Help first time booking Disney Holiday for the family: Hotel & Villa

[littlesam21]

Hi

It's been a while but I'm back and planning and this time we have our own little one to celebrate it with!

We decided to plan a family trip September / October next year just before our little boy turns 2. There will be 8 adults and 2 children and I have been given the reins to get planning! but I'm already stuck! It is really overwhelming all the different packages and what hotel (different dining plans) etc. Ideally we would like a villa for a week and Disney for a week. My questions would be:

There are offers on at the moment with free Dining plan or breakfast and the 14 day pass for 7 - are these packages really worth it?

Hotel packages for next September / October are extortionate in comparison to this year - is it worth waiting to book the flights / hotel? and just booking the villa way in advance.

When is the best time to book the hotels and can you recommend who to book through?

Is a week in a villa and week in Disney a good way of keeping costs down?

Really grateful for any tips! Thank you

[Lisa29]

We have always found the free dining offer to be good for us and are doing the same again this year. One thing to note is that to get free dining, you have to book the tickets and Disney hotel at the same time. This means that your tickets are linked to your hotel stay and you won’t be able to get these before you check in, so would need to do your Disney stay before the villa stay.

We never book a package, always book the free dining offer first then flights when they are released.

Edit, we’ve booked with Disney before (very good to deal with) and ATD this year (very good to deal with so far) for our hotel/tickets/dining.

[littlesam21]

Thank you! I wouldn’t have thought of that at all Re the park tickets and hotel stay so that’s really helpful!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by littlesam21

Hi

It's been a while but I'm back and planning and this time we have our own little one to celebrate it with!

We decided to plan a family trip September / October next year just before our little boy turns 2. There will be 8 adults and 2 children and I have been given the reins to get planning! but I'm already stuck! It is really overwhelming all the different packages and what hotel (different dining plans) etc. Ideally we would like a villa for a week and Disney for a week. My questions would be:

There are offers on at the moment with free Dining plan or breakfast and the 14 day pass for 7 - are these packages really worth it?

Hotel packages for next September / October are extortionate in comparison to this year - is it worth waiting to book the flights / hotel? and just booking the villa way in advance.

When is the best time to book the hotels and can you recommend who to book through?

Is a week in a villa and week in Disney a good way of keeping costs down?

Really grateful for any tips! Thank you

See more...

I can't see how free dining could not be worth it, as it is free! Note that it only runs until early October in 2020, it looks like so long as your holiday starts before then you will get the deal.

I can't get excited about 14 day tickets for the price of 7, as I have never not seen this on "offer" and I feel it is more to make people spend longer in Disney than to actually provide an offer.

I am not finding there to be an extortionate difference between this year and next year. I have searched on the same dates in September each year and finding moderates are much the same and the deluxe resorts are more expensive this year. I always book directly so search for prices on disneyholidays.

I am going in September 2019 and initially booked AKL, then I changed to Wilderness Lodge and I was wondering about changing back but AKL had more than doubled in the meantime (partly due to cheaper room types going). All the other hotels have gone up in price too, so I would not use the tactic of waiting in the hope that process will come down, they are more likely to go up. The free dining offer usually ends in November too, I am not sure when it ends this year, but it will come to an end.

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Claudette

I can't see how free dining could not be worth it, as it is free!

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Because it’s not really free in the sense of comparison to other offers Disney/travel agents do. For instance, sometime they do deals that give your Hotel at a reduced cost. The free dining price could be more than that but still work out a better deal than purchasing the dining plan on the reduced cost offer and sometimes it doesn’t (I won’t link but there’s enough threads if you do want to search where people have done spreadsheets showing that other offers are better for their resorts and dates)

[littlesam21]

All really helpful thank you! I’ll keep searching just need to figure out the best way round to do things. Actually would be better to do hotel first as the second week we could hire a car and then be able to transfer back to the airport.

Does anyone know if there is somewhere close to Disney you can do car pick up?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Monolith

Because it’s not really free in the sense of comparison to other offers Disney/travel agents do. For instance, sometime they do deals that give your Hotel at a reduced cost. The free dining price could be more than that but still work out a better deal than purchasing the dining plan on the reduced cost offer and sometimes it doesn’t (I won’t link but there’s enough threads if you do want to search where people have done spreadsheets showing that other offers are better for their resorts and dates)

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No need to provide links to me, it is not something I was wondering about..

I am aware of free nights offers and have never priced one up to give a bigger saving than a dining plan cost and we are only a party of two. It is very unlikely that a large party would get a free nights discount sufficient to compensate for not having free dining.

[Shooby doo]

Ok before the big argument starts If you are going to stay onsite & eat onsite, then Free dining really is Free Dining The only other offer that I'm aware of is Free nights but in the OP's case this would be 1 night & it isn't available on all resorts.
As said, ignore the 14/7 red herring, I can't recall the last time that this wasn't offered!
Just so you know, the free breakfast is actually a free QS meal so can be used at anytime not just breakfast.
10 is a big party, Disney accommodation for that size would be something like a Grand Villa & that will be $$$$$$$, especially compared to a Villa offsite, so in that sense you're FD isn't cost effective unless you "need" to stay onsite.
As others I book our flights separately & shop around for a price that we are happy with, for us anything under £500 is good.I shudder to imagine the sort of onsite prices you are getting for a GV
Also consider renting DVC points, the 2 cheapest GV are SSR & OKW & you would be looking at £6200/£4650 for a week.
SD

[Ridersmom]

The US site often had % off a room. Right now I have a pin code on my kitchen table for up to 30% off rack rates for most days this summmer. No minimum stay, not requirement to buy tickets. For me, the reduced room rate is often more then I would spend on food.

For a large party, the alternative is to get more than one room. As a family of 5 when we had three teens two rooms was the way to a pleasant stay.

I would call Disney and hope you get a helpful CM who is willing to take the time and look through all the laternatives.

[Stan1805]

Originally Posted by littlesam21

All really helpful thank you! I’ll keep searching just need to figure out the best way round to do things. Actually would be better to do hotel first as the second week we could hire a car and then be able to transfer back to the airport.

Does anyone know if there is somewhere close to Disney you can do car pick up?

See more...

We are staying 5 nights onsite and using the magical express to get there. We plan to use Disney transport during our stay and will collect our hire car at Disney car care centre before transferring to our villa.