New Walt Disney World holiday packages for UK Residents
UPDATE May 8th 2023 - Since writing this blog Disney have announced that the ‘Dining Plan’ will be coming back starting January 9th 2024.
From The Walt Disney World website
“Beginning 31st May 2023, you can add a dining plan to Walt Disney Travel Company packages that include a Disney Resort hotel stay with arrivals on or after 9th January 2024. While some dining plan information is currently available on the Walt Disney World website, complete details and participating locations will be shared beginning 31st May 2023. Please check back on 31st May to learn more.
Up to $2,100 Disney Dining Credit included in our 2024 Early Booker Package cannot be used to pay for a dining plan. However, you can still purchase a dining plan (beginning 31st May 2023) and use your Disney Dining Credit to boost it!”
Once we have more information on 31st May I will write a new blog about the returning Dining Plan. The below information about the ‘Early Booker’ package is still correct however you may want to wait until the 31st May to see what the difference to your package may be. But please bear in mind that your price may increase during this time. As stated on the Disney website you can add the dining plan to a package at a later date.
Walt Disney World have released a new ‘Early Booker’ holiday package deal for UK residents for travel in 2024. This deal is valid for booking from now until July 6th 2023 for holidays between the 9th January and 18th December 2024, with a low deposit of £50 per person.
This deal is available directly through Disney but also through other travel agents including Virgin Holidays.
As with all package deals there is a lot of small print so make sure you read everything when booking your holiday and check that it is the best deal for you. The low deposit can be tempting but make sure you can make the final payment which is due 56 days before the start of your trip, or you loose your deposit.
There are many parts to this holiday deal and I will try to outline them as best as I can. However please remember Berryman Adventures is not a travel agent and you should do your own research before booking you trip.
Walt Disney World UK residents holiday deal.
The first thing to note is that there is no money off your trip with this deal. This deal offers different values of dining and merchandise gift cards dependant on the hotel you stay at, and the date of your trip. As the ‘Disney Dining Plan’ has not returned post covid the dining aspect of this gift card is a great way to help cover the cost of all that tasty food.
To qualify for the deal;
You have to stay at a participating Walt Disney World Resort Hotel
You have to stay for 2 weeks
You think “Great, I was going to do that anyway”.
So now you look at which resort hotels offer the highest value dining & merchandise gift card.
Value Resorts - All Star Movies, All Star Sports, All Star Music & Pop Century - $700 gift card per room
Moderate Resorts - Art of Animation Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort, Coronado Springs Resort, Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter, Port Orleans Resort - Riverside & The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort - $1400 gift card per room
Deluxe Resorts - Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club Resort, BoardWalk Inn, Contemporary Resort, Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Polynesian Village Resort, Wilderness Lodge, Yacht Club Resort - $2100 gift card per room
Deluxe Villas - Bay Lake Tower, Boulder Ridge Villas, Copper Creek Villas & Cabins, Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village, Riviera Resort, Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa - $2100 gift card per room
But here’s where the small print starts to become important. These higher gift card values are only available for stays in August & September 2024. However if you are staying from the 9th January to July 2024 or October to December 18th 2024 those gift card values are lower.
Value Resorts - $504 gift card per room
Moderate Resorts - $1008 gift card per room
Deluxe Resorts - $1204 gift card per room
Deluxe Villas - $1204 gift card per room
These are still great value gift cards, but something to bear in mind when looking at different dates.
Another aspect to this ‘Early Booker’ holiday package is an additional $200 Disney Gift Card just for booking the holiday package.
This is doubled to $400 if you book your flight through Disney. However if you are booking your trip through a travel agent like Virgin Holidays, this extra $200 is not available. Interestingly the flight providers on offer through the Disney website are British Airways and Virgin Atlantic so to get the full value of the deal you may be better off booking direct with Disney.
The final advertised feature of the ‘Early Booker’ package is a ‘14 day park hopper ticket for the price of 7 days with Memory Maker’. This ticket deal is available to all UK residents regardless of whether you are booking your trip through Disney or even if you aren’t staying on Disney property.
We have purchased the ‘14 day park hopper ticket for the price of 7 days’ for our upcoming trip in June 2023.
This ticket is £519 per person ages 10+ and £499 per person ages 3-9.
With this ticket you can visit all the theme parks and water parks, park hop after 2pm and have the full use of ‘Memory Maker’ Disneys photo service. Remember you will still need park reservations to enter a park each day, the ticket does not guarantee you entry if the park is full so check the park reservation availability before you book your trip.
Lets price up a trip in January 2024 for 2 adults
Holiday prices for 2 adults in January 2024 not including park tickets
As you can see in the video the prices range from £2892.04 at All Star Music to £38,354.04 at the Riviera (At the time of writing). The Riviera price is misleading as this is for a 3 bedroom villa that sleeps 12 people where as the All Star Music resort is a standard room which sleeps up to 4 people.
These prices include flights but not park tickets.
As you scroll through the availability you can see the dining and merchandise credit on offer for each resort and also that the $400 gift card has been added as flights have been included in the price.
Lets dive a little deeper into a value resort option, All Star Music, a moderate resort option, Caribbean Beach and the most expensive standard room option that you can book online which is at the Boardwalk Inn, a deluxe resort.
The All Star Music resort option is for a standard room which can sleep up to 4 guests is £289.04 for 2 adults for weeks. You would receive a dining and merchandise gift card of $504 (£398.76), $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking the package and a $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking your flights. If you want to add park tickets that is an extra £1058 for 2 adults. With the park tickets you also receive memory maker which has a value of $199 (£157.45) if bought separately.
Your actual total for the 2 week stay would including flights and park tickets be £3950.04 or £1975.02 per adult.
You would receive a total of $904 (£715.24) in Disney Gift cards.
The Caribbean Beach resort option is for a standard room which sleeps up to 5 guests is £4516.04 for 2 adults for weeks. You would receive a dining and merchandise gift card of $1008 (£797.53), $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking the package and a $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking your flights. If you want to add park tickets that is an extra £1058 for 2 adults. With the park tickets you also receive memory maker which has a value of $199 (£157.45) if bought separately.
Your actual total for the 2 week stay including flights and park tickets would be £5574.04 or £2787.02 per adult
You would receive a total of $1408 (£1114.01) in Disney Gift cards.
The Boardwalk Inn resort option is for a water view room which sleeps up to 5 guests is £10,088.04 for 2 adults for 2 weeks. You would receive a dining and merchandise gift card of $1204 (£952.60), $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking the package and a $200 (£158.24) Disney gift card for booking your flights. If you want to add park tickets that is an extra £1058 for 2 adults. With the park tickets you also receive memory maker which has a value of $199 (£157.45) if bought separately.
Your actual total for the 2 week stay including flights and park tickets would be £11,146.04 or £5573.02 per adult
You would receive a total of $1604 (£1269.08) in Disney Gift cards.
So is the difference in price worth it?
You get $504 (£398.77) more in Disney Gift cards for the £1624 increase in price between All Star Music and Caribbean Beach.
You get $700 (£553.80) more in Disney Gift cards for the £7196 increase in price between All Star Music and Boardwalk Inn.
You only get a $200 (£158.24) more in Disney Gift cards for the £5572 increase in price between Caribbean Beach and Boardwalk Inn.
The short answer is possibly no. You do however need to take into account the pros and cons of each resort.
All Star Music only has bus transportation to the parks whereas you can catch the Skyliner from Caribbean beach to Epcot & Hollywood Studios, but you can walk to Epcot & Hollywood Studios from Boardwalk Inn.
All Star Music has wonderful themeing and you really feel like you are at a Disney Resort whereas Caribbean Beach and Boardwalk Inn have a more subtle Disney inspired design.
Caribbean Beach and Boardwalk Inn boast multiple sit down and quick service dining options but All Star Music only has quick serve.
For more information on each resort you could read our page all about Walt Disney World resort hotels.
Only you can decided what your budget is and what is important for your hotel choice. I recommend if you are thinking about a WDW trip in 2024 to take a look at the deals before the 6th July 2023 to take advantage of the gift cards on offer, if your going to go anyway might as well be given some of that money back!