Question Re: Free DDP in August

[silmarg]

Looks like I will be going to WDW in late Aug 2007. Assuming the free DDP is reintroduced I was wondering how it worked in the past.

Here's my fact pattern:

In the past few years we had been staying at a condo owned by my bro-in-law, but he sold the place and we are back on site... I am an AP holder, so I can usually get a room discount. I also get a DDE card (20% off most meals). I work for Chase so I get the DW and DD their passes on my company discount. So when we went to WDW last month I did not get the DDP (as the DDP was not free and we usually do two TS's a day). But if we go again in August and the DDP is free do I have to give up my AP room discount? Also, if my trip in August is 7 days long can I just buy a 1 day pass to make the package MYW and then I get 7 DDP days free? Or do I have to buy a 7 Pass to get a 7 day free DDP?

Just trying to see who the free DDP works in anticipation of a deal....

 

[thunderbird1]

I'll try to answer your questions, at least based on last year's rules.

Do you have to give up your AP room discount? Yes--you cannot combine AP room discounts and the free dining promotion.

Can you buy one day tickets with the package (and still get 7 days of free dining)? Yes. The DDP was tied to the number of nights at your hotel, not to your park passes. Other than requiring you to buy at least a one day pass, the number of days on your passes was irrelevant for DDP purposes. So you could have had 7 nights hotel/7 nights DDP, and purchased one day, 5 day or 10 day park passes. You could either have used those tickets for park admission on that trip or (if you already had annual/other passes) saved them for a future trip/use them towards the purchase of your next AP (one per pass).

HTH! Any other questions?

 

[silmarg]

If I have 4 people in the room I have to get 4 1-day passes in order for all of us to get the free DDP?

 

[bonzarella]

Yes, each person would need a 1 day pass. Just curious-from your signature it looks like you were just there. Why didn't you book the bounce back package? Your dates would fall in the promo period.

 

[silmarg]

Yes I was just there. When I was at Chef Mickey's for dinner they gave me a flyer about the promo. I did not get it with my checkout documents as some have mentioned on these boards.

As to why I didnt do it while I was there...

We have never gone to The World during the summer (yes we pull the kids out of school ). We do this for two reasons, summer time is typically my busiest time at work (so time off is tough) and we are not too keen on crowds. So we have gone in early Feb, Oct, Nov, and early Dec (and once in April). But as our kids are getting older we feel its not that great an idea to pull them out of school and we have shuffled things around at work where we stack up the work earlier in the summer so some of us can take time off at the end of summer.

So... to make a long story short... we are consdiering a 4 day cruise on Aug 26 followed by the Parks until the day after Labor Day. We havent really decided this until now (and I would not say we are 100% certain we will actually do this as we are nervous about the HOT HOT weather).

Also, I usually dont plan a Disney trip this far in advance (which is not good as the cruise gets expense the longer you wait). So... I may call the number on the offer I got a Chef Mickey's and beg to get the meal deal. Otherwise I'll wait to see if it does get offered later on to the public.

So if I have all my facts straight... I will have to pay approx $40 more per nite for my moderate room (as I would lose the AP discount) and have to pay $260+ for the 4 passes I would not be using (but I could use them later or use them as down payment for a future AP). In exchange I get the free DDP (which I guess I would value at about $100 per day). Not a bad trade (yes I work on Wall St).

 

[thunderbird1]

Assuming both your kids are 9 or younger, your math looks good to me. (Obviously, the DDP costs more for adults, so if your kids are 10+, your savings is even more.) An excellent trade, in my opinion, and that's not even counting that you'll actually get more than $100 per day worth of food.

As for the heat, we were nervous about that, too, but there's lots of air conditioning in WDW, snack credits are great for drinks and ice cream, and you'll never have to carry a jacket around. Even at midnight, I was still comfortable in shorts and a tank top. Have fun!

 

[bonzarella]

silmarg-I pulled the kids out last Sept for 10 days. They did fine as we had all homework done ahead of time. I would do it again in a heartbeat but DH is adamant they miss no more school We will be fighting the heat & crowds in Aug. Always take a pool & relaxation break in the afternoons so we should be ok.
You have it right, pay rack rate, one day base ticket for all party members & get the dining free. We too are AP holders & just applied the one day towards our new one. Very easy. Since you work on Wall Street maybe you will find these #'s interesting. We paid 1124 (3 Adults-1Child) for 10 days at Pop w/ 1 day base tickets. I stopped tallying the receipts at 1800.00+, we also left 4TS & 6/7 CS meals. Hope you trip is the BEST!!!

 

[silmarg]

you talled $1800 in meal receipts! What a deal!

This will change our normal operatin procedure in WDW (assuming I want to take full advantage of the DDP and not go OOP).

We notmally would do a character breakfast and dinner... so I will have to swap a TS for a counterservice...