Package vs. a la carte with summer deals

[carolinamama]

I just priced out 5 nights with the buy 3, get 2 deal that was recently announced for the summer. Then I priced it out a la carte with the room only discount deal. For the Disneyland Hotel, the price difference between the two is roughly $300. The only difference is that the 5 for 3 deal comes with a 6 day ticket for the price of a 4 day ticket.

We are now considering staying on property with these discounts, but here's where we need help. Other than the ticket, is there any substantive benefit to getting a STANDARD package over the a la carte?

I've looked at what's included with the package, and I don't see anything special, so I'm just wondering if I'm missing something.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Depends on if you want to do the Morning Madness in ToonTown. You are only able to get that thru Disney Travel packages.
You also get a pin, lanyard, DTD discount card for select places, priority seats for Aladdin (and something else...3D movies I think) & luggage tags.

So you need to figure out if it's worth the difference. We like doing the package because we can prepay for everything that way. We also LOVE doing the hour in ToonTown before it opens to everyone. It's a great way to ride Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin with no wait & they also do an opening ceremony with the characters which our kids like.

Good luck in your planning & decision!!!!

 

[BigCheese]

For us (going in September for a family of four), it was actually cheaper to do the 5/3 package (staying 5 nights) as opposed to buying everything ala carte (Hotel with the Summer Room Rate + Park Hopper Passes with the ticket special of buy 5 days for the price of 3; but we do have to pay for 2 adult park hoppers plus a child park hopper). The thing to remember is that when buying the package, the cost you see is the cost you pay. No additional taxes, and no extra resort fees upon checkout. But when pricing out the hotel only, the initial price you see isn't the final price you pay. There's taxes (for a 5 night stay at DLH it came out to about $130). Plus there's the resort fee ($12 per night + taxes on top of that), so in total, you're paying about $200 in extra taxes and fees that don't show up initially when pricing a hotel only (but they do show up when you go to make the reservation). Plus if you price a package out on the DLR website, the package price they quote when you "save the offer" includes their vacation insurance. When you make the reservation, you can opt out of the insurance (which is about $120). With the current 5/3 special running until the end of September, we ended up booking through Costco Travel. It's the same rate, it's booked via Costo Travel through the Disney Travel Company, plus you get all of the perks of a package (TTMM, pin, lanyard, etc) PLUS you get a free Character Meal and a $20 Disney Gift Card. If you're a Costco member and if Character dining is something that you want to do, it's well worth it.

 

[carolinamama]

Thank you. This has been VERY helpful.

Whenever we go to WDW, we always do a package because we get the dining plan. Of course, this is a different ballgame for DLR!

We are indeed members of Costco. I knew somewhere I'd seen the character meal as part of the deal, but I didn't remember it being Costco. We booked our rental care through Costco, too, and got a good deal.

When I initially priced the package, it gave me 6 day pass for price of 4, but we're only planning on being at the park for 3 days. We are a family of 2 adults, 2 children (unfortunately, our youngest turns 3 less than 2 weeks before we go!). There's a break on the ticket prices right now, too, so we stood to save there a bit.

Off to look at the packages again! Thanks!

 

[femommy]

For us (going in September for a family of four), it was actually cheaper to do the 5/3 package (staying 5 nights) as opposed to buying everything ala carte (Hotel with the Summer Room Rate + Park Hopper Passes with the ticket special of buy 5 days for the price of 3; but we do have to pay for 2 adult park hoppers plus a child park hopper). The thing to remember is that when buying the package, the cost you see is the cost you pay. No additional taxes, and no extra resort fees upon checkout. But when pricing out the hotel only, the initial price you see isn't the final price you pay. There's taxes (for a 5 night stay at DLH it came out to about $130). Plus there's the resort fee ($12 per night + taxes on top of that), so in total, you're paying about $200 in extra taxes and fees that don't show up initially when pricing a hotel only (but they do show up when you go to make the reservation). Plus if you price a package out on the DLR website, the package price they quote when you "save the offer" includes their vacation insurance. When you make the reservation, you can opt out of the insurance (which is about $120). With the current 5/3 special running until the end of September, we ended up booking through Costco Travel. It's the same rate, it's booked via Costo Travel through the Disney Travel Company, plus you get all of the perks of a package (TTMM, pin, lanyard, etc) PLUS you get a free Character Meal and a $20 Disney Gift Card. If you're a Costco member and if Character dining is something that you want to do, it's well worth it.

We booked through Costco also. I loved the Character meal and the gift card. Since we are going over Easter it was much cheaper to buy the package.

 

[BigCheese]

Thank you. This has been VERY helpful.

Whenever we go to WDW, we always do a package because we get the dining plan. Of course, this is a different ballgame for DLR!

We are indeed members of Costco. I knew somewhere I'd seen the character meal as part of the deal, but I didn't remember it being Costco. We booked our rental care through Costco, too, and got a good deal.

When I initially priced the package, it gave me 6 day pass for price of 4, but we're only planning on being at the park for 3 days. We are a family of 2 adults, 2 children (unfortunately, our youngest turns 3 less than 2 weeks before we go!). There's a break on the ticket prices right now, too, so we stood to save there a bit.

Off to look at the packages again! Thanks!

Good luck! I know what you mean about the 6 for 4 Park Hopper pass thing. I don't know why the DLR website defaults to the 6 for 4 when doing the Package, but that can be switched to 5 for 3 Park Hoppers. I think that's about a $55-$60 savings when switching.

 

[cruise cruise cruise]

yep, like has already been said, make sure you go all the way through booking ----ok not ALL the way, just until you get the total bill amount.

With al la cart the room price does not show tax until yo get to the end, plus there is the daily ($12+tax ) resort fee that is NOT included in any of the pricing you will see.

With package price, once you get to the final quote, that price includes tax and resort fee. But, make sure you go through and edit to select proper ticket days and take out trip insurance.

For me, mid may, 7 nights at DLH, a package actually works out to be $20 less expensive then al la cart.

However, for me the other thing to take into concideration is cancelation fees and when payment must be made.

 

[carolinamama]

Yes, we definitely are considering the cancellation policies. We've already bought trip insurance as we're coming from the east coast, so this is a MAJOR trip!

The taxes were definitely what threw me off. I didn't realize the package included taxes already. When we broke it down last night, it was about $80 more a la carte for DH, $20 more for the package at DCH. Go figure. But, with the Costco character meal (I don't care about the pins, lanyards, luggage tags, etc. so much), the package appears to be the way to go.

The resort fee doesn't bother me, but it is something to consider. We were considering the Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn down the street, and we were already paying that much, if not more, for parking anyway, and we'd have to add on the cost of the ART, too.

We've just got a lot to think about. We're also going down to La Jolla for a few nights + Legoland, so we just have some decisions to make about what kind of hotel we want.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[HydroGuy]

FWIW, the cancellation and modifications restrictions on packages are tighter than on on room only.

Also, not sure about the packges offerred right now, but in the past when I checked them Disney tended to charge for tickets at the gate prices which are higher than you can buy them pre-trip.

 

[carolinamama]

Also, not sure about the packges offerred right now, but in the past when I checked them Disney tended to charge for tickets at the gate prices which are higher than you can buy them pre-trip.

Right now, buying tickets a la carte online is $20 off per person on tickets. This presale discount is making a difference when I'm looking at staying at a Good Neighbor hotel with a package versus separate. This is the only place where I'm seeing significant differences in total prices (even factoring in tax this time), and the difference is roughly my AAA room discount + the difference in tickets.

But with the current specials on DLR, it's not a stretch to stay on site so much like it would have been before. So now, I'm trying to convince DH to just suck it up and stay at Grand Californian, which I actually called the Grand Floridian last night... I also reminded DH last night that we pay way more than these rates whenever we go to Florida, we just never ever look at the breakdowns.

And the way I see it, it's still thousands cheaper than the Disney cruise we almost booked instead of our SoCal trip, and what's a few hundred when you're already shelling out to travel cross country??