Help please GAD/ FL resident question

[MandM55]

hi everyone,

I have a few questions that I hope some folks can help me answer.
First off we live in Florida and my husband and I each have a give a day get a day certificate.

We are wanting to go to Walt Disney the end of September but I am so confused on what to do...should I

call and book thru Disney for a 4 night, 3 day package or just book the room on my own and get the tickets once we arrive.

Like everyone else we are on a budget and watching every cent. I also would like to ask about the dining package--is it worth it? I called to check a price and for
4 nights at a value resort, 3 tickets for the both of us. dining (1 snack,1 quick serve and 1 table) for each of us, I was quoted 1146.40

I hope this all makes sense.

I figured we could still do 4 days because of our give a day get a day and just buy 3 tickets.

BTW this site rocks! Thank you all sooo much for all of the helpful information. I am feeling a bit overwelmed.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

to the DIS! The short answer to your questions is "it depends". The cost of a four day MYW ticket is less than $10 more than a 3-day ticket, so using your GAD voucher for a separate day doesn't give you much value. If you book a 4-night, 3-day MYW ticket package, you are paying $224 plus tax for each of the tickets. Since you are FL residents, you can buy FL resident 4-day tickets for $168 plus tax. Your GAD vouchers have a value of $82 plus tax if you redeem your voucher and upgrade it to the tickets you want - you would pay $86 plus tax out of pocket if you redeemed your GAD vouchers and upgraded them to 4-day FL resident tickets.

If you book room only and upgrade your GAD vouchers to FL resident tickets, you can't purchase the dining plan. But your ticket savings alone would be about $140 per person. You can look at the menus and see if buying the dining plan would be a good deal for your family - for us, it usually isn't.

Disney is running a promotion of 30% off rack rate of value rooms until October 2 using code ID6. If you can get the discount for your dates, the room portion would be $65-$75 per night including taxes for a value room (weekends are more than weekdays). Using $75 per night for the easier math, you'd pay $300 for your room for four nights and $183.18 to upgrade two GAD vouchers to 4-day FL resident tickets.

$300 room
$183.18 ticket upgrade

total without food = 483.18

You were quoted $1146.40 for four nights, tickets and the dining plan. If you can spend less than $663.22 for food, you are better off booking room only with the discount, upgrading the GAD vouchers to 4-day FL resident tickets, and paying out of pocket for food.

Info on the room only special is from Mousesavers here. Scroll down to where it says Summertime Savings of up to 40% off (in the yellow box).

FL resident ticket prices came from Cheshire Figment's ticket sticky (post #18).

I didn't include the cost of park hoppers or water parks - they are $27 each per person plus tax for FL residents ($54 per person plus tax if you want hoppers AND water parks on each ticket).

 

[budmonster]

How often do you plan on visiting Disney? have you considered putting the GAD ticket toward a FL resident pass (they have several options to choose from)? If you choose to buy a pass you would gain access to the passholder website and get discounted rooms through it, and they have the option to add the DDP to the passholder rooms also. You can also look at the options of getting the rooms through the FL resident discount if you choose not to do the DDP. Good luck and welcome to Disboards!

 

[LilGMom]

Personally I would use the GAD vouchers towards the cost of either a FL Resident Weekday Select ticket (still get AP discounts towards rooms, dining, merchandise but no free parking and has blackout dates like the Seasonal AP) or a Seasonal AP. For the room I'd use either the FL resident or AP discount on the room and pay OOP for dining which is the most flexible expense while at WDW.

Example: GAD voucher is good for approx. $82 towards cost of tickets.
* Weekday select ticket (adult) is $185 less the GAD = $103
* Seasonal AL ticket (adult) is $275 less the GAD = $193
* 3 day MYW, non-hopping is $238 less the GAD = $156

Room rates (all estimates)
* Value room, standard room, weekday $82
* FL resident discount of 25% = $70/night
* AP discount of 30% = $65/night

Four nights (assuming weekdays and with the AP rate) plus the Weekday Select Ticket with the GAD applied towards it would be around $466. Then add in dining costs to see what you'd get as a total.

Four nights (assuming weekdays and using AP rate) plus the SAP with the GAD applied towards it would be around $646. Again, add in a dining estimate to see where you stand.

If you don't mind not going on the weekends the Weekday Select ticket will save you the most money and is less than $10 more than the FL resident 4 day ticket.

 

[MandM55]

OMG thank you so much for this. I was soooo confused.
Ok looks like the best way to go is to book the room seperately and then upgrade tickets once we arrive
Would we be able to upgrade our GAD to a 4 day and get on a dining plan once we got to Disney?

thanks so much again

 

[LilGMom]

OMG thank you so much for this. I was soooo confused.
Ok looks like the best way to go is to book the room seperately and then upgrade tickets once we arrive
Would we be able to upgrade our GAD to a 4 day and get on a dining plan once we got to Disney?

thanks so much again

I don't think so on the DDP part of that question. I think that the only way to get the DDP without booking a MYW package is to either be DVC or an AP holder and I'm not even 100% about being able to get DDP as an AP holder if booking room only.

Something else to consider when looking at the various tickets is if you get the FL res. Weekday Select, FL res. SAP or AP there are a decent number of restaruants that offer a 10-15% discount on breakfast and/or lunch. And there are a good number of stores that offer discounts to AP holders (WSP, SAP or AP).

 

[TRICKY_TINK]

AP holders can get the DDP when booking a room only stay but it will not be free or discounted.