December 2008 Code Watch

[APB513]

Congrats to all who will be able to get in on the Disney Visa Free Dining

What is the last date this package can be booked?

 

[Mermaid_Ariel]

All I know is that I'm SO glad that our ADRs are booked before this code came out. I'm sure everything is going to be booked solid now!

 

[MouseTrip07]

All I know is that I'm SO glad that our ADRs are booked before this code came out. I'm sure everything is going to be booked solid now!

Before I knew about all of this today, I had been making some changes to my ADRs...and waiting on hold a LONG time. Now that I've checked my email, I know why!

(And, yes, everything IS booked solid. I could barely make the changes I needed to.)

Jennifer

 

[disneyin2008]

Why oh why did I hold off getting a Disney Visa?! Why God Why?!?!?!?!??! LOL I'm thinking if I applied today I wouldn't be eligible for the Free Dining offer. Booo.

When I applied for the card last year it took a little over a week to get my new card.....but since you have to pay for your deposit with your Disney VISA, and I'm gonna bet that these rooms will be going very fast, I doubt that there will be much left by the time you get your card number.

That said.....it certainly couldn't hurt to go ahead and apply for it so you have it handy for the next special offer. THere is no annual fee, which is really nice as most rewards cards (thinking the airline cards here) have $50+ annual fees. Even if you only make one purchase a year just to keep it active until your next special discount comes along it really isn't going to cost you anything. Of course, if you use it to pay everything you can then you'll rack up rewards dollars. I pay all my bills, do all my shopping and I coordinate field trips so I pay for the trip with the VISA and then go online and make a payment from the field trip checking account to the VISA, in essence reimbursing myself almost instantly, lol....just to rack up points. Since November of 2007, I've gotten almost $500 in rewards. THat's going a long way towards some of the "special" things we probably wouldn't have done if I had to pay it out of my budget, lol. I know it could have been used to simply save us $500 on our trip, but it feels better doing special things with it and considering them "free", lol.

 

[schaery]

I shorted our AAA booking to 12/10 to 12/14 and booked the remaining 5 nights we had at CR under the new AL, GA, NC, & SC room only code rate. I saved almost $110 more over what AAA had give us.

Hi! What code do you have for AL? I just called WDW and CM said there was no code for AL. Thanks.

 

[kadee_29]

Since I have a AAA ressie I already called and let her know that it is supposed to come out tomorrow. (I swear I will never go through another TA again. I do most of the work myself.) We originally had the package discount but it looks like the dining may be cheaper for us. We are staying at AKL 12/14-12/20, 2 adults 1 "disney" adult 1 child and a freebie child, 7 day base tickets and then the dining.

When I get on the disney site do I just put everything in but the dining to give me an idea of cost???

 

[ms_missy66]

When I applied for the card last year it took a little over a week to get my new card.....but since you have to pay for your deposit with your Disney VISA, and I'm gonna bet that these rooms will be going very fast, I doubt that there will be much left by the time you get your card number.

That said.....it certainly couldn't hurt to go ahead and apply for it so you have it handy for the next special offer. THere is no annual fee, which is really nice as most rewards cards (thinking the airline cards here) have $50+ annual fees. Even if you only make one purchase a year just to keep it active until your next special discount comes along it really isn't going to cost you anything. Of course, if you use it to pay everything you can then you'll rack up rewards dollars. I pay all my bills, do all my shopping and I coordinate field trips so I pay for the trip with the VISA and then go online and make a payment from the field trip checking account to the VISA, in essence reimbursing myself almost instantly, lol....just to rack up points. Since November of 2007, I've gotten almost $500 in rewards. THat's going a long way towards some of the "special" things we probably wouldn't have done if I had to pay it out of my budget, lol. I know it could have been used to simply save us $500 on our trip, but it feels better doing special things with it and considering them "free", lol.

I'm the official disboards experiment girl for this one. I called Chase and they were, as expected, useless. They absolutely could not answer my question other than to read off a script about how it would take a few weeks to get my actual card. So I went ahead and applied, and got approved, online through the Disney website. On my account it is now listed as an option to pay my balance. I have my fingers and toes crossed that this will get me somewhere when I call tomorrow morning and try to use this free dining code. We shall see........

 

[DisGal520]

way to go girl!

We'll all be watching to see your post here tomorrow.


Here's some pixie dust

 

[ms_missy66]

When I applied for the card last year it took a little over a week to get my new card.....but since you have to pay for your deposit with your Disney VISA, and I'm gonna bet that these rooms will be going very fast, I doubt that there will be much left by the time you get your card number.

That said.....it certainly couldn't hurt to go ahead and apply for it so you have it handy for the next special offer. THere is no annual fee, which is really nice as most rewards cards (thinking the airline cards here) have $50+ annual fees. Even if you only make one purchase a year just to keep it active until your next special discount comes along it really isn't going to cost you anything. Of course, if you use it to pay everything you can then you'll rack up rewards dollars. I pay all my bills, do all my shopping and I coordinate field trips so I pay for the trip with the VISA and then go online and make a payment from the field trip checking account to the VISA, in essence reimbursing myself almost instantly, lol....just to rack up points. Since November of 2007, I've gotten almost $500 in rewards. THat's going a long way towards some of the "special" things we probably wouldn't have done if I had to pay it out of my budget, lol. I know it could have been used to simply save us $500 on our trip, but it feels better doing special things with it and considering them "free", lol.

way to go girl!

We'll all be watching to see your post here tomorrow.


Here's some pixie dust

LOL I seriously need it! Thank you!

 

[disneyin2008]

I'm the official disboards experiment girl for this one. I called Chase and they were, as expected, useless. They absolutely could not answer my question other than to read off a script about how it would take a few weeks to get my actual card. So I went ahead and applied, and got approved, online through the Disney website. On my account it is now listed as an option to pay my balance. I have my fingers and toes crossed that this will get me somewhere when I call tomorrow morning and try to use this free dining code. We shall see........

So are you saying that you already know your account number? Or just that they have approved you and set up an online log in? I just looked at for what I imagine are security reasons, my card number isn't visible online anywhere that I can find. You'll need that card number, the expiration date, and that silly little 3 digit number off the back of hte card (ok, the 3 digit I only need occasionally when calling Disney, go figure).

ANd yeah, I gotta say that Chase is pretty useless as far as customer service goes. It's why I don't have a checking account there anymore, lol.

 

[mickey'sbud]

Hi! What code do you have for AL? I just called WDW and CM said there was no code for AL. Thanks.

Try GTI

 

[asbamasaint]

how do i figure out how much this will save us? We are going Dec. 13-20 and staying at the contemporary for $205 a night. This was with the annual passholder rate. We were thinking about getting the dining plan. Would this even save us? $205 a night seems like a great deal. Its just my husband and I.

 

[schaery]

Try GTI

I'll give it a try tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[disneyin2008]

how do i figure out how much this will save us? We are going Dec. 13-20 and staying at the contemporary for $205 a night. This was with the annual passholder rate. We were thinking about getting the dining plan. Would this even save us? $205 a night seems like a great deal. Its just my husband and I.

First off, realize that since December 13 is not listed as an available date for the VISA deal, you'll have to make a separate reservation for that date....so after you've decided if the 14-20 is a good deal for you, modify your original $205/nt reservation to be just December 13.

I haven't seen any posts about what the VISA deal will cost for deluxe....the website only shows the cost for the value, so you won't know until you call and ask them what the cost would be for Contemporary....also keep in mind that even though you're an AP holder, apparently to get the free dining you have to purchase a park ticket.....there is debate over whether they'll let you buy a one day ticket ($75 per adult) to qualify or whether you are required to purchase the full 5 day ticket ($222 per adult). The free dining deal that was offered back in April (and that is taking effect right now in Aug/Sept) you only had to buy a 1 day for everyone in the room. I'm hoping that's the case for this offer as well, but no one knows yet. These tickets can be saved for a future use (i.e. wait for your AP to expire then use this ticket for your next visit and upgrade it to an AP) but if the 5 day is required, that's quite an outlay for something that won't get used for a year or more, at least for my family. The $75 isn't quite as big a chunk to advance in order to qualify for free dining.

So...the only way you'll know for sure is to call tomorrow and find out what the VISA rate for Contemporary will be.....keep in mind that if you were to purchase the dining plan on your own it's basically $38 per night per adult....so if it's yourself and your husband, that's $76 per night.....add that to your $205 rate that you already have and $281 is your break even point. So when they quote you a total, subtract from that the cost of the tickets (i.e. $150 for 2 one days, or $444 for 2 five days) and that figure will be what your room/free dining cost will be. If it's less than $281 a night, then it's a better deal than your $205 rate because of the free dining. If it's over $281 then your $205 deal is a better rate and just purchase the dining plan yourself.

 

[disneyin2008]

I can not get that link to work, can you post the dates, also do you think this will be a GP code in few days?

It's such a long link that DIS breaks it up and those ... don't translate well.....try this:

http://disneyrewards.disney.go.com

/newsandoffers/offer-wdwseptember08freedine.html

Just put the /newsandoffers line immediately after the .com part and it should work.

ETA: You asked about the General Public code.....there hasn't been any reports that I've seen that there will be a GP code offered....keep in mind that for the first time in many years the codes that were released in August didn't include any VISA benefit....there was an AP rate released and a GP released shortly afterwards, but never a Disney VISA rate...and to be honest, VISA holders have come to expect first dibs, so this may be their way of appeasing the masses that wrote and complained. While an early discount has always been a possible benefit, I've never seen any of the benefits as set in stone, but then again, I've only had the card for a year.....many of the charter VISA holders were quite upset at being ignored.

Time will tell whether a GP code is released of course, but I have to say that even as a VISA holder, I'm finding this a very unusual code....free dining in Nov/Dec is strange enough, but a lot of those dates don't seem to have any resort availability so unless they're holding back some rooms that you can't see online, I think it's going to be very very difficult to find rooms. But, maybe that's the point, maybe Disney is trying to fill every room they have available, but it's going to make some very frustrated guests who call on the dot today and can't find a room available.

I think Disney is definitely ramped up it's advertising to get all those rooms filled.....opening up the "Florida" resident room rate to neighboring states hasn't been done since shortly after 9/11.....and then it was taken away.....now that our country is in another state of turmoil economically, it's interesting that they're using this to help them fill rooms. If you think about it....after 9/11 people were a bit nervous about flying, so they were vacationing nearer to home....so those in nearby states might be enticed to drive for such a sweet bargain. Right now, we're not nervous about flying, just can't afford it, especially from West Coast, so they're hoping to fill their resort with people able to get very low airfares because they're in neighboring states. I wish they'd use a different tactic....how about offering us West Coasters some cheap deals to help us compensate for the high air fare, lol. Yeah, like that'll ever happen.

 

[joleen76]

Just got off the phone with Disney. I was able to change my original discount code to the new free dining Visa rate. I was lucky, because our first day there falls into the dates listed, but we would will be out of the dates for most of our trip. The CM said sometimes it will take the code for the entire trip and sometimes it won't she didn't know why it decides either way. I told "lets try it, what could it hurt to see". What do you know, it worked for our entire trip! It saved us $1,200 over Rack rates and $250 over the original code we booked under. We are a large family with 2 rooms, so savings is sure to vary depending on family size etc.

She also said sometimes the codes make you have new reservations instead of modifying your reservation. Was not so this time. We got to keep our original confirmation #'s etc. I'm just so excited!

I'm with some of the Previous Posters. I'm so glad I had my reservations made already! I was able to add a lunch at Sci-Fi to make sure we use all the credits though.

 

[kadee_29]

I just got off the phone with my TA and she has yet to call about it. She is going to call and see if it works and then call me back. From what I looked up last night we should save around $300. At this point every dollar counts. (We close on our new house in a few weeks and that is going to about kill our savings.)

 

[danielle916]

My TA emailed me at 815am and she got me a savings of $387.00, i thought it would have been a little more being i am a family of 5 but hey who's gonna complain, even if it was a 150.00 savings I'D TAKE IT.!!!
woohoo!!!!!!!

 

[Magical Mama]

I was told we couldn't get it. We arrive on the 11th and it wouldn't allow for the entire trip and it wouldn't accept it for breaking the trip up either. Did I use the right code? Code QXZ???

 

[danielle916]

I was told we couldn't get it. We arrive on the 11th and it wouldn't allow for the entire trip and it wouldn't accept it for breaking the trip up either. Did I use the right code? Code QXZ???

i've been reading all over that people are breaking up their ressies, i would try and call back.