Extra cost for Disneyland vacation package worth it?

[jkattk]

Hello, I am looking at options for the first week of January. I see that booking a vacation package is $200+ more than booking the hotel and park tickets separate. It looks like the main difference in what you get is premiere seating at some shows, an extra hour early at Toontown, and some freebies such as lanyards. Does anyone know if it's worth paying the price for the vacation package (possibly given the fact that it may be busy that week) or is it better to just book everything separately? This is our first time to Disneyland and I am looking at the DisneyLand hotel as my probable first choice.

 

[scoker]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

When I was planning our last trip I was wondering why there was such a difference in the price between the package and purchasing room and tickets separately. It didn't seem to me that the "extras" were worth it. Someone pointed out that the package price includes applicable taxes. The quote for the rooms and tickets do not include tax. We booked separately because I wound up getting an annual pass. The only other difference I think is in the payment schedule.

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

Check the package quote to see if trip insurance has been added. I think they automatically include it and to see the quote without it you have to specifically check off you do not want insurance.

 

[bumbershoot]

For our first big trip, we booked a package. By the last few months AP hotel discounts had come out, and we did plan on upgrading to APs. But I was interested in getting the package to see what it was all about, so we did spend more money than we had to spend, to do the package.

The seating stuff, meh. the Aladdin seating put us in the "orchestra" section, and we had a hard time really seeing the fullness of some of the big effects. Though I guess they don't fly on the carpet anymore, so that's one effect that we missed (now presenting "the underside of a carpet"!) that isn't really relevant anymore. But people say the normal seats are better for really seeing the show. Also, when we did that seating, we had to check in an hour before then get in line half an hour before. We had come off of TOT, so noticed how very few people were in the normal line when we got into the special line. We then waited until the standby line was already seated, before we got to go to our seats. Waited longer, worse seats...not awesome!

The lanyards...we got our package through Costco Travel, and our lanyards were big and scratchy. By the second day we had ALL replaced ours with ones we liked more, were thinner, and less scratchy. Of course, we had to buy them. Then we disliked the lanyard pouches, and bought replacements for those, too. Not a big savings there!

ToonTown Morning Madness can be worth it if you've got little kids, and if it doesn't rain that morning, like it did for us, LOL. The rain started immediately after the family of the day told the crowd where they were from (the family was our family, and it was rather amusing that as we said we were from western WA it started to RAIN), and all the characters ran for cover. It's not something we would necessarily do again, especially if we never have another little kid.


Honestly, with that big of a difference, now that you KNOW the perks, I probably would just get tickets separately and book hotel-only. But you're the one that gets to decide if those little perks, and the knowledge, are worth it to you!

 

[Huff]

Not sure if its still true but last year Costco had packages about the same price as Disney. However, it included all of the same items, early entry, lanyards etc. but added a premium character meal for all guests. When you book through Costco it goes to Disney CM's who answer the phone as Costco Disney Travel.

 

[Disneylandfanatic]

I booked my last trip through Costco and it was well worth it! You have to look at costs of the palace vs. cost of booking separately. It seems to be cheaper the more people you have coming along. So for a party of 3 it was cheaper than booking separate because of the added perks (premium dining voucher and $20.00 gift card). I always look at Costco as an option and if the price is the same or a little more than separate hotel/ticket (although we are ap) then I book through them for the added perks.

 

[indygirl99]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the Early entry for Toontown ends at the end of this year.