Ok, this is ridiculous, I'm driving myself crazy! Need help!

[yupikgal]

Right now I have the BWPPI booked for the DL portion of our trip for next month. I got a Costco rate, which is good! The bad news is, I've been waiting to see if Disney came out with a good park pass promotion like they did last year, and so far, no luck. I understand that it may still happen, last year I think it was the beginning of May when it came out?

In the meantime, I've been debating over just booking a pkg with Costco Travel, since they throw in freebies like premium dining vouchers, and we've been wanting to try Goofy's anyway! They also give $20 Disney gift card, plus the preferred seating at certain shows, which Disney.com gives anyway....the other thing is, BWPPI isn't available with them as a pkg anymore, so the only other choice that's available and I feel comfortable with is the Fairfield, which we've stayed at before and liked. The other ones seem too far away, we want to be close enough to walk easily. The Fairfield has a 4th night free promotion, so the pkg is more reasonable then booking it separately (we want 6 day passes). The other thing is, if I do book it now, any changes to the booking that decrease it (if the park passes do end up going on sale later) will result in either a $50 change fee or we can purchase something else with them (other character meals, tours, etc.) and then it won't affect it...oh and Costco said we can use our Rewards card towards the pkg (actually I just thought of the fact that I just requested it, so I'd have to wait until it comes to use it anyway)

So my question is....do I:

1) Wait to see if they come out with the 5 for 3 deal (or something similar) & then book with Costco
2) Just stay with BWPPI & book everything else separately, in case the park passes get discounted later
3) Just book the Fairfield pkg w/Costco now then if the park pass prices go down, book something else with them to avoid $50 fee??

I know I'm making this more complicated then I have to, but I just want to have everything done as soon as possible, you know? It's always stressful anyway because I feel like we'll forget something, especially since we have to pack for 2 weeks, and it's 1000's of miles from our home, 2 flights.

There is one more dilemma...we are thinking of possibly staying 4 nights offsite, then moving 2 nts to the Paradise Pier, those are the first few days that the new rides will be open...is it worth it to do this and pay the extra $$ to stay onsite?

Here's one more scenario I've thought of. We are heading to the Central Coast after Disney, should we leave Saturday the 4th because of crowd levels expected due to the new rides, and instead head up the coast one day earlier, and just use the extra park day(s) when we return from our coast trip since we'll still be in the area for another 3 days or so when we return?? We were planning on being up there for 2 nights, we could do Sat & Sun, returning Monday instead of Sun & Mon, returning Tuesday. I noticed that the park schedule has DL closing early on Monday the 7th, and Wed-Thurs, but Tuesday is open until midnight, I wonder why??

Ok, I've confused everyone and myself enough with this, please give me any feedback you can to help me ease my crazy planning mind!! Thanks so much!!

 

[yupikgal]

*bump*

 

[TheChapman6]

Your post is full of questions. I'm not sure I can answer any of them since I am planning my first trip in 20 years LOL last time I was there I was like 10. I'm sure someone will chime in here. I think it's hard to predict what will happen nobody really knows if they will come out with a deal.

 

[sonnyjane]

The previous poster is right. Your post has a lot of questions, many of which we just don't know the answers to yet! Are you going for the cheapest option, or to have everything booked as soon as possible, as you said in your original post? If you want to save money, your current plan of booking the hotel and then buying your tickets at the last minute is the best way to go, since we just don't know what promotions are going to come out. If a great deal does come out, you can cancel your room-only reservation and you won't be stuck with tickets you don't intend to use. If you just want to have everything booked now, then yes, you run a risk of something better coming along later and you being stuck with change or cancellation fees.

The Disney.com packages are not worth it, in my opinion, as they include a lot of extras that don't really justify the extra cost. I'm not familiar with the Costco packages. If you post all the details on here, someone will be able to dissect it for you and tell you if it's worth it or if you could get all the other components for the same price if you booked separately.

Another thing I'll add is that if you want 6-day parkhoppers, it's highly unlikely that any upcoming special promotion will include 6-day tickets. The 5-for-3 would be about as close as you get. If you were hoping to upgrade another ticket, such as a 5-day discounted hopper to a 6-day hopper, you would have to pay the full difference between what you paid for the discounted ticket and the full gate-value of a 6-day parkhopper, so you wouldn't save any money at all if you upgraded, see what I'm saying?

 

[yupikgal]

chapman & sonnyjane, you are right, I am loaded with questions, lol...as far as cheapest or booked as soon as possible, of course I would love both, but I guess flexibility is most important to me now, so I guess I'll just hang tight and see what happens...Costco actually books through Disney.com, in fact, if you go onto their website it opens up in another screen that looks just like disney's, but it says CostcoTravel at the top. Since all of us at over 9 yrs old, the value for the extras looks like it is over $170!!

Here's the actual wording from the website:

Added Values
Disney Premium Character Dining† - choice of one breakfast, lunch or dinner (one per person, per stay) - a value of $39 per adult and $20 per child (ages 3-9)
$20 Disney Gift Card†† (one per package)
Collectible Costco Travel pin, lanyard and luggage tag (one per person)
Vacation Includes
Accommodations at a participating Disneyland® Resort Good Neighbor Hotel
Disneyland® Resort Park Hopper® Souvenir Ticket including one Magic Morning** entry into Fantasyland in Disneyland® Park
Preferred seating at select shows in Disney California Adventure™ Park
Mickey’s Toontown Morning Madness***— an interactive Guest and Character experience in Disneyland® Park
Participating Good Neighbor Hotels - 3rd Night Free*
Anabella Hotel
Best Western Pavilions
Best Western Raffles Inn and Suites
Best Western Stovall's Inn
Carousel Inn and Suites
Crown Plaza Anaheim Resort
Sheraton Anaheim Hotel
Participating Good Neighbor Hotels - 4th Night Free*
Anaheim Fairfield Inn by Marriott
Cortona Hotel and Suites
Embassy Suites South
Hilton Anaheim
Hilton Garden Inn
Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort
Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites
Homewood Suites
Hotel Menage
Sheraton Park Hotel
Staybridge Suites

As far as the parkhopper discounts, yes I see what you mean, but I think they also had a "buy 4 get 2 free" last year, not sure, and we may just go with a 5 day anyway...thanks for your opinion/help, appreciate it!!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

As far as the parkhopper discounts, yes I see what you mean, but I think they also had a "buy 4 get 2 free" last year, not sure, and we may just go with a 5 day anyway...thanks for your opinion/help, appreciate it!!

It was "5 for 3" or "6 for 4" the last 2 years.

 

[tholczer]

The only thing you can really do is price it all out under each scenario and see what you come up with. I couldn't tell from your post if you'd already done that. The only things worth $ in the package to offset your cost, it seems to me, are the breakfast and $20 gift card, so factor that in.

The 5 for 3 deal that Disney offers is only good for the tickets, really. I priced that package out last year and the hotel/tickets package was more expensive than booking them separately.

But you are getting close to your travel dates. If it were me, I'd book the best deal I could right now so I knew I had accommodations. If you think Costco has the best deal, book it. If a better deal comes along that will save you more than the $50 change fee, you can still save $. Or just prepay a meal or something to avoid the charges. It's sounds like that's your best option.

And I always think staying on property is worth the money. But run the numbers for the package deal, and with everything separate, and see what you come up with.

 

[Bungle]

Well I shopped around quite a bit before we booked. I had a million different secenarios too, the best thing to do is to decide on dates first. You can't really price hotels without a certain date. Then move onto hotels. Tickets can always be bought when you arrive so I would leave that for last.

For what its worth, staying on site for us was 3X the amount it is costing us to stay at Hojos. So for us, on this trip, no staying onsite wasn't worth it. It freed up money for me to make shirts, welcome baskets, buy gift cards at restrunt.com, a starbucks card, and still just have spending money left over. I will be able to relax a lot more knowing that we have a ton of wiggle room.

I also would not book through disney either. Just my opinion.

Also when it comes to date planning remember that not all activities are held every day like parades, aladdin, and fireworks.

Have fun planning