Vetern DISer's--Need help deciding

[My2BabiesLexis&Dill]

I recently upgraded from ASMo to WL . In my orginial plan, I was going to buy AP for me so I can get the discount for the room. (We are going in Feb. 06 for 13d/12n) And regular tix for DH and DD. And my plan was to buy this throughout the year so when time comes everything is payed for. But now I'm worried that if I do that...I might miss out on a special that Disney might offer. What would be the best thing to do. I would hate to buy everything and then a month or so before they offer a deal and we could have saved even more money. What should I do? Keep my plan or just save the money til it's about a month or 2 away and pay for everything.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


First family trip to see the mouse---Feb 06

 

[epcotfan]

I would ditch the plan and go for the AP. Chances are a room only rate with an AP discount will save you much more than any package. You can book a room only rate now and then have the AP discount applied later (if there is one) I would only stick with a package unless you plan on utilzing the food plan. I would just save your money. Put it somewhere that it isn't easily accessible for spending.

 

[Leota]

Just remember that an AP rate is NOT guaranteed. There may or not be rates available for the dates you want to go, for the resort you want to go to or there may not be any discounted rooms available to you when you call.....

Make your plan based on what you can & are willing to afford & if something cheaper pops up, it is icing on the cake.

I pay off my resort before I go. It's easier for me that way. Another option is something like an ING account, where your money is less accessible.

 

[Kala]

We try to pay for everything that we can before we go... just less money stress for us that way. We put down the deposit on the room at rack rate, then once we know what the final price will be (AP discount usually) we either pay off the balance or set aside the cash in our checking account to pay on arrival. We buy our airline tickets ahead of time as well as our passes. The only expenses we have not covered are our meals and spending money, but we try to have the amount we want to budget available. That's not to say we don't charge anything, it IS vacation so if there's something we want badly enough to charge it we do, it's just that the first few trips we charged the entire thing and took forever and LOTS of interest to pay off. So much for discounts!

As for passes for your family... are you sure that for 13 days you wouldn't save money by buying AP's for them. I know the break even used to be 8 days but haven't done the math for the new MYW passes. We always get the AP's anyway because we like to squeeze in another trip or 2 if we can.

I agree with epcotfan that rarely is a package a better deal for us than paying as we go. It's usually only a good deal if you use every single thing it covers, which we would never do. We just spend our time at the parks and resorts, eat (much less than at home because we are so busy!) at our favorite places and always a couple of new ones, and usually one or 2 tours or cruises.

Hope this helps!

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I like to pay everything off before we go also. Can you buy disney dollars instead of buying the actual passes? This way when the time gets close you can decide whether to do the AP or not. Its my understanding that everywhere in Disney including the hotels accept disney dollars. Good luck.

 

[Kala]

You can buy Disney Dollars instead, but not necessary... just set aside the money. If you decide to buy the Disney Dollars at the Disney Store you will need to call ahead to see what their daily limit is because in the past they have only let us buy a certain amount at a time, I think it was $100. I guess they want to be sure that they don't run out. I have also seen here on the boards that you can buy them via fax or phone direct from WDW, there might not be a limit there. We usually start buying them for all the family members for gifts far in advance of trips. As a matter of fact I just got some for Mother's Day this weekend. They hava a new design now and really look great!