HOJO, citypass and Getawaytoday ?????'s

[8timesblessed]

OK I think I finally narrowed down my search after spending days reading all the advice on here.

We think the HOJO is the best fit for our family and will either do the Kid Suites or the Queen Rooms with connecting rooms.

We are going to do the CityPass so we can go to San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld and Universal. We are also going to do Legoland.

My question is..................I'm trying to figure out tickets and who the best place to order them through. Each seems to have pros and cons.

If I go through getawaytoday to book the room and 3 day hopper tickets and one character dining it's $1638 plus their $50 fee per room. So $3276 plus $100 peace of mind/handling fee.

Then we have the City pass which gets us another 3 days into Disney and all the other attractions so 6 days total in Disney for $2313 from Costco.

I can't seem to find accurate info about upgrading the 3 day Citypass to a 5 or 6 day pass at the gate?? One person told me no but I've read on here that they thought it could be done. So I haven't been able to find out what the upgrade would cost at the gate.

So I've been thinking it might be best to just get the 2 - 3day hopper passes and that should get me two early morning entry's right??? We will save alot by doing the CityPass.

If I booked everything seperate.
HOJO for 6 nights at 15% discount right now, no ET rate coming up yet but that could change, she thought next month she might know. $1672.80 for the two rooms and then 3 day hopper through ARES travel for $805 for all of us and then have to order the character meal somewhere?? I haven't looked this up yet except on getawaytoday. But I guess by booking it directly I could keep checking back for a better rate??? So right now they work out to be the same.

Not sure if all this makes sense or not??? Do you think it's best to just get the two 3 -day hopper passes since one comes with the CityPass?

Any more info on the character meals? I wanted to do one for the twins birthday but that's it.

Thanks for any help!

 

[DangerMouse]

I have always found that I am able to save money by not booking a package, and pricing out things separately.

I'm a little confused on whether you want to do the CityPass for everyone or stick with purchasing the 3-day Parkhoppers through ARES. Either way, you only get ONE MM entry with a 3 day or more hopper. The only way to get additional MM entries is by staying on-site.

You CAN upgrade the CityPass hopper, but I am not exactly sure about the price difference for the upgrade. There should be someone on the Dis who can help you answer that question.

When are you going? I could give you a pretty good idea if the HoJo will have the ent. rate avail.

 

[haley's mom]

Not to hi-jack this thread, but what are the chances for Entertainment Rate in mid-October (around Columbus Day)? We currently have a kids suite on reservation with a 15% discount. Oldest step-daugther may not join us, so we may look at 2 Queens.

 

[8timesblessed]

May 24-30.

We want the Citypass but want more days then just 3.

So it won't show up as two seperate 3 day hopper tickets?? So two early entry things??

I was just wondering if that would be less then upgrading the CityPass. I guess I need to figure out how to do that.

 

[DangerMouse]

Not to hi-jack this thread, but what are the chances for Entertainment Rate in mid-October (around Columbus Day)? We currently have a kids suite on reservation with a 15% discount. Oldest step-daugther may not join us, so we may look at 2 Queens.

Mid October, especially near Columbus Day is a VERY busy time at DLR now with Fall Breaks and Halloweentime events at the resort. I wouldn't count on the ent. rate being available during that time, sorry.

May 24-30.

We want the Citypass but want more days then just 3.

So it won't show up as two seperate 3 day hopper tickets?? So two early entry things??

I was just wondering if that would be less then upgrading the CityPass. I guess I need to figure out how to do that.

If you bought an additional 3 day hopper, then it would be 2 separate hoppers and you would have 2 MM's. But that is a seriously expensive way to do it.

Upgrading your CityPass should be much more economical as you are just adding days onto your existing hopper. You will then just have 1 MM day per ticket.

I would guess that May 24-27 will offer the ent. rate, but the weekend is a holiday so all bets are off for a discount then.

 

[8timesblessed]

It's been hard to figure out the price of the 3 day pass with the CityPass because it's $249.99 for the pass on Costco for adults and that includes entry into SeaWorld, Zoo and Universal studios. Which if I had to price them seperately would cost me alot more then. I tried breaking down the prices of the Citypass and if I took $179 (price on ARES for 3 day hopper) then that leaves me $70.99 for the other 3 attractions so it seemed like a great deal.

How can I find the price for the upgrade??? One travel agent told me I couldn't upgrade it. So that's why I thought I could just get another 3 day pass?

 

[DangerMouse]

Here's a thread from September that may help:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2282394&highlight=CityPass+upgrade

and another

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1817844&highlight=CityPass+upgrade

 

[michelleh1]

did you try calling getawaytoday about the city pass upgrade? they sell it as well ($269), so they might be able to tell you. then you could just get it at Costco because it's cheaper through them. you might also contact Disney directly if they aren't able to help you.

 

[geekypeach]

We got priority seating at Goofy's Kitchen for the character meal, but had to pay the bill there and not ahead of time. At the time, it was around $30 per adult and $18 for children. We booked using the main dining line (I know it is posted here somewhere). HTH

 

[Brady's Mom]

The City pass at Costco is $279, the main Disney site has 3 day tickets for $184. I am pretty sure that you are paying the regular rate (184) for the DL portion of your City pass tickets and that the other places offer seriously discounted prices for their tickets.

I have read on this board that people upgrade their City pass tickets without any trouble at DLR. If you upgrade from the $184 price for 3 days to a 6 day ticket it is only about $30 extra dollars per person - that is a serious savings versus just buying 2 - 3 day park hopper tickets for each person. I would rather pay around $200 per person than almost $400.

We stayed at HoJo last year around the same time you are staying and did get the Ent. rate for our dates. Keep checking and you will probably be able to get at least some of your days at the cheaper rate. If you see the rate offered for your dates - call right away to change your rate. The rates can disappear the next day if they sell out.

This is where I found the info on the prices for Costco and this is where I went to see the prices that DLR is charging for tickets.

 

[8timesblessed]

The City pass at Costco is $279, the main Disney site has 3 day tickets for $184. I am pretty sure that you are paying the regular rate (184) for the DL portion of your City pass tickets and that the other places offer seriously discounted prices for their tickets.

I have read on this board that people upgrade their City pass tickets without any trouble at DLR. If you upgrade from the $184 price for 3 days to a 6 day ticket it is only about $30 extra dollars per person - that is a serious savings versus just buying 2 - 3 day park hopper tickets for each person. I would rather pay around $200 per person than almost $400.

We stayed at HoJo last year around the same time you are staying and did get the Ent. rate for our dates. Keep checking and you will probably be able to get at least some of your days at the cheaper rate. If you see the rate offered for your dates - call right away to change your rate. The rates can disappear the next day if they sell out.

This is where I found the info on the prices for Costco and this is where I went to see the prices that DLR is charging for tickets.

THe Costco price is actually $249.99, it's $29 off of the listed price. I didn't realize it would be so cheap to upgrade so I think we will just plan on that. Thanks for the help.

Would I want to upgrade to a AP even if I don't plan to visit again this year?? I saw several posts about upgrading to a AP to get a discount??

 

[bumbershoot]

They have, in the past, figured the upgrade cost as though you have a 3 day advance purchase ticket, and then you pay the difference between that and what you're upgrading to.

SD Zoo, SeaWorld, Legoland...and Universal:

You could also look into the Go city passes for LA or SD. www.smartdestinations.com Legoland is included in the LA and SD cards. Universal is included in the LA card. The Zoo is included in the SD card.

It's basically a thing where you choose the number of days you want to buy a card for, and you can go to the places included in the card, as many as you want in a day (unless they've changed in the last month or so since I checked out the site), for the consecutive number of days you paid for.

And Seaworld often has deals, though honestly usually the deals with them are "buy 1 day get a second day free". Valuable if you're already in the area, since Seaworld can actually be really interesting, and the Pets Rule show is worth seeing more than once.



We went for DS's birthday the last two years; his b'day is the 26th of May. The first year, we stayed at HoJo under the Ent rate, and last year we were at DLH, but the ent Rate showed up at the last minute. Not directly ON the holiday days, but then, you're going before the holiday anyway!


And about the Columbus Day question...that's my birthday time (in '09 it actually fell on the holiday!) and the weekend before it was really busy (quieted down after Monday), and we were staying elsewhere, but the ent rate did show up at the very last minute for hojo, if my memory serves, for at least some of the days around the holiday. I remember these things b/c I get bummed when it shows up, knowing I could stay there for cheap.

 

[Brady's Mom]

THe Costco price is actually $249.99, it's $29 off of the listed price. I didn't realize it would be so cheap to upgrade so I think we will just plan on that. Thanks for the help.

Would I want to upgrade to a AP even if I don't plan to visit again this year?? I saw several posts about upgrading to a AP to get a discount??

If you plan to visit within the next 366 days of your first visit I would get the AP. If you don't plan to go within that full year, just upgrade your tickets. I don't think the extra money would have been worth it to me - but it might be for you since you will be buying food for 10 people and I only bought food for 5 people. You get 10% off for food purchases with a Deluxe AP. If you are buying food for 10 people and your total comes to $100 a meal and you get 10% off - that can add up really fast for a discount. It depends on how many meals you will be buying and how long you plan to stay.

We budgeted $60 a day for dinner/lunch - we would bring sandwiches, fruit, carrots/celery, chips and water in for whatever meal we weren't buying for in the park. Either lunch or dinner. Most days we bought dinner. DH and I would usually share a dinner with an added salad and that worked for us. If we were hungry we would just plan on getting something else or noshing on some jerky or something.