Today I'm going to talk about lodging and tickets and whether you should book them together as a package or separately. The easy answer (or not so easy as the case maybe) is it depends. I know, that's not the answer you were looking for but read on and I'll try to explain. Over the years, we've booked packages with various travel agencies including AAA, Costco, GetAwayToday and another local travel agency. We've also booked each piece individually on our own using online travel sites. We've also stayed onsite and offsite at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Once again, I'm here to say there is no right or wrong way to do it. But I'll share a bit about all our experiences and try to be as concise as possible.
Also, this post is just about theme park vacations. I have much more experience with Disneyland than Walt Disney World but I'll share a bit about both. I'm working on an entire post on Disney Cruise Line I'll share soon.
Lodging at Disneyland
In a perfect world, we would always stay at the Grand Californian (or even the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier) at Disneyland. Being fully immersed in the Disney bubble is awesome. And you can't beat the location or the bonus extra hour perk for onsite guests. But let's face it, the world is not perfect and if we spent that kind of money, we'd go a lot less.
For years, I feel like we've tried to find the perfect balance of location and cost for lodging at Disneyland. I've tried to do it as cheap as possible (let's not talk about the terrible mattresses my friends and I could not fall asleep on one night when we got a great deal on Hotwire). We've used Hilton Points to stay at Embassy Suites South which is just fine, but no where near the parks. If you forgot your sweatshirt, you'll lose an hour of park time to go get it.
We finally came up with our preferred location: on Harbor between Manchester and Disney Way and as close to the crosswalk to the transportation plaza as you can possibly get. We have friends who don't mind walking a little further and pick between Manchester and Katella. I like to be as close as possible. And there are a dozen or so motels right there so you have some choices. The one we have stayed at the most is the Tropicana Inn & Suites. But Disneyland regulars all have their favorites. Our family must have queen beds instead of doubles, so it limits our choices a bit. Some motels right there even offer family suites that sleep up to 8 people if you need that.
To get the best deal, I will often start with a site like Kayak or Orbitz to get an idea which hotels have the best price. Then I always visit the website for that hotel to make sure they aren't offering an even better rate. For instance, the Tropicana Inn & Suites website often has the best deal for trips of five nights or more. Orbitz with a promo code (often featured on its homepage) is often a better deal for a shorter trip.
Lodging at Walt Disney World
Now Walt Disney World is another story completely. Walt Disney World is bigger than the city of San Francisco. I have also heard that the entire Disneyland Resort would fit into the Magic Kingdom parking lot. That's a lot of real estate to cover without a car. So for us, it boils down to staying off site and renting a car or staying on site and using the transportation system to get around.
The nice thing about onsite at Walt Disney World is you have a lot of options at many different price points. The value resorts offer over-the-top themes and start around $100 a night for two double beds depending on when you go. Some even have family suites, featuring a queen and two double pullouts. Watch for seasonal discounts and promotions. In the off season, they can be as high as 30% off. We chose the Port Orleans Riverside Resort last year because of the queen bed issue. It's considered a Moderate resort and we would stay there again under the same circumstances.
A Word about Disney Vacation Club
You might be wondering if we go to Disney parks so much, why aren't we Disney Vacation Club members? We did sit through the sales pitch and even met with an agent who really tried to convince us that it was going to save us a lot of money in the long run. If you go to Walt Disney World annually and always stay in a deluxe resort, then you will see savings by purchasing a Disney Vacation Club membership. Otherwise, to me, the math doesn't add up.
Since we primarily visit Disneyland and generally stay offsite, the annual maintenance fees are more than it would cost us to stay in our offsite hotel of choice. Would it be nice to stay in a villa at the Grand Californian? Sure, but it's not easy to book them since they are the only DVC property at Disneyland.
If you want to try it out, or even if you just have a larger group traveling who wants to stay onsite in a deluxe resort, you can rent points from an owner. Just be sure you are doing it from a reputable site. I don't have first hand experience with this so I'd recommend checking out one of the many threads on the Disboards if you want more information.
Tickets
What your mom always told you applies here double: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do yourself a favor and never buy tickets off of Craigslist or eBay or any other classified site. You have no way of knowing if these are real tickets until you are standing at the gates trying to use them. If they don't work, you're out the money you paid for them, plus now you have to buy full price tickets at the park.
There are legitimate travel agents that sell discounted tickets to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In general, these discounts are going to be about 5-8%. If the discount is more than that, be VERY skeptical. You are likely dealing with an unauthorized seller or you are going to have to sit through a lengthy time share presentation before you actually get your tickets.
So where can you buy them? The last time we bought out tickets separately, we bought them from Velocity Tours. I was a bit concerned because they were fairly new in the Disney ticket arena, but they are physically located in my county and that eased my mind a bit.They turned out to be totally legitimate and even called me to follow up on the tickets. And when I had a question, I called them and they were very helpful.
Other popular sites include Orbitz, Way.com, Undercover Tourist, aRes and Getawaytoday. Each of these sites has different deals at different times and different availability of tickets. I would check them each and see what they have and which has the best deal for when you are going.
But none of those deals can beat buying your tickets from Disney directly if you are using the discounted gift card trick. If you have time to accumulate enough gift cards to cover the price of your tickets and your spending money in the park, then you will save the most money that way.
Park Hoppers or One-Park-Per-Day
Again, it depends. At Disneyland, we always get hoppers. The parks are directly across a plaza from each other and it's so easy just to hop on over to the other park. This is especially nice during peak times of the year when the parks are very busy. Disneyland has very tight corridors and does not absorb crowds very well. However, California Adventure was designed with crowds in mind. When I start feeling claustrophobic at Disneyland, we just hop over to California Adventure. However, if you are going on a short trip and are on a budget, you can certainly choose to save a little money and just buy the one-park-per-day tickets.
At Walt Disney World, we've never purchased hoppers. Again, remember how big the resort is. It takes some serious time to get between the parks, especially if you are relying on Disney transportation. If you are planning to be there for a full week, and have your own car, than hoppers might be a good idea. Otherwise, save the money and just pick one park each day to visit.
Packages or Purchasing Separate
So now, we are finally getting somewhere. I mentioned before that we've done it both ways. So how do I decide for each trip? Spreadsheets. I'm kind of a nerd this way. Once I figure out when we're going, I decide which perks are really important to me and whether this is a budget trip, or a bit of a splurge. Then I visit every website under the sun (really only four or five) to figure out the best deals and chart them all on a spreadsheet so I can see it all clearly.
Here is a peak at a spreadsheet for hypothetical trip to Disneyland over spring break, March 28-31, for my family of four, (who are all adults in Disney's eyes). Three nights of hotel and four days of park hoppers. Just for the fun of it, I ran the numbers for a standard room at the Paradise Pier Hotel which is onsite, the Anaheim Fairfield Inn and the Tropicana Inn and Suites, both offsite on Harbor across from the park. This really only took me about 30 minutes to do, so it isn't a huge amount of time to invest to save a buck or two. (Click on it it see it a bit bigger and clearer).
If however, you don't have enough time to use all those fuel points to realize the savings and a character meal is not up your alley, you can see that booking on your own is clearly saving you money. And the Internet makes it so easy to do and is generally pretty quick. Just print out your confirmation sheets or save them to your mobile device so you can keep track of your dates and numbers.
Hopefully you've found some useful information to help you plan your next Disney park vacation. Check back for even more savings tips soon!
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