Please Help! Lots of Questions!

[cccdisney]

We will be going to WDW in Nov 2010. Our dates are Nov 19th - 27th, 2010. This is the Friday before Thanksgiving to the Saturday after T-day. Our dates are not flexible, except that we might fly home a day earlier if the airline tickets end up being much cheaper that day.
We will be staying at BC. There will be two rooms with 5 adults and 3 children. My questions:
1. For 2009 they offered both the FD (first) and then just released the 4/3 for this time period, correct? Should I book a package and then add one of these deals on later when they are released? Or book room-only now? (We do have AAA.)
2. Will we still be able to get these promotions even though we will be there through T-day, though we will check-in well before the Holiday weekend??
3. How should we book? Directly through Disney? Through AAA? Another TA?
4. I know because we will have 8 people we will be considered a "grand gathering", does that mean we can book ADR's sooner? Or what exactly does that mean? Any benefits?

TIA! I am a DLR veteran and can plan a trip to DLR without too much effort. But these WDW trips get so complicated!!

 

[marcielm]

You can go ahead and book your package now, and watch for a discount to come out. Once they are announced you can call and see if they have availability for your resort & dates.

This past year the free dining was an extended offer for the "normal free dining" that is offered in Sept. You were able to have it for the full length of your stay, provided you checked in before a blackout date, so people were able to have it on T-day. Some discounts don't work this way, however, and you may have to do a split reservation, where one is at a discounted rate, and the second one is at rack rate.

You can book this yourself through Disney, with AAA, or another TA (just make sure they specialize in Disney Destinations!). A TA should keep an eye on discounts that come available, and save you that headache. They will also make dining reservations & such, in additions to other recommendations.

As for being a GG, you won't get to book ADR's any earlier (even thought the date will be 180 days out for your ressie), but you will have some additional options for dining/grand gathering experiences. These include things that can be covered by the dining plan or that you can pay extra for. Again, you have plenty of time to research this yourself, or if you use a TA they can help you in your itinerary planning.

 

[cccdisney]

You can go ahead and book your package now, and watch for a discount to come out. Once they are announced you can call and see if they have availability for your resort & dates.

This past year the free dining was an extended offer for the "normal free dining" that is offered in Sept. You were able to have it for the full length of your stay, provided you checked in before a blackout date, so people were able to have it on T-day. Some discounts don't work this way, however, and you may have to do a split reservation, where one is at a discounted rate, and the second one is at rack rate.

You can book this yourself through Disney, with AAA, or another TA (just make sure they specialize in Disney Destinations!). A TA should keep an eye on discounts that come available, and save you that headache. They will also make dining reservations & such, in additions to other recommendations.

As for being a GG, you won't get to book ADR's any earlier (even thought the date will be 180 days out for your ressie), but you will have some additional options for dining/grand gathering experiences. These include things that can be covered by the dining plan or that you can pay extra for. Again, you have plenty of time to research this yourself, or if you use a TA they can help you in your itinerary planning.

Thanks for the information! I REALLY appreciate any input!