Disney

bluebfalo

I felt bad threadjacking the honeymoon thread...

deburnin:

When we did the platinum plan the minimum stay was 1 night and we use the perk the day of check in to midnight the day of check out (over a 2 day span). Unfortunately there's now a 3 night minimum, which makes the plan ridiciously expensive and unaffordable. (I guess too many people gamed the system so Disney put a quash on that).

We also had an annual pass which allowed us to game the system and provided us with room discounts. We alternating room only packages with dining packages (because meal credits are good until the midnight of check out) and we save a lot of money. It did require us to check in and check out a ton (but we never switched rooms), but it also gave us tons of keycards/souvenir mugs/luggage tags. We rarely paid OOB for meals as our snack credits were sufficient to cover breakfast and lunch.

KaydeeD93

For my birthday, I got several free cupcakes and FP. I also got an upgraded room. Like deburnin said this is not a guarantee.

TIP: Also you can game the system when you make dining reservations by making your hotel reservation earlier than you want. For example, I really want to stay 9/1-9/7, but I tell them I want to stay 8/25-9/7. This moves you're 180d mark up 6 days and ensures you can get the coveted spots at CRT.

deburnin

We aren't planning on making our room ressie until they release the deals for September, which probably won't be until June if this year is any indication. So we're just going with the 180 mark, which shouldn't be a problem. We ate at CRT our first trip together and I didn't really care for the food. Definitely worth the experience if you haven't done it before, but I'd rather eat at Ohana. We're also planning on going to the Hoop Dee Doo and Le Cellier (bummed that lunch is now two credits too). We went to the Hoop Dee Doo our first trip, but skipped it on our most recent and FI was so disspointed. Which if you knew FI is amusing. I wouldn't have thought he would love it as much as he did. So that was the one thing he said is a must for the HM.

And that sounds like way too much work for me with the multiple reservations. lol Lazy. I'd rather book one thing and be done with it.

For anyone else doing Disney, if you don't get your dinner ressies on the first try, keep trying. Check everyday day for openings because things open up all the time. We landed Le Cellier and Ohana ressies less than two months out from our trip.

bluebfalo

I've done that too with CRT, I got it like a month out or so, and it messed up my TS allottment... it's when I realized you could check in and check out...

deburnin

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_september-2013-weddings_disney?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:26a515ec-8009-4599-b81d-5edee3b3fb3cDiscussion:e32c43ab-b8e4-4ff1-8f3a-862c7cec2380Post:60bb1a2a-f0df-43df-8dac-e37d7c81a80b">Re: Disney</a>:
[QUOTE]I've done that too with CRT, I got it like a month out or so, and it messed up my TS allottment... <strong>it's when I realized you could check in and check out...</strong>
Posted by bluebfalo[/QUOTE]

<div>Uhh, what? lol</div><div>
</div><div>And the more I think about your last post the more confused I get. How did you save money with all of those different ressies? You wouldn't be able to take advantage of any of the deals that Disney offers since there's usually a minium night stay required.</div>

bluebfalo

I had an annual pass... they don't have minimum night stays for dining reservations, and they also have a discounted room only plan...

Initially only one of us had the annual plan, but when we realized we would be back (we planned on going aug (our 5 year trip) and may (my 30th), but ended up going aug, dec (never did disney during the holidays!), and may) we upgraded both our passes... we saved money on her pass as we bought it a year in advance and then upgraded the ticket from a 6 day PH to annual pass (I wish I did that with mine we would have both saved money).

Basically, we saved money by buying 1 ticket through undercover tourist, then saved more money when we upgraded the ticket later to an annual pass. (You don't actually have to have an annual pass when you book the reservations, but you do when you check in). We saved money buy using an annual pass (based on the number of days we were going). We saved money buy using the annual pass discounts (room discount up to 40%, manipulating the dining plans, and actual number of days).

All this talk of disney is making me want to go to disney!