Is this a reasonable plan re. hotel booking

[*sleepingbeauty*]

I have posted once before asking questions about AP rates, and everyone was so helpful ----- thank you!!!!

Okay, I'm starting to get a bit worried, and wondering if this plan will work. Here is our plans ---

April 23 - April 27 San Diego (Zoo, Sea World, Lego Land)
April 27 - May 3 Disneyland

We really, really want to stay at the Grand Californian, there will be 2 families, I have been checking Expedia quite often, and have seen rates as low as 241 CDN for dates in Early March. I am waiting to see a good deal on our dates OR waiting for the AP rates to come out, then booking with those and buying one AP pass.

Is this plan reasonable, or crazy? I just wish the AP rates would come out...

 

[Peace.love.mickey]

Have you called about AP rates?

 

[MommyWithDreams]

I have posted once before asking questions about AP rates, and everyone was so helpful ----- thank you!!!!

Okay, I'm starting to get a bit worried, and wondering if this plan will work. Here is our plans ---

April 23 - April 27 San Diego (Zoo, Sea World, Lego Land)
April 27 - May 3 Disneyland

We really, really want to stay at the Grand Californian, there will be 2 families, I have been checking Expedia quite often, and have seen rates as low as 241 CDN for dates in Early March. I am waiting to see a good deal on our dates OR waiting for the AP rates to come out, then booking with those and buying one AP pass.

Is this plan reasonable, or crazy? I just wish the AP rates would come out...

I'm not going to be much help but I'm curious to know what the AP rates would be for that....$241 seems unbelievably rediculous to me.

 

[*sleepingbeauty*]

Have you called about AP rates?

No, not yet - I don't have an AP pass yet. Can I call and ask about them? Maybe I should try that.

 

[*sleepingbeauty*]

I'm not going to be much help but I'm curious to know what the AP rates would be for that....$241 seems unbelievably rediculous to me.

Oh $241 in Canadian dollars. Which is the lowest rate I have seen for any date since I have been looking on expedia. So I kind of figured that this would be about what we would be paying...Right now for my dates, it is saying $370 US or $460 Canadian.

 

[prncssmel]

As far as AP rates, generally the best time for them is off season. I am not sure when Spring Break ends for DL, but if they consider all of April to be peak Spring Break time, then a big AP discount is unlikely. The general AP discount all the time is 10%, though, so you could at least get that.

 

[Peace.love.mickey]

Sure, I would call even if you don't have one yet...just to see!

 

[mystic_path]

I have posted once before asking questions about AP rates, and everyone was so helpful ----- thank you!!!!

Okay, I'm starting to get a bit worried, and wondering if this plan will work. Here is our plans ---

April 23 - April 27 San Diego (Zoo, Sea World, Lego Land)
April 27 - May 3 Disneyland

We really, really want to stay at the Grand Californian, there will be 2 families, I have been checking Expedia quite often, and have seen rates as low as 241 CDN for dates in Early March. I am waiting to see a good deal on our dates OR waiting for the AP rates to come out, then booking with those and buying one AP pass.

Is this plan reasonable, or crazy? I just wish the AP rates would come out...

Honestly let me tell you... Expedia EXPENSIVE I mean its a company that you can trust, but there are others out there that have much more reasonable deals. Keep checking getawaytoday.com, orbitz.com and even travelocity.com has cheaper deals. I book with those 3 all the time and the deals I can score are pretty good. I normally pay for my park passes separately as there are loads of places you can get tickets for cheaper for any theme park. This saves money.

But as for your itinerary, it looks good. I wouldnt change it. I would take that trip myself.

 

[bumbershoot]

I just checked the Hotel Availability calendar for you on the AP site, and the rates for the GCH for April 27-May 3 (assuming you're staying in SD for the SD days) are:

27 $259
28 $259
29 $259
30 $259
1 $383
2 $383


Remember the resort fee each night (plus tax on the resort fee).

The calendar gives this phone number info: Reserve Your Room Now Call us at (714) 520-5006† from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. PST daily to reserve your room.

And the Specials page gives this number: (866) 411-3890

Neither page says it's a "named" rate (like AP7 or AP8), so I assume you'd just call and ask for the "up to 40% off" AP rates, if those rates sound good to you.

 

[marsrunner]

I've been pricing rooms at Disneyland Hotel for March 10-13 for 2 adults, 1 child age 14 and 1 child age 5. I'd given up on staying on property because the standard view room was $270 a night. Yikes! Now as of last night its $176 a night. This is just for hotel only. Much more reasonable. Oddly enough, though, if you add tickets and make it a package the price jumps to $1650! That's an increase of $1122! Sheesh! The 3 day park hoppers for our group would be $596. The total would be $1128. So why is the package $1650? Have they just not updated the package prices or is the SOP?

 

[bumbershoot]

The packages are just not that terrific, some of the time. I think that they sneakily count on people just wanting to make it "easy"...b/c surely the little things they throw in aren't worth that much extra...and I know they aren't, b/c our first trip was on a package deal (through Costco) that was a couple hundred more than it would have been if we'd just booked with the AP rate and bought our tix separately.

 

[mystic_path]

The packages are just not that terrific, some of the time. I think that they sneakily count on people just wanting to make it "easy"...b/c surely the little things they throw in aren't worth that much extra...and I know they aren't, b/c our first trip was on a package deal (through Costco) that was a couple hundred more than it would have been if we'd just booked with the AP rate and bought our tix separately.

I am glad you mentioned that as this is totally the truth. You definitely pay out your nose for convenience some times.

 

[marsrunner]

Weird. Its not been my experience when booking packages at Walt Disney World that the package is any more or less expensive than if you buy the items seperately, and certainly not by $500. Only time that's different is if its a special room-only rate, which this isn't. I just went to book Hotel Only and put my dates in and those are the numbers I got.

 

[bumbershoot]

mars, since I have an AP I can check out the AP rates. And that's how I would have done better than our package...we went in September of '07, and around that time they have had some excellent rates (similar to right now, actually) on the Disney hotels for AP holders.

We knew we were upgrading to APs from our tickets anyway, b/c we knew we'd be back in the area inside the year from our vacation, so we really should have just cancelled the package and gone with the APs and AP rate room only.

The good thing that came out of it is that I know what Mickey's ToonTown Morning Madness is like, I know what the preferred seating for Aladdin is like, and so on. Knowledge is worth something...just maybe not a few hundred and beyond.

 

[marsrunner]

mars, since I have an AP I can check out the AP rates. And that's how I would have done better than our package...we went in September of '07, and around that time they have had some excellent rates (similar to right now, actually) on the Disney hotels for AP holders.

We knew we were upgrading to APs from our tickets anyway, b/c we knew we'd be back in the area inside the year from our vacation, so we really should have just cancelled the package and gone with the APs and AP rate room only.

The good thing that came out of it is that I know what Mickey's ToonTown Morning Madness is like, I know what the preferred seating for Aladdin is like, and so on. Knowledge is worth something...just maybe not a few hundred and beyond.

Whoops, I meant to say that's not my experience at Disney WORLD. Disneyland is different obviously. I've only been once (three weeks ago!) solo and am planning a trip for the whole family in two weeks (March 10-13). That's why I'm noticing this stuff.

I definitely won't be paying extra for the package. We don't NEED any of those extra perks that you get with a package. Just a room and some tickets and we'll be fine!