email PIN for free MYW dining package

[pjupton]

So the offer says

"Now you can get a Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining of three or more nights for the same price as a non-discounted Magic Your Way Package for the same number of nights*
Take advantage of this free Disney Dining Plan promotion with a great rate on a 5-night, 6-day package at a select Disney Value Resort for just $425* per adult, based on adult double occupancy in a standard room"

I'm running the numbers vs. rack rates and I can't figure it out.

Is the discount just that the dining package is FREE? Or are they discounting the room rate as well?

I'm trying to decide if an AAA package or this is the better deal...

 

[HM]

It's rack rate for the room and free dining.

 

[rifamtrav]

I just posted as a new thread, probably should have just replied here - I just booked, if you go to online reservations put in your package info, don't check dining option but check at least park passes for same nights as booked, that's what you'll pay but with the code you'll get the free dining.

 

[brettb]

Okay, I may be able to help a little here.

I priced a variety of rooms from Disney, both the rack rate and the AAA room-only discounted rate. I added admission for 2 adults and one child using the advanced prices for 5-day expiring hopper passes. (We would buy a 10-day non-expiring hopper, though. See my note below.) I also called AAA to price the same thing as packages.

My prototype was a 4-night, 5-day expiring hopper pass.

By booking through AAA, you get those extra little perks like a pass for their comfort center, a "Diamond Parking Pass," and some other things that don't really have a lot of monetary value to us.

This is what I found:

PC-STD = Pop Century, Standard
GF = Grand Floridian, Garden View

Rack = Disney's Rack Rate + 2 adult and 1 child 5 day expiring park hoppers (including 11.5% resort tax, advance purchase prices)
AAAroom+adm = Same as above but using AAA rates as quoted by Disney
AAApackage = Package with room, tickets as above in rack, and the extra AAA fringe benefits.

(Ignore the _, they're the only way I could get the table to line up.)

Resort__Rack______AAAroom+adm __AAApackage
PC-STD__1010.14___938.78_________947.51
GF-GV___2223.26___1986.86_______1991.52

So the first thing to notice is that the AAA packages are close but are a miniscule amount more expensive. (I had done Port Orleans - Riverside, but I can't compare directly because AAA quoted a std room while I got my quotes for a water view room.)

The next thing I will point out is that the AAA discount (which you'd be giving up to take advantage of the free MYW Meal offer), is $17.84 ($16+11.5% tasx) for Pop Century Std, $33.45 ($30+tax) for a Moderate water view room, and $59.10 ($53+tax) for a garden view room at the Grand Floridian. Considering the Mail plan would cost $35 per adult and $10 per child, this easily beats the AAA room discounts. So for my family, this would be worth about $80 per night--if I get a postcard. For a family with 2 kids, it would be $90 per night.

But last December, the rates I was quoted with the PIN or BAT code for room discounts were $90 (+tax) for GV or LV rooms at the GF & Polynesian and a concierge room at WL, $101 for Courtyard WL, $87 for Wood WL, $80 for Std WL, $90 for Deluxe Savannah or Deluxe Pool View at AKL, $124 for Savannah View at AKL, $99 for Pook View at AKL, and $28 for Std Pop Century.

I'm not sure if tax is charged on those meal plan prices, but if it were, it would be 6.5% while the tax on the room discounts is 11.5%. So in terms of room discounts, the dining deal seems quite a bit better than AAA discounts and last year's room discounts on non-deluxe rooms. Compared to the last year's discounts on deluxe rooms, it's a closer call depending on the room and the size of your family. Who knows whether we'll see discount PINs or codes like we did last year, though.

Now for my note on admission. If we do this 4 night (it would actually be 1 night + 4) with 5 days of admission, we could buy 5-day expiring park hoppers for $666.70 (2 adults, 1 child) or we could buy 10-day non-expiring hoppers for $1019.21. If we did the latter, we'd essentially be paying $352.51 for another set of (non-expiring) 5-day park hoppers for 2 adults and one child -- about half of what we would have paid for admission for this one trip.

Brett

 

[rifamtrav]

Thanks for the breakdown, the only other thing I would throw into the mix is I believe if you have a AAA package (must be package not room only discount) and a dining pin code comes in you can add that in. Check out 7Beasley's post on the thread "dining pkg questions", I think that's what they did. For me, I had already booked flights separately (on my own, not AAA) and will be staying elsewhere in FL for a few days, so I couldn't use the AAA pkg to begin with. Of course, if you don't get the code, I guess it's a moot point. We definitely considered buying the non expiring admissions too, but the code made the difference. Enjoy your trip, sounds great.

 

[brettb]

Thanks for the breakdown, the only other thing I would throw into the mix is I believe if you have a AAA package (must be package not room only discount) and a dining pin code comes in you can add that in. Check out 7Beasley's post on the thread "dining pkg questions", I think that's what they did. For me, I had already booked flights separately (on my own, not AAA) and will be staying elsewhere in FL for a few days, so I couldn't use the AAA pkg to begin with. Of course, if you don't get the code, I guess it's a moot point. We definitely considered buying the non expiring admissions too, but the code made the difference. Enjoy your trip, sounds great.

A few thoughts:

1) She followed up to her posts saying that she wasn't sure if the room discount remained after her PIN. There really isn't enough information in her posts for me to figure it out. She said she saved $200 on the original package, which is consistant with a 20% discount on a standard room at a moderate for 7 nights ($119*.8*1.115*7=$186). So her $2500 package would have been $2700 without AAA....and if she had stayed with the original resort it would have been $2100. The cost of 7 nights of MYW dining for two adults is $521 (7*2*35*1.065), which is substantially (i.e. more than $100) more than the discount from $2500 to $2100 but a bit less than that from $2700 to $2100. I suspect it really reflects the latter and the discrepency is related to rounding --all 7Beaseley's prices are in hundreds of dollars. The bottom line is, I think you give up your room discount regardless of where you book and whether it's a AAA package or not.

2) As far as I know, you do not need to book flights or ground transportation to book AAA packages. But I don't know any details about your plans.... When I got my AAA quotes, I told the woman we did not need any flights right up front. We'll never be booking air with any agent because we'll be flying Southwest pretty much wherever we go. It's almost always substantially cheaper but even when other airlines match the fares, we'll stick with SWA instead of flying with a carrier that is in bankrupty, about to enter it, or has abandoned it's pension obligations.

3) Be careful with AAA. When I called, all the rates I was quoted did NOT reflect any discounts. I was connect to the Mid-Atlantic office. When I inquired, the agent had to call someplace, maybe the national office, and realized that the rates her computer was displaying were not "Magic Moments" rates. If I hadn't had my maniacally anal spreadsheet in front of me, I wouldn't have been able to say, "Gee, do those prices reflect any discounts? Your package price is X dollars more expensive than booking the room with a AAA discount and buying the tickets....." Also, when I asked her how much the same 4 night room arrangements with 10-day non-expiring tickets would be, the differential was a lot more than I'd worked out using the difference in Disney's direct advanced purchase prices.

Brett

 

[HaleyB]

Question- Can you book the package with the 5 day park passes in order to be able to use the PIN code for free dining (to be a package you have to add the tickets still, right?) and then upgrade the park passes to the 10 day no expire passes while you are there??

 

[redmomof4]

but why can't you just get the 10day ones right away. Your number of days for parks doesn't have to equal the number of nights you stay any longer.

 

[brettb]

but why can't you just get the 10day ones right away. Your number of days for parks doesn't have to equal the number of nights you stay any longer.

I don't see any reason why not....BUT the AAA agent I was speaking to gave me quotes for 4 night / 5 days that added up to roughly what my a la carte figures were (about $20 difference, tops) using AAA room rates and Disney advance purchase prices for 2 adult and one child 5-day hopper (expiring) passes. With 10 day hopping, non-expiring passes, the quotes she gave me were substantially more than the quotes I had gotten. I don't have the AAA numbers handy, but if you only need a 5-day adult, hopper, expiring pass, it would cost you $235.37. To upgrade that to a 10-day adult, hopper, non-expiring pass, it would cost $118.21.

The bottom line is, if calling AAA is going to be a hassle, I'll pass on the parking pass and the lounge pass and all that other stuff. If I have to check up on a TA to make sure they're saving me money, I can just do the work myself.....

Brett