Free dining v's Reduced Price Park Tickets and Onsite v's Offsite

[florida_2012]

We are a family of 2 ad and 2 ch (9 and 5) planning to visit Orlando in August 2018. Budget is about 6.5k with indirect flights. Spends on non food items will be extra. I'm trying to weigh up all the options for accommodation. Offsite or onsite. We are looking to get 14 day Disney and universal tickets. Here are our accomodation options:

• 14 nights offsite on I drive in a suite hotel with breakfast included
• Split stay with 5 nights onsite and the rest offsite. Onsite for 5 days would allow us to access a free QSDP for those nights. Not sure if our budget would stretch to DDP hotel.
• Or 13 nights offsite and 1 night at Disney hotel at beginning without any dining to access the magic bands and early fastpasses

I am thinking though that any benefits from a free dining plan for 5 nights might be outweighed by paying full price on park tickets. If the park tickets are reduced again for 2018 then this could be a better saving for a family of 4. But I am curious to test an onsite experience if budget allows.

We've been to Orlando before and stayed offsite as it suited a big family group. This time we have more flexibility to choose but maybe less budget with rising costs

Any thoughts?

[Shani]

Well, the only thing worrying me about holding out for reduced tickets and a free nights offer is that this year is the first time they've ever offered the 25% off the tickets. I'd be endlessly worrying that they wouldn't offer it again, but I wouldn't find out until it was too late to get the free dining!

I guess one way would be to book your free dining stay and if another offer comes up later on that would save you money you can cancel and re-book?

[Annie17]

this is my exact thought at the moment, i am driving myself mad

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Shani

Well, the only thing worrying me about holding out for reduced tickets and a free nights offer is that this year is the first time they've ever offered the 25% off the tickets. I'd be endlessly worrying that they wouldn't offer it again, but I wouldn't find out until it was too late to get the free dining!

I guess one way would be to book your free dining stay and if another offer comes up later on that would save you money you can cancel and re-book?

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I agree about the park tickets. That was an odd thing they did this year. They over inflated the park ticket prices then reduced them by 25%. When I booked free dining for this year the park tickets were £324 so not a huge amount more than they are with the discount as they increased them to over £400 before the 25% off. I don't think you can expect the same difference between ticket prices with free dining and the "25% off".

[TigerTanaka]

I am very much in the "on site" category. The free DDP is an excellent deal if there are 4 of you sharing a room plus the hotel transport is excellent.

The 2018 free DDP will apparently come out sometime in April. In the past they have done a promotion giving $200 worth of Disney Dollars with bookings which is also attractive.

Looking at 2013, we paid just over £3,000 (hotel & Disney tickets) for 14 nights for 4 of us in August at Saratoga Springs including DDP.
In 2015, we paid about £4,000 for the same deal at Animal Kingdom Lodge (I preferred Saratoga Springs for the location and liked the hotel more).

Flights of course will be extra but should be doable for £600 each.

Agree with Sha9 on the bogus 25% discount although lets not be surprised if there is a price increase next year as sterling has fallen a lot against the dollar.

[LauraEx]

We booked in April 2016 to stay at okw in October 2017. Our accom and tickets (2ad2ch-4,8 in 1 bed villa) came to £4868 for 14nts from 20/10/17 with free ddp. We have added virgin direct flights from Glasgow so out total balance (everything through Disney) is £6900. If I price the same holiday now (incl £1586 for the do) it comes to £9100 so we have made a massive sailing by booking early. That being said, we aren't doing universal or hiring a car

[Sweetie Babes]

I have no idea where this £399 for tickets came from. They certainly weren't that expensive when I bought our package last May. I haven't checked, but do the tickets still include the free Memory Maker? Quite honestly, I'd rather have cheaper tickets than free MM - especially as only one person in the family needs the MM and we've bought 3 adult tickets, all with it included. Total waste if you ask me.

I hope the Disney tickets aren't all going to be priced at £399 (plus the next price increase) next year, because the price has risen out of all proportion. Just because Universal jacked up their ticket prices to pay for Volcano Bay doesn't mean Disney have to follow!

But to put it into perspective, free dining is worth more than £100 discount on the park ticket. You'll spend a lot more on food over a week or so than that, even on QSDP.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Sweetie Babes

I have no idea where this £399 for tickets came from. They certainly weren't that expensive when I bought our package last May. I haven't checked, but do the tickets still include the free Memory Maker? Quite honestly, I'd rather have cheaper tickets than free MM - especially as only one person in the family needs the MM and we've bought 3 adult tickets, all with it included. Total waste if you ask me.

I hope the Disney tickets aren't all going to be priced at £399 (plus the next price increase) next year, because the price has risen out of all proportion. Just because Universal jacked up their ticket prices to pay for Volcano Bay doesn't mean Disney have to follow!

But to put it into perspective, free dining is worth more than £100 discount on the park ticket. You'll spend a lot more on food over a week or so than that, even on QSDP.

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After free dining ended they went up to about £419. They still include MM. Disney then reduced the price with a 25% off offer. So they falsely inflated prices so they could put them on sale. They're currently cheaper than during free dining.

[ChoppyGirl]

Just looked at the price we paid for our tickets which were booked last April for this August and they were £324 so I agree, it looks like they inflated the price before they applied the 'special offer'

[Devonlou]

We have Saratoga Springs booked for August, 2 adults 2 kids (but over 12 so classed as adults) studio with ddp cost us £4344 , and indirect flights £1691 man/mco, so about 6k, but I'll need to add airport hotels etc.
If you are pricing for qsdp in a mod it came in at about £500 cheaper this year for us, but it might be a squeeze with Universal tickets too?
With the price increases I think if you could up your budget by £500 it is doable for on site for the whole 2 weeks 😊😊
Edited to add : I saw you are planning on food budget as extra, you would easily need £2k if staying off site for food (without skimping, or if your kids eat like mine! ) So if you take that off the onsite cost I think it would be cheaper to do onsite, and maybe even a ddp resort like Saratoga or okw, as they discount the rooms, which made it more expensive to upgrade qsdp at por than to book Saratoga for us this year.
Hope that makes sense!