What will you celebrate question

[mgroshans]

This years "special" is free admission to any of the parks on your birthday. My question is: if we are not there on any of our birthdays, do we loose out on it? We are thinking about doing the AP's. Do we get some kind of "credit" towards the AP's or are we just out of luck? Thanks!

 

[CheapMom]

This years "special" is free admission to any of the parks on your birthday. My question is: if we are not there on any of our birthdays, do we loose out on it? We are thinking about doing the AP's. Do we get some kind of "credit" towards the AP's or are we just out of luck? Thanks!

If you aren't there on your birthday you can't participate.

If you already have aps or tickets you can choose

a one day fast-pass for you and your party (party of 5 or 6 I think)
a $75 fun card redeemable for select merchandise, tours, etc...
a one day ticket to be used within 12 months

(The one day ticket CAN be upgraded so if you go on your birthday- you can get the one day ticket and upgrade to the ap and will take like about $70-75 off. But if your birthday falls in the middle-end of your trip I guess you just get the one day ticket and take it off next year's ap purchase. )

 

[Coach81]

My wife doesn't care for the current promotion.. there are a lot of people that simply will not be able to attend Disney based on their birthdays. She doesn't like it...

 

[Inkmahm]

My wife doesn't care for the current promotion.. there are a lot of people that simply will not be able to attend Disney based on their birthdays. She doesn't like it...

In our case, we try to spend ALL of my birthdays at WDW. It's in March so that's perfect timing for our spring vacation. This year, due to the promotion, we added a trip to DL in August so that we'll be spending my DH's birthday at Disney for the first time. In our case, we timed that trip to include his birthday just due to the promotion.

 

[RCharnay]

I'm guessing thousands more will be able to take advantage of the brithday give-away over being the lucky people chosen for a "Dreams" gift this year. We won't be able to do it this year but I"m happy for those who are.

 

[mgroshans]

I'm guessing thousands more will be able to take advantage of the brithday give-away over being the lucky people chosen for a "Dreams" gift this year. We won't be able to do it this year but I"m happy for those who are.

I agree for those who can do it, good for them. the birthdays in my family are 1 in every quarter, but let's see what they come up with next year. at least, if anything, they do some kind of promotion to help families

 

[Granny]

My wife doesn't care for the current promotion.. there are a lot of people that simply will not be able to attend Disney based on their birthdays. She doesn't like it...

It doesn't work out for us either, but I can't say that I have a problem with the promotion. My guess, and not based on any information, is that Disney is trying to do this to alleviate guests expectations and disappointments if they aren't treated "magically" on their birthdays.

We've seen posted on this site many instances where CM's went way above and beyond for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. We've also seen many times when virtually nothing was done and people were disappointed.

Basically, this "promotion" allows Disney to standardize the "magic" for birthdays, and my guess is that they'll try to get CM's to tone down the extra helpings of magic so that people don't expect it.

But I don't see any reason to dislike the promotion. Any more than I dislike the free dining or 7 nights for the price of 4 promotions. Just because they don't apply to me doesn't mean I dislike them.

 

[rkwier]

For us, this was a great incentive. We are only going to a WDW park this year becaue of this promotion. We went for my birthday in January and will be going again for DH's birthday in September. If they were not having this promotion, it would be unlikely that we would be going to any park this year. As others have said, the offer is only good for the day of your birthday. It cannot be used the day before or after, or the weekend before or after. Our birthdays are both on Thursday this year, so we went down on Wednesday evening and made a long weekend out of it. We saw more adults that children with "Happy Birthday" buttons, but that is likely because we were there when most kiddos were already back in school. As CheapMom says, there are also alternatives for AP holders.

 

[stopher1]

IMO it's a great gimmick promotion to try and drive attendance - however, I will say it's working fabulously at Disneyland, whereas I'm not so sure about WDW. It would be fascinating to see some kind of results of the promo.

We were out at DL just a couple of weeks ago to "celebrate" our 15th anniversary, staying at the Grand Cali. We were in the parks 3 days - and on each day, we seriously counted well over 100 different folks with the birthday buttons each day. Many times there were 6 or 7 in line with us or near us for an attraction. The simple fact that there are some 20 million+ people that live within a short driving distance of the park in the greater LA Basin counties of LA, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino & San Diego counties - let alone the state population of 36 million+ makes for a great promo. WDW is such a different animal given the long-term nature of the resort, and the typically more longer term nature of planning for that kind of vacation. I'm sure the locals in FL will capitalize on it, but is the local market population as into going for daytrips to WDW parks as they are in So Cal? I can't say. I have tons of family and friends in So Cal who are nearly all planning to go for their birthdays - 19 have already celebrated their day so far this year, and of those 19, 18 of them were at DL on their individual birthdays.

Our family is comprised of 5 quite spread out birthdays - and we won't be able to be there for any of our birthdays, especially since our vacation was planned prior to the announcement of the promo - oh well... so we're celebrating my DW's birthday this weekend in our own way by getting a bit of a Disney fix at the Doorway to Dreams event in Chicago... certainly not the same thing, and highly doubtful they'd do anything for her - but we'll see the mouse for an hour or so and walk the BLT model... it'll work.

 

[mgroshans]

IMO it's a great gimmick promotion to try and drive attendance - however, I will say it's working fabulously at Disneyland, whereas I'm not so sure about WDW. It would be fascinating to see some kind of results of the promo.

We were out at DL just a couple of weeks ago to "celebrate" our 15th anniversary, staying at the Grand Cali. We were in the parks 3 days - and on each day, we seriously counted well over 100 different folks with the birthday buttons each day. Many times there were 6 or 7 in line with us or near us for an attraction. The simple fact that there are some 20 million+ people that live within a short driving distance of the park in the greater LA Basin counties of LA, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino & San Diego counties - let alone the state population of 36 million+ makes for a great promo. WDW is such a different animal given the long-term nature of the resort, and the typically more longer term nature of planning for that kind of vacation. I'm sure the locals in FL will capitalize on it, but is the local market population as into going for daytrips to WDW parks as they are in So Cal? I can't say. I have tons of family and friends in So Cal who are nearly all planning to go for their birthdays - 19 have already celebrated their day so far this year, and of those 19, 18 of them were at DL on their individual birthdays.

Our family is comprised of 5 quite spread out birthdays - and we won't be able to be there for any of our birthdays, especially since our vacation was planned prior to the announcement of the promo - oh well... so we're celebrating my DW's birthday this weekend in our own way by getting a bit of a Disney fix at the Doorway to Dreams event in Chicago... certainly not the same thing, and highly doubtful they'd do anything for her - but we'll see the mouse for an hour or so and walk the BLT model... it'll work.

we are doing the same thing this weekend for DH's birthday, going tomorrow at 10:00. keeping our fingers crossed that the weather won't be as bad as they are predicting.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We'll be leaving WDW about two weeks before my birthday. Last year we were there on my birthday. We've been on my son's a few times, my husband's once. But none this year.