Walt Disney World Next April

My kid is going to Orlando 4/18-22/2013. The wife and I would like to go as well. I need to book a room in the park, four day park hopper passes, quick meal plans, and flights from Boston (preferred) or Manchester, NH. I am looking on advice on how to plan / book this and would appreciate any inside tips.

I recommend waiting a little bit, because there is a possibility that free dining may come back again for next year.

Flights- There is no secret. Just watch for sales. Southwest has 40% off right now, and others are matching. So keep an eye on flights and snag them when you feel comfortable.

Tickets- Are/were you a member of the military? One of the best deals out there is the military 4-day park hopper ticket for only $156 + tax ($28 more for water parks).

Hotels- Do not discount staying at the non-Disney hotels on Disney property (i.e. near Downtown Disney). There are some incredible deals on great hotels with their own transportation. But I am assuming your kid will be staying in a Disney hotel and you will want to also. Again, hold off to see what happens with Disney dining, as that may be a driving factor.

Save Money, Travel More!

For lodging... Here is a way to get deluxe accommodations at a waaaay cheaper price. People who are Disney Vacation Club members regularly "rent" their points outs... you can easily find different discussion boards on the major disney fan sites such as disboards that have people offering their points, and looking to "rent" points. People rent points from about $9-$12 a point. Different DVC accommodations cost different amounts of points.

You can also check out David's Disney Vacation Club Rentals ( http://www.dvcrequest.com/ ) . They act as a middle man charging $13 a point. We used them to book 4 nights at the Boardwalk Villas for less than $800. The comparable room in the hotel side of the Villas was about $350 a night. You pay a little more using them, but they take care of all the logistics and also takes the risk out of being scammed by someone.

The downside to going the DVC route is generally, the reservation can't be changed and is non-refundable, so if your plans change, tough.

FYI, I read about this trick in a book called the Dark Side of Disney which in addition to tips like this, also (as the name implies) gives tips for some less than Disney-esque type behaviors, such as sneaking into various closed areas, best places to drink, and even best places for public hoo-haaing. I just got back from taking the kids so it wasn't that type of trip, but will be returning with just the wifey in Jan . The book also talks about ways to save money on the food and things like the photopass.

wizwor said:   My kid is going to Orlando 4/18-22/2013. The wife and I would like to go as well. I need to book a room in the park, four day park hopper passes, quick meal plans, and flights from Boston (preferred) or Manchester, NH. I am looking on advice on how to plan / book this and would appreciate any inside tips.Might want to search this forum, this topic has been covered ad naseum. Pretty much every question has been answered many times.

Disney dolphin and swan are Category 4 starwood properties (i.e. they rent out at 10,000 points per night). It surprises a lot of people, but they indeed are not Disney owned! One is Sheraton branded and the other is Westin (I think).

If you really wanted to rake up the points, you could get 50k right now using the AMEX promo (25k each for biz and personal, was 30k a month ago), and then use the card for all personal expenses earning @ 1 point per dollar.

Probably a long shot, but in case you have any hotel stays coming up, then look at the Platinum Challange where you get their platinum status for staying at some spg properties for 18 nights within a 3 month period. You get a lot of extra benefits if you are a platinum.

Mousesavers is a good website but it takes about a month to start receiving their newsletter so I would sign up now.

last time I went we stayed in a wonderful condo that was about half the price of a hotel with twice the space.

wordgirl said:   My two cents (and worth exactly that) Be careful to avoid timeshare pitches in exchange for cheap accommodations; these "deals" are rife in the Lake Buena VIsta area around Disney area. Be aware that sometimes they are direct about the need to attend a "short presentation," sometimes they are ... not. And the presentations are NEVER "brief." These folks are expert manipulators - and they can and will chew up a day of your vacation with no remorse whatsoever.

Oh no, get ready for SP weather cloud to come in and stir things up.