So glad I booked our vacation early!!

[rszdtrvl]

We are not leaving until March 28, 2009. But I already booked & paid for our vacation from Alask Airlines.

Now I am so glad I did!!

I paid $1936.70 for our airfare, park hoppers, and 4-night hotel.

Now the exact same package is $1993.16.

Our flight out of PDX to SNA is more expensive now. Which means that certain flight is filling up already! Glad we already got our seats, LOL.

I am amazed that the price has already gone up for the package! That is crazy.

 

[DitzyMom]

Dang, I wish I wouldn't have checked. Airfare for 4 from Milwaukee, WI to Orange County airport I paid $1078. Now it's $918 for 4 people. Dang!!

Still dang good prices if you ask me!

 

[trodrigue]

Oh my goodness, I so totally agree. Booking and planning in advance is key. I am coming from Seattle with my family of 4. We booked our hotel 11 months out and got HOJO. Now they don't offer the rate for Feb. anymore. Just booked our airfare at 6 months out, and the rate was only available for a few days and now it is way higher. Haven't bought our hoppers yet, but the price on those went down!

So far: Airfare: $714
Hotel (8 nights ): $600
Hoppers: $696 (5 days at child prices)
Car: $200
Home Airport Parking: $140

So Far: $2350

Budgeting for food and stuff: $800

So far I have saved a couple of hundred in Disney Dollars and paid for Airfare.

I keep checking the Disney Store to see if they have '09 hoppers yet, but so far, nothing. If so, I will pay those in advance, one at a time.

Hoping to pay everything in advance that I can, because then my husband does not notice the grand total for the trip of over $3000 because he never sees a total bill. One big reason that I don't book packages!



Oh, and of course, the extra $400 that I plan to upgrade our tickets to passes! He will never know about that!

 

[northshoremama]

i know what you mean...though i didn't book that WAY in advance. i booked our december trip a few weeks ago...paid $905 for our alaska package...which included 3 RTs from SEA to LGB and 2 nights at the camelot (and trip insurance/protection, too...i figured you just never know when you are traveling with an infant and a toddler). we will be renting a car and right now i have a ressie with national for $112 for the 3 days (though I'm likely to cancel and try priceline when the date gets closer). anyways, i checked about a week later and the package price jumped up to $1230 or something like that. i checked again just last night and now it's up to $1385...so far, i saved a whopping $485!!!!!! i noticed that the prices of the flights increased from $79 one way to $159 one way!!!

...oh, and the package price does NOT include hoppers because i plan to upgrade to APs when we are there in just 10 days!!!! whooo-hoooo, we're almost in the single-digits!!!!

i know a lot of people on the boards recommend pricing things out separately to get things cheaper, but for the 2 planned trips that we have alaska airlines have come out on top!!

after our october trip, i'll be starting to plan our end of april/early may '09 trip!!

 

[kelmac284]

I know what you mean too. I am going in March AND April and my April trip we are going at what is probably the WORST possible time SPRING break! So for the march trip I was lucky in that I am going on the ladies trip and I booked the rooms long ago using the room discount and I have yet to get airfare as Southwest is only selling through the BEGINNING of that weekend but doesn't have the return available yet but what I have since deduced is that flying into Orange county no longer appears to be the best option.

It is currently about 112 bucks ONE way to fly from Sac to OC. But it is only 69 one way to LAX so as long as it doesn't go up before they open up the return I think we will go with LAX because we can take the Disneyland express bus and STILL save quite a bit! And we are DEF going to go with that for our April trip.

I had been checking with Getaway today every so often and we got a room for 5 nights at the Ramada maingate for only 600 bucks. I think that is pretty dang good for spring break week! We stayed there in July and were very happy with the room and proximity to the park. We were thinking about Desert Inn but it would have actually been MORE expensive to stay there during that week. So I am happy with that and it is booked and paid for. And if we can score the 69 airfare each way to LAX for that time period that would be awesome. I just have to keep watching southwest and the minute they release April I will have to snatch it up! I just hope they don't raise the prices for that time period but I guess I will have to wait and see.

 

[Davids-Coco]

We are going soon (November 11th)... but my parents booked their airline tickets 5 days after us on the same flights, both of us using a companion ticket on Alaska. They paid nearly $180 MORE than we did.

All three of our tickets - 2 adults, 1 over 2 - were a grand total of $388.76. That is a value flight with companion ticket totaling $383.76 for my DH and DS. And 30,000 miles and $5.00 for my tickets. Not too shabby!

 

[northshoremama]

We are going soon (November 11th)... but my parents booked their airline tickets 5 days after us on the same flights, both of us using a companion ticket on Alaska. They paid nearly $180 MORE than we did.

All three of our tickets - 2 adults, 1 over 2 - were a grand total of $388.76. That is a value flight with companion ticket totaling $383.76 for my DH and DS. And 30,000 miles and $5.00 for my tickets. Not too shabby!

that is a great deal!

 

[danabalana]

Hi! I'm pretty sure you can get a refund on the diffference. Call your airline. There's a whole website just for tracking airfare and one option is to watch an already purchased ticket so you can get a refund if the price goes down. It's Yapta.com I hope it all works out for you : )

 

[BC Disney Lover]

When the price of fuel started going up I jumped on airfare form Seattle to Long Beach expecting prices to rise. A month or two later I noticed the price had gone down so I phoned Alaska Airlines and asked what could be done. I had bought the non-refundable cheap fares so wasn't expecting a refund but they offered me a credit which I happily took. It can't hurt to call and ask your airline.