Is it possible to change tickets to a vacation package (with hotel)?

[Dingdingding]

We originally planned to stay at the Marriott hotel for our upcoming Disneyland trip but due to discounts the Disneyland hotel became feasable for us. Originally we opted to stay a max of two nights there but now we can stay there for our entire visit (5 nights).

Since we tried to pay as much as we could before our trip to prevent a risk in a large exchange rate change (we're European and the Euro-Dollar moved between 0,95 and 1,15 since we started planning), we already bought the tickets for Disneyland (direct through Disney).

I believe the tickets are not refundable but is it possible to change the tickets to a vacation package in some way? Is the only advantage of the package the +/- 50 dollar discount compared to booking the two seperately?

 

[irlandaise]

We originally planned to stay at the Marriott hotel for our upcoming Disneyland trip but due to discounts the Disneyland hotel became feasable for us. Originally we opted to stay a max of two nights there but now we can stay there for our entire visit (5 nights).

Since we tried to pay as much as we could before our trip to prevent a risk in a large exchange rate change (we're European and the Euro-Dollar moved between 0,95 and 1,15 since we started planning), we already bought the tickets for Disneyland (direct through Disney).

I believe the tickets are not refundable but is it possible to change the tickets to a vacation package in some way? Is the only advantage of the package the +/- 50 dollar discount compared to booking the two seperately?

I bet that a nice Disneyland Hotel cast member could make this happen. Can you call the hotel directly from your home without spending a month's income on the call?

Here are the perks:

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/vacation-packages/resort-hotel-package/

Early Entry isn't very early these days, but it's something. The 10% off food and merchandise in Downtown Disney might be of benefit to you.

Be sure to ask the CM about hotel discounts, too! There are currently some available, although they may or may not apply to when you're coming to DL.

 

[twodogs]

The Early Entry is for any onsite hotel guest, regardless of package or room only. The other (small) perks of 10% off at some eateries and merch locations and the lanyard, only come with a package. For us, we like the 5 day cancellation flexibility of reserving a room-only hotel reservation and then buying our tickets separately. In this case, while you have a more generous hotel cancellation policy, the tickets are not refundable (if purchased directly through Disney), unlike the tickets in a package. But with room only, we can opt to buy slightly lower priced tickets through other avenues like Undercover Tourist, and they have refundable tickets (with a restocking fee).

I suspect Disney will be happy to help you add nights on at the DLH and also add days to your tickets. You should look at cancellation policies to see if room-only plus tickets or a package is the best for you. Since your tickets are already through Disney, you won’t have the option of 3rd party vendor tickets at a slight discount (unless you just want to hold on to the current tickets you have from Disney and use the value of them on a later trip).

You will get Early Entry either way.

 

[TheLyinKing]

You could probably reach out to member services or something and they may be able to take the value of your tickets and apply it to a vacation package. I know they can do this with upgrading tickets to things like annual passed, but ymmv regarding upgrading to vacation package.

 

[irlandaise]

The Early Entry is for any onsite hotel guest, regardless of package or room only.

Yes, sorry, that's listed on the packages page so I mentioned it but I should have said that you don't need the package to get it.

Dingdingding, twodogs brings up good points about hotel cancellations and other differences between hotel-only and package reservations. Those differences may convince you to keep the plan you have despite the convenience and slight perks of a package.

 

[Dingdingding]

Thank you all for your insights! Based on this I think I will opt for keeping them seperate as we only have one restaurant planned for Downtown Disney. Since calling overseas will cost about 20-30 euros the discount would be mostly negated by that.

Thank you all very much!

 

[StormyCA]

One of the benefits of booking a package through Disney, as mentioned above, is the liberal cancellation policy AND the fact that if you do cancel, the tickets are refunded as part of the package. In essence, when booked as part of a package, tickets become 'refundable'. If you cancel more than 30 days out you get a 100% refund of the package price. Less than 30 days, a $200 cancellation fee (which might possibly be waived depending on a multitude of things). If you cancel within 24 hours, no refund. This is the US cancellation policy. No idea if there is something different for non-US bookings.

This is one of the reasons we always book a package when we go to WDW. We live in California and never know when it will be our last trip to WDW. We'd hate to 'get stuck' with WDW tickets if we had to cancel a WDW trip and weren't able to rebook for a later date.

 

[Dingdingding]

A small update for people with a similar question: Disney told us we couldn't upgrade to a package but with the seperate tickets and hotel we would indeed still have the advantage of the early magic time. The only thing we miss compared to the package is a discount on select Downtown Disney restaurants and a pin.

 

[irlandaise]

A small update for people with a similar question: Disney told us we couldn't upgrade to a package but with the seperate tickets and hotel we would indeed still have the advantage of the early magic time. The only thing we miss compared to the package is a discount on select Downtown Disney restaurants and a pin.

Sounds like it will work out fine for you. Have fun!