Pixie Dust Overload - the day I won One More Disney Day

[lvjen777]

Finally got caught up on your trip report, it was great! Your son is totally adorable, I love comparing him to his younger pics. So happy that you won your trip, I tried so hard to win that Disney Time one! My dream would be to stay at the Poly too. Congrats again!!

Thanks so much for reading along!!


Keep on entering those sweepstakes! Somebody's gotta win!!

 

[FindingDory]

Hi Jen,

Thanks again for sharing such a magical event

I'm new to this forum and have learned so much from each posting.

Your pixie dust and positive energy rubbed off - I also won a Disney vacation on our local radio station a few weeks ago. Caller 10!!! Awaiting our official notification paperwork from Disney. 5 days, 4 nights including air, hotel and tickets for a family of 4. We are so excited and like you, can't believe it's really happening until we receive the paperwork. Can you share the phone number, name & email of the person from Disney who handled your vacation planning? I'd love to reach out and start the process, certainly not as patient as you. I'm not sure what hotel options will be made available to us. We are hoping to travel in August and would love to try the Beach Club & Poly with a split stay as well. Your pictures cinched the deal!!! Were you able to purchase the Dining Plan? The contest we won reads Magic Your Way tickets with no mention of Park Hoppers. Were you able to add things like that at your own expense? Any insight you can provide is very much appreciated!!!!

Thank you,
FindingDory 11/2015

 

[lvjen777]

Hi Jen,

Thanks again for sharing such a magical event

I'm new to this forum and have learned so much from each posting.

Your pixie dust and positive energy rubbed off - I also won a Disney vacation on our local radio station a few weeks ago. Caller 10!!! Awaiting our official notification paperwork from Disney. 5 days, 4 nights including air, hotel and tickets for a family of 4. We are so excited and like you, can't believe it's really happening until we receive the paperwork. Can you share the phone number, name & email of the person from Disney who handled your vacation planning? I'd love to reach out and start the process, certainly not as patient as you. I'm not sure what hotel options will be made available to us. We are hoping to travel in August and would love to try the Beach Club & Poly with a split stay as well. Your pictures cinched the deal!!! Were you able to purchase the Dining Plan? The contest we won reads Magic Your Way tickets with no mention of Park Hoppers. Were you able to add things like that at your own expense? Any insight you can provide is very much appreciated!!!!

Thank you,
FindingDory 11/2015

WOW Congrats on your win !!! That is so awesome!!!! I've tried to win some radio contests before ( for DL tickets, not actual trips, and have never lucked out. Guess I have to work on my dialing speed !! )

I'm so glad you enjoyed my photos and TR and they are helping you plan! We sure loved our split stay choices. Of course we loved those two resorts, but we really appreciated being able to take advantage of the quick transportation / close proximity of the parks in both the Epcot & MK areas. Some advice - if you plan on following any touring plans & know what parks you might want to be in on which days, see if you can have them book your resorts to match up with your plan. When we found out that EP/HS were supposed to be best for crowds the first couple days of our trip, I insisted on having our YC stay be the first portion. They were very accommodating (in their own time, of course, LOL) but you just have to know what to ask for!

I'd love to help you out with contacting them, however the prize department that I dealt with would not give out individual email addresses or phone numbers to any of us -- only the general phone number and email, which I can give you.. I believe there were 3 reps working together at the time - I heard from 2 of the 3 at different times during the process. They sure make it hard to be contacted directly, although I imagine they probably do get overwhelmed at times with all kinds of questions & phonecalls.. eek! Have you heard anything yet?? I imagine that since you are choosing a travel date only a few months away, they will get started booking your vacation rather quickly, as I discovered they work on people's "files" in order of vacation dates, not win dates.


For our sweepstakes, none of us were able to add Dining. Something about the rooms being "promotional" and not "paid" reservations, and dining could only be added onto "paid" reservations.

However, I imagine you can do whatever you want with your tickets... Our prize already included hoppers, but all 4 tickets were just handed to us at check-in time at our resort's front desk, so then we were free to use them or not, or whatever.. After we checked in, we had to take 3 of them to the concierge desk to have them added to our KTTW cards, and thn we just pocketed the 4th for later use. For the winners who wanted or already had AP's , they could use them to upgrade/renew etc. So I imagine you could get hoppers added at that time as well, if they don't provide them for you.

Congrats again & let me know if I can answer any more questions -- I promise I won't take so long to respond next time I hope you have a marvelous vacation !!!

Jen

 

[FindingDory]

Thank you so much, Jen!!!!

We still have not heard from Disney so if you could share the general phone number / email address that they provided you, that would be awesome.

I'm guessing the department is on overload with it being spring break and also having limited staff. It's been a month and I did contact the radio station manager last week who told me to hang tight, mentioning this is very normal for Disney. Patience hat on!!!!

Have you heard about any rehabs going on at the Poly? Did you encounter anything while you were there? With our hopes of going in August, wondering if it would be an issue trying to get a room. Did you have a preference for the Beach or Yacht? So hoping to land at one and do the walk over to Epcot.

We have stayed at the Carribean Beach and Wilderness Lodge so this would be a new experience for our family. My girls are older now so Epcot / HW is more a draw than Magic Kingdom. I did book all my dining ressies for that week in August like you did, even landed one at "Be our Guest". Now we have to hope we get that week or I'm hosed on getting in without the 6 month window of opportunity in my favor.

Hopefully, with the email and phone number, I can at least start the process of getting my paperwork going to make August a reality.

Have a magical day,
Shelly
aka Finding Dory

 

[lvjen777]

Thank you so much, Jen!!!!

We still have not heard from Disney so if you could share the general phone number / email address that they provided you, that would be awesome.

I'm guessing the department is on overload with it being spring break and also having limited staff. It's been a month and I did contact the radio station manager last week who told me to hang tight, mentioning this is very normal for Disney. Patience hat on!!!!

Have you heard about any rehabs going on at the Poly? Did you encounter anything while you were there? With our hopes of going in August, wondering if it would be an issue trying to get a room. Did you have a preference for the Beach or Yacht? So hoping to land at one and do the walk over to Epcot.

We have stayed at the Carribean Beach and Wilderness Lodge so this would be a new experience for our family. My girls are older now so Epcot / HW is more a draw than Magic Kingdom. I did book all my dining ressies for that week in August like you did, even landed one at "Be our Guest". Now we have to hope we get that week or I'm hosed on getting in without the 6 month window of opportunity in my favor.

Hopefully, with the email and phone number, I can at least start the process of getting my paperwork going to make August a reality.

Have a magical day,
Shelly
aka Finding Dory

I sent you a PM.. Let me know if you do not recieve it. It took most of us winners about one month to hear anything, so either way, I hope you hear something real soon!!

Yes, the room rehabs were going on at the Poly during our trip, but they were fine for us. They are doing them like one longhouse at a time, so it's pretty contained. We werent bothered by it at all - we could see the workers sometimes as we were walking by that particular building on the way to the boat dock, lobby, etc. Dumpsters/deliveries/workers etc going in & out one of the side entrances of the longhouse, with that area coned off, that's about it. I guess it could be a problem, if you happened to get a room that faced RIGHT onto that longhouses' doorway/work area, but they appear to really try to keep the rehabs from invading the surrounding areas or affecting people's vacations..

By August, I believe they will be almost done.. Have you ever checked out Tikiman's 'unofficial' poly site? Google the address, since sometimes links are blocked here, and look at his news articles, and/or the sections for each longhouse to find individual rehab dates. I believe Tahiti will be down maybe Jul/Aug, and Rapa Nui will be down Aug/Sept. Everything is all estimates on his site of course, but it's pretty accurate. Personally, I wouldn't let the refurbs worry you a bit, especially since you have a good chance of getting a pretty, refurbed room!

As for the BC/YC area, I'd definitely stay there again as well. As for comparing the actual resorts, it's probably a toss-up for me. However, my boys thought the decor of the BC was a little "frilly" I guess, so they preferred our stay at the YC. On the flip side, we all thought the YC ended up being not as convenient as the BC if you wanted to grab a snack or something at the 'marketplace' -- the boys thought the walk to the mug station was waay too far from our room.. (they kept saying they were spoiled by the closeness of everything at the WL on our last trip.) However, I'm sure if Hurricane Hanna's (outside by Stormalong Bay) wasn't down for refurbs during our trip, that would've definitely helped.

Good job on securing some of your ressies! That is awesome. I hope you get all your picks like we all did! Oh, one more thing -- for all our trips, they required all of us to choose dates that included a Saturday night stay... not sure if they do that for all prize trips.. but it was something I wasn't sure if I mentioned in my trip report.

Jen

 

[FindingDory]

Hey Jen,

Received the pm, thank you

Just sent an email off in hopes of getting the ball rolling.

I had not heard of the tikiman site but will check it out, thanks. Always wonderful information and like you, I believe the planning is the best part!!! I've been asking around at work, polling people on their favorite resorts to stay at on property. Poly and Beach club are a tie right now. We were also totally spoiled at the Wilderness Lodge. Everything is so covenient and compact, never a long walk to anything. We have never done a split stay and hubby thinks it's more of a hassle to transfer the bags over but your experience seemed painless. I would love to try it, almost like having two vacations, tropical and beach.

I'll keep you posted on the progress and if you think of anything else that you would be beneficial, please let me know.

I've enjoyed corresponding with you. You are a wealth of Disney knowledge!!! Thanks again

Have a magical day,
Shelly

 

[lvjen777]

Hey Jen,

Received the pm, thank you

Just sent an email off in hopes of getting the ball rolling.

I had not heard of the tikiman site but will check it out, thanks. Always wonderful information and like you, I believe the planning is the best part!!! I've been asking around at work, polling people on their favorite resorts to stay at on property. Poly and Beach club are a tie right now. We were also totally spoiled at the Wilderness Lodge. Everything is so covenient and compact, never a long walk to anything. We have never done a split stay and hubby thinks it's more of a hassle to transfer the bags over but your experience seemed painless. I would love to try it, almost like having two vacations, tropical and beach.


I'll keep you posted on the progress and if you think of anything else that you would be beneficial, please let me know.

I've enjoyed corresponding with you. You are a wealth of Disney knowledge!!! Thanks again

Have a magical day,
Shelly

No problem, I am super glad I could help you! Enjoy your planning & I hope you guys have a wonderful time!

Our split stay was great. I think if ... (I mean WHEN!) we go back, we will definitely consider a split again! We were apprehensive about doing it - I can definitely see how some people would think it's a pain to pack up twice & do the whole check-in thing twice... However it was an easy process. In our case it was DEFINITELY worth it !!!

 

[lvjen777]

Not sure if anyone's still out there...especially my fellow scrapbookers... but I just wanted to share a little of my trip scrapbook, since a few of you were asking.

I sure am loving my first go with trying out a "Project Life" scrapbook, instead of my traditional scrapbooks...

I also am REALLY enjoying my "Project Mouse" card packs that I purchased online from Sahlin Studio.com ....

To be honest, I'm actually a little obsessed with them... Who wouldn't love scrapbooking with products that help you completely document your ADR's, your hotels, Character meet-ups, and heck, they even included cards for Dole Whips!! Sign me up !!!!

I can't WAIT until our next trip to Disneyland, so I can use more of all this cute stuff I've been collecting !!

I love including some of the funny Disney "e-cards" that all of us in The Group liked to share with each other on Facebook during all our planning time together. They really are so memorable and funny for me !!!

I'm including a few full-page layouts of my absolute favorite photos..

I'd say my scrapbook is maybe 75% done. I've been dragging my feet on finishing it up, only because Project Mouse has been still releasing new items and so I've been waiting it out to see what is going to come out next! I'd definitely recommend both Project Life & Project Mouse to anyone - scrapbookers and non-scrapbookers alike.. super easy and fun to put together some awesome Disney memory books !!!

 

[itsmeamanda]

This is great! I love it. Thank you for sharing. I've got to get some more of the Project Mouse cards, for sure.

 

[jcemom]

LOVE IT!

 

[gracer9977]

Love them!!! Those pages look so great!!! You will have so much enjoyment looking over those until it's time to go back again.