DL trip with non-DL friend

[pbrim]

I am going back to DL again after years of just WDW, and I am looking at hotels. This will be a 2-week-long road trip to a lot of places, with a few days at DL. The problem is that my companion, my SIL, is not a Disney fan, so she will be doing other thing while I spend 3–4 days in the parks. I had dreams of staying at a Disney hotel, until I looked at current prices. Then I was looking at the Good Neighbor hotels, but it appears that their packages require getting tickets for each person in the room. Am I mis-understanding this? Can I get a package with 2 beds and 1 ticket? Or will I need to book hotel and ticket separately, which I think will cause me to miss some discounts. Any advice for going to DL with non-Disney people in the party?

 

[LAS2AMS]

Yeah, the Disney-owned properties will always be costly.

Have you tried pricing the hotel and tickets separately? Often you can get better pricing by booking the room direct, and buying your ticket through a third party at a slight discount.

 

[Tinkaboo]

As noted on this forum, there are a couple dozen hotels close to park in all price ranges...to my knowledge, none require purchasing tickets. Definitely book them separate.

 

[LKing]

What is your SIL planning on doing for those 3-4 days? Will she have a car?

 

[AprilsZoo]

The packages that the good neighbor hotels offer are just the best price room and the “discounted” tickets bundled together for “convenience. There is no additional savings over purchasing them separately. As a matter of fact, I’ve found better prices on tickets at Undercover Tourist, or Get Away Today or other online resellers. And many of the online sellers offer refundable tickets at the discounted prices.

Personally, I like Undercover Tourist. I’ve always had good service and any questions answered quickly and easily.

Good Luck!

 

[maleficent55]

When you purchase a package through Disney, hotel and tickets, each person has to have the same type of tickets. The same number of days, Park hoppers, or not, and lightning lane multipass or not.

 

[Louis63]

Check getawaytoday, also look at a map of the properties, just because it says within x amount of distance to Disneyland, doesn't mean the entrance, it could mean just to the perimeter of the parks.

 

[irlandaise]

The packages that the good neighbor hotels offer are just the best price room and the “discounted” tickets bundled together for “convenience. There is no additional savings over purchasing them separately. As a matter of fact, I’ve found better prices on tickets at Undercover Tourist, or Get Away Today or other online resellers. And many of the online sellers offer refundable tickets at the discounted prices.

Also, if the Good Neighbor packages are like the onsite Disney hotel packages, there's a 30-day cancellation requirement. I don't know whether that's the case for GN, but it's something that one should check on before buying the package.