Book a package - Can tickets be mailed early?

[nolatron]

Before I give Disney a call about this, thought I'd ask here first.

The short version:

If you book a Disney Vacation package online can you get the theme park tickets sent to you early as normal paper tickets (and then later added to your cards), or must you check-in first?

The Long Version:

I ask because for our trip in November, the wife thinks we're staying off grounds, but for her birthday I'm planning to surprise her with a stay at Poly. I know I can book the hotel and get tickets separately, but I'm currently comparing the dining plan to our planned meals to see if it's a money saver. If so, I'd want to book it all as a package.

Our current plans are to arrive in Orlando at 10:30am and we head straight to the Animal Kingdom. At 5pm, we head to MK for dinner and the night. I would tell her I have a dinner surprise for her. This is when I wanted to surprise her, with a "Hi, we're checking in" instead of the expected "Hi, we're here for dinner" at the Poly guard both.

So if I wanted to stick to this plan, I need to get our park tickets *before* we check-in.

I know I could simply change it to surprising her first thing, go to the poly to check-in and get cards, but I was hoping to not spend the extra time driving to poly to do all that only to turn right around and drive to AK.

So..... is that possible? Anybody done that before?

Thanks!

 

[Master Yoda]

The short answer is no.

 

[Monty]

I haven't seen any value to the Dining Plan in years. I recommend against it if you're solely looking at saving money.

It's good if you're interested in paying for stuff as much as possible in advance and not 'worry' about money while there, but I've never understood that myself.

Staying at a Deluxe you're better off getting tickets and whatever discounts are available on a room-only reservation [look at whether the AP discount makes at least one AP worthwhile - it has for me - particularly when you can get the TiW card]. And that fits with your surprise plans.

 

[stlbobby]

When you stay on property, your whole package is put on your room key. The single card holds your park tickets, meal plan, and even the ability to charge merchandise back to the room--if you connect a credit card to your room. WDW can't send you these things ahead of time because they can't active the key until you actually check in to your room.

 

[nolatron]

Just got done doing my initial comparison and it looks like the DDP wouldn't be worth it to us. So looks like purchasing separately is the way to go, good thing to!

Thanks yall!

 

[nolatron]

Staying at a Deluxe you're better off getting tickets and whatever discounts are available on a room-only reservation [look at whether the AP discount makes at least one AP worthwhile - it has for me - particularly when you can get the TiW card]. And that fits with your surprise plans.

Now this sounds interesting. I'll have to look into this!

 

[Monty]

Now this sounds interesting. I'll have to look into this!

A lot depends on how many nights you stay, but a week at Beach club the AP discount on the room paid for my AP, my son's 8-day Hopper, a TiW card and all our food while we were there. So basically we got a room-only at rack rate and ate and played entirely for free.

You really need to see what discounts come out and whether the math works for you.

 

[nolatron]

A lot depends on how many nights you stay, but a week at Beach club the AP discount on the room paid for my AP, my son's 8-day Hopper, a TiW card and all our food while we were there. So basically we got a room-only at rack rate and ate and played entirely for free.

You really need to see what discounts come out and whether the math works for you.

Yup. I did a quick number check and if a 40% discount comes out for Nov at Poly, I could save around $300 on the rack rates. So that's worth it to me.

Right now they a have 42% discount on deluxe's so here's hoping something similar comes out for November.

Thanks again for the tip. I would've never considered this. :wave:

 

[DisneyJoe]

WDW can't send you these things ahead of time because they can't active the key until you actually check in to your room.

Actually the reason is due to the cancellation policy. If they gave you the tickets in advance, and then you canceled. their current cancellation policy gives you all of your money back except of a possible $100/$200 penalty depending on when you cancel - and they would have no way of forcing you to return the tickets.

If you book room and tickets separately, you pay for the tickets in full at the time of purchase.

 

[CleveRocks]

Our current plans are to arrive in Orlando at 10:30am and we head straight to the Animal Kingdom. At 5pm, we head to MK for dinner and the night. I would tell her I have a dinner surprise for her. This is when I wanted to surprise her, with a "Hi, we're checking in" instead of the expected "Hi, we're here for dinner" at the Poly guard both.

I assume you're renting a car? Just wondering about how you're heading from the airport to a park without any luggage.

It CAN be done. You CAN get your package tickets before checking-in. But it can't be by mail. You CAN get them earlier in the day before you check-in at your resort, but it won't be very secretive and it'll take a while. You'd have to explain your situation out loud at a ticket booth, and then perhaps convince the CM than it can be done, and then the CM or a lead will have to physically get on the phone and call the resort and ask about the details of your package, and then code the proper stuff into the computer ... it's time consuming and, like I said, unless you have your wife wait in the car for 30 minutes, she's gonna hear you explaining your situation to the CM.

 

[nolatron]

I assume you're renting a car? Just wondering about how you're heading from the airport to a park without any luggage.

Yeah, we'll have a rental car.

It CAN be done. You CAN get your package tickets before checking-in. But it can't be by mail. You CAN get them earlier in the day before you check-in at your resort, but it won't be very secretive and it'll take a while. You'd have to explain your situation out loud at a ticket booth, and then perhaps convince the CM than it can be done, and then the CM or a lead will have to physically get on the phone and call the resort and ask about the details of your package, and then code the proper stuff into the computer ... it's time consuming and, like I said, unless you have your wife wait in the car for 30 minutes, she's gonna hear you explaining your situation to the CM.

Hah, yeah. I think I'll just stick with getting tickets ordered separately.