Trip planning help!!!

[largo]

Needing help planning the smaller details. Most importantly, we are going back to WDW in March!!! So excited and i can't wait to tell the kids!

the details: I recieve a pin for free dining. We plan on staying a pop century for 7 nights. I will not be needing park tickets because i am going to purchase some through airmiles., but unfortunately i only have enough for 2 tickets. Can i purchase just 2 MYW tickets with a package? if not, i know that i can purchase a 1 day MYW ticket with a package including the free dining. If i have to purchase x4 1 day MYW tickets can i upgrade 2 of them at the park to 5 or 6 days (and i will use my airmile passes for the other 2)? What will that cost?

I am also tinkering with the idea to go to univeral for the day...i have huge harry potter fans!! Any experiece on this? is it worth going for only 1 day? again i may have enough to purchase some of these tickets with airmiles. Should I do 2 park tickets, or will islands of adventure be enough?

i think thats it for now. Any help would be appreciated!!

 

[roxysmum123]

I can't speak to your first question because I'm finding it a bit confusing... it's been a long weekend what can I say lol!

But as to Universal and Harry Potter: It can absolutely be done in one day especially if you get there first thing in the morning before park opening. It's a great attraction and I thought it was very well done. This year I'll be doing both IOA and US on a one day-two park pass and feel confident I'll have no problem doing it. At IOA I only really liked the Harry Potter section, and from what I understand some of the major attractions in other areas of the park are closed so you may want to check on that for March to see if there'd be enough in the one park to occupy you guys or if the two park pass would be the way to go.

 

[minnie mum]

The PP has given you some good advice about Universal. I would recommend that you use your airmiles points to buy these tickets.

Now for your WDW resort questions. If you use the free dining pin then you MUST purchase a vacation package for every person in your party who is staying in the same room as you. They must all have a MINIMUM of 2day MYW tickets as a part of the package. These can, of course be upgraded to more days as needed. Since it costs a relatively small amount to add the extra days it really wouldn't make $$ sense to then buy extra MYW tickets using your airmiles.

Hope this helps.

 

[SmilingGrump]

minnie mum is correct.

Ideally, Universal should be done in 2 days, 1 day for each park, but you CAN hit just the highlights of both parks in one day, depending on your families' interests. Island of Adventure is a must since you're a Harry Potter fan, the HP area is as well (some say better) done then Disney, but it is also only one part of IoA. The Marvel themed rides are great for thrill rides and the Dr Seuss area is great for young and old alike. My suggestion would be to buy the Air Miles tickets and play it by ear. Hit the HP area of IoA first, then do what interests you. If you hit the second park, great, it's not wasted since you've hit the best of what Universal has to offer and it only cost Air Miles.

 

[mtmbyck]

Correct me if I am wrong, but in order to get free dining you have to have the MYW package which will include tickets for each day of your visit for every guest in your room. Pretty sure that's how it works. You can't have guests in your room not on the plan (we tried this with a grandma one year).

When in March are you going? We were there March Break last year and planned to do WWoHP (I used Aeroplan pts for tickets) but it was so busy, they were closing the Harry potter area most days by 9:30am due to crowds. It was a zoo. We literally got to city walk and turned around and left! It doesn't help that as a Disney guest you can't get the front of the line passes (well you can buy them for a small fortune).

I'm hoping to get there myself again this March but we'll see given the crowds. Good luck and have fun planning.

 

[largo]

Thanks eveyone for all your input!

I called and spoke with a CM last night to ensure that i could do this, but you can book a room with a 1 day MYW pass and still get your free dining. Works out well if you have tickets otherwise, as it save almost $800. Now as it appears, i have enough airmiles to purchase all of our universal tickets and two 5 day passes for WDW.

So for those confused by my original post (i was too whenn i re read it!!lol) here is the break down

1 day MYW (package) + 5 day airmile ticket = 6 disney days

However, since I will only have 2 airmiles tickets, i still need 2 more. I know that I can pay to have the 1 day MYW tickets upgraded to a 6 day ticket, but what will it cost me? where will i do this?

Thanks again... YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!

 

[glenpreece]

Universal is such a one day park still. We took a day at each and found we were bored outta our skulls and ended up doing some of the "boring" attractions, Twister, Jaws ugh.

 

[minnie mum]

If you go to the Disney web site, click on Tickets and Packages, then click on Buy park tickets. Specify customize tickets for 1 adult (10 + yrs) to see how much the tickets cost in total.

You already know that you have to buy 4 1day MYW tickets (minimum) to book the free dining package (Am I correct that there are 4 people in your party?).

The cost to buy a 1 day non hopper ticket (adult) is $90.53x 4=$366.22
A 6 day MYW non hopper ticket costs $275.
You can get your 2 5 day tickets from airmiles (no idea how you get these, since I don't collect airmiles- I guess you have to call the airmiles people for this). For the sake of clarity, lets say these tickets are for you and your wife.

For the remaining 2 tickets for your children, when you arrive at your resort, after checking in, upgrade their tickets to 6 day non hoppers.The cost to buy 5 additional days is $184.47 x 2 =$368.94

ETA: It's really late and my brain is already asleep, so use these numbers with a couple of grains of salt. But they're roughly accurate.

Hope that helps.