Disney Experts UK - I need you!

[Nseo]

Hello Experts!

I am hoping the subject title attracted the experts around here - although as a newbie to disney you may find my questions a little simple.

So back story... we are getting married Sept 2019 and plan to go disney march or april 2020 for our honeymoon. However we were hoping to go to disney,universal and miami for a few days so a multi centre holiday.

Focusing on the disney part we really want to stay in the aninal kingdom lodge - savannah room.

Heres the questions:
1. I have heard seen so much about the dining plan but not cant see it for 2020? Is it worth it..should we wait to book?
2. What would be the cheapest way possible to book the animal kingdom lodge for april 2020. When googling ,expedia and the likes do come up but say they are full for 2020? Do these website do rooms only?
3. Would it be cheaper to go through thomas cook/tui? Seems harder to do multicentre through these guys.
4. I read about the US site where booking maybe cheaper but i cant find it or change the language on the uk one. Can anything help with a link?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Mrs Flick]

Hi, the dining plan is definitely worth it if you can get it for free. Rumours suggest that the offer for next year may go on sale in April, so worth holding on if you can. If there is a not a free offer the plan is worth paying out of pocket for if eating is a big part of your holiday, you drink alcohol and are likely to pick steak from the menu. Otherwise you will break even at best and probably eat way more food than you would otherwise.

For room bookings at Disney I always use the official uk disney site. I have always found it cheaper than buying a package and as you say gives you the flexibility to tailor your trip to what you want to do. Unfortunately I don't know how to access the USA disney site, but I do think it is possible. However I think free dining and a room discount together are unheard of, so if you can access it you might need to do the sums on what will save you most money

Hope this helps and have a great trip, you will love it

 

[CAL2]

Hi, as pp has said if you can wait till April as that's usually when they offer free dining for next year. We always book through Disney UK as we get much better offers than the US on tickets that include swimming and park hoppers. The UK site also usually offers free memory maker and free dollars, we got $200 last year.

The other option is to rent DVC point, this may work out cheaper even after you add on food and tickets. ​

We don't split our stay to visit Universal instead we use Uber, we find 2 days is enough for us at Universal.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

To get on the US website go to the WDW site, at the top it says UK (English), click on this and change it to US (English).

 

[zavandor]

For AKL you may have a look at renting DVC points. There is a rental board here where you can contact owners directly or there are brokers that would offer a similar service and offer a bit of a guarantee on the process. There are pro and cons on renting a DVC room:
- pro: it's much cheaper. You can save around 50% off rack rates
- pro: for a couple, the deluxe studios have a better configuration than normal hotel rooms. Instead of two beds, you'll get a bed and a sofa bed, meaning you have a nice place to sit and relax during the day.
- pro: free parking at the hotel (if you have a multi city visit, probably you'll have a rental car. I think at a deluxe parking is north of $25 per night) and free laundry
- con: you do not get daily housekeeping. You would only get towels replaced on day 4 (for longer stays: full cleaning on day 4, towel replaced only on day 7, then repeat with the same cycle every week)
- con: the reservation will be in control of the owner all the time. You can link it to you Disney account and book FP+, but the owner will be able to cancel it at any moment. I've read about this happening three or four times in the last 6 years here on the DIS, so I'd say it affects less than 1% of the reservations and going through a broker gives you a bit of insurance, but there is some risk associated with it
- con: at Jambo House (the main building) DVC rooms are only on the 5th floor, which are a bit far away from the savannah, lower rooms are a bit better.

If you want to make your stay special, you could rent a 1bedroom, that would give you a full kitchen, in room laundry, a yakuzi and in general a lot of space!
I love AKL and I'll stay again there for 4 nights this September (I'm a DVC owner). It's one of my favorite resorts and savannah view rooms are really something special.

 

[button409]

Hello Experts!

I am hoping the subject title attracted the experts around here - although as a newbie to disney you may find my questions a little simple.

So back story... we are getting married Sept 2019 and plan to go disney march or april 2020 for our honeymoon. However we were hoping to go to disney,universal and miami for a few days so a multi centre holiday.

Focusing on the disney part we really want to stay in the aninal kingdom lodge - savannah room.

Heres the questions:
1. I have heard seen so much about the dining plan but not cant see it for 2020? Is it worth it..should we wait to book?
2. What would be the cheapest way possible to book the animal kingdom lodge for april 2020. When googling ,expedia and the likes do come up but say they are full for 2020? Do these website do rooms only?
3. Would it be cheaper to go through thomas cook/tui? Seems harder to do multicentre through these guys.
4. I read about the US site where booking maybe cheaper but i cant find it or change the language on the uk one. Can anything help with a link?

Thanks in advance for any help

With regards to the cheapest way to book, I usually find going direct through Disney is best. And, if you wait a few more weeks, Disney may well release the free dining offer. Also, if you book online and go through a cashback site like Quidco/TopCashback, you would get back a % of your cost (currently its 3% but this does change from time to time). I am also going in 2020 and again expedia are showing as sold out - im guessing they haven't got their room allocation yet.
With regards to multi centre holidays, Virgin holidays are pretty good for this I believe.
Animal Kindgom Lodge is amazing (sadly we won't be staying there), you will have an amazing time!

 

[HappySmileyGirl]

Firstly, congratulations on your wedding plans!
So, with multi centre holidays Virgin run a bespoke service where you can email them and they will do you a quote for a tailor made stay. But it can work out cheaper to book components on their own.
As others have said, it’s likely that Free Disney Dining will be offered in the next few weeks (their current 2019 offers finish on Monday 1st April so that’s a good indication that they may happen soon as in previous years) we’re also waiting and looking out for that too atm.
If you stay on site at Universal in one of their top 3 hotels you get a free front of the line express pass for all the days of your stay (I.e. 2 night stay = 3 days fastpass) and the cost of those if you were to buy them as an off-site visitor can be more than the cost of staying in the hotel so it’s a bit of a no brainer if you want to cut down on queuing (plus you don’t have to do the long walk through City Walk as you get boat transportation from the Royal Pacific if you choose to stay there).
I hope that this helps and all the best for your plans

 

[cheryl.UK]

Easter 2020 is April 12th. Is this when you're going? If so book early/ Also I can't remember ever seeing free dining over a holiday period so you might be waiting for nothing to come up. Easter is really busy at WDW as Americans get a couple of days off work (they don't get many days holidays) so you may consider hitting Miami over the easter weekend.

 

[Scillycruisers]

We’ve stayed in AKL booked through the UK site including free dining before (in Feb, not in a holiday period). The current offer on the UK site ends tonight, so maybe free dining comes next? You do usually need to stay at least 5 nights, to get the free dining. We’ve never used an agent, just booked direct.
We have also driven to Miami from Disney - hired a car from the Disney Car Care Centre, returned to Miami airport (we flew in to Orlando, back from Miami).

 

[meggiebeth]

Hello Experts!

I am hoping the subject title attracted the experts around here - although as a newbie to disney you may find my questions a little simple.

So back story... we are getting married Sept 2019 and plan to go disney march or april 2020 for our honeymoon. However we were hoping to go to disney,universal and miami for a few days so a multi centre holiday.

Focusing on the disney part we really want to stay in the aninal kingdom lodge - savannah room.

Heres the questions:
1. I have heard seen so much about the dining plan but not cant see it for 2020? Is it worth it..should we wait to book?
2. What would be the cheapest way possible to book the animal kingdom lodge for april 2020. When googling ,expedia and the likes do come up but say they are full for 2020? Do these website do rooms only?
3. Would it be cheaper to go through thomas cook/tui? Seems harder to do multicentre through these guys.
4. I read about the US site where booking maybe cheaper but i cant find it or change the language on the uk one. Can anything help with a link?

Thanks in advance for any help

Firstly, AKL is an excellent choice of hotel! To answer your questions:

1) The free dining plan is definitely worth it. It makes the value of staying onsite much better, and would be perfect for you celebrating your honeymoon, not having to worry about menu prices and being able to eat in some gorgeous restaurants. The free dining plan offer for 2020 is rumoured to be released this month, but if last year is anything to go by, you need to book ideally as soon as it’s announced; last year things booked up very very quickly.

2) It’s hard to say which would be the cheapest way definitively, but in my experience booking with Disney UK direct with the free dining plan is usually by far the best value. The more people staying in the room, the better the value, which is why smaller parties sometimes prefer a room discount.

3) It’s usually cheaper to book everything DIY - so booking flights and hotels separately - rather than going through a travel agent.

4) How long are you planning on staying at AKL/ going to the parks? For longer stays (like one week or more) booking direct with WDW on the U.K. site is better value - our tickets are also a really good deal over here. For shorter stays, it’s worth looking at the US site as they offer tickets for less days (the minimum duration for tickets in the U.K. is 7 days and you’d be as well to get a 14 day ticket as they’re the same price). Their offers are usually released much closer to the trip time though, and free dining on the US site often has more restrictions than the UK site offer.

Ah - just read that you’re planning on Easter. I don’t think free dining is typically offered over Easter, and the parks will be very busy. I’d really look at another time if possible!

 

[tinks_1989]

Hello Experts!

I am hoping the subject title attracted the experts around here - although as a newbie to disney you may find my questions a little simple.

So back story... we are getting married Sept 2019 and plan to go disney march or april 2020 for our honeymoon. However we were hoping to go to disney,universal and miami for a few days so a multi centre holiday.

Focusing on the disney part we really want to stay in the aninal kingdom lodge - savannah room.

Heres the questions:
1. I have heard seen so much about the dining plan but not cant see it for 2020? Is it worth it..should we wait to book?
2. What would be the cheapest way possible to book the animal kingdom lodge for april 2020. When googling ,expedia and the likes do come up but say they are full for 2020? Do these website do rooms only?
3. Would it be cheaper to go through thomas cook/tui? Seems harder to do multicentre through these guys.
4. I read about the US site where booking maybe cheaper but i cant find it or change the language on the uk one. Can anything help with a link?

Thanks in advance for any help

If you want to book at TUI do your research at home first and go in with the web price, they will web match for you at no cost.
they can do multi center on their systems much easier then you can at home.

if you are looking at multi center though I would recommend virgin but they only fly from Manchester or London Gatwick

 

[rubysparkles]

Book seperately, it's easier than you think. I've just booked with rented DVC points through a broker, it's much cheaper than through Disney UK and Disney US sites but not as easy and straight forward, it was about £100 a night cheaper than buying through the Disney site. I'm staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village in a Savannah View Studio in November. If I'd booked through Disney I would have spent more on a moderate. Disclaimer: I haven't been yet! Maybe they'll be a downside, but I can't see it yet.

Virgin and BA seem to have very cheap flights to Florida at the moment as they compete with Norweigian. Multi-city is an option on both websites, you can fly into MCO and out of MIA or vice versa. All you need after that is to find hotels you like and a hire car, both of which can be found and booked in minutes. Universal's Cabana Bay was really reasonable when I stayed there 3 years ago and would recommend if you want to stay onsite.

It looks like a lot, but actually you've got plenty of time. I've used TAs before and usually you don't necessarily get what you want (pushing options you wouldn't book alone) and end up paying more money for it. It adds to the excitement for me booking it myself and researching all the options, however I know other personalities enjoy the convience of a TA. Either way sounds like a special trip that you'll enjoy no matter what.