5 hotels in 14 days- lots of kids- September

[dr&momto2boys]

Holy cow! We started planning a 2 WEEK Disney vacation for September of this year yesterday! This is not like us! We usually plan a year in advance! After spending hours yesterday determining how our hotel stays will fit together and booking everything today, I only just now realized we are already behind in making dining reservations!!!

OK, I'll calm down and spit out the details.

First of all, you may like this TR if...
1. You also travel with young children
We have five kids ages 2 to 10. They are well traveled and have been to WDW, Disneyland, and Disney cruises many times as well as a whole bunch of other places.

2. You're a DVC (Disney Vacation Club) fan
We'll be staying at 4 different DVC 2 bedroom villas during this trip. Two are new to us. Wish we could have included the Poly too!

3. You like a play by play of our touring days
See previous TRs linked at the bottom if you'd like a sample. I'm not a creative writer. Just the facts and lots of pics.

4. You like reports with lots of pics

5. You get into dining plans and food pics
Part of what makes Disney trips so fun!

6. You don't like to wait for the TR to be done
We've started blogging and usually get things written while we're on the trip. Adding pics when I get back does take some time though.

Here's the plan so far...
2 nights at Beach Club Villas

4 nights at Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort (Yes, I called this a Disney trip. Just a little side of Universal in here.)

2 nights at the Villas at the Grand Floridian

2 nights at Animal Kingdom Villas

4 nights in a Treehouse Villa at Saratoga Springs

That's it for now. I've got to get studying my crowd charts and planning my park days so I can make my dining reservations!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Been working on this all week while also planning and executing a quadruple birthday party yesterday. Life is crazy...but great...can't wait for Disney! I normally book our dining at 180 days and get pretty much exactly what we want. Boy, this experience is different! I'm surprised at the general lack of availability for such a slow season. Of course, there are 7 of us and I bet there is a "free dining" promo going on during this time period too all of which makes it more difficult.

Here's some details I've planned this week:

2 nights at Beach Club Villas
Wednesday: Arrive at airport around 1pm and take Magical Express to Beach Club. Swim and explore boardwalk. Reservation at Cape May at 8:15pm.
When did Beaches & Cream start taking reservations? Bummed that we can't get in there. Will keep checking back. Will we like Cape May if we don't like seafood? May end up changing this ressie. We could totally do Epcot or DHS and eat there too since we'll have season passes. But I don't want to wear us all out either.
Thursday: Epcot at opening. Le Cellier lunch at 2pm. Return to Beach Club to swim.

4 nights at Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort
Friday: Hollywood Studios at open. Sci Fi Drive in at 2:30pm. Taxi to Universal.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday: We'll hit one park or the other at early opening each day and return to swim in the afternoons. Evenings at Citywalk or parks or relaxing at hotel. I don't feel the need to plan this too much. We've been enough times to know where to be when and it's not too difficult to get into restaurants. Hope all that hasn't changed.

2 nights at the Villas at the Grand Floridian
Tuesday: Epcot early entry. Teppan Edo 4:10. Check into Grand Floridian.
Yikes! We'll have been in Florida for a week now and not visited the Magic Kingdom! This will be an exciting part of our stay. It will be our first stay at the Grand Floridian. Nice to infuse excitement into the middle of the trip!
Wednesday: Sleep in then Kona Cafe 9:50am. Pool in the AM and Magic Kingdom with Fast Passes in the evening.

2 nights at Animal Kingdom Villas
Thursday: Early entry to Magic Kingdom. Crystal Palace 2:25pm. Check into Animal Kingdom Villas.
Friday: Animal Kingdom at opening. Dinner at Sanaa 8:10pm. We love Sanaa, but this is a late dinner for us. We'll keep checking for earlier times here or at Yak & Yeti. Not a tremendous fan of Boma.

4 nights in a Treehouse Villa at Saratoga Springs
Saturday: Hollywood Studios at opening. Mama Melrose at 1pm. Check into Treehouse Villa.
Sunday: Magic Kingdom at opening. Day at Downtown Disney. Dinner at Paradiso 37 at 5:20pm.
Monday: Epcot at opening. Chefs de France at 1:30pm. Swim in afternoon.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom at opening. The Plaza at 2:15pm.


This plan may change. I hope to change a few dining locations or times. We also still have to plan out any parades or nighttime shows which may affect our plans. Amazing how two weeks can seem so rushed. Trying to take it at a "relaxed" pace and still do all the major attractions a couple of times.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Got my little planning sheet done now with the park hours every day and parade and show times and everything. I've already made a change to the day we get there. I canceled the late dinner at Cape May and decided since we get in early, we'll spend the afternoon at DHS. I made a reservation for Hollywood and Vine for dinner at 6:30pm, so I'll make the changes above. Now we'll probably drop the DHS morning later in the trip...unless I can get a reservation at Beaches and Cream for lunch that day! I really like the No Way Jose! I'll check into it.

We also bought our tickets. Well kind of. We bought the most deeply discounted tickets we could through the mousesavers link to undercovertourist. They are 4 day passes that we'll use once then they'll be worth gate price and we can upgrade to our DVC discounted annual passes. Doing it this way, we'll save $167 on the 6 passes but we'll only be able to make FP reservations in advance for 4 days of our trip until we upgrade our tickets. This also means I'm going to have to spend a big chunk of time on vacation obtaining FPs for the rest of the days. Hard to justify $167 more though just for the privilege of planning FPs in advance. So, I'll have to think carefully how to best use our 4 days.

 

[jandlinz]

Hi! Joining in. I'll be interested to see how things go for you, especially at Universal. We plan on going November 2016 and our kids will be close in age to yours now. What type of strollers are you planning to bring? We keep on debating between a single and double, just a double, or two singles. The last time we went our oldest, who was seven, still crashed in the stroller some nights.
-Lindsey

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Hi! Joining in. I'll be interested to see how things go for you, especially at Universal. We plan on going November 2016 and our kids will be close in age to yours now. What type of strollers are you planning to bring? We keep on debating between a single and double, just a double, or two singles. The last time we went our oldest, who was seven, still crashed in the stroller some nights.
-Lindsey

Thanks for joining in!
We have a sit and stand type stroller that we'll bring with us. When the "babies" don't want to ride in it, the older kids definitely pop into it for a while. When my MIL has traveled with us, she always rents an extra double stroller from the parks which I tell her is unnecessary, but she does anyway, and the older kids are SO happy to use it. It's never empty!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Changed things around a bit...changes in red.

2 nights at Beach Club Villas
Wednesday: Arrive at airport around 1pm and take Magical Express to Beach Club. Head to DHS with FP+ for TSM, Star Tours, and splitting FPs between ToT and GMR. Dinner at Hollywood & Vine at 6:35.
Thursday: Epcot at opening. Le Cellier lunch at 2pm. Return to Beach Club to swim.

4 nights at Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort
Friday: Magic Kingdom at open. Have a reservation for breakfast at Be Our Guest at 8:30 and park opens at 9. Hopefully this means we get in early and can eat and still be ready to hit the rides at 9am. Crystal Palace at 12:45 then pick up luggage at Beach Club and Taxi to Universal.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday: We'll hit one park or the other at early opening each day and return to swim in the afternoons. Evenings at Citywalk or parks or relaxing at hotel. I don't feel the need to plan this too much. We've been enough times to know where to be when and it's not too difficult to get into restaurants. Hope all that hasn't changed.

2 nights at the Villas at the Grand Floridian
Tuesday: Epcot early entry. Teppan Edo 4:10. Check into Grand Floridian.

Wednesday: Sleep in then Kona Cafe 9:50am. Pool in the AM and visit Trader Sam's at the Polynesian before Magic Kingdom with Fast Passes in the evening and watch the parade and fireworks.

2 nights at Animal Kingdom Villas
Thursday: Early entry to Magic Kingdom. Whispering Canyon Cafe 2:10pm. Check into Animal Kingdom Villas.
Friday: Animal Kingdom at opening. Dinner at Sanaa 5:50pm.

4 nights in a Treehouse Villa at Saratoga Springs
Saturday: Hollywood Studios at opening. Mama Melrose at 1:10pm. Check into Treehouse Villa.
Sunday: Sleep in day! Day at pool and Downtown Disney. Dinner at Paradiso 37 at 5:20pm.
Monday: Epcot at opening. Chefs de France at 1:30pm. Swim in afternoon.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom at opening. The Plaza at 2:15pm.


I think it's improved quite a bit! Sorry it's just the facts for now. Having a hard time fitting in planning this trip with regular life! We will start doing more fun stuff like making/buying matching shirts for the trip soon. We have to pack light with all this moving around, so my goal is to have only 4 outfits each, do laundry frequently, and coordinate outfits with each other so we can keep good track of what we need each day.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

So, in attempting to make dining reservations for this trip, I've realized the need to make a list of places we want to eat next time we go assuming we can make ADRs at 180 days in advance and actually get the ressies we want!

Here goes...
Cinderella's Royal Table - My daughters have never really experienced this and they would love it. We'll consider doing BBB too, but that's awfully expensive when you have five kids. We'll probably just bring princess dresses and do their hair ourselves.

Chef Miickey's - We've been here lots of times, but the kids always love it.

'Ohana breakfast - Never done it. Think we should try it once. But we ALWAYS have to go to Kona for breakfast, so it usually gets ruled out.

'Ohana dinner - Love it. No availability this trip.

Be Our Guest - lunch probably. We've done it a few times before. Would do it again. Not so much for dinner.

Sci-Fi Drive In - The food is good and atmosphere fun.

Trail's End- If we stay close enough

Crystal Palace - breakfast before park opens or late breakfast

Beaches & Cream - No Way Jose!!! Enough said.

 

[disneyaddicted]

I will follow along, I love detailed reports. For just pretty much getting started you seem to have your stuff together.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Yay! Welcome!

I just peeked at your PTR, which looks awesome! Must find time to read it! I did see we'll be there some of the same days. We arrive on the 9th and leave on the 23rd of September. Reading yours will build my excitement for sure!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I've been pouring over our plans all day, searching for alternative dining options. I've also printed menus and done all kinds of price comparisons of TIW card versus dining plans. Since we have so many splits in our stay, we have various dining options. I think it will make sense for us to get the regular DDP for the first leg of our stay. It will save us some money with the new rules of using child CS credit for adult CS when desired. Also since the mugs will be good at any resort for the length of our stay. We'll combine it with the TIW card for maximum savings.
I also learned that TIW is not good at Teppan Edo, but AP discount is good for a 10% discount during lunch Mon through Friday. I'll have to see if 4:10 is lunch or see if we can change to slightly earlier if that's the case.
So, I still want to switch out our Plaza ressie for something else the last day. I like to end with something great...but there's just nothing available.

 

[jandlinz]

You're ambitious! Sounds like a lot of moving around. How is Universal with strollers and bags. It's on our "someday" list, but wasn't sure how the locker situation works. We also have a child with food allergies. Do they let you take in food? I thought our kids would be too young for it. I'm also interested in what you come up with for dining. Is TIW worth it? We always get a 2 bedroom with a kitchen and cook a lot of meals. The DDP for our large family is just too much.
-Lindsey

 

[dr&momto2boys]

You're ambitious! Sounds like a lot of moving around. How is Universal with strollers and bags. It's on our "someday" list, but wasn't sure how the locker situation works. We also have a child with food allergies. Do they let you take in food? I thought our kids would be too young for it. I'm also interested in what you come up with for dining. Is TIW worth it? We always get a 2 bedroom with a kitchen and cook a lot of meals. The DDP for our large family is just too much.
-Lindsey

Ambitious is a very nice word for what we are!

Universal is awesome! We like staying onsite there too to get early entry, but it's not necessary. In the past it's always been MUCH less busy than Disney but I'm sure that can change as they've added more Harry Potter Stuff and another whole onsite hotel. Usually even we can do one whole park in a day, but we chose 3 day passes to be able to take mid day breaks and to be able to ride our favorite rides a few times. I'm not exactly sure what you mean about strollers and bags. Mostly our experience with all that stuff is the same as with Disney (except our stroller is usually where we left it... instead of rearranged over and over like at Disney.) There are lockers next to all the big roller coasters. We've never used them because we always have a baby in tow, so we use child swap alot! It works really easily to ride a coaster then switch at the exit and the other gets on the ride almost immediately!
There is a lot for little kids to do at both Universal parks. Check out my TR in my signature below. I think you can bring food into the park. We've always brought snacks in our diaper bag with no grief but I don't know their official stance.
You break even with TIW if you spend $500 at restaurants where it's accepted (which is almost all table service restaurants.) We can meet that requirement in 2 days! I always calculate our dining expense practically down to the penny and TIW is always the cheapest route for us. We don't do a ton of cooking at our DVC units. We definitely won't this time since we're hopping around so much and it would be complicated with groceries, but we do usually make breakfast and bring some snacks at least.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

So, I may have been behind the boat on planning this September trip, BUT as of today we have another WDW trip in the works!!! (With much more time to plan everything!)
<--- This is what our house looks like right now. We 're going again in February "on our way" to Punta Cana. I "have to" go to Punta Cana for a conference Valentine's Day weekend and it makes sense to combine these trips to save on airfare. It doesn't cost much more ($100ish) for this multi city airfare than a simple round trip and early Feb is a good time to go to WDW followed by some afterward.

Next we'll reserve our DVC units and definitely won't hop around so much. We'll see what the options are, but we may still split our stay. We'll be there for 12 nights! Oh, the dining options we will have! And we'll have our APs next time we reserve FP+.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

After spending way too much time booking our complicated airfare for this February trip, (did you know websites only let you book 6 fares at once and the group sales department book for 10 or more and leave those of us in the middle just hanging....on hold...for hours?) we finally got around to booking our DVC units. We're before the 7 month window, so we have to stick to our home resorts. And we have three home resorts all with different "use years" for you DVC members in the know...which is a pain in the butt. But anyway, we ended up booking a 2 bedroom villa at Boardwalk for the first 5 nights, at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary for 4 nights, and then Animal Kingdom Villas for the last 3 nights. We do intend to change the AKV ressie to Bay Lake Tower (because it's nice, a great location, and means we don't have to move again) or Wilderness Lodge (because it's been a long time since we've been there and miss it) at the seven month window when we can use our AKV points for any resort.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I finally have some time on my hands this weekend to relax a bit and fantasize about these WDW trips! It's overly complicated to add photos on here, but I think I'll get some practice again to warm up for the real TR. I happened upon some tie dye kits at Target yesterday on clearance and had to buy them. I had all but committed to doing Mickey tie dye matching shirts for our family for these trips...now I am committed...or should be
I want to make/buy 3 more matching or coordinating shirts for these trips. It makes it even more fun and special I think and the kids are still game for Mom's silly ideas... so I better take advantage while I can. Plus it's easier to stay organized while doing the laundry and making all the moves on this September trip. Any ideas? I used to do A LOT of iron ons. They were fun and I don't mind the work, but honestly they're not all that great for adults to wear. The shirt doesn't "breathe" under the iron on and sweat pools around it if it's really hot. Sorry for that image. Plus the adults don't really wear them at all once we return home. So thinking about alternatives this time.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Just poured over my dining plans again and made a very accurate analysis spreadsheet. First 2 nights (3 days) of the trip would cost us
$ 586.47 with the TIW discount (not including the price of the card) or
$ 530.50 with the DDP and this will give us the refillable mugs for our whole trip and 12 included snacks so this choice is a no brainer!
It doesn't usually come out where DDP is actually less expensive than just using TIW. Now I have to analyze the other parts of our trips. Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Edited to add:
My DH missed an important column in the formula. I couldn't figure out why DDP was significantly less than TIW when that's never been the case. Finally after checking out all the calculations I found the error. And DDP would cost...
$ 662.42 versus TIW's $586.47 so DDP is DEFINITELY not worth it for us.

Wish I hadn't spent so much time on it.

 

[millie0312]

Following along too- we are planning on sept 2016 with two young kids so happy to learn from your great planning!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I'm following along! I'm in such awe
Your family is amazing, I remember following your last trip report. I can't wait to read about this latest adventure!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Welcome new followers! Tweaking our dining plans a little today because DH is begging me to change my plans of going to Epcot early entry the day we transfer back from Universal. I know he's right...darn it! So I'm changing that day to more Magic Kingdom and shifting around important dining reservations. I'll repost the whole plan again soon.
I'm also gearing up to reserve our 4 days of FP+ three days from now! Hope that doesn't have me switching everything up again. I have to remember this is NOT a busy time for the parks anyway and we'll be fine even if we don't have any FPs!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

It also hit me that we're within 7 months of our Jan/Feb trip now so we changed our reservations for that. Now we have Beach Club Villas the first 5 nights, stayed with Bay Lake the next 4 nights, and switched to Villas at Wilderness Lodge for the last 3 nights.