Hitting the Disney trifecta! a Nov 2013 PTR-and then some!(2/21-Trip #3 return!)

[Tinker326]

Can you fly Southwest? Where are you flying out of - I forget where you're from. I was reading an article that airline prices are statistically at their lowest about 2-3 months before the date you are flying. I find that to be pretty common with Southwest at least.

You have a LOT of tickets to buy, too! Hope you can find a better deal. Just be patient...check frequently, and be ready to jump when you find a good price.

Chicago- we could fly Southwest but it requires us to use Midway airport which is very, very hard for us to get to with traffic & distance & all that jazz.

We are willing to pay more to fly out of O'Hare for convience. Spirit is now flying out O'Hare & have lower fares but I'm super weary of flying them.. so I just continue to check every week on Tuesdays & Wednesday mornings in hope something shows up. I'm hoping mid-late summer something will pop!

 

[skier_pete]

Chicago- we could fly Southwest but it requires us to use Midway airport which is very, very hard for us to get to with traffic & distance & all that jazz.

We are willing to pay more to fly out of O'Hare for convience. Spirit is now flying out O'Hare & have lower fares but I'm super weary of flying them.. so I just continue to check every week on Tuesdays & Wednesday mornings in hope something shows up. I'm hoping mid-late summer something will pop!

I've been through Midway quite a bit the last couple of years (and again in June) and really like the airport, but I can see where one would be more convenient. I wouldn't just limit yourself though. I mean, if you can save $100 a ticket out of Midway, would that be worth the hassle? Heck, we just drove to Pittsburgh in February to fly to Phoenix - but it saved us about $750.

 

[khertz]

Congrats on getting your flights booked! We still haven't bit the bullet on those yet, but we probably need to soon so they don't go up. The airfare dance is so nerve wracking!

 

[skier_pete]

Congrats on getting your flights booked! We still haven't bit the bullet on those yet, but we probably need to soon so they don't go up. The airfare dance is so nerve wracking!

That's why I love flying southwest. The airfare dance with other airlines is: "This is what you get - like it or not!" This occurred with our Delta fares to Australia, where I could've waited and saved like $300 a ticket - but maybe risked not being able to get the frequent flyer ticket I needed.

Booking with SWA gives you a "worst case scenario" instead of a "take it or leave it". By "worst case scenario" I mean in the absolute worst case, I currently have our preferred travel times and dates, but have paid a slightly higher price for it. I still have the option to later either (a) change the date/times to get a less expensive flight or (b) stick with the times if the prices for those flights drop. Those options alone makes me feel good about booking with them. In this case, I don't know that we will change the date and time unless it would be a HUGE savings, and I would actually be surprise if we see a price drop on these particular flights.

Oh, last night I did for fun price out our original plan, which was fly out on Friday morning, return Sunday night. That actually would have cost MORE, just over $300 each. So the move to NOV 9th-18th helped us quite a bit there!

 

[skier_pete]

Not to brag - but

ONE MONTH to GO to Trip #1.





SIX MONTHS to GO to Trip #2.

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY for 1 month!

 

[disneykiwi]

Not to brag - but

ONE MONTH to GO to Trip #1.





SIX MONTHS to GO to Trip #2.

I cant believe we only have a month to go . probably be the longest month ever

Very excited. Did you go on chat today Pete. I was working so didnt get on again and probably wont now before we leave.

Well done on getting your flights organised. Hi to Ukeemom

 

[skier_pete]

I cant believe we only have a month to go . probably be the longest month ever

Very excited. Did you go on chat today Pete. I was working so didnt get on again and probably wont now before we leave.

Well done on getting your flights organised. Hi to Ukeemom

We did talk on chat. News about our group dinner on Friday. Check the ABD thread for details!

In other news I received this e-mail yesterday:

Hello again D***** Family,

Since you’ve been here before, we wanted to make it easy for you to come back and see us again. That’s why we’re serving up this scrumptious special offer! We’re even giving you lots of dates to choose from. It's the perfect way to enjoy a trip right before school starts!

You can receive FREE DINING when you purchase a non-discounted 5-night/5-day Walt Disney Travel Company room and ticket package at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels!

For arrivals most nights 8/25–10/2/13,
10/18–10/31/13, 11/11–11/23/13,
11/30–12/4/13 and 12/15–12/22/13.

Book by 8/14/13.
The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Tickets are valid for one Theme Park per day and must be used within 14 days of first use.
See Important Details below

or call 407-939-1810 or your Travel Agent.
Be sure to mention your unique
PIN: *************

Disney Resort hotels can fill up fast...especially with offers like this. So book your stay today!

OK - that sounds great, right. The problem is...this is NOT in my name. Back in 2007 we went to Disney with a friend and her family. I did all the planning, but I booked one room for them, and one room for us. Well, somehow at the time, they put HER family on the PIN list, NOT mine. So, for the past 6 years, I've been getting PIN offers to MY e-mail and MY address. But, I can't use them, because they are only good for the person who's NAME is on them, and that name is not the same as mine!

The worst is, they are NOT WDW fans, and have no interest in going back.

DAMN YOU, DISNEY MARKETING!!!!!

The other problem of course is the dates indicated are from November 11th, and we arrive on November 9th, which would be a bloody pain in the butt. However, as long as you can still pick up your tickets 3 days ahead of your package it would work. It also means we WOULDN'T have free dining for our day of Food and Wine, which I would really prefer to have access to the snack credits!

However, the fact that this PIN went out at all encourages me that MAYBE we will see free dining for those dates. What's interesting about it is that the dates shown are an expansion of the September dates. (The current GP dates are 9/2 - 9/25, which THESE dates are 8/25 to 10/2.)

I clicked on the e-mail and send a long message to Disney regarding the fact that they've been sending me PINs I can't use for 6 years, and whether there is any way to correct the situation. I wonder if I'll even get a response!

 

[khertz]

Oh gosh, that is definitely frustrating!! I have gotten PIN codes in the mail before for the person who owned the house before us. Hopefully, if nothing else, they can stop sending you PINs for someone else!!

 

[Tinker326]

We did talk on chat. News about our group dinner on Friday. Check the ABD thread for details!

In other news I received this e-mail yesterday:


OK - that sounds great, right. The problem is...this is NOT in my name. Back in 2007 we went to Disney with a friend and her family. I did all the planning, but I booked one room for them, and one room for us. Well, somehow at the time, they put HER family on the PIN list, NOT mine. So, for the past 6 years, I've been getting PIN offers to MY e-mail and MY address. But, I can't use them, because they are only good for the person who's NAME is on them, and that name is not the same as mine!

The worst is, they are NOT WDW fans, and have no interest in going back.

DAMN YOU, DISNEY MARKETING!!!!!

The other problem of course is the dates indicated are from November 11th, and we arrive on November 9th, which would be a bloody pain in the butt. However, as long as you can still pick up your tickets 3 days ahead of your package it would work. It also means we WOULDN'T have free dining for our day of Food and Wine, which I would really prefer to have access to the snack credits!

However, the fact that this PIN went out at all encourages me that MAYBE we will see free dining for those dates. What's interesting about it is that the dates shown are an expansion of the September dates. (The current GP dates are 9/2 - 9/25, which THESE dates are 8/25 to 10/2.)

I clicked on the e-mail and send a long message to Disney regarding the fact that they've been sending me PINs I can't use for 6 years, and whether there is any way to correct the situation. I wonder if I'll even get a response!

Oh my friend- you simply visit WDW too much to get a pin. They KNOW you'll be back so why bother sending you a pin? I have not gotten a pin in ages- like 6 years.... MY MOTHER still gets them ALL THE TIME to my address...because, like you, I booked her one time.

Stinks..but they KNOW. They see my cruise bookings & my past reservations and know I've been there once a year at least for years...........

Tis my curse as a Dis Freak!

 

[skier_pete]

Oh gosh, that is definitely frustrating!! I have gotten PIN codes in the mail before for the person who owned the house before us. Hopefully, if nothing else, they can stop sending you PINs for someone else!!

I know, I just want them to STOP TORTURING MEEEEE!

Oh my friend- you simply visit WDW too much to get a pin. They KNOW you'll be back so why bother sending you a pin? I have not gotten a pin in ages- like 6 years.... MY MOTHER still gets them ALL THE TIME to my address...because, like you, I booked her one time.

Stinks..but they KNOW. They see my cruise bookings & my past reservations and know I've been there once a year at least for years...........

Tis my curse as a Dis Freak!

You are right, for sure. However, we now haven't been back to WDW for 2 years. We DID go to DL, but because we booked off-site, and I bought tickets through my work-place, I don't think the "system" even knows that. Then next month I again am defecting to DL instead of good 'old Central Florida.


Wouldn't you think they'd be trying to entice me back?

 

[Tinker326]

You are right, for sure. However, we now haven't been back to WDW for 2 years. We DID go to DL, but because we booked off-site, and I bought tickets through my work-place, I don't think the "system" even knows that. Then next month I again am defecting to DL instead of good 'old Central Florida.


Wouldn't you think they'd be trying to entice me back?

I am pretty sure all the 'departments' are interlinked. So they see an ABD trip and a Cruise already booked in your future. Why do they need to send you a pin? You are already coming.

Drat that mouse. DRAT HIM!!! Takes all my money & love and leaves me NOTHING.

 

[skier_pete]

I am pretty sure all the 'departments' are interlinked. So they see an ABD trip and a Cruise already booked in your future. Why do they need to send you a pin? You are already coming.

Drat that mouse. DRAT HIM!!! Takes all my money & love and leaves me NOTHING.

Disney is definitely not a nurturing parent!!!!

It's interesting you mention the cruise. I notice that Disney DOES give perks to frequent cruisers - at least in terms of booking projects.

And I've actually never NOT gotten the price I want out of Disney...but there's always a first time.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Aw Pete. I'm so sorry for the torture. I did read about this particular pin promotion and wondered if you got one.

At least it does offer hope for the future.

 

[skier_pete]

Aw Pete. I'm so sorry for the torture. I did read about this particular pin promotion and wondered if you got one.

At least it does offer hope for the future.

Oh Thanks!

I decided to take a chance and try and use the PIN by calling into to CRO with the #. Turns out, they now have us "associated" with the PIN! This means we could TOTALLY USE IT!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!




The lesson is - always check if a PIN will work for you!

Now, of course, the dates of the FD package don't exactly match up with ours for the PIN. We arrive on November 9th (Saturday) and the package can't be started until Monday. The implications of this are as follows:

• The first two nights will be "room only" reservation - with no meal plan. Food will need to be paid for OOP. This unfortunately applies to Food & Wine day at Epcot on Sunday. An expensive proposition, no doubt.
• We need to decide if we still do Tusker House on our first day or not. We love eating lunch/dinner there, and have never eaten there with characters, so I might break down and pay for that one.
• We definitely will drop the Akershus breakfast on the 10th.
• Our park tickets with the package don't officially start until the 11th. However, it is reasonably common knowledge that you can go to the parks and pick up your package tickets at least 3 days in advance. As long as that policy doesn't change in the next 6 months, our plans should remain unchanged.
• The fact that we have two separate reservations says that we *might* need to change rooms on Monday - November 11th. I would put this as a very low likelyhood, but the good thing is we were planning on leaving the room late that first morning since we will be doing the MVMCP that night. This should make any room transfer (if necessary) easier to handle as oppose to an early morning start requiring us to come back to the room.
• We stuck with a non-preferred room. We had a free upgrade to a preferred room last time, and the location was awesome, but I think we can get a decent location out of a regular room. The cost difference is about $255, and I just can't justify a 10% bump it trip cost for that. I'd rather spend that money on Food and Wine.
• Right now, with 9 nights lodging, 8 day ticket, 7 days FD and 3 airline tickets - we are at just $3041 for the 10-day trip. And this is with three Disney "Adults" - remember DD turns 10 for this trip! (DW is paying for the MVMCP tickets, so that $200 is on her budget - not mine.)

I'm so excited!!!!
ADRs coming up starting on Monday!
And just 28 days until our OTHER trip! (Oh, yeah, I don't want to forget about that one.)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Oh Thanks!

I decided to take a chance and try and use the PIN by calling into to CRO with the #. Turns out, they now have us "associated" with the PIN! This means we could TOTALLY USE IT!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!




The lesson is - always check if a PIN will work for you!

Now, of course, the dates of the FD package don't exactly match up with ours for the PIN. We arrive on November 9th (Saturday) and the package can't be started until Monday. The implications of this are as follows:

• The first two nights will be "room only" reservation - with no meal plan. Food will need to be paid for OOP. This unfortunately applies to Food & Wine day at Epcot on Sunday. An expensive proposition, no doubt.
• We need to decide if we still do Tusker House on our first day or not. We love eating lunch/dinner there, and have never eaten there with characters, so I might break down and pay for that one.
• We definitely will drop the Akershus breakfast on the 10th.
• Our park tickets with the package don't officially start until the 11th. However, it is reasonably common knowledge that you can go to the parks and pick up your package tickets at least 3 days in advance. As long as that policy doesn't change in the next 6 months, our plans should remain unchanged.
• The fact that we have two separate reservations says that we *might* need to change rooms on Monday - November 11th. I would put this as a very low likelyhood, but the good thing is we were planning on leaving the room late that first morning since we will be doing the MVMCP that night. This should make any room transfer (if necessary) easier to handle as oppose to an early morning start requiring us to come back to the room.
• We stuck with a non-preferred room. We had a free upgrade to a preferred room last time, and the location was awesome, but I think we can get a decent location out of a regular room. The cost difference is about $255, and I just can't justify a 10% bump it trip cost for that. I'd rather spend that money on Food and Wine.
• Right now, with 9 nights lodging, 8 day ticket, 7 days FD and 3 airline tickets - we are at just $3041 for the 10-day trip. And this is with three Disney "Adults" - remember DD turns 10 for this trip! (DW is paying for the MVMCP tickets, so that $200 is on her budget - not mine.)

I'm so excited!!!!
ADRs coming up starting on Monday!
And just 28 days until our OTHER trip! (Oh, yeah, I don't want to forget about that one.)

Well done!

That so totally works for you! Glad that you got the FD offer as well.

 

[disneykiwi]

Brilliant - thats excellent.

 

[skier_pete]

So, we passed the 180 day for the room-only portion of our trip. This allowed us to book the first meal of the trip. I still haven't decided 100% if we are going to do it, but I'm leaning towards it.

We booked a 1:35 PM lunch at Tusker House on Saturday, November 11th. I was originally going to book dinner, but then found out that the characters aren't at dinner. So, I figured I would just pick a late lunch.

Now, the trick here is our flight gets in at 10 AM that morning. Usually I am very paranoid about having an ADR so only 3.5 hours after we land, especially at a restaurant with a credit card hold.

However, I checked with the dining folks and they said that the credit card charge would be waved if my reason for missing the ADR was that my flight was delayed. Since it is a direct flight, I should have a pretty good idea if the plane takes off that we are going to get there. (An early November flight out of Buffalo probably has < 5 % chance of whether delays - but it definitely could happen.)

Overall, I think it's pretty cool to leave our house in the morning in Buffalo (@ 5:30 AM) and be eating with Mickey for lunch!

In addition, Tinker326 informs me she was able to book us into Garden Grill on Thursday, the 14th at 7:15 PM. So THAT one is taken care of. Yet ANOTHER meal with the Mickster! That's probably enough of THOSE!

So we got two down - 7 to go!

 

[PrincessInOz]

That is really cool!

 

[Tinker326]

So, we passed the 180 day for the room-only portion of our trip. This allowed us to book the first meal of the trip. I still haven't decided 100% if we are going to do it, but I'm leaning towards it.

We booked a 1:35 PM lunch at Tusker House on Saturday, November 11th. I was originally going to book dinner, but then found out that the characters aren't at dinner. So, I figured I would just pick a late lunch.

Now, the trick here is our flight gets in at 10 AM that morning. Usually I am very paranoid about having an ADR so only 3.5 hours after we land, especially at a restaurant with a credit card hold.

However, I checked with the dining folks and they said that the credit card charge would be waved if my reason for missing the ADR was that my flight was delayed. Since it is a direct flight, I should have a pretty good idea if the plane takes off that we are going to get there. (An early November flight out of Buffalo probably has < 5 % chance of whether delays - but it definitely could happen.)

Overall, I think it's pretty cool to leave our house in the morning in Buffalo (@ 5:30 AM) and be eating with Mickey for lunch!

In addition, Tinker326 informs me she was able to book us into Garden Grill on Thursday, the 14th at 7:15 PM. So THAT one is taken care of. Yet ANOTHER meal with the Mickster! That's probably enough of THOSE!

So we got two down - 7 to go!

Why can't you book all your ADRS now? I booked all my ADRS on my first reservation (at the Beach Club) even for the part of the trip I'm at Animal Kingdom. In fact, when I called, she even booked PAST the 10 plus days for me as that last Monday we are in Disney was technically 180 + 11.