Are Costco Disney Packages Worth It?

A trip to Walt Disney World is one of the most sought after vacations among families. Many families are constantly searching for the best Walt Disney World discounts. There are many different Walt Disney World discounts available including the Costco Disney package which is a question many folks ask- is the Costco Disney package worth it?

Being a money cautious mother, I understand the importance of wanting (and sometimes needing) to save money. If that’s what it takes to make Disney World a possibility for you, then I’d like to help by providing you with money saving tips. As someone who is fortunate enough to visit Disney World often, I look forward to giving you insight on ways to save money so you can go too!

So let's get into all the basics of the Costco Disney package and what it offers and why we think there may be better options out there!

What is the Costco Disney Package?

Costco, fully known as Costco Wholesale, is a membership warehouse club. Customers, known as members, pay an annual membership fee in order to shop at Costco locations. At these locations, you’ll find a variety of brand-name items available in both bulk and at a discounted price.

Products that Costco carries generally fit into the Grocery, Home Essential, and Pet categories. Other departments within their stores are Optical, Pharmacy, and Photo. Besides their products, they also offer a variety of services! These services include Insurance, Home Improvement, Home, Auto, and Business services.

You may be wondering what this has to do with saving money on Disney World vacations. Another service that Costco offers is Travel! At Costco Travel, you can find a variety of theme park tickets and vacation packages. Since Costco is known for its great savings, it’s commonly thought that you can get amazing savings on vacations. Does this also apply to Disney World vacations? That’s what we’re going to take a look at!

Disney World Tickets

Before we take a look at Costco’s Disney World ticket prices, I want to go over the different types of tickets that are available. Disney World has four different ticket types: 1 Park Per Day, Water Park and Sports, Park Hopper, and Park Hopper Plus.

• 1 Park Per Day
  • With this ticket, you’ll be able to visit one theme park in a single day.
• Water Park and Sports
  • With this ticket, you’ll be able to visit one theme park as well as one additional Disney World location in a single day.
  • Additional location options include:
    • Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park (Currently Unavailable)
    • Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
    • ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
    • Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
    • FootGolf at Disney’s Oak Trail
    • Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course (one round; prior to 4pm)
    • Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course (one round; prior to 4pm)
• Park Hopper
  • With this ticket, you’ll be able to visit multiple theme parks in a single day.
• Park Hopper Plus
  • With this ticket, you’ll be able to visit multiple theme parks as well as one additional Disney World location in a single day.
  • Additional location options include:
    • Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park (Currently Unavailable)
    • Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
    • ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
    • Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
    • FootGolf at Disney’s Oak Trail
    • Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course (one round; prior to 4pm)
    • Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course (one round; prior to 4pm)

Now, let’s take a look at Costco’s Disney World ticket prices……

Unfortunately, we can’t. While Costco used to sell standalone Disney World tickets, they no longer do. They do offer Disney World tickets as part of a vacation package, but if you were wanting to purchase tickets only, you won’t be able to get them from Costco.

Luckily, I still have money saving advice for you when it comes to Disney World tickets. Since you can’t get discounted Disney World tickets from Costco, you should head over to Get Away Today! Here at Mickey Visit, we highly value Get Away Today as one of our trusted partners. As a Disney-approved reseller, Get Away Today is able to sell Disney World tickets at the lowest price possible

DISCOUNTED Disney World Tickets

Get Away Today sells all of the Disney World ticket types (1 Park Per Day, Water Park and Sports, Park Hopper, and Park Hopper Plus) at a discounted price. They also currently have a ticket promotion available where you get an extra day free!

Currently, the most savings are available with the Extra Day Free promotion. With this deal, you will receive a 6-Day Disney World Ticket for the price of a 5-Day Ticket! Here are the savings on the Extra Day Free ticket. (Savings amounts will vary depending on the selected date.)

• 5-Day 1 Park Per Day Ticket + Extra Day Free
  • Save up to $70 per ticket off of the original price!
• 5-Day Water Park and Sports Ticket + Extra Day Free
  • Save up to $93 per ticket off of the original price!
• 5-Day Park Hopper Ticket + Extra Day Free
  • Save up to $91 per ticket off of the original price!
• 5-Day Park Hopper Plus Ticket + Extra Day Free
  • Save up to $88 per ticket off of the original price!

Of course, if you’re interested in a different number of park days, other savings are also available! As a tip, the more days you go, the more you save! (Savings also vary depending on selected dates.)

• 1 Park Per Day
  • 2-Day to 10-Day Ticket
  • $10-$54 of available savings per ticket!
• Water Park and Sports
  • 3-Day to 10-Day Ticket
  • $40-$83 of available savings per ticket!
• Park Hopper
  • 2-Day to 10-Day Ticket
  • $8-$84 of available savings per ticket!
• Park Hopper Plus
  • 2-Day to 10-Day Ticket
  • $8-$80 of available savings per ticket!

Costco Disney World Vacation Packages

While Costco doesn’t sell Disney World tickets, they do sell vacation packages that include tickets. Currently on their website, they have over 20 different vacation packages for the Orlando area that include a hotel stay as well as Disney World tickets.

Available hotel options are:

• All Walt Disney World Resort hotels
• JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes
• Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Hotel
• Caribe Royale Orlando
• Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
• Gaylord Palms Resort
• Melia Orlando Celebration
• Waldorf Astoria Orlando
• Orlando World Center Marriott
• Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
• Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
• Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate
• Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
• Sheraton Vistana Villages Resort
• Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Lake Buena Vista
• JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa
• Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas
• Margaritaville Cottages Orlando
• Holiday Inn Orlando Disney Springs Area
• Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
• Hyatt Place Orlando I-Drive/Convention Center

However, these packages still aren’t discounted. The tickets aren’t discounted and the hotel stays aren’t discounted either. Some of the hotels in the packages offer incentives such as resort credits, room upgrades, waived resort fees, free breakfast, or Costco Shop Cards (a gift card to use at Costco). Occasionally, Costco will also add its own incentives or deals for members who purchase a Disney World vacation package.

Are Costco Disney Packages Worth It?

While these incentives are understandably appealing, booking your Disney World vacation package through Costco Travel still has its disadvantages. For starters, the initial deposit that you’re required to pay is much more than you’d even pay by booking directly through Disney World’s website. When you book with Costco Travel, you’re required to pay for the tickets in full as well as $100 per person on the reservation.

Another downside is that your balance needs to be paid farther in advance than it does even for direct Disney bookings. When you book through Disney World, your full balance isn’t due until 30 days in advance. Your Costco Travel Disney World package will need to be fully paid off 45 days in advance.

Costco Travel also adds additional items to your package without first confirming with you, such as Mears Transportation between the airport and your Walt Disney World Resort hotel. While you do have the option to remove this transfer, you may not even notice that it was added to your package before you book it. When I was putting together a vacation package to reference for this article, I only noticed the Mears Transportation addition because I was going out of my way to read the small print and collect as much information as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if many people don’t notice that this additional service and cost have been added to their vacation package until it’s been booked.

On that note, Costco Travel Disney World packages are not very flexible. Plans change and things come up. It’s nice to know that you can make changes to your vacation without being punished. I was astounded when I saw the cancellation policy for the vacation package that I had put together. As of the booking date, if I needed to cancel, 55% of my vacation package would be non-refundable. The closer you get to the arrival date, the higher the non-refundable percentage goes up. After 55%, it went up to 70% non-refundable, and then it became completely non-refundable after that.

Also, let’s not forget that in order to book with Costco, you must first be a Costco Member. If you’re not an existing Costco Member, you’ll need to add on the price of a Costco Membership to your expected fees. A standard Costco Membership is $60 per year. They also have an Executive Membership that comes with additional perks. This membership will cost you $120 per year.

Get Away Today Vacation Packages

Enough with the bad news. It’s time to get back to providing you with ways on how to actually save money on your Walt Disney World vacation package. Get Away Today was able to come through and still provide an opportunity to save money on standalone Disney World tickets. Well, guess what. They’re going to do it again for your vacation packages!

First of all, you will actually be able to book a discounted vacation package with Get Away Today. This alone is a fantastic reason to book with them rather than Costco. Yes, Costco does have some incentives, BUT you will receive so much more value for your money when booking with Get Away Today.

There are so many perks that come along with booking a Walt Disney World vacation package with the amazing agents at Get Away Today. For starters, if you book a vacation package that’s a 2-night stay or longer, you’ll receive Get Away Today’s concierge service absolutely free! Unlike the feeling you get with Costco, where it feels like they book you and forget you, you’ll have an agent by your side throughout the entire process.

Your Get Away Today agent won’t just get you in the books, take your money, and move on. They actually CARE about you and your magical vacation. The agents at Get Away Today are experienced and professional. They will help you with absolutely every detail of your trip, not just the booking. Of course they will get your resort booked and tickets purchased, but they will also wake up early to make those hard to get dining reservations so you don’t have to! Have an Enchanting Extra that you’re interested in? They’ll get that reserved too! No matter what you need, big or small, Get Away Today will make it happen.

Furthermore, when you book your vacation with Get Away Today, your deposit will be exceptionally lower than the one that Costco will ask of you. With Get Away Today, you’re only required to put $200 down. This will then put you on their Layaway Plan. With this plan, after making your $200 deposit, you can make flexible payments that are convenient for you. You’ll have the option to set up automatic payments to pay your remaining balance or you can choose to pay them on your own timeframe. Also, as opposed to having to pay your balance off 45 days in advance, with Get Away Today, your final payment won’t be due until 9 DAYS in advance.

Additionally, Get Away Today offers a Peace of Mind Plan. This plan does exactly as it says. It gives you peace of mind. Unlike Costco, who has strict cancellation policies and little to no flexibility, you will have absolute freedom with the Peace of Mind Plan. When you have this plan, you’ll be able to make multiple changes to your vacation package without any fees. Change your ticket option, reschedule your hotel stay, completely change your hotel, drop a night off of your stay, cancel your hotel, or cancel your whole package for FREE.

Start Planning Today

Let’s go back to the initial question. Is a Costco Disney World package worth it? The only outstanding perks that I can find from a Costco Disney World vacation package are the incentives that are sometimes available. However, I don’t personally feel like the perks outweigh the restrictions and lack of flexibility that come along with their vacation packages. Plus there’s the simple fact that you don’t save money by booking their vacation packages and that’s our main goal here.

Choose savings, peace of mine, flexibility, and care by booking your Walt Disney World vacation package with Get Away Today. Contact them today to get started! Remember, if you simply need tickets, they have discounted Walt Disney World tickets that you can purchase separately. However, when it comes to taking care of ALL of your Disney vacation needs, you can’t go wrong with Get Away Today.

Costco Disney Package Q&A