WWYD? offered free upgrade

[LanaJae]

We weren't offered the bounceback promotion either. Darn! Would have been nice . . . but what the heck, we so totally lucked out this year I can hardly complain!

We were at the Pirate and Princess Party 8/28 and had a total blast. Gathered loot, shook our booties in Tomorrowland, saw the parade and fireworks. I agree that it was definitely hot! But we are pirate-mad, so we just sweated it out.

I'm wishing we would've gone to it. If you have time sometime, do a trip report on the party itself.

 

[Ellasgirls]

We weren't offered the bounceback promotion either. Darn! Would have been nice . . . but what the heck, we so totally lucked out this year I can hardly complain!

We were at the Pirate and Princess Party 8/28 and had a total blast. Gathered loot, shook our booties in Tomorrowland, saw the parade and fireworks. I agree that it was definitely hot! But we are pirate-mad, so we just sweated it out.

We were also at the party that night! The kids had a blast and we ended up splitting up because ds (7) wanted to do rides and dd (4 that night!) wanted to do characters and littler rides so after we all went to the Laugh Floor (and were picked on )we went our separate ways and met back at OKW....dd & I were there until midnight and ds & dh were back to OKW by 11! We are party animals!

Here's a little report on the day. I am going to have a longer (yes it can get longer) TR on the appropriate board soon with a lot more pictures!
We spent the morning at Epcot so we could go to the Princess Breakfast not knowing that our little princess would be afraid of princesses...she almost attacks the characters with kisses when she see's them . We got there for rope drop and ran to Soarin' (we all loved it) and then to Test Track for fast passes after breakfast. Then headed to Norway for our dd's birthday breakfast. Dh held her and even got her to stand next to them as they came around for a picture. I was told that Ariel is NEVER at breakfast and that is Grace's favorite (at least in the pretend world!) and we got there and Ariel came around the corner! After breakfast (VERY VERY YUMMY!) we headed over to Test Track (dd didn't like that at all!) and back to OKW for a nap before the party.
Got the kids up and dressed appropriately and headed to CP for dinner ressies. When we got there they had the table all decorated for her birthday with confetti and streamers. She was so excited! I thought she was going to wet her pants when Piglet came around! They even had Pooh come over and "sing" happy birthday with us! She got a card signed by all the characters at both Norways princess breakfast (Ariel even kissed the card!) and at Crystal Palace.
After dinner dh & ds headed out to get in line early to Capt'n Jack Sparrow and dd & I did a couple of little rides and got a perfect spot on the curb in front of the castle to watch the show and parade. Here's a little side note about ds (whose name is also Jack) and Jack Sparrow: they stood in line for about 40 minutes and then they got to go back. Dh said that the guy was awesome and looked just like Capt'n Jack and acted like him too! Ds and Jack Sparrow argued a little over who is really Jack and then before my dh could take a picture of them together my ds left. He wouldn't get his picture with him and wouldn't say why! Later that night before bed I asked him AGAIN why he wouldn't get his picture and he said that Capt'n Jack said he didn't like him so he left! The guy was in total character and ds took him seriously ...
Ok, back to the party (dd does have 2 legs...just don't know what happened to one of them)!

We watched the parade and show and headed over to the laugh floor. The kids love that place! While waiting in our seats I realized I was on the screen with the words "Kisses monsters" under me and then they showed my dh and said "monster"! Very nice! Then when they were asking for a kid my ds got picked and told them we lived in WI and and LOVED being on the camera! After that we split up so dd & could spend our whole night standing in line to meet Minnie, Aurora, & Daisy We did get to meet Ariel again and dance with Flouder and Sebastian. The lines for the rides were so short that we went on every ride dd wanted to go on multiple times. That was worth the money alone! Around midnight we headed home to OKW and found that we were the party animals because ds & dh had returned around 11! Sorry this got long we just had such a great time!

 

[LanaJae]

Around midnight we headed home to OKW and found that we were the party animals because ds & dh had returned around 11! Sorry this got long we just had such a great time!

Thanks for the great recap!

Sure sounds like it was worth it! We only had 4 full days, otherwise I would've taken my kids.

What a nice birthday and I'm sorry about Capt. Jack - he maybe should only do that with teenagers+

 

[bell.of.the.ball]

I heard nothing about the bounce back or the 3 other rooms in my Grand gathering. I had my whole checkin pack and brought it home with me and there was no mention of it in there either

 

[LauraAnn630]

I think we got ours on our door. One day we got the ME and on the last day we got the bounce back.

How did everyone else hear about the offer?

Our pics are on the Webshot site. I still have to add movies and TL.

Anyone else have pics posted yet?

I have PDD! (Post Disney Depression)

 

[extremesoccermom]

I didn't hear anything about a bounceback offer either! We just got back yesterday from SSR and it was great.


We got lost finding our room when we checked in - it was around midnight and the maps around the resort are not very helpful at all. I was highly embarrassed by my family, who got separated and wandered around yelling across the parking lots at each other in the middle of the night at this lovely, peaceful upscale resort. It took us about 20 minutes to find our rooms, and in the morning we saw just how close we were when we were lost. D'oh!


It seemed like there was never enough time to see and do everything, and we actually didn't spend too much time at the resort. Free dining was great, it was too much food! We are not big eaters, and my parents kept trying to save food and were sharing CS meals and lugging leftovers around all day, only to realize that we had more meal credits than we knew what to do with and then they'd toss the food out - except of course the yummy desserts! Me and my girls had 14 CS credits left over and 4 snacks. We grabbed some snacks to go before heading home yesterday. My brother & his girlfriend skipped a couple of the TS meals so we used their TS credits as CS and got 4 pin/lanyard sets for the kids. Of course this was on our last day, and I really wish I'd known that before I bought a $5 lanyard for my little one but oh well, we are more than set for next time!

We saw very few dream team members or prizes. A dream team member did talk to DD3 quite a bit one day on our way into MGM and I was getting really excited, but she only gave her some stickers. DD8 received a lanyard and an ice cream sandwich from a cart vendor in MGM, and a Tinkerbell pin set at the MGM info desk. I guess MGM was our lucky park!

We were there from 8/29 to 9/3 and also did not recieve the bounce back offer. I rechecked my welcome packet and nothing there either. I even went to the front desk to check out and nothing was mentioned. But with the free dining not starting until the 30th of Aug next year I will have to do some calculations. DS will start college so he can't miss school and DD really can not afford to miss much school. Although we did buy a SSR DVC resale right before our trip and added on to AKV so maybe we can do Aug 27-30 at one of the DVC then over to POP for Aug 30-Sept 1. Although that would be a big down grade so I am not sure.

I just have to LOL about your getting lost finding your room because we did the same thing. We walked completely around the Springs section and when we ended up back at the begining we realized we were right by our room. It was great!

We also had so much food left. DD and I split a couple of TS meals then on the last day we ended up having left over cake for breakfast and still threw away a couple of pieces. We went hog wild for our last TS lunch. We ate it all but I made myself sick finishing every bite. We planned to bring home snacks for DH and DS that didn't go with us but we ended up with 5 Snacks to bring home as well as cold sandwiches and cookies from Artist's Pallette that we had planned to eat for dinner on the plane but we were still to full from lunch. I wish I had known about exchanging our TS for CS and laynard.

We did get to spend one full day playing around at SSR and enjoyed some of the activities. We made plates and played bingo. The only bad day we had was our last day we had to be back at SSR by 4:30 for our ME trip back to the airport. DD was having a hard time getting up so we were running late to get to EPCOT. Then we had to wait 45min for the bus by the time we got there we got a FP for Soarin (DD favorite) did a couple of rides got a FP for TT then had lunch which took forever. By the time we were done we had to go to Germany to bring my DS some of his favorite candy. Then TT was down with Techincal Difficults and Soarin PF line was a 30 min wait. I was afraid we would miss the bus so we rushed back to find we had over an hour to chill out. Next, time we will spend that last day sleeping in and enjoying the resort.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

We ended up with only two CS left from our DDP...it would have been six but at the last minute I ran over to Goods-To-Go and got four turkey sandwiches, four waters, and four rice crispy treats to bring on the ME bus and eat at the airport while we were waiting for our flight. I have to say, after eating all that rich food all week, that turkey sandwich tasted pretty good! BTW, when I first got weighed after the trip I was up 7-1/2 lbs. -- I almost cried because I worked so hard to lose 30lbs. before we left. Anyway, I am happy to report that I was back to my pre-departure weight when I weighed in on Sunday (a week later). So don't be discouraged if you packed some pounds on during your "Year Of A Million Calories" visit!

 

[lyzziesmom]

Too funny about weighing yourself... I found that I gained 2 pounds which really surprised me because my new shorts, which were a little tight before we left, were literally falling off of me by a few days into the trip. I lose so much weight at WDW because of the combination of much more walking than I'm used to, plus sweating so darn much in that horrible heat. But after so many days, the last couple of days I wasn't thirsty and did not drink enough water so I started retaining water and got all puffy. I'm sure that's where the 2 extra pounds came from. So if anyone has gained weight at WDW, wait about a week before weighing yourself because a lot of it might be water weight!

 

[Ellasgirls]

Too funny about weighing yourself... I found that I gained 2 pounds which really surprised me because my new shorts, which were a little tight before we left, were literally falling off of me by a few days into the trip. I lose so much weight at WDW because of the combination of much more walking than I'm used to, plus sweating so darn much in that horrible heat. But after so many days, the last couple of days I wasn't thirsty and did not drink enough water so I started retaining water and got all puffy. I'm sure that's where the 2 extra pounds came from. So if anyone has gained weight at WDW, wait about a week before weighing yourself because a lot of it might be water weight!

Thank goodness for the heat because with all that eating I gained 3 pounds by the time we got home and I KNOW it would have been more if it wasn't so hot out! I can't tell you the last time we ate so much....and I would do it again in a second!

 

[joyerbides]

Hi all, we didn't get anything on the Bounceback program either I finally just found out what it was on Mousesavers. I would have liked to have known about it, either way. I was just thinking though, they may offer the free dining again anyways, you just never know.

I'm not sure if I lost weight or not. I thought I didn't, but...I tried on my capris this morning for work (first day back and guess where I am.. ), and they were loose Hopefully, I won't regain it back, if I did lose it.

Quick question: I know lyzziesmom answered this question for me before my trip, but I don't remember. I want to post my pictures on here. Where do I go and how do I do it? I can't believe it, but I took 658 pictures with my camera, my DN took 487 with her camera and together on Photopass, we had 141 pictures. Can you believe it? I am still shocked

Looks like I am going to be doing my scrapbook for years....

Thanks guys.

 

[jwboucher]

Hi all, we didn't get anything on the Bounceback program either I finally just found out what it was on Mousesavers. I would have liked to have known about it, either way. I was just thinking though, they may offer the free dining again anyways, you just never know.


Looks like I am going to be doing my scrapbook for years....

Thanks guys.

They did offer free dining in 11/06 then again in 4/07. I think the dates (correct me if I am wrong) were later with the 11/06 offer than the 4/07 offer. I guess I will be waiting until April!!

 

[nanadeb]

We had absolutely nothing about it in our room @ OKW. I didn't find out about it until I got home. We couldn't have taken advantage of it anyway because of the dates...but I'm still a little peeved that we had the option and didn't even know it.

We were at OKQ from 9/1 until 9/9. The bounceback offer was in our folder from check in, all the way behind everything else. If I wasn't so thoroughly nosey, I would never have noticed it!
This trip was our last gasp on our AP's (expired 9/8!). We did free DDP 9/8-9/12 (2006), then did a whole family ( 3 adult children + spouses + grandchildren at Orange Lake Resort) 12/16-12/23, Wyndham Cypress Palms 5/18-5/25 (me, DH, & DD 27).
And I won a trip from Universal for a US/IOA trip 12/7-12/10 coming up this year.
Not trying to be blasphemous, but we are Disneyed out for right now! Actually, you can never have too much Disney, but things were starting to look not quite as magical, so we decided we will take a hiatus so we can get the glow back for the next trip. My DH and I have ressies for a repositioning cruise on the Carnival Freedom from Miami to Rome for 4/26-5/12 with a back to back Med cruise on the same ship. That's 12 more days on board ship!!
We haven't cruised since 1991, so we are raring to go. DH get 4 weeks of vacation each year (27 years with the same company), so we are blowing it all on one glorious trip.
And if that sounds horribly expensive, you don't know my cheap ways honed by the mad desire for multiple disney vacations. By booking more than a year in advance (even before the ship was launched in March!) I got the transatlantic cruise for $850 each which included taxes, fees, and insurance. The Med cruise was had for $1300 each. Haven't paid for insurance for that one yet.
So we decided to forego bouncing back for 2008 and hope for a similar free DDP in 2009.
Oh, BTW---loved, loved, loved OKW!

 

[dreamn_Disney]

We had the free upgrade to SSR this year and didn't receive bounce back info. It was on the TV though and a lady waiting for the bus told me about it. I quickly got the info from the front desk and booked it. It took me talking to a couple of people before some one at the front even knew about it and this was on Mon Sept 3. Also is bounce back one word or two? I do not want my siggy and thread to look stupid. Thanks.

 

[M2DD's]

Hello I'm back! I haven't had time to read the post so you guys will have to fill me in! We just left OKW this morning and I miss it already.We we there for 13 days and never heard about the bounceback program. I don't have much time but I would love to catch up with evereyone and find out how there trip was.
Lizzymom-I can't believe we ran into each other how funny was that?
Laura

 

[lyzziesmom]

Laura: It was really great meeting you! I just wish we'd had more time to chat - my family was so amazed that I actually ran into someone I've talked to online. They don't seem to get that my online friends are real people - but they do now!

 

[M2DD's]

Laura: It was really great meeting you! I just wish we'd had more time to chat - my family was so amazed that I actually ran into someone I've talked to online. They don't seem to get that my online friends are real people - but they do now!

Sorry we couldn't talk longer. My DH family was up ahead and they kept looking to see why I was spending so much time talking to someone I didn't know
Plus that was the first day we did the Little ones travel and my youngest DD was waiting to see wendy and peter pan. I have over 100 emails to read but now I'm a little disappointed that we never recieved any info on the bounceback for 2008.We just checked out today I wonder if I can call and they can see i just checked out a few hours ago and let me book. However we were thinking about going over thanksgiving next yr any ways. I'm sure they will offer it again next yr.What were the restrictions? Did it have to be at a moderate or delux? Were the value resorts included?
Laura

 

[lyzziesmom]

I haven't actually unpacked much yet so I haven't looked at my bounceback offer. My mom said hers was in her packet and mentioned something about the Poly, but I think that was just a quoted example and all resorts are included. I really need to look at it, because another DIS group that I vacationed with earlier this year is thinking of doing a land/sea trip in Sept. of 2008 and if I can get the free dining for that, it would be great, but I'm not sure what the dates would be. I'm hoping to be able to book something now, even though we've already checked out, and then change the dates later if I need to. Does anyone know if that would be possible? How strict are they on booking while you're still there? Do you think that if I begged and pleaded and got a sympathetic CM on the phone, they'd be able to book for me since I didn't see the info until after we checked out? It's only been 2 days since we left. I didn't see anything about it on the tv and I watched it every night - at least for a few minutes until I fell asleep.

 

[CUKU4DIS]

what is a bounce back?? we are leaving on sunday and am curious

 

[dreamn_Disney]

I haven't actually unpacked much yet so I haven't looked at my bounceback offer. My mom said hers was in her packet and mentioned something about the Poly, but I think that was just a quoted example and all resorts are included. I really need to look at it, because another DIS group that I vacationed with earlier this year is thinking of doing a land/sea trip in Sept. of 2008 and if I can get the free dining for that, it would be great, but I'm not sure what the dates would be. I'm hoping to be able to book something now, even though we've already checked out, and then change the dates later if I need to. Does anyone know if that would be possible? How strict are they on booking while you're still there? Do you think that if I begged and pleaded and got a sympathetic CM on the phone, they'd be able to book for me since I didn't see the info until after we checked out? It's only been 2 days since we left. I didn't see anything about it on the tv and I watched it every night - at least for a few minutes until I fell asleep.

When I booked mine and they checked to see if I was still checked in at the resort. I have seen a few posts of people calling from home and being told it is for resort guests only.

 

[lyzziesmom]

Oh well, I really shouldn't be booking another trip right now anyway... I need to finish paying off the last one first! Thanks for the info.