Airfare Home, Disney Dining and Package Discounts

Southwest Airlines was running another great special that we took advantage of to get us back home.  Tony had SW points to use and was able to secure 2 flights while I booked the remaining 4 flights home for about $160/person.  Again, nonstop flights in and out of Phoenix to Orlando.  No flying into Tampa, Fl. and having to drive into Orlando.  So our transportation is finished!

At the end of November when our 180 day booking window opened up for dining reservations, I would wake up early every day and go online to make our dining reservations for each day of our stay.  We were able to get all of the table service meals we wanted starting on May 28 plus our Quick Service reservation at Be Our Guest.  We are now in the 145 day booking window of dining reservations based upon when we will be staying on property.  I can't even begin to think of additional dining I would like to add to our reservations.  We currently have a table service meal set for each day of our time in WDW.

This morning when I woke up to log into work, I checked my email from disneylist.com and saw that Disney is offering 3 new summer specials.  One of the specials available gives a free Quick Service meal to every party for the length of stay.  So I called to see if I could take advantage of the offer for our length of stay.  Thanks to the wonderful Disney Travel Agent (Joetta Page) I spoke too this morning we got put into an amazing pool of offers that reduced our rate for staying on property significantly.  Initially our package total for our on property stay at Disney's Art of Animation Cars Suite, 8 day base ticket, Disney Dining Plan (2 snacks, 1 quick service, 1 table service), and Memory Maker was going to be about $6500 for a 5 day/4 night stay.  After waiting on the phone for about 40 minutes the great cast member got our total package reduced to about $4700.  Same exact details and hotel.  THANK YOU JOETTA!!!  I couldn't even find that package total that low trying to do the same deal online directly from the Disney Website.  It definitely was to our advantage to call and wait for the Disney Cast Member Travel Agent!  Periodically though, I keep logging in and out of the WDW Website checking my account to ensure this is real.

*****
Edited to add: Make sure you check on your reservations periodically during the day.  Apparently when Joetta changed over our reservation she didn't change over the Disney Dining Plan and that's how our rate appeared to be so low.  I ended up calling Disney again this time speaking with Jennings and he got our reservation fixed up.  I had a funny feeling that initial price was too low and now I know why!  We still save about 10% off our room even with adding in the Disney Dining Plan which pretty much equates to 1 night free off our package.