Hi Alison!
This is a great question. Unlike a fast food restaurant where you try to order the same items that come in a combo meal but in a smaller size, and they look at you funny and try to sell you on the larger combo meal anyway, Disney understands that some guests like to build their own vacations, and they truly want you to have it your way. (See what I did there.)
I'm a military wife, and the way that we're able to take advantage of the amazing military offers on
Walt Disney World Resort Hotel rooms and theme park tickets means we have to book and buy everything separately, then link all individual items in our My Disney Experience accounts ourselves. I've visited Walt Disney World Resort this way six times, most recently was a month ago where I too stayed at Disney's Contemporary Resort. I am happy to share that the addition of
Disney theme park tickets has never turned my room-only reservation into a package.
The room portion of your reservation will include
MagicBands for each member of your party to use as your room key. You can also link a credit card to your MagicBand for charging anything from souvenirs to snacks, so you'll have one less thing to carry during your stay. Once you
link your tickets to your My Disney Experience account, the tickets will auto-magically link back to your MagicBands too.
Pro Tip from someone who also doesn't buy the packages: write each persons name on their ticket (the same side as the ticket ID number), and then take a picture of each tickets name and ID number as a just-in-case.
I hope this helped, Alison, and We'll See You Real Soon!
~Kristen