September 2012 code watch!

[annmarieda]

I just did a quick google search...
http://www.themagicforless.com/wdw/specials.shtml

Looks like when you book with them you get some freebies. Looks cute!
They're a travel agent of sorts. They do all your dining reservations and such, too, apparently. But I actually like doing those online hehe - and then changing my mind 15 times.

Thanks so much! I am with you though... I like to "tinker" too much with my plans. I am not sure how well that would work if I went through a TA

 

[TandLMommy28]

Anxiously awaiting Monday morning to book. Can't believe I ever closed my Disney Visa account. What was I thinking?

While hubby and I were doing our workout at the Y, I had a captive audience and ran down all the numbers with him. We had settled on Pop because we were trying to be good and go as cheap as possible this trip. But when I told him that we couldn't get Pop with this promotion AND that the difference between the All Stars and POR was only about $300, he said, "Oh thank God. Please, let's do POR." So, yea! I am so relieved, I thought he'd say we should just go cheap. Since we got home in Sept '10, I've been thinking about this upcoming trip and reading up on the resorts. I've run numbers for every single one of them. I've imagined us at every one from Value to Deluxe. And the fact is that Port Orleans is simply my Disney home and I don't really want to stay anywhere else. I've done POR once and POFQ once, and that's where we belong!

And, wow! It's only 17 days until I can do ADRs! What??? Time to start planning out meals!

 

[delux]

I have heard other Dis'rs say that they never knew they had a pin attached to their name until they called, so if you are concerned about it, it would be better to call than wait.

Longshot question...has anyone heard of being able to use a PIN after it expired? I got one in December that expired but then decided about a week ago that i am going to go to Disney. If I call do you think they would honor it?

 

[momn8r0306]

Things are coming together, it seems. My MIL/FIL have *finally* committed to going with us, it should prove interesting, LOL! I'm glad really, it will make the trip even more special. I was also looking at some TP stuff, trying to put together an itinerary of sorts. Kids want to go to AK first, and as luck would have it, that is the recommended park for our first full day so it works out perfectly. Should we go ahead and do our Mickey's Backyard BBQ for dinner that night? Is it better to do the character dining / dinner shows early on? We are only doing that and CRT for breakfast/brunch one day. DH and I might try to swing a "date night" and include dinner at a nice restaurant too, so any suggestions for that?

I'm starting to come around to the FD thing - Question: the promo that started yesterday, I saw that you have to buy tickets to get it.........will that be exactly the same when / if it is released to GP? I had planned to buy our tickets through Undercover Tourist.

I got a cute little tri-fold mailer yesterday, "Keeping your Disney vacation right on track!" I was so excited hoping it might have a PIN, but no such luck. Oh well - at least I know I am in their system and will keep my fingers crossed. If I do happen to get a PIN for a RO discount, can I "stack" it with a GP FD promo (if it is offered)?

Thanks for reading and helping a virtual first timer, - never had to worry about any of this 38 years ago.

 

[ashenbiez]

Things are coming together, it seems. My MIL/FIL have *finally* committed to going with us, it should prove interesting, LOL! I'm glad really, it will make the trip even more special. I was also looking at some TP stuff, trying to put together an itinerary of sorts. Kids want to go to AK first, and as luck would have it, that is the recommended park for our first full day so it works out perfectly. Should we go ahead and do our Mickey's Backyard BBQ for dinner that night? Is it better to do the character dining / dinner shows early on? We are only doing that and CRT for breakfast/brunch one day. DH and I might try to swing a "date night" and include dinner at a nice restaurant too, so any suggestions for that?

I'm starting to come around to the FD thing - Question: the promo that started yesterday, I saw that you have to buy tickets to get it.........will that be exactly the same when / if it is released to GP? I had planned to buy our tickets through Undercover Tourist.

I got a cute little tri-fold mailer yesterday, "Keeping your Disney vacation right on track!" I was so excited hoping it might have a PIN, but no such luck. Oh well - at least I know I am in their system and will keep my fingers crossed. If I do happen to get a PIN for a RO discount, can I "stack" it with a GP FD promo (if it is offered)?

Thanks for reading and helping a virtual first timer, - never had to worry about any of this 38 years ago.

Congrats on getting everyone on board with your trip!
Now, I don't have kids, so this might be the wrong perspective, but I would think it would be best to have a Character meal at the beginning to kind of kick off the magic of the vacation - then if you are only doing two, save the other for the end of the trip. This way its ending on another special note

Everything I've heard (mostly what's been discussed in this thread) has said that two discounts can NOT be combined. So you would have to see if the room discount or the free dining would be better for your family.

My guess would be that you need to get the whole package to get the free dining. but I honestly don't know. I'm sure one of the more experienced DISers will help you with that

Finally - for a date night dinner, I suggest Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian. Its right on the water, so if you time it right you can see the fireworks from MK. Or, you can do what we did last May We planned at 7:30ish dinner on a night with MK EMH until 2am! It was so fun to head back into the park later at night. We also got some GREAT photos from photopass since we were a little more dressed up.
Plus it might be fun for you and your husband to get to go wild and act like kids without the kids in tow

 

[marneb]

Things are coming together, it seems. My MIL/FIL have *finally* committed to going with us, it should prove interesting, LOL! I'm glad really, it will make the trip even more special. I was also looking at some TP stuff, trying to put together an itinerary of sorts. Kids want to go to AK first, and as luck would have it, that is the recommended park for our first full day so it works out perfectly. Should we go ahead and do our Mickey's Backyard BBQ for dinner that night? Is it better to do the character dining / dinner shows early on? We are only doing that and CRT for breakfast/brunch one day. DH and I might try to swing a "date night" and include dinner at a nice restaurant too, so any suggestions for that?

I'm starting to come around to the FD thing - Question: the promo that started yesterday, I saw that you have to buy tickets to get it.........will that be exactly the same when / if it is released to GP? I had planned to buy our tickets through Undercover Tourist.

I got a cute little tri-fold mailer yesterday, "Keeping your Disney vacation right on track!" I was so excited hoping it might have a PIN, but no such luck. Oh well - at least I know I am in their system and will keep my fingers crossed. If I do happen to get a PIN for a RO discount, can I "stack" it with a GP FD promo (if it is offered)?

Thanks for reading and helping a virtual first timer, - never had to worry about any of this 38 years ago.

In order to get free dining, you have to have the Magic Your Way Package.....any questions you may have about Free Dining can be found on this thread....

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2771101

 

[marneb]

Longshot question...has anyone heard of being able to use a PIN after it expired? I got one in December that expired but then decided about a week ago that i am going to go to Disney. If I call do you think they would honor it?

You can't use the PIN after it expires. I booked with our discount on the expiration day and the CM said that if I had to call back and change it after the expiration, I would NOT get the discount.....

 

[momn8r0306]

Congrats on getting everyone on board with your trip!
Now, I don't have kids, so this might be the wrong perspective, but I would think it would be best to have a Character meal at the beginning to kind of kick off the magic of the vacation - then if you are only doing two, save the other for the end of the trip. This way its ending on another special note

Everything I've heard (mostly what's been discussed in this thread) has said that two discounts can NOT be combined. So you would have to see if the room discount or the free dining would be better for your family.

My guess would be that you need to get the whole package to get the free dining. but I honestly don't know. I'm sure one of the more experienced DISers will help you with that

Finally - for a date night dinner, I suggest Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian. Its right on the water, so if you time it right you can see the fireworks from MK. Or, you can do what we did last May We planned at 7:30ish dinner on a night with MK EMH until 2am! It was so fun to head back into the park later at night. We also got some GREAT photos from photopass since we were a little more dressed up.
Plus it might be fun for you and your husband to get to go wild and act like kids without the kids in tow

Thanks, Ash - I'd read about Narcoossee's somewhere, and their menu looks devine, so we'll plan on dinner there since I've now got a personal recommendation I appreciate the ideas about scheduling the character dinner / dinner show too - that makes sense to do it that way. DS probably won't be too thrilled with the whole princess atmosphere, but then he *is* starting to notice girls now, so........

 

[disneydreamerinny]

Any word on when the free dining will be out for the general public?

 

[momn8r0306]

In order to get free dining, you have to have the Magic Your Way Package.....any questions you may have about Free Dining can be found on this thread....

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2771101

Thanks for the info, Marne, and the very helpful link!

 

[momn8r0306]

Any word on when the free dining will be out for the general public?

The word on the street is, Monday is the day.

 

[disneydreamerinny]

The word on the street is, Monday is the day.

Wow thanks so much!

 

[FairydustyPrincesses]

Maybe it's just because I'm not usually on the boards this soon before a September trip but it seems like ton s of people are going bananas over this fd promo and booking it all up! Is this par for the course on the dis?

Just stressed bc we cannot book until next week - didn't budget it bc I thought it would be released late march at best! I was going to be ahead of the game booking a royal room next week- what I thought was long before the fd Woolf be announced and then adding it on! Geez Disney.

Does it seem more popular this year? I'm thinking bad economy = more value season vacationers ? Or is this dis business as usual?

On another note . Are the room discounts offered every year lately? I'm hoping for one to do poly ideally. I wonder if the early announcement of fd makes other discounts more likely?

 

[Dawnywog]

After 75 minutes on hold booked Free Dining for Sept.17-27! There was no availbility at POFQ, so we booked a Royal room at POR.

I think my friend's little girl will love the royal room.

 

[marneb]

After 1 1/2 hours on the phone with the CM ( the computer kept booting her out and running really slow) we upgraded from POP Century to CBR with water view and free dining for 9/20-9/30 for only $120 more The only Value resort that was available when I called this morning was All Star Sports.....I didn't think my kids would enjoy that as much as CBR and we were paying the upcharge for the Regular Dining Plan anyway so why not upgrade to the moderate : The CM did say that the were super busy and apologized repeatedly for how much time it was taking, but said that last night the computers weren't running at all they were so overloaded..

I need to investigate CBR as I wasn't planning on a moderate. Anyone who has been there.....which village should I make a request for and pros or cons to certain ones? Any tips or tricks for staying there....TIA

 

[ashenbiez]

I'm so excited that the offer has been released!

Now I just need to get my fiance on board with it. He's practically there. He just needs to commit to it. haha



Just curious - is there a benefit to booking on the phone vs. online? I would never spend that long on hold when I could just book online in a matter of minutes! But maybe I'm missing out on something!!

 

[TandLMommy28]

After reading these boards all weekend and hearing about how hard it was to get a standard view at POR (and we had planned to go Value this time, so the bump to moderate was enough, I didn't want to shell out more for a garden or water view!). I decided to take a chance and go with a travel agent. I contacted her on Saturday and told her that I really, really wanted a standard room at POR. She said she would reserve my package right then the way I wanted it and then on MOnday try to just add the discount (although most people here said that wasn't working). Not sure if she was able to apply the discount or if she had to rebook completely but I got free dining in a POR standard view room. Woohoo!

Oooh, and my lovely travel agent will also make my CRT reservation for me first thing on my 180. Super excited that someone else will be getting up early to make that call for me. Now I can't think of any reason whatsoever NOT to use a travel agent!

 

[d23cndrela]

Just heard back from my dreams agent! She was able to apply free dining to my ressie at CBR for Sept 14-22nd. Woo Hoo!

 

[BearcatsFan]

We were able to get FD added to our ressie today! We ended up upgrading from 2 doubles/garden view with QSDP to a king bed with DDP and it STILL saved us money!

TA said she was on hold for 45 minutes trying to book it - she sounded frazzled!

 

[somesong2sing]

I'm so excited that the offer has been released!

Now I just need to get my fiance on board with it. He's practically there. He just needs to commit to it. haha



Just curious - is there a benefit to booking on the phone vs. online? I would never spend that long on hold when I could just book online in a matter of minutes! But maybe I'm missing out on something!!

I always find booking online is easier, but calling works out better for me because I always end up having questions and end up calling anyway!

I would say call in, pu tthe phone and speaker, and carry on doing what you are doing until they pick up. Since you know the hold time is going to be a bit longer, you can probably plan it out easier.

I called on my way into work and was able to be on hold almost the entire drive!

Good luck!!