I guess one final question before I call tomorrow would be about special promotions. So if I am understanding what you guys have said, there aren't any specials for the middle to end of December? We were in hopes that because we were spending so much that there would be some sort of discount, upgrade or something...I guess it isn't true. Even if there aren't discounts or upgrades I completly understand. The only reason I would keep the vouchers would be for the assurance knowing that we have the meals already paid for and taken care of. I would be so worried that we drop the meal vouchers and then get to the point of going and have no money for food...then we are stuck. I will definately do the whole vons thing and order groceries to be delivered. We will take some things with us, but then order to have things in the room as well. A little over 3 years ago we were homeless and lived in a hotel, so we are really good at doing meals in a hotel. Not that I would want to do that for all the meals down there...but I will definately look into for at least breakfast. I am thinking that I will pick up things for a breakfast and snack items to have in the hotel...that will help a lot. We will do a Character breakfast and that will be it...the rest will be in the room. If we do that, then I know it will be less of a burden. Thank you so much for the tips. I am going to look into the Gift cards though because they sell them in our Safeway and with both kids birthdays coming up, I will just tell everyone that wants to get them a gift to get them a gift card that can be used at DL.
Well, the upgrades are separate from any discounts on rooms. The upgrades from one type of room to another may not happen until you actually arrive at the hotel in question. Sometimes the upgrades are total surprises to the guests checking in, but they are not guaranteed. Even if you request an upgrade and pay for it, it's not guaranteed. It's more of a 'luck of the draw' sort of thing. And again, in December, it could be tricky.
Discounts on DLR hotel rooms are often offered a few months in advance - sometimes by exclusive e-mail offer and sometimes on the
Disneyland website. I don't know if there are any current discounts available that extend to mid-December. If not, there may be some coming out soon. But I would not count on any discounts being available
past the mid-point of December.
The Vons thing was something I just thought of for you earlier this morning - I hadn't thought of it yesterday, but it suddenly dawned on me that you would be at DLR for a full week, so it wouldn't hurt to have some groceries delivered (especially water, like sierranevada suggested) to cut down on meal costs. They deliver all kinds of things - toiletries, medicine, baked goods and cakes, liquor (as long as an adult is there to sign for it), meats, snacks, flowers - everything. But we will cross that bridge later, when we find out which hotel you will be staying at!!
However, that said, I totally understand if you want to keep the meal vouchers just to have that portion of the plan paid for and out of the way. It is one area that you would not have to think about or worry about if it's paid for in advance. Although, as PHXscuba and sierranevada suggested, gift cards would not be a bad idea, either, and you can do many things with them.
I would do this if I were you:
First, check with the Disney people and see if what your dad booked at the DLH is considered any kind of "package." This will let you know if you have any leeway to make changes to the reservation, and in what amount of time, without a fee.
Then, once you have that squared away, find out what the price will be for the same amount of time/length of stay at the PPH.
If the PPH stay sounds too lofty - or if the difference between the PPH and DLH prices is not that drastic - then look into staying offsite at one of the hotels across the street, such as Best Western or Desert Inn & Suites. I think the Tropicana is pretty close too.
Actually, you can even book a room at one of the offsite hotels and not have to put down a deposit (at least, that's the case for many of them). If you can get a room booked at one of the Good Neighbor hotels that does
not require a deposit up front,
book it and hang on to that reservation until you know for sure what you are doing with the Disney reservation.
Meanwhile, assuming you will not be charged to make changes to your DLH reservation, you can keep that one active too - at the same time that you have the Good Neighbor hotel reservation -
until you decide for sure if you can keep it or if you need to switch to PPH or cancel the Disney hotel idea altogether.
The idea is to have a back-up reservation at a Good Neighbor hotel that will not cost you a cent until you arrive (unless you choose to pay it in advance), while the current DLH reservation is intact. This way, you're covered either way while you figure out where exactly you are staying. If you wait too long to book a Good Neighbor, you may find that the dates you want are sold out. The fact of the matter is that more and more people are staying off-property and the Good Neighbors are likely to book up in advance because of the great prices. But you want to be able to have an off-property hotel as a back-up in case you have to ditch the Disney reservation.
