2007 Prices (Again!) UK Brides Question

[Bekki]

Hi all

I know there has been lots of threads re 2007 prices. I've booked my wedding through virgin for May 2007 at the WP at a cost of £2215. I've just got the first choice weddings 2007 book and their cost is £1699 .

Has anybody else been given any prices so far or know what the cost is to book it direct with Disney? With the exchange rate in our favor it might be worth loosing my deposit with Virgin and booking direct.

Anybody help

 

[Laurafoster]

have a look on disneyweddings.com and it should tell you!

 

[Skylarr29]

The 2007 price is $2,650.00 for all the locations except the wedding pavilion. I think the wedding pavilion is $1,000.00 more so that would be $3,650.00 US. I have no idea about exchange rates so I can't help you there!!

 

[Bekki]

Disneyweddings.com is showing $3350. At today's exchange rate that works at about £1840 so I guess im being ripped off by Virgin then!!

 

[dee slack]

I was planning to book with Virgin, but after this I'll think again! Did you have any 'extra's' like video, more than 4 guests, airport lounge that's added to the cost? Or wedding insurance perhaps? I would presume that you'd pay a little more to go thru' Virgin as they do seem to 'specialise' in weddings quite a lot so you usually pay for that experience. Was the price printed in their brochure? Maybe you should contact them and ask outright what you are paying the extra for, compared to the other company - and do keep us posted whatever you decide to do.

 

[Cinderella2006]

I also noticed this when I booked my wedding. I booked through First Choice in the end; they also did me a better deal for the holiday. 6 adults and 5 children including Disney tickets a minivan and an intimidate car with Upgrade to Premier both ways for £12,000 including the wedding (I think or at least the deposit)! Staying at Port Orleans. I would definitely tell Virgin where to stick it! They wanted £18,000 for the same holiday

 

[CA_Stitch]

In my opinion, it is always better to book directly with Disney because:

1. You do not have to pay extra for a middleman to call Disney. You can do that yourself and most of the information needed can be found on this board or at the disney site.

2. TA are TA. Their main business is travel booking.

3. TA usually will not have someone locally or on-site on the day of the wedding so you are on your own with a Disney coordinator that you have not spoken to because you went through a TA. Getting to know your Disney coordinator can help a lot and may get you some leeway.

4. But the most important reason is that going directly through Disney, you will have more control over your event and you deal with THE vendor who is responsible for your event... not a middleman.

5. The same applies with booking outside vendors such as photography etc... for your event. Doing it yourself gives you more control over your event.

I have nothing personal against TAs booking weddings, but I have yet to find one destination bride who has gotten accurate information and no problems with their TA.

I am sure that there are TAs who do a good job but unless you know them personally, would you trust someone who has no real vested interest in your event and who won't be there on the day of?

BTW - I may be wrong but most American Disney brides book directly with Disney.

Just my opinion...

Regards
CA_Stitch

 

[Bekki]

Did you have any 'extra's' like video, more than 4 guests, airport lounge that's added to the cost? Or wedding insurance perhaps? QUOTE]

No I’ve not booked any extras at all . The 2007 brochure for weddings is still not and the website is still only giving this years prices. But when I booked it in January they knew the 2007 costs.

I’m not very impressed with this massive price difference £20-£30 I wouldn’t be bothered about but we are talking over £300 ($550)

I will be contacting Virgin's Wedding Department on Monday for some sort of explanation. The reason I booked it through them was thinking it would be less hassle to organize due to the time difference and cost of calls to the USA etc, but now I think I will cancel and book it direct with Disney.

 

[Laurafoster]

The reason I booked it through them was thinking it would be less hassle to organize due to the time difference and cost of calls to the USA etc, but now I think I will cancel and book it direct with Disney.

Personally i havent actually made many calls to Disney. Most of mine has been done via email and then if it is something that needed to be sorted over the phone m wedding planner has phoned me.

Also just a note but if you phone disney with a question they will either answer you straight away or find out and call you cack - with Virgin your likely to be on hold for 20-30 mins before it gets sorted - if it gets sorted. Thats going to cost as much as a 5 min call to the USA!

 

[dee slack]

I've just got the first choice weddings 2007 book and their cost is £1699 )

So the FC wedding is actually cheaper than if you booked direct with Disney, even at this fairly good exchange rate? Wonder how they do that then?

One thing about booking direct with Disney, I believe you just pay a deposit now and the balance a few weeks prior to the wedding date - if the exchange rate drops a lot you could end up paying more, whereas if you book with a TA you pay the original price. Just a thought.

Also, if you book direct, do you have to pay taxes on top of the prices quoted or do they include tax already? And do you have to pay extra for an officiant (and included with a TA package)?

 

[Midnight Belle]

We used Virgin when we got married at the Disney Wedding Pavilion on New Years Eve 1997 with a stay at the GF for 2 weeks. I would say stick with them. The rep (wedding co-ordinator) was excellant she organised everything extra we needed, flowers for the groom and guests, my flowers, my now husband remained at the GF with my brother the night before our wedding. I stayed with my parents in a villa and got ready around there. The rep organised a limo to collect me and my parents and another one for the other guests staying at another location. She organised the photographer/video man basically everything I requested including the reception with Mickey, Minnie and friends present, which went down extremly well with the children (and grown ups) in the party was done and no hicuups on the day. I would rather pay the extra knowing that I have assurance of a bigger company (ie Virgin) who has probably lots more experience at arranging weddings.

I know that Virgin do price match on package hols but not sure about wedding packages. It would certainly be worth a call to their wedding co-ordinator in the UK (you should be able to find the contact number in the brochure) to see what they can do if anything?

 

[Cinderella2006]

Another thing that i forgot to add i dont know if it still remains but the first choice package also includes a minister which would normally cost you about $150 (i think!) Disney no longer include this in their package. They use Ron Rosenweig and he specialises in Disney Weddings, he has been lovely to talk to.

 

[Laurafoster]

One thing about booking direct with Disney, I believe you just pay a deposit now and the balance a few weeks prior to the wedding date - if the exchange rate drops a lot you could end up paying more, whereas if you book with a TA you pay the original price. Just a thought.

Thats entirely true. With Disney yes u pay a deposit but u can pay the rest when u like aslong as its atleast 30 days or so before. So if its a good exchange rate then you can pay up when ever! Thats what ive been doing.

 

[hfehr1s]

I don't know if this might be something to consider or not, but are the prices on Disney's website still the 2006 prices? I know they have gone up for 2007, but they may still be displaying 2006 right now on the site. I'm not sure.

 

[dee slack]

Bekki - did you contact Virgin and get a satisfactory answer as to why their cost is so much higher than FC?

 

[Funniebunny]

I am a Travel Agent and I will be booking my wedding with Disney direct. The main reason for me is that I can use my discount for the room rates and flights. If I booked this with a holiday company it would cost more. I also feel I will have more control over the wedding if I book direct.

 

[Bekki]

Bekki - did you contact Virgin and get a satisfactory answer as to why their cost is so much higher than FC?

Hi,

When I spoke to them she assured me that they are very competitive in the UK market. She did say that FC's brochure might have been published before Disney increased their prices and if/when you phoned to enquire you would get their up to date cost. Perhaps somebody who works for a UK travel agent could find this out for us???

I also made the comment on its cheaper to book direct with Disney and after 15 minutes of ranting on at her threatening to cancel all our flights and accommodation and book elsewhere, she spoke to her manager and they have put my 10% Frequent Virgin Discount on my Wedding cost which has reduced it to £2K.

At the minute I cannot get my wedding confirmed until September so I will wait until then and decide if to cancel with Virgin and book direct.

 

[dee slack]

I also made the comment on its cheaper to book direct with Disney and after 15 minutes of ranting on at her threatening to cancel all our flights and accommodation and book elsewhere, she spoke to her manager and they have put my 10% Frequent Virgin Discount on my Wedding cost which has reduced it to £2K.
At the minute I cannot get my wedding confirmed until September so I will wait until then and decide if to cancel with Virgin and book direct.

I emailed VW's a few weeks ago, asking what would be the benefit of me booking the wedding with them over booking with Disney direct, they just said that they could book the whole holiday / wedding package whereas DW's could only book the wedding - er, that's quite obvious, I was expecting more of the 'hard sell' but it didn't happen! I thought she might say 'better value as it's a complete package' (I believe Disney's intimate package does NOT include the officiant, so extra cost), or 'we can liase with Disney for you saving time and money on phone calls' .... but nothing!
I did wonder if we 'booked' the date for the vow renewal this far in advance with Virgin, that Disney would be more likely to honour the date for them, or more likely to 'bump' the date (more so than if we booked direct (hope that makes sense!!). I would hate to book my hols with Virgin and 'reserve' the date for the vow renewal only to find at the 12 / 8 month mark that our vow renewal can't take place, as that's why we are planning on using Virgin (complete wedding / hols package). Sorry this is so long by the way.

 

[dee slack]

forgot to say, when I asked about the FV discount, she said that no discount can be given on the weddings, so you did really well to get that!
Another thought - does anyone know if the extra's (eg Cindy's coach, characters) are more expensive if you book them thru' Virgin than with Disney? And if I booked the package thru' Virgin, could I then get the extra's from Disney at the lowers price? Oh I do like to complicate things, don't I?!

 

[dee slack]

Virgin were supposed to launch their 2007 Weddings brochure on the 6th but it wasn't on their site so I emailed Charlotte in the weddings dept (now due 13th July, by the way) and their price is £2219 for the Intimate package at the WP BUT, the reason the price has increased so much, is that the package now includes 5 day Premium Disney tickets.

I'm gonna email her again! (She'll be sick of hearing from me and we haven't even booked it yet!!!) and ask if the tickets can be removed as we planned to have the 14 days Ultimate tickets (from them) so we can just come and go as we please for the whole 2 weeks.

As an aside, it doesn't mention the officient's fee - so I guess that's extra (just like booking direct with Disney), wonder at what stage Virgin tell you this???

Dee