package or piece by piece

[garada3]

Long time lurker - first post - Hi All!

Last year my family did a package to WDW, the buy four get three free fairy tale package which was hotel and ultimate park hopper tickets.

I am trying to convince DH to return to Disney.

It seems that most people here do not go the package route instead purchasing things ala carte, room only ressies plus tickets.

I loved the simplicity of having the tickets to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. I didn't have to tell the kids we couldn't go to a park becuse we didn't have a ticker that day or for that park. I doubt that Disney will have the 4 + 3 again.

So tell me, those without the PAP, do you miss the "I can go anywhere do anything" feeling that the UPH provide?

Ta!

 

[tbthomps]

We also did the fairytale package last fall (4 + 3) and loved the convenience of the UPH. We loved WDW in general!!!

Upon deciding to go again this year we used a code to get a 5 + 2 deal; not as good as last year but considering the prices for each individual item, I'm not complaining!!

Keep checking with www.mousesavers.com and see if you can find a code that will suit your needs.

 

[WeLoveThePoly]

Actually, for us, it's a good thing if we don't have UPHs - it forces us to take some much needed down time. If we have UPHs there's the feeling of 'We have to be on the go 24/7 to get the best use of these passes'. We find that the trip goes much better if we take at least a day to sleep in and just relax at the resort. If we do anything those days it's just some shopping at DTD.

Debbie

 

[momtolittlered]

This is our first time to WDW with our 7yr old DD and we are purchasing rooms and tickets separately. We really want to enjoy our resort. We plan on doing 3 parks- taking a day off inbetween each. Who knows things might change when we get there but this is our plan so far.

 

[Cleokitty]

We're going in December when the water parks are closed so we don't pay for the "plus" features. It's considerably cheaper this way. And, if we decide to go to the parks only 4 of our 5 days, we will have 1 day left on our 5 day pass to use in the future.

With the packages, if you stay for 5 nights, you pay for 5 nights and 6 days admission. We never hit the parks before the long drive home so it makes sense and cents ( ) for us to purchase admission separately.

Besides, if I have one day left on the passes, it's easier to convince hubby to take another trip because part of it is already paid for!

 

[Fire14]

In Our case:
I hate water parks and our flight leaves before parks open on last day so thats a lot of wasted money if I did a pkg.

 

[verchad]

My 2 cents. For us the UPH is a waste of money. We drive to WDW and check in later on our first day, then leave early on checkout day, so we wouldn't go to the parks those days. We just get regular park hoppers for our time there, that way we can still go the four parks whenever we want to.

 

[phabric]

For the past couple of times, we have used the package that includes room, tickets, wishs. We use the wishs for nice expensive resturants which we would not normally do, and also tours.

This trip we are doing Oct 26 -29 with the package. . On the 30th, we have the room only and use the UPH ticket up until midnight of the 30 and we check out on the 31. We have to check in and check out but we save on the UPH for the 30.

 

[disneyvoice]

You can still get UPHs if you do everything ala cart. I have an AP now so it's not as much of an issue but I found that we actually saved money doing everything ala cart. We booked a room only reservation using either the AAA discount or one of the special discounts listed on mousesavers. If our son was with us we didn't get UPHs because we never went to Pleasure Island with him so it was cheaper to get either plain old Park Hoppers (if it was during a cooler month when we weren't planning on going to a water park) or the Park Hopper Plus passes (during warmer months when we did plan on going to water parks). When we went without our son we did get the UPHs but depending on our arrival and departure time we might ask them to remove the arrival and/or departure day. I did a price comparison a few years ago and I actually saved a few hundred dollars doing everything ala cart.

 

[SamanthaL]

Originally posted by Cleokitty
We're going in December when the water parks are closed so we don't pay for the "plus" features. It's considerably cheaper this way. And, if we decide to go to the parks only 4 of our 5 days, we will have 1 day left on our 5 day pass to use in the future.

One water park is always open. We were in WDW in Dec 2001 and the weather was great so we took a day and went to Blizzard Beach.


To the OP. I can always do better price wise by buying everything separately and you can still buy the UPH.

 

[10drum]

Garada3,

Welcome.

I like the UPH because we usually do at least one water park, Pleasure Island, & Disney Quest. Sometimes we go package but other times we've gone ala carte, but still get the uph. I also like the uph, cause it is your KEY TO THE WORLD!

We did the 5 + 2 this year and thought it was a good value, I just wish we could've took advantage of the 4 + 3, in 03, a great value.

It really comes down to what you plan to do, we always do it all, and just wish there was more time.

 

[funcinderella]

We just came back from doing the Poly. We had the disney visa 4+3 special. We booked POFQ on either end of our stay, so that we could really take advantage of the full 8 days in the parks. It was an awesome deal, and I shared the room with my parents and 3 year old, so it was even less expensive. The good part was, we could go to a park for just a couple hours during the day and not feel like we wasted a whole day's tickets. It didn't matter, because it was UPH. However, if I had paid full price for them, I might have felt differently. And it is true, we went to at least one park every single day; a little tiring!

 

[sherry8253]

We go the AP route. We get 2 trips out of each AP. We don't do water parks or PI so UPH would be a waste. We also appreciate the room discounts AP provide to us.

 

[WaltD4Me]

There are 10 of us (7 adults, 2 kids and one two year old) going in December and I got quotes from two TA's. One quote was for 6 nights at The Grovesnor Resort across the street from Downtown Disney with airfare, UPH's, ect, the quote was $7,800. The other quote was the same as above, but staying at CBR, it came in at $8,200.

I booked everything myself seperately, using room only ressies and we are staying at POFQ for six nights and it's gonna run us about $6,200.

Admittedly, it was alot of work and research, but for a savings of $2,000 it was worth it.


Lisa