What's the cheaper route to take?

[stephroden]

Planning my first trip ever to Disney with my 6 yr old daughter, and I need tips from Disney gurus! I have several options in October, so bear with me! My husband is military, so it opens up that option.

My hubby really wants to stay at AKL for 2 nights and then switch to either POFQ or Pop (I don't really have a preference since we'll barely be at the hotel anyway).

I would like to go Oct2-9. This would give me Day1: Travel/DTD;Day2-7:6 day Park Tickets; Day 8:Travel.

Another option is to go Oct 3-9, giving me a 5 day park ticket.

Yet Oct 4-9 would give me a 4 day ticket (which I would use military for a discounted rate - If they re-up, the military discounts after 9/30/12).

I know that military tickets would make me ineligible for free dining. If I buy discount tickets from UT, does that make me ineligible if free dining becomes an option?

Here's what I was debating:

1) Buy UT tickets (or somehow discounted) for 5 day or 6 day pass. Use military discount for resorts (assuming it will re-up for after 9/30/12 -BTW, can I add the discount later if it is reissued?). Pay for dining plan.

2) Buy regularly priced tickets, resort, and hope for free dining plan. Since I won't be staying at a deluxe resort the whole time, I'll have to move the dining plan from the QS to the DP with TS option.

3) Get the military 4 day park ticket (leaving out HS on our trip). Use military discount for resorts. Pay for dining plan.

I do think the dining plan is benefitial because my daughter is totally into the princesses, and we want to eat at a character meal a day. She's a scaredy cat, and I doubt will ride anything that moves faster than Dumbo, so the character meals will be a big experience in itself.

I can do the math on these, but my main question from you experienced veterans is:

Should I rely on the possibility of military or free dining or just book? I want to eat at CRT and a few other character meals that I'll want to book at the 180-day mark, meaning I probably need to make a decision by the end of this month for that day in October. Can I get discounts after I book or does that totally mess up everything?

Planning is stressful!

 

[DisDaze]

You can not even purchase the Disney Dining Plan, let alone apply a free dining discount, unless you are booked through Disney under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining. You can't buy outside tickets from anywhere and get the dining plan (or free dining), they have to be booked with your package.

Also, out of all those scenarios, booking under a free dining package at Pop or POFQ will be the cheapest option. A split stay is going to cost you more money also.

 

[DisDaze]

You can not even purchase the Disney Dining Plan, let alone apply a free dining discount, unless you are booked through Disney under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining. You can't buy outside tickets from anywhere and get the dining plan (or free dining), they have to be booked with your package.

Also, out of all those scenarios, booking under a free dining package at Pop or POFQ will be the cheapest option. A split stay is going to cost you more money also.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

You can not even purchase the Disney Dining Plan, let alone apply a free dining discount, unless you are booked through Disney under a Magic Your Way package that includes room, tickets and dining. You can't buy outside tickets from anywhere and get the dining plan (or free dining), they have to be booked with your package.

Also, out of all those scenarios, booking under a free dining package at Pop or POFQ will be the cheapest option. A split stay is going to cost you more money also.

This was not the case with us at all. Military SO and I went to Disney in May and had the dining plan added to our room reservation, no problem, easy peasy. Now, I don't know if this changes if free dining is offered, but I haven't seen anything to suggest this is so (and I've done a fair amount of searching, but not looked for that particular case) but Free Dining is not often offered in October anyhow, so it may not be a problem for you.

The dining plan is not offered if you are staying at the Shades of Green military RESORT, but if you are staying in a Disney owned and operated hotel (like AKL, POFQ, or POP), you can absolutely use the dining plan with the military discount tickets. We did, and when I called about booking a return trip this Fall, we were allowed to as well.

That said, to make this reservation you have to call the disney resorts booking to do so, it cannot be done online.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Regarding your original question, here is my advice.

Assuming they re-up the military discount the same way it is currently, one of the cheapest options they have currently is to purchase all 6 of your allocated weekly tickets and then use them for all 8 days of your stay. That said, you are planning to go just after the previous year's offerings expire, and it usually takes about a month for Disney to figure out what it's doing regarding the rules of military tickets, so this suggestion might cause hassle.

I, personally, really like the DP because it's just so convenient, but since you want to do a lot of character meals, the regular DP likely won't have enough credits for you, so you'd have to pay for some out of pocket, and the deluxe plan is just SO. MUCH. FOOD. It might be worthwhile to look at some menus and see if will actually save you money, but it DEFINITELY is incredibly convenient.

 

[DisDaze]

This was not the case with us at all. Military SO and I went to Disney in May and had the dining plan added to our room reservation, no problem, easy peasy. Now, I don't know if this changes if free dining is offered, but I haven't seen anything to suggest this is so (and I've done a fair amount of searching, but not looked for that particular case) but Free Dining is not often offered in October anyhow, so it may not be a problem for you.

The dining plan is not offered if you are staying at the Shades of Green military RESORT, but if you are staying in a Disney owned and operated hotel (like AKL, POFQ, or POP), you can absolutely use the dining plan with the military discount tickets. We did, and when I called about booking a return trip this Fall, we were allowed to as well.

That said, to make this reservation you have to call the disney resorts booking to do so, it cannot be done online.

There are instances when you can add the dining plan to a package that has military tickets. You can not do that in the instance of FREE DINING, it does change the circumstances. For ANY free dining offer you have to be booked under a Magic Your Way package for a 3 night minimum and purchase 2 day base tickets. Period. No exceptions with free dining.

 

[DisDaze]

This was not the case with us at all. Military SO and I went to Disney in May and had the dining plan added to our room reservation, no problem, easy peasy. Now, I don't know if this changes if free dining is offered, but I haven't seen anything to suggest this is so (and I've done a fair amount of searching, but not looked for that particular case) but Free Dining is not often offered in October anyhow, so it may not be a problem for you.

The dining plan is not offered if you are staying at the Shades of Green military RESORT, but if you are staying in a Disney owned and operated hotel (like AKL, POFQ, or POP), you can absolutely use the dining plan with the military discount tickets. We did, and when I called about booking a return trip this Fall, we were allowed to as well.

That said, to make this reservation you have to call the disney resorts booking to do so, it cannot be done online.

The regular/basic dining plan would give them 1 table service/character meal per day. One character meal per day is plenty. I would never recommend the Deluxe Dining plan to a family new to touring Disney with 4 kids - it is a huge amount of money, even if upgrading from the free plan and takes up WAY too much park time.