Does bookin "room only" still make sense?

[jess-sarah]

We have always avoided packages finding that booking "room only" to be a better deal overall. The dining plan doesn't work for us because we just don't eat that much food. Does anyone else think that room only is the better way to go?

 

[ransom]

If you don't do table service dinners, and you can get a break on the room rate, then I don't see why it wouldn't make sense.

 

[mmeb144]

You can always put a package on later, if they offer a good deal. I've done the "package" with room and tickets only. Saved a little bit of money over what I could have done by buying them seperately. You have to keep your eyes open.

Marie

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

we always do room only to. we like to eat whenever or whereever we want. we were never interested in making reservations and having to be somewhere at a certain time. its always worked for us. so it depends on what you want to do.

 

[teamagic]

We prefer to do room only. We use our AP to get a discount on the room and there is no need for tickets. We really don't like the idea of the dining plan because we don't usually eat that much.

 

[java]

We are room only people- aaa discount through CRO then sometimes I get the tickets through AAA or whereever I can get them cheap. Some years it is the AP combo... But we have never done dining. We have 4 children and at this point it is just too much for us. I suppose I could book a package through AAA but we don't have a disney specialist at our office and they know squat about disney.

 

[ga9497]

we always do room only to. we like to eat whenever or whereever we want. we were never interested in making reservations and having to be somewhere at a certain time. its always worked for us. so it depends on what you want to do.

Booking a package with dining doesn't mean you HAVE to make reservations at restaurants

 

[DisneyMom5]

I think the wisdom used to be that packages made the individual components cost more, but I don't think that is the case anymore, especially since MYW came along.
When you were locked into length of stay tickets, it cost a lot more.
If you don't need tickets, then room only is the way to go. There is sometimes room only discounts.
If you need tickets, it really doesn't matter if you get the package or buy tickets separately. And a lot of times there is a discount on packages.

Some people like to use ticket discounters. It's easier for me just to get a package and know my tickets will be waiting for me.

Have a great trip!

 

[Miffy]

Same as teamagic here: we book room-only w/AP discount. My DH and I are very light eaters, often sharing an entree, so the dining plan is more $ than we spend on food, by far.

The only time we ever booked a package was back in ye olde Magic Kingdom Club days.

 

[denisekayt]

We also do room-only...the dining plan just doesn't fit our style, and so far there hasn't been a package discount during the times we're going that beat the normal AAA room-only discount we usually end up with.

I do keep an eye on things though and watch for ANY discounts that come out and do the price analysis to see what works best. By booking room-only it does leave me the flexability to change my mind and pick up a different discount if it comes along.

 

[mom2aredhead]

For us, a package didn't work, assuming the AAA TA gave me thr right info. I booked room only using AAA discount standard view at AKL for May. The current spring promotion is they are adding park hoppers and "water parks and more" for free.
Room only was $1609.00
Total packate price thru AAA was 2423.84 (supposedly using all discounts available and no insurance??),
Disney Central Res, the price was 2543.74.
We are a family of 3, and my DS is only 3 yrs old. I really don't see us going to Disney Quest, Blizzard Beach or Pleasure Island at all. The AAA discount on the room and tickets from Undercover tourist worked out to be about $2320 paying for park hoppers only...
To me it sounded like I was giving up the AAA discount on the room to get the upgraded tix which I wouldn't fully utilize anyway...
I don't think DDP would be a good value for us either as we are mostly grab and go counter kind of people with 1 or 2 character meals thrown in.

 

[FINFAN]

we have always done room only until our trip this past August...we went with the free dining promo...but knew it was not to save $$$$$$$$...
we wanted to be able to do a "deluxe" trip and stay at the Polynesian. To get the room meant we would have to REALLY watch our food budget...which we have done in the past and been fine, but wanted to go deluxe on the whole trip, food options, 10 days, monorail resort. The "free" dining allowed us to eat at many TS places we would never have done, and enjoyed a ton of different foods,desserts, themes. If you booked a value, you came out at a great deal, truly making your food free, but we enjoyed accomodations and food at the same time and glad we tried it...once.
The down side, we really like having the 5 day window to cancel a room only. It was 45 with the package and I was a wreck worrying about someone getting sick, broken bone...anything that we would've normally rescheduled or cancelled over.
Another down side was working around the ADR's and the crowds. Not having an ADR was disasterous for folks not in the know, the ripple effect of those getting turned away from TS caused crowded CS.
If we are fortunate enough to go again, we will have to return to the room only, or do a value during free dining, (but would really rather not endure those crowds again) because we will not have a full 10 days, so we will not be able to use so much time on eating and getting back and forth to the prearranged ADR's.,
As others have said, it is based on personal preference...I also noticed some of the restaurants have dropped from the MYW dining plan...so check into that before basing a decision on olaces to eat.
No matter what you choose, it is so fun to be at WDW!!


Pam

 

[lillygator]

we are room only peeps!!

With an AP and a DDE card I crunched the numbers with this new package and we'd be better off with a code or FL rate.

 

[Tigger22]

We have done room-only for a while now. In the beginning we did the packages because we didn't realize how often we would go. We also did one reservation with room & flights - and the airfare went down for that flight, but i couldn't get the difference because I had booked it through DU. We now find that we book room-only, and I book our flights and car, and we generally buy a longer WDW unexpiring pass, that we can get a few trip uses on. That way, if there are price increases, we don't have to worry about it, and don't have to put out that money every years. I think I also enjoy trying to find the best deals!