18+ months to drive DH crazy about Disney planning

[tabrizia]

*Wave* I decided to attempt a pre-trip report because my Disney craving is just growing and growing, and I am driving DH insane with plans for something that isn't going to happen for at least 18 months. It has been 2 1/2 years since our last trip to Disney. The plan was to go back in the fall of 2011, but we didn't due to a small (well getting bigger surprise). 2012 is out too, because of the surprise we need to upgrade our car. New car wins over Disney trip, and I will appreciate the room, but I often wish for the irresponsible option of the Disney trip. I am holding out hope for fall 2013, but it may end up being 2014 before we go (hopefully Jan/Feb, not fall).

Anyways I am Sarah, feel free to call tabrizia though I answer to either. I'm a 34 year old SAHM to 3.

I am married to Dan, he's turning 35 in July. We've been married 10 1/2 years, and together for 15 years. He actually really likes Disney, and is happy to go when we have trips planned.

Here is a picture of us with the older 2 from our last Disney trip in 2009.

Now for the small people.

First there is Desmond, he'll be 5 in 2 weeks. He'll be starting Kindergarten at home in the fall. He is great, and creative and very very mischievous. He loves Disney and has been twice now, once at 5 months and once at 2 1/2. He loves Disney movies and TV shows. He is currently on the edge of moving from the preschool shows to the slightly older kids shows. He is also a huge classic Star Wars fan. He loves Luke Skywalker with a green lightsaber.

Here he is at the playground going down the slide with his baby brother.

Next is Eloise, she just turned 3. She is all girl. She loves dresses and dressing up. She loves Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. Her favorite tv show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She likes to be a princess in a frilly dress. Her favorite colors are pink, purple and green, oh and pink. She also is called "me too" because she tries to do almost everything Desmond does. She loves to play with him and will happily play Star Wars or anything else he wants with him, she does insist on being Princess Leia with a pink lightsaber when she plays Star Wars though. She has been to Disney World once at 7 months.

Here she is dressed up for her birthday.

Last is Sully, he is turning 1 next week. Yes my kids are stair steps and were all born within a 3 week period (which also includes my birthday). He is funny, cuddly, and on the move. He started walking about a week and a half ago as his main form of locomotion. Both his older siblings love him, except when he is getting into their stuff. He has not been to Disney World yet, and missed that 6ish month old trip that his siblings both had.

Here he is standing at the playground.

 

[tabrizia]

Okay now a quick confession, I have tried trip reports and pre-trip reports before and normally end up abandoning them sooner or later. I'll try not to with this one, but it is quite possible that it could happen.

Okay now for a bit of history. I've been to Disney World 8 times, and Disneyland once. Dan has been to Disney World 7 times and Disneyland once. 4 of those trips for me were as a child/teenager, 3 of those trips for Dan were. The rest have been together. Our first trip together was for our honeymoon. We had fun, though I did get sick towards the end.

Our second trip was to Disneyland for 1 day when on a trip to the Grand Canyon. We went on the 4th of July, it actually was no where near as crowded as expected and we had a lot of fun. It also reminded us the following year would be our 5th wedding anniversary so we decided to go to Disney World.

Our 5th anniversary trip was epic, we did 10 (or was it 11) nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge over free dining (and this was the original awesome free dining with tips included and an appetizer at every sit down). We actually pushed our trip back a week or so to get free dining. The only issue that came up was I ended up being 5 weeks pregnant when we went. So we did not get everything done we wanted, and I missed some restaurants I wanted to do, or the food tasted off thanks to pregnancy hormones.

So we went back the following year a bit later for another 10 or 11 nights, at the end of September so we could hit free dining and also have a few days of Food and Wine, and do the Halloween Party. All with a 5, almost 6 month old baby. We stayed at Pop and had a wonderful trip, it was great, we more or less did everything we wanted. It was a great trip.

So in 2009 before DD was born we mentioned we were thinking of going back. My parents thought it sounded like fun. So we decided to go over my Mom's birthday in October, and we planned to stay a few extra days and hit the Halloween Party on Halloween. Since my parents have a timeshare down there that is where we were staying, plus a few days at the Pop at the end. My brother and SIL (fiance) also decided to come. Yeah it was not a great trip, in fact it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I tried to cater to everyone at the expense of my kids. It was not a great trip, we had fun, but our most fun was the Halloween party after my parents left, and our free day at the resort the next day before we drove home. It also brought clearly into focus the fact that we did not like staying off site.

So the plan was to go back and redo the trip in 2011, either not telling anyone when we were going, or letting them come and meet up with us when something we were doing worked for them. Then I got pregnant again, with Sully bear, which was a bit of a surprise (we were planning on a third but not till 2012). Unfortunately budget constraints meant no trip in 2011.

Unfortunately there is also no trip in 2012, thanks to needing a minivan. I just can't handle 3 in a Toyota Matrix anymore, it is just way to cramped. So new minivan wins over Disney as I stated above. We like to go in the fall when it is less crowded. Since we have done the Halloween party twice we are thinking about going the Christmas party. We have also thought about doing both. The current plan is 11 nights, 12 days, so we should be able to hit both parties if we set it up right. That being said we are also thinking of possibly going the last week of January into February in 2014. Depends on finances and such. After this trip though we likely won't be going back until 2016 for our 15th wedding anniversary. The goal is to make it a great trip, with no evil taste left when I think back on the trip.

 

[tabrizia]

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This spot is for links if I keep up the pre-trip report.

 

[tabrizia]

First a picture from our last trip of Desmond with Donald Duck. This was our first night at Chef Mickey's he loved it. It was the perfect start to our trip, too bad that perfect start didn't last.

Okay so one of the big debates right now is what to do about rooms. We have 5 people, but DS is going to still be under 3 when we go, so we can technically get 1 room at the Pop for all 5 of us. However, there is a major downside there. The Pop rooms are tiny, and we're going to be there 11 nights. We also aren't commando, we like spending time in our room. In fact in the 12 days we're there we'll have 3 down days when we don't go to a park, and probably 2 to 4 more relaxing days where we don't worry about opening or closing times on the park we go to.

The other issue is free dining. We would like to get free dining because it saves us a lot more then a room discount. Yes there may not be free dining when we go, but the goal is to hopefully have a Pin for free dining, and we will adjust dates around that. However, we want the regular plan not the quick service plan. We like sit down restaurant, the kids like character meals (we hope), DH has a weird allergy so sit downs once a day are a positive to him, since he has less worry about the food being cross contaminated. Which means at the Pop we would have to upgrade.

So currently I am debating between Pop either 1 or 2 rooms, we like the price point of 1 room, but the whole tiny thing means 2 rooms is very tempting.

The other thought is to stay at Port Orleans Riverside, which has 5 person rooms. I don't think they are that much bigger then Pop, but we get free regular dining. It is only a little more expensive then 1 room Pop with the upgrade in dining, and we've done Pop our last two visits so something new might be nice.

The last option, which I don't think we are likely to take, is to stay at tthe new Art of Animation resort with one of the suite rooms. That being said, it is basically the same price as staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which we love, and can't stay at in 1 room again after this trip. So if we do decide to spend the money we are far more likely to go for Animal Kingdom Lodge then Art of Animation. Both of these option however are unlikely, since 2 Pop rooms when we are planning on going is still far cheaper then either of these options. Though the Art of Animation resort looks great, and we love Animal Kingdom Lodge.

And yes I have a good 9 months to obsess over this before we are going to even book and then another 9+ months to continue to obsess after we book, and debate if we chose the right option...

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Love the name of your thread! I can't wait to try out AoA in October since the standard rooms will be open by then.

 

[tabrizia]

I didn't even think about AoA standard rooms. Hmm that one is tempting too, I think I might add that to my possibility list, I love the theming I have seen so far there, so that is definitely a possibility. Plus staying at a brand new (well year old by the time we go) resort sounds like fun.

 

[tabrizia]

So dining. What not everyone figures out where they want to dine 18+ months out from their trip? They should, since it gives you 18 months to change your mind. That being said, I've actually had some of the restaurants on my list since we got back in October 2009, so it has been far more then 18 months that I've been debating dining for this trip.

The biggest dining question is free dining or no? I am hoping to get free dining, it is a huge discount for us, even if we will still be paying for some of our food options. That being said if free dining is not offered when we are going, we will be paying out of pocket and not getting the dining plan, because spending the money on it does not make sense for us, I've done the whole adding things up before and we would lose money if we paid for the dining plan.

That means I have 2 different plans for dining, based on dining plan or not, but first a cute picture of DD at our meal at Crystal Palace on our last trip.

Okay now first the non-dining plan. If we don't do the dining plan we probably will not do a daily sit down meal. We will probably do between 5 and 8 sit down meals, but not one every day. Oh and DH is allergic to meat other then seafood, and is not a huge buffet fan, that being said he loved our Chef Mickey's dinner last time we went.

Character Meals:
Crystal Palace probably breakfast
Chef Mickey dinner (maybe breakfast too, or a second dinner)
Princess Meal of some sort (Castle? Epcot? Grand Floridian? no clue but I will have a 4 1/2 year old girl so we must do a princess meal)

Non-Character dining:
Sannaa (we love Indian food this one is a must)
T-Rex (we ate here twice last trip and really enjoyed it, we will want to go back at least once, possibly twice)
Raglan Road (I really love this restaurant)

Other possibilities:
Coral Reef (not in love with the food, but giant aquarium)
Tutto Italia (DS is a huge pizza fan and everyone else likes Italian as well)
Narcoossee (DH and I love this restaurant, but do we really want to go with 3 kids?)
Tusker House (a character meal with Daisy, DD adores Daisy)

I'm also open to other thoughts. We love the signatures, but I'm not sure about doing them with 3 small ones.

And now I need to go so I'll continue with the plan if we do have the dining plan in a new post later, when the baby isn't melting down.

 

[tabrizia]

So on Saturday I worked on driving DH crazy some more and talked about Disney. I also looked up the moderate resorts and noticed they were getting 2 queen beds instead of 2 double beds. Well that more or less made the decision for us, for only $300 more for the trip if we go during free dining we can have 2 queen beds over 2 double beds. So it looks like the plan is to stay for 11 nights at Port Orleans Riverside when we go. Now I can at least stop debating where we are staying for a few days .

A moderate will be nice since Desmond will love the water slide. Dan and I will enjoy the queen beds with 3 small ones vs the double bed, and I'll enjoy a new resort.

 

[tabrizia]

Here is a picture of my birthday boy. He is 1 today! I can't believe my last baby is 1 already.

Oh and we got a nice pin for free dining or 30% off a room this fall at Disney, sigh too bad the trip is going to happen till at least next fall and probably not until the end of January 2014. Well unless I win the lottery, hey it is huge and I can dream, then I am going in June for Star Wars Weekend, buying a huge amount of DVC points and annual passes and going at least 3 times a year, but baring that it is still at least 18 months, probably closer to 20 till my next trip, sigh.


Even though I have only had 1 comment so far,thanks MinnieLovesMickey, I am kind of enjoying posting my trip report and I am sure DH is enjoying me obsessing here and not at him about our Disney trip so I think I will keep it up. So anyways onto restaurants if we do free dining, which I hope to do. First though another cute picture from our last trip at Chef Mickey's with the now 5 year old and 3 year old, then 2 1/2 year old and 7 month old.

So I realized my meal plan isn't really different between having the dining plan and not having the dining plan, except that I will likely add in my other possibilities as meals. That being said, I am still not sure if these are good choices since I like doing new meals, but there aren't many new options in my list, the princess meal will be new if we don't do the Castle, Sannaa is new, and Tusker House Breakfast is new, but we have done Boma breakfast before so not really sure how different it is except for characters. I really think I want another new option.

Of course that makes it hard with food choices, but taking DS who eats nothing out of the equation (and who knows he could be eating more in 20 months). I am still looking for a non-buffet or family style meal that has a decent fish or veggie option, and that we haven't tried yet, which knocks out Artist Point, Jiko, Flying Fish, Boma (not fans), Liberty Tree Tavern lunch, Le Cellier, and The Wave. Oh I can add Cape May as a dinner option I think it should be DH safe, but I think I might want one more new option still.

Character Meals:
Crystal Palace probably breakfast
Chef Mickey dinner (maybe breakfast too, or a second dinner)
Princess Meal of some sort (Castle? Epcot? Grand Floridian? no clue but I will have a 4 1/2 year old girl so we must do a princess meal)
Tusker House (a character meal with Daisy, DD adores Daisy)

Non-Character dining:
Sannaa (we love Indian food this one is a must)
T-Rex (we ate here twice last trip and really enjoyed it, we will want to go back at least once, possibly twice)
Raglan Road (I really love this restaurant)
Coral Reef (not in love with the food, but giant aquarium)
Tutto Italia (DS is a huge pizza fan and everyone else likes Italian as well)
Narcoossee (DH and I love this restaurant, but do we really want to go with 3 kids?)
Cape May dinner (Seafood Buffet sounds good, hopefully it is DH safe)

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Happy Birthday Sully!
My mom stayed at POR last year in the Alligator Bayou section and loved it. It was remodeled to a Princess and the Frog theme which my little sister loved! She always wanted to sleep on the trundle bed (which is now like a mock couch that folds out into a bed) Mom had to do a lot of convincing to get in the regular bed.

 

[tabrizia]

Not that I have had many readers, but I am sorry I have been away for over a month. I got busy with Sully's birthday and Desmond's birthday and with all of that I just haven't had much time to update, plus really there isn't that much to update since the trip is likely awhile away.

Also on May 5th Desmond fell 3 stories out his sister's window face first onto concrete. So for the past week I have been initiated into a club I could have lived without every being in, the parent of a critically ill child club. I would be happy to return my membership, but I think it is a life long membership once it is received. Desmond is currently in PICU at John Hopkins and doing well, but it is tough. We are just waiting to hear on surgery for him, they are hoping to get him in today, but it could be pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, though we hope not. He has made it past the critical 72 hours and does not appear to have any major brain damage on his CT scans which is wonderful. Right now I am just waiting to hear when he will go back for his 8+ hour surgery to fix the area around his brain and his face.

If anyone is interested his CaringBridge page is here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/desmondsinghal

I have not been thinking much about Disney in the past few days, but I can not wait till he is well enough again to go and enjoy the experience.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Not that I have had many readers, but I am sorry I have been away for over a month. I got busy with Sully's birthday and Desmond's birthday and with all of that I just haven't had much time to update, plus really there isn't that much to update since the trip is likely awhile away.

Also on May 5th Desmond fell 3 stories out his sister's window face first onto concrete. So for the past week I have been initiated into a club I could have lived without every being in, the parent of a critically ill child club. I would be happy to return my membership, but I think it is a life long membership once it is received. Desmond is currently in PICU at John Hopkins and doing well, but it is tough. We are just waiting to hear on surgery for him, they are hoping to get him in today, but it could be pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, though we hope not. He has made it past the critical 72 hours and does not appear to have any major brain damage on his CT scans which is wonderful. Right now I am just waiting to hear when he will go back for his 8+ hour surgery to fix the area around his brain and his face.

If anyone is interested his CaringBridge page is here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/desmondsinghal

I have not been thinking much about Disney in the past few days, but I can not wait till he is well enough again to go and enjoy the experience.

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear about Desmond! Thank goodness he made it through that real critical time. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[tabrizia]

So I am thinking again, since I have lots of time. I think I really want to take Desmond to Disney next May for Star Wars weekend. I had been debating it for his 6th birthday anyways, but decided financially it didn't make sense. I am kind of leaning back towards it now though, because it will be a little over a year since his accident and seems like a wonderful way to celebrate his hopefully full recovery then.

I'll need to keep thinking about it though, since with medical bills and such it might be even harder to pull off them when I was originally thinking about it and then nixed the idea.

 

[tabrizia]

So we're home from the hospital. Got home last week Thursday technically, but really didn't have much time to post this past week, with doctor appointments and therapy and getting resettled.

I am now debating if I want to take Desmond next spring for Star Wars days. I know I would love to actually do it, but not sure we'll have the money. It seems like a great 1 year past accident trip though. Really need to debate on it. If it is only me, DH and Desmond (I can get my parents to watch the other two, probably), we might be able to pull it off, except for the whole plane tickets are insanely expensive piece. Hmm maybe we could invite my parents and use their timeshare... Though I hate staying off property it would lower the costs a lot. Just not sure, which means it probably won't happen, but I really want it to.

As for our semi planned vacation, still looking at end of 2013/start of 2014 there. Still trying to decide exactly when though, if we go with Halloween again, switch to Christmas time or just go in January.

 

[tabrizia]

So I am thinking I really want to take Desmond this year. He does not want to go without his sister though, which I can't really blame him for, but makes it harder. My sister is getting married in Atlanta 5 days before DD's birthday. I am thinking that if we drive down for the wedding maybe we'll just keep driving south after the wedding and go for a few days. Not a normal length trip for us, it isn't in the budget right now, but a short trip and celebration of all 3 kids birthday's, especially Desmond's.

I was thinking maybe just going for 5 days, it would still be a bit expensive, but we could stay at a value, since the baby would still be under 3 (heck he would be under 2 since he won't have his birthday till right after we got home). We could celebrate Desmond, Eloise and Sully's birthday, along with mine for that matter. I think we would probably only do 1 maybe 2 sit down meals. Chef Mickey and something else, maybe with Princesses for Eloise or maybe Tusker House since they all love Mickey and Friends, okay and probably a sit down at T-Rex or maybe instead of the second character meal.

Maybe get there in the evening of March 10th and leave on the 16th. Which would give us 5 park days, and 6 nights at the hotel. We could do 2 days of Magic Kingdom, 1 day EPCOT and 1 day Animal Kingdom and then a half day at Disney Studios (out least favorite park) or another day at Magic Kingdom if we decide to go that way instead (though Disney Studios has a lot of good characters for pictures and such). We could skip the park hoppers to save some money. It would still be rather expensive though since we would need 4 park tickets, 6 nights at a hotel and food for those days. I wonder if they might have a pin or discount during that time.

It would also let me push back the other trip another year so we could go in fall 2014/winter 2015 instead, which would work better for finances for the big trip. Now to see if I can get DH on board. It would only be about 6 months from now, I could get my parents to give the kids spending money as their birthday presents so they could get souvenirs. I think I like the idea, now if only we can get the money piece to work out.

 

[tabrizia]

So it would be a bit, not a lot, but a bit cheaper to go the week before the wedding, and it also would be cheaper to stay at Pop rather then the new Art of Animation hotel. However the price difference is so slight, that I am thinking Art of Animation starting the Sunday after the wedding (we are talking less then $70 difference).

The biggest issue is park hoppers or no, we've always had park hoppers so not getting them would be really weird. Going for park hoppers though adds a significant cost.

The other issue is food costs. We would do 2 or 3 sit down meals. Going with general estimates of food based on current prices it is cheaper to go out of pocket. The quick service plan is actually cheaper, but that would remove the 3 sit down meals I want to do. It also isn't worth doing quick service and adding the 2 or 3 sit downs because that gets expensive too.

The regular dining plan just doesn't work, because even though it adds 3 more sit down restaurants, it is a lot more expensive, and we would end up paying even more out of pocket because I would add 1 more buffet and 2 more non-buffets and we'd want appetizers which would increase the price even more.

So I guess that means out of pocket for meals...

Now I just have to convince DH it is worth the cost, since it is still a lot. I want to go to Disney!

 

[tabrizia]

Not that anyone is reading, but even so it is nice to post so I can get all my thoughts out.

Yeah so March isn't going to work out. Sigh, it is just going to cost too much. Which means maybe we'll hit Great Wolf Lodge instead for DS' birthday which he would also enjoy.

Looks like we're looking at Fall/Winter 2013 or after the New Year in 2014 still. Oh well, if we do free dining we can go for 2 weeks instead of one for the same price the one week would have cost us, so it is a much better choice, I just wanted to go sooner rather then waiting since the last time we went DD was 7 months and she'll be 4 or almost 5 before we make it back!

 

[tabrizia]

Yep decided that the spring trip just isn't going to happen unfortunately. Now I need to discuss the trip that should be happening in January 2014ish with DH. We need to decide if we are doing next January/Feb or if we are going to push it off until November of 2014. I am really hoping for January because I want to go to Disney, but we may have to push it back thanks to dealing with DS' medical bills.

I was kind of hoping we might be able to pull it off this fall, but that is not going to happen. So it is looking like either January 2014 of November 2014, sigh.

Still not sure which way I'm going for rooms. I am pretty sure we'll either do 2 value rooms, more room, or 1 moderate room, less room but a bit less expensive. Just need to decide which one works better for us.

 

[tabrizia]

Haven't discussed it with DH yet, but I think we are going to end up having to push the trip back from Jan 2014 to Novemberish 2014. Which means Sully will be over 3 when we go. So it will be a 7 1/2, 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old, eek!

Let's see what dates look good for around then though. Hmm since Halloween is a Friday I don't see a good way to do both Halloween and the Christmas party. So let's look at other dates. We could do November 30th, a Sunday, till December 12th, which would be a Friday. The biggest issue there is DH would be out of the office for 3 weeks since we go to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

Let's see what else I can come up with December 14th - 26th has us there for both Hanukkah and Christmas. It means we would have to deal with more expensive meals, towards the end and more expensive hotel stay. We would be there over Christmas though and Hanukkah which would be nice. No free dining, which means it would be expensive, but it would be fun to be there then, even with the crowds. We could avoid crowds that first week and since it will be 12 days there the second crowded week might not be so bad.

Okay looking again. October 19th - November 1st. It is 13 days rather then 12, I can deal with that. We are there for Halloween, bonus!, it is not as crowded, and we get Food and Wine. We could probably get the dining plan. Hmm that is tempting. No Christmas party, but we've never made it yet, so no big loss there either.

Other options January 4th - 16th, we are there for the Marathon, but miss MLK day, leaving right before it, so no huge price jump there. No Christmas or Halloween party, but lower crowds. Maybe a possibility, though it feels insanely long to wait.

January 25th - Feb 6th, no Marathon, no holidays, quiet time. No extra fun bonus stuff, but quiet so can get lots done. Maybe the best choice, though it is a year later then I really want to go. I think I've gotten pins for free dining during this period before as well which is a double bonus.

I still kind of like January 26th - Feb 7, 2014 though, but not counting on it at the moment.

 

[tabrizia]

Actually talked to DH last night, and he agrees with me about the timing, sigh, so still 18 months till Disney! I think we are looking at either the October 19th - November 1st or the January 25th - February 6th dates as the most likely, though the November 30th to December 12th is a possibility. I think we're going to save the over Christmas trip for a few more years. We are hoping for free dining as well.

We figured out awhile ago, when they removed appetizers from the meals, that the dining plan doesn't really work for us if we are paying for it. We prefer appetizers to desert. I refuse to pay for the upgrade to deluxe dining which would give both appetizers and deserts. We also normally like a lot of the 2 ticket places which makes the dining plan slightly less useful since you don't save as much going there. That being said, this trip we will have a 3 1/2, 5 1/2 and 7 1/2 year old, so we are likely to do a lot of character meals which are buffets. Which changes things around a bit especially if we get free dining.

If free dining is available we would be staying at a moderate resort, okay we'd be staying at Port Orleans Riverside since it is the only one that has rooms for 5. It would be a bit cramped, but staying in 2 rooms at a value and then upgrading from Quick Service to Regular Dining is not going to happen. So it is looking like the plan is hopefully free dining and staying at Port Orleans.

Next post I'll talk about dining options again.