Late December '12 Deals

[Specter]

I know that this is very, very, VERY early, and that there is already a code watch thread for December of 12. I am sure that there are no specific deals available yet for '12 so I am asking a more general question.

What I would like to ask is if Disney World traditionally has any free dining offers or kids stay/play free offers in late December/early January. Unfortunately we are not very flexible with our travel dates. My sister will be traveling with her husband and daughter, arriving on 12/29, planning to stay through 1/5. I realize that this is a busy time, we have gone to WDW before during the week before Christmas and arriving on New Year's Day, so we know what to expect crowd wise and we know that this is generally a busy season.

This is a family trip and getting everyone there at the same time is what pretty much locks us in to these dates. Right now we plan to stay at Shades of Green with my wife and I staying at a moderate resort, probably POFQ, for 2 nights prior to the arrival of the rest of the family so we have a little time to ourselves before we join them at shades of green. The only way we can imagine staying at a Disney owned park would be cheaper would be to either get free dining or my niece's park ticket free.

Does anyone know if Disney gives any sort of discount rate to firefighters as this could also help them? Thank you all for any help or advice that you can offer.

 

[snykymom]

For arrivals during the week between Christmas and New Year's, the answer is historically no discounts offered. Not even the AAA discount is good that week (and it is the other 51 weeks per year).

Discounts generally begin on Jan. 2. Right now, there's a room-only discount beginning on Jan. 2. You would need to make two separate reservations to take advantage of the discount in the middle of your stay.

ETA - sorry, I was thinking Dec. 2011 and Jan. 2012, not Dec. 2012 and Jan. 2013. Of course there's nothing out now, but traditionally there has been some sort of room discount for early January. There hasn't been free dining offered during that time frame to my knowledge. (Of course, we don't use the dining plan, so I could be wrong!)

 

[blessedby3]

here is a link for the historical discounts on mousesavers
http://www.mousesavers.com/historicalwdwdiscounts.html
It looks like there was free dining in Jan of 2011, starting on 1/1/11

 

[Specter]

Thank you both for the info and the link, I know that I am beyond early on this but trying to coordinate a grand total of 12 adults and 1 small child is a hassle and then trying to accommodate the budgets too. A split stay might work out if they do offer the free dining, I will just have to keep my eyes peeled on that one and see how it all goes. I love going at that time of year because the weather is so much better and honestly, the holiday crowds don't seem any worse than the summer crowds but maybe that's because I get more irritable with crowds AND heat than I do just crowds.