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

[Donald is #1]

Well, I was talking to DSis on Saturday and since the kids will be having milk or juice for breakfast, we decided it doesn't make sense to get mugs for them. DSis also spoke with a friend of hers and her friend said that she doesn't get mugs for her kids since the kids meals tend to come with drinks.

So, 1/2 of our decision is made. At most, we will only get 2 mugs. Now bad person that I am, I tend to drink diet coke for breakfast. So I will probably get the mug and then give it to one of the kids at the end. This means that DSis will have to deal with it her kitchen.

Let's admit it... How many WDW resort mugs do you really need at home? I currently have 2 from last year sitting on my counter. Plus I should have 2 more from previous years floating around my kitchen somewhere.

 

[Donald is #1]

This is totally off topic but oh well.

Anyways, my current dilemna is whether to add on more points at AKV. I just joined the DVC last May and my original plan was to get enough points for a long week (8-10 days). Well, then I saw the models of the 1 bedrooms and decided that they are just so much cooler (!) than the studios: separate living room, washer & dryer, jetted tub, the list just keeps going on. Anyways, I bought my initial points and decided that I needed a few more points for 8-10 days depending upon when I go. I also decided that I would probably do a small add-on each year until I eventually had enough for a 1 bedroom. So that was in May '07. By June, they announced the double developers points incentive. Hmmm, maybe I will do an add-on early. Well you needed 100 points for the add-on. So guess what, 1.5 months after my initial purchase, I added on 100 points. So I was basically 2/3 of the way through my planned add-ons. I took the developer's points that I got and booked a 2 bedroom villa for myself and my sisters for a long weekend in Oct. ('06).

Well here it is less than 1 year since joining and an inheritance just came through. So now I am debating using a portion of it for that last add-on. (It is the last add-on, right? ) So my debate is:
1) Add-on now, this will give me enough points to convert my Dec '08 trip to a 1 bedroom without borrowing points from '09 -- it is a 10 night trip
2) Wait until I have at least 1 or 2 of my '08 trips under my belt so that I can have more experience with DVC plus see how the economy is going.
3) Give up on the additional points for the AKV and wait until I can check out BCV and BWV. Then decide which one of those that I would like to have some points at for F&W.
Such decisions! Any comments would be welcome.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I am still osciallating on my next add-on. I just posted a poll on one of the DVC boards to get opinions. But the more that I think about it and talk to DSis, I think that I am leaning towards a BCV add-on. But who knows?

 

[Donald is #1]

On the character meal side, I am leaning more and more towards Chef Mickeys for dinner on our arrival day. The comments that I have seen on dinner there have been positive plus their menu has chicken fingers for Belle plus lots of other things for the rest of us.

 

[OhMari]

Mugs-(Just bring your old ones-you didn't hear that from me).

I stayed at the BWI, I rented points from an owner. The place is very nice and it is easier to get the time you want at the BWI. The BC is a smaller place and it is hard to get in there, plus it takes more points to stay there.

The BC has a better pool, than the BWI.

 

[Donald is #1]

Mugs-(Just bring your old ones-you didn't hear that from me).

I stayed at the BWI, I rented points from an owner. The place is very nice and it is easier to get the time you want at the BWI. The BC is a smaller place and it is hard to get in there, plus it takes more points to stay there.

The BC has a better pool, than the BWI.

Excellent points! How were the buses at BWI to AK & MK? I have stayed at the Yacht Club once and if I remember correctly it shared buses with the other Epcot resorts.

 

[stagemomx3]

How about only buying two mugs?

 

[Donald is #1]

How about only buying two mugs?

That's actually the dway we are currently leaning. Particularly since we probably should give the kids something besides soda for breakfast! However, I read on another thread that some resorts have some type of juice on their beverage bar.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well I was talking to DSis last night and she said that she had sat down with the kids and they confirmed their park selections. So Pluto choose Hollywood Studios and Belle choose EPCOT. DSis asked them if they would be ok if they didn't go to MK and they said yes. Now it is time for my selection. DSis & I talked about it some more I think that we are going to try to go to AK and then that evening go to MK so that we can at least see the fireworks. We also decided on Chef Mickey for dinner. So as of now, our itinerary is:

Friday: Arrive, spend afternoon at AKL, Chef Mickey's for dinner
Saturday: EPCOT, though it may be crowded because it will be the last weekend of F&WF.
Sunday: AK morning and afternoon/MK evening for fireworks and anything else we can get done.
Monday: Hollywood Studios
Tuesday: fly home

Ideally, I would probably do Hollywood Studios on Saturday and then EPCOT on Monday to avoid the F&WF crowds, but it also happens that this weekend is Soap Opera Weekend. Hence, we don't want to battle the crowds at Hollywood Studios.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, my sister and I were on the phone for over an hour this afternoon discussing dinner options. (What else is there to do when it is snowing? ) We looked through the various menus with the goal of doing a TS meal each day. We didn't quite succeed with that goal but came close. The biggest issue that we had was, of course, finding places that had either cheese pizza or chicken fingers for Belle. The rest of us are fairly easy to please but Belle is very picky.

We even decided on CS places so that we could price out the meals. Of course any of this including the CS places could change at a moments notice.

Anyways, here is our plan.

Friday: Dinner = Chef Mickeys
Saturday: Breakfast = Mara
Lunch = Liberty Inn
Dinner = Coral Reef
Sunday: Breakfast = Mara
Lunch = Pizzafari/Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner = Columbia Harbor House
Monday: Breakfast = Mara
Lunch = Mama Melrose
Dinner = Backlot Express
Tuesday: Breakfast = Boma

While we we doing this, we also looked at the meal prices and I updated my DDE versus DDP spreadsheet. The only way that the DDP ended up being cheaper for us was if we eat dessert for every lunch and dinner and then it was only $10-15 cheaper. Since we probably won't have dessert with all lunches and dinners, we decided not to do the DDP. Instead we will just use my DDE card.

 

[Donald is #1]

So after a lot of thought, I decided to go with my original plan and add on enough points at AKV so that I can do a 1 BR for 7-10 nights depending upong the season. I called my guide last Sunday but she was away on vacation. She called me back yesterday and I was able to do my add-on. I checked this afternoon and the points are already posted.

Since I have an August UY, I was able to get my 2007 point allocation plus of course I will get them again in 2008. I called member services this afternoon and I was able to bank all 80 points into 2008. These points won't impact the trip I am discussing on this thread. But for my December trip 3 weeks after this trip, I am now hoping to switch from a studio to a 1 br.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, in my previous post I mentioned that my add-on wouldn't effect this trip. But when I was driving down to my mother today, I started wondering on how much the difference would be to go with a 2 br. Well, I just did the calculation and the answer is 52 more points.

Hmmm, that is very tempting. I will need to calcalculate my points usage for the December trip if I get a 1 br for 10 days. But since with my add-on, I also got the '07 pts, I should have enough. Assuming a 2 BR is available, if I switch to the 2 bedroom, then everyone will have their own bed or pull-out.

With the 1 br, there is 1 king bed (for me of course and maybe one of the kids), a pull-out sofa queen bed for DSis and one of the kids, and a pull-out chair single bed (hopefully for the kid that would be in my bed). Or better yet, maybe we put DSis in the pull-out chair and make the kids share a bed.


With the 2 br, there is 1 king bed for me, a queen bed for DSis, 1 pull-out chair single bed, 1 pull-out queen sofa (for one of the kids) and either another queen bed or a pull-out full sofa bed. That would be 5 beds of various types for 4 people. DSis what do you think?

 

[stagemomx3]

With the 2 br, there is 1 king bed for me, a queen bed for DSis, 1 pull-out chair single bed, 1 pull-out queen sofa (for one of the kids) and either another queen bed or a pull-out full sofa bed. That would be 5 beds of various types for 4 people. DSis what do you think?

I vote go with the 2 bedroom.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I called MS (Member services if you are not familar with DVC) to check the availability of a 2 bedroom savanna view room. And guess what??? Well there was a 2 bedroom savanna view available for the dates of our trip! So of course, I updated our reservation to the 2 bedroom! So now we all get our own beds including each of the kids! With 3 beds for 2 kids, hopefully the fighting will be at a minimum.

 

[swwake]

That's awesome news! I am sure your group will really enjoy the extra space.

I have to admit, while I do know the difference between a 1BR and a 2BR, I was getting confused with all those points discussions. I don't know what they are or how you upgrade using them and when you started talking about using 07 and 08 points I really got lost.

I'm really glad you got what you wanted in the end.

 

[stagemomx3]

With 3 beds for 2 kids, hopefully the fighting will be at a minimum.

Don't count on it!

 

[Donald is #1]

That's awesome news! I am sure your group will really enjoy the extra space.

I have to admit, while I do know the difference between a 1BR and a 2BR, I was getting confused with all those points discussions. I don't know what they are or how you upgrade using them and when you started talking about using 07 and 08 points I really got lost.

I'm really glad you got what you wanted in the end.

Sorry to confuse you. Basically when you own at DVC you purchase points instead of a particular week. They split the memberships up through the year into certain use years (UY). Basically, a use year is actually the month when your next DVC year begins. For example, my UY is August. So at the end of each July my current points expire and on August 1st my new points appear. Banking is just moving points that I won't use into the next year. Each room type at a DVC resort has a point value that varies depending upon the day of the week, time of the year and size of room. So it is very flexible. When you buy in, you decide how many points you need and then buy that many points with a restriction or two (of course!). Anyways once you have the points you can use them anyway you want. I decided to do an "add-on", i.e. buy more points so that I would have more total points each year. So when I did, I got the points for my current year and then in August I will get the next year's set. I banked these new points into my next year (which begins in August) and then I decided to use some of these points to reserve a larger room (2 Bedroom). Hopefully this explanation actually helped and didn't add to the confusion.

Basically I had 260 points every year. I decided to add 80 points so now every Aug 1st, I will get 260+80=340 points. Of course, my annual maintenance costs will increase accordingly. But this will allow me to book a 1 bedroom for at least 8-10 nights during any of the seasons that I tend to travel to WDW once per year. I didn't size it for the summer season or Christmas week because I am not interested in traveling to WDW during those times.

 

[Donald is #1]

Don't count on it!

I know! But a girl can have hope!

Actually I was teasing my sister last night saying that we will probably get there and Belle will wonder why she has to sleep pull-out sofa while DSis & I each get "real" beds.

 

[Donald is #1]

In the past, I always carried a fanny pack in the parks, but during my Oct '06 trip, I found that my fanny pack was annoying me. OK, to be honest, it was annoying me because it was so full! Anyways, I had a backpack with me also so I switched to carrying the backpack. Well with the backpack, it is virtually empty. Surprise! I actually prefer to carry the backpack because if I buy something that I can't ship to the room or if my purchase is small, I can just throw it into the backpack. So, why does this matter? Well, I have been using the same backpack for over 10 years and to be honest it is definitely showing its wear. So I decided after my last trip (Oct '07), that it was time for me to get a new backpack. Well I started looking and didn't find anything. So I went to Ebags and found a women's backpack that was on-sale, but still expensive. So I ordered it and it came in a month or so ago. I looked at it and thought, well it is ok; not great but ok. Now fast forward to last weekend, I am at Walmart and I decided to walk past the backpacks. I found a backpack there for almost $30 less than the one from Ebags that I like better! Yes I bought it. I guess that I will probably put the Ebags one up on Ebay to recoup some of my money. Lessons learned: Since I only use it for vacations, just keep checking Walmart for a cheap one instead of paying more money for something on-line!

 

[misscmac]

Just catching up on your report - so nice of you to take your neice and nephew! Glad you chose Chef Mickey's. I have been there a few times and I think it will satisfy even the pickiest eater - my youngest Step-Sister is probably about as picky as your neice and she loved it!

We are also trying Mama Melrose and Boma (for dinner) on our trip and I'm really looking forward to those two!