Sherry E
Currently tag-less...
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
- Messages
- 19,646
Thank you very much Sherry! From what I read from peoples TR, while it didnt include dinner, it did include a reserved seat. Of course, it was only for select days (I think first week or weekend) but they did offer it.
Unfortunately for me, I will not be there on 12/7 & 12/8 as I have other plans (Las Vegas!). I was trying to figure out a way to wiggle out 12/7 into the plans but since everything is already planned out and we are meeting people in Vegas, we cant hold it off.
I am hoping they extend CP for at least a week (finalizing what days we will be in DL but I think its Dec 4-6 & 11-12). That way I can still see CP!
I guess its okay though. I know I will take a bunch of pictures and will enjoy the winter decorations for sure! Guess I will try to get the regular holiday tour so I can enjoy the parade without having to jockey for a seat.
Still so excited though (Maybe not as much as my Fiance. Every other word from her is about this Disney trip). Cant wait!!
GizMo123 --
While I have not done the holiday tour yet, from all that I've read from our resident DIS'ers who have done it, including tksbaskets, DizNee Luver, danimaroo, etc., I think I've concluded that it is definitely something that should be done at least one time if you've never experienced the holiday season before -- because of the Christmas parade seats and because of the ability to bypass the lines at It's a Small World Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday and get right on the rides.
The problem with the tour would be, it seems, that if it rains for some reason and the parade is cancelled, you miss out on that huge reason for booking the tour in the first place (which is what happened to danimaroo). Not that it is necessarily going to be raining in November or December in Southern California, but it does happen here and there -- and it could happen on a day when the tour is booked!
I really wish the Candlelight Ceremony would get extended as well! If the rumors are true (about last year's 20-night endeavor causing Main Street a lot of lost revenue), I can understand the need to cut it back from 20 nights. However, what baffles me is cutting it all the way back down to only 2 nights again. The 2-night event -- while available to be viewed by the general public standing around the area -- is much more exclusive, as far as actual seats are concerned. Basically, the folks who get seats are invitation-only guests.
Disney got a lot of new folks interested in Candlelight last year by holding it for so many nights (and I was able to see it for the first time in 2012, specifically because there were so many performances)...and then will make it very difficult for many people to see this year because there are only 2 nights! That's going from one extreme to the other, in my opinion. I think there should be/should have been a happy medium somewhere in there. Not a full 20-night schedule again, but maybe 10 nights. Or maybe not even 10 nights, but 5 or 6 nights. I just don't understand the logic behind cutting it back so drastically.
I do think that Disney will find a way to make the CP profitable for Disneyland in the future, by moving it to a less intimate setting and into a larger spot that can accommodate more people, complete with dinner packages for sale. I just think that they should have figured that out this year. Next year we will probably be looking at a hard ticket party coming our way (which, with any luck, will move to DCA), so I hope there is a back-up plan for the Candlelight Ceremony in place by then so that more people have the chance to see it.
Either way -- tour or no tour; CP or no CP -- you will have a great time and you'll really enjoy the holidays at DLR!
I think it would be great to have a DIS meet!
I would love it if you post here if there is any sort of discount offered. We booked at FFI just as a backup plan. I really am still wanting to stay at PPH.
Maybe you can tell me...... I was considering buying our tickets from Orbitz with the ebates deal. But I know at WDW some of the discount deals require that you also buy your park tickets as part of a package. Does DLR ever do deals that require ticket purchase? I've been holding off wanting to keep all of my options open.
My understanding though is that there were no discounts during this time last year, so not to get my hopes up.
Janet --
I will definitely be watching the AP hotel discounts like a hawk for that early December time frame so I will let anyone know if I see anything!
DLR offers packages, but as I was explaining to Kathy a while back, the packages with tickets (or without tickets) don't really save you any money now, as they did in the old, old days. It is cheaper -- from what I have seen and experienced -- to specifically book a "room-only reservation" and buy tickets separately. In fact, I think that it is actually better to call and book the room-only reservation instead of booking it online, just to be sure you are somehow not ending up with a package (there are even "ticketless packages," but avoid those too).
The particular discounts for DLR hotel stays that I have seen and/or used in the past did not require tickets to be purchased, but often they will require a 2-night stay. One of the discounts I got -- maybe in 2011 -- only required a one-night stay. If the discount offer requires tickets to be included, it is a package. Avoid those and go for room-only reservations, where you will have much more flexibility to be able to apply discounts, change dates or cancel up to 5 days prior to arrival without penalty.
In terms of trying to get a general public discount, have you tried the old 'save an offer' trick? I used to call it "the pin code trick" when I first discovered it a few years ago and announced it here on this board, and then people on this board learned about it and ran with it. But as more and more people spread the word around the Internet about the pin code trick some of my original specific instructions got lost in the fray, and people were either leaving out important details or adding things in.
I should put out the disclaimer that this is not fool-proof and it does not necessarily mean that you will get a discount of any kind, but it has worked for me twice and apparently some people are still getting random discount offers here and there. What you do is this (this is what has worked for me):
1. Make sure you have an account/profile on Disneyland's website. Not just Disney.com. Specifically make sure you create an account on the Disneyland Resort website, and answer all questions in the profile section. Basically, say yes to receiving any future mailings, newsletters, etc. Sign up for everything;
2. Once you are signed into your DLR account and have filled in your entire profile, go to the section where you can price out onsite hotel stays. Pull up the hotel you are interested in and plug in the dates of your trip -- even if your dates were just approximate and not set in stone, plug in something that is close to your intended time frame. Select the room-only or hotel only option (do not select anything that includes tickets).
3. Once the hotel rates for your dates are revealed, be sure to save the offer to your account. Somewhere around the page there should be an option for you to save the hotel offer. Save it and leave it there. Don't book anything. Don't spend any money on DLR's website yet. Just leave the saved offer there.
What used to happen is that Disney would see that you showed an interest in wanting to stay onsite but did not book. That is often when a better rate comes your way via email -- whether it's a personalized PIN code just for you, or whether it's an email from Disney Destinations with a more 'general public' sort of discount. The offer may not come for a couple of months, or it may come right away. It may not come at all.
Some people have had luck getting a PIN offer by ordering the vacation planning DVD -- and that may work too -- but I am specifically telling people what I did that got me a couple of PIN code discounts in the past. It may or may not work now.
The problem is that the more people who found out about the pin code/save an offer trick, the more people tried to just save an offer to see what would happen -- to see if they got an offer even if their trips never happened. I think that there were too many people trying this trick at one time and it kind of ruined the magic of it. A lot of offers were going to waste, I think, because people didn't end up taking their trips. And then the offers started to appear less often.
So now, it's really hit or miss -- you may get an offer; you may not. It doesn't hurt to follow those steps and try, though.
Yes, it's true -- last year there were no real discounts at all, other than the standard AP 10% discount that is effective 365 days a year. But I think we can directly tie that into the fact that the "re-imagined" DCA had opened and DLR was banking on mobs of people coming to see it. They wanted to make big money from those mobs, so they cut the discounts. The novelty of that does wear off after a while and there is not as much of a need to rush the parks to see the new DCA because it's not as new anymore!
Every year prior to last year I recall seeing some sort of discount floating around for Fall, which would typically extend to mid-December. Currently I have a discount offer in my email that lasts until the end of September, and there was at least one discount offer earlier this year! The discounts are back!
I would expect another discount to pop up soon, which will probably cover October up to the weekend right before Christmas, or at least mid-December.The way the AP hotel discounts were usually handled in the distant past was that the "good rates" -- the rates which fell below $200 per night for the PPH and DLH - would show up on the AP calendar 3 months in advance. Then, those good rates became few and far between for AP holders. Eventually Disney would release good rates for maybe 3 or 4 days in a month and people would jump on them right away and use them up, before most folks ever knew they were there.
Now what happens is that AP holders may get special offers that are not listed on the actual hotel calendar, but that come via email or that are just posted somewhere randomly on the AP page.
But as long as I am an early December visitor, I will be keeping a watchful eye out for discounts too (AP or general public discounts), so I hope that something pops up that we can all take advantage of! It may not happen, and I won't get my hopes up either, but I think that last year was an exception and that this year things are more back on track with discounts for the general public.
But I can't promise patience. 
