OT: Family vacation to Disney World "Tip"

[Tekneek]

Don't know how many of you family guys, or even if you other guys might want to just take your woman down there (I've seen it, adults have a great time, too), but Disney is running a pretty nice promotion for this summer. I'm only mentioning it to you guys because we've already booked and you won't be stealing a slot away from me.

Here are some snippets from the press release :

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (May 8, 2003) -- The Walt Disney World Resort today introduced a vacation package in a way that sounds like a fairytale: by offering a seven-night stay for the price of a four-night package -- which can deliver savings of $729 or more for a family of four.

It's even called Disney's Fairytale Vacation Package, but the facts of the limited introductory offer are real:

- a stay of seven nights at a select Walt Disney World Resort hotel;

- an Ultimate Park Hopper ticket (featuring unlimited admission to the four Disney theme parks, two water parks and Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, DisneyQuest and Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex); and

- a "Mickey's PhilharMagic" character print and pin together in a frame

- all for the price of a four-night package -- *a family consisting of two adults, one junior and one child staying seven nights at a value resort during the July 4-Aug. 23 or Oct. 2-30, 2003, period could save an estimated $729 as compared to the purchase of the same package after June 29.

Disney's Fairytale Vacation Package is available for travel most nights between July 4 and Oct. 30, 2003. A limited number of packages are available for this promotion.


Here's the URL to the Disney page :

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wal...acationPackage

I know some of you have families, and we went to Disney World last year and had a great time. We were going to go back for 4 days this September, but with this promotion we extended it to 7 days for pretty much the same price. The pass you get for the parks allows you to go in and out of all the parks as often as you want to, for the length of your stay. This is the last time my son will be under 3 and we won't have to pay for him, so it is the last real 'value' Disney vacation we will get.

I just wanted to share this promotion with the family guys, and those of us who are into the classic Disney stuff that most of us probably grew up with. I'm told it is very un-Disney to offer such a deal, so people are apparently jumping all over this one. Worth a shot if you thought you would never be able to afford a nice trip to Disney with a stay on property (which does really add to the fun and "magic"). We had problems making the reservations through Disney's website, so we had to call them directly. Still, it was fast and easy, and we are staying on Disney property, with passes to all the parks for the length of stay for less than $1000. It doesn't include any meals...

[GrantDawg]

Someday, I'll have the money to do this.

[Tekneek]

Hey, I've passed on all the new games, except for CM4, to be sure I was not spending into the vacation budget. I had to remind myself each time I read threads about those games... It has been tough. I cut out buying breakfast on the way to work, and brownbag it as much as possible for lunch. Amazing the money you can save on the little things. At least, that is working for me.

[Shkspr]

Just a bump to thank Tekneek and let him know he's made my honeymoon last a little longer.

Literally.

I'm getting married this October and had already booked a five night stay on property, with what they call the "romance" option - a carriage ride with champagne and two evenings of free dinner-for-two at some of the nicer restaurants in the resorts. Total price: $2400. A bit high, but it's the one time I don't mind paying a bit extra for the pampering.

After seeing Tekneek's post, I called Disney back and switched my package. I got the carriage ride for free (no meals) because of the special occasion, and now we're staying for seven nights, same accomodations. Total price: $2100.

Tekneek's off the hook for a wedding present.

[Tekneek]

Thanks for the note. We thought it was a great offer. Glad it came in handy for someone.

Best wishes on the marriage, and hope you have a great time down there. Last time we went there were quite a few honeymooners around the resort.

You know, we will be there during our 4th anniversary, wonder if Disney extends anything special for that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tekneek -- if you haven't already, try this site to see if there's anything special for the anniversary.

http://wdwinfo.com/

The site is good, the message board is very good for getting questions like that answered.

[Tekneek]

Thanks for that. I am routinely involved over at intercot.com, a similar sort of site, but this one seems to cover a few different things than gets covered there. Now I have a new site to waste productive working time at, researching for my vacation.

[JonInMiddleGA]

No prob Tek, given the $$$ involved in going to WDW, I figure we need all the help we can get.

After averaging two trips a year for the past two years, we finally broke down & bought annual passes on our last trip. It worked out the same as tix for a pair of four-day trips (and we knew for sure we were going at Thanksgiving '03) so anything beyond that is like having free tickets. And that makes it a good bit more tolerable to plan a 3rd or even 4th trip to WDW this year.

[KWhit]

The wife and I went to WDW for our honeymoon. One of our friends gave us a set of Hooneymooner's Hats (they were called something like that). For the guy it is a top hat with mouse ears and for the bride it's a veil-thing with mouse ears.

Everywhere we wore those, people let us cut in line, gave us free champagne and treated us like royalty. If you don't mind looking like a dork and having hat-head, I suggest you get them and give it a try.