"I can't believe we're staying here!" An Feb'16 DLR PTR (TR link Post #355)

[FantasiaMagic]

Good list of ADRs! I will also be trying Kona for breakfast for the first time this trip! The Tonga Toast does sound very good! It will also be my first time trying for BOG for lunch, as I was there for dinner this past summer.

That's awesome about the discount on the tickets as well!

 

[skier_pete]

Good list of ADRs! I will also be trying Kona for breakfast for the first time this trip! The Tonga Toast does sound very good! It will also be my first time trying for BOG for lunch, as I was there for dinner this past summer.

That's awesome about the discount on the tickets as well!

Thanks - it's a lot shorter than we usually do, but I'm actually looking forward to the less regimentation without the so many TS meals.

 

[skier_pete]

So, I thought I would slowly go over our plans for the trip.

I've probably typed this many times before, but one of the reasons I love going to Disney is that each trip seems to take on it's own style and mood. This one is going to be MUCH different than previous ones, for the following reasons

1) Deluxe/DVC resorts near parks + summer stay + promoting more mid-day down time
2) YES program / with Park hopper + WPM (Only ever done this once - usually we don't hop.)

So, really we are planning a trip that focuses somewhat less on the theme parks, and more on the resorts and the water parks. None of us like the heat at all, so we will be spending as much time cooling off as possible.

Also, I usually have the trips pretty well planned out, not just what parks what days but the basic order of the rides. I am trying to take a more easy-going approach. Those reading these plans may not think that is the case, but really you'll notice some spots of "depending on", "that may change" or "then we'll see".

Another thing that I try to do every time we go to Disney is to make sure that every day we do something that we've never done before. Considering we've spent nearly 70 days at Disney as a family over the years, that's still a pretty easy goal to accomplish most days!

So, here it goes - Day 1:
8 AM flight leads to 10:40 AM arrival. Assuming no major issues (hurricane?) we should be at the resort by noon. What exactly we do here will depend on if our room is ready. If it is, we may bring out bags to the room and then head to the pool for a while. If the rooms not ready, we'll likely check our bags with Bell Services, and head out to one of the water parks. (DW and DD were joking this weekend that we should wear our bathing suits on the plane so we are basically dressed for the water parks!)

Which water park will we go to? Blizzard Beach??






Or Typhoon Lagoon??





Or...do we let FATE decide. That's my suggestion, we go to the bus stop, and whichever Water Park bus shows up, that's the one we go on! This is already more spontaneity than I've ever allowed on a Disney trip!! Woo-hoo!! Either that or we will let DD pick - which would also be a first.

If the room is ready or if it is not, we will spend some portion of the day at the water park, and another portion at the pool. And we will definitely be getting an order of THESE!


At 6 PM we need to be back to the hotel, because we have an ADR at Beaches and Cream. The evening we will spend at the hotel, again maybe hang at the pool. We may or may not watch Illuminations from outside the park, we'll see how we are feeling about that.

Several firsts here:
First stay at Beach Club/DVC.
First time we've arrived in the morning and NOT gone to a theme park. (We have arrived late at night before and not gone, but never during the day.)
First time we let's fate/DD decide on the bus route.
First time at Stormalong Bay.
First time eating at Beaches & Cream.

I wonder if it's going to seem a little weird not heading to a theme park on our first day.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like a fantastic first day of firsts!

There is the option of just hanging around SAB instead of going to a water park; but I guess you'll figure that out on the day. In any event, I'm with your DW and DD. Wearing the bathing suit to Disney sounds like the perfect travel apparel.

 

[kcpinwdw]

Sounds wonderful! Isn't it so much easier to plan mid day breaks when staying at beach club and poly?! I can't decide if we are going to go to a water park or not. Probably not, with such great pools at our disposal and the kids too little for the slides.

 

[skier_pete]

Sounds like a fantastic first day of firsts!

There is the option of just hanging around SAB instead of going to a water park; but I guess you'll figure that out on the day. In any event, I'm with your DW and DD. Wearing the bathing suit to Disney sounds like the perfect travel apparel.

It DOES sound like a good idea. I kind of love the idea of going through TSA security in a bathing suit!

I think there's a pretty good likelyhood that our room won't be ready when we arrive, in which case I think we would definitely swing to the water parks. If it's ready, we may just hang by the pool. With the Water Parks and More option though I think it would be a perfect day to take advantage of that and get a few slides in. We'll see what actually happens. (Another reason for flexibility in August is the weather. If we get unlucky with Hurricane season, we may not be doing either and head to DTD instead.)

Sounds wonderful! Isn't it so much easier to plan mid day breaks when staying at beach club and poly?! I can't decide if we are going to go to a water park or not. Probably not, with such great pools at our disposal and the kids too little for the slides.

I would suggest you skip the water park. 3 year olds can't really do much at the water parks, just the kiddie play area and the lazy river - which you can get both of at SAB. Even the wave pool at TL would be too much. I would say save your money and enjoy the pool. The kids won't know what they're missing anyways.

 

[kcpinwdw]

True, but I think we may have a free water park pass because we have convention tickets. And we have an extra day. But you are right, the pool would be better for them. I don't have to decide now I guess!

 

[princessbelle2015]

Day 1 plans look great.

 

[skier_pete]

True, but I think we may have a free water park pass because we have convention tickets. And we have an extra day. But you are right, the pool would be better for them. I don't have to decide now I guess!

Well, if it's free that's a different thing. I would head over. My choice of the two for 3 year olds would be Typhoon Lagoon. You can't take them in the wave pool when it's pummeling with the 5-foot waves. However, they do have "mellow time" where they turn it into a regular wave pool, and there is an area on the far left (as you face Mount Mayday) with a small cove that the waves break much smaller. That cove has a couple of mini slides as well. In addition, the kiddie area there is fantastic, and is right nearby. Though I admit we didn't really explore the one at Blizzard Beach because DD was already old enough for the "tween" one there. overall, most of the slides at both parks are too big for 3 year olds, though the "family" raft ride at Typhoon Lagoon might be OK.

Day 1 plans look great.

When doesn't the first day look great. DD yesterday said to me "I can't wait to go to Disney". I thought - "You and me both kid"

 

[Tinker326]

Day 1 plans look great! And you never know, you may be surprised with room being ready- especially since it's an off time. A few weeks ago at the AKV, I had the text saying our room was ready by 9:15am. WE didn't even have to check in- just went right up to the room. It was soooooooooooo awesome!

Those are all good 'firsts' for your first day.

I have let Rebecca plan our entire May trip. I may be dead by the time she's done with us............ she handles no sleep much better than I do!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 1 plans look great! And you never know, you may be surprised with room being ready- especially since it's an off time. A few weeks ago at the AKV, I had the text saying our room was ready by 9:15am. We didn't even have to check in- just went right up to the room. It was soooooooooooo awesome!

Those are all good 'firsts' for your first day.

I have let Rebecca plan our entire May trip. I may be dead by the time she's done with us............ she handles no sleep much better than I do!

Yeah, considering we land at 10:40 AM, that gets us to the resort probably a little before noon. I would give the chances of our room being ready at somewhere around 50/50. When we were staying at SSR in October, I just checked, our text for our room being ready came in at 11:15 AM.

I definitely won't mind the idea of the "no front desk" thing, but I guess I don't get exactly how that works. Could we just walk in and go right to Stormalong Bay while waiting for our room? Would our MB automatically let us in? I am curious to see how this all works. Just hope that we can open our door when we get to our room. Past experience says the odds are low.

I'm too big a control freak to allow DD to have a heavy hand in planning the trip. She has had some input though - for instance, she picked the order of the resorts, doing BCV first. I also let her choose between BLT and WLV before we found out we could get into the Poly. I also plan to let her help pick out the FP+ selections for each day. However, I'm not willing to let her pick the park days. There's too much science involved in my selection process!!!

 

[Tinker326]

I definitely won't mind the idea of the "no front desk" thing, but I guess I don't get exactly how that works. Could we just walk in and go right to Stormalong Bay while waiting for our room? Would our MB automatically let us in? I am curious to see how this all works. Just hope that we can open our door when we get to our room. Past experience says the odds are low

I am guessing the answer to that is yes. We were literally texted our room number and that was it. We walked up to our room and the door opened. So, so long as you are registered into that hotel, I'm guessing your bands would work for Stormalong as well.

I'm too big a control freak to allow DD to have a heavy hand in planning the trip. She has had some input though - for instance, she picked the order of the resorts, doing BCV first. I also let her choose between BLT and WLV before we found out we could get into the Poly. I also plan to let her help pick out the FP+ selections for each day. However, I'm not willing to let her pick the park days. There's too much science involved in my selection process!!!

I, too, am a control freak. And put a lot of science behind my dates usually too. The only reason that I'm allowing it this time is that with it just being the two of us- we have a lot of freedom. And she is super easy going and has great ability to go/go/go without a ton of complaint. I gave her the ranking order of the parks for each day telling her 1 was the best & 4 was the worst. And limited her to 2 parks a day... and let her have at it. She spent a lot of time with her Passporter and that order sheet picking everything. So we'll roll with it! If it were Sarah- I would have interferred more with any plans because she has a much higher ability of breakdowns and getting overwhelmed/tired/whiny/crabby!

 

[skier_pete]

I, too, am a control freak. And put a lot of science behind my dates usually too. The only reason that I'm allowing it this time is that with it just being the two of us- we have a lot of freedom. And she is super easy going and has great ability to go/go/go without a ton of complaint. I gave her the ranking order of the parks for each day telling her 1 was the best & 4 was the worst. And limited her to 2 parks a day... and let her have at it. She spent a lot of time with her Passporter and that order sheet picking everything. So we'll roll with it! If it were Sarah- I would have interferred more with any plans because she has a much higher ability of breakdowns and getting overwhelmed/tired/whiny/crabby!

DD definitely has a similar to Becca personality. Last trip our biggest problem with her was that she seemed to break down about 8 PM every night, so we really couldn't do anything in the evenings. Now that she's 11 I would hope this won't happen as much. With the sweltering August temperatures, I would prefer to do more morning and evening park time, and being able to stay out later as part of that. We'll see how it goes.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

We had the same problem this morning. I got all my ADRs that I wanted for our first half by calling, but feel a bit bummed to wait until the 5th to book all our MK days. You'll like Beaches and Cream, we had a great lunch there on our last visit. It is so small for a Disney restaurant, it's sort of refreshing. I didnt book it this time. Wonder if I should. Save room for ice cream!!!

Many trips prechildren
Oct 2013 @ the dolphin, twins 15 months old
Dec 2014 off site (silver lake) twins 2.5 years
May 2015 AKL for a quick weekend escape while twins are still free!
Aug/Sept 2015 BC/poly split stay twins will be 3

Just read your signature--this thread is full of my clones!!! --original poster, We are planning nearly this exact trip at BC with similar dates but no split stay--but we're trying to get Poly for Marathon weekend! And KCPINWDW, we have twins nearly EXACTLY the same age as yours--ours turn 3 in Sept

 

[kcpinwdw]

Wow Twinsouvenirs that's so funny! WE will definitely have to get our kids together at the Beach club for a pool play date. Mine are boy/girl, Ben and Sylvie, and they turn 3 on July 24th (my due date was Aug 29th).

 

[skier_pete]

Many trips prechildren
Oct 2013 @ the dolphin, twins 15 months old
Dec 2014 off site (silver lake) twins 2.5 years
May 2015 AKL for a quick weekend escape while twins are still free!
Aug/Sept 2015 BC/poly split stay twins will be 3

Just read your signature--this thread is full of my clones!!! --original poster, We are planning nearly this exact trip at BC with similar dates but no split stay--but we're trying to get Poly for Marathon weekend! And KCPINWDW, we have twins nearly EXACTLY the same age as yours--ours turn 3 in Sept

Wow Twinsouvenirs that's so funny! WE will definitely have to get our kids together at the Beach club for a pool play date. Mine are boy/girl, Ben and Sylvie, and they turn 3 on July 24th (my due date was Aug 29th).

Wait, now I'll be looking for twins all over. Do you guys need a sitter for an hour? I'll volunteer DD. She's only 11 though - so don't go too far!

Seriously though - DW and I love building our DIS-family, so if you guys want to try to meet up at the pool or something, it would be great to meet some new people. (Or drop the kids at the Sandcastle Club and join us on Sunday at Jellyrolls', though I think Twinsouvenirs' twins aren't old enough - think they have to be 3 for Sandcastle Club.)

 

[skier_pete]

So, I usually don't keep posting this fast, but it's a slow week, so I thought I would update another day.

Day 2: Saturday, August 29th. Our first day in the parks. The plan is to do something we rarely do - take advantage of EMH. With the high temperature/humidity of summer, we plan on heading to DHS for TSMM at EMH. We may ride it twice if the wait stays under 30 minutes, or we may head over to Star Tours if the line builds too quickly.







With my family, the rides here are pretty limited. They won't ride ToT or RnRC, so for this morning, I'm not gonna sweat those. I think we'll probably catch the GMR, as DD as still never ridden this. Then we definitely want to catch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and Animation Academy.





This park has so little to offer, my plan is to only stick around until around noon time. Then it's back to the resort for some rest and relaxation.

My plan has us at the resort until about 5 PM, so a nice long relaxing afternoon. Some time by the pool, some time resting in the room.

I should interrupt my own story to say that we RARELY use hopping when it comes to Disney. I'm a "focus on one park" type dude. The only time we've ever gotten hoppers was when we had an AP - and I think of the three trips we took using that pass, we probably hopped a total of 4 days. But for a change, with the YES program we are going to have hoppers, and I definitely wanted to take advantage of this combined with our locations.

In addition - one of the great advantages I see with FP+ is that combined with the ability to hop, you can get FP+ for the 2nd park you plan on going to for the day. SO - my plan is to use our three FP+ for this evening. At this stage, I am not sure where we will use them, but I think that's what we will do.

What I do know is we have dinner planned at San Angel Inn at 6:30 PM.



This is one of DDs pick for a restaurant that she wanted to eat at. We have eaten here twice in our life. The first time was our first ever trip (DW and I) in 1997. The next time was (and I looked this up just for you dear reader) August 24th, 2008. For whatever reason, DD remembers this and wants to try it again. I remember enjoying both meals.

Side-bar: I actually ate here a third time, in 1982 with my parents when I was 12. I remember the mickey shaped Tortilla chips, which they still had in 1997, but no longer had in 2008. Pointing out that this will be my fourth consecutive decade dining at San Angel Inn! (Four meals across 33 years!) Maybe the only WDW restaurant I can say that about for sure! (OK, Crystal Palace I've eaten in across 5 decades, but whose counting!)

Anyways, I picture that we will hit a ride or two in future world before dinner, but I just don't know specifically at this time. I'm thinking FP+ for Test Track and Mission: Space, though if the family prefers we get Soarin' and Nemo we could do that instead.

What I DO know is the following facts:
(1) Epcot is scheduled to close at 9 PM
(2) I originally didn't have us going to MK until day EIGHT of the trip.
(3) MK has EMH from 10 AM to Midnight tonight!

So, when I mentioned this idea to DW and DD, they jumped on it. Our FIRST ever THREE-park day. Yup, by 9 PM (skipping Illuminations for now) we head out to the monorail and swing over to MK.



What do we do in MK? I don't really know, again I think we let DD take the lead here. Look out - more spontaneity!!!! My head might explode. Would hope to get at least 3 or 4 rides in before everybody conks out. (Not planning on the parade or Wishes at this point, as this will be a really big crowd here tonight.) Again, also don't know if this will actually work out. DD may poop out early, at which point we bail on MK.

I don't actually think we will be in the park until midnight. However, the other reason I think this is a good day for this is we actually have a slower start planned the next day.

Firsts:
DD riding the Great Movie Ride
Four decades of Mexican Feista!
Three parks in one day!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like another great day of spontaniety. Do you like any of the shows at DHS?

3 parks in one day?? I certainly hope you enjoy it. My family love hopping but it's definitely not for everyone.

 

[skier_pete]

Sounds like another great day of spontaniety. Do you like any of the shows at DHS?

3 parks in one day?? I certainly hope you enjoy it. My family love hopping but it's definitely not for everyone.

We like the B&tB show OK, and the Indiana Jones show is a family favorite. The rest is pretty much take it or leave it. (Well, we like the muppets.) With only me wanting to ride ToT and RnRC, and none of us are big Fantasmic fans, its just not a park we spend a lot of time at.

 

[princessbelle2015]

Great plans. 3 parks in one day sounds doable the way you have it planned with your pool break.