I have not posted here in years, but found everyone here very helpful when planning my family’s first trip to WDW back in August 2019. We had an amazing trip then, and did two DAH events at MK and AK (+H2O Glow), and vowed if we ever went to WDW again we would prioritize those after hours events again. Well, now I am planning a return trip for late August 2023, because my kids (twins) will be 17 this summer and I thought it would make sense to take them again before they became adults and we had to pay more for hotels, etc.
I have booked a package with the current Dining Card promotion, staying at the most affordable (hah!) deluxe for our dates, AKL. I chose deluxe because of the currently offered EEH perk, and kind of hoping/assuming it would still be in place for August. However, I know that for dates this spring, the DAH events all clash with EEH evenings (Mondays and Wednesdays), and so I am guessing that this might be the case when (if?) Disney announces dates for DAH in August. If there was a chance to get DAH tickets, I’d do that in a heartbeat and skip the EEH… at which point I might feel like I wasted my money on booking a deluxe resort. I do think AKL might be a great experience, but at the same time we could probably have just as nice a time staying at a moderate resort, for almost $1000 less, and put the difference towards the DAH tickets.
But since Disney won’t announce dates for DAH and/or EEH until much closer to our trip, I am feeling a bit unsure of what to do. Can I book a second package, same dates, but at a moderate resort? Would I have to create a different account to do that - e.g. sign my DH up for an account and have the reservation in his name? Currently I have the Disney account and the others are just listed in my friends & family list. Would DH be able to make an account and have us listed as his friends & family, so that he could get as far as making theme park reservations? Are there any downsides that I’m not anticipating? I assume the dust will have settled in terms of what’s been announced and therefore which reservation we’d keep (and which we’d cancel) by the time we hit the 60 day dining reservation booking, payment deadlines, etc.
Or is staying at AKL going to be so much better than a moderate like CBR or POFQ that I should stick with paying the premium for it anyways? On our previous trip, we did a split stay at Poly and BC with good room-only rates through a travel agent. Loved the Poly. Did not care for BC itself but enjoyed the easy access to Epcot and HS. This time, we would probably invest in a lot of Ubers if we were at AKL. The resort pool is not make or break for us, as we would visit the water parks. Transportation and dining would be more important factors in our decision between moderates and AKL.
Sorry this turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated! Thanks for reading this far. Any advice or insights would be much appreciated!
