Biscuit's Grand Adventure 2 - Adventures in Opposites *TR NOW ACTIVE!

[GreatBiscuit]

Hey, you're getting there, that's what's important. And remember, you can't force the magic. Just relax, and let it happen. I'm a big proponent of driving to save money. Airfare ain't cheap nowadays and when you've got yerself, the missus, and a couple of buckaroos, it adds up fast. (How am I doing speaking Texan?) Staying off-property is way down the list of items to give up, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do. I'm just glad you're able to get there.

Well howdy thar Gleenbo. I reckon yer Texan ain't too bad. Airfare has been insane ever since I started looking. And I have been looking for a while now. We will lose some things, but we do gain some things, as my next update shall show.

 

[Beka]

We've stayed off site & at the S&D. I like having the car there so we don't have to rely on Disney transportation. It'll be interesting to see how the new FP+ thing plays out. We'll be staying off site again this October (can't beat a free room when your MIL has time share!) I just feel that for what you get, Disney's prices for staying on property is insane. Even with FP+. If I can get a condo for less per night than a value there, then yeah, I'm sold. DH *loves* the S&D though, so when we're paying for the room, that's where we stay (but from what I understand, they're being treated like off-property with FP+ as well).

 

[GreatBiscuit]

We've stayed off site & at the S&D. I like having the car there so we don't have to rely on Disney transportation. It'll be interesting to see how the new FP+ thing plays out. We'll be staying off site again this October (can't beat a free room when your MIL has time share!) I just feel that for what you get, Disney's prices for staying on property is insane. Even with FP+. If I can get a condo for less per night than a value there, then yeah, I'm sold. DH *loves* the S&D though, so when we're paying for the room, that's where we stay (but from what I understand, they're being treated like off-property with FP+ as well).

The S&D was a strong possibility for a while. You should be good in October. The new FP+ reservations for offsite guests will be in full swing at that point. It is a grey area as to whether they will stick with the April transition (needed for my travel dates) or roll it back a couple of months. I hear you on free. I like free. I feel good about free. Free is tough to overcome. All the world over so easy to see. People everywhere just want to be free.

 

[vamassey1]

Doesn't matter where you stay as long as you get to go to the parks. As for driving, we have driven way more times than we have flown. There are perks to both. Lucky you have Aunt Jana, I need one of those.

We stayed on property for Nationals but weren't given out tickets to the parks until we checked in. At that time they asked us not to link them to MDE since it was causing problems to everyone's tickets. It was a lighter crowd time but we had to wait until we entered the park to make our FP reservations. Do not like only getting 3.

 

[eandesmom]

At the end of the day, all that matters is

YOU ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

That is the must have. The rest, is gravy. And sometimes, gravy can be a different flavor, have different seasoning and be equally as good.

Aunt Janna rocks.

Driving sounds like a win win

And the dining plan, has gone from a "if you work it right you can break even or save money" to a you REALLY have to plot it out to even break even.

And have kids that eat like vultures if they are over 10. EMH would probably be the hardest thing for me to swallow, even if they did cut it an hour. That and the now FP+ thing.

Free trumps all.

In spades.

I LOVE me a kitchen on vacation. Breakfast, snacks, pack a lunch or two and bam, save a bundle.

3% cut its value for me.
But as we all know when it comes to Disney Plans, they never quite stay the same. Turns out Disney would again throw a monkey wrench my way that would lead to me giving up another Must Have, only this time it wasn’t a surrender, it was a trade. And what I got back in return was pretty dern cool. Oh, we’re still off property, don’t get me wrong. And I’m still good with it.

Though if I am to be accurate, I must now say that we are “MOSTLY” off property.

Oh, and my excitement for the trip shot up ten-fold.

But I’ll save that story for next time.

CLIFFHANGER!

 

[dillydilly]

Just stopping out of lurkdom to say that I am looking forward to hearing about your trip plans and such.

Please tell your Bama loving lawyer friend that he is missed!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Doesn't matter where you stay as long as you get to go to the parks. As for driving, we have driven way more times than we have flown. There are perks to both. Lucky you have Aunt Jana, I need one of those. We stayed on property for Nationals but weren't given out tickets to the parks until we checked in. At that time they asked us not to link them to MDE since it was causing problems to everyone's tickets. It was a lighter crowd time but we had to wait until we entered the park to make our FP reservations. Do not like only getting 3.

I think being Offsite, that driving is pretty much the only way I would go. Lighter crowds are good.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

At the end of the day, all that matters is YOU ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! That is the must have. The rest, is gravy. And sometimes, gravy can be a different flavor, have different seasoning and be equally as good. Aunt Janna rocks. Driving sounds like a win win And the dining plan, has gone from a "if you work it right you can break even or save money" to a you REALLY have to plot it out to even break even. And have kids that eat like vultures if they are over 10. EMH would probably be the hardest thing for me to swallow, even if they did cut it an hour. That and the now FP+ thing. Free trumps all. In spades. I LOVE me a kitchen on vacation. Breakfast, snacks, pack a lunch or two and bam, save a bundle. CLIFFHANGER!

You are correct. At the end of the end of the day, being there is the must do.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Just stopping out of lurkdom to say that I am looking forward to hearing about your trip plans and such. Please tell your Bama loving lawyer friend that he is missed!

Howdy and

Glad to stepped out of the shadows to say hello! I will pass along your well wishes.

I should be updating late tonight / early tomorrow. It is Spring Break for us (Earlier than normal but it turned out to be a blessing in the way the timing fell...just some administrative things and IT projects that work out much better this way.)

 

[GreatBiscuit]

In our previous discussion, I alluded to a monkey wrench conveniently tossed into the midst of my plans. As some of you have guessed, its name was FastPass+. Tracking the various nuances of this billion dollar fiasco was not always easy, as much of the information concerning it was conjecture and rumor.

When I first began to pay significant attention, FP+ was still in the testing phases and not available at all of the resorts. Rumors abounded about the final flavor it would possess as they still continue to do today.

As the holiday season rolled around and FP+ had fully launched, the picture it painted for offsite guests was bleak. As it stood then, (and currently still stands today), offsite guests ARE able to use FP+ but in a much different way than on site guests.

To give a very brief overview, when you stay on site, you are able to book 3 FP+ reservations per person, per day starting sixty days in advance of your arrival date. These are then connected to your Magic Band which has an RFID chip under the Mickey icon. Waving this chip over the RFID readers in the park allow you use to access the given attractions. For offsite guests, the new paper ticket that you are issued has an RFID chip embedded in it that is identical to the one embedded in the Magic Band. On the day of your visit, you can stop at one of the FP+ Kiosks inside of each park and make up to 3FP+ reservations for that day and that day only.

Here is the caveat. As with traditional FastPass, there is a designated number of FP+ reservations available for each attraction in any given day. These are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and those who are staying on property (thus pre-booking) are obviously going to have the best shot of getting a FP for the attractions they want.

Listening to the WDW Today podcasts on this topic, I learned that Touring Plans has been tracking the in-park distribution since FP+ Launched and is seeing same-day FP+ reservations on attractions like Soarin and Toy Story Midway Mania run out within 30-60 min of rope drop. This is during non-peak, “light” days in the parks.

We are planning to visit on one of the two most crowded weeks of the year.
Hence you see my quandary. There is talk that FP+ pre-booking will open to offsite guests in April, though if it follows the previous FP+ launch, it will be delayed. I have not seen an official date yet, and that is going to be right on the edge of our 60 day window.

I still hadn’t fully come to terms with the lack of EMH and this new FP+ intelligence was causing significant reservations concerning my reservations.

As I pondered how to best address it, another FP+ Feature would actually serve to help nudge me in the direction I ultimately chose to go. It was namely this: FP+ is relegated to a single park per day. Already I had been questioning park hopping. We did far too much of it last time around and it cut down on time actually enjoying the parks. While I really wanted to have it for our final day of touring, I wondered if the funds might be better spent another way. If you were hopping to a park where you knew you couldn’t use FP at all, you were taking a pretty big gamble on being able to get into any of your desired attractions.

In another bit of advice from the afore mentioned lawyer friend, I began to think about taking the cost of park hopping and applying it elsewhere. Doing the math and seeing what I would save, I realized that I could add a night on property with little to no increase in the cost of the trip just by skipping the hopper option.

I looked at what I would gain, namely 2 nights of EHM (Check-in Day and Check-out Day), at least 2 days with FP+ reservations at the 60 day mark, and the myriad of on property benefits one can’t quantify. (The experience, the emotions, they nifty factor.) I decided that to me, there was more value in spending my money for a night on property than there was value in spending it to park hop.

With this new update burning a hole in my spreadsheet, it was time to start looking and booking. My first stop was my old friend the Pop Century Resort. We really did love this place. Truly, fully, all out enjoyed the mess out of our time here. But the room was small and the girls are bigger now and our frequent travel on the cheerleading and gymnastics competition circuits have shown that I am not a man who functions well in tiny motel rooms. I like my space and that is one amenity this property simply does not have. With this in mind, I moved on the Port Orleans Riverside.

For years I have been fascinated with the resort formerly known as Dixie Landings. I was feeling pretty good about pulling the trigger to stay there, but then a voice sounded in my mind.

Those of you who read along last time might recall that when we went to eat at Whispering Canyon Café, the first thing my wife said when she walked into The Wilderness Lodge was “We need to stay here next time.” And now…….we are.

I booked us for Sunday night, which gives us MK EMH and DHS EMH.

I was stoked.

I was excited.

I was thrilled beyond all words and descriptions.

I was overjoyed EXCEPT for one thing.

One night was really not going to give us much time to appreciate the place.

And so my next move was to see just what I might could maneuver around to help spread that magic out just a little bit more.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

YAY for on property, so glad you managed to fit that in!

Another one of my former homes.

 

[eandesmom]

YAY! The first lady gets to stay at her dream resort!

At least for a night

Or 2....

I have faith in your spreadsheet manipulation abilities.

 

[Poolrat]

Love the justification for on-site. Whoo hoo for the WL.


Can't wait to see how much more you " justify "

 

[loonieroonie]

Woo-hoo!! Can't wait to read another epic adventure.

 

[PrncessA]

The WL!!! We loved the WL when we stayed there in 2009, it is just so beautiful and relaxing! So excited for you... if you didn't leave us hangin'!

We moved our trip up this week (by 3 months) and considered moving back to the WL. Proximity to Epcot won out though, since we are doing DxDDP and Epcot is the dining capital!

I understand what you mean about watching FP+ unfold... it is hard enough for those of us who are hard-core Disney planners, I feel for those who walk into the situation on the first day of their vacation and are bombarded with the realities!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

YAY for on property, so glad you managed to fit that in!

Another one of my former homes.

Woohoo! I may have to pick your brain on the best standard view locations to ask for.

YAY! The first lady gets to stay at her dream resort!

At least for a night

So far, it's a secret. She thinks we are going to pull up to the Pop and surprise the girls with one night there. My plan is to pull up at WL "For Lunch" and then surprise them with checking.

Or 2....

I have faith in your spreadsheet manipulation abilities.

May the formulas be ever in your favor.

Love the justification for on-site. Whoo hoo for the WL.


Can't wait to see how much more you " justify "

It really was the only way I could feel good about this trip given the current state of FP+. And what is the point of WDW if you are dreading the trip? Can I get a witness!?

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Woo-hoo!! Can't wait to read another epic adventure.

Howdy and Glad you stopped by and checked in!

The WL!!! We loved the WL when we stayed there in 2009, it is just so beautiful and relaxing! So excited for you... if you didn't leave us hangin'!

But cliffhangers are so much fun....for me. The thing about WL, aside from the fact that we loved it when we stopped there, is that I RARELY hear any bad reviews. Everyone who stays there seems to love the place. About the only fussing I hear much of is the bus service and that is true of every resort on property.

We moved our trip up this week (by 3 months) and considered moving back to the WL. Proximity to Epcot won out though, since we are doing DxDDP and Epcot is the dining capital!

The Yacht Club almost won out here, but WL was a bit cheaper, and it had that "dream resort" status for FLB.

I understand what you mean about watching FP+ unfold... it is hard enough for those of us who are hard-core Disney planners, I feel for those who walk into the situation on the first day of their vacation and are bombarded with the realities!

Got a call from another DIS'er about a month ago. A friend of theirs was leaving for the parks in 2 days, staying off site, and had done ZERO planning. She knew I had been doing a TON of FP+ research and called to pick my brain. I can't even fathom taking a trip like that. One thing I have found though is that a lot of people who are more familiar with Six Flags and other parks assume that the entire FP program costs extra, the same way it does in other parks. That may deter them from even trying to use it or bothering to look it up. And of course fans of the park who are not FANS of the park (IE they enjoy it, but don't do Forums / Podcasts) may not have a clue about the new system and be completely taken off guard.

 

[PrncessA]

Howdy and Glad you stopped by and checked in!

But cliffhangers are so much fun....for me. The thing about WL, aside from the fact that we loved it when we stopped there, is that I RARELY hear any bad reviews. Everyone who stays there seems to love the place. About the only fussing I hear much of is the bus service and that is true of every resort on property.

The Yacht Club almost won out here, but WL was a bit cheaper, and it had that "dream resort" status for FLB.

Got a call from another DIS'er about a month ago. A friend of theirs was leaving for the parks in 2 days, staying off site, and had done ZERO planning. She knew I had been doing a TON of FP+ research and called to pick my brain. I can't even fathom taking a trip like that. One thing I have found though is that a lot of people who are more familiar with Six Flags and other parks assume that the entire FP program costs extra, the same way it does in other parks. That may deter them from even trying to use it or bothering to look it up. And of course fans of the park who are not FANS of the park (IE they enjoy it, but don't do Forums / Podcasts) may not have a clue about the new system and be completely taken off guard.

We did have a horrid experience at the WCC, but it most likely was a fluke and the waitress was having a really bad day. We also had a near death experience with a DTD bus driver, but that could have happened with any resort. The WL it's self is just lovely!

You should read the two latest updates in my TR, a fellow spreadsheet keeper myself, I went a little crazy over the last two weeks!

 

[GreatBiscuit]

We did have a horrid experience at the WCC, but it most likely was a fluke and the waitress was having a really bad day. We also had a near death experience with a DTD bus driver, but that could have happened with any resort. The WL it's self is just lovely!

You should read the two latest updates in my TR, a fellow spreadsheet keeper myself, I went a little crazy over the last two weeks!

I was already reading along on you latest escapade! My mom had a bad experience at WCC a year after our last trip. They were there right at closing and had both bad service and bad food. Hopefully it is improved!

 

[joleen76]

I tried to talk our graduate into staying at WL but he wanted a more "beach" feel so we are at the Caribbean Beach much to my disappointment. I can't wait to hear all about your experience.

I too do the "Disney math" and figure out what I can do on our budget. I would love to stay at the BC or YC again, but I just can't get the numbers to add up right to allow that. DH often reminds me...we are barely in the room while we are there. We tend to be park commando's. I as still trying to find a way to add a night on one end of our trip to visit Harry's world, (blastfamy I know) but I would like to do it one time and stay off site that night.

I have often thought of staying at an offsite home so I can't wait to hear about your adventures.