I entered the contest online only, and was the only one in my house entering. I started entering the day I got an email from Disney online, and I flagged the email so it was at the top of my inbox. I entered various times of the day, but got to the point where I was entering in the morning before taking my daughter to school. Last Friday, Jan 18, I was getting my daughter ready for school, and then taking my 3 year old to Disney on Ice, and I got the email from Ventura Assoc to verify my address. At first I thought maybe I'd won a keychain or antenna ball. I didn't want to email my address back, so I told her I thought it should be right, since I'd just gotten something from Disney Movie Rewards. She wrote me back and told me my address, which I told her was correct. I then wrote back and forth with her most of the day asking questions which she answered. Meanwhile, back at Disney on Ice, my MIL thought it was all a scam (because the original Ventura email had a grammatical error- not like the Nigerian banking scam errors, but one grammatical error). So, after Disney on Ice, I read the rules again. The first time I read them was just to find out how often I could enter. I noticed in the rules that Ventura was the administrator. I pointed that out to my MIL, who finally started believing that perhaps it was true. At that point I called my husband and told him.
I got the affidavit on Tuesday, it was left on my doorstep, but I'd already found out they didn't send it siggy required, so I wasn't stressed. I read thru it, filled it out- don't know that I've ever been so nervous filling out paperwork, but I didn't want to screw it up and blow the trip- and took it to the UPS store for notary the next day. The nice guy at the UPS store told me I could send a FedEx package (which Ventura sent in a reusable FedEx envelope) from there. I told him I'd be watching the tracking number, and if it didn't go out that day, I would find him and hurt him. I also told him if he got it to NY in time I would bring him something back from Disneyland. Ventura got the FedEx on Friday. I sent an email to my contact that it had arrived in her building, and asked what the next step was, and 2 hours later I had an email from her confirming that I was a grand prize winner. I think I am now in the same waiting place as Sue and watkinsme.
I can't believe how many of my family members that I told thought it was a scam. I have had to tell them all several times that I would think it was a scam too if I hadn't been entering this thing EVERY SINGLE DAY for 2 weeks!
Hubby and I talked about taking the WDW option, but we'd already been planning a trip to DL with another family, and I had two major reasons against WDW: I didn't think my 3 year old (even turning 4 in May) would be old enough to appreciate it, and why not go on the trip to DL that we planned, but let Disney pay for it. So, we are doing DL and hoping that our friends don't mind paying more to stay at the Grand Californian with us (if that's an option).
I read the first 71 pages of this thread, and saw past winners say that they could add extra days at a discount, or extra family members at a discount. Do you think they would help us get our friends travel package set up too? Would the price be as good as it is when you book thru Costco Travel (we love the free character meal)?
Thanks for all the congrats messages. I was pretty excited 15 years ago when I won a year's worth of Dr. Pepper, but this is waaay better.
I got the affidavit on Tuesday, it was left on my doorstep, but I'd already found out they didn't send it siggy required, so I wasn't stressed. I read thru it, filled it out- don't know that I've ever been so nervous filling out paperwork, but I didn't want to screw it up and blow the trip- and took it to the UPS store for notary the next day. The nice guy at the UPS store told me I could send a FedEx package (which Ventura sent in a reusable FedEx envelope) from there. I told him I'd be watching the tracking number, and if it didn't go out that day, I would find him and hurt him. I also told him if he got it to NY in time I would bring him something back from Disneyland. Ventura got the FedEx on Friday. I sent an email to my contact that it had arrived in her building, and asked what the next step was, and 2 hours later I had an email from her confirming that I was a grand prize winner. I think I am now in the same waiting place as Sue and watkinsme.
I can't believe how many of my family members that I told thought it was a scam. I have had to tell them all several times that I would think it was a scam too if I hadn't been entering this thing EVERY SINGLE DAY for 2 weeks!
Hubby and I talked about taking the WDW option, but we'd already been planning a trip to DL with another family, and I had two major reasons against WDW: I didn't think my 3 year old (even turning 4 in May) would be old enough to appreciate it, and why not go on the trip to DL that we planned, but let Disney pay for it. So, we are doing DL and hoping that our friends don't mind paying more to stay at the Grand Californian with us (if that's an option).
I read the first 71 pages of this thread, and saw past winners say that they could add extra days at a discount, or extra family members at a discount. Do you think they would help us get our friends travel package set up too? Would the price be as good as it is when you book thru Costco Travel (we love the free character meal)?
Thanks for all the congrats messages. I was pretty excited 15 years ago when I won a year's worth of Dr. Pepper, but this is waaay better.
way to go dis!!! Congrats to all the winners. I love the dis, and I love couponing to disney. So glad to see the two of you on here! (And all the other winners too!)
Never thought he'd get out of diapers the way he was going!
I imagine we would try to get connecting rooms and pay for the second room (we have some NE tickets so I could skip that part) and airfare.
Enjoy your trips. Can't wait to hear about them 
