Hi everyone!
I am taking my mother and sister on a birthday visit (well, almost birthday, they are a week after my picked dates) to Disney world and Universal from September 19-27th. I am one of those run every scenario/do the math 10 times types, so I've been going over so many different resort/ticket/etc. scenarios and I think I finally settled on the most logical one for us, but it relies on the availability of free dining, which I will talk about below, first here are a few of the concreted things that I should note:
-I am using an airline rewards card that offers a 50K points bonus to pay for the first $2,000 of the vacation, so that I can use the points and get our plane tickets and rental car for free. So I was not planning on using a Disney rewards Visa. My mother does, however have one.
-We are 3 adults, my sister is not a minor (she's actually my older sister). She does have physical and developmental disabilities that make her mental age much younger than she is, so Disney is her favorite place in the world and I want to provide the best experience possible for her.
My plan is for us to stay on a WDW property the whole trip, even though will spend 1-2 days at Universal. I will also probably get 7-9 day park hopper & water park tickets even if we will be at Universal for 2 of those days. My thought is we might use the extra days to pop into the food an wine festival, etc and it's such a small cost more, plus I think that and staying at a WDW resort the whole time would be the most fun for my sister. Also considering buying tickets for Mickey's Halloween Party.
Originally I was looking at renting a DVC studio through a broker, and then getting discounted park hopper tickets though a reputable third party site to get the most bang, and the nicest place to stay, for my buck. I was thinking a AKL Savannah or standard view studio, because I thought my sister would get a kick out of the animals. When pricing things though, I realized that the week we are going has historically been a free dining week, and I could spend the same or less and get a dining plan if booking the package through Disney.
So my current plan is booking a cheaper hotel (pop century), and my ticket package through Disney and calling to upgrade to the free dining option when it is released (the CS dining plan is fine for us, we'll just pay out of pocket for any TS meals we decide we want). We have stayed at the Caribbean in the past too, and loved it, but the extra 700 dollars saved going with the pop century is sounding better to me right now.
Problem is, if I don't get the dining plan, I know I'd regret not being in the nicer studio in a deluxe resort, and by that time, it'd likely be too late to get one of the rentals. How likely would I be able to get the upgrade if I called the morning it was released? If I put a deposit using my mother's Disney Visa, and then paid the rest on my miles card, would that qualify us for changing the reservation during the early release for Disney Visa cardholders? Would you recommend something else that I haven't thought of yet?
Sorry for the length, and thank you in advance for any help you can offer!
I am taking my mother and sister on a birthday visit (well, almost birthday, they are a week after my picked dates) to Disney world and Universal from September 19-27th. I am one of those run every scenario/do the math 10 times types, so I've been going over so many different resort/ticket/etc. scenarios and I think I finally settled on the most logical one for us, but it relies on the availability of free dining, which I will talk about below, first here are a few of the concreted things that I should note:
-I am using an airline rewards card that offers a 50K points bonus to pay for the first $2,000 of the vacation, so that I can use the points and get our plane tickets and rental car for free. So I was not planning on using a Disney rewards Visa. My mother does, however have one.
-We are 3 adults, my sister is not a minor (she's actually my older sister). She does have physical and developmental disabilities that make her mental age much younger than she is, so Disney is her favorite place in the world and I want to provide the best experience possible for her.
My plan is for us to stay on a WDW property the whole trip, even though will spend 1-2 days at Universal. I will also probably get 7-9 day park hopper & water park tickets even if we will be at Universal for 2 of those days. My thought is we might use the extra days to pop into the food an wine festival, etc and it's such a small cost more, plus I think that and staying at a WDW resort the whole time would be the most fun for my sister. Also considering buying tickets for Mickey's Halloween Party.
Originally I was looking at renting a DVC studio through a broker, and then getting discounted park hopper tickets though a reputable third party site to get the most bang, and the nicest place to stay, for my buck. I was thinking a AKL Savannah or standard view studio, because I thought my sister would get a kick out of the animals. When pricing things though, I realized that the week we are going has historically been a free dining week, and I could spend the same or less and get a dining plan if booking the package through Disney.
So my current plan is booking a cheaper hotel (pop century), and my ticket package through Disney and calling to upgrade to the free dining option when it is released (the CS dining plan is fine for us, we'll just pay out of pocket for any TS meals we decide we want). We have stayed at the Caribbean in the past too, and loved it, but the extra 700 dollars saved going with the pop century is sounding better to me right now.
Problem is, if I don't get the dining plan, I know I'd regret not being in the nicer studio in a deluxe resort, and by that time, it'd likely be too late to get one of the rentals. How likely would I be able to get the upgrade if I called the morning it was released? If I put a deposit using my mother's Disney Visa, and then paid the rest on my miles card, would that qualify us for changing the reservation during the early release for Disney Visa cardholders? Would you recommend something else that I haven't thought of yet?
Sorry for the length, and thank you in advance for any help you can offer!
