We got our flights!!!!!!!!!!! I was really leaning towards Priceline. I had even gone so far as to place bids. Yes, I said BIDS. I started low, because that is what any smart person would do, right??? Well apparently, Priceline said, “You’re an idiot!” I upp’ed my bid FOUR times and added in three airports, different times of day, AND changed my departure date. NO GO. I finally gave up. Decided I would just keep tracking the flight prices through Yapta. (How come I never knew about this site before???)
Finally, after about a week, there was light shining through the dark clouds of $515 tickets. There was a flight for $350! And there were several time options. AND they were decent times! Okay, SOLD. It flies out of Phoenix and we kinda wanted to fly out of Mesa (a little closer to home), but who can complain about that??? I had the option of leaving at 5:00am or 10:15am. We chose 10. (If it were only up to me I would have picked 5!) We do have a layover of about an hour in Houston, but I can handle that. On the way home, we leave Orlando at 4:15 and have a slightly longer layover in Houston (again) of 3 hours (YUCK), but still, we will handle that too.
I bought the tickets then and there!!! So now we are set. Flights, condo(s) – both, and all we have left to purchase are the park tickets.
The calendars are out and I have been frantically getting our days in order before my 180 day marks come up. (I have to call at each one since we are off-siters) I don’t have many ADRs planned, but want to make sure we get what we want. I was excitedly awaiting Josh’s (EasyWDW) calendar to see if what I had planned would work or not according to him. For the most part, it seemed okay, there are a couple days that go completely against what he says. Let me know what you think:
10/3 – Arrival. We get in at 7:05. Plan to get car, eat and go to WBC.
10/4 – Bkfst at Kona Café. DTD day. Grocery Shopping, Resort Day. No park this day.
10/5 – Epcot. Yes I know it’s Food and Wine. Yes I know it’s Sat. Yes, I am crazy. But is our tradition to start here. So there. Kidding! Plan to go a rope drop. Lunch at Via Napoli. What we get to, we get to, what we don’t, we don’t.
10/6 – AK – Hope to see as much as we can today as it is only day we plan to go here. Also, we check out of WBC and into Sheraton Vistana Resort this day. NO ADRs planned.
10/7 – MK – Another day against Josh. Full day planned here. No ADRs planned. Do what we can. Leave when we want.
10/8 – Blizzard Beach. Can do MK after if we want. Dinner planned at House of Blues in DTD
10/9 – HS. Only day planned here. Hope to do as much as we can here this day.
10/10 – MK - 2nd go round at this park. Still debating on
MNSSHP…Not sure if we want to drop the cash for it….
10/11 – Epcot – Yep, crazy me. Planning a Friday too for this park.
10/12 – Free Day. To do what we have missed (or do again)
10/13 – Departure Day ☹ - We have until about 1:00 to do what we want this day. Need to be at airport about 2ish.
Well, what do you think? We are definitely rope drop people. Early to bed, early to rise types. Am I really crazy to go against what so many people say and do Epcot on Sat? Our kids are older, so waiting in lines is not always a terrible thing. We are building in A LOT of rest time as we all need it. Our normal lives are BUSY, so a go, go, go trip is not necessarily what we were wanting.
Okay enough rambling….Back to my binder (pics coming soon – I am not ashamed of my planning and research) and my spreadsheets!