- Joined
- Feb 8, 2003
- Messages
- 10,626
Okay I called and booked us for June 13th- 23rd (couldn't do it online since it was more than 8 nights).
I went ahead and booked with 1 day ticket for each of us so we could do the dining pkg. Even though my oldest is young enough for kids meals and we have to pay for adult price on dining pkg- I figured it all up and if we use one adult/2 children off the dining plan for every meal and just PAY for her kids meal-- we'll still come out ahead. We'll just do more table service & character meals this way. (and pay only $10-12.99 or whatever her price is instead of using her $35 per day dining).
I booked it with the flight- because booking through them actually got me a $50 cheaper (total, not per person) flight cost than booking the cheapest I'd found elsewhere (expedia, travelocity, etc.) -so that basically paid for the insurance (44.95) without costing us anything extra. Cool beans!
Things I found out:
It says you have to book online to get the free 5x7 photopass certificate if booking a pkg.... but I asked her about it and she put me on hold and talked to Guest Services and got it added (a note about it on my reservation) because even the GS CM agreed that someone booking LONGER than 8 days (therefore not able to book online with a pkg) shouldn't be penalized and not get the certificate! So if you book longer and therefore can't book online- ask if they can add that for you too!
She gave a little more info than I'd read online about Magical Express- she said they'll have people looking for the WDW tags they send you when you book a pkg- so that's how they know which luggage to take to the resorts. She did say that the luggage most likely would not be going WITH you but it is NOT going to be like hours later you're waiting at the resort for your luggage- she even said it might be there before you are! She said they'd have a CM (in CM uniform) waiting for you when you arrive off your flight to take you to your coach transportation, said they'd also have Disney "movie"- the same type they use for transportation to the cruises) and you'll take your carryons but your checked luggage will go "behind the scenes" just like it does with the cruises- but there shouldn't be a long wait for it when you get to the resort.
I thought it was going to be just them taking care of your luggage and basically the pkg was entitling you to a voucher for a ride on Mears or something- I didn't know they'd have a CM taking you and all that!
on the return trip using magical express she couldn't give me specifics about how soon before your flight you'd have to leave the resort on their transportation- but she said it'd be about 2hrs probably. That's a little less than the 3.5hrs Mears made me leave for the airport before! (and ended up sitting at the airport for almost 3hrs- which wouldn't be fun with 3 kids by myself, let me tell you. LOL)
She also said on the RETURN flight- everyone can get a return transportation but only "some" airlines (I guess similar to how they deal with luggage at the end of a cruise?) you can check in your luggage with the airline AT the resort and be done with it. American Airlines is who we are flying with and they are one of the "few". So she said we'd check out of the resort, check IN our luggage for AA at the resort- and that's it. She said we could store our carryons at the resort for the rest of the day too if we wanted.
Interesting but not a big deal: if you book online (including flight and ins.) it says the deposit amount is your flight amount plus $200 deposit. If you book through the phone you also have to pay the insurance amount up front. Not a big difference (only $44.95 for me with one adult on this trip) but something you might need to know in advance.
The price came out exactly as I'd "figured" even though I can't technically see what a 10 day booking is online. I did an 8 day pkg booking quote online and figured up what 2 days room/dining would be- and the price when I called was exactly that (only 1 penny off LOL). And like I said- the flight portion came up cheaper than I could find elsewhere.
The CM I talked to -her name is Shereen and she is THE nicest CM I've ever talked to when calling WDW for any reason! Super super nice, personable, we even started talking about my dog/her animals because my dog was next to me and started growling because the dogs outside were barking- she heard me say "shhh Tramp" and noticed he had a Disney name. LOL And we ended up talking for about 10min about animals until I remembered I was talking to a WDW CM booking a trip! LOL I totally lost myself and it felt like I was just talking with an old close friend or something! She answered all my questions, never made me feel rushed or like I was bothering her, went the extra mile to find out about the photopass certificate for me, gave me tips on things to do (like told me to be sure to mention my daughter's birthday at any meal we're at on her birthday and suggested LTT on her birthday because she said they'd give her an autographed birthday card if we did that- something I didn't know about LTT), explained everything about magical express/etc. in detail-- she was just so awesome!!!!
We're booked!
I also called and got Mickey's Backyard BBQ PS's for us... we haven't done that before. Now I just wait till mid-March to start doing other PS's and crossing fingers for CRT on her birthday.
I went ahead and booked with 1 day ticket for each of us so we could do the dining pkg. Even though my oldest is young enough for kids meals and we have to pay for adult price on dining pkg- I figured it all up and if we use one adult/2 children off the dining plan for every meal and just PAY for her kids meal-- we'll still come out ahead. We'll just do more table service & character meals this way. (and pay only $10-12.99 or whatever her price is instead of using her $35 per day dining).
I booked it with the flight- because booking through them actually got me a $50 cheaper (total, not per person) flight cost than booking the cheapest I'd found elsewhere (expedia, travelocity, etc.) -so that basically paid for the insurance (44.95) without costing us anything extra. Cool beans!
Things I found out:
It says you have to book online to get the free 5x7 photopass certificate if booking a pkg.... but I asked her about it and she put me on hold and talked to Guest Services and got it added (a note about it on my reservation) because even the GS CM agreed that someone booking LONGER than 8 days (therefore not able to book online with a pkg) shouldn't be penalized and not get the certificate! So if you book longer and therefore can't book online- ask if they can add that for you too!
She gave a little more info than I'd read online about Magical Express- she said they'll have people looking for the WDW tags they send you when you book a pkg- so that's how they know which luggage to take to the resorts. She did say that the luggage most likely would not be going WITH you but it is NOT going to be like hours later you're waiting at the resort for your luggage- she even said it might be there before you are! She said they'd have a CM (in CM uniform) waiting for you when you arrive off your flight to take you to your coach transportation, said they'd also have Disney "movie"- the same type they use for transportation to the cruises) and you'll take your carryons but your checked luggage will go "behind the scenes" just like it does with the cruises- but there shouldn't be a long wait for it when you get to the resort.
I thought it was going to be just them taking care of your luggage and basically the pkg was entitling you to a voucher for a ride on Mears or something- I didn't know they'd have a CM taking you and all that!
on the return trip using magical express she couldn't give me specifics about how soon before your flight you'd have to leave the resort on their transportation- but she said it'd be about 2hrs probably. That's a little less than the 3.5hrs Mears made me leave for the airport before! (and ended up sitting at the airport for almost 3hrs- which wouldn't be fun with 3 kids by myself, let me tell you. LOL)
She also said on the RETURN flight- everyone can get a return transportation but only "some" airlines (I guess similar to how they deal with luggage at the end of a cruise?) you can check in your luggage with the airline AT the resort and be done with it. American Airlines is who we are flying with and they are one of the "few". So she said we'd check out of the resort, check IN our luggage for AA at the resort- and that's it. She said we could store our carryons at the resort for the rest of the day too if we wanted.
Interesting but not a big deal: if you book online (including flight and ins.) it says the deposit amount is your flight amount plus $200 deposit. If you book through the phone you also have to pay the insurance amount up front. Not a big difference (only $44.95 for me with one adult on this trip) but something you might need to know in advance.
The price came out exactly as I'd "figured" even though I can't technically see what a 10 day booking is online. I did an 8 day pkg booking quote online and figured up what 2 days room/dining would be- and the price when I called was exactly that (only 1 penny off LOL). And like I said- the flight portion came up cheaper than I could find elsewhere.
The CM I talked to -her name is Shereen and she is THE nicest CM I've ever talked to when calling WDW for any reason! Super super nice, personable, we even started talking about my dog/her animals because my dog was next to me and started growling because the dogs outside were barking- she heard me say "shhh Tramp" and noticed he had a Disney name. LOL And we ended up talking for about 10min about animals until I remembered I was talking to a WDW CM booking a trip! LOL I totally lost myself and it felt like I was just talking with an old close friend or something! She answered all my questions, never made me feel rushed or like I was bothering her, went the extra mile to find out about the photopass certificate for me, gave me tips on things to do (like told me to be sure to mention my daughter's birthday at any meal we're at on her birthday and suggested LTT on her birthday because she said they'd give her an autographed birthday card if we did that- something I didn't know about LTT), explained everything about magical express/etc. in detail-- she was just so awesome!!!!
We're booked!
I also called and got Mickey's Backyard BBQ PS's for us... we haven't done that before. Now I just wait till mid-March to start doing other PS's and crossing fingers for CRT on her birthday.
I am very happy for you! 
). 
(Another CM came in behind and brought the man a fresh one.)
I think 10 days would be the perfect trip length.
