Has anyone bought a vacation pkg to Disneyworld?

Question

My husband and I are going there for vacation and wondered if anyone puchased a prepaid pkg deal and stayed on the grounds.
Which is best deal and which is best hotel? etc... Any info would be helpful.

Answer 1

I go to Disney all the time and I always do a package. It is really nice to have everything as a group, and not have to do everything seperate. Also, you have the option of doing the dining plan, which you can only do in the package. Dining will save you a lot of money off of your dining and it will really allow you to have nicer options. So, I definitely recommend doing a package.

As far as the best deal on a package, that would be when you are going. Disney offers promotions for just about every day of the year. It can range from money off your room, to a free ticket upgrade, to even free dining during some dates. They only release certain dates when they do this, it is not for the whole year. For example, the most recent promotion was from mid-April, all of May and the first few days of June and gave free ticket upgrades. Any day before the first few days of June has already been offered for a promotion and will not be offered any other promotions. Sometimes, Disney will send past guests a pin code they may be able to use on their vacation, but not many people receive these and they are usually for limited dates. So, if you are flexible with your dates, then I would go later in June. Usually, the best promotions are offered in mid-August, through September and the first few days of October, which has been free dining the past few years.

Personally, I always book with my travel agent. I don't usually have the time to watch for codes and promotions, once I book she will automatically put the discount on my vacation (as long as what I have is available) and I don't have to worry about it. If Disney does not offer the discount for my hotel, she will give me some options of what I can do. She also helps me to look into the different dates and everything like that so I don't have to, I have found it to be a big time saver. Plus, she doesn't charge anything for the services and she books all my dining, reservations, answers questions, etc. I used to book with AAA, but their service does not come close to all the benefits I get from my current agent, so it is really great for me. Plus, after Disney's promotions, there is no better savings you can find outside of Disney or a travel agent.


As far as which hotel, it really depends on what you are wanting to spend. Disney has three levels, value, moderate and deluxe (also villas, which are anything from a studio to two bedrooms.) All of Disney's resorts are great, you really can't go wrong. Personally, I find in the values that Pop Century is a little better than the All Stars, because of better transportation, newer, etc . As far as the moderates, you will be getting a little larger room and the property tends to be more quiet. Also, the themes are a little more modest. As far as which resort, they all offer similar benefits At Port Orleans, you do get the added benefit of the boats and at Cornonado, you have a few more dining options. There are so many deluxe resorts, it is hard to choose. The benefit to Animal Kingdom and Wilderness Lodge is that they are the least expensive deluxe. With Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Club, you have the ability to walk right to EPCOT. And at Contemporary, Polynesian and Grand Floridian, you have the monorail. Really, all the deluxes are great, so it just depends which one will have the most for you.


I hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, I go to Disney many times a year and I love to help.

Good luck with your planning!

Answer 2

This is only a partial answer to your question, but check out the fan-travel-news sites about Disney and decide your budget. On our last trip, we stayed off-site, but it made a big difference.

If you stay on-site, you can travel between all the Disney hotels - which can be an excursion in itself - using Disney transportation - boats, monorail, bus, etc. You can spend a whole day doing activities at the Disney hotels without going into a single theme park - horseback riding, behind the scenes tours, boating, para-gliding, spas treatments, etc. Some of the restaurants have shows, you can see fireworks from some hotels, one or two hotels even have fishing excursions on the property!

Staying on-site may get you into some of the parks earlier than the general public depending on the date - early entry or magic entry I think it is called, and you may have priority in making dining reservations. You can also take a Disney airport shuttle to your hotel and you won't need to rent a car if you plan to stay on site the whole time.

Disneyworld is really BIG, so if it sounds strange you would not need a car or leave the property, trust me, it's true :)

Staying off site has a good side if you just don't want to get fully immersed in the Disney atmosphere and want to have some independence in trip planning and getting around the Orlando area. Our hotel was about 3 miles away and only had 2 shuttles each day to Disney and 1 each day to some shopping area. If you missed the shuttles and didn't have a car you were stuck walking around the tourist traps or catching cabs. The hotels and restaurants off-site were almost as pricey as some of the Disney restaurants, but there was a lot of variety.

We would not stay off site again because IMHO you got what you paid for and more by staying at Disney, plus without a car we spent a lot on cab fare ($ could have gone to a Disney room). We were also rushed trying to get to our shuttles, which sometimes left from different pick-up and drop-off points.

Re: package deal - once you decide what you want to do, decide if you really plan to go to a theme park every single day or if you plan to take it easy on one day, visit Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, etc. multiply the daily ticket rate by the number of days you want to go. Check the websites again for hotel rates - Disney and non-Disney, add that up. See the cancellation policies, then decide. I would book the hotel separately from the tickets and buy the tickets when I get there just because it would be easier to cancel.

This is already too long, but 2 more things :)

1) If you are staying more than 5 days, see how much an Annual Pass costs. That pass offers some hotel discounts as well and you can go to as many parks as you want in one day (park hop).

2)Note that some parks close earlier than others when you buy your tickets - for example, the Animal Kingdom closes in the late afternoon, the Magic Kingdom closes at midnight sometimes. If you have a one-day/one-park ticket and go to the AK, when it closes you are done for the day, is that OK for you?

Answer 3

My dh and i go every year. Where to stay really depends on how much you want to spend. For our honeymoon we stayed at their flagship hotel, The Grand Floridian. it is a beautiful hotel. Every luxury you would want. Marble countertops in the bathrooms, they turn down your bed at night and put chocolate on your pillow, room service etc. You will pay at least $300 a night. If that is too much for your taste they also have moderate or value hotels. I personally do not care for the moderate hotels at all. I prefer the Value. The one we like is the Pop Century hotel. It has great atmosphere and is very fun. It is a regular hotel. But with Disney flair. The decor is FABULOUS. The food is good and it's much more affordable. The price there is about $ 80-$100 a night. The $100 is if you get the preferred view, which means closer to the buses. Disney is a GREAT place to go. You will have a blast. DEFINATELY stay on Disney property, it's not worth staying anywere else. Have a great time!