Saratoga Springs Christmas surprise ideas

[Bolt4Life17]

TLDR: Going to Saratoga Springs in January. Going to surprise my wife for Christmas with the info. What are some good ideas for a Christmas gift reveal?

Also, if Free Disney Dining comes out, based on booking through RCI, can we add the promotion to our stay?

Long Version:

A few months ago I made a down payment on a Disney World trip in January to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort. The total before flights, food, and drinks was about $3500. We chose that resort because of the new skyliner and our usual French Quarter wasn't available. I arranged babysitting for our two year old daughter with my parents and we are going to try for baby #2 this trip. One last adult only Disney World trip before we are overwhelmed with little minions! I already communicated with my wife's boss for her to have the days off and decided I will hide this until Christmas. We used to go a lot for a while until our last trip in 2015.
We are Club Wyndham timeshare members and did not use it the first year and half of owning. I found Wyndham automatically transferred our unused timeshare points to a company named RCI. I looked on RCI's website and noticed we could get a week stay at Disney World at their Saratoga Springs around the same time with our points we had in them - - Just having to pay a booking fee. This is perfect because we love going to Disney Springs every night to nightcap. I ended up paying the RCI $229 booking fee and getting the week stay at Saratoga Springs with points.

When I reveal this trip on Christmas, what are some cool ideas on how to reveal it? This is our first trip not staying at one of the Port Orleans resorts. My wife has been wanting to try for baby #2 these past few months but I keep saying no not yet because I knew this WDW trip was coming up and the way we do WDW involves a lot of adult beverages.

I am thinking something like opening a gift which has some ears, a Disney shirt, a Saratoga Springs post card, and maybe some type of baby outfit that says coming September 2022 or something. I don't know. I just want to hear some ideas. Open to all!

Also, has anyone ever added a promotion to a resort booked through RCI or another timeshare company?

 

[boop0524]

How awesome! What an amazing surprise, I'm sure your DW will be over the moon! Shopdisney has a few things that are specific to SSR, so that might be fun to give her. Ears and other WDW apparel are always great, too! You know her best, so I'd say whatever she likes to wear or have on during park visits are the way to go.

Booking through RCI just means slightly more leg work up front. If you haven't already, call Disney with your RCI confirmation number and have them locate / match up the reservation. Once they do that, everything should sync up to your MDE. Then it's like planning any other vacation with add ons etc.

 

[Suzabella]

Disney Christmas ornament with 2022 on it. The Christmas shop at DS does customize ornaments so maybe work with them on something. You could also get a SSR ornament either at the SSR gift shop or the Christmas shop might have them. We did that one year for our kids with a glass cruise ship ornament when we booked a family cruise.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can't get free dining without booking directly with Disney Reservation Center. You are booking through DVC and they don't offer free dining. You can book dining, but it won't be free. You will pay the standard cost.

 

[CarolynFH]

This was for our grandkids a few years ago, but your wife might enjoy it. As a Christmas gift, we had a jigsaw puzzle made from one of our photos of the WDW entrance arch and divided the pieces into separate bags for each grandchild so they had to work together to put the puzzle together. I was actually surprised how long it took them to realize what the photo was and that it said "Spring Break in Walt Disney World!"

 

[CarolynFH]

Also, has anyone ever added a promotion to a resort booked through RCI or another timeshare company?

RCI exchanges into DVC don't usually qualify for any promotions (such as free dining), because essentially you're paying with DVC points that a DVC owner deposited into RCI in order to trade into one of those resorts. But you do need to call DVC at the number listed on your RCI confirmation to give them both of your names and and to get the Disney confirmation number so you can link your reservation to your MDE account. Once linked, it's like any other Disney resort reservation. BTW RCI exchanges into SSR are one-bedroom villas, almost always in one of the Standard sections: Grandstand, Carousel or Paddock. When you talk to DVC you can make a request for location of your villa, which this thread can help you figure out. It may or may not be granted, but you might as well ask!