Has anyone booked a Disneyland Vacation Package?

[~ButterflyKisses~]

I've just been looking on the DL website and came across some resort packages. Has anyone booked a package before and was it good value for money?

We are planning on staying in Anaheim for 7 nights and then San Diego for 3 nights. We plan on getting a Southern California City pass and then also adding an additional park hopper day so we'd have 4 days in DL/DCA rather than 3.

Can anyone tell me what they think of this package?

Disney’s Southern California Vacation Package 2009

Disneyland Resort

* Minimum 3 night stay in any Disneyland Resort (Disney's Grand

• 
  Californian Hotel & Spa , Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel or the Disneyland Hotel)or Good Neighbor hotel.
  
  * Downtown Disney District Fun Card with special values for shopping, dining and entertainment (one per package))
  
  * Disneyland Resort Park Hopper Souvenir ticket with choice of ticket length from 3 to 8 days. Commemorate your Disneyland Resort vacation memories with this special collectible souvenir ticket.
  Includes - Visit Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Theme Parks in the same day.
  
  * Receive one Magic Morning Entrance into Fantasyland with a 3 day or longer souvenir Park Hopper ticket (one per Guest). These early entries are held on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
  
  * Admission to Mickey’s Toontown Morning Madness – Interactive Guest and Character Experience valid for one morning throughout the length of your ticket (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday)
  
  * Preferred Seating at select shows in Disney’s California Adventure park (One per Guest with Admission): Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular, Jim Henson's Muppet Vision 3-D, It's Tough to be a Bug and Animation Academy
  Exclusive Pin, Lanyard, Luggage Tag (one per guest)
  
  * One day admission to one participating San Diego attraction (Sea World Adventure, Sea Life Aquarium, LEGOLAND, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park)
  
  You may also purchase the Southern California CityPass booklet which gives you admission to five popular theme parks at a discounted price:
  
  3 - Day Disneyland Park Hopper Souvenir Ticket
  1 Day Universal Hollywood
  1 Day Sea World Adventure Theme Park
  1 Day San Diego Zoo or San Diego Wild Animal Park
  
  And the choice of one or more of the following locations:
  
  AND/OR
  San Diego plus one attraction (2 Nights)
  
  AND/OR
  Orange County Beach Hotels - (2 Nights)
  
  AND/OR
  Los Angeles Hotels (2 nights)
  
  *************************************************************************************************
  
  Could we get this package and take advantage of the 5 for 3 deal, increasing our accomodation from 3 nights to 5, then adding an additional 2 nights on top of that?
  
  Could we add on an extra night at the San Diego hotel also?
  
  Do you think this would work out cheaper or are we better off just booking & purchasing everything separately?

 

[DizNee Luver]

We've booked our packages thru Disney Vacation Planning for the convenience & the little Disney perks (luggage tags, lanyard, pin, etc). I'm sure you probably could get a better deal elsewhere, but it would be extra work for you. Disney Travel could quote you for what you're looking at doing...no obligation to book thru them. This would at least give you a price to work from.....then you could look at other avenues. We've never had a problem with Disney Travel & we've never been disappointed. It's a personal choice.
I think the Southern California City Pass sounds like a good deal, but we've never done one.....yet!

 

[firsttimer2007]

We just booked the package. We got free hotel with the s. california citypass. I am not sure about adding the extra day though. We booked ours through AAA but I shopping the disney website first.

 

[bumbershoot]

Each vacation is so different. You're going to have to figure out exactly what you want, then get a nice notebook and pen and go through all the different possibilities, to really see what the prices are.

You might also want to look at the GO! San Diego card, compared to the things you want to do while in so cal, to see if maybe buying that and the Disney ticket separately (or just do a package including tickets but NOT including the citypass) is better than the citypass. It all depends on what your vacation is going to consist of!

 

[avalon451]

You can get the Southern California CityPass at Costco at a discount (I'm not sure the exact price).

Usually, booking a package is convenient but you can pay much more for it. We now book everything separately-- it's not that difficult, and by staying offsite we can save hundreds of dollars over a DL travel package.

I would try several options, like Bumbershoot said-- see what the cost would be with the package you quoted, then try a few others. See how good an airline deal you could get separately, what kind of deals you could get staying offsite, etc. In my opinion, the perks for staying onsite are negligible and not worth the difference in cost.

By the way, DL Parkhopper tickets of 3 days or more all come with one Magic Morning (Early entry), but they don't advertise the fact that if you stay in one of the DL hotels, you are allowed to go to every MM during your stay. That's one thing that often tips the scales for people, who decide to stay onsite-- it's really nice to be able to use every MM during your stay.

Hope that helps!

 

[teatime]

we booked with Disneyland.com 2 times, both times we did it for convience. No more. there to high priced and at times you can get motels way cheaper, and tickets, oh and flights way cheaper . I would do lots of searches. you may even get different park tickets for other places way cheaper on different sites. I know that I save way more money when I book separately. but GAT had some awesome deals so I went with them for the first time.

 

[PrincessYessenia]

We've booked our packages thru Disney Vacation Planning for the convenience & the little Disney perks (luggage tags, lanyard, pin, etc).

I booked my package thru Disney Vacation Planning. I didn't know they gave you luggage tags as well...? I knew about the lanyard and pin but not the luggage tags. I don't remember reading that. Are they still including them? I wanted some Disney luggage tags and was going to buy some but if they're included I won't waste my money at a store.