Planning a DLP trip during our Paris trip for late March 2019. We plan to stay on resort the last two nights of our trip, leaving very early the last day direct for the airport. Originally we planned to only do the parks on the full day between arrival and departure, though we are hedging and may also go on the arrival day depending how the plans work out…
Here’s the real question though — on first look it appears that Disney is charging an absolutely massive premium to book their hotels directly versus going though a third party booking site like Expedia (and I’m sure Hotels.com and others are similar). For example, we plan to stay at the Disneyland Hotel in a basic “classic” 2 bed room for 2 nights. Booked directly through the DLP site, that starts at a few dollars shy of $2K for two nights. They give you no option not to have 3 days of park tickets included. We don’t need them for the day we leave, but whatever.
Alternatively we can book the exact same room class through Expedia and we get two options: Option 1 is just the room with no tickets included. That cost $933. So the only difference is you don’t get included tickets (and perhaps the 1 extra FP per day) and you save $1,065. Even if you had wanted to get park tickets for all three days, those would costs you $212/person, or $848 direct from Disney, which means you could book with Expedia, pay full price for the tickets from Disney and still come out almost $200 ahead. And if you only buy tickets for 2 days since you don’t need the third, you come out ~$400 ahead. Even more if you just got the one day of tickets.
But here’s where it gets even crazier. Expedia has a second option where your booking includes tickets and dinner. I called the Disneyland Hotel Paris directly after making the refundable reservation and confirmed that the tickets are for all 3 days and that the included dinner each night for 4 is for any of their Premium-tier dining locations, which basically means anywhere including their most expensive restaurants, buffets and character dining (the Expedia site didn’t have this level of detail so they are really under selling the package). The cost for the rooms with this package is $1,732. So for approximately $265 LESS than booking direct from Disney you get the same room, the same ticket AND free dinner each night at their best restaurants.
This seems illogical. Is Disney just counting on most people not competitively shopping or doing any research? Or am I missing something? The Expedia price includes the tickets, the dining, free parking (won’t need it) and free wifi. And most what we may not get is the extra FP per day, and I didn’t ask so it’s possible that’s still included too.
Here’s the real question though — on first look it appears that Disney is charging an absolutely massive premium to book their hotels directly versus going though a third party booking site like Expedia (and I’m sure Hotels.com and others are similar). For example, we plan to stay at the Disneyland Hotel in a basic “classic” 2 bed room for 2 nights. Booked directly through the DLP site, that starts at a few dollars shy of $2K for two nights. They give you no option not to have 3 days of park tickets included. We don’t need them for the day we leave, but whatever.
Alternatively we can book the exact same room class through Expedia and we get two options: Option 1 is just the room with no tickets included. That cost $933. So the only difference is you don’t get included tickets (and perhaps the 1 extra FP per day) and you save $1,065. Even if you had wanted to get park tickets for all three days, those would costs you $212/person, or $848 direct from Disney, which means you could book with Expedia, pay full price for the tickets from Disney and still come out almost $200 ahead. And if you only buy tickets for 2 days since you don’t need the third, you come out ~$400 ahead. Even more if you just got the one day of tickets.
But here’s where it gets even crazier. Expedia has a second option where your booking includes tickets and dinner. I called the Disneyland Hotel Paris directly after making the refundable reservation and confirmed that the tickets are for all 3 days and that the included dinner each night for 4 is for any of their Premium-tier dining locations, which basically means anywhere including their most expensive restaurants, buffets and character dining (the Expedia site didn’t have this level of detail so they are really under selling the package). The cost for the rooms with this package is $1,732. So for approximately $265 LESS than booking direct from Disney you get the same room, the same ticket AND free dinner each night at their best restaurants.
This seems illogical. Is Disney just counting on most people not competitively shopping or doing any research? Or am I missing something? The Expedia price includes the tickets, the dining, free parking (won’t need it) and free wifi. And most what we may not get is the extra FP per day, and I didn’t ask so it’s possible that’s still included too.
