13 Days of Disney – Shh-it’s a Surprise! - June 2016 PTR - Update 6/4

[disny_luvr]

OMG! What an ordeal you had this morning. I would have been in full panic mode. I'm glad everything worked out for you.

I, too, had issues this morning. I logged onto the app a little after 7:00 and when I tried to book FEA for 6/25, it was showing that no more were available. I panicked and was mad at myself for not getting up earlier and trying for the fast passes. I came here to the DIS and was actually relieved when I saw others were having the same problem. A few minutes later I was able to book fast passes for the day/time I wanted.

I hope you are able to get a lot accomplished tonight. I can't believe that you kept this trip a secret for so long. Your kids will be so excited!

 

[ArielSRL]

Actually I thought I wanted the 2nd show when I thought the show times were 8:45, 9:30, and 11. But with the two shows, we are going with the first one at 9. I never got a pkg though for my date. However I got a FP, along with a Soarin one, too. I was up at 6 and on the phone with a CM at 7 for about an hour.

I'm ok with a FP since I've heard the FP seating is better and we have that extra anytime FP.

So I'm 99% finalized on planning. Still will con't to check for a pkg and waiting to find out about late night EE.

We are soooo close but I have no idea how I'll survive 2 more weeks of waiting!

 

[ArielSRL]

Glad you got what you wanted. I wonder if the TH plan would work for me. I have a 10:30 booked already as a regular ADR. I'm so worried if I do I'll lose it, though. I guess since I have the FP, I shouldn't risk it.

I didn't even think about packing being an issue! But I suppose it is when trying to keep the surprise. I might still try it in the future but probably not next year. I think my kids are too young to "get" the surprise part! Lol

Oh and I had to have a nap today when my youngest napped! I got AJ set up with SpongeBob and Legos and napped in the couch, as DH was at work!

 

[ariane37]

I got up at 6:00am (which is incredibly difficult for me, especially on a weekend!)

That'll be me on Monday for my ADR's! And I had to get up at 6:15 today AND tomorrow for Ricky's tournament. I'll be a wreck by the time I'm done on Monday lol!

This afternoon, I went ahead and joined the Landry's Select Club, which we'll use to dine at Yak & Yeti on our AK evening

Thinking we're going to do this too since as of now I'm planning a Y&Y dinner

So, though it ended up taking close to an hour and being way more stressful than I had anticipated, it all worked out!

I'm glad it all worked out for you! I'm worried it's going to take a lot longer than it should for me on Monday just making ADR's because of the stupid FP time switch We'll see!

 

[ArielSRL]

@ariane37 @Jfsag123 I thought about joining the Landry's select club bc we are dining at both T-Rex and Y&Y but both are being paid for by our dining plan so I don't know that I need to. What are your thoughts?

 

[Jfsag123]

OMG! What an ordeal you had this morning. I would have been in full panic mode. I'm glad everything worked out for you.

I, too, had issues this morning. I logged onto the app a little after 7:00 and when I tried to book FEA for 6/25, it was showing that no more were available. I panicked and was mad at myself for not getting up earlier and trying for the fast passes. I came here to the DIS and was actually relieved when I saw others were having the same problem. A few minutes later I was able to book fast passes for the day/time I wanted.

I hope you are able to get a lot accomplished tonight. I can't believe that you kept this trip a secret for so long. Your kids will be so excited!

I was a mess! I think I actually clutched my heart at one point lol - I can't take that kind of stress that early in the morning! I'm glad you were able to get what you wanted! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the Frozen ride. And I cannot believe I've kept it a surprise this long either! We actually made the decision to go right around Memorial Day last year, so it's been almost exactly a year. Fingers crossed I don't blow it in the last two weeks.

Glad you got what you wanted. I wonder if the TH plan would work for me. I have a 10:30 booked already as a regular ADR. I'm so worried if I do I'll lose it, though. I guess since I have the FP, I shouldn't risk it.

I didn't even think about packing being an issue! But I suppose it is when trying to keep the surprise. I might still try it in the future but probably not next year. I think my kids are too young to "get" the surprise part! Lol

Oh and I had to have a nap today when my youngest napped! I got AJ set up with SpongeBob and Legos and napped in the couch, as DH was at work!

Yeah, I'd probably stick with the FP in your case - that extra will come in handy!

I don't know if we will do a surprise again. I am loving it, but it's also been so hard! I think we may continue to do smaller surprises, like which resort we're staying at, but not the whole trip. My sister is talking about possibly coming with us next year, so there's no way I'll be able to keep that one quiet anyway.

And I'm glad you got a nap! I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours after I did my bookings this morning, which was good since I had stayed up until 2:00am checking to see if things opened early.

That'll be me on Monday for my ADR's! And I had to get up at 6:15 today AND tomorrow for Ricky's tournament. I'll be a wreck by the time I'm done on Monday lol!

Thinking we're going to do this too since as of now I'm planning a Y&Y dinner

I'm glad it all worked out for you! I'm worried it's going to take a lot longer than it should for me on Monday just making ADR's because of the stupid FP time switch We'll see!

I really don't like that they moved the FP booking time! Part of my reasoning is selfish, of course, since I do late nights better than early mornings, but also I don't like that everything is opening at the same time. They have enough IT problems as is, why risk overloading the system every single day? Wishing you luck on Monday morning! Also hoping you can join the nap club.

@ariane37 @Jfsag123 I thought about joining the Landry's select club bc we are dining at both T-Rex and Y&my but both are being paid for by our dining plan so I don't know that I need to. What are your thoughts?

I don't know that you need it. I did it for two reasons: 1. I don't want to be tied to a specific reservation time that night and know that you can just get in whenever if you have the membership and 2. We are paying OOP and I heard that they give you a $25 credit during your birthday month. My birthday month happens to be June, so I'd like to be able to use that at WDW. If I had an ADR and the dining plan, I don't think I would have gotten it.

 

[soniam]

So sorry to hear about your TT FP+. I accidentally did that with TSMM once. However, I immediately went back to get it and got it back. It wasn't when booking opened, so I think that's the only reason I could do it. I know that heart attack feeling though

This morning was rough. It took me about an hour, and 7 emails from Disney dining, before I got my Tiffins JB package. I even booked something with a dummy MDE account I have and had to add a credit card. I didn't end up needing that one though. It was just so hard to tell if everything was gone or if they were just taking forever to release. By the way, ADRs don't conflict like FP+. I had stuff that was conflicting, but MDE still told me about the available ADRs. It gives you the option of canceling it though. It was probably just a fluke and something either became available or MDE started working right.

We book FP+ tomorrow. I am sort of glad, because it will hopefully not be the nightmare it was today. However, I am worried that people whose trips start before ours haven't left anything available. I need Soarin and JB FP+. I have backups for both though. We are doing Epcot at rope drop twice and skipping TT, and I have the JB package. We are going to do FEA at rope drop. If it's a nightmare, we will just skip it and wait for another trip. With this trip being adults only, we can be more flexible about waiting on standby or skipping stuff. If we do wait for it on standby, I hope Kringla is open so we can eat school bread in line

 

[ArielSRL]

Yeah, I'd probably stick with the FP in your case - that extra will come in handy!

I don't know if we will do a surprise again. I am loving it, but it's also been so hard! I think we may continue to do smaller surprises, like which resort we're staying at, but not the whole trip. My sister is talking about possibly coming with us next year, so there's no way I'll be able to keep that one quiet anyway.

And I'm glad you got a nap! I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours after I did my bookings this morning, which was good since I had stayed up until 2:00am checking to see if things opened early.

Yeh, I stayed up the night before too, just in case! Glad you got back to bed!

I don't know that you need it. I did it for two reasons: 1. I don't want to be tied to a specific reservation time that night and know that you can just get in whenever if you have the membership and 2. We are paying OOP and I heard that they give you a $25 credit during your birthday month. My birthday month happens to be June, so I'd like to be able to use that at WDW. If I had an ADR and the dining plan, I don't think I would have gotten it.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Jfsag123]

So sorry to hear about your TT FP+. I accidentally did that with TSMM once. However, I immediately went back to get it and got it back. It wasn't when booking opened, so I think that's the only reason I could do it. I know that heart attack feeling though

Yes! I felt silly for getting so worked up over a FP, but man, that stuff can be stressful!

This morning was rough. It took me about an hour, and 7 emails from Disney dining, before I got my Tiffins JB package. I even booked something with a dummy MDE account I have and had to add a credit card. I didn't end up needing that one though. It was just so hard to tell if everything was gone or if they were just taking forever to release. By the way, ADRs don't conflict like FP+. I had stuff that was conflicting, but MDE still told me about the available ADRs. It gives you the option of canceling it though. It was probably just a fluke and something either became available or MDE started working right.

Ugh, I'm sorry you had to go through all that! And I am very glad that ADR's don't conflict with FP+. I seem to remember getting some sort of warning message when I booked overlapping ADRs and FPs for our trip last year, but this year, they don't even seem to care.

We book FP+ tomorrow. I am sort of glad, because it will hopefully not be the nightmare it was today. However, I am worried that people whose trips start before ours haven't left anything available. I need Soarin and JB FP+. I have backups for both though. We are doing Epcot at rope drop twice and skipping TT, and I have the JB package. We are going to do FEA at rope drop. If it's a nightmare, we will just skip it and wait for another trip. With this trip being adults only, we can be more flexible about waiting on standby or skipping stuff. If we do wait for it on standby, I hope Kringla is open so we can eat school bread in line

How did your FP booking go??

 

[soniam]

How did your FP booking go??

It went pretty well. I didn't get stuff exactly they way I wanted, but it was close enough and worked. The network was in much better shape Sunday morning. No crashes at all.

 

[ariane37]

@ariane37 @Jfsag123 I thought about joining the Landry's select club bc we are dining at both T-Rex and Y&Y but both are being paid for by our dining plan so I don't know that I need to. What are your thoughts?

OMG I'm so sorry I missed this Renee! But I agree with Kelly, I don't think you need to get it since you're on the DP and also have and ADR. We'll be paying OOP and will hopefully have an ADR, but right now the hours for Nov. haven't been updated so AK still is showing closing by like 5 and 6 so I can't book a dinner there past 5. It's possible that, once they extend hours, it MAY be hard for me to book a later one (if everyone waiting like me books at the same time) so having the card will help me get in if I don't get the ADR I want

 

[ariane37]

I really don't like that they moved the FP booking time! Part of my reasoning is selfish, of course, since I do late nights better than early mornings, but also I don't like that everything is opening at the same time. They have enough IT problems as is, why risk overloading the system every single day? Wishing you luck on Monday morning! Also hoping you can join the nap club.
.

Did you hear what happened today? Nobody could make ADR's ALL DAY Not from 6am this morning, and as of like 90 minutes ago it was still down. Crap like this has been happening since they moved the FP booking time, although today is the worst. They should have left it alone!

 

[ArielSRL]

OMG I'm so sorry I missed this Renee! But I agree with Kelly, I don't think you need to get it since you're on the DP and also have and ADR. We'll be paying OOP and will hopefully have an ADR, but right now the hours for Nov. haven't been updated so AK still is showing closing by like 5 and 6 so I can't book a dinner there past 5. It's possible that, once they extend hours, it MAY be hard for me to book a later one (if everyone waiting like me books at the same time) so having the card will help me get in if I don't get the ADR I want

No problem! Thanks for the reply!

 

[Jfsag123]

It went pretty well. I didn't get stuff exactly they way I wanted, but it was close enough and worked. The network was in much better shape Sunday morning. No crashes at all.

I'm glad that it worked for you - that's the most important thing lol. And I'm glad that you were at least able to get close to what you wanted. You've still got time to tweak should the mood strike you.

Did you hear what happened today? Nobody could make ADR's ALL DAY Not from 6am this morning, and as of like 90 minutes ago it was still down. Crap like this has been happening since they moved the FP booking time, although today is the worst. They should have left it alone!

Oh my gosh, no I didn't hear about that. That's nuts! It explains why I was unable to search when I went to look for a dining reservation a few hours ago (got one that I'm still trying to get just a little bit earlier in the day). Maybe this will prompt them to move the FP time back? Please? Bueller?

 

[ArielSRL]

Oh my gosh, no I didn't hear about that. That's nuts! It explains why I was unable to search when I went to look for a dining reservation a few hours ago (got one that I'm still trying to get just a little bit earlier in the day). Maybe this will prompt them to move the FP time back? Please? Bueller?

All I know is I hope they get all this fixed by the time we get there. It's getting uncomfortably close for them to be having all these issues......

 

[Jfsag123]

All I know is I hope they get all this fixed by the time we get there. It's getting uncomfortably close for them to be having all these issues......

I was thinking the same thing! Terrified of having one of the days when none of the MM+ stuff is working. Last time it all worked flawlessly and we loved the MagicBands.

 

[Jfsag123]

Days 14 & 15: Saturday, June 18 – Epcot/Departure; Sunday, June 19 - Home

Our last day in the world. We will get up, get the car packed, check out of BLT (at which point I will cry pitifully, I’m sure), then head over to Epcot. And now I have another question for you all and I’d love your opinion. My original plan for this day started off with a late breakfast reservation at Garden Grill, followed by a FP for the new Soarin’. However, once I heard that old Soarin’ would be open for the rest of our trip, I put in a request with TP’s reservation finder for a PPO Garden Grill. Well, one came up for 6/8, so on a whim I cancelled the Akershus reservation I had for that time and booked the GG instead. Akershus no longer gives us any advantage, as we will miss the Frozen stuff, so we can just meet the princesses in the parks. So now here are my options:

1. We go to Garden Grill at 8:00am on 6/8, then head straight to old Soarin’ rather than rope dropping Test Track. In this case, I would swap the Soarin’ FP I currently have back out for TT for later in the afternoon. Our plan is to head to the new character meets (Joy/Sadness & Baymax) right after our RD ride, and this potentially puts us a little further ahead here as well. On check-out day (6/18), we don’t need to leave BLT until right around check-out time in order to head over to Epcot for our new Soarin’ FP.

2. On 6/18, we check out from BLT and are on our way by 9:30 in order to make our Garden Grill reservation at 10:15am, then ride new Soarin’ w/FP+ right after. I originally planned this as sort of a goodbye breakfast – one last character experience before we head on our way. However, I do have FP for talking Mickey at MK the day before. In this case, we would RD TT on 6/8 and use our tier 1 FP for old Soarin’ that day.

Thoughts?

Regardless of what happens with GG, the rest of the day’s plans are set. After new Soarin’, we will probably head over toward Norway and loiter around a bit to see if any soft openings may be happening for FEA, as it’ll just be a few days before the official openings. I doubt we’ll get lucky, but it can’t hurt to check. I’m not even going to mention it to the kids. We can also potentially hop on Gran Fiesta Tour one more time and maybe meet Donald in Mexico so DH can see his favorite character on our final day. We then have a FP for Nemo, which I honestly don’t care if we miss, as we will have ridden it earlier and it’s not one we have to do multiple times. We will end with a FP for Spaceship Earth, which I do care that we make. We all love this ride and it seems like a nice way to end the trip. After SE, we will trudge back to the car and hit the road.

We will drive as far as Mobile, AL, before stopping for the night. On 6/19, we’ll drive the rest of the way home, about a 10-11 hour drive. At this point, I think we may start having conversations about our next trip – it will likely be the only way to pull me out of the funk! And since we rent DVC points for our stays, it actually makes sense, as I’ll start looking to book in July.

So that’s our trip! So much has already changed in our plans since I started posting them. I’m sure even more will change on the fly once we’re actually living them. I’ve very much appreciated all of the input over the course of detailing them – it’s been so helpful! I will keep updating in this last week and a half before we head out.

 

[soniam]

Not long now

 

[ArielSRL]

I'm not sure what's the best to do but I definitely plan to do a ppo GG in June 2017. Regardless of what you decide, we'll have to see if our plans match up any for this day, too, as we'll be at Epcot on 6/8 from RD til about 1:30, I think.

 

[Jfsag123]

I'm not sure what's the best to do but I definitely plan to do a ppo GG in June 2017. Regardless of what you decide, we'll have to see if our plans match up any for this day, too, as we'll be at Epcot on 6/8 from RD til about 1:30, I think.

Oh great! My plans have shifted from what I posted earlier in the thread (of course). I'm leaning toward keeping the PPO GG this day, and if so, our schedule for the first half of the day will be this:

GG
Soarin'
Joy & Sadness
Baymax
Imagining it will be close to 11:00 by this time so we'll head toward WS on the Canada side. Plan is to meet Belle, see the American Adventure, then meet Snow White around 12:30. I've got open time from then until 4:00 when we'll need to do our first FP. Probably use it for WS exploration and a little resort time since it will be so easy for us to run back to the room.

I'm pretty sure we also overlap on 6/9, so if we don't end up catching each other on 6/8 we'll have another chance the next day at the MK! My plan has also changed for that day from what was originally posted of course, but not by as much. Rough plan is to RD Fantasyland, FP+ at Space, Cindy & Rapunzel, & Haunted Mansion between 9:30 and 12:30 (we'll hit our first one toward the end of the window so we can use the entire first hour for FL), Move it Shake it, then resort break. We'll come back in the early evening with no specific plans except to see MSEP with Dole Whips!