Disney's Magic Your Way Packages (MYW)

This Article Was Contributed by Keith

So what is it? What was wrong with what was around before? For the cynical among us (including the writer) it's the latest foray by Disney Marketing to make its guests stop using their brains to save money and just give in to the inevitable and use the Walt Disney Travel Company. If ever there was a Disney idea that simply won't die it's the WDTC. For the less-cynical among us it's an opportunity to buy a package from the Walt Disney Travel Company that will allow you to get your room, ticket, food and any extras you want booked at one fell swoop.

Essentially there are four levels of Magic Your Way to be enjoyed. The basic package allows you to reserve your room and buy your park tickets; all you have to figure out is where you want to stay and how many days of tickets you want. The Plus Dining option allows you to perform the afore-mentioned room and ticket function but add on a dining plan. The Premium Dining Plan add-on allows some significant add-ons to the package including recreational activities and behind the scenes tours. The Platinum package is the top-of-the-line package that includes some special add-ons such as visits to the spas.

The dining options are outlined in the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) section.

Although packages do spell convenience, no matter how Disney dresses it up and re-names it, this is just the latest effort to get the public to adopt Disney Marketing's idea and use the WDTC. I don't know why (of course I do) the WDTC doesn't just ask for your bank account number and simply start deducting money. We can trust them, can't we? After all it's Walt's company. Right??? Wrong!!! It hasn't been Walt's company since Michael Eisner and now Robert Iger took the reins and it won't ever be again.

People, by and large, buy packages from travel agents because it's economically viable to do so.
Example: Flights = $ 1000. Hotel = $1200. Rental car = $300. Tickets = $400. Total cost = $2900. Sold as a package = $2200. That package rate is available because the travel agent negotiates rates (discounts) with the airline, hotel, car-rental company and theme park to make their products available for less due to bulk buying. You cannot individually make that same purchase alone because you are not privy to the discounts. Your cost will be theoretically higher by purchasing each element eclectically.

In the case of Disney you would think that, with the WDTC and WDW being under the same umbrella, the WDTC could make that same negotiation internally with Disney to offer discounts on the rooms, tickets and meals to make their package more affordable than if an individual tried to do it themselves. Not so. Unfortunately the Gordon Gekko (Wall Street) mentality is pervasive and "greed is good" is the watchword. To this day you can, if you choose, cherry-pick your room, tickets and meals and save hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars over buying a package.

The WDTC is there to maximize Disney's dollars and they will sell you the priciest vacation they can unless you specifically request otherwise (see the section on booking through and dealing with the CRO) and, by the way, so they should -- that's their job. They will also try to sell you a package at every opportunity possible. By selling a package they get full dollars for everything they want to sell you knowing full-well that you will struggle or fail to take enjoyment of all those package elements. How many times do your plans change because one of the kids gets sick? That's park tickets burned. How many meals get skipped because everyone is too tired to eat and elects to get an early night? That's all those prepaid meals skipped. You realize that the behind the scenes tour finishes too late to allow you to meet up for lunch so you just browse off a snack cart. That's a prepaid lunch (or four) wasted.

Remember the last Marketing attempt to separate you from your money by offering something "for your convenience"? [I wish they would stop that "Marketing-speak" and simply say "for the good of Disney's pocket" or perhaps nothing at all. It might not sell more but it would at least be honest.] Remember the Length of Stay passes? What a wonderful idea everyone thought. A pass that starts the day I arrive and finishes the day I leave. It could be great until you read what that entailed.

It basically charged you for a ticket starting at 00:01 a.m. on the day you arrived in the hotel until 11:59 p.m. on the day you departed. Let's say you were flying in from Seattle and got in to the Poly at 7:30 p.m., you paid for a full ticket for you and your entire entourage for all that day even though you probably couldn't use any part of those tickets until the next morning. Oh! And by the way, if you had to leave to go the airport at 07:30 a.m. on your day of departure, Disney happily charged you another full set of tickets for the day you departed despite the fact that you were off the resort and couldn't possibly use the tickets. So you were sitting at an airport or on a plane being charged for a day ticket in the resort that you couldn't use. Is it any surprise that the LOS passes went the way of the dodo and became extinct? Most folks were fairly savvy and decided that it made as much sense to have an LOS Disney pass as it did to pay Hertz for a car in Orlando while you were driving to your home on Puget Sound.

The choice is, as in all things "package", purely a matter of preference. Some folks would never buy a package because they can buy their vacation cheaper themselves; others would not go any other way because of convenience; a third group is probably blissfully unaware that they even have a choice. Sadly the third group may be the largest group out there.

Last Updated: May 9, 2009