Hey Howdy Hey Janely and welcome to planDisney!
Oh my gosh Janely, looks like your trip is coming up soon! I bet you all are getting super excited about your big trip next month. It sounds like the booking process is coming along, we just need to get you that extra bit further to have all the reservations you need. Let's review hotel and ticket bookings and hopefully get your trip set!
First off, let's review
vacation package info. Booking a vacation package involves park tickets and hotel accommodations at a
Disney Resort Collection hotel at the same time on the same reservation number. If you already have your tickets purchased, Hakuna Matata, you will just book a
room-only reservation.
Booking a room-only reservation would only be a reservation for your hotel accommodations in which you will have to put a down payment of the first night's stay plus tax to reserve. The rest of the amount due would be due when you check into your hotel. If you have these items booked separately, they will all come together still in one place, your
My Disney Experience account.
On your My Disney Experience account, you will be able to link your tickets as well as hotel reservation so you will be able to see all of them in one place. When you log onto your My Disney Experience account, you should see icons at the top of your account for "Hotel" and "Tickets". If you hover over them, you should see an option pop up to "Link Reservation" for each. You should have received a confirmation email for both hotel and ticket purchases if done separately, in which you should link the appropriate confirmation number in each of those emails to the corresponding link. If you booked a vacation package, the confirmation number would be linked under the "Hotel" option and both hotel and tickets will both be linked automatically.
As for benefits, well that would depend on what is available. Where it comes into play would be with
Special Offers that Disney has available. Sometimes these offers apply only to vacation packages, sometimes they will be room-only. You can check to see which offers are available currently and then see if they would apply to your plans at this point. You are also able to book a reservation now and then if an offer does come out that applies to your trip, you can have that offer applied to your account either by going through your My Disney Experience account or by
calling Disney and having a Cast Member walk you through that process.
I hope this information helped get your trip booked. There can be a lot of options when it comes to booking your vacation for a trip to Walt Disney World, but if you have any further questions please feel free to reach out. All of us here at planDisney are always ready to discuss the ins and outs of planning a trip to Walt Disney World! Best of luck with your continued planning!
Have a Magical Day,
Nick