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Thread: Is the 2 night free a bait and Switch or am I Ignorant

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Sacramento CA

    Is the 2 night free a bait and Switch or am I Ignorant

    Howdy folks,

    Been a while since we've planned a DL vacation and we are planning for this september. I stumbled upon the offer of stay 3 nights and get two nights free offer and thought what a great deal, let me plug in the numbers maybe we can splurge and stay at the GCH. So I read the fine print on the offer

    http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disn...ecialOfferPage

    and thought I understood it and plugged in the following variables to get a quote (I went through both AAA, Costco Travel and Disney websites, all are identical):

    2 adults
    3 children (8, 8, 5)
    Arriving Sat 9/11/2010, 3 nights, departing 9/14/2010
    Staying 3 nights
    Standard View Room
    3 Day park hopper tickets
    No air/Dining/Transfers etc....

    The quote for GCH was $1654.50.

    Sooooooo I didn't see where it added two nights on the hotel or two extra days on the ticket, so I redo the offer this time asking for 5 nights:

    2 adults
    3 children (8, 8, 5)
    Arriving Sat 9/11/2010, 5 nights, departing 9/16/2010
    Staying 5 nights
    Standard View Room
    5 for 3 Day park hopper tickets
    No air/Dining/Transfers etc....

    The quote for GCH was $2059.52.

    HUH?!?!?!!?

    Why is the price $400 more? If I book for 3 nights shouldn't I get 5 nights at hotel and 5 days of park hopper for approx $1600 which is the cost of a 3 night package?

    Am I missing something? I sure I am but this smells fishy.

    Our first WDW Trip, May 1 - 9 2007

    Quick WDW with just wife and I 5/9/09 - 5/10/09

    Been to DL so many times I couldn't fit it here....

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  3. #2

    It does say "When booking online, please enter the 5-nights you wish to stay to view availability of the travel package with 2 nights free" -- perhaps the room type you want is not available on the dates you want.


  4. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Sacramento, CA

    Is it counting your parkhoppers as 6 day hoppers? It did this for me and I had to manually change them to 5 day hoppers...

    Churros anyone??

    Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?

  5. #4

    I also had to manually change to 5 day park hoppers. But when I booked our trip back in March, I got the same total for 3 days as I got for 5 days. We added the meal plan because the price was so good.
    We got 5 nights at DLH, 5 day park hoppers, meal plan for all of us, an extra deluxe character meal plus a gift card, and we always buy the trip insurance due to our 18yo's health issues. We have three adults and 1 child. Our total package was $3019.85 through Costco travel.
    I have been messing around with packages for several months prior to the 5 for 3 sale was announced and we could not have gotten all we got for anywhere near what we paid. The deal through Costco provided the extra deluxe character meal and the gift card. Other than those two things, the prices were about the same with AAA and booking directly through Disney Travel.

    The trip is a graduation/birthday present from my parents and we are over-the-moon excited!!

     

  6. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    San Francisco, CA

    Changing the 6 day hopper to 5 only reduces by $60 so what is the extra $340 for?


  7. #6

    Disney is currently offering up to 40% off the disneyland resort hotels. I am not sure if this discount is going on in September when you are planning on going, but I do know that the % off can't be used with other discount offers so if it is going on in when you are planning on going, then you are paying full price for the rooms for three nights and not getting the discounted rate. I called and inquired about reservations for late August and for three nights it was cheaper than five nights (with two free nights for the five night quote). The disneyland hotel for three nights with the summer discount was $208 a night for a total of $624 for three nights. The three nights with two nights free was $320 a night for a total of $960 for five nights. Hope that helps.


  8. #7

    Lightbulb

    For us, it was significantly less to book 'hotel only' with their summer special. We are purchasing the 6 for 4 priced park tickets separately. We reserved two rooms for 6 people at the GCH Aug. 28 - Sept. 2. Vacation packages for 1 standard and 1 view room (including our tickets) totalled $5152 + tax. Buying the hotel and tickets separately added up to $3654 + tax.


  9. #8

    There is a summer special and they may have given you that with the 3 day reservation, but you pay full rack rate price for the 5 for 3? I'm not sure. But generally it's cheaper to book separately.

    Shannon
    Mommy to 3 Princesses and 1 Prince
    Miss M(16), J(13) and R(10), and Mr. N(9)

  10. #9

    When I just went through the process, when I did the 5 night stay, clicking on the promotion details showed that it was the 5 for 3 offer.

    When I went to the 3 night stay, I was NOT offered that offer, but was offered the "Summer Package Offer" instead.

    Obviously that one is the better deal. They've been doing weird things lately, with normal packages being much better than AP rates, different packages, etc etc...just gotta make sure you're comparing apples to apples. In this case, since one was the 5 for 3, and the other is the Summer offer, it's not an equal comparison


  11. #10
    Registered User
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Southern Oregon

    Could the extra amount be tax and resort fee? I think the resort fee is around $13/night and the tax rate is really high (somewhere around 15%).

    My guess is that charge you the resort fee and tax on your free rooms as well as the ones you paid for.


  12. #11
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Sacramento CA

    So I called Disney and asked, and has been posted, on the 5 for 3 package deal you pay the Full Rack Rate on the rooms. So having that in mind I priced out booking rooms at %40 off special offer then getting the 5 for 3 park hopper tickets via AAA and low and behold it was significantly cheaper then the package deal. I re-read the fine print and it doesn't say you pay full rack rate, soooo maybe not a bait and switch, but shady business practise IMHO

    Our first WDW Trip, May 1 - 9 2007

    Quick WDW with just wife and I 5/9/09 - 5/10/09

    Been to DL so many times I couldn't fit it here....

  13. #12
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Quote Originally Posted by sbnuggie View Post
    So I called Disney and asked, and has been posted, on the 5 for 3 package deal you pay the Full Rack Rate on the rooms. So having that in mind I priced out booking rooms at %40 off special offer then getting the 5 for 3 park hopper tickets via AAA and low and behold it was significantly cheaper then the package deal. I re-read the fine print and it doesn't say you pay full rack rate, soooo maybe not a bait and switch, but shady business practise IMHO
    Are there specific dates you must book for the 40% off?

  14. #13
    Ready for MA World Explorers! Drince88's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ny888 View Post
    Changing the 6 day hopper to 5 only reduces by $60 so what is the extra $340 for?
    If I read the part quoted above correctly, you're getting the HOTEL free for 2 nights - not the tickets, so for the price increase shown, you'd have to look at 3 day tickets vs 5 or 6.
    Quote Originally Posted by sbnuggie View Post
    I re-read the fine print and it doesn't say you pay full rack rate, soooo maybe not a bait and switch, but shady business practise IMHO
    I don't think it is shady at all. The 'get 5, pay for 3' is the discount off of rack - hotels (Disney or otherwise) virtually NEVER advertise something like this off of an already discounted rate, it's essentially always going to be off of rack rate.

    The only thing I've seen Disney do in a slightly deceptive manner is that sometimes they advertise room discount rates on a 'per person, double occupancy' rate. That's fine (to me) to advertise packages that way - but not room-only rates. (I was really excited about that for an event at WDW - until I read the fine print - the dollar amount shown shown was a good discount, but not a 'too good to be true' if it had been the whole price for the room)
    Cathy

  15. #14
    At home in the hills candles71's Avatar
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    foresthill Ca
    Quote Originally Posted by Drince88 View Post
    If I read the part quoted above correctly, you're getting the HOTEL free for 2 nights - not the tickets, so for the price increase shown, you'd have to look at 3 day tickets vs 5 or 6.
    We are still in the 5 for 3 park hopper (or 6 days for price of 4) which are the ones that come with the package.

  16. #15
    It's a treasure-we found it together
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    May 2004
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    Arizona

    But you're missing the money maker! If you don't get the package- you don't get the pin AND lanyard!


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