How do you book your Disney holiday?

[Alex Smart]

Hi

to all those frequent Disney world visitors, how do you plan and book your trips? I’m wanting to go yearly maybe even twice a year so want to know peoples tips for getting well priced holidays!

thanks
Alex

 

[Minniesgal]

Normally I book everything myself.

Flights direct with the airlines, tickets from attraction tickets direct, accomodation direct with Disney, car hire wherever is cheapest but have always found Virgin Holidays cheapest for car hire.

For next year with all this chaos I have booked a fly drive with Virgin holidays including tickets so i am ATOL covered and will book accommodation direct at 11 months.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I book everything separately too. Flights with BA. I look as soon as they are released 11 months out and they usually drop to the lowest price a week or so after that. I use a US TA to make the WDW reservation as they offer far more flexibility and can apply discounts as they become available. I have APs but if not I would book tickets directly with WDW and UOR. Again because they offer greater flexibility.

 

[Alex Smart]

What do you book first? flight dates or hotel dates?

Is an annual pass worth it?

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I book flights first, then hotel(s). I use Marion at Small World Vacations. She has been brilliant and we communicate easily by e mail. Personally, we find that APs and TiW works for us. You may find that you only need 1 AP/TiW plus U.K. tickets for others in your party.

 

[jf256]

I booked through a UK travel agent but have sworn to never do so again its just been total hassle and if i cancel i lose 1000 instead of £100 if i booked through disney direct.

Next time going to book directly through disney or use a US travel agent.

 

[GirlDreamer]

I book the free dining package directly with Disney UK, and I book the flights directly through the airline. We tend to book really far out, so we book the package long before we book the flights.

 

[bbel]

I did a lot of pricing and looking around (online, local travel agents) .
We ended up just booking everything through Disney. Disney were coming out cheapest for the whole package for us.

We could have done it slightly cheaper and booked flights separately, but for us it was just easier to have it all in one place.
(I travel the world for work so I didnt need things booked all over the place, especially as I was going to be out the country for 6 months until 5 days before we went, and something came up, I, or someone at home could just call one central place).

Also, because of my job, we could only book 7 months out.

 

[kobtravel]

Im looking at car hire only and virgin seems to come in much cheaper than booking with Alamo direct or with USA cars or vip cars etc. anyone confirm they are okay to book with or any extra charges you got when you picked Up the car ? Thanx

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Alamo with the Brit code is usually a good rate. Or try Costco.
Brit code link..
https://www.alamo.co.uk/en/car-hire-deals/brits.html

 

[bex7583]

Usually book everything myself after lots of price checking. I do still check packages as there can be deals of traveling last minute.

Try pay deposits where possible with credit card for extra protection.

Use cash back sites for airport parking, hotels, park tickets .

Don't overbuy tickets if you think you will be going multiple times , also look at annual pass costs.

 

[Tony Toon]

We booked our first trip in 2002 with a travel agent but since then I book everything myself separately. I try to keep the dates flexible around a particular time and then go with the cheapest price I can find. Onsite I book with Disney direct and offsite we have a list of villa owners we have used in the past that we like. Apart from any cost savings we just like the flexibility that independent bookings gives us. Missing our annual New Year's trip this year but looking forward to starting planning again soon I hope.

Mrs TT

 

[MissStitch626]

I've booked with travel agents, everything through Virgin, everything through BA and everything separate over the years.

These days I book my resort, tickets and dining (no dining this time, of course) directly through Disney as soon as the deal I want is available, then books flights with BA as soon as they come out.

 

[Mia22]

I have a Disney Visa and book hotel directly with Disney (free vacation financing & occasional savings on rates) and tix from Undercover Tourist. I check for Disney deals often and apply new offers when they become available. I’ve also rented DVC and purchased travel insurance. Lastly, Disney sometimes entices travelers to return with a special savings “bounce back” offer. This is only available until 10pm on checkout day.
To find out what the bounceback offer is and book it, dial extension 8844 from your in-room phone or call 407-939-1923 if you are out and about.

 

[csimon]

[EDIT: Didn't realise this was an old thread!]

I always book accommodation and park tickets direct with Disney UK (always stay onsite). I used to book the flights as part of the Disney package but since I've become a member of Virgin Flying Club and accumulating points from previous flights, credit card and Tesco Clubcard, I've booked flights separately with Virgin Atlantic. That means I'm not ATOL covered though. This may change in the future though since I've more-or-less stopped using that credit card (for various reasons),and I may go back to flights with Disney.

I'm sure it's cheaper to buy the accommodation from Disney and flights from the airline separately, otherwise you pay a premium for Disney accommodation from the third party travel agent or the flight when Disney is acting as the travel agent. But you also have to weigh up convenience and, in these days, how easy it would be to change or cancel and get refunds.

I prefer to go in February and November and usually have a particular Disney hotel in mind. Bearing in mind Disney releases accommodation packages in March/April and Virgin releases flights around 11 months in advance, this can dictate whether I buy hotel first, flights first, or both on the same day. The hotel I want might not be available for the dates I want on release in April. And if the dates I want are in November the next year, the flights won't yet be available. If you're willing to take it to the wire, of course you can book for the same year, but if you want a particular hotel then it might be advisable to book as soon as it's made available because the "stock" that Disney UK has is limited and can change a lot as time goes on. So as to timings, it all depends how flexible you are as to dates and hotels, and flight prices are also unpredictable so it might pay to wait until you find a date when the flights are reasonable then fit a hotel stay around that...and book both on the same day!

 

[PaulaSB12]

calculate the cost of independent and with virgin holidays. This year its about £500 cheaper to go with virgin with the exact same holiday.

 

[marcais]

The first time we went we did it all through a travel agent, but that was mainly because we were adding lots of extras. We did 4 days in NY before Orlando, then 3 days in Key West & 3 days in Miami after.

The other two trips we've done I've booked it all myself, following pretty much the same schedule. It's a 3 week trip. Week 1 is onsite, weeks 2 & 3 are in a villa, with a couple of days in a Universal hotel to do their parks. That was also our plan for a trip in Aug 2022.

The plan in my head was to book the Disney park tickets and hotel as soon as the free dining deal is available, which should be in April of this year, if they're doing free dining for 2022 that is. Then book the flights as soon as they are released, which would be sometime in September 2021. Then once the flights are booked everything else is booked around those dates. Car rental, Universal, day trips can go on the planner. The villa for weeks 2 & 3 is already on a soft hold as we know the people who own it.