts.
Plus vouchers to MTTMM that was fun.
I know my kids liked the little extras
I did change my ressies once and was charged 25$
But saved 150$ so it was still worth it.
But I mostly did it to get the monthly payments on the package.
I think with expedia you have to pay up front?
But now I have AP's and only need the hotel, so I have booked my future trips with hojo

 

[lark]

For what it's worth, I just priced both of these out on expedia and the Disneyland web site, to see if they really were comparable or whether there were extra fees. They appear pretty comparable. You can save a bit on park tickets by doing it piece by piece yourself, which was the original hypothesis and appears true. (Basically, I was trying to see if there are any hidden fees in there. It does look as though Expedia charges a fee above the tax, but for whatever reason the prices ended up nearly the same.)

What I priced was a 5 night stay in July at the Grand Californian standard view, with 2 adults and 2 children, with 5 day park hoppers. Here are the results.

Expedia

$425/night with 2 nights free (average $255/night) = $1275
Tax and fees of $39.98/night x 5 = $194.45
3 day (with 2 day free) hoppers from well known discount travel agent = $641
Resort fee of $13.80/night x 5 = $69

Total = $2179

Disneyland

Package price total online is $2208. I'm not certain whether this includes the resort fee. I think it does. If it does, then it's basically a $30 difference, which is, I guess, attributable to the discounted park hoppers. If it does not include the resort fee, then it's about $100 difference.

 

[jemilah]

When my dad was about to pass away we had a pakg from expedia for room and hoppers. I called expedia in tears saying my dad was dying and they would NOT change the dates on my hoppers! They did refund the room but I lost the hoppers. I was told by disney if I had booked though them it could have been changed no problem. I will never use expedia again.