vacation package or individually?

[cajuned79]

1) Magic Bands come from Disney

I was pretty sure they were, just wasn't sure if they came from disney once I made the lodging reservation or once I linked the tickets to my MDE, or if they would come from UT since I was getting the tickets from them.

2) Memory Maker is booked also through MDE...nothing to do with UT

I wasn't sure how this worked b/c when I was playing around with the resevations on the website, and took off the tickets and just had the lodging reservation, it would not let me pick memory maker as an add on.

3) I believe you can only do the add ons once you are at the parks with Guest Services

I had read that too. I know if you book a package you can put add ons in as long as you're more than 45 days out or have to wait until you get there. Also, didn't know if you could alter those tickets more than 45 days once you linked them, from what Tina said, doesn't look like that's a good ideaif you have to pay more if you don't use one first.

According to various threads I've read (you can do a search), if you want to upgrade your UT tickets, use them once before you upgrade them. If you don't, you will have to pay the difference between the UT price and the WDW price.

Thanks, I knew you could add them with the packages, just didn't know if you could change the UT ones also. I'll check more on that.

 

[KristinU]

I wasn't sure how this worked b/c when I was playing around with the resevations on the website, and took off the tickets and just had the lodging reservation, it would not let me pick memory maker as an add on.

Hmmm, interesting. I know that it was offered with our "room only" reservations in both November and December 2014. I ended up not doing it after waffling back and forth for a while, but MDE kept reminding me that I could add it. Whether or not it was available as an option when I first booked, I don't remember.

 

[tina.tina]

I had read that too. I know if you book a package you can put add ons in as long as you're more than 45 days out or have to wait until you get there.

Just FYI, I completely changed my dates on a trip at less than 30 days out when DS broke his collarbone and they didn't charge me a fee. I was told that if your cost goes up due to any changes even though it's less than 45 days out, they won't charge you a fee. If your cost decreases, then you'll get the fee.

 

[cajuned79]

Just FYI, I completely changed my dates on a trip at less than 30 days out when DS broke his collarbone and they didn't charge me a fee. I was told that if your cost goes up due to any changes even though it's less than 45 days out, they won't charge you a fee. If your cost decreases, then you'll get the fee.

That's good to know. Right now I'm looking at the last week of June first week of July. My daughter competes in shooting sports fort 4H and if she makes nationals this year, it might be over teh 4th of July holiday like last year, but I can't find the dates yet. I'd have to push it back if it is then. That's about the only thing stopping me from makeing reservations right now.

 

[ruthies12]

my last couple of trips we were staying in an onsite hotel and booked packages because we got free dining or room discounts by doing it that way. We now have a reservation at the Fort for our next trip and I booked campsite only and bought my tickets from undercover tourist, as others said there is no advantage to a package with campsites.

Undercover tourist was great to use! I got my tickets before the price increase and saved about 90 bucks! Adding the tickets to my MDE account was very easy, just put the number on the back of the plastic ticket card into the account and assign it a person.

Since you have so much time before your trip I highly recommend you try to plan on buying your tickets before the next price increase. It is a certainty that they will raise the prices every year, the question is how much. This year and last year the increases happened in February so you may want to try to budget to buy your tickets next January if you can. If you go to mousesavers.com and sign up for their emails you will get a notice before the increase happens most likely. Also sometimes they run specials on tickets like buy so many days get another day free, so if you can be prepared to buy early you may save yourself some serious money.

 

[April in Wonderland]

Thank you for the info ruthies12!

 

[iheartpeterpan]

You can add memory maker through My Disney Experience once you have "room only" reservations and have linked tickets to your MDE account. So, you make your reservation through MDE, then order your tickets from UT. When they arrive you link the ticket number to your MDE. This allows you to make FP+ reservations at 60 days for the duration of your visit (if not more than 10 days), and also will give you the option to add memory maker. Everything (your tickets, your ADRs, your FP+, your room) appears in MDE even though you didn't order them all through Disney. The linked tickets and your reservation are what trigger the magic bands to be ordered.

I always do it this way, because it saves me money and gives me more flexibility over my trip in case things change.

Last year I upgraded my UT tickets to annual passes. As another poster mentioned, enter a park on your tickets, then go to guest relations and ask for bridge pricing to upgrade. This gives you credit for the full current gate price of the ticket you have towards your upgrade, and not the discounted price you paid. Not all CMs know how to do this, so it is a good idea to know how much you are expecting to pay for the upgrade before you do it.

Have a great trip!

 

[cajuned79]

Thanks for that detailed answer. That's the info I was looking for.

(if not more than 10 days),

We'll be there 14 days, when will I be able to make the FP+ reservations for the days past the first 10?

 

[iheartpeterpan]

You can make your reservations at 60 days plus 10, so each day after that the subsequent days would "roll on".

 

[Bubblegum1286]

We just made reservations for the fort yesterday, and we decided to go ahead and do them separately. I did a ton of research about buying the dining package. We've been to DL twice and DW twice, and every single time, we bought a dining package. However, staying at the fort does change things. We can cook meals there and save quite a bit of money on food that we couldn't do when we've stayed at the hotels in the past. I decided to not get a dining package this time. We will eat a few special meals in the parks, but otherwise, I don't want to spend thousands on food this trip.

We are buying our tickets through Undercover Tourist to save about $175 for 5 day park tickets (there are 7 in our party).

I also like the idea that we don't have to pay for the trip in full 45 days in advance.

 

[Southern Bell]

I've never bought tickets from anyone but Disney. I have read on here where a lot of you have bought tickets from undercover tourist and saved money in doing so. Seems like the smart thing to do. I've just never done it any other way. In the past yrs when vacationing at FW , we have always just reserved a campsite. We always waited until we arrived at Disney to buy tickets. Reason being, was extended family of parents, siblings, cousins, nieces(not all at one trip) were going, and my husband wanted to be sure they went before tickets were purchased, or if we cancelled the trip we didn't have the purchase of the tickets to worry about.

I never bought a package until staying at a hotel. But..This year camping I've ended up with a package, sort of added on to it as I could pay for it. Last year(2014) I reserved the camping, Christmas I added on 4 days tickets/water park & more plus park hopper / which made it a package. Since Christmas I've added on 3 more days of tickets. So.. for 13 nights and 12 days, we should have park hopper for 7 days theme parks, 2 water parks, Disney Quest, 2 putt putt.

As far as the package perks are concerned,it just depends on if you use them or not. Sometimes we have and sometimes we haven't for lack of planning them in the trip. Biggest thing we have used is the 15% discount for fishing trip. Some things like the luggage tags are really just useless. Used but useless! LOL!.

 

[cajuned79]

I booked our trip Sunday!! We're going July 12-26!! I just booked the campsite, and I think I'll go with undercover tourist. I can get them even cheaper since I'm a Department of Defense employee through shades of green, but you have to purchase them in person and I'm not waiting until we get there b/c I won't be to do FP+ 60 days out.

 

[Southern Bell]

All information good to know for next time!