ª"˜˜ª¤.¸Official Team August 2013 Thread!¸.¤ª˜˜"ª&#9733

[Disney Commando]

Rooms should be ready by 3 or 4 at the latest and you need to check out by 11 on your last day. I am fairly certain it is the same for all resorts. During slower times, you can sometimes get into your room much earlier, but if it's not ready, they will text you when it is ready. If you want to swim, or head to the parks, just make sure you have what you need in your carry on. Anything else can be left with bell services..

We always do the online checkin since we usually arrive around 10am, I put that down as checkin time so far the room has always been ready for us at All Star Movies

 

[pigletto]

I just got an email from Priceline that they would add $5 to any bid I made for any hotel so I made a $45 bid for an MCO area hotel for the last night of our August trip and got the Orlando Airport Marriott again
We also bid but paid a bit more for it for the last night of our upcoming February trip.
It's a nice hotel and super close to the airport so very convenient for us to sleep there the night before and take our early flight home.
We have been ending our trips at Universal and check out on the Sunday. That still gives us Front of the Line access for the whole day and then we'll head to the Marriott to sleep saving ourselves from paying another $200 or more to stay another night at Universal.
It really only works if you have a car though and we'll return it that night so we don't pay parking fees at the Marriott. They have a free shuttle to and from MCO and it's less than 5 minutes away.

One caution with Priceline is that they only guarantee a room for 2 so you could end up in a King Bedroom but A) this has never happened to me in all of my Priceline stays, I just call ahead of time and request 2 Queens and B) even if it did, we always have our roll up air mattress for when the kids won't share a bed so dd would use that and our little guy could share the King with us for the night.

Just thought I'd mention in it in here for anyone looking for an airport hotel because we have stayed in places that weren't as nice as the Marriott for a lot more money.

 

[carrie6466]

We usually get a flight that gets us into Orlando around 10:30 am and a flight out around 8:00 pm, so we do parks on both arrival and departure days. On our last day we usually make a lunch ADR around 1 and head back to the hotel around 3 for a Magical Express pick up anywhere between 4 and 5. If we are too early for bus, we just hang around.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I have a Question for the Day...Why August? Is it the best time for your family, the price, or just tradition?

We like the last week of August for several reasons. Price is always a factor (our money goes further during value season), our DS misses no school (he's super dedicated to both his academics and his high school sports teams, so vacationing during the school year is not possible), its the best time to be the least disruptive to DS's part time job (he works at the YMCA in the youth department, and their summer camps are typically slower that final week of summer), and ........

........its just a wonderful ending to summer vacation.

 

[krd315]

I have a Question for the Day...Why August? Is it the best time for your family, the price, or just tradition?

School schedule...Texas has a very strict attendance policy and my dgd's school enforces it

On the plus side we are going the week before school starts with free dining! (bounceback offer from Sept)

 

[minniemouse803]

I will be going on my honeymoon to Disney and we are sooooo excited! We are staying August 5-10 at the Poly. My fiancée and I have been to Disney 3-4 times each growing up but it will be our first time together! I made my ADRs last week--Victoria & Albert's, Be Our Guest, Monsieur Paul's, Flying Fish Cafe, Aloha Dinner Show, Sci Fi Drive In, Tusker House, Liberty Tree Tavern, San Angel Inn, and 1900 Park Fare breakfast. We can't wait!!

 

[KSL]

Yesterday was the day I could finally book my ADRs. Yay!
I had read on the Dis that onlike booking wasn't giving the +10 days, so I didn't even bother trying to do it online (though I loved doing it that way in the past) and just called. I dialed at 7:05am and on hold for about 25 minutes. I just about had the music and "all aboard" message memorized!
We have some good friends who will be at WDW during our trip, so we had 3 reservations we wanted to do all together, making us a party of 9. And where do we want to eat? Yup, Be Our Guest (on a Saturday; are weekends more crowded!?). Plus we wanted to do the Fantasmic dinner package, and also a breakfast at Tusker House. I was mildly concerned how this would go booking for a party of 9, but was hopeful that by calling so far out that we could have good chances of getting something, even if not at our ideal times. We did! We had to take BoG earlier than we wanted (4:55), but it's fine and this way we will certainly be done in plenty of time for evening parade and fireworks, which is important to our friends as its the only night they will be at MK. The reservations for just our family (5) were no problem, though I was surprised Via Napoli seemed to be "harder" at my +9 day (further out; how many people could have booked it yet!?) and we had to move our time by 45 min from what we wanted, which was the biggest adjustment from our preferred time for all the ressies, including as the group of 9! No problem at all, jit ust surprised me. About half our ADRs are exactly the times we wanted. Yay!
Now today I will see if I can get these all linked to my reservation online. I know this has been an adventure for many people, so I'm setting aside an hour or so to try to figure this out! Hopefully it will go smoothly.
Sorry this got so long -- I wanted to give you all my experience as I know many of you will be calling soon.
Pixie dust to all of you with getting the ADRs you want!!

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Now today I will see if I can get these all linked to my reservation online. I know this has been an adventure for many people, so I'm setting aside an hour or so to try to figure this out! Hopefully it will go smoothly.

Thanks for all the info!

The website has continued to give me big problems, including showing that I was checking into two different resorts on the same day under the same reservation number. I contacted them through chat, but had to disconnect while they were getting information for me because it was taking too long. However, they must have passed my problems along because the double-reservation issue was fixed the next day. I still can't make payments on the new website, but at least I can navigate to the payment page on the old website (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/reservations/). It's still a work in progress, but at least they've made some progress!

 

[minniemouse803]

Does anyone know when booking opens up for the Tommorrowland Terrace Dessert Party for August?

 

[pigletto]

Does anyone know when booking opens up for the Tommorrowland Terrace Dessert Party for August?

I don't know for sure because we've never done it..but I do know that dates for the first week of March just opened last week so it seems as though they leave it pretty late!

 

[mrstomrice]

What time can we get into our rooms when we arrive? What time do we have to be out by on the last day? Is it different for each resort?

Although 4 is the check in time, we have been really lucky with getting our room early. We arrived at 9 am at Christmas time and we had a room by 10:30. We have never had to wait til 4 as far as I remember

 

[mrstomrice]

Yesterday was the day I could finally book my ADRs. Yay!
I had read on the Dis that onlike booking wasn't giving the +10 days, so I didn't even bother trying to do it online (though I loved doing it that way in the past) and just called. I dialed at 7:05am and on hold for about 25 minutes. I just about had the music and "all aboard" message memorized!
We have some good friends who will be at WDW during our trip, so we had 3 reservations we wanted to do all together, making us a party of 9. And where do we want to eat? Yup, Be Our Guest (on a Saturday; are weekends more crowded!?). Plus we wanted to do the Fantasmic dinner package, and also a breakfast at Tusker House. I was mildly concerned how this would go booking for a party of 9, but was hopeful that by calling so far out that we could have good chances of getting something, even if not at our ideal times. We did! We had to take BoG earlier than we wanted (4:55), but it's fine and this way we will certainly be done in plenty of time for evening parade and fireworks, which is important to our friends as its the only night they will be at MK. The reservations for just our family (5) were no problem, though I was surprised Via Napoli seemed to be "harder" at my +9 day (further out; how many people could have booked it yet!?) and we had to move our time by 45 min from what we wanted, which was the biggest adjustment from our preferred time for all the ressies, including as the group of 9! No problem at all, jit ust surprised me. About half our ADRs are exactly the times we wanted. Yay!
Now today I will see if I can get these all linked to my reservation online. I know this has been an adventure for many people, so I'm setting aside an hour or so to try to figure this out! Hopefully it will go smoothly.
Sorry this got so long -- I wanted to give you all my experience as I know many of you will be calling soon.
Pixie dust to all of you with getting the ADRs you want!!

Congrats! Mine were all linked for me already after a few hours on My Disney Experience.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Although 4 is the check in time, we have been really lucky with getting our room early. We arrived at 9 am at Christmas time and we had a room by 10:30. We have never had to wait til 4 as far as I remember

We, too, have had good success getting rooms around 10am. There was only one time when it was 3pm and we still had not been notified about our room being ready. When we went back to the resort to ask, they said they were still waiting on a handicap room to become available. We were quite shocked, since we never requested that room type, and they had no idea how it got added to our reservation. Other than that, we love arriving early and getting settled in early!

 

[Loreli]

Thursday Night's
Question of the Day
How do you snack at Disney?
Are you planning to bring snacks or are you having them shipped to your room?
Do you haul them in a back pack into the parks?
Do you use up all of your snack credits on the dinning plan?
Any snacking tips to share with the group?

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Thursday Night's
Question of the Day
How do you snack at Disney?
Are you planning to bring snacks or are you having them shipped to your room?
Do you haul them in a back pack into the parks?
Do you use up all of your snack credits on the dinning plan?
Any snacking tips to share with the group?

We don't bring any snacks with us or into the park. We always use our snack credits or spend extra money on a treat while we're there. When we're at Disney, part of the fun is eating new treats or old favorites from the parks themselves. Bringing goldfish or other snacks from home just isn't as fun!

 

[misstdiana]

I am new here but I have been stalking the site for a LONG time. Our first Disney trip was in 2010 with my military son and dil and we stayed off site at champions gate(something like that) Last August we booked a vacation package at pop for little less than a week. DDP, we loved it so much I even added on an extra day at the end.

Anyhoo this year I am planning a vacation for August 4-11, 2013 and planning to stay at AoA, it isn't booked yet but I am working on it as I am deciding between a TA or myself and am really hoping for a pin code or free dining.
Please add me to the list. I am going to ask to join the facebook group, please and thank you my name for facebook is Diane Terrell, thanks.

 

[chuckinthechat]

Thursday Night's
Question of the Day
How do you snack at Disney?
Are you planning to bring snacks or are you having them shipped to your room?
Do you haul them in a back pack into the parks?
Do you use up all of your snack credits on the dinning plan?
Any snacking tips to share with the group?

I haven't quite decided yet. I am thinking about getting stuff from garden grocer like water and pop tarts Etc to just make it easier.

As far as snack credits I plan on using all of mine while on the dining plan!

 

[krd315]

Our airfare is now booked and I can reserve our ADR's in 5 days!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Thursday Night's
Question of the Day
How do you snack at Disney?
Are you planning to bring snacks or are you having them shipped to your room?
Do you haul them in a back pack into the parks?
Do you use up all of your snack credits on the dinning plan?
Any snacking tips to share with the group?

We are offsiters, so no dining plan for us. We did the dining plan on our first Disney trip, but it didn't fit our normal eating style, so I doubt we would do it again even if we ever consider another onsite trip (which won't be until DS is grown and in his own room ).

We have a two bedroom, two bathroom villa at Sheraton Vistana. Since we have a full kitchen, we will do a grocery stop for an assortment of breakfast and snack items. We usually hit a Walmart and doing one big shopping spree, letting everyone pick out some yummy things that they want to have on hand for the week ahead. Being Canadians, we often find some fun stuff on the American Walmart shelves that we can't get at home....the stuff we see advertised on TV stations from "down south".

The snacks, though, will be for when we are at the resort only. We don't take any with us to the attractions we visit (with the exception of some frozen water bottles......its hot in the summer, so we always take a few of those in the rental vehicle with us). If we want snacks at any of the attractions, we will purchase them out of pocket.

Looking forward to trying the sand pail and the mini donuts at the waterparks!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

I will be going on my honeymoon to Disney and we are sooooo excited! We are staying August 5-10 at the Poly. My fiancée and I have been to Disney 3-4 times each growing up but it will be our first time together! I made my ADRs last week--Victoria & Albert's, Be Our Guest, Monsieur Paul's, Flying Fish Cafe, Aloha Dinner Show, Sci Fi Drive In, Tusker House, Liberty Tree Tavern, San Angel Inn, and 1900 Park Fare breakfast. We can't wait!!

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!! You got some great ADR's there!!

Yesterday was the day I could finally book my ADRs. Yay!
I had read on the Dis that onlike booking wasn't giving the +10 days, so I didn't even bother trying to do it online (though I loved doing it that way in the past) and just called. I dialed at 7:05am and on hold for about 25 minutes. I just about had the music and "all aboard" message memorized!
We have some good friends who will be at WDW during our trip, so we had 3 reservations we wanted to do all together, making us a party of 9. And where do we want to eat? Yup, Be Our Guest (on a Saturday; are weekends more crowded!?). Plus we wanted to do the Fantasmic dinner package, and also a breakfast at Tusker House. I was mildly concerned how this would go booking for a party of 9, but was hopeful that by calling so far out that we could have good chances of getting something, even if not at our ideal times. We did! We had to take BoG earlier than we wanted (4:55), but it's fine and this way we will certainly be done in plenty of time for evening parade and fireworks, which is important to our friends as its the only night they will be at MK. The reservations for just our family (5) were no problem, though I was surprised Via Napoli seemed to be "harder" at my +9 day (further out; how many people could have booked it yet!?) and we had to move our time by 45 min from what we wanted, which was the biggest adjustment from our preferred time for all the ressies, including as the group of 9! No problem at all, jit ust surprised me. About half our ADRs are exactly the times we wanted. Yay!
Now today I will see if I can get these all linked to my reservation online. I know this has been an adventure for many people, so I'm setting aside an hour or so to try to figure this out! Hopefully it will go smoothly.
Sorry this got so long -- I wanted to give you all my experience as I know many of you will be calling soon.
Pixie dust to all of you with getting the ADRs you want!!

Glad you were able to get your ADRs by calling. I guess I should plan to call next week in case the website is still acting up.

Does anyone know when booking opens up for the Tommorrowland Terrace Dessert Party for August?

Someone will probably start a watch thread in the next few months. Keep an eye out for it and subscribe. Then you will get notified when they open up.