Disney Deals

Although I've been told that there is no such thing as "free" at Disney, I am an avid believer that it never hurts to ask. :)

At Magic Kingdom I asked for a cup of ice water (free) and was given a bottle of water. I told her I just wanted the free cup of water, she told me to just take that. Alrighty, it's a million degrees, don't have to twist my arm.

Last year there were a couple of things that required that I express my frustration (I can't remember now what they were). Anyway, we were given some fastpasses (let you skip the line at the park) for our inconvenience. We were unable to use them all last year, so I went back to the main office and asked if they would hold the 16 remaining for us until our next visit. She did and we were indeed able to pick them up this year and use them. Think I'm spoiled, I absolutely refuse to wait in line to ride a ride now. :)

Disney has a solid "no free refills" policy at their quick service counters. However, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask (it isn't posted anywhere, it just doesn't happen). I went through the same line where I had ordered and chatted with the worker while waiting for my food. He couldn't refill my diet coke, so he gave me a large diet coke for free--SCORE!

When we went into the park on Tuesday, Anna-Kate wanted to hold our cards and swipe them herself. Well, I thought Chris had taken them from her and done it, but he didn't and they didn't get swiped. I asked 2 different people if I needed to go back to the entrance to swipe them for "honesty sake" I said (didn't realize it until we tried to fastpass with them and were at Space Mtn at the back of the park). Both workers told me no, not to worry about it and gave me a 1 day use fastpass card to use instead. Super. So, to be honest, I decided to take the kids back one night, just us, to see the parade (we were at M.K. twice and they didn't have the nighttime parade either night). That way, they could see it and Anna-Kate and my card would then be swiped to make it right. (Ryan is still free as he's not 3). Both kids were in the stroller and I wheeled up and swiped Anna-Kate's card (because it was on top). The worker asked me how many kids I had with me. I told her two and she said, "just come on in then" and turned the turn-style and I didn't have to swipe my card. This is AMAZING since my card is non-expiring, so she saved me close to $100. Anna-Kate's did expire, so had it been the opposite way, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

We made reservations months ago to attend the luau at the Polynesian on Saturday night as a final farewell to Disney. I can't complain too much about it getting rained out as it was basically the only rain we saw. On the meal plan (which we had) it "cost" 2 dinners to attend the luau, but included gratuity and all you can eat and drink (including wine and beer). Since it was rained out, we were credited a meal (thus, how we were able to get the amazing table for the breakfast at Ohana the following morning). Somehow, in the mix up of crediting meals, Anna-Kate's card got credited 2 sit-down meals. I asked about it and assured the people she had eaten every meal that we had and the waitress said that it hadn't been used for whatever reason so to go ahead. Well, since none of us had a sit-down meal (and she wasn't gonna eat alone...) I took it to the quick service place in our resort to see what they could do for me. She told me I would just lose the difference in a table service to quick service meal. I asked if I could have 2 kids meals instead. She said no, so I spoke with the manager, who agreed. So, I got 2 smucker's pb&j's, 2 packs of grapes, 2 huge cookies and 2 juice boxes! Super!

My final freebie came in the form of a Disney credit card. We are pretty anti-credit card around here, but I got an offer in the mail too good to pass up. If I signed up for a card, after my first use I would be given 200 Disney points (basically $200 to spend for free!). It was kind of an act of God to get it worked out in time (like, 3 phone calls to the c.c. co. to get my billing date moved and then the points to post so I could use them. If not for my extreme effort, they wouldn't have posted until June 4, clearly too late to use them.). Anyway, with that 200 points we paid for Anna-Kate's park entrance the second day, Anna-Kate's Daisy toy, Ryan's Donald toy, Jack some Mickey ears, Anna-Kate's prize for dancing and smiling at her ballet recital (she chose a Minnie that is like a Polly Pocket--about 3 inches tall with multiple outfits and accessories she can change. She's loved it!) and all of our tips/gratuities for the week. Woot! As I'm a pretty cheap person it was so fun to have "free" money to let the kids just go in and pick a toy and not think about coupons, sales etc...what a deal! (and, if the urge strikes you to get this card...you save 10% on Disney purchases with it, there are park perks while there...and if you mention my name I get points. Just sayin'.).