Is this a good deal?

[hikingblondie]

I finally stopped lurking and officially joined as a member, yay!!

My sister and I are taking our daughters (age 5 and 9) from Sept 14-20. We are "trying" to go budget. I missed the Ent. rate at the HOJO but have a quote from Alaska Air for direct flights from Seattle, pool view room at the HOJO and 5 day parkhopper passes for $2,450.00 USD.

I'm so nervous to push the "purchase" button...

I could save quite a bit if we stayed at the Menage, but it looks like a pretty long walk from the maingate. I also considered the Desert Inn but Alaska Air doesn't include that hotel in their vacation packages.

What would you do, just book it? Any opinions or suggestions are welcome!

 

[CrazyDuck]

I finally stopped lurking and officially joined as a member, yay!!

My sister and I are taking our daughters (age 5 and 9) from Sept 14-20. We are "trying" to go budget. I missed the Ent. rate at the HOJO but have a quote from Alaska Air for direct flights from Seattle, pool view room at the HOJO and 5 day parkhopper passes for $2,450.00 USD.

I'm so nervous to push the "purchase" button...

I could save quite a bit if we stayed at the Menage, but it looks like a pretty long walk from the maingate. I also considered the Desert Inn but Alaska Air doesn't include that hotel in their vacation packages.

What would you do, just book it? Any opinions or suggestions are welcome!

Depends... What are other airfares for the same days if you book them separately? Actually I just checked. You could save enough money to fly on Sept 14-21 to pay for an extra night at hojo. Flying on Saturdays are more expensive than Sundays!

Flying 14-21 you can do it for $2543 with a 8 day park hopper ($93 more)
Are your dates flexible? If you travel 17-23 (wed-tue) you can do it for $2247 with 7 day park hoppers!

 

[bumbershoot]

I would look heavily into buying separately. Especially airfare. From Seattle, check out Virgin America and Jet Blue, and especially Southwest. Alaska was good for one flight I took, but they've never been as good as those others since then, and I've been looking.

Also change airports in the Anaheim area, to make sure you're getting a good rate. Ontario can be a bargain, but also make sure you know the cost of getting from there, specifically, to your hotel. Super Shuttle's cost to/from ONT is vastly different from their price to/from SNA airport, for example.

Also be sure to check out Costco Travel and AAA if you belong to them. Getawaytoday.com is also a very popular travel site here, though I don't know if they include flights in their packages.

When we took our first big trip to Disneyland, we used Costco Travel but we were driving so didn't include airfare. That was good, but ultimately I could have saved money by booking everything separately. Especially since we were already planning to upgrade to APs, so we coudl have gotten in on the special AP rate (similiar to the one people are talking about around here now) if I hadn't gone the package route.

Good luck, it's overwhelming!!!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i would book seprately. Im sorry you missed the hojo ent rate but you are a diss member now. there is a dis rate. call the hotle and ask for in house resvation or talk to lorieal (sorry if spelled wrong)

Also check all the airlines not just one alot do deals and stuff excpicaly in summer to get pl to fly. (idk to much i take bus)

 

[CrazyDuck]

Bumbershoot is right... Definitely check out specifically: Jetblue From Seattle (SEA) direct to Long Beach (LGB). It is only 2 miles farther than SNA but it should save you around $100.

 

[Queenbillabong]

If you change your dates to Sept 15-20 you can get airfare from Seattle to Long Beach (which is closer than LAX) for $227/person Canadian, total $911.40.

Take a look at Getawaytoday.com for park hoppers (would include 2 Magic Mornings). The total for four 5-day park hoppers is $726.

The hotels at the crosswalk would be: Park Vue $530, Best Western Park Place $595, Tropicana $550.56, or Desert Inn $557.75. (these are all for 2 queen, non-smoking, including breakfast from Sept 15-20). The Best Western also offers an Entertainment Rate (this is up to 20%).

It pays to shop around a bit - depending on what you want.

 

[avalon451]

I would definitely book separately. There's no advantage in your case to buying a package through Alaska.

Check out airfare only on Alaska, Virgin, and JetBlue, and make sure you check all 4 airports; LAX, LGB (Long Beach) ONT (Ontario) and SNA (Orange County-John Wayne). LAX and LGB are likely to be cheapest. I would also check into changing your dates just a bit; I looked at a few and saw the rates drop by 20 bucks a day earlier or later.

Buy your tickets through GetAwayToday, because they give 2 Magic Mornings instead of just one.

HoJo is showing the Ent rate available for the last 2 nights of your stay; that would be a 2 queen bed deluxe room for 75 a night. The other nights you would still be able to get a 15% off DISboard discount and get the room for about $101 a night. That's a Disney facing room with a balcony and a firework view! Also, they may add more days as it gets closer to the date. It happens a lot. If it does, you can just call and still get the Ent rate!

Hope that helps!

 

[julezdisney]

I'd book seperately. Get the airfare through Alaska and then do hotel/tickets through WDTC so you get the perks....

 

[tink2dw]

Also check out AAA for discounts.

 

[Sienna]

I've booked my past two trips through Alaska Airlines (complete packages - air, hotel, parkhopper), but that was after scouring every place I could think of to see if I was getting the best deal (and I was!). They often run specials like kids fly free, free hotel nights, etc, so you might want to wait for one of those promotions (usually for fall travel ). We got a screaming deal two years ago and stayed at the GCH.

What I liked about Alaska packages is that you can purchase cancellation insurance (super cheap!) and that allows you to cancel FOR ANY REASON up to 4 hours prior to departure, and get a complete refund on the whole package. If you purchase things separately, you might be out of luck if something happens. I always like the peace of mind factor.

I hope you have a fabulous time!

 

[DahliaRW]

We found it cheapest to fly jetblue and book that seperately, and then booked the hotel and park hopper through AAA.

 

[splash5]

I agree with the other posters. Check into Virgin America (it did have $79 each way fares to LAX), also Jet Blue and Alaska. It sounds to me like they are over charging you for the hotel too. We stayed at the DLH for 5 nights and didn't pay much more than you are being quoted (ours included airfare too). Definitely book it separately.

 

[avalon451]

I've booked my past two trips through Alaska Airlines (complete packages - air, hotel, parkhopper), but that was after scouring every place I could think of to see if I was getting the best deal (and I was!). They often run specials like kids fly free, free hotel nights, etc, so you might want to wait for one of those promotions (usually for fall travel ). We got a screaming deal two years ago and stayed at the GCH.

What I liked about Alaska packages is that you can purchase cancellation insurance (super cheap!) and that allows you to cancel FOR ANY REASON up to 4 hours prior to departure, and get a complete refund on the whole package. If you purchase things separately, you might be out of luck if something happens. I always like the peace of mind factor.

I hope you have a fabulous time!

Kids fly free usually really isn't "free" because they charge you a full-price ticket. When I did a package through Costco in March, it utilized the Alaska kids fly free deal; but I figured out later that DH and my airfare was like $700 apiece. You can usually find deals for about $200 apiece; we would have saved money booking "hot deals" flights for all 5 of us. I, too, scoured all the packages from different places and chose the best price; it was only later that I figured out that booking separately saves a lot of money.

Also, you can buy trip insurance from many places with similar coverage.

I can understand going with a package because they kind of figure it all out for you, but after doing that once, I realized that I could have saved well over a thousand dollars if we'd booked air, hotel and tickets separately, and stayed offsite.

 

[Gisele]

OMG! that most definitely is a huge difference in savings!

 

[hikingblondie]

Thanks for all the good advice and information! Those dates for the Ent rate at the HoJo just came up yesterday after I checked! Someone mentioned a discount there for being a DIS member. How much is the discount?

So far I have checked JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin. I will keep checking those sites for airfare to LGB and LAX. I was previously only checking fares to SNA. We are planning on taking a taxi b/c it is faster and about the same price and the shuttles (I think).

Sooo...I'm off to do some more checking then I will check back again!!

BTW, how do you buy just park hoppers passes on GetAwayToday? I looked around, but couldn't find it, maybe it's not available to Canadians??

Anyway, will update with new prices I find!! Thanks everyone

 

[erinbev]

I fly out of Seattle, too (natch) - and my only advice is just to keep checking, keep checking...keep checking!!! Really - we had decided to go on a day when there were some really good prices! Next day - poof! gone. Prices had about doubled! So I got in to a groove of checking every day, different arrival/departure days, different airports (there are a few to choose from, lol), etc...this went on for at least a few weeks. Finally, one day out of the blue, a REALLY good deal popped up, and it even allowed us to stay an extra day or so! It was too good to be true/resist. Et voila!

Good luck!

 

[toocherie]

Thanks for all the good advice and information! Those dates for the Ent rate at the HoJo just came up yesterday after I checked! Someone mentioned a discount there for being a DIS member. How much is the discount?

:

I believe the Dis discount is 15% -- so you are better off with the Entertainment Rate.

 

[hikingblondie]

Wow, just found JetBlue direct flights from Seattle to LGB for $975 Canadian for all 4 of us!!! They are direct too!

That's a good deal, right??

 

[CrazyDuck]

Wow, just found JetBlue direct flights from Seattle to LGB for $975 Canadian for all 4 of us!!! They are direct too!

That's a good deal, right??

They are $956 on expedia right now for your original dates. Are your dates flexible to save a couple more $$$

 

[hikingblondie]

No, the dates aren't flexible. I wish they were.

I'm still checking around though - the options are overwhelming!!