Help!

[mariamouse]

Hi fellow DISers!

I have a few questions about the S/P/D and RO discounts that will soon be released with regard to our upcoming vacation and would very much appreciate any help you guys may be able to offer with any of the below questions!

Just to provide background, my family (mom, dad, sister and me—both of us in our 20s) and I are planning on staying in one room at a deluxe during MLK weekend (Jan 16-21) and are debating which offer to take advantage of. Mom, sister and I will visit the parks every day while dad plays golf. He is considering maybe joining us at a park one day, but doesn’t care much either way. We will meet up for dinner every night.

We had planned on staying at a monorail resort with the RO discount, but I have recently learned that the three nights in the middle of our stay (Jan 17-19) will be blacked out with the RO discount. Thus, we will only be able to take advantage of that discount on the first and last nights of our stay. We are hoping to use the AAA discount in the middle, but not sure yet what that percentage will be or if it exists at all during the holiday weekend—plus, it will require that we make three separate reservations for each room discount. With S/P/D, on the other hand, we can take advantage of it throughout our stay since it will likely be in effect the night we check in and then carry over.

Questions are as follows:

1. With the S/P/D, it is my understanding that every guest must buy some type of park ticket. Does this mean that my dad will have to buy the same pass as the rest of us (5-day park hopper) even though he doesn’t need it or can we buy just one 1-day non-park hopper for him? Do we all have to have the same tickets? If yes and we all opted to buy the 1-day and then upgrade three of the tickets, would we still be able to update them at the children’s price? How soon can we upgrade? A bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to book FP+ for all of our dates at the 60 day mark…

2. Does the RO discount apply to the adult room charge or is the $50 always just tacked on to the discounted amount? (e.g. $100 room rate + $50 charge for two adults—would the RO discount apply to the total amount of $150 or just the $100 and then add $50 to that?)

3. Is the AAA room discount also typically blacked out over MLK weekend?

4. Would the Wilderness Lodge/Animal Kingdom Lodge likely be a better deal with the S/P/D vs. the RO given that it only applies for two nights? Pretty sure that the room rate is high enough at the remaining deluxes that RO even if just for two nights (plus AAA if applicable) would end up being the better deal.

5. Just out of curiosity—what would you do and where would you stay given our situation?

Sorry that this is a book! Just trying to run the calculations and have never booked anything but RO, so feeling a bit overwhelmed by the options! Spent hours running calculations last night and then realized that I was probably off with all of the numbers since I didn't have all the ticket info for S/P/D.

TIA for any help you guys can offer!

Maria

 

[julieanddanny]

Without putting too much thought into it, I'd consider the SPD with the minimum amount of days, then upgrade 3 tickets - assuming that is possible. There may be a minimum of 2-3 days of tickets. The tickets saving is minimal anyway, it's the food you will save a bundle on, being all adults. Your dad having more than 1 day tickets also gives you all an opportunity to eat at more in park restaurants
.

 

[mariamouse]

Without putting too much thought into it, I'd consider the SPD with the minimum amount of days, then upgrade 3 tickets - assuming that is possible. There may be a minimum of 2-3 days of tickets. The tickets saving is minimal anyway, it's the food you will save a bundle on, being all adults. Your dad having more than 1 day tickets also gives you all an opportunity to eat at more in park restaurants
.

Thanks! Just to clarify, are you suggesting using S/P/D the entire time, but buying the minimum number of ticket days? Can someone confirm what the minimum is?

I had the same thought about having the ability to eat in the parks. I'm sure my dad would join us in the parks every evening if he had the ticket anyway.

Also meant to ask-- would we be able to buy just one non-expiration ticket for him so that we can redeem the unused days on a future trip? Or would all of the tickets not have to expire then?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Here is one way to look at it. With the Stay/Play and dine Plan, you purchase the dining plan and park tickets at child's prices. The adult dining plan DDP costs $58.66 and the child's price is $18.88. So your family can eat for $18.88 per person per day. That would be a savings of about $40 per person per day. For a family of four adults, that is a savings of $160 per day.

Now, it order to save the same amount of money with a room only discount, you would have to get a 30% discount on a room that costs more than $500 per day in order to make the room only discount worth considering. For example, the savings on a room that costs $500 with a 30% discount would be $150 per day. The savings on a room that cost $750 per day would be $225. So if all depends on the cost of the room and if you can get the room discount for every day of your trip.

As far as I can remember, everyone on a room reservation must buy the same dining plan, and they must be for the same number of days as your reservation. So if you are staying six nights then you would buy six days of DDP.

As far as park tickets go, I'm not exactly sure. The price difference between an adult ticket and a child's ticket is really small, so I wouldn't worry about that. I can't remember if everyone has to buy park tickets and if they have to be the same for everyone. I don't think they need to buy length of stay tickets. The offer will be released soon, then we will know for sure.

 

[mariamouse]

Here is one way to look at it. With the Stay/Play and dine Plan, you purchase the dining plan and park tickets at child's prices. The adult dining plan DDP costs $58.66 and the child's price is $18.88. So your family can eat for $18.88 per person per day. That would be a savings of about $40 per person per day. For a family of four adults, that is a savings of $160 per day.

Now, it order to save the same amount of money with a room only discount, you would have to get a 30% discount on a room that costs more than $500 per day in order to make the room only discount worth considering. For example, the savings on a room that costs $500 with a 30% discount would be $150 per day. The savings on a room that cost $750 per day would be $225. So if all depends on the cost of the room and if you can get the room discount for every day of your trip.

As far as I can remember, everyone on a room reservation must buy the same dining plan, and they must be for the same number of days as your reservation. So if you are staying six nights then you would buy six days of DDP.

As far as park tickets go, I'm not exactly sure. The price difference between an adult ticket and a child's ticket is really small, so I wouldn't worry about that. I can't remember if everyone has to buy park tickets and if they have to be the same for everyone. I don't think they need to buy length of stay tickets. The offer will be released soon, then we will know for sure.

Thank you for the helpful breakdown.

I guess what I'm struggling with is the fact that we would not have bought into the DDP if not for S/P/D (never have), so we weren't definitely going to pay that money anyway. Thus, we aren't necessarily "saving" that specific amount-- guess it's more an issue of how much we would spend out of pocket on food anyway.

Still helpful to consider, though. Can anyone provide an answer re: tickets? I think that's the main stumbling block for me right now.

 

[aaarcher86]

Thank you for the helpful breakdown.

I guess what I'm struggling with is the fact that we would not have bought into the DDP if not for S/P/D (never have), so we weren't definitely going to pay that money anyway. Thus, we aren't necessarily "saving" that specific amount-- guess it's more an issue of how much we would spend out of pocket on food anyway.

Still helpful to consider, though. Can anyone provide an answer re: tickets? I think that's the main stumbling block for me right now.

I believe it is two, just like FD.

 

[mariamouse]

I believe it is two, just like FD.

Thank you!

Do you know if everyone has to buy the same tickets? If so, would we all be able to buy 2 days and then upgrade just a few of the tickets later still at the children's rate? Or would we just need to buy what we need when we book?