Most affective way to use pins..

[tinkerbell_xo]

I received the 30%/35%/40% pin code in the mail. Then they released it to the public.

What is the BEST way to take advantage of this pin?

When we do Disney we always go for at least 7 nights, park hopper, water parks & more and meal plan.

We usually stay at values but this time I want to stay in a moderate or deluxe.

We're planning on going April 29-May 7.
2 adults.

Should we just book the room with this pin then get park tickets through someone other than Disney (ie. Undercover Tourist) and pay out of pocket for food?
We prefer to have the food already paid for and taken care of before we get there.

So what I want to know is does anyone have any ideas as to what would be the best way to take advantage of this pin and still get everything we want, and save as much money as possible?

 

[marcielm]

If you really like to have food paid for with the dining plan, then you have to add tickets to your room only PIN for the package. I like the DDP as well, otherwise we'd be sharing food & eating the cheapest thing possible. Not to mention only drinking free water!!

The 35% off the mods is pretty good. Run your dates on the current room only discount, and see what you get, and compare that to the offer the CM's give you for your PIN. That way you will know which one is the better deal. If it looks like the current GP offer is better, then ask the CM to quote you the same ressie on that offer as well, just to make sure.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I was booked for May on the free GC offer at a mod,(no DDP added..using GC for food) and then I got the 30/35/40 PIN. Then as you know they made that public. I'm holding on to the PIN for the fall, but went throug a bunch of different options to determine whether to hold on to the GC offer or change to the room-only. I like knowing everything is paid for before we leave as well. One of the things I considered was buying one park day to get the DDP. You could do that and then buy your other tickets from another source at a discount. It won't save you much on tix but something is better than nothing, and your food will be paid for.

I ended up booking the room only deal at a mod and adding the QSDP and just got all our tickets through Disney. It was $60 less than my original booking at full rack rate. The only meal we had booked was Chef Mickey which will now be out of pocket. I figured most of our meals would have been CS anyway, so I didn't feel I was really giving anything up by giving up the GC.

Another way to save a few bucks is to buy fewer park days since you are adding the water park option. We're doing this as well. We have left over options for a previous trip so I bought fewer park days as we will be spending at least one day at the water parks. I would normally buy a 7 day ticket, but bought 5 instead.

 

[rt2dz]

The smart thing to do is run the numbers both ways. Run the numbers with the whole package and costs. Then go back and see what the difference is if you had a room only reservation, bought discounted tickets, and see what your out of pocket dining expenses would be (All Ears is great for this). If the room only reservation is the cheaper way to go (seeing how you pay for only the food you want ) and you still want your meals pre-paid, simply put your estimated food costs on a gift card and then it is still the same feeling as being prepaid. Bonus: you don’t have to track meal credits and on a separate form of payment, keep track of your tips!

Also, check very carefully the difference between paying for a park hopper and adding the water parks and more option v. having the park hopper and paying for the water parks/Disney Quest tickets separately. If you go to the parks a lot, the water park and more option can save you money, but if you only go a couple of times, it might actually cost you more money. Just depends on how you do Disney. THIS article is pretty good about helping you figure out the best ticket option. You can also always add your tickets (except for any type of AP) to your room key at the resort/guest services if you simply want to deal with one card.

 

[StuckInKS]

We are using our PIN in combination with the GC deal and forgoing the DDP. First, we would have no need for the QSDP (I don't care much for Disney CS,) so we would need the DDP or DxDDP. Secondly, we are getting two rooms (5 adults, 3 kids and 2 under threes,) so our GC total will be doubled. We want to stay at WL, but are also looking at POR, since it looks to be about $2,000 cheaper for our group. Therefore, our GC total will be $1,000 to $1,500, good enough to feed us all, I think, and we won't be stuck to X many TS, X many CS and X many snacks. I am someone who is likely to get 2 or 3 snacks (hey, I'm eating for two here ) during the day and then enjoy a TS in the evening. Going this way, I will be paying for CRT OOP. We ran all the numbers with and without the dining plan. In the end, the GC deal, without the dining plan and then adding on two more nights with our PIN seems to be the cheapest for us OOP. Run ALL the numbers, as you never know what you will find!