Triple A Price Help!! Please

[lennonforever]

Hi everyone - Just received a quote from my PA Triple A auto club. Can you guys review it and tell me honestly if you think I can do better booking myself? Thank you in advance.
Below does not include airfare

5 days/4nights arrive Sun Dec 16/2012 depart Thurs Dec 20


FOR 2 ADULTS/ONE CHILD TWELVE YEARS OLD

All star sports resort - regular room with 2 beds
Basic dining plan
park tickets
park hopper tickets
trip insurance
----------------------------------------
= $2100 PLUS CHANGE

 

[4HppyCamprs]

That seems like a fair price. There are not any discounts out for that late in the year that I am aware of yet. You can see if you can get a better price with those parameters by plugging in your info on disneyworld site under vacation packages. That will tell you if the amount at the current time is similar. Disney does let you add any special promotions on that may occur even after you have booked. Your 12 year old is a disney adult for both the tickets and the dining plan. HTH Happy researching

 

[connie1042]

Depending on your flights, you will only have 3 days in the parks. It looks like you plan on doing 2 parks one day, hence the reason behind the park hopper. I don't know the age of the child, but I would drop the park hopping and one park. If this is your first trip, you will not be able to see everything even with a whole day at the park. I would also, go with the Quick service dining, freeing up some time for more rides. If you do this, it would bring down you price to about 1750. The AAA quote is fine

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Connie the age of the child list is a 12 year old

 

[connie1042]

It is totally up to you, but I would drop AK. The other parks have more to do for a 12 year old. Plus you are going during Christmas season, so the parks will be crowed. You will have to watch that you are not going to MK on a day that the Christmas party is going on that night. On those nights MK closes at 7 to non-party goers. A ticket for the party is around 65 dollars a person. MK, Epcot and HS, have some great Christmas decorations, concerts and lights. Try to get a early fight into MCO and a late flight out on departure day. Take those days to explore the other resorts and decorations, or spend some time in DTD. If you decide you want to hop to another park, you can always add the park hopping to your ticket at that time. No reason to buy it and not use it. Start looking for airline tickets as soon as they becoming available. Decide what you at comfortable paying. We are from MN and we got ours for 250. I bought them for our May trip in Oct. They are now up to 368. I do not think they will go down, and if they do it is my loss, but I really doubt they will.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

To me the Qs diing plan seems like a waste. Do look at the dining plan, and figure out if it makes sense for your family.

I'm not sure there's a great resaon to book through AAA per say - unless they are giving you some special perk - like a bonus gift card. You can call WDW yorself and usually request the same package. You can also price out your package on Disney's website. Though on the website you can't price out package discounts that are unique to AAA. (Usually the general public discounts are better, unless you are going during a holiday or something).

I would keep the basic dining plan, but skip the trip insurance. Read the fine print. Usually, if you have to cancel, Disney will refund all your moeny, or nearlyall of it. typically they will also let you rebook a later date if somehting comes up. the one vacation component that won't let you rebook is most airlines. Also, if you buy WDW tickets (not a package) typically you can't 'return' those either.

December is a LONG ways off yet. It's entirely possible that a better discount willl come out, though Christmas week is always Disney's busiest week. You are currently avoiding the highest rates. You may be ableto tweak your costs slightly if you can avoid a weekend.

Still one more idea- you might do slightly better if you skip the DDP, book a 'room only' with AAA discount now - and buy your tickets via Undercover Tourist. The DDP is not going to save you all that much money because your daughter is twelve. Her food is the 'adult' price - $52 a day.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Strike that, your TA is quoting you a full price vacation, I think.

Yes, you can do better.

The dining plan offers convenience, but not much savings. Read about the dining plan. I have no idea what your eating habits are. For us, the basic dining plan is about right, about how we eat, but slightly more food than we need. If my family eats a big TS meal for dinner, then usually most of us can't eat a big breakfast the next morning. So two meals a day, plus a snack is enough. Sometimes we also slip meals.

also, how you use DDP depends on the arrival of your flights. If you are arriving late on your arrival day, and leaving early on your departure day - then that's going to affect your food needs. conversely, if you arrive very early, and leave very late- you might need an extra snack at teh end of you trip. (Usually if this happens we just grab something at the Orlando airport. It has LOTS of quick food options.)

I also second the idea of not hopping. What I might do - if you can swing it - is skip hopping and add one more day. disney likes to say you have 'five days/four nights' but almost no matter what, you can'tmake full use of your arrival and departure days. You really only have three full days. It can be done, we've done it, but if you can skip hopping and make it a five nights tay, I think that woudl be much better for you.

One last tiny point. The All-Star resort are down at one end of WDW. They are a fine place to stay- BUT they are ina different county from all the other resorts at WDW. As such, the tax rate at the AS resorts is 13.5%, at the rest of the resorts it's 12.5%. If you like ASSports, then the differnce is only about $15 in your case, I think. If you would be equally happy at Pop Century, then you'd save that $15. (the tax differnce is only on the hotel portion- the tickets and dining plan still cost the same.)

 

[Irishgrl6975]

I quoted my package out with Disney then called my AAA travel agent and requested the same exact quote from them. The savings through AAA was between $400 to $450, so it was a no brainer to book with them. If room discounts or free dining come up she will automatically apply those and let me know. I would price out the same thing on the Disney website and see which price is better. Have a great trip!

 

[francie57]

We go mid Aug and so far there are no deals out there so AAA saved us $800 off our 2 bedroom villa package at the BC. The agent will keep checking to see if anything better comes along but so far nothing. I was extremely happy to save that amount at the present time.

 

[lennonforever]

WoW!!!! thank you all so very much for your insights and opinions! I greatly appreciate it. I will see what WDW will charge, then go forward accordingly.
This is actually our fourth time at WDW - but this time , Grammy and Pop-Pop are taking one grandchild. This is the first time, I tried booking myself. I'll let all you know. Thanks again!! lennonforever