Shareholders discount - which option is cheapest?

[Bonnie]

Me again with more questions for you seasoned DLRP travellers!

I am planning to book a 3-night stay at Hotel Cheyenne for four adults in two rooms. My partner and I are shareholders. The other couple travelling with us are not shareholders.

1. Will I be able to use our shareholders discount to book the entire stay for the four of us, or just for the room used by me and my partner?

2. Would it be cheaper to book room only at 10% discount, then buy 4 x 1-day hopper tickets + 4 x 3-day hopper tickets at 15% discount when we get to DLRP? Or would it be cheaper to book a package - and how much discount would that give me? I am so confused by it all.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

[Bexx]

Hi Bonnie

1. Will I be able to use our shareholders discount to book the entire stay for the four of us, or just for the room used by me and my partner?

You can use your Shareholders discount to book up to two rooms

2. Would it be cheaper to book room only at 10% discount, then buy 4 x 1-day hopper tickets + 4 x 3-day hopper tickets at 15% discount when we get to DLRP? Or would it be cheaper to book a package - and how much discount would that give me? I am so confused by it all.

Um, I'm sure there is reasoning behind it - but why not get 4 x 4-day hopper tickets?!! Really the only way to find out the difference in price, is to work out what the tickets, less the 15%, would cost at the gate - maybe allowing for a poorer exchange rate. Then ask for the price for the package and the room only when you ring to book, and do some quick totting up!! There will probably only be a few pounds difference anyway.

 

[Bexx]

Sorry, forgot to say that it is also a 10% discount on the package price. It's 15% in restaurants, shops and for park passes.

 

[Bonnie]

Thank you for your reply Bexx.

And I'm not going mad, honest! It says on the shareholders site that:

"Your valid Shareholders Club card gives you a 15% discount on One Day/One Park Tickets and Hopper Tickets (one, two or three days) purchased at Park entrance ticket windows only."

It makes no mention of four-day hopper passes so I thought they weren't available and that we'd have to get 1-day passes then 3-day passes.

 

[Bexx]

And I'm not going mad, honest! It says on the shareholders site that:

"Your valid Shareholders Club card gives you a 15% discount on One Day/One Park Tickets and Hopper Tickets (one, two or three days) purchased at Park entrance ticket windows only."

It makes no mention of four-day hopper passes so I thought they weren't available and that we'd have to get 1-day passes then 3-day passes.

Ooops - I forgot about that!! Just checked on dlrpmagic and it does mention 4 and 5 day hopper passes, but doesn't give a price in euros, so they are probably only available for pre purchase and not at the gate.

So if you are having to buy your passes as a 1 and a 3 to take advantage of the discount, then it's probably better to compare the price of the package less 10% option, with the room only and the 4 day hopper (currently £109) option.

 

[angelamc]

Without wishing to add anymore confusion for you, If your cost how much your spending on park tickets, you might find that the fantasy annual pass with the 15% discount works out at a similar price. Then you can use them again, if your planning on returning within the year.

Another discount to be aware of, shareholders can get a coupon that offers 30% of the dream castle hotel booking, this can literally save you quite alot of money and is good for 2 rooms

 

[Bonnie]

It all makes my brain hurt. I never was good at maths!

I will have to put my thinking cap on and see if I can work out the difference between all of them. Or get my DP to do it.

Thank you angelamc for mentioning the Dream Castle Hotel - do you know where you get the coupon from?

 

[Cyrano]

It all makes my brain hurt. I never was good at maths!

Don't worry Bonnie we go through this pain trying to price every holiday

You get the voucher at the La Vallee shopping centre

 

[angelamc]

you can get the voucher from the VIP discount book at La Valee information point when you show proof of being a shareholder

 

[Bonnie]

Thanks everyone!

I think I have worked out that the following is the best deal:

1. Book "room only" if we stay at Hotel Cheyenne with 10% discount.

2. Buy 2 x 4-day hopper tickets online, which give 4 days for the price of 3 at £93 each (for our friends). This works out as 25% discount if we buy online.

3. Buy 2 x Fantasy Annual Passes with 15% discount at about £89 each (for me and my partner).

Unfortunately it doesn't look as though we can get the annual passes for our friends as they don't live at the same address as us... but it's not much different anyway, and there is a chance we might be going back at Easter 2009.

Without meaning to sound thick I assume the annual pass lasts 365 days, and not just until the end of any given year? (I'm sure that must be the case otherwise you'd get a bit of a rubbish deal buying one in December! )

 

[Cyrano]

Without meaning to sound thick I assume the annual pass lasts 365 days, and not just until the end of any given year? (I'm sure that must be the case otherwise you'd get a bit of a rubbish deal buying one in December! )

That's right. If you buy it today (16 April 2008) it will expire 15 April 2009. You would still get into the park on the 15 April

 

[angelamc]

Not sure if you are aware but there is also some black out dates on the fantasy pass,

http://www.dlrpmagic.com/calendar/annual-passport-restrictions/


As far as I was aware the shareholder can get discounted annual passes for friends that do not live with them. It is only the family discount that has this requirement

 

[Bonnie]

Thanks guys. I had seen the black out dates but luckily they are few and far between and don't conflict with our stay.

I will have to find out more about the annual passes, I think... hmmm. I've read conflicting information in a few places.

The shareholders club official page here: http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/shareholders/shareholders-club/discounts/index.xhtml

... states that:

"This Annual Passport discount is limited to Shareholders Club members and their families only (living at the same home address) and only for five Annual Passports per member per year. Cannot be combined with any other promotional or special offers. Can only be combined with the family discount (for a single family, same address, in compliance with the general conditions of Annual Passports Brochure) on Fantasy and Dream Passports. Excludes sponsorship offers."

 

[angelamc]

OOps perhaps your right, while I was there a couple of weeks ago, I bought annual passes for my Mum, brother and sister using my shareholders discount, no one asked if we lived at the same address, (which we don't) and I didnt know this was a requirement.

 

[Bonnie]

Oooh... wonder if it's worth risking then.

Although just to throw another spanner in the works, I've been reading some threads here which say room-only rates + Annual Passports at a discount don't always work out cheaper than a package.

So I think I need to get three or four quotes for all combinations - we're trying to do this as inexpensively as possible!

 

[angelamc]

the benefit of the annual passes you probably wont feel until your next trip.
We ent for a for a week, and so we benefited straight away. However its given me the excuse to go back next month for my birthday, and hopefully a week over summer. For my birthday trip we booked the Sante Fe (Cheapest Disney Hotel)
room only with 10% shareholders discount. It worked out at £336 for 3 adults and 1 child and I believe our infant was free. DD13 is now considered an adult,
this may have affected the price.
but our flights were really good value at £60 return.

 

[Bonnie]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think we're going to try to get quotes for room only and a package, so we can work out the best option.