How did you book your vacation???

[kty]

Hi Everyone.

I am in the process of planning a vacation to Disneyland in June. I cannot decide whether to book everything independently - hotel/air, or try to find something through an agency or an internet site such as expedia, etc. I am getting tired trying to compare prices, etc.

Any suggestions? I also do not know if we should rent a car or take the DL express once we get to DL.

I think we will be staying at either hojos or bwppi.

thanks.

 

[DizNee Luver]

We did ours thru Disney Travel, we've always had good luck with them & everything is taken care of. There are "better deals" out there & we didn't have to add airfare...so I'm not much help there.
Good luck & have fun planning!!

 

[wdhinn89]

We purchased everything independently.

- I purchase our airfare through Jet Blue. Non-stop
- Booked the room through disney to get the AAA discount
- Hoping for a sale on tickets like the everyone pay kids price they have now or I will purchase them through AAA.
- Booked rental car now with a pick up at LGB and a drop off at SAN. Hoping for a better rate but booked one that I could live with now to lock in the price.

 

[luvsmickey1968]

I think you can only decide whether to book separately or as a package as there is pros and cons to both.
What I like about booking everything separately is:
-Generally cheaper although I have seen some really
good package deals on occasion.
-Flexibility. I have found that you have more choice with
regard to flight times, hotel choices and rooms etc. I am really
fond of booking directly through hotel websites as I like the
ability to cancel without penalty if I find a better deal.
This also allows me to check sites like Expedia closer to the date
to see if I can get a better deal.
I like the ability to speak to the hotel about room choice and
I have found that they are more accommodating when you book
directly through them.
You can use sites such as Hotwire and Priceline to get a better
deal although I personally don't like the idea of paying for my
room before I know where it is but I understand that you can
sure get some good deals.

The only downside is that it is a lot of work. However, I enjoy planning
a vacation almost as much as the vacation itself so I would only do a
package if I had already researched it all and came upon a package
that was significantly cheaper.
I am also told by travel agents that if there is a big disaster and
everyone needs to get home, the people with packages may get help
but I won't. However, I feel comfortable that I could get myself home
from California, if I had to. If I was going to another part of the world,
I would have to consider this factor more.

 

[nunzia]

We lways book separately..we use AAA for the hotel and since it's onsite they just added the tickets, so it was like a 'package' but cheaper and when we had to change a date we very easily could with no fees and when my friend got a pin code we could apply that and save ourselves 200.00 each, again, with no fees.
Now..if a package offered something worthwhile like a nice size gift card or something I'd do that, but the usual lanyard/coupon book thing just isn't worth it.

 

[IandGsmom]

First I priced it out on Disney.com with and without air/car. Then I went to see our AAA travel person. Ends up booking with Disney saved us $100 and booked air/car on my own and again saved a little.

 

[pixiewings71]

The first 2 times I booked thru WDTC from DL.com, then we upgraded to APs so I make the arrangements myself. It's cheaper for us because we have the APs but I loved the ease of booking a package as well.

 

[Sherwin]

It'll be cheaper if you separately purchase everything. I booked my hotel through GAT (some people also get their tickets through there), and airfare straight from the airline. I might just get my tickets either through WDT or arestravel.com.

Frequent DL goers will usually have some frequent flier or mileage plan with their airline, will probably have APs, and most of us find the great entertainment rate deal at Hojos! That all adds up to be a very cheap trip!

 

[bumbershoot]

First trip we went through Costco Travel. A few nights at PPH, hoppers, got the package stuff...but we had planned to upgrade to APs anyway, and it turned out that we coudl have done MUCH better if we had just booked PPH with the AP rate and done it separately.

On the other hand, I now know what MTTMM is and that we don't feel the need to do it again.

Since we've had APs since then we just book directly.


I would never do air with a package, though. I want control over my airfare!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

We have always booked everything separately on our own. I thought I found a great deal this year as a package but the flight times were rediculous. Turns out it wasn't such a great deal. I think the deals come from learning tricks of the trade from fellow Dis'ers.

 

[kty]

Thank you everyone for your quick responses

I agree with the majority of you that the airfare times are a big consideration. I went to a few sites and plugged in dates/hotels/etc as packages, and then I did a few individually. I will probably use AAA card and see what I can get myself in terms of discounts at hotels.

The majority of decent deals with the packages(air plus hotel) have crappy flight times or way too many stops. With three kids, forget it.


I think I will wait a bit for booking airfare as I believe it will come down with the economy the way it is. I may book the hotel though, since we are looking at third week of June. I cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brady's Mom]

We booked our first 3 trips with a package from Getawaytoday, before I found the DIS. While they have pretty good rates and it is nice to get everything in the mail all neat and pretty, we did much better our last trip when I booked everything separately. I love the customer service from GAT, but don't need what they have to offer anymore, since I can come here and see what the good deals are and learn about others tips and tricks.