I could use some help with booking options

[PlutoFan76]

My 19 year old daughter and I will be at WDW from Oct 30th through Nov 7th. Currently we have booked a room only reservation for All Star Music. We will be signing up for the Wine and Dine challenge for the end of our trip.

My question is package or al a carte?

We have Disneyland annual passes which I'm considering upgrading to Premier. If I do, then I'm paying for everthing separately. I could book a package with or without the dining plan. I'm worried if I nickle and dime it now, we will get there and I will have given up something like park hoppers or an extra day in the park. At the same time if I spend extra on the basics of room, food, and tickets it cuts into the options when we are there like character meals or the mouse boats.

What do I need to consider to find the balance?

 

[Shanti]

Keep your booking room-only, as that allows much more customer-friendly terms for payments, changes and cancellations than the packages allow. (That's why Disney reps try to get you to book a package...) Buy the tickets separately and then link them to your resort reservation via your My Disney Experience account. This is important as it will allow you to book your FastPasses 60 days in advance (instead of the 30 days that non-Disney resort guests get).

Park-hopper and extra days can be added to your pre-purchased ticket at WDW for no more than it would cost to add them now, so I also recommend only pre-paying for the kind of ticket you know you will fully use.

The dining plan is typically more costly than paying for meals out of pocket (not to mention you have to keep track of dining credits every time you eat on your trip), so I don't recommend it to someone on a limited budget, unless they got the dining plan for free as a perk.

 

[HM2012Butler]

Look out for free dining options that time of year. But the dining plans don't really seem to be worth it. If you get QS, youre sick of fried food in a few days. If you get FS, you have to plan everything