We won last year. Everything was done through e-mail. No phone calls/Fed ex. I almost missed the e-mail because it looked like spam. It came from a named person (not Disney or even Ventura, though If you looked carefully, the email address contained the business name: eg "Jane.Doe@ventura.com", or something similar) so look carefully at all email. We were given the choice of any hotel (Deluxes included, but no DVC) and had to rank our top three choices. We got our first choice of GF. Ventura was completely fabulous to work with and it was an incredible experience! We were able to upgrade our tickets, and we upgraded two to APs and added days on the other two. We also added hotel nights and were given discounted rates. You can not add the dining plan, but we would not have wanted to anyway. I haven't done my taxes for 2024 or received the 1099, but I am estimating an approximate $2,000 tax hit. I did the old trick of paying my January mortgage payment on the last day of 2014 so I an extra month of interest deduction to help offset it. Other winners had more than four people and were able to add them to the trip at their own expense. I think one winner that only had two people going were given something else (extra hotel nights maybe?). I hope that helps answer some questions, at least with the way it happened last year. Good luck everyone!
