Room-Only/Add Package Later/Disney Visa

[reeny4]

Okay, this may be a question that most Disney veterans already know the answer to, but I'm a newbie, so bear with me.

We are planning to take our first family trip to WDW in December. We're wanting to do the basic package with dining. I'd love to get a discount code, but our trip won't fall through if we don't. Anyway, we are planning to fund a portion of this trip with my work bonus that comes out at the end of January 2008. With the Disney Visa card you have 6 months at 0% interest when you purchase a Disney package. I'd like to time this as close to bonus time as possible. Here's my question:

If I book a room-only reservation now, when is my cutoff for "switching" to a full package? The only reason I want to book the room now is because I don't want to take a chance at not getting the hotel we want for the dates we want to travel. And the reason I don't want to book the package now is because 6 months from now will be quite a while before I even get my bonus.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!!

 

[grumpytx]

It's really all a matter of choice. In the past I have booked everything seperately, the airfare, the room and the park tickets and I was able to save money. Saying that I will now say this, convenience. In the past there was at times considerable difference now that doesn't seem to be as much. I'd run the numbers and see what I came up with. I choose to book my own airfare to try to get the best deal with the carrier I want and times that meet my choice.

 

[auntie]

I have a room only because I received a pin code mailer...and was able to secure a room at a reduced rate. I do have some days on passes so we are waiting on whether to make it a package or not. I also wanted to see if I was able to secure dining reservations for our time of travel..before switching to putting on the dining plan. When we were scheduled for our last trip..we had the dining plan..but we weren't able to secure ADR's for anywhere we wanted to eat..so we wound up cancelling the trip.(a variety of reasons..and another post all together). In any case...I was up in the air about adding on the dining, untill I check the dining line and was able to secure reservations at places we'd like to eat. N ow that I've done that..it might be a good deal to add the dining as we are adults..and the $39.00 a night-tax included-gratuity included will probably be a good deal. I called central reservations this morning and asked when and how to go about adding the park tickets and dining. They said to add tickets..no problem. I don't have to convert to a package, and the deposit on the card used to secure the room will stay the same..they will just add tickets...doesn't make it a "package". When or if I choose to add the dining..they said that's a bit tricky. Not a problem..but requires that they credit the original deposit..re-book as "package" and take another deposit. They did assure me that I won't loose my room only reservation in the process. I figure I should know over the weekend if the family wants to do this. My initial hesitation to add the dining and parks to begin with was that of availability in the restaurants..(which there seems to plenty of) and the fact that we have some passes with days left on them. I do think that we might save those passes for a trip my husband and I plan to take with the camper to FW. So at this point we will like add the package to our WL reservation for May. I believe you can do this up until a few days before your arrival. At least that was what I was told. Hope this helps..and that I didnt' confuse you more than I helped.

 

[laurabelle]

With a package, you put a $200 deposit down, regardless of total package cost. I've been told I could take 6 months to pay that, it even showed up on my card that $0 was due, but I always just paid it right away. Then 45 days prior to your trip you pay the balance, again, that should show up as $0 due, and you will have 6 months to pay it off. For my Christmas trip, that date falls on Nov. 4th. HTH