3 Trips in One Year!?! A Mom-Daughter PTR 5/30-6/6

[disneyfan314]

Greetings! I've been somewhat of a lurker on the DisBoards. I'm trying to get better at actually posting things because I've learned so much from everyone here and I thought I should give back, so what better way than doing a PTR. It's also my goal to complete a trip report once we arrive home.

For this trip, it will be me and my DD-10 and as the title hints to, it's our 3rd trip in a year. I can't believe it because up until this last year, I have visited either once a year, or every 2-3 years. So, how did it happen that we are making our 3rd trip in a year? A little bit of pixie dust and DVC points! We bought into DVC in late 2015 and our contract was loaded with banked points so we booked a family vacation staying at BWV in early June 2016 (which coincidentally fell during my oldest daughter's 14th birthday). After booking the trip, my youngest daughter was asking if she could get a trip for her birthday too and we had 2016 points still to use (thanks to the 2015 banked points our contract came with), so I booked a long weekend trip for just her and I the weekend leading into her birthday in September(DH and DD-14 are starting to tire of Disney, I know gasp!! how could that be-so they were fine with just me and DD-10 going). So, when planning for the June trip, I got AP's for me and DD-10 since we would be returning in just a few short months.

I had told my hubby and DD-14 that we would bank our 2017 points and go somewhere else for our 2017 family vacation since we were visiting WDW twice in a few months leading into the September trip (which was really my intention at the time!) Fast forward to the end of the September trip and me and DD-10 were discussing how much fun we had and how could we get back to WDW sooner than 2018. Well, we did have AP's right? After a little research, I figured that we could make one more trip on our AP's before they expired. And that's when the planning for this trip began!!!!

Our AP's expire June 4 and my DD gets out of school on May 25 so our window of travel was May 26-June 4. Now, Memorial Day falls during this time and I was very hesitant to be in WDW for Memorial Day weekend because I was fearful of the crowds, so I originally planned to fly into Orlando on Memorial Day, but once I looked at prices of flights, I saw it would be cheaper to fly in the next day. So, that made the decision for me that we would arrive on May 30 and since our AP's expired on June 4, we would return home that day.

Then came the decision on where to stay. Since we are DVC members. we have a variety of places we can choose from. DD and I knew we wanted to try somewhere new (we have a goal to stay at all the DVC resorts) and we had stayed at the BWV last June and OKW in September. So, we got online and looked at all the other DVC resorts. I really let DD decide. We looked at pictures of the different resorts and she decided upon VWL (before it was renamed Boulder Ridge) basically because she though the twin pull down bed was cool and wanted to try out sleeping in it. The number of points worked out and we booked our room! We were more than 6 months out when we booked our room so we had some time to figure out the rest of the details soon!

Next up: ADR's....Will we get BOG?

 

[disneyfan314]

So, after booking our room, it was time to start deciding on ADR's. As our girls have gotten older our touring style has changed and one way it has changed is dining. When they were younger, they were really into meeting characters and getting autographs so we made it a priority to book dining reservations at places where we could do that. As they have gotten older it has become less important. In fact, on our September trip, we did not stop for any character meet-and greets or did any character meals. Also, we decided after our 2nd trip years ago with dining reservations almost everyday, that we didn't like being locked into having to stop whatever we are doing to run to a meal, so the last couple have trips have had less ADR's. Maybe a few, and we almost always do them for lunch now as a great mid-day rest to soak up some AC and get out of the crowds as they are really starting to grow. So, as it got closer to that 180 day milestone, I asked DD, what places did she want to eat on our trip. Immediately, she stated she wanted to go back to BOG because we really loved that one when we visited in September. She also shocked me in saying she wanted to do a princess meal this trip. We looked at Akershus versus Cinderella's Castle and she decided on Akershus based on the menu. So on Dec. 1st I made BOG on May 31 at 11:30 and Akershus on May 2 at 12:25.

Now, I need to backtrack a bit because at the very beginning stages of planning for this trip, my DD was supposed to have a friend come along. So, I think a lot of the wanting to do a princess meal was because her friend (who has never been to WDW) wanted to meet the princesses. About a week after I made the ADR's the friend's mom told me that they decided that she would not be coming with us. Once the trip was back to just me and DD, she decided that she did not want to do the princess meal, because she rather eat at her favorite place in Epcot, Sunshine Seasons so I canceled our Akershus ADR, but she did say she wanted to visit Sci-Fi Dine In again to get milkshakes so I then made an ADR on Dec 25 for June 2 at 11:50.

At this point we were pretty happy with our 2 ADR's. We had BOG in MK and Sci-Fi in HS and plan for SS in Epcot. We decided just to figure out AK that day (Remember, this was before the opening of Pandora was announced). In the past we have done Tusker House, which I love the food, but I hate paying the outrageous price for a buffet because there are characters walking around and DD really doesn't care about the characters. Plus on our Sept trip we got a table at Yak & Yeti without an ADR, so we figured we would just wing it on our AK day.

Up next: Pandora will be open for our trip!

 

[HipsterPeterPan]

Hopping in to follow along! As the DS/DC (Disney Child? No idea, keeping it anyway) who normally plans the trips and has since I was old enough to do so (so I was probably ten), it's amazing to see parent/child trips for me. My mother and I are going in October!

 

[disneyfan314]

Hopping in to follow along! As the DS/DC (Disney Child? No idea, keeping it anyway) who normally plans the trips and has since I was old enough to do so (so I was probably ten), it's amazing to see parent/child trips for me. My mother and I are going in October!

That's awesome that you and your mom are still making trips together! I hope to do so with my girls too as they continue to get older. Part of the fun for me is planning with my girls. Of course, for now, my teenager is "over" Disney so I have to promise a day or two at Universal for her thrill ride side. But my 10 year-old is still loving all things Disney so I'm wishing upon a star that she stays that way. I need at least one of them to share in my Disney addiction! LOL!

 

[HipsterPeterPan]

That's awesome that you and your mom are still making trips together! I hope to do so with my girls too as they continue to get older. Part of the fun for me is planning with my girls. Of course, for now, my teenager is "over" Disney so I have to promise a day or two at Universal for her thrill ride side. But my 10 year-old is still loving all things Disney so I'm wishing upon a star that she stays that way. I need at least one of them to share in my Disney addiction! LOL!

I'm gonna be 26 for our upcoming trip in October and I still love Disney! You just have to find things about it that could pull your teen DD back in.

 

[disneyfan314]

Before I get into the next parts of our planning, I just want to say that we have 43 days until our trip!!!!!!

Also, I should mention that our itinerary at this point was:
Tues, May 30: Arrival day! We usually will head to a park for QS dinner and maybe a few rides, but usually decide that the day of once we look at wait times on MDE.
Weds. May 31: Magic Kingdom! It's our tradition to spend our first full day in our favorite park. Lunch at BOG.
Thurs: June 1: Epcot- Lunch at DD's favorite Sunshine Seasons.
Fri: June 2: HS- I think this was based off of Touring Plans recs for best/worse days. And we had a lunch ADR at Sci-Fi.
Sat: June 3: AK- Again based off of TP.
Sun: June 4: Departure Day (If you are paying close attention, you will notice that in the title it says are trip is until 6/6, this add-on happens a bit later in the planning, I'll get to that!)

So, we had our room booked, and our ADR's ready, but still quite a while before we could book our fastpasses. So, the next phase of the planning was finding flights. For the last few trips, we have flown Spirit because it really is the cheapest option, but the downside is that there are not many flight choices, especially for non-stop flights. And I think it is pointless to have a lay-over for a 2 hr and 20 min flight, so I will only book non-stop flights. The only non-stop flight out of our home airport of Bush International in Houston on Spirit departs at 1:07 pm and arrives in Orlando at 4:29p. I really wanted something that arrived a little earlier in the day so we could have more time to play the day we arrive. So, I started looking at other airlines. Unfortunately, Southwest doesn't fly out of Bush (only Hobby, which is all the way on the South side of Houston and we are coming from the North so Bush is much closer for us), and the other major airline is United who is way more expensive than Spirit. In all of my searching, I came across an article that said the best time to book airfare was between 40-something days and 70-something days (sorry can't remember the exact numbers now) prior to the day of departure. Since we were still more than 100 days out, I decided to put this theory to the test and I stopped looking at flights and was going to wait until we were in that window.

Now comes the part of the trip planning that gets kind of boring. That window of time between booking ADR's and FP's. So, I used that time wisely by keeping up with all things Disney here on the DisBoards (remember the first post- I'm a lurker most of the time). One of the threads that I follow consistently is the Rumor and News boards, especially the News Round Up thread. Well, the discussion of the possible opening date for Pandora was being discussed quite a bit, with some rumors that it could be Memorial Day weekend that it opened. I started to get both excited and nervous at the same time. I mean if it opened Memorial Day weekend, then that means we would get to see in in June! But, that means it would probably be crazy crowded with VERY long lines. (I watched the posts of the wait times the first few weeks that Frozen Ever After and swore I would never be one of those people in a line that was over 2 hours long!) So, I continued to watch these rumors closely as the time for our FP window approached. And then, it happened. Disney officially announced that the opening of Pandora would be May 27. That's only 3 days before we arrive! DD and I were excited! We would get to visit Pandora and hopefully ride the 2 new attractions! But, now we had to think about our itinerary. We knew we wanted to see the new ROL show because we hadn't got to see it yet, but we also wanted to see Pandora at night. Also, our original AK days was to be Saturday, June 3. I was concerned that a weekend day would be more busy than a weekday because of locals coming to see Pandora. So we changed up the itinerary a bit. We decided that we would head to AK on our arrival day (Tues. May 30) and to try to get a FP for the ROL show with the possibility of just walking around Pandora to see it lit up at night. At this point, we didn't know anything about FP for the two new attractions and I figured the line by that time of the day would just be ridiculous and we would settle to just walk around and take in the scenery. We also decided to switch our Epcot day and our AK day. So now, our full AK day would be Thurs. June 1 and our Epcot day, Sat. June 3. So this was our plan in early February while we were just counting down the days until we could make FP (March 31).

Next up: Adding more days?!?

 

[disneyfan314]

The next part is where things get fun and where I take a big leap of faith in extending our trip. Remember when I mentioned that I was holding out to book our airline because prices were supposed to be the lowest in the 40-something to 70-somethings days prior to departure. Well, it happened. On March 20, 71 days prior to our departure, I received an email from Spirit (because I'm a $9 fare member) with flight deals ($24 one-way for $9 fare members) on select days in April, May, and June. I opened the email to see just what days were "selected" and the pixie dust rained down because our arrival day, May 30 was on the list. So, I immediately booked our flight from Houston to Orlando. Unfortunately, our return date was not on the list, but 6/6 was. That's when my mind started wondering. Could we extend our trip just 2 more days to get this flight deal? So, I asked my husband what he thought. He thought it made sense to add two days (remember- DVC members so it wouldn't cost any money- I would just have to borrow a few 2018 points). I went to the DVC booking page looking for a room. And was sad because there were no places that had an opening on both June 4 & 5. DVC will let you waitlist, but I had never done that before. I didn't know what the chances were that I would get what I wanted. So, I did what any Disney addict would do. I searched the DVC DisBoards about people's experiences with waitlisting and I posted about it in a DVC facebook group I'm in. What I learned is that getting a waitlist to go through is dependent on quite a few things and that the chances increase the further out you waitlist, and that waitlists for lower number of days get filled prior to long stays. So, I figured, why not. I would make a waitlist. I picked SSR -another place DD and I haven't visited yet and it was a low number of points. Then I took the big leap of faith. I booked the return flight home for 6/6, without even having a place to stay those last two nights (so I could get the cheap airfare!). I was gonna just keep wishing upon a star that my waitlist would come through.

I have to confess at this point, I was a little nervous. I'm typically not this impulsive and don't tend to rely on luck and fate so I was a little worried that this was not going to work out. I continued to check the DVC site for room availability. I knew from my research, that I would get an email if my waitlist came through, but I only waitlisted one hotel and there were many others that could come available at any time right? I was logging on 2-3 times a day, just hoping that I would get those 2 extra nights. And just a couple of days later, during one of my routine checks, it happened! There was availability at BLT for the 2 nights we needed! I immediately booked it and canceled the SSR waitlist. Now, my anxieties fades! We would not be stranded for 2 nights! And we had 2 more days in Disney to enjoy and to plan!

So, since we were not going home on June 4, we decided to make that our 2nd MK day, because it's our favorite park! Now, you may remember that our AP's expire on June 4, so that means we will not be visiting a park on June 5, but we decided to make this our Disney Springs day. We will sleep in, grab lunch there and do some shopping. And spend the afternoon/evening at the pool just relaxing before our return home. We will fly home on June 6, but our flight home isn't until 3:13 so ME won't pick us up until noonish, and we decided we needed to have a good breakfast before our travels. We decided to check out O'hana since we've never been there and it will be just a monorail ride away. I was able to get an ADR for 8:45. I really wanted 9:30 so we could sleep in a bit and have more time to pack, but I'm not complaining with what I got! I'll just keep checking on MDE for a later time.

It now seems that we have everything planned except for our fastpasses, which we could get in only a few more days!

Up next: Pandora fastpasses are available!!!!

 

[disneyfan314]

Ok, I start this entry off as confession time. I don't even know my own itinerary! I just went back and looked at MDE and our BOG ressie is on Thurs. June 1, which makes that our MK day. So here is our actual plan leading into FP selection:

Tues, May 30: Arrive in Orlando at 4:29p. Head to AK for dinner and hopefully ROL and to walk around Pandora.
Weds. May 31: AK (Rope Drop)
Thurs. June 1: MK (Rope Drop) ADR at BOG at 11:45
Fri. June 2: HS (Rope Drop) ADR at Sci-Fi at 11:50
Sat. June 3: Epcot (Rope Drop) Lunch at Sunshine Seasons
Sun. June 4: MK
Mon. June 5: Disney Springs and pool
Tues. June 6: Departure day. ADR at O'hana at 8:45.

As our FP day arrived, DD and I made our decisions of how we wanted to plan our days. We are rope droppers, so that plays into our strategy of which FP to get. And just a few days before we could make our FP, the announcement was made that FP would be available for the 2 new Pandora attractions, BUT, you could only get one of them a day. Now, I was really excited because I was not looking forward to standing in a really long line to see the new attractions, so knowing we could get a FP was wonderful news! Here was the game plan heading into FP selection morning:

Tues May 30: AK evening- Get one of the new Pandora ride FP and ROL FP and EE if the times worked out.
Weds May 31: AK RD: The other Pandora ride that we didn't get on Tues, KRR, Dinosaur. We plan to RD KS.
Thurs June 1: MK RD- 7DMT, BTMRR (my favorite), and Splash Mt. We plan to RD PP
Fri June 2: HS RD- RnRC for certain, probably ST, and then either Indy or Frozen based on times and RD TSMM
Sat June 3: Epcot RD- FEA, and then really didn't matter what tier 2 we got. RD TT and then head over to Soarin if lines weren't too long yet.
Sun June 4: MK- Space Mt (in case we don't get to ride it on Thurs), BTMRR (because it's my favorite!) and 7DMT again!

Like a true Disney addict, I set my alarn clock for 5:50am on March 31 so I would be online right at 7am Disney time (6am for me). I went straight for the Pandora rides and to my surprise there were still lots of available times for the days I wanted. I got River Journey for 6:15 on Tuesday and then Flight of Passage at 10:10 on Weds. I then made sure to get my ROL for Tuesday night and did without any problem. I then went to get the FP for FEA on Sat and 11:55 without difficulty. Then I focused on MK and got 7DMT on Thurs at 12:35 to ride right after our lunch at BOG and got it again for 11:55 on Sunday. After I got the FP I wanted that seem to disappear the quickest locked down, I started filling in the other rides that we wanted. And here is what our plan looks like for the entire trip:

Tuesday, May 30th: Arrive in Orlando at 4:29p. Take ME to BRV (or VWL), drop luggage in room (after forgetting to put the luggage tags on our bags on our last trip and realizing how much I preferred keeping our luggage with us, I'm gonna just claim my own luggage again at MCO), and head out to AK. Na'vi River Journey at 6:15, EE at 7:20, and ROL for the 9:15 showing. Then wander around Pandora at night and hopefully get to see the Tree of Life Awakening. Somewhere in there we need to find time to eat dinner and if our flight gets delayed at all we may not make our first FP. Hopefully that won't happen!

Weds, May 31st: Rope Drop AK. Head to KS, then Dino Land for PW (if the line isn't too long) and Dinosaur! FP for Flight of Passage at 10:10, EE at 11:50 and then grab lunch somewhere, then KRR at 12:55. We also want to see the Lion King show at some point because we've missed it our last couple of trips, so we will see when we can fit that in.

Thurs. June 1st: Rope Drop MK. Straight to PP, then whatever Fantasyland rides DD wants to do before the crowds set in. Head over to Adventure land for JC and/or PotC and then FP for BTMRR at 10:50. Maybe time to hit HM on our way back over to BOG for 11:45 ADR. 7DMT after lunch at 12:35, then to HM if not able to do it before lunch, then to Splash Mt at 1:50. Probably will head back to hotel after this for an afternoon break.

Fri. June 2nd: Rope Drop HS. Straight to STMM, probably catch the Little Mermaid show then FP for RNRC at 10:50. 11:50 ADR at Sci-Fi, then over to Star Tours for 12:55 FP. Then FP for 2:30 showing of Frozen Sing Along, though we may skip it if we are ready to head back to our room for a break before then. We saw it when we went in Sept, so we are ok if we miss it.

Sat. June 3rd: Epcot RD- Straight to TT, then over to Soarin if the line isn't too long. We have a FP for SE at 10, but may cancel it if we don't need it or if we are still over by Soarin. Then lunch at Sunshine Seasons then over to FEA for FP at 11:55. I only made 2 FP at Epcot, so I may add something the day we are there. But we noticed on our June trip last summer that if you head over to Epcot after 4p, you can pretty much walk-on Figment, Living with the Land, Nemo, and SE so we may head over to Epcot one evening earlier in the week and see if we have that same luck. So if we get to those earlier in the week we may not try to fight crowds earlier in the day to do them. I'm sure once we are over in the World Showcase we will stop by Mexico to see Donald, Jose, and Panchito. We usually don't head much further into World Showcase bc DD isn't very interested but I would like to see the American Adventure since I have never seen it. I'll see if I can talk her into it.

Sun. June 4th: MK Day 2: Not sure if we will rope drop or not yet. I guess we will decide the night before. We also have to check out of BRV and get our luggage over to BLT so we will need some time in the morning for that, so we probably won't be able to get to MK before it opens. Day 2 is to catch anything we missed day 1 that we really wanted to do. I hope to catch the new Muppets show in Liberty Square, so this might be the best day to do so. Our FP's today are for Space Mt at 10:30, 7DMT at 11:55, and BTMRR at 1:00. I want to try to check out Columbia Harbour House for lunch this day too since I've read reports that it's really good.

Mon. June 5th: Disney Springs. We will sleep in and head to DS probably mid-morning. Grab lunch somewhere and do some shopping. I'm overwhelmed with all the new restaurants in Disney Springs so we will probably just get something that is close by when we start to get hungry. Back to BLT that afternoon for pool time! Still thinking about what to do for dinner this night. I could try to get a ADR for somewhere on the resort monorail loop or just head over to the Comtempo Cafe for a quick service dinner.

Tues. June 6th: Departure Day Always a sad day, but we will fill ourselves at O'hana for breakfast before we have to catch the ME bus back to the airport.

Thanks for reading along! I'll update if any changes happen between now and our trip! And my goal is to make a trip report once we are home.