Logic of a quick trip in November with a big trip on the books for April

DarthVader

DarthVader

Sith Lord
My wife mentioned she really wants to see the Osborne light show in HS, and I saw that with the building permits it may very well happen this year, though subsequent years it may not occur due to Disney renovating HS.

Anyways, i'm trying to justify a quick trip, flying in Saturday, flying home Tuesday. Cost of the resort and 2 day tickets is 1,300 bucks for myself the bride and my two kids for the POFQ. All star Music its 1,050. Add in flight, meal costs and we're looking in the neighborhood of 2,800 for a quick trip.

The issue is I have a 9 day uber trip (staying in the contemporary) for April 2016, and that's running close to 10k with flights, and meals. While it would be cool to surprise my kids, and enjoy a little Disney this fall, I don't know if its too much.

The really confusing matter will be the prospect of changing my current reservation on the books to use a bounceback promotion, I may save 35% if I call disney while in the resort and that could save me as much as 35%. OTOH, I'm hoping to see near 30% for their winter incentives.

Thoughts/opinions - am I crazy to consider a November trip with an April one coming down the pike?
 
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DarthVader

DarthVader

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Original Poster
draybook said:
The more trips the merrier! We went last September, this February, April and will be back this September. The annual passes helped big time. Not to mention the free flight vouchers we had for February.
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Where do you fly out of - for us the biggest inhibitor is the cost of travel. I'm looking at least 1,000 dollars per flight.
 
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Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
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maflynn said:
My kids are age 9, and they'll be age 10 next april, I'm not sure how that AP will work if I opt for the AP now and they turn 10 before the second usage.
The annual pass is going to cost me 2,786 dollars, So far both trips have the ticket prices at a combined 2147 (or there abouts). I can account for 300 dollars of savings with TiW and other discounts with the AP, that brings the total savings 2447 bucks. I'm still short 339

For some reason the AP is the same cost for myself as well as my kids - 654 per person.

Granted, I could use the AP in the Nov trip for another trip to a park on arrival day but that's not part of the original plan so its hard to work that into the cost/benefit equation since its not in our original itinerary.


All kidding aside that would have to be the case.
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Another option you might look into are the savings from room discounts via the AP discount. While I usually do not advise getting an AP unless you can break even on admission alone, you are pretty close to doing that making it worth a look since you do not need an AP to book at an AP discount as long as you have one at check in.

AP room discounts run like every other promotion so they are not guarenteed, but they tend to be a few percentage points better than what the general public gets.
 
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DarthVader

DarthVader

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Original Poster
Master Yoda said:
Another option you might look into are the savings from room discounts via the AP discount.
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I agree its another avenue to save money.

To help justify the November trip, I'm hoping I can take advantage of the Bounce Back program. While I have a trip on the books for April, I'm hoping to take advantage of that. If I can incur a 35% savings, that actually saves me quite a bit of change. I'm also hoping to see the price reduced for the november trip once Disney releases the late fall/early winter discounts. I'm hoping POFQ will be in 20%, if not, we'll see about changing to a resort that does have the discount (if we pull the trigger).

There's so many variable with this, that I'm concerned. There's a good potential for saving money in both trips but there's no guarantee. I want to plan for the worst (and budget) and hope for the best.
 
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Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
maflynn said:
My kids are age 9, and they'll be age 10 next april, I'm not sure how that AP will work if I opt for the AP now and they turn 10 before the second usage.
The annual pass is going to cost me 2,786 dollars, So far both trips have the ticket prices at a combined 2147 (or there abouts). I can account for 300 dollars of savings with TiW and other discounts with the AP, that brings the total savings 2447 bucks. I'm still short 339

For some reason the AP is the same cost for myself as well as my kids - 654 per person.

Granted, I could use the AP in the Nov trip for another trip to a park on arrival day but that's not part of the original plan so its hard to work that into the cost/benefit equation since its not in our original itinerary.
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I'm not sure how you're calculating your costs. Using the WDW website, I get the following: [all taxes incl]

2x2-day Child tickets: $381.28/$487.78 [without Hopper/with Hopper]
2x2-day Adult tickets: $408.96/$515.46
4x9-day Adult tickets: $1,512.32/$1,784.96
Total: $2,302,56/$2,788.20


APs cost as much for children or adults, so changing age won't matter. 4 APs will cost you $2,786.04

If you don't get the Hopper option, then by your calculation with your TiW savings you'll be short $183. I've never been able to hold myself to one park per day... ;) Adding Hopper just to the 2-day or the 9-day trip would put you into savings, just based on ticket cost alone. Then factor in 10% savings on purchases in Disneys shops/stores and even without adding Hopper you're still saving.

The real risk of getting APs to save money is having an AP burning a hole in your pocket and tempting you into more trips that negate any savings... But that's a whole different issue! :angelic:
 
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DarthVader

DarthVader

Sith Lord
Original Poster
My April vacation has a ticket cost of 1,347 (price difference between 7,182 and 5835). That is If I buy no tickets, the disney vacation costs me 5,835 if I get a 5 day base ticket it goes up to 1,347. I'm not including park hopper because we didn't buy them, yes with the AP we have the park hopper ability but we're not saving money there because without the AP we'd avoid spending $$ on the park hopper.

Disney tix.jpg


With the park hopper/water park the price is 7,455 (or increase of 1620 over the no ticket price). That would bring the AP at break even for both trips but for cost justifications, I don't think that works - at least in my mind. My point is that we don't normally buy the park hopper so the increased price ticket shouldn't be a factor. Does my logic make sense or am I just confusing people due to my twisted brain
park hopper.jpg
 
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draybook

draybook

Well-Known Member
maflynn said:
Where do you fly out of - for us the biggest inhibitor is the cost of travel. I'm looking at least 1,000 dollars per flight.
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We fly out of Memphis. For the four of us round trip it's right around 850 right now and that's with Southwest, so no baggage fees for us. But we always get the Early Bird option, so we're just shy of 1k.
 
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DarthVader

DarthVader

Sith Lord
Original Poster
draybook said:
We fly out of Memphis. For the four of us round trip it's right around 850 right now and that's with Southwest, so no baggage fees for us. But we always get the Early Bird option, so we're just shy of 1k.
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Coming from boston - I'm seeing SW is in the 1,000 range, jetblue is always in the 1,200 - 1,400 neighborhood and delta is even higher.
 
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draybook

draybook

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I refuse to fly anyone but Southwest due to the crazy baggage fees. And are they the only ones that give both sodas AND peanuts/pretzels for free? I had to take a trip to Detroit for work and they had us using US Airways and they only served a drink. I thought it was odd.
 
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MickeyMomV

MickeyMomV

Well-Known Member
maflynn said:
My enjoyment comes from them having a great time, I don't think myself or my wife would be willing or could actually leave our kids behind for a WDW trip.
.
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I totally get where you are coming from. We had our honeymoon at WDW back before we had the DS so when the opportunity presented itself for an adult trip we did it to relive the magic. :) Our situation was a little different. We had 2 free airline tickets from a previous travel issue and they had free dining going on so for a 4 day trip for the two of us it was somewhere between $1100 and $1300. Totally worth it for an adult getaway.
 
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DarthVader

DarthVader

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Original Poster
Ok, so we're going to do it :D

So now the question is nailing down the exact dates. I'm thinking of arrival date of 11/13 (friday) and a departure date of Monday 11/16. That will give us two full days, one for MK, the other for HS. That will mean visiting the parks on a weekend and I realize things may be rather crowded.

If I go on Saturday 11/14 and depart on Tuesday 11/17 that will give us MK on Monday and we can deal with HS on Sunday.

I'm intent on only pulling the kids out of school two days, any more will be too disruptive, The other alternative is Thursday 11/12 and departing Sunday 11/15. I haven't looked at the rates disney is charging for those scenarios, I need to balance the Disney rates with what I can find flight wise as well and right now Jetblue.com is not cooperating too well - I'm getting time out errors
 
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rt06

rt06

Well-Known Member
maflynn said:
Ok, so we're going to do it :D

So now the question is nailing down the exact dates. I'm thinking of arrival date of 11/13 (friday) and a departure date of Monday 11/16. That will give us two full days, one for MK, the other for HS. That will mean visiting the parks on a weekend and I realize things may be rather crowded.

If I go on Saturday 11/14 and depart on Tuesday 11/17 that will give us MK on Monday and we can deal with HS on Sunday.

I'm intent on only pulling the kids out of school two days, any more will be too disruptive, The other alternative is Thursday 11/12 and departing Sunday 11/15. I haven't looked at the rates disney is charging for those scenarios, I need to balance the Disney rates with what I can find flight wise as well and right now Jetblue.com is not cooperating too well - I'm getting time out errors
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With a flexible schedule, I let the cheapest, most convenient flights determine my choice and let everything fall into place.
 
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TXDisney

TXDisney

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I'm trying to convince my wife to do a late April trip in 2016 when we have a early December trip already booked. So far she's winning. If it makes sense financially do it is my opinion.
 
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Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
maflynn said:
My April vacation has a ticket cost of 1,347 (price difference between 7,182 and 5835). That is If I buy no tickets, the disney vacation costs me 5,835 if I get a 5 day base ticket it goes up to 1,347. I'm not including park hopper because we didn't buy them, yes with the AP we have the park hopper ability but we're not saving money there because without the AP we'd avoid spending $$ on the park hopper.

View attachment 100244

With the park hopper/water park the price is 7,455 (or increase of 1620 over the no ticket price). That would bring the AP at break even for both trips but for cost justifications, I don't think that works - at least in my mind. My point is that we don't normally buy the park hopper so the increased price ticket shouldn't be a factor. Does my logic make sense or am I just confusing people due to my twisted brain
View attachment 100245
Click to expand...
OK, now I understand. You're pricing packages, not tickets only. This is the first you've mentioned it.

I haven't done a package since the early 2000's, I find I do much better booking room-only and buying tickets separately. If only because of room-only discounts that end up being available almost year-round.

That reminds me, I still have left-over admissions to the Waterparks....
 
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JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Glad youve decided to go. Taking 2 trips in a year is great. Theres less anxiety to do so much when you know youll be back soon. And even though you will be there in April & Nov in the same year, the parks will feel very different. Its amazing how a change of just 7 months and a different season completely changes the feel and atmosphere of Disney.
 
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