1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 kids - will we be sane?

[Donald is #1]

I would trust AllEarsNet. In my experience they've always been right on.

And congrats on the ADRs. Makes it seem all the more real, no?

It definitely does. This is my first time actually making my ADRs at 180 days so it was definitely different, but it was really nice to be able to make all of my ADRs on the same day instead of calling every day. We were actually able to get all our adrs with 30 minutes of our desired time. So it is definitely nice being able to pretty much just pick a time and find that the restaurant has an opening.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi! Not too much going on with respect to this trip, but I have started a trip report for the trip that I just completed. Concierge Level Here We Come

 

[Donald is #1]

Guess what? I finally have something to update for this trip!

The hours were finally posted this week for November and here is what we have found:

Saturday:
- AM EMH at DHS (Yeah!)
- However DHS closes at 7 PM
- MK is open until 10 PM (Yeah?)

Sunday:
- PM EMH at MK (Yeah!)
- MK open until 10 (Yeah!)

Monday:
- PM EMH at DHS (possibly Yeah!)

So what does this mean to us?
1) It means that we guessed right on going to MK on Sunday evening
2) Saturday evening now has multiple options

DSis and I were talking about our options for Saturday night and here is the list that I have come up with.

1) Go to Fantasmic at 7:00 PM and then have an early night and head back to the resort
2) Go to MK for the evening. This will give us the possibility of getting in a few more MK rides
3) Spend the evening at the resort, maybe eat at Boma, listen to the African story teller


Currently, I am leaning towards option 2 so that we can get some more MK time.

 

[If U Had Wings]

You can always see what everyone is up for that night. If everyone is still gung ho for more parks you can hit MK, but if they are petering out going back to the lodge.

One of these days I want to get back over to AKL at night so I can enjoy a little of what they offer there. The one time I stayed there we had so little time I didn't get to enjoy anything at the resort.

 

[Donald is #1]

You can always see what everyone is up for that night. If everyone is still gung ho for more parks you can hit MK, but if they are petering out going back to the lodge.

One of these days I want to get back over to AKL at night so I can enjoy a little of what they offer there. The one time I stayed there we had so little time I didn't get to enjoy anything at the resort.

Good point for Saturday night, in reality unless we decide that we want to eat at Boma that night, we can decide that day. Of course I could always make a reservation and then cancel it if we decide to not use it.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

1) Go to Fantasmic at 7:00 PM and then have an early night and head back to the resort
2) Go to MK for the evening. This will give us the possibility of getting in a few more MK rides
3) Spend the evening at the resort, maybe eat at Boma, listen to the African story teller

I agree that you should wait and see how you're feeling, but my vote would always be for #2. I heart the MK.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone! Will Disney updated the special events calendar for November and it looks like we lucked out and SSW will be the weekend after our trip. This is great because it means the lines at DHS will be much shorter.

However, we weren't so lucky on the Osborne Lights. They won't be starting until Nov 28. So we won't be able to see them on this trip. Oh well, they would just have been a bonus.

 

[Donald is #1]

So our ADRs are:

Friday: Chef Mickey 6:20 PM


Saturday: 50's Prime Time Cafe noon

Monday: Spoodles 7:10 PM

DSis and I have been talking about our last morning in WDW and we have been toying with getting breakfast at either Kona or Boma. Well, we discussed it some more this week and decided ....... Cape May Cafe! So now we can have 2 character meals. I called this morning and it was very easy to get a reservation for our desired time. Our ADRs now are:

Friday: Chef Mickey 6:20 PM

Saturday: 50's Prime Time Cafe noon

Monday: Spoodles 7:10 PM

Tuesday: Cape May Cafe 9 AM

Next thing to ponder.... should we get some matching shirts????

 

[Donald is #1]

If you remember (at least I think that I posted this ), I gave the kids homework to figure out the 2 attractions that they wanted most to see in each park. My reason was that since we only had 3 park days, I wanted to make sure that we went on their top choice attractions. Well, this week they picked their attractions. It will be interesting to see if they change their minds before we go.


MK: (Note we only have 1 evening or maybe 2 here)

Pluto: 1. Buzz Lightyear
2. Space Mountain
Alt. Jungle Cruise

Belle: 1. Splash Mountain
2. Big Thunder Mountain
Alt. Goofy's Barnstormer

Me & DSis: Wishes <- This is the one must do for MK for this trip



DHS:
Pluto: 1. Star Tours
2. Indiana Jones
Alt. Animation Courtyard/Attraction

Belle: 1. Great Movie Ride
2. Tower of Terror <- This really surprised me sine neither kid went on it 2 years ago
Alt. Indiana Jones

Me: 1. Toy Story Mania
2. Muppets 3D


EPCOT:
Pluto: 1. Mission Space
2. Soaring
Alt. Japan

Belle: 1. Soaring
2. Test Track

Me & DSis: 1. Living with the Land
2. Visit some of the countries


AK:
Pluto: 1. EE
2. Kilimajaro Safari
Alt. Primevil Whirl

Belle: 1. EE
2. Kali River Rapids
Alt. Boneyard


Me: 1. Maharajah Jungle Trek
2. Pangani Forest Trail

 

[swwake]

Yay! So does that mean your plan will be to do both first and 2nd choice of each kid and yourself, then fill in the blanks with any extra time you have? I'm glad they had some matches.

 

[Donald is #1]

Yay! So does that mean your plan will be to do both first and 2nd choice of each kid and yourself, then fill in the blanks with any extra time you have? I'm glad they had some matches.

That's it exactly. For AK, DHS, and EPCOT, we will do the kids top choices, plus my/DSis's list and then fill in with whatever else we can.

For MK, we have much less time (for the new readers that is because the kids didn't pick it - I let them each pick a park) so we will go for the tose p choices and then see if we can fit in the second choice.

This method stems from the methodology that I have developed for my visits to the parks. I don't want to use a strict touring plan and I am getting too old to run across the park too many times. So I have found that for me psychologically, if I decide on my park highlights and then treat everything else as gravy, I don't feel disappointed that I didn't see everything.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, when I was with DSis and the kids a week or 2 ago, I came up with a rule for the trip. First the background: Whenever DSis, the kids and I go out to eat, Belle all ways yells " I'm sitting next to Aunt Donald is #1". Pluto is normally quiet and by now he knows that that means he is sitting next to Mom. Pluto is a fairly quiet kid so I don't know if it bothers him or not. When we are at a table that I can sit between the kids, I always do that because I don't want Pluto to feel bad that he never sits next to me. (Of course I don't know if he cares or not. )

Anyways, based on these experiences, I want to make sure that Pluto doesn't feel left out. (DSis, am I just being paraniod?) So the rule that I gave the kids is that we are going to take turns on who sits next to who. Hopefully, DSis and I can remember the rotation once we are at the parks. I am hoping that this will give me a chance to enjoy a ride with Pluto and DSis can enjoy a ride with Belle. Thinking about it, I think that we will also extend it to our meals there.

I also told the kids, that if they wanted they could sit together on most of the rides and DSis and I would sit together. Well you should of seen the look on Pluto's face . It was priceless! Apparently, sitting with his sister is not an 11 year old boy's idea of vacation.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, a couple of nights ago, I decided to check out the Southwest prices for this trip to see how much lower they were than the price the I paid for Jet Blue. Well much to my surprise, the Southwest prices for this trip would have been $440 per person which is the same as my ridiculously high Jet Blue price! Then I went over to Jet Blue and found that the current prices for the flight that we have are $500 per person.

Boy, I am so glad that I booked the airline tickets in May when the Jet Blue dates were released and didn't wait for the SW date release.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Well, when I was with DSis and the kids a week or 2 ago, I came up with a rule for the trip. First the background: Whenever DSis, the kids and I go out to eat, Belle all ways yells " I'm sitting next to Aunt Donald is #1". Pluto is normally quiet and by now he knows that that means he is sitting next to Mom. Pluto is a fairly quiet kid so I don't know if it bothers him or not. When we are at a table that I can sit between the kids, I always do that because I don't want Pluto to feel bad that he never sits next to me. (Of course I don't know if he cares or not. )

Anyways, based on these experiences, I want to make sure that Pluto doesn't feel left out. (DSis, am I just being paraniod?) So the rule that I gave the kids is that we are going to take turns on who sits next to who. Hopefully, DSis and I can remember the rotation once we are at the parks. I am hoping that this will give me a chance to enjoy a ride with Pluto and DSis can enjoy a ride with Belle. Thinking about it, I think that we will also extend it to our meals there.

We had to make some similar rules for our trip. Neither of the nieces is exactly quiet, but we have to be sure they both get equal time with everyone or we get attitudes.

Well, a couple of nights ago, I decided to check out the Southwest prices for this trip to see how much lower they were than the price the I paid for Jet Blue. Well much to my surprise, the Southwest prices for this trip would have been $440 per person which is the same as my ridiculously high Jet Blue price! Then I went over to Jet Blue and found that the current prices for the flight that we have are $500 per person.

Boy, I am so glad that I booked the airline tickets in May when the Jet Blue dates were released and didn't wait for the SW date release.

Wow those prices are so high! What a good thing you booked when you did.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi! Well the AP discount rates came out this week and at first I didn't change because the Pop AP rate was actually more than my current rate. But then I did some more looking and I was able to get a woods view room at WL. Now what is the advantage of WL over Pop when this is only for 1 short night? Well 2 words - Queen beds! So even though it costs more to stay at WL and we won't arrive until midnight or so, I decided to change to WL for the first night so that we could have larger beds.

I did think about booking a bunk bed room which would have meant that the kids would have the bunk beds and DSis and I would share the queen, but the more I thought about it, I decided that DSis and I would have more room if we did the room with 2 queen beds.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Now what is the advantage of WL over Pop when this is only for 1 short night? Well 2 words - Queen beds! So even though it costs more to stay at WL and we won't arrive until midnight or so, I decided to change to WL for the first night so that we could have larger beds.

Ah yes. The bigger bed. BF and I have a queen now and we groan when we have to share anything smaller than that. We've even had the "Should we buy a King?" talk considering the kitties like to cuddle (read: start all snuggled up with us and end all stretched out and in possession of 3/4 of the bed space).

Yay for bigger beds and the WL, even if it is just one night!

 

[Donald is #1]

We've even had the "Should we buy a King?" talk considering the kitties like to cuddle (read: start all snuggled up with us and end all stretched out and in possession of 3/4 of the bed space).

Yay for bigger beds and the WL, even if it is just one night!

I know exactly what you mean! I upgraded to a queen size bed at home in January and I think Daisy gets more of the bed than I do.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I was reading my email tonight and National just announced their fall discounts. So I was able to modify our rental car reservation to save $35.00 on the same size car that we had reserved!

I used a $30 off a weekly rental coupon and with the fee difference from the reduced cost, it added another $5 off.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, a couple of days ago, I saw a thread about Jet Blue changing some of their flights in December. So I went on-line and checked both my November and December reservations. Well my December flights are about the same as when I booked. However, I noticed that our November flight to Orlando was changed to about 40 minutes later! Well, if you remember, we had a late flight time and with this change, we probably won't be getting to the resort until about 1 AM!

Now go foward a couple of days to last night. The same thread mentioned that someone foudn out that the their flight wasn't cancelled, its time was just changed to an evening flight. So DSis was reading this and she found out that the new evening non-stop flight is at 7:30. (Our original flight time was 7:55, the new one was about 8:40.) The new flight is also slightly more expensive than our current one.

So this afternoon, I called Jet Blue and in my most innocent voice, mentioned that I saw that my flight time had changed and the there was now a flight that was much closer to my orginal flight time than my current one. So the agent asked if I wanted to change to the earlier flight. I responded that yes, if it wouldn't cost me too much, I would prefer to change. So she put me on hold for a few minutes and when she came back she said that yes she can move us. So she moved us to the earlier flight and it didn't cost us anything. So now, we will land about 10:40 which should put us at the resort about midnight!

 

[Donald is #1]

I am looking for opions here: I am comtemplating either having a gift basket delivered for each of the kids or having some type of food item delivered to the room. I was looking at the baskets by feralpig and I did come up with a selection for both Belle and Pluto. However, I have also seen posts of people getting chocolate covered strawberries or cookies delivered to their room at AKL. So now I am debating over which one to do. If I do the gift baskets, then I can personallize one for each kid. However, if I get the food, then we can also enjoy it. Opinions please?


On pin trading, if you remember, I was debating about whether we were going to do any pin trading during the trip. I finally decided to not pin trade since I was concerned about the time it would take when we only have a few days. Well, yesterday, I met with DSis, Pluto and Belle and I found out that Pluto decided that he wanted to trade some of his pins. So I guess that we will be pin trading after all!