I had spent many hours/days/weeks researching resorts, menus, etc. in anticipation of the dining plan and just found out that when you split your stay between resorts, each resort must be a package (tickets for at least one day for each person in your party must be part of the deal). Well, this opened up a huge can of worms.
I have room only ressie with AAA discount, so those would have to be cancelled and package(s) rebooked with AAA themselves. That would be fine except for the ticket dilemma. Now I have to do one package (CSR 3 nights, 3 nights dining, 1 park tickets pp) and another (POP 6 nights, 6 nights dining, 6-day base ticket). Actually, tickets could be interchanged.
So, I start to think about this. MYW tickets last 14 days so I think I can skip the package for CSR but purchase the second package and start using the tickets upon arrival -- nope, no can do. Can't use tickets until we check into POP on the 4th day. So, although tickets can be used after you check-out, they cannot be used prior to check-in. Hum...
Another option, foregoing any parks during the first three days and going with room-only ressies. When I look at that, staying at CSR and planning to spend most of our time there, it would seem ridiculous to not have the dining plan to use at the PepperMarket. And, how do you keep two kids out of the parks for three solid days?
TA says maybe I should switch everything to POP. So I spend hours today recrunching the numbers only to realize that because we fall into two different "seasons" we'd have to have two bookings anyways. I call TA; she says not so, I disagree. We started conversation about when ticket use could begin and never get back to splitting seasons/resorts issue. I am still under the impression from past research that you pay according to the season you check in or you must check out and back in again (thus being two packages???). I guess I'll still have to check this out but I really wanted to stay at CSR for the first three days over the holiday because we plan to only have one park day (Saturday at AK) and spend the resort at the resort.
So, if I understand correctly, although I can use the AAA discount at both resorts, I have to split my stays and purchase one 6-day and one 1-day ticket in two packages, adding $112 to what the package would have normally cost due to a split stay.
Also, TA @ AAA starts our whole conversation/meeting with how crazy I am to think the dining package is 35/10, she says it's 59/35 : :
: .. OMG, now I know I'm right about this but trying to be diplomatic. Overall, not happy with now my third TA in this process. Seems that the people on these boards know a whole lot more than the TA's I've been talking to (at least these 3). I was originally quoted by two TA's (both AAA) online more than $1000 than I know what the package SHOULD cost.
So, to make a long story even longer, do your homework. Now I feel the challenge and can't just let it go. I"m determined to get to the bottom of this and get the best deal I can. It's not my intention to rip anyone off, yet I don't want to get ripped off either. It almost feels like I'm buying a car. I so wish WDW was more like Saturn -- one set package price, take it or leave it, lol.
Brenda
