Tink's Looong Overdue Dining Review....W/ DDE Savings!

[FeeFeeWhite]

Just curious. What email did you forget?

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Just curious. What email did you forget?

When you purchase the DDE, it takes a while to get your cards in the mail. If your trip is scheduled before the cards arrive, Disney sends you an email that states that you are a current member, entitled to all the discounts that come with it. We had forgotten the email at home, and didn't have our cards, so we couldn't get the discount until the next day when they faxed us a new copy at AK.

 

[Tinkerbelll]

...but here it is! The "First Date" story that I promised so long ago!!!! LOL... I just posted it on another thread that asked about "your shortest trip ever", and I remembered that I had promised to post it here as well... Sorry it's been so long (I'm so bad with these things! I don't know how I get through college!! )

COMPLETELY SPONTANIOUS ONE NIGHT TRIP FROM NY!!!! BEAT THAT!!!


Ok... tell me this is not the craziest trip story ever.... DBF called me at work when we first started seeing each other (4/04) on a Friday night around 10pm and told me that since I had off from work the next day, he wanted to do something really really special for me...and he decided he wanted to take me to Disney World. At first, I laughed at him (hey...I'm a college student and he's right out of college... finances are tight, to say the least!). But apparently, as I soon came to realize, he wasn't kidding.

But Disney World? Just for the Day? FROM NY???? I was freaking!!!

So, I got off work at about 1am Saturday. He purchased the tickets at 2am and we were on that JetBlue flight at 5am. We had no return tickets (we didn't know if were were going to fly home that night, or find a place to nap, or what...), only one backpack, and a little bit of cash. Talk about scary!! (the GOOD kind of Scary!)

Getting off the plane was amazing (just realizing that we really did it... we were really alone, together, in beautiful sunny Florida!!). We took a taxi straight from MCO to the TTC, bought our MK tix, and were in the park by like 11! We spent the entire day together.. he still talks about how amazing it was to watch my face as I ran around Disney like a 5 year old! (I hadn't been in a couple years and it has always been my favorite place on earth...)

Anyway, turns out MK was open till 12pm that night, so we ended up staying till close. We did everything from eating our first real meal together (at Cosmic Ray's) to buying matching Mickey Ears and walking around all day like love sick puppies. It was sooo magical! We watched the fireworks and the parade and got on all the rides we wanted to. Only problem was that I had work the next day (Sunday) and as our day together dragged on, I knew I wasn't going to make it to work the next morning, whether we got a red-eye flight back to NY or stayed overnight somewhere in Orlando. So, with no definite plans, I called work from the queue line to Splash Mountain to tell them I wasn't feeling well and that they would have to get someone to cover my shift! (This is not like me at all, but then again, neither is hopping a plane to Disney with just a few hours notice... no plans, no way home... ).

SO, once the park closed, we didn't know what to do afterwards. I had been to Disney with my family many times before, and I knew busses always ran to PI till at least 2am. So we took the monorail to the Contemporary (still having no clue what to do), hopped a bus from there to PI, and walked to the Wyndham Palace. At this point I needed a shower so badly, so being the all-impressive man that he is, DBF coughed up the $$ and bought us a room. (In retrospect, we should have just gotten a room at the Contemporary, it was around the same amount of $$... the price of being spontaneous is that you get RIPPED OFF!) It was so amazing and magical though, we just didn't care.

The next morning brought more bad news.... tickets home went sky-high in price and we ended up having to spend like 5 times what we paid to get there, just to get home! We couldn't stay another night though because I had school the next day!! So we spent that whole Sunday (which happened to be Easter!) walking around DTD, playing with the legos, eating Ice Cream, and falling in love. Took a cab back to the airport, and RELUCTANTLY got back on a plane....but neither of us WANTED to! Disney World and Florida had officially become "Our Place" and we wanted to stay like that FOREVER! One of the most memorable moments was when we were walking back through security to get on the plane, Mickey Ears and all, and the female security guard at the gate just smiled and said to her associate "Look at those honeymooners! They are so cute!" and turned her head to us and said "Congratulations!".. It was so adorable, we just turned beat red and thanked her... knowing that whatever was growing between us must be HUGE when even complete strangers were noticing!

And that’s my story... My amazing one night trip to Disney World! And now, about a year and a half later, we've been back 3 times (check my siggie!) with another trip planned for Oct.!! Each trip brings us so much happiness and so much to look forward to... but nothing will ever be as magical as our first "date" to Disney! I'm all for the quick trips. Sometimes, they turn out to be the best! DO IT!!!

 

[vanessat]

Loved reading your reviews, but do not know what is DDE, and how do you buy it?

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Loved reading your reviews, but do not know what is DDE, and how do you buy it?

DDE = Disney Dining Experiance Card... It's a special card offered to FL residents, and just recently offered to passholders, that costs $50.00 for 2 cards) and gives the cardholder and up to 8 guests 20% off your meals at tons of resturants on WDW property for the following year!! It also gives you free parking at the resorts and parks for dining purposes and saved us a ton of money! Too bad were doing the "free dining" on our upcomming trip and won't be able to use our DDE too much!! If your trip is long enough, or if there are a lot of people in your party, or if you plan to go more than once in a years time, it might save you $$ to purchase an AP for one person in your party and then purchase the DDE.. You only need one card for up to 8 people! It worked out for us!!

 

[vanessat]

Thank you, it is a vey good tip for us as we are going to wdw for 8 days and do not have dining plan.

I am so happy to have found the Dis boards, everyone's advice here has helped me save so much for our first trip ever to WDW in October!

Hopefully, after our return, I will also be able to give others good tips...

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks Tink for the great restaurant reviews.

 

[Inga]

What a wonderful story! It was so romantic!!! Thanks for sharing it.

The restaurant reports were great too! Thanks for posting!

What was in the basket for DBF? I am looking to purchae for DH and curious what types of things were in the basket for him?

Inga

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

DDE is the only way to go. We go every year and get Annual Passes also. We go late October the year we purchase them and early October the following year. Works out great. 20 days of park hoppin for about $20/person/day.

The DDE just makes it THAT more attractive. 20% off at most of the Disney restaurants. We'll just boycott the ones that don't

Anyone have that LINK that shows the participating restaurants?

 

[Tinkerbelll]

What a wonderful story! It was so romantic!!! Thanks for sharing it.

The restaurant reports were great too! Thanks for posting!

What was in the basket for DBF? I am looking to purchae for DH and curious what types of things were in the basket for him?

Inga

Lots of gourmet chocolate (by request) a small eeyore plush (cause DBF loves him!) and a blue Mickey antenna topper!! heres a pic......

Peggy was really good about it too... Good Luck!!