Disney World Packages v. Piecemeal

[CapeCodTenor]

Ok, I'm placing this question here in the Budget Board because I'm trying to save money, so if this isn't the place for it please let me know. I'm going to need help from all you budget people out there. I'm looking to take a trip to Disney World next year and I was wondering what would be cheaper, a booking a package or doing piecemeal? I'm going to price things out myself (I love planning vacations), but I like to get started by asking people who have already done it and how they did it and how they saved money, a starting point. Bit of background: I haven't been to the World in years, like 15 years now, and I know that things have gotten more expensive over the years. The last time I was down there I worked for the mouse so I got some serious discounts, like up to half off the hotel room and getting into the parks for free. Needless to say I never had to deal with packages, so now I'm at a loss and need some guidance.

To give me a starting point, I looked on Disney's website and found a sample package for 6 nights/7 days for $2,390, or $86 per person, per day for a family of 4, which sounds like a good deal to me, but I'm just beginning my journey. There will only be 3 of and not 4, but it's a starting point. I'm going to look at piecemealing it and see where that takes me, but in the mean time I'll go ahead and post this thread to start getting the conversation going.

Thanks in advance,
CCT.

 

[msmama]

Generally piecemeal will be cheaper, but really it depends on your exact situation and whatever deals come out for your travel time.

BUT - if flying, I've NEVER heard someone say they got the best airfare deal through Disney. That's going to be best on your own.

You can purchase tickets through a place like Undercover Tourist. That will save you a few dollars.

Disney usually has some kind of room discount going on (for my family of 2, room discounts are always the best way for us to go). There are also times of year that they offer the free dining plan (for a family of 3 with one a child, the dining plan will most likely cost more than paying out of pocket, but again, you'll have to do your own math). This summer they had some some special offers involving food, too, but it wasn't quite the whole dining plan.

Sometimes other travel agencies or orbitz have good deals (sometime room only, sometime package).

NOW, often the special deals require you buying as a package, so that means would wouldn't be able to buy your tickets from another source.

So, long answer, short - really, it depends.

Over the years I've found that, FOR ME, the savings of searching and dealing with companies other than Disney are more of a hassle for the amount I save, so I generally go with a room only discount from Disney, tickets purchased through Disney (though my last several trips I've had an AP), no dining plan and airfare booked on my own (SW always has cheapest flights from my local airport).

 

[CapeCodTenor]

Generally piecemeal will be cheaper, but really it depends on your exact situation and whatever deals come out for your travel time.

BUT - if flying, I've NEVER heard someone say they got the best airfare deal through Disney. That's going to be best on your own.

You can purchase tickets through a place like Undercover Tourist. That will save you a few dollars.

Disney usually has some kind of room discount going on (for my family of 2, room discounts are always the best way for us to go). There are also times of year that they offer the free dining plan (for a family of 3 with one a child, the dining plan will most likely cost more than paying out of pocket, but again, you'll have to do your own math). This summer they had some some special offers involving food, too, but it wasn't quite the whole dining plan.

Sometimes other travel agencies or orbitz have good deals (sometime room only, sometime package).

NOW, often the special deals require you buying as a package, so that means would wouldn't be able to buy your tickets from another source.

So, long answer, short - really, it depends.

Over the years I've found that, FOR ME, the savings of searching and dealing with companies other than Disney are more of a hassle for the amount I save, so I generally go with a room only discount from Disney, tickets purchased through Disney (though my last several trips I've had an AP), no dining plan and airfare booked on my own (SW always has cheapest flights from my local airport).

Yeah kind of what I thought. It always depends on what's out there at the time I look. Thanks.

 

[wendow]

Agree with the pp, it really is just depends on your situation.

In our case, as a family of 6, DIsney's package is always much higher and not really what we want. We could go in two value rooms and get free dining but to get that we'd be forced into buying PH tickets which we don't want so that would be wasted money. We'd be given a bunch of food on the dining plan that doesn't really fit how we eat so that would be wasted. And we don't really care for the value resorts (beds are just awful imo). So, we'd need to bump up to a moderate and for the cost of two moderate rooms, I can rent a DVC villa for less, buy my tickets from a discounted ticket seller (or buy Disney gift cards and pay Disney for them) and pay OOP for the meals we want.

When planning each trip for our family, I research every option available (even off site) and have detailed lists of all the costs involved. Never once has booking it all through Disney been a better deal but there is convenience there and for some, that is worth more than the savings.

 

[lanejudy]

I suggest doing your research so you know what package components you may or may not want/need.

• Tickets -- hopper or non-hopper? WPF&M or not?
• Dining -- QS or TS? Look at menus to get an idea of what a meal might cost for your family and which restaurants are of interest.
• Memory Maker -- would you buy pictures? Lots of pictures or only a few? Will you seek out the PhotoPass opportunities?
• less important, but may be a consideration, the coupons available through a package -- it's been a long time since we did a package so I'm honestly not sure what's given currently, but sometimes it has included a free round of mini-golf, a discount off water craft rentals, a discount for a specific restaurant, etc.

As PPs have mentioned, there are a variety of different packages that may be offered for your time. Look at the current ones to get an idea. Some may require that you purchase a different ticket type than you need, or require Memory Maker, or may only be available for certain resorts or room categories at the resort. My point is to take into consideration all aspects of what you want/need and what those individual components cost if purchased separately at face value; then you can compare to package prices. There isn't a right or wrong answer as to which is the "best deal" (package or room-only plus separate tickets); it all depends on what is best for you.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[kookiekat02]

I am piece-mealing my next trip with my friends (7 people total). I am a serious budget vacationer and found that orbitz/cheap tickets have the best deal for rooms. They follow disney's room discounts and will then occasionally offer extra discounts on top of that. I have found a ASSports room for 15 nights in late August via cheaptickets for $1200 total (including taxes) by using stacking their discounts. I am also pre-purchasing our park tickets 2 at a time through whoever has the best deals at the moment. Amazon prime will be shipping quite a bit of non-perishables for breakfast and Garden Grocer will be delivering our lunchmeats, water, etc. I am planning on 2 character meals and a $120 food budget per day which I will be purchasing with gift cards gotten on discount. But then again I tend to be on the more frugal side of life (aka super cheap).

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I suggest doing your research so you know what package components you may or may not want/need.

• Tickets -- hopper or non-hopper? WPF&M or not?
• Dining -- QS or TS? Look at menus to get an idea of what a meal might cost for your family and which restaurants are of interest.
• Memory Maker -- would you buy pictures? Lots of pictures or only a few? Will you seek out the PhotoPass opportunities?
• less important, but may be a consideration, the coupons available through a package -- it's been a long time since we did a package so I'm honestly not sure what's given currently, but sometimes it has included a free round of mini-golf, a discount off water craft rentals, a discount for a specific restaurant, etc.

As PPs have mentioned, there are a variety of different packages that may be offered for your time. Look at the current ones to get an idea. Some may require that you purchase a different ticket type than you need, or require Memory Maker, or may only be available for certain resorts or room categories at the resort. My point is to take into consideration all aspects of what you want/need and what those individual components cost if purchased separately at face value; then you can compare to package prices. There isn't a right or wrong answer as to which is the "best deal" (package or room-only plus separate tickets); it all depends on what is best for you.

Enjoy your vacation!

I planned on doing my research, which I honestly love doing, I just wanted an idea on what might be better. Guess I should have realized that there were too many different components to the trip to ask the question. *slaps self for asking it* Well, I do love planning, so off I go.

 

[msb578]

I highly recommend Orbitz to book the room component. You can usually use a 15% promo code to get a discount on top of Disney's room-only discount.

 

[lanejudy]

Well, "better" for my family is usually piecemeal. We did free dining once several years ago, but usually I find the packages cost more.

Happy researching!

 

[amylevan]

In general, we find our best prices by piecemealing...

We get a room only discount to save money on hotel (and if you can get an additional discount through Orbitz, it's even better booking through them...)

We buy our tickets through a 3rd party for a slight discount there (undercover tourist and parksavers are the two we've used).

We don't do the dining plan. We don't eat that way, and while it theoretically saves you money if you eat that way, we save money OOP without even trying to save money that way. We eat how we want, where we want, still do a TS each day, and come in under the cost of the dining plan. This is not the case for everyone though.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I am piece-mealing my next trip with my friends (7 people total). I am a serious budget vacationer and found that orbitz/cheap tickets have the best deal for rooms. They follow disney's room discounts and will then occasionally offer extra discounts on top of that. I have found a ASSports room for 15 nights in late August via cheaptickets for $1200 total (including taxes) by using stacking their discounts. I am also pre-purchasing our park tickets 2 at a time through whoever has the best deals at the moment. Amazon prime will be shipping quite a bit of non-perishables for breakfast and Garden Grocer will be delivering our lunchmeats, water, etc. I am planning on 2 character meals and a $120 food budget per day which I will be purchasing with gift cards gotten on discount. But then again I tend to be on the more frugal side of life (aka super cheap).

I highly recommend Orbitz to book the room component. You can usually use a 15% promo code to get a discount on top of Disney's room-only discount.

In reference to the highlighted in the above posts, I never thought of Orbitz. For some reason I just think of going through Disney for their rooms. I'll have to keep an eye out on that site for good deals.

Well, "better" for my family is usually piecemeal. We did free dining once several years ago, but usually I find the packages cost more.

Happy researching!

I'm thought about the dining plan, but I'm not sure if it'll be cost effective for my family of three. I think I'm going to skip the dining plan. I have no problem eating at the resort, or what I would call the 'fast food' options in the park. I know my wife wants to do one nice sit down meal while we're there, but otherwise it'll be cheap meals...well, for Disney that is.

 

[wendow]

In addtion to Orbitz, check out cheaptickets.com. I think they are owned by Orbitz but their promo code is usually slightly better than Orbitz's code. I have not used them but I see a lot of chatter here on the board about them.

 

[SunnieRN]

Our plan for a trip this year was to use the military room only discount and purchase military salute tickets, eating QS only. This would have been a reasonably inexpensive trip, and we would have added 2_3 TS meals.

When free dining was announced and a relative decided to go also, we found our best value was to stay at a moderate resort (which was our choice all along), and pay extra for the room and tickets as we still came out ahead.

I also love to plan and usually we would split meals, saving QS credits for breakfasts or when the grandmunchkins get hungry, so this will be a new experience. If we had not gotten free dining, we would have gone with the military discounts.

 

[Dashzap]

If you book with Orbitz or Expedia, be sure to get your Disney confirmation number (not just the wholesaler confirmation number), so you can link your res in your MyDisneyExperience account.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

If you book with Orbitz or Expedia, be sure to get your Disney confirmation number (not just the wholesaler confirmation number), so you can link your res in your MyDisneyExperience account.

Good idea. Thanks for the tip.