There are (broadly speaking) two ways to book your Walt Disney World Resort vacation. You can book your room and tickets separately or you can purchase them together from Disney as a package. In this post, we discuss how to evaluate these options and settle on the best way to book your Disney vacation.
About This Post
This post is a bit of a deep (or, deep-ish) dive into the ways you can book your Disney vacation. Specifically, you can book the whole thing—mainly tickets and hotel—as a package through Disney or you can book your hotel and tickets separately, through third parties or through Disney.
In some thousands of words, this post explains that there are basically two factors that determine how you book your trip:
price
booking terms / conditions
Along the way you’ll learn some terminology and some details about different ways to book, but if you’re looking for a bottom line for all situations, you won’t find it here. Instead, you’ll find us repeatedly emphasizing that you have to compare pricing (and terms) on all your options and book the best one.
Disclaimer
Second, this post discusses various policies pertaining to things like deposits and cancellation. You should always confirm the policies of your booking with Disney or your booking agent/site. Priceline, for example, often uses non-refundable booking for their deepest deals.
Ways to Book a Disney Vacation
Before we go on, I want to emphasize some important points. Most of the important perks when you stay at Disney World are tied to what hotel you stay at and it doesn’t matter how you book that hotel. A guest at Pop Century gets the same set of perks whether the book through a travel agent, on their own through Disney, or on their own through Priceline.
<p style="font-size:1px"> </p>
Similarly, the ticket types and options don’t vary much. All guests who have park hopper tickets are subject to the same set of rules for hopping regardless of where they purchased those tickets (importantly, though, rules regarding ticket refunds will vary by seller).
Finally, this post is concerned only with booking Disney hotels—that is hotels owned and operated by Disney. We’re completely supportive of staying at some other hotels—or even the occasional Airbnb—but in the context of this post the issues get a bit unwieldy (e.g. I don’t want to spend time discussing what status benefits Marriott elites who book through a travel agent at Swan & Dolphin should expect). We have a complete guide to the Disney World hotels if you need more information.
For the purposes of this post, then, we’re concerned with two ways to book Disney World vacations. First, you can book a package through Disney directly. This will usually include a room and tickets, and (if available) may include a dining plan.
Second, you can book your room and ticket separately, through Disney or third parties. As I mentioned above, this won’t impact perks etc., but it may impact things like cancellation / deposit rules and access to dining plans. Those issues aside, this mostly comes down to one thing—price. So we’ll provide an example of how this pricing can work out below, but first, let’s talk a little bit more about these ways of booking.
One last note on terminology—when you’re booking a room without rickets through Disney, we call it a “Room Only” booking. It sometimes makes sense to talk specifically about booking a room through Disney (as opposed to a third party), so we’ll occasionally handle it separately from third parties.
Disney World Package Bookings
Generally, a “Disney vacation package” is booked through Disney and includes a room and park admission for your party. You can book a package, with or without a dining plan, easily online, by calling Disney at (407) W-DISNEY or through a travel agent.
You can book flights through Disney as part of your package, too, but we can’t see any good reason to do this, and we haven’t done this in over a decade.
Package bookings make sense if:
you need both a room and a ticket OR
you need a dining plan* OR
Disney package pricing is the lowest available OR
the Disney package booking terms/conditions specifically appeal to you
*Dining plans can be added to regular packages, but there are also “ticketless packages,” which basically consist of a room booking with a dining plan. We discuss these more below.
The key point of pricing here is that sometimes Disney releases deals that are only applicable to packages. So you might find a deal that’s, say, $50 off per night on package bookings but not room-only bookings. Depending on how pricing with third parties works out, this could make booking a Disney package your best option.
Disney World Room Only / Ticket Bookings
If you choose not to book a package, but still book your hotel through Disney you’ll be making a “room-only” reservation. Also, you can book a package without tickets (a “ticketless package”), which we cover at the very end of this post.
Assuming no room / ticket / package discounts are available, booking your ticket and hotel separately but both through Disney will give you the same pricing as a package booked through Disney. Notably, though, you might wind up with very different terms / conditions.
Room Only bookings make sense if:
you can beat Disney’s package pricing by buying your ticket separately OR
the Disney room only booking terms/conditions specifically appeal to you
Immediately I want to point out that Disney World tickets bought from Disney are generally non-refundable. This means it rarely makes sense to book both tickets and rooms separately through Disney.
Third Party Bookings
Finally, you can book your room, ticket, or both through a third party. Booking through a third party makes sense if:
you can beat Disney’s pricing OR
the booking terms/conditions specifically appeal to you
While Disney’s hotel and package terms are fairly generous, you might find third parties with more generous ticket terms (namely, refund-ability) than Disney.
Discounts Available Through Disney
With the basic booking types under our belt, we’ll now discuss the types of discounts and deals you might get from Disney and third parties, starting with Disney.
Check For Official Disney World Hotel Deals
If any deals are available, note them. They’ll show up when you search for a specific date range. Or you can just view all available offers on the Walt Disney World offers page (but remember they may be out of availability on your dates, though).
As mentioned above, deals can be package discounts or room only discounts. Package discounts require you to buy your ticket and hotel as a package through Disney, and room only discounts only require the room booking.
Look Into Future Disney World Hotel Deals
The past is not always a good predictor of the future, but Disney does tend to recycle the same deals at about the same times each year. Check the MouseSavers table of historical deals for an idea of what might be coming up.
Catch A Deal With Your Disney Visa Card
As with annual passholders, Disney occasionally makes exclusive offers to Disney Rewards Chase Visa cardholders. These aren’t often exceptional, they’re usually just extensions in dates of publicly available offers (see the Mousesavers table for details). Nonetheless, if you want the full range of offers, you'll want to consider carrying this card.
Disney World Annual Passholders Access Exclusive Deals
Disney World annual passholders are frequently given access to exclusive deals. These are some of the better deals the Disney offers, actually, with 25% to 35% discounts being common. If you’re looking at a stay for dates they have or usually have a deal, it can make financial sense to get an annual pass to save on tickets and hotels just for a single stay.
Save 8%+ When Purchasing With Discount Disney Gift Cards
If Disney is offering a competitive rate, remember that by using discount Disney gift cards you can usually save about 8 to 10%. We think you can usually beat this (or at least come close) using some other methods, but you'll want to keep it in mind.
Notable Third Party Options
There are endless websites these days that you can use to book hotels online. There are fewer, but still many, that sell Disney World tickets. Here are some of the notable options.
For tickets, we have a separate post specifically focusing on discount Disney World tickets. Head there for all your needs in that area. Typically, we use/recommend Undercover Tourist, mostly out of familiarity.
For hotels, there are a variety of options…
Rent Disney Vacation Club Points
Undoubtedly the best way to do a deluxe stay for a discounted amount is to rent Disney Vacation Club points or book a fixed Disney Vacation Club reservation. These options require the most flexibility or, in the case of high demand rentals, really far advance planning. We recommend visiting David’s Vacation Club Rentals (affiliate link) for the best deals. We reviewed our experience with them in an earlier post.
Try The Usual Suspect Hotel Sites
Whenever we start planning to book a Walt Disney World trip (or any trip, really) we search all the following sites for the best rates: Kayak, Priceline, Expedia, Hotels.com, Undercover Tourist and Booking.com.
Consider Priceline Express
Priceline Express is a service of Priceline where you can book hotels (including some Walt Disney World Resort hotels) at discounted rates without knowing what hotel you’re booking. We don’t use Pricelines Express—it just doesn’t make sense given how much thought we put into choosing our hotel. Here are tips from Disney Tourist Blog on using Priceline Express.
Use Citi Prestige 4th Night Free
This is the credit card perk we've gotten the most value out of the past two years, and most of it was at Disney. Now, Citi has limited it to two uses per year, but it is still worth knowing about. The Citi Prestige 4th Night Free perk takes 25% off the cost of your first four nights at any hotel, including Disney hotels.
Book Using Marriott Points
Okay, I said we were only doing Disney hotels, but I need to mention that booking a Disney World stay with Marriott points is a good option for people looking to stay at the Swan & Dolphin or Swan Reserve. These aren’t owned/operated by Disney, but they get most of the major perks.
Ways To Book - Rules and Restrictions
Let’s now discuss how terms and conditions can vary based on how you book. One reason people often pick a package or a room only booking is because the cancellation and deposit rules are different. As mentioned above, always confirm these at the time of booking.
Disney Package Rules and Restrictions
Disney’s packages require a $200 deposit and can be modified or cancelled without penalty up to 30 days in advance of your trip (airfare is always nonrefundable). After that, cancellations fees and restrictions apply. Full payment is due 30 days in advance of your trip.
Disney Room-Only Rules and Restrictions
Disney’s Room-only bookings require a deposit of the first night (so, often higher than $200), but are modifiable and cancellable up to five days prior to arrival (eight days beginning in 2025). Full payment is due at check-in. If you book your room through a third party, they may or may not use the same terms. Since we’re annual passholders, most of our bookings made through Disney are room only.
Third Party Rules and Restrictions
We can’t cover every third party here, so instead I want to highlight some issues you might want to consider when booking through a third party:
What is the required deposit for a hotel room?
When is the balance due for the hotel room?
If I cancel the hotel room, will I get a full or partial refund? Will I get a site credit?
Are tickets refundable?
Are tickets refundable once they’re linked to My Disney Experience?
Deciding How To Book Your Disney Vacation
Note: For the rest of this post, we’re done talking about booking terms / conditions. If cancellation / deposit policies matter to you, just keep them in mind throughout this.
We’ll show an example of this below, but here’s how you can decide the best way to book your trip. The first step in figuring out the best way to book your Disney World vacation is to see how much Disney is planning to charge you. Head over to the Disney World website and price out your trip, noting these factors:
Dates
Party Size
Hotel / Room Category
Ticket Length / Type
For party size, note that kids 10+ are priced as adults for ticket purposes. For ticket type, specifically note whether you’re planning to get any of the Park Hopper, Water Park and Sports, or Park Hopper Plus options. Make sure you try both room only and package options, particularly if there are any ongoing deals. Some deals are only for packages, some are only for rooms, and you need to find the combination that works best.
Note the best room only hotel price, because it might wind up being the best hotel price you find.
The second step is to see if you can beat Disney’s price. You should research discount Disney World ticket brokers to find the best price on tickets, and then probably use a site like Kayak.com to see if you can beat Disney’s hotel pricing. You might find a winning combination, you might now.
Overall these two steps are simple, if not time consuming because there are lots of different places to buy your tickets and hotel room. Let’s just discuss two quick wrinkles before moving onto our own example.
First, on rare occasions you’ll see availability for a specific room when booking a package but not when booking a room-only or when searching third-party sites. It’s very rare, and maybe even just a system glitch, but it’s worth a quick check. Second, if you want to use a Disney Dining Plan, you’ll need to book your room through Disney either as part of a full package (with tickets), or a ticketless package.
Dining Plans and Free Dining Discounts
Dining Plans allow you to pay ahead for a set amount of credits that you then use at restaurants throughout Walt Disney World resort. You can’t be a freestanding Dining Plan, it needs to be a part of a package. As a result, Room Only discounts won’t be available to you if you want a Dining Plan. You also won’t be able to book your room through a third party. While there are “ticketless” packages, there are no “roomless” packages.
Disney routinely offers discounts that are only good on package bookings, and biggest example of a package discount is Free Dining. You can only take advantage of Free Dining offers if you buy a vacation package, complete with a room and park tickets, from Disney.
You can read more about free dining in our post covering the Disney dining plans. We also have a post that is regularly updated with the latest Disney World Free Dining dates.
Best Way to Book Disney World Vacation - Example
Now we’ll go ahead and do an example of this “on the fly” (with no prior preparation). As I write this, there’s an early 2023 package deal available. Keep in mind you’ll sometimes see multiple deals available through Disney. (In fact…later on in this section I’ll spice things up with one last twist.)
Since I want to show an example with a package deal, I’ll book when that’s available. Here are the parameters of my example:
February 6 to 10, 2023
Two Adults + One 10-year old
Coronado Springs Standard View Room
5-Day Tickets, No Park Hopper
When you do this search on the Disney World website, you’ll see you can book at the regular Room rate, the regular Package rate, or the current offer rate. If multiple offers are available, you might need to compare them:
Disney Pricing Without Package Offer
The standard pricing for this package through Disney comes to $2,812.55. This price includes taxes/fees. Of note, even though there is an available deal for this room, Disney will let me book it without the deal. It defaults to the deal, which is nice in this case but can mean you need to do a bit of work to make sure the Disney website is showing you the lowest hotel prices in other cases.
Disney Pricing With Package Offer
Booking with the offer pricing, the package costs $2,632.55, for savings of $180. I’m not sure why it’s $180 since the savings of $40 per night would come to $160, but that’s what it shows me. This price includes taxes/fees.
Booking Hotel and Tickets Separately
Okay, the “Disney Pricing Without Package Offer” above is the pricing you’d get for tickets and hotel through Disney separately (except when there’s a discount involved, packaging doesn’t impact pricing at Disney). So now let’s try and book our tickets and hotels from separate parties.
The obvious place to start is getting Disney World tickets from Undercover Tourist. When purchased from Undercover Tourist, the tickets total $1,704.81.
Now, for the hotel I’ll look at two options. Interestingly, I wasn’t able to find this stay on any of the usual suspects (Booking, Hotels, Expedia), but I did find it on Undercover Tourist (they do hotels, too). Here is the room-only pricing via Disney directly and via Undercover Tourist:
$1,065.38 via Disney directly
$1,007.18 via Undercover Tourist
We’ll do with the lower Undercover Tourist pricing, for a grand total of $2,711.99.
Comparing the Results
Now we’ve got three separate ways to book.
Disney Without Discount — $2,812.55
Undercover Tourist — $2,711.99
Disney With Discount — $2,632.55
Obviously if there’s a discount ongoing, you’ll want to book with it. But I want to note the higher pricing because it reflects how important it is to consider all your options.
Oftentimes booking directly through Disney is more expensive (as in this case if there were no deal available). But if Disney has a deal, whether its a room-only deal or a package deal, you might find that booking through them is now the best option (as in this case since there is a deal available).
But Wait…There’s More
As it turns out, there is also a Room Only discount available for annual passholders at the moment. If I log into my Disney account and do this same search, I’ve now got an extra option to consider:
When I use that deal, the room comes down to $852.33 via Disney directly (20% off rack rate). That means our total package would come to $2,557.14, or $75 better than the best price we got above with Disney’s package discount.
Obviously it’s rare an annual passholder would book this room with tickets, but that’s beside the point—this offer could just as easily be available to everyone (and such deals for Florida residents and DVC members are pretty common). The point is simply to show that when multiple deals are available, you need to consider all of them.
Ticketless Packages
Finally, we need to talk about ticketless packages. A ticketless package is a package of a room and dining plan for your party. It does not include tickets. Ticketless packages cannot be booked online—you’ll need to work with a travel agent (our preference) or call Disney’s travel specialists at (407) 939-1936.
A ticketless package can make sense if you want to purchase discount tickets and want to purchase a Disney dining plan. You won’t be able to get Free Dining using a ticketless package, though.
Ticketless packages are also sensible for people who have a Walt Disney World annual pass, but would like to take advantage of the Disney dining plans. Ticketless packages are subject to the package rules, which might make them less appealing.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.