DDE Timing issue

Granny

Yeah, I'm a guy
Joined
Jul 25, 2001
Messages
14,437
We have Annual Passes, which we will use for three trips starting at the end of this month. We will travel in July-Aug 2006, December 2006 and mid-July 2007 with the AP's.

We like to use the Disney Dining Experience discount card, but my understanding is that it starts counting the year's expiration from when you order it. So if we order it now for our trip at the end of this month, we probably won't be able to use for our trip next year, right?

And we can't wait and get this on-site either, right?

Just trying to figure out a way to get this for all three trips to line up with our AP. Anybody know how to get that done?

Thanks. :)
 
I believe this might have changed, but we were able to get ours at guest relations immeadiately on the day we got our Annuals activated. It started that May and lasted until the end of June.
 
I would order it on the day you arrive at WDW for your first visit. You will then pick up a temp. card from Epcot guest relations, the card that is issues will be a full 12 months and always ends at the end of a month. We ordered this way and the card we ordered on 5th Sept 2005 has an expirely date of 31st Oct 2006.
 
It does kick in as soon as you order it but is good for more than 365 days. If you order today, it will expire at the July31, 2007 so you would be covered. And you might receive it before you leave. I delivery was in two weeks for us this year.

Sometime around the middle of July, cards will start having an August expiration but since you're traveling in July of 07, you will be set. Oh, just noticed Amyrlin got that extra month even earlier so :confused3 .

You can do it at WDW but the office is only open Mon-Fri so if you check in on a weekend, Mon after 5:30 would be the earliest you could pick it up and for that you need to go to Epcot.
 

Usually cards ordered after the 7th of a month will have their expiration the last day of the next month the next year. So one ordered by July 7 would expire July 31, 2007 while one ordered later in the month would expire August 31, 2007.

If you have not received the card before you start your trip, call the DDE office during "normal business hours" Monday thru Friday. They will, starting at 5:30 that day, have a temporary card waiting for you at the Guest Services location outside Epcot's Main Gate. The temporary card will be held at Epcot for 30 days, and can be obtained any time that Gues Services is open as long as you have a photo ID.
 
Wow....great advice from everyone! :thumbsup2

Sounds like I should order today (we check-in on Saturday, July 29) and if I don't get the actual card I will call in and have them get the temporary card at EPCOT. I can then pick that up Sunday morning (which will be fine...don't need it Saturday) and use it for this trip.

And it should expire no sooner than July 31 (which I can confirm on the phone) so that will cover next summer's trip too. Outstanding!

This is great! I had already given up, figuring we'd just have to make do on this trip. But thanks to the great folks here, we should be good to go for three trips on that card, making it just that much more valuable to us.

Thank you all so much!
 
I would wait and get it right before you leave and just plan on picking up the temporary card @ Epcot G.S. You can call just a day or two before your check-in date and it will be ready for you. It could be that the expiration date might be determined based on whether it's before or after the 15th of the month. We ordered ours right around the 10/20/05 and it expires 11/30/06.
 
I didn't know if I waited "too long" if they would keep me from picking up the temporary card. Sounds like it's a case of as long as I call before I go, I can arrange the temporary card pick up?

And as long as I have the experts assembled, I'll ask one more.....when you say EPCOT guest services, is that at the main entrance? Or the International Gateway entrance?
 
Main Entrance. Really, the best thing to do would be to call and ask them what timing would work best for you. They are usually very helpful. (407) 566-5858
 
Yes, I called and as usual they were very helpful.

The lady said that if I ordered the DDE today, the expiration date would be July 31, 2007. She said if I waited until Wednesday July 5, the expiration date would be August 31, 2007.

I will admit that she didn't offer this until I asked, but once I did ask about expiration dates she was very helpful in a cheerful way.

She also said that I was "cutting it close" on getting the card before I left, but that she'd arrange the pick up of the temporary card.

I must admit it was a very pleasant experience talking to her, and I was prepared more for the "CRO attitude" which is very nice but completely unwilling to make suggestions or offer advice. So I thought I'd need to be "armed with information" going in. My guess is that I would have been okay, but it's always nice to know the ropes before calling Disney. ;)

Thanks to all on this thread, I have a good plan and hopefully this will be helpful to others who might find themselves in the same situation. Once again, thanks for your great advice! :)
 
I called two days before our trip last December (we left on 12/10 and I called on 12/8). I asked to have the card waiting for us at Guest Services (the only Guest Services they will leave DDE is Main Entrance at Epcot). I went to Guest Services late afternoon on 12/10 and needed to show ID in order to pick up the card. They asked me for my AP number when I bought the DDE on the phone so they didn't require me to show the AP when I picked the temp card up. But, I ordered on 12/8/05 and our card is good until 1/31/07, so we're getting 3 trips from it (12/05, 10/05, and 1/07). I would call and order it for pick up a few days before you leave.
 
Granny, I ordered mine a couple of weeks before our trip. I figured I would have to go to Epcot to pick up the temp. card. To my surprise, mine arrived less than a week after I ordered it. I guess I might have gotten lucky, but it worked pretty quickly for us. It is my understanding that they are printed in batches, like they have to have so many orders at one time to print. Maybe I was at the end of a batch. The discount was great for us, we paid for the cost of the card, plus saved some on our first trip with it. The Jan. trip should be gravy! Have fun on your trip!
 


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