What's with the extra charge?

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I'm hoping someone can explain this to me- things just aren't adding up.

Are they charging for the "free" certificate you get if you book a room w/tickets or what?

Online the prices aren't adding up. Using the exact same dates, same people/same ages, if you do room only it's one price (same resort in both cases). If you go in and do tickets ALONE, it's one price- add those two together... comes up about $18 cheaper every time I've done it than... booking same room, same dates, same people, with same amount of tickets together on the website.

So what's the extra charge for? How is it "free" if there's some secret difference in price if you book it together? I'm not expecting it to be CHEAPER, we all know that a pkg deal with Disney is not about being cheaper, it's about convenience. But shouldn't it atleast add up to the same amount if you booked a room seperate and bought tickets through them seperate?
It's making no sense to me...

 

[ncbyrne]

I'm curious about this too. Bump....

 

[SnackyStacky]

I put in some dates for a package and then looked at components seperately, and I'm getting a price difference of about $2.

I'm not sure why you're getting an $18 difference. It's not bigg enough to account for a view difference. Are you sure that the tickets are configured exactly them same?

 

[Cinderella822]

I also tried it both ways and came up with a savings of $4.17 buying the tickets separately. I know its not a big difference, but it would be nice if you got some kind of a discount for buying everything as a package.

 

[bigbabyblues]

I got a difference of about $20 on ours.....still haven't figured out what the actual difference is though. Since we're going to skip the dining option, I'm going with separate room and tix.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I have been fooling with the Disney site for about 3 days straight now, and I can't make sense out of any of it!

And the thing that boggles my mind is the ticket prices are different depending on how you get to the ticket screen!

I put in to book room only. Fine. Then I clicked to add tickets, and it was WAY higher for the tickets. Then I started over and did tickets only. That time it gave me the same price that it gave me when I was putting in that I wanted a whole package. How can the ticket prices vary with identical options?

When I price out air, hotel, tickets, and dining option separately I get a lower price than I get from the package. The package looks like it is $64 higher. So is the difference actually what I am paying for "free" Magical Express and "free" Photo Pass certificate? Can you even qualify for Magical Express if you don't have a package?

I really can't figure out why the price of the package is higher than the sum of the components. Odd. Good thing I have plenty of time to figure it out! We can sit and wait for codes and hear what everyone else thinks of Magical Express before we need to make an absolute decision.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Yes, I'm absolutely sure the tickets were the same. I'm talking without ANY of the extra options on the tickets and with 2 above age 10, 2 below age 9. There is no way I'm changing that at all.

Jack- that's exactly what I'm seeing- different prices for tickets and they should be the same whether you're getting a room or not, shouldn't they?

one time (for scenario described above) the tickets for one day, no frills was $215.50... changed to room pkg those same 1 day tickets for all of us (no frills added) was $229.

So the certificate is NOT "FREE" and they shouldn't be saying it is when it isn't. They are charging a premium (difference in prices) when you book things together instead of seperately. And you have to book a pkg to get the dining option too! So you have to pay a premium to get a pkg so that you can do the dining which you pay for also ofcourse.

I do not expect a DISCOUNT when doing a pkg- but I don't expect to pay MORE for doing it together than I can do with them online if done seperately! That just means you're paying a 'premium' (no matter how small) for the stuff they are saying is "free" and that's what I'm wondering about....

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

From what I gather on info I have read about magical express- you can get that if you're staying at a resort (and it's to/from only certain airlines btw) but don't have to get the pkg to do so. The "free" certificate is what shows up only if you are getting a pkg- but apparently it's not really free. LOL

Oh and btw- prices are fluctuating (going higher) by day on the website. I checked again for our dates last night because I saw a commercial about a 6night/7 day for family of four (which we'd be on this trip going without daddy) and it wasn't any cheaper -but the room rack rate when I checked that has gone up for those dates from $111.87 to $114.67 per night. AT this rate by the time I'm sure we're going and get flights (I always do that first -just in case) the room rack rate is going to be who knows how high.

 

[cra-z-4-dizney]

could the extra charge be because if you buy tickets through disney.com they are slightly cheaper then if you buy them there...I guess when you get them with a package it is like buying them there?????? Just a guess.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Well that doesn't make sense to me and certainly isn't making someone want to buy a pkg with them. It should be ticket prices the same, in all situations (tickets only or with room) on disney.com.


Oh and btw- I want to add that it was NOT that way a week ago when I first started thinking about this June trip. I was writing down all scenarios/prices in a notebook and I still have it written all down. Back THEN the prices were matching up... meaning I could do a room w/tickets and it added up exactly what a room only and tickets only added up to. It's only recently started showing different prices.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The Disney site does some very interesting things. I thought I was going batty! I am glad I am not the only one who is having the "now you see it, now you don't" experience!

It's so weird on the packages because I can't figure out where they are adding the extra cost! They kind of show you at each step how much the components cost, but at the end it is higher than the cost of each piece. I wonder what would happen if I called CRO and asked them to give me the price for each piece of a PACKAGE? How can factoring in the "free" components make it cost more? Bizarre!

 

[Chuck S]

Is it possible that the reservation program is charging the room tax rate on the tickets if you purchase them as "part of the package" instead of the regular sales tax rate?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Maybe? How can we tell if the tax thing is the difference? I thought the ticket calculator had the tax already figured in. My tickets are supposed to be $767. The sales tax rate is 6.5%, but the hotel tax rate is 11.5% (for Pop), correct? I am worthless at math, but I can't make the tax rates work out to the price difference. I think I will call and see what kind of price I get. I wonder if it will match my quote on the Disney site?

 

[LSUDis]

Let us know what you find out!

 

[DebbieB]

Do they still automatically add insurance unless you decline?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

The scenarios about taxes/etc. still do not explain why NOW the prices aren't adding up- when last week they were. Maybe something is wacky with the website- I don't know. But last week the prices they showed for each piece of the pkg as you went along choosing things DID add up to the total they gave at the end... now it isn't adding up. It's always coming up a little more at the end than the total of the "parts" of the pkg they showed (the totals) while going along choosing things. It's mind-boggling where that extra is getting added in between the last page of "choosing" things and the last total page. Sneaky dollars sneaking in there somehow. LOL

 

[HereWeCome Mickey]

Hi,
New here! Been basically obsessed with this site since we booked our trip a few weeks ago. We are scheduled for Feb 16-Feb 23. After reading this post I did the same "check" as I booked straight through Disney website as a "package" there was a total difference of $58 if I would purchase tix and room separately. I got on the phone immediately only to find out that the tix on the website does not include taxes. Ok fine well there was still an $11 difference in booking the package vs. tix/room separately. Of course at this point I said for $11 don't bother cancelling my old to rebook. So figure they are making $11 per package booked x Lord only knows how many packages will be booked this way and sadly this is money in Disney's pockets. Oh well I don't care I still CAN'T wait to get there!!

Not sure how to do the timeline but I am counting down the days....24 more to go!

 

[LovePug]

From what I gather on info I have read about magical express- you can get that if you're staying at a resort (and it's to/from only certain airlines btw) but don't have to get the pkg to do so.

It is correct that you do not have to have a package to use Magical Express. The only requirement is that you are staying onsite. The thing about the participating airlines only affects returning to the airport though. You can be on any airline coming into MCO to use it to get to your resort (along with your luggage), but when you are returning to the airport the checking of the luggage at your resort is affected. You can still use the transportation, but you will have to take your bags with you rather than checking them at your resort if you are not flying on one of the participating airlines.

I hope I explained that in a way that made sense .

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I called CRO last night and they gave me the same price (to the penny LOL) that the website gave me.

The CM didn't seem very excited to be looking things up for me AND I couldn't hear her very well so I didn't pursue the price difference question. Apparently there is no code in my file. She said the marketing dept. mails out codes or they are in the newspaper. She did say the Magical Express is tied to your resort, so you can have the service without a package. I told her we would be staying onsite and using a participating airline. She said it didn't MATTER what airline, even though I remembered reading it had to be certain carriers. Now we know why!

I really can't wait to read how that service goes for people. From a time standpoint I am a little worried. I am also worried about them getting ALL of our bags and getting them to our resort along with the hundreds of other people's bags. Daunting task! It also makes packing your carry-on much more important because you never know how long you might be separated from your bags!!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Hmm, now you have me wondering how they do the bags thing. I mean I assumed on leaving that you'd have to get your bags to them sooner- but since they are using Mears- I figured it would be Mears that also transported our bags JUST like Mears does in the past if you used Mears as your transportation? Are you saying they are going to be transporting our luggage to/from the airport in some other way and not using Mears? Strange...

Wel the price difference bugs me. So I guess I will have to contact them and ask about it- because even if it's a small amount, they should have to account where that went, otherwise they need to stop calling things free when they aren't free (like the certificate- says free but if a pkg costs more and you only get the free certificate with a pkg... it's obviously being paid for!)