The Ever Changing Resort PTR, June 2016...Completed!

[ArielSRL]

!
Yes, Garden Grocer is a little pricey ($14 delivery fee), but we did it last time and it was so convenient. And I got 10% off so at least saved a few bucks. Looked into Prime Pantry, but we would have needed at least two boxes, and DH just said do GG since it worked perfect last time. If I was driving, I would totally just bring everything. It's mostly drinks we ordered. A 32 pack of big water bottles, a 24 pack of smaller water bottles for the kids, a 32 pack of juice boxes, and a few breakfast and snack items like mini donuts, raisin bread, bananas, and Goldfish. And I do plan to pack some things in our suitcases as well like applesauce pouches and mini cereal boxes. We try to do most breakfasts in the room or in transit, and my kids are always wanting snacks, which would add up super fast, so I like to have my own.

Ah yes, normal life....sure to keep us plenty busy and help the time pass very fast!

I was looking into APP vs GG last night. Not sure what we will go with but bc I'm also a prime member, we could do a couple boxes of prime pantry and send diapers and such with just regular prime. We do have the car but there will be 5 of us in it. My mom has an older jeep Cherokee so we will be limited on space. I guess we'll take what's most advantageous and ship everything else. Just determining that may take a lot of research. Guess I found my next Disney trip project! Haha!

 

[ArielSRL]

Catching up! Sorry to hear of your accident! Yikes that sounds scary!

The outfits look great!


Just scanned over the plans but no glaring issues jump out at me. Don't have opinions on Touring PLans myself. I tend to use EasyWDW and create up the plans myself. Having a few versions of the plans does end up working great in your favor.

Thank you for joining in! Yes, the accident was no fun and the dealing with the insurance company is still going on, but I did get a new car on Thursday, so at least that part is taken care of!

Thanks for the clothes compliments. Yes, I was so happy to discover them (pointed out by someone from the Dis!). I'm gonna get 3 or 4 more once the coupon I have kicks in! I toyed around with a Little Mermaid dress but I probably wouldn't wear it nearly as much as the tanks so I can't really justify the cost. But it is so cute!

I love Touring Plans. Just a great way to obsessively plan and I know most of us enjoy that part almost as much as the trip! Lol.

 

[ArielSRL]

Trip Updates as of 4/12/2016

Ok, so some minor changes to the plans.

Change 1: Dad wanted to look into renting a bigger SUV but even with the AARP discount a 4Runner or comparable was going to be $600 for the week. Um, no! So...I suggested a Uhaul trailer. Mom looked into it and a 4x8 is $119 for the week. I called Disney and we can park it in overflow parking at the resort (wherever that is) so I think that's what we are going with. This way, we won't have to place an order through prime pantry or garden grocer. We can fit luggage and boxes of food into the trailer and have more space in my mom's Jeep Cherokee.

Change 2: I took @ErinF 's advice and moved around the order of the attractions in the Seas pavilion. I have the Nemo ride first, then Turtle Talk, then exploring the tanks, but the last two can easily be switched around to fit whenever the next TT show is. I had to change my FP times a bit but I wanted to anyway, so it worked out.

Change 3: I was originally able to get all the FP I wanted within a reasonable time frame but some were up to 25 minutes off from when I truly wanted them. I had been trying to modify them all week with no luck. Well I stayed up til midnight Saturday night to check out the new FP interface and surprisingly enough, I was able to change almost every FP that was off, to the EXACT time I wanted! It didn't result in many plan changes (such as attraction order) but it allows for a bit more flexibility in my plans.

Change 4: When I was messing around with our Arrival Day plan (re-evaluating it after I put in my true FP times) it changed a lot of the predicted wait times...some less, some more. I'm not too worried about it because after we use our initial three FP, I'll try to get additional ones (let's hope this hoopla going on currently with the upgrades and no FP availability gets fixed and/or dies down before June!!) and we will be flexible and go with what's available. However, the biggest change is for Winnie the Pooh and that's the ride I had as a bridge between my 2nd and 3rd FP (PP and 7DMT) because otherwise we have dead time between them (so no way to try for a FP for that where it is in the plan). It originally had a predicted wait time of 23 minutes but it changed to 41 minutes!!! Eek...I'm not sure my boys could do a 41 minute wait, or that any of us want to! So...I still have that plan in place and I will check it as we get closer, in case there are any more (positive) changes. But, as a precaution, I created an alternate plan and I switched iasw and Pooh. iasw only has a 19 min wait in the same slot so that works fine. Pooh has a 37 or 38 minute predicted wait after being switched, but we'll at least have an opportunity to get an additional FP for it.

Possible change/something I recently noticed: For our AK day, I thought about adding Flights of Wonder in somewhere. Dad loves birds (he probably has 20 birdhouses and feeders, at least, in his yard) and Mom isn't really gung ho with Nemo (we've done it before) so I tried to switch that for FoW but its too late in the day. Then I realized that earlier in the day, we are going straight from our TH character breakfast to the Disney Pals character meet and greet. Doh! I'm sure the boys would be fine with it but I think its probably the exact same characters! So, I could do FoW there, but the show starts at 11:45 and our TH breakfast is at 10:40. I tried to switch it to earlier but one) there is no availability and two) we have FotLK right before so there really isn't much wiggle room (maybe 10 minutes). So, we can either hope to get into TH 10 min early and get out within an hour and make it to FoW (that'll be rough) or I can move FotLK to later in the day (maybe replacing Nemo) and keep trying for an earlier breakfast or...just leave it alone. Ugh. LOL. I'll probably have to keep you guys updated on that one.

I think that's all the changes/possible changes...for now, anyway...lol. On to something else...

I received this beauty in the mail the other day:

I'll be wearing that on our AK day! I also got a button and I'll have that somewhere the entire trip.

Oh and a co-worker of mine, who is also a huge Disney fan (DVC owner) and will be down for the exact same dates as us, gifted me some Disney earrings yesterday:

So cute!!

Also, on Thursday, I plan to order another 3 or 4 tanks from Hot Topic with my $30 hot cash. I'll post photos of those when they come in.

I think that's about it for today. Please let me know what you think of the changes! And, as always, thanks for reading!

 

[ErinF]

You are so good to always be tweaking and working hard on the details of your trip!

#1--That's a good idea to rent a trailer if it's that cheap. Or another idea might be those cargo carriers that go on top of the car. My parents owned one of those for their minivan. When I was little, we used to drive to Colorado at Christmas time and stay in a condo and ski. So my mom would have to bring all the Christmas presents and tree ornaments and that gave us the extra room.

#2--Glad I could help! And yes, once you get off the Nemo ride, you can do whatever works as far as TT then tanks or vice versa.

#3--That's awesome that you could get the exact times you wanted! I did not want to go near MDE when it was changing over for fear of getting my stuff messed up if it crashed, ha!! I looked at the new format briefly Sunday afternoon and again very briefly last night. My FP's are in really good shape, but things are still in flux with the big question marks that are ROL, Soarin', and FEA. *Sigh* I just want one of those 3 to be available for our trip.

#4--We've waited in the Pooh line for maybe 20-30 minutes before, and it's not too bad because they have a new(ish) interactive queue that the kids enjoy. But yes, 40 is pushing it!

Sounds like your dad would definitely enjoy FoW. I've never seen it, but our zoo and our state fair have bird shows that sound very similar. Since we've seen those, I don't have FoW on our itinerary, but I need to keep it in mind just in case.

I enjoy reading about all your preparations!

 

[ArielSRL]

You are so good to always be tweaking and working hard on the details of your trip!

Thanks! But to be honest, it really helps with the waiting! I mean, can June just get here already??? LOL

#1--That's a good idea to rent a trailer if it's that cheap. Or another idea might be those cargo carriers that go on top of the car. My parents owned one of those for their minivan. When I was little, we used to drive to Colorado at Christmas time and stay in a condo and ski. So my mom would have to bring all the Christmas presents and tree ornaments and that gave us the extra room.

Ugh. My dad. Now he is saying we don't need it. And I already deleted my prime pantry order. I should've known to save it or at least take screenshots. Well at least I know I filled up two boxes and how much the cost is. I also mentioned the cargo carrier for the top of the car but he absolutely does NOT want anything on the top of the car. We do have some time to talk him into the trailer, still, so stay tuned.

#2--Glad I could help! And yes, once you get off the Nemo ride, you can do whatever works as far as TT then tanks or vice versa.

Yes, thanks again and we will remain flexible. Now Mom is saying she doesn't want to do Figment so I said, well fine, bc if FEA or Soarin is open we can just replace Figment with one of those! Changes, changes.....

#3--That's awesome that you could get the exact times you wanted! I did not want to go near MDE when it was changing over for fear of getting my stuff messed up if it crashed, ha!! I looked at the new format briefly Sunday afternoon and again very briefly last night. My FP's are in really good shape, but things are still in flux with the big question marks that are ROL, Soarin', and FEA. *Sigh* I just want one of those 3 to be available for our trip.

You are probably smart to think that way bc that never crossed my mind. I was probably lucky it turned out ok. And surprising enough, there wasn't any problems at all. And I was really happy I went on and got almost all of them modified!

#4--We've waited in the Pooh line for maybe 20-30 minutes before, and it's not too bad because they have a new(ish) interactive queue that the kids enjoy. But yes, 40 is pushing it!

I have heard about the interactive queue, so yeh, I wouldn't have minded like a 20-30 min wait. But 41! And it would be our 3rd attraction on this trip. Maybe that means we would be "fresher" but I think we will be very impatient. So we'll just see how it goes when we are there and which plan would work best.

Sounds like your dad would definitely enjoy FoW. I've never seen it, but our zoo and our state fair have bird shows that sound very similar. Since we've seen those, I don't have FoW on our itinerary, but I need to keep it in mind just in case.

Yeh, I just don't know that we can get it in without almost basically ripping the plan to shreds. So we are in flux about it at this point.

I enjoy reading about all your preparations!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

 

[ArielSRL]

More Clothes and Changes

Ok, so now my mom is saying Dad says we don't need the trailer. Ugh. They need to make up their mind. Of course, I already deleted my prime pantry order. I should've known better and saved it or took screenshots. Oh well.

Also, I was looking at our MK Sunday and noticed that Jungle Cruise made a jump in the predicted wait time. It has been around 7 minutes (as my 3rd attraction after rope drop) but it jumped to 19 minutes. So I just switched it and BTMRR. BT is predicted at 6 minutes regardless of the two slots. I'm going to have to go back through my plans with a fine-tooth comb to see if there are other predicted changes.

Onto more fun stuff. So I got an email that Hot Cash was available to use a day early for email subscribers so I went ahead and ordered 3 more tanks:
What do you guys think??

I ended up not getting a Tink one I considered:

And there is another Star Wars one I want, but they don't have it in my size...so I'll keep watch on it:
And then, here's the dress I decided against:

Like I said, I'll keep watch on the Star Wars one and if they get my size in, I may or may not order it or any of the other two items I mentioned above. Depends on deals, of course. I only needed to order 3 to use my $30 off $60 hot cash, so I just decided no...or more specifically, not yet, on the others.

I'm still keeping an eye out on the Dis Theme Parks Strategies Board (and the Everything FastPass sub board) but now I'm really starting to get into reading more trip reports and watching more vlogs on YouTube. I'm having such a hard time with waiting for this trip! I want it here now! But then I worry that it will go way too fast! Ugh, the struggle is real. HAHA.

Oh and I need to decide how I am going to pay for the last part of what I owe for the trip. I am playing with paying with gift cards from Target with my Redcard (saves 5%) and putting those on a Disney Vacation Acct so I'll get the $20 for paying out $1000. But I guess I'm just waiting because, Heaven forbid, we need to cancel for some type of problem or issue. Our date for paying is fast approaching though so I think I'm just going to go ahead and order the cards.

Ok, so I think that's it for now. I'll be back as soon as there is anything new to report! Thank you all for reading!

 

[Jfsag123]

I love the tanks and the earrings! I so get feeling like the wait for June is getting really hard! I was talking to DH about this yesterday. In the past I was always counting down to some other aspect of planning - resort booking, dining, FP booking - but now, the only thing I'm counting down to is the actual trip and the home stretch feels like it takes forever!

I also feel your struggle with organizing that AK day! I had a similar realization when I recognized that I'd scheduled Garden Grill for breakfast and Chef Mickey's for dinner on the same day - I think 2 meals with Mickey and Pluto in one day is overkill!

As far as the TP change in your Jungle Cruise wait, I honestly would throw that one out. I think TP tends to regularly overestimate waits in the hour after RD (and sometimes underestimate during the crowded period of the day). Jungle Cruise will most likely be a complete walk-on in the first hour. Last year during spring break we were able to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, BTMR, and Splash all as walk-ons within that hour.

 

[ArielSRL]

I love the tanks and the earrings!

I know, right! So cute! Can't wait to wear them all in Disney! I could probably wear them before that, here in GA, but I'll save the debut until Disney and then I'll put them into rotation here at home after the trip...lol.

I so get feeling like the wait for June is getting really hard! I was talking to DH about this yesterday. In the past I was always counting down to some other aspect of planning - resort booking, dining, FP booking - but now, the only thing I'm counting down to is the actual trip and the home stretch feels like it takes forever!

This is exactly how I feel! I have nothing left to plan! So its truly just a waiting game at this point. I'm still reading the Theme Parks Strategies board, but I'm moving towards more trip reports and also watching vlogs on youtube!

I also feel your struggle with organizing that AK day! I had a similar realization when I recognized that I'd scheduled Garden Grill for breakfast and Chef Mickey's for dinner on the same day - I think 2 meals with Mickey and Pluto in one day is overkill!

Like, I could totally blow up the AK plan, but I'm not sure I even want to at this point. *If* we end up getting ROL for our trip, I'm going to change the FP for the character spot to ROL, if I can, so we may just take it off the list at that point.

As far as the TP change in your Jungle Cruise wait, I honestly would throw that one out. I think TP tends to regularly overestimate waits in the hour after RD (and sometimes underestimate during the crowded period of the day). Jungle Cruise will most likely be a complete walk-on in the first hour. Last year during spring break we were able to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, BTMR, and Splash all as walk-ons within that hour.

Good to know. Yeh, I thought it was odd it changed so much. We'll just remain fluid and flexible and know that we are planning to do meeting Mickey, JC, PoTC, and BTMRR before our 10:25 CP ADR. Hopefully we will get all that done, no problem.

Less than 2 months!! Thank goodness I know you are counting down with me! Thanks for reading and commenting!

 

[Jfsag123]

I know, right! So cute! Can't wait to wear them all in Disney! I could probably wear them before that, here in GA, but I'll save the debut until Disney and then I'll put them into rotation here at home after the trip...lol.

Ha! I do the same thing, both with clothes for myself and the kids! I set things aside because I want them to be "new" for Disney, then work them into regular wear rotation after the trip is over.

Like, I could totally blow up the AK plan, but I'm not sure I even want to at this point. *If* we end up getting ROL for our trip, I'm going to change the FP for the character spot to ROL, if I can, so we may just take it off the list at that point.

I was thinking about doing the same with our Kali FP if ROL FP opens up. I don't have any strong desire to ride it, and dropping it might allow us to have time to see Flights of Wonder.

 

[ArielSRL]

I was thinking about doing the same with our Kali FP if ROL FP opens up. I don't have any strong desire to ride it, and dropping it might allow us to have time to see Flights of Wonder.

Mom and I decided we are skipping Kali! Didn't even ask AJ or my dad....lol.

 

[Jfsag123]

Mom and I decided we are skipping Kali! Didn't even ask AJ or my dad....lol.

All of my folks say they want to ride it, but I may have to make an executive decision like you if ROL becomes available. I think they'd prefer the show over the few minute ride if they had any idea about what ROL actually is.

 

[ArielSRL]

Just thought I would stop by to say hi!

Not much to update here, but seriously, can the time pass anymore slowly?? Still working on whether to rent a different, roomier SUV or not. Going to order some Disney gift cards from Target to pay off my part of the trip any day now. My new tanks came today. Got AJ a kid's camera. Used no rush shipping and got a prime pantry credit. We are probably going to do both Prime Pantry and Garden Grocer as we have a coupon for GG and the credit for APP.

I've been watching a bunch of Disney vlogs lately to help pass the time. My favorite is Tom and Sophie (from the UK). I also like The Park Hoppers. There are more but those are my faves thus far.

I may periscope some of our trip (just like going under the sign and the boys seeing the castle type stuff). I don't want to be focused too much on that though.

Ok, I think that's my ramblings for now. I'll be back if there is anything new to report!

 

[ariane37]

OK, I read your whole PTR last night
I think your trip sounds awesome. As much as I LOVE Disney the first thing we must discuss is your new clothing
I ADORE Hot Topic and I'm so glad you found it! I've bought many a thing from there for our last few Disney trips. I don't know if I should be excited about that or not, since it's pretty much a guarantee I'll be buying (and spending) ALOT more The Maleficent tank you recently bought DH actually bought me for Valentines Day, and the Alice one you got I have as a dress (same picture).

Oh and I bought 3 skorts from Academy

Now, these skorts you bought. Are they the pink, black and white bottoms in the picture you posted with the tanks you already have? Or are those just skirts? I love wearing skorts but have a hard time finding ones I like, but whatever those are in our picture are adorable.

As for Flights of Wonder: I know it might be hard fitting it in your schedule but if you can, do it! It's a great show. Speaking of schedules kudos to you for being able to schedule so down to the minute. I've never had the patience to do any more than ADR's, FP's, and figure where we'll head as soon as we get to a park lol. Did a little more for our Thanksgiving trip last year and I'm going to try doing even a little bit more for this year, but no way am I organized enough to do what you've done!

 

[ArielSRL]

OK, I read your whole PTR last night
I think your trip sounds awesome.

Thank you for reading!

As much as I LOVE Disney the first thing we must discuss is your new clothing
I ADORE Hot Topic and I'm so glad you found it! I've bought many a thing from there for our last few Disney trips. I don't know if I should be excited about that or not, since it's pretty much a guarantee I'll be buying (and spending) ALOT more The Maleficent tank you recently bought DH actually bought me for Valentines Day, and the Alice one you got I have as a dress (same picture).

Yes, I'm so happy I found them! I've bought 7 so far from there and *may* buy a few more. My wallet is hurting though! Lol

Now, these skorts you bought. Are they the pink, black and white bottoms in the picture you posted with the tanks you already have? Or are those just skirts? I love wearing skorts but have a hard time finding ones I like, but whatever those are in our picture are adorable.

Yes, the photo is of the skorts from Academy. There are those 3 colors and an orange one. Those were the only ones I found that were long enough. They are actually tennis skorts. I've never done skorts before but I decided I wanted to try it this time. They have them online and they are only like $15 each!

As for Flights of Wonder: I know it might be hard fitting it in your schedule but if you can, do it! It's a great show.

Thanks. I'm going to try!

Speaking of schedules kudos to you for being able to schedule so down to the minute. I've never had the patience to do any more than ADR's, FP's, and figure where we'll head as soon as we get to a park lol. Did a little more for our Thanksgiving trip last year and I'm going to try doing even a little bit more for this year, but no way am I organized enough to do what you've done!

For one - I really loved the planning! Two - I needed something to help pass the time! And three - it was really easy with Touring Plans!

Thanks again for reading and commenting! I need to read your most recent one. I added it to my watch list but I've been sucked into these vlogs lately. I'd love to do Club Villain...just not in the cards this trip. Maybe next year's trip with my hubs. We'll do a kids club one night and have date night at Disney!

 

[ariane37]

Just an FYI, I went ahead and ordered 2 of those Academy skorts I can't wait to get them! I'll wear them all summer but will also most definitely take them to WDW in Nov. and as long as they fit I'll order the other colors lol!

 

[ArielSRL]

Just an FYI, I went ahead and ordered 2 of those Academy skorts I can't wait to get them! I'll wear them all summer but will also most definitely take them to WDW in Nov. and as long as they fit I'll order the other colors lol!

Yay! I'm so glad I was able to help!

 

[ArielSRL]

Updated AK Plans as of 4/22

Ok, so by now most of you probably know that AK has extended hours for my trip. And some of the nighttime FP have become available, though not really anything useful to me. I have been trying to get Flights of Wonder into the plan and this gave me a great opportunity to do so. So I moved some things around and got it in the plan. I also changed our EE FP to 7:30-8:30p (the latest time currently available) but I plan to change it to 8-9p or 9:30-10:30p based on different scenarios. I also plan to change our KS FP to either 8:30-9:30p or 9-10p.

Basically, I need to know when Jungle Book will be showing. If I go by the rumored times of ROL, the first show would be at 8:30p...which would fit in with KS at 8:30-9:30p (doing it after the show) and EE at 9:30-10:30p (doing it right at 9:30 or right after KS, whichever is later) and then probably heading out after that, based on how everyone feels. However, Jungle Book could very well start at 9p (like F!) due to sunset not being until 8:45ish. I think ROL was 8:30p because there was a plan to have 3 shows and it would've needed to start at 8:30 to fit them in. I have no idea if there will be 3 JB shows, and if not, they could easily start at 9. If that's the case, I would need my FP to be EE 8-9p (get that in before the show starts) and KS 9-10p to do after the end of the JB show. Ugh. I hate the guesswork!

In any case, I'll post my reworked plan below. I changed my FP in my plans to reflect the EE one at 7:30-8:30 and then to a KS one at 8:30-9:30 even though I do not have that one yet. I just wanted to see what it did to my KS at RD but it only changed the predicted wait time from 1 min to 3 min....

So that's it for now. I'll let you all how it ends up playing out, *if* Disney loads the rest of the nighttime FP into the system, and *if* they ever post the show times for JB. Ugh.

Oh and they announced Soarin for June 17th so I kind of washed my hands of it....but now there are still rumors of it opening early with the old movie. I've heard soft openings with no FP and I've heard FP...so who knows. And Frozen in June (uh....when in June?). Again, more uncertainty. I know we will have a great time, regardless, but all this stress is not good for the planner!

Thanks, in advance, for reading and replying!

 

[Jfsag123]

OMG, I so hear you on the stress of the unknowns! It's nice to have one cleared up in the form of the formal announcement of the opening date for new Soarin', but there's still so much! I'm thinking of moving our AK fastpasses later too, but like you am wondering about timing and availability for the JB show. And the parks blog (I think it was in a response in the comments?) said that they would provide info about showtimes and FP for the JB show on May 20th (!!). That is a long time to wait and I'm worried that the FP times I will want may be long gone by the time they announce. I guess we'll find out. Regardless, we're going to Disney and it will be awesome! It's what I keep telling myself when I start to feel the stress

 

[ArielSRL]

OMG, I so hear you on the stress of the unknowns! It's nice to have one cleared up in the form of the formal announcement of the opening date for new Soarin', but there's still so much! I'm thinking of moving our AK fastpasses later too, but like you am wondering about timing and availability for the JB show. And the parks blog (I think it was in a response in the comments?) said that they would provide info about showtimes and FP for the JB show on May 20th (!!). That is a long time to wait and I'm worried that the FP times I will want may be long gone by the time they announce. I guess we'll find out. Regardless, we're going to Disney and it will be awesome! It's what I keep telling myself when I start to feel the stress

Yes, I feel like I have to guess right now and I'm sure I'll guess wrong. I guess it would be better for us if they held the release of KS late night FP until they announce show times for JB....but that would make too much sense so I'm sure they won't. Haha

 

[ariane37]

I feel bad for all you guys going in May and even June! Still many unknowns, but at least stuff is coming about little by little. I am jealous you'll get to see the Jungle Book show though! It's one of my favorite movies and I've always wished there was more JB in the parks somewhere besides the M&G with King Louie and Baloo. As much as I want to see RoL when we go in Nov., I don't think I'd be TOO disappointed if this JB thing was still there instead - as long as it doesn't suck lol. Or maybe I can be really optimistic that they do something like, 2 RoL shows a night instead of the suggested 3, with a JB show in between?
Yeah, Nah...........