Hey everyone! It's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD. When you're booking your
vacation to Walt Disney World you can book a package through Disney. This
combines your hotel room with your tickets, and additionally you can add the
Disney Dining Plan if you desire. However, you can also book your hotel and your
tickets completely separately. In today's video we'll go over considerations when
thinking about booking a package or booking everything separately.
Before we get started, if you're new to the channel hey I'm Jacqueline here at Pixie Dust
PhD. We mostly talked about Walt Disney World planning as well as Disney
Vacation Club planning and considerations, and sometimes we venture
into other Disney topics as well. And if you're a returning viewer thank you so
much for coming back! My goal is to hit 100 subscribers by my birthday, so if
you've enjoyed my past content or you like this video please consider
subscribing to the channel. And moving right into vacation packages: ultimately
vacation packages at Walt Disney World can just be a nice, simple way to book
your vacation. These magic your way Disney vacation packages include your
hotel as well as your tickets. Pending resort availability you can make a
package out of anything-- meaning you really could stay at any
resort as long as it was available for the dates you wanted to go. When booking
a package base theme park tickets will automatically be selected. A base theme
park ticket simply means you can only enter one park per day. And you're in
control of choosing the number of days of park entry you would like. And then
you can add additional ticket options if desired. For example, you can upgrade your
base tickets to park hopper tickets for an additional fee. Similarly, you can add
options that include visits to things like the NBA experience, ESPN Wide World
of Sports, and more. If you pick one of these packages that includes access to
the golf courses be sure to book your tee time in advance.
Next when booking your package you can select a Dining Plan if you desire.
Remember that all guests in your party in that same hotel room will have to
utilize the same type of Dining Plan, and no one can opt out. Recently I did an
entire video explaining the Disney Dining Plan, so check that out if you have any
questions. However, the Dining Plan is not mandatory
when booking a package. So if you don't want it go ahead and scroll to the
bottom of the page to continue without the Dining Plan. And whether or not you
purchase the Dining Plan, be sure to make your dining reservations 180 days in
advance of your arrival. It's best practice to make dining reservations for
any sit-down restaurant you want to enjoy. If you need more information about
advance dining reservations go ahead and check out this video. Note that there is
an option to add airfare when you're booking. This airfare is totally
non-refundable. It also often just isn't that great of a deal, so I would avoid
airfare through this webpage and just book airfare separately like you
normally would. Another additional option when purchasing a package is to add
memory maker. You can absolutely do this with a package, but note that there's no
special pricing. The price you pay with a package is the same as the general
advanced purchase price of $169. Even guests not staying on property can
access that pricing. Magic your way vacation packages also typically come
with magical extras. These magical extras often come with vouchers for
things like free mini-golf, free entrance to the ESPN Wide World of Sports, 10% to
20% off various places to eat--and most of these are located in Disney Springs,
not restaurants inside the parks--as well as discounts at various retailers, again
this is mostly stuff around Disney Springs and you won't be finding
discounts for anything like the Emporium or World of Disney. Magical extras are
subject to change so be sure to check out the official Walt Disney World
website. When booking a package through Walt Disney World you will owe a 200
dollar deposit no matter the cost of your total package. A big advantage for
many people is that overall the packages are pretty flexible. For example,
if you cancel your vacation more than 30 days in advance you're fully refunded
for your hotel and your park tickets. Airfare of course is another story. In
contrast, if you are booking everything separately and you'd bought your tickets
a la carte--particularly if you bought them from a third party website--chances
are very good that you won't get refunded any amount of that money.
Furthermore, your final package balance isn't due until 30 days before your
vacation. If you were buying your tickets a la carte typically you would have to
pay that full amount on the day that you purchased them. This can be a real
benefit if you've purchased a package; you will have access to that 60 day plus
FastPass advance booking window. However, unlike if you've bought everything a la
carte you haven't actually paid for those tickets yet--you've just put down
your $200 deposit. That being said these flexibilities decrease dramatically
once you move past that 30-day point. If you cancel between twenty nine and two
days before your vacation arrival date you will owe a $200 cancellation fee, and
if you cancel one day prior to your arrival or later then you will forfeit
your entire package price. At face value if you're paying the full rack rate for
a vacation package the main benefit here is just convenience. A lot of people will
note that this is the most worryfree way for them to book their Walt Disney World
trip. And while you will probably get some cost savings out of those magical
extras vouchers, it's not going to be an enormous amount. So overall normal Disney
vacation packages are not discounted. You're paying full price for all of
those separate components, you're just making it less of a hassle
by bundling everything together. If there are no ongoing promotions it absolutely
can be monetarily cheaper for you book things separately. If you still want to
stay on Walt Disney World property you can book a hotel without adding tickets--
this is called a room only reservation. Many times Disney offers room only
reservation discounts, so be sure to check out their specials page. And then
you buy your tickets separately. You can do this through Walt Disney World or you
can also go through a third-party seller. There are a number of third-party
companies that sell valid Walt Disney World tickets at modest savings. Or if
you're looking to maximize your savings you may consider staying off property
instead. Check out my video comparing staying off property to on property. And
note that some off property hotels, specifically those that are official
Disney Springs Area resorts hotels, may be a nice compromise for you. All that being
said, the real value here comes when Disney offers promotions that apply only
to packages. For example, occasionally Disney will offer a free Dining Plan
with the purchase of a package. If you are going to buy the Disney Dining Plan
anyway this can result in huge cost savings for you. Typically these require
both your room and the tickets as part of the package, and often there is a
minimum night requirement for the length that you stay. Sadly promotions simply
have very limited inventory, so although in theory you can make a package really
out of any hotel room by adding tickets these promotions will often only apply
to a subset of rooms at a subset of resorts. Due to this limited inventory
when these promotions are announced they go super fast.
To take advantage of these promotions you'll likely have to be pretty flexible
with your accommodations. Also note that in many instances during this period of
time where they're offering free dining promotion, there still are those room
only reservation discounts. And sometimes those can be a better value for you and
your party. It's pretty normal to see up to 25% off at deluxe resorts, up
to 20% off at moderate resorts, and up to 15% off at value resorts. And
occasionally you can even see up to 35% off at deluxe resorts.
So when these promotions are announced it's really important that you do the
math and figure out what makes the most sense for you and your party. Room only
reservations do require a deposit equal to the full first night of your
reservation; depending on where you're saying it's
likely that this amount will be more than $200. So your initial deposit for
that room only reservation will probably be more than the initial deposit for a
package. The final balance for your room only reservation is due upon check-in.
However, the cancellation policy for room only reservations is far more generous
than for package reservations. You can cancel your room only reservation
six days in advance of your arrival with no penalty. And note that this video only
covers cancellation policies and flexibilities when you book officially
through the Walt Disney World website; if you're using a third-party online travel
agency be sure to check out their terms and fine print if that's something you
think may impact your choices or your vacation. And if you're really hunting
for the best bargain don't neglect those third-party websites like Kayak or
similar. With a bit of work you can sometimes find prices that beat those
listed on the Walt Disney World website. And by the time you combine hotel
savings--particularly if you're looking at a third-party website at an off
property hotel--and those modest ticket savings you can get from third party
companies, well that can beat the package price by a landslide!
This can definitely be the most economical option if you're willing to
give up the convenience of a package, and in my opinion many of the main benefits
of staying on property don't change whether or not you booked with a package.
These are things like free transportation to and from the airport,
free transportation to and from your hotel and the parks, access to extra
magic hours, that 60-day plus advance Fast Pass booking window, that 180 days in
advance plus the first 10 days of your trip advance dining reservations
booking window, and souvenir delivery from the parks to your resort.
All of these perks you will benefit from as long as you're an on property guest,
and that does not change whether or not you booked the room as part of a package
deal. If you are most concerned about convenience and ease then definitely
book a package. In contrast, if you are primarily concerned about costs and you
weren't planning on adding the Disney Dining Plan then here are the steps that
I go through every time I'm looking to book a Walt Disney World vacation. One,
decide on your vacation dates, and assuming you're staying on property
decide on the resort that you'd like to be in. Two, decide how long a ticket you
need. Three, check out the official Walt Disney World website for a package price
for your desired dates and resort-- remember to add the length of ticket
that you need as well as any ticket upgrades that you want. Write this number
down. Four, on the official Walt Disney World website find out how much just a room
only reservation would cost. Write this number down. Five, explore third party hotel
websites like Kayak--see if you can beat Disney's room only rate by booking
through another website. If you can, keep track of that number now as your room
only reservation number. Browse ticket costs; I prefer Undercover
Tourist so I usually just go straight to their website, and write your ticket
cost down. And last, add up the cost of your tickets--for me that's from Undercover
Tourist--and then the cost of your room only reservation, whether that be through
a third party website or directly for Disney. Check to see if that number is
less than the vacation package number. If it is, then I know I won't be booking a
package deal this time. Let's go through a quick example of this process. I always
start my Disney vacation searches by going to the Walt Disney World special
offers page. So we can see that right now there's this highlighted offer discount
and then the rest are for military members and Annual Pass holders, which
I'm not. So we'll stick with that Sun and fun room offer. This has up to 25% off
room only reservations at all categories of the resorts. I'll enter my dates and
let's check out availability. There's actually remarkably large availability
right now across all the resorts, but let's go ahead and look at All-Star
Sports--say I'm trying to do a budget trip. For two adults for our dates they
have a couple of room types available, but since this is a budget trip I'll go
ahead and pick the cheapest standard room and add this to my cart. Now without
the ticket you can see that this is just under eight hundred eighty dollars total.
So now let me go look at third-party websites and see if I can beat that
price. I'm using Kayak here, I'm a big fan of this site as I'm sure many of you
are. And I'm just looking specifically for All-Star Sports for my vacation
dates for two adults, and again trying to beat that price of 878. Here we see
TripAdvisor is listed at the lowest at 106 per night. Let's go check that out.
Almost all these are listed without tax, so you'll have to be sure to keep
clicking through the menus to get the actual total. And here we have 841, so yes
that is in fact cheaper than booking directly through Disney. Now let's look
at making a package deal. If we turned this Disney All-Star Sports room only
reservation into a package by including tickets, and remember to include any
ticket upgrades that you desire like park hopper, then the total cost of
everything would be just over 2 grand. Now let's explore buying tickets from
outside of Disney. As I previously said I always just go straight to Undercover
Tourist personally. I trust them and I've never had any issues there. So I'll
select Walt Disney World, and then I will choose the start date for my tickets to
maximize my savings. Sased on my room reservation where I'll be arriving on
Sunday the 23rd let's say we'll start going to the parks on the 24th. Base
tickets are listed first, but I want park hoppers so we'll keep scrolling down, and I
will enter 2 for both adults. The sidebar indicates that we're saving 113 dollars
compared to buying at the gate, that's exciting. And if we look at the total
it's about $1,050. So let's add the cost of the tickets from Undercover Tourist
to the cost of the hotel room that we found from Kayak, and you can see that
this is about $1,900. That's definitely less than the package. So in this case I
probably would not book the package deal assuming that
there were no package promotions going on, which right now there aren't. If you
found this information helpful please like the video and consider subscribing
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Do you typically book a package deal regardless of the cost? Or are you
the type of person that always wants to find the best deal economically? Let
folks know in the comments down below which method you prefer and why! I hope
you're having a wonderful day, and we'll see you real soon at Pixie Dust PhD!