My Costco package came today!

[fidoprincess]

and it had "extras"!!! It had the usual perks of the character dining coupons, TTMM coupons, preferred seating for Alladin and new "Cars" luggage tags. Our names were not printed on the tickets though like last time, they are just blank. I didn't get to look in the magical extras book yet but best of all, it also came with a really nice Disneyland backpack!! It had a little mermaid cd/dvd too, not sure what exactly that is yet since DD was here so I had to lock myself in the bathroom to look. Wait... there's more...it also had vouchers for preferred parade seating=yippie! (I almost booked the Holiday tour just because I am not good waiting for the parade but love it so much so I was thrilled to see those tucked into the pouch.) I think these seats are by the train station? Don't care, hey, they are SEATS!

I'm so excited to get the backpack too because now I have something wonderful to wrap up and surprise DD with on Christmas morning. She is going to be so thrilled! I can't wait for her to go to school tomorrow so I can get a really good look at everything. The backpack says Disneyland on it and is really nice but I'd love to look again and see what else was on it. It had a picture of some sort. I love the little mermaid cd too because that ride is new since we were there last and she is excited to see that one. I don't think there is anything else new so isn't that just a wonderful coincidence!?

FYI, I was able to track the package on UPS with the reservation number as the reference number just the way others here had posted so I knew it was coming today. It said we would have to sign for it but they didn't even ring the bell so dd casually carried it in when she got off the school bus. I almost had a heart attack but it says nothing on the label that made her suspicious but I saw WDTC fulfillment and Anaheim address and knew right away what it was.

We leave on New Year's Day!!

 

[fidoprincess]

DD just left for school and I was able to look at everything more closely. The backpack has the Disneyland castle logo in light blue with little red flags and says "Let the Memories Begin" below it and then above the castle it says "Disneyland." How perfect is that?! The cd has 8 songs of the Little Mermaid with a special note to enjoy the new ride.

I think the reason we got the extras is because the computer "saw" my Visa as a Disney Visa. Years ago, it WAS a Disney Visa but we switched to the regular rewards card when we gave up our APs at least 5 years ago. It must still be in the system and let us get the extra backpack, cd and parade viewing vouchers as Disney Visa perks and we still got all the regular Costco perks. I feel so LUCKY!!!

 

[mamaofthree]

Yippee! That is so exciting, hope you have a great trip! I also booked a Costco package and paid with my Disney Visa. I had no idea there were package perks when paying with the Disney Visa. Besides the 6 months 0% financing. We leave on Jan 8th, so I guess our package is coming next week?

 

[kailuagirl]

Score!!! What a wonderful surprise!! We didn't get any extra's in our package last month Our luggage tags were Buzz as were the free pins.

I wonder if it was your Disney Visa? I asked about it when I booked our package as we also have one, but they said no. But heck, who cars, you just scored big time!!

Have a magical time

 

[fidoprincess]

I'm sure it was a mistake because my Visa is not the Disney one anymore but for some reason still showed up in their system that way. Maybe it was just a bit of happy Christmas cheer on the part of some nice CM. I hope she or he knows how excited I was to get the goodies!

I'm sure we were not supposed to get both of the benefits of the Visa package and the Costco package but I'm thrilled. The luggage tags are really cute and I think the Costco ones are always Donald Duck and we have a ton of those already so it's nice to have different ones. I'll be curious to see what lanyard's and pins we will get.

kailuagirl, was your package Costco that gave you the Buzz stuff? It's been a while since we got the Donald Duck stuff so it must have changed and the lanyards were green with big COSTCO written all over them. The girls didn't like them much but luckily it saved me the whole pin trading thing that they sometimes get caught up in and saved me money too not buying pins!

mamaofthree, since you have the Disney Visa AND booked though Costco, I bet you will get all the goodies! The backpack is really nice, not too big or little, just right. Not too cheap either as it even has the padded straps and several pockets.

I'll post back after our trip and tell you where the parade viewing is but I read that it's not seats, just a spot either by Small World or on the train station at Main Street. I'm happy that I don't have to stake out a spot hours ahead of the parade! Remember too that the vouchers for the premium character dining say to make ressies. We are going to try to do the dinner because it's more expensive than breakfast at Goofy's.

I didn't know that you could make payments! I booked less than 30 days before our trip so I had to pay in full at the time of booking. I bet that is a nice option for people that plan better than me-lol!

Counting down the days....so excited! Thanks for your replies.

 

[lmogs]

Is the Costco package the most cost-effective? I wasn't aware they did this until now!! Never been to Disneyland before (many times to the World) and trying to find a package deal for February. Thanks for any info (2 adults and 2 kids coming from Canada).

 

[fidoprincess]

Hi imogs, To see if the Costco package is the best deal, you have to try putting in your dates and compare prices. Try to see if you book the hotel separately if it's cheaper and check all the different places. If you are not staying at one of the Disney hotels, most of the time it's cheaper to book the hotel and buy your own tickets from either AAA (I think I read here that they honor Canadian AAA?) or print ahead off the disney site.

If staying at the Disney hotels, try all the different websites and also call directly to get the rate for the hotel. In the past I've tried expedia and travelocity too because sometimes they are a better deal than booking with Disney directly even if you have AAA. Also if you do have AAA, call the hotel and ask because the prices are not the same. The AAA website is often higher than just asking for the rate over the phone. If anyone is a senior, you get a really good rate over the phone too. Ares sometimes has a better price too.

For us this trip, Disney was exactly the same price as Costco but Costco ends up being a better deal because you get the free character meal voucher for each person in your party and a $20 gift card. We are going Jan 2 and the hotel prices are pretty high but we've gotten better deals at other times by shopping around. The best price I ever got for DLH was on expedia but I booked way in advance and knew I wasn't going to cancel. Depending on when you are going in Feb, prices should be lower except maybe over the weekend of the 17th because that's a holiday. Good luck shopping around!

 

[mamaofthree]

Can someone explain how they tracked their package with a confirmation number? Is it the invoice # in the email subject line when I got email confirmation? We are leaving Jan 8th and I haven't gotten a call about when they are arriving. Shouldn't it have shipped by now?

 

[mamaofthree]

NM, figured it out. I was putting it in wrong spot. Should be here today! Leaving in 20 min for dd's choir show, I may miss it! Ugh!