What would you do? Longer trip or hold on to GCs?

[winnieofpooh]

My husband and I are going to WDW in December with his family. This will be both of our first times going during holiday season! We currently have a 7 day stay booked at Pop Century (so 5 full days) with 4 day park hoppers. Because of COVID-19, we had to cancel our summer trip to DL and now have about $1,000 in "extra" GC. We've paid off our WDW trip already, so we can either hold onto them for a future trip or extend our Christmas trip.

If it makes a difference, we won't be taking a Disney trip in 2021, so we don't currently have a planned future trip. I was thinking of extending our Christmas trip by 1 day and adding 2 days to our tickets. That would still leave us a few hundred extra for a future trip, but also give us a longer time to enjoy all the Christmas offerings. I think my husband is leaning towards saving all the GC towards a future trip though. What would you do?

 

[brockash]

Could you use it to plan a 2021 trip? If so, that'd probably be my first choice.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Could you use it to plan a 2021 trip? If so, that'd probably be my first choice.

We have a vacation booked to Mexico in 2021, but we could in theory cancel that and switch to Disney.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

I'd roll it into the next trip.

 

[becauseimnew]

My husband and I are going to WDW in December with his family. This will be both of our first times going during holiday season! We currently have a 7 day stay booked at Pop Century (so 5 full days) with 4 day park hoppers. Because of COVID-19, we had to cancel our summer trip to DL and now have about $1,000 in "extra" GC. We've paid off our WDW trip already, so we can either hold onto them for a future trip or extend our Christmas trip.

If it makes a difference, we won't be taking a Disney trip in 2021, so we don't currently have a planned future trip. I was thinking of extending our Christmas trip by 1 day and adding 2 days to our tickets. That would still leave us a few hundred extra for a future trip, but also give us a longer time to enjoy all the Christmas offerings. I think my husband is leaning towards saving all the GC towards a future trip though. What would you do?

Do you mean you have more than $1,000 to cover food, tips, snacks & souvenirs? I would use that to buy Christmas Party tickets. I wouldn't hold on to GC for more than a year.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Do you mean you have more than $1,000 to cover food, tips, snacks & souvenirs? I would use that to buy Christmas Party tickets. I wouldn't hold on to GC for more than a year.

No, we have more than $1,000 to do nothing with haha. We have free dining for December and are being gifted Christmas Party tickets whenever they go on sale. We even set aside $200 for a nicer meal or two + tips and still have that much leftover.

 

[Skippyboo]

Victoria and Albert’s with wine pairings will take care of your extra gift card money.

 

[becauseimnew]

No, we have more than $1,000 to do nothing with haha. We have free dining for December and are being gifted Christmas Party tickets whenever they go on sale. We even set aside $200 for a nicer meal or two + tips and still have that much leftover.

In that case I would add a day or 2... I would not save GC for more than a year.

 

[Skippyboo]

You could add a couple days at a higher end hotel. Adding extra days to the tickets won’t cost that much days 5, 6, 7 aren’t that much versus the initial ticket cost. You could look into doing a tour like Keys of the Kingdom or even do a VIP tour for a day. Plenty of ways to spend money at WDW

 

[LuvMyEAR]

What a wonderful quandry! Exploring the possibilities can be as much fun as the actual doing!

 

[Kaadk]

My family can easily drop 1K in purchases over a 7 day trip. Souvenirs, tips, etc. can add up quickly. I'd hold onto the cards to cover your incidentals. If you've got anything left over at the end of your trip, you can then hold onto it to roll into a next trip.

 

[starry_solo]

I would add another day to the trip plus tickets.

 

[nkereina]

My first choice would be to hang onto the gift card to cover additional meals, souvenirs, tips, etc. on your Christmas trip. We bought a lot of Christmas souvenirs for home. And with free dining, we still occasionally paid out of pocket for meals and drinks (and tips, of course).

Otherwise, I would say to add an extra night to hold it, but also wait and see how things look come December. If its still not back to normal and there's still restrictions in place, spending an extra day might not be what you want to do. And in that case, you could cancel the extra day and then save the gift card for a future trip. I would also upgrade any tickets closer to your date of travel, when you know the status of everything, since those would not be refundable.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Victoria and Albert’s with wine pairings will take care of your extra gift card money.

This has my vote

 

[MarkS2112]

I would extend and then do a few extras that you don’t have covered. Or upgrade resort. As long as they don’t expire you have many options.

 

[happymommy]

I would easily add the day(s)! I wouldn’t want to hold onto the gift cards; more Disney time would be my choice. I always feel the more days I have, the more relaxed I am to just have a quiet afternoon stopping to “smell the roses” in the parks.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

I would upgrade my resort as I am not a fan of value resorts.

 

[Gehrig1B]

I would add more days to my tickets. Four days, even with hoppers is not long enough to see and do a lot, especially during the holidays. Adding more days is not that costly anyway. Do you have a reason for having a 6 night stay but only going to the parks 4 days? There is no need for a rest day during such a short trip. Add another night and bump your tickets to 6 or 7 day hoppers and take a more leisurely approach.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I would make the trip longer and use the rest on snacks and shopping.

 

[glocon]

I would upgrade resort, at least for part of the stay. You are only going to the parks for 4 days anyway, so splurge on an upgraded hotel for the last couple of nights and enjoy the resort! Maybe YC or BC for SAB, or GF and get a TPV! Or AKL with a SV. Or get CL!!!Something you might not do otherwise...
So many choices....