A May 2010 PTR: I Got A Job....Let's Go See Mickey!*Update 4/15!!

[elizablake]

Hi. I just stumbled across your pre-trip report. Great job so far. BTW, you can't go wrong adding a few more days.

We'll be there the week after you. Actually, we are arriving on 6/4 and going to MK on 6/5. We are driving from GA. We have a lot of the same ADRs too. I guess what I'm trying to say is..Quit copying us.

We've been to Hollywood and Vine for lunch. I would recommend it only because there are not really any other good places to eat at HS.

I look forward to hearing about your plans.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

I missed my FOUR MONTH DANCE yesterday!

Hi. I just stumbled across your pre-trip report. Great job so far. BTW, you can't go wrong adding a few more days.

We'll be there the week after you. Actually, we are arriving on 6/4 and going to MK on 6/5. We are driving from GA. We have a lot of the same ADRs too. I guess what I'm trying to say is..Quit copying us.

We've been to Hollywood and Vine for lunch. I would recommend it only because there are not really any other good places to eat at HS.

I look forward to hearing about your plans.

Hi! I thought I had replied to you earlier, but I guess it didn't post. Sorry about that! to my PTR!! LOL at "copying" you. Although, since our trip is first, who will be copying who? Haha!

 

[jordanyosh]

 

[ladybugmom]

YAY for 4 months!!!

 

[MeMom]

I'd always go for a longer stay, so I am happy for you. You can always just go over to CBR to eat one day and just see their awesome pool and stroll around the grounds, to the beach, etc. They have really good rotisserie chicken and vegetables there and a great-looking food court and shopping area, so it's worth the trip. We've done this before - take the bus to CBR when we're leaving a park, eat there, then get a cab to take us around the corner back to Pop. It's so close it costs practically nothing. You can actually walk between the two, but it's really a service path meant only for CM's, so we don't.

Hooray for four months!

 

[MHTeacher]

I just stumbled across your PTR this afternoon....May Trippers always catch my attention, since there are so many DISers, myself included, headed to Disney during the same time.

I would always choose more days at Disney over a resort! Good choice!

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

I'd always go for a longer stay, so I am happy for you. You can always just go over to CBR to eat one day and just see their awesome pool and stroll around the grounds, to the beach, etc. They have really good rotisserie chicken and vegetables there and a great-looking food court and shopping area, so it's worth the trip. We've done this before - take the bus to CBR when we're leaving a park, eat there, then get a cab to take us around the corner back to Pop. It's so close it costs practically nothing. You can actually walk between the two, but it's really a service path meant only for CM's, so we don't.

Hooray for four months!

Thanks for that idea! We will probably try to do that one day.

I just stumbled across your PTR this afternoon....May Trippers always catch my attention, since there are so many DISers, myself included, headed to Disney during the same time.

I would always choose more days at Disney over a resort! Good choice!

Thanks for stopping by! Yes, more days is definitely > "better" resort in my book!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Subbin'!

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Subbin'!

I'm about to post an update.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

PIN Codes are bad….very bad

Shortly after I started pricing out options for this trip on the WDW website (and saving them), I started receiving emails from Disney Destinations with those wonderful little things that we all love to see – PIN codes. Most of them just listed the same room discount (and dates) that are shown on the website (I guess they wanted to make sure I knew about it?), but then one day we got THE ONE.

The one that I’d been hearing about here on the DIS.

The one that so many people on the Codes and Rates board have been hoping to receive.

Yes, that’s right – we got the “year-long” room discount PIN code.

In case you're wondering, it is for 20% off of Values, 30% off of Mods, and 40% off of Deluxe, and it covers most dates from now until 12/16/10, with the usual black-out dates.



This is so dangerous. I know that two trips to Disney just aren’t in the budget for us this year. And here I have already made up my mind that we are going for DS’s birthday. Even though it is over Memorial Day weekend. And it will be SUPER crowded. And the room rates are higher. And it will probably be really hot. And it will most likely rain at some point every day.

And I hate crowds. And hot weather. And the rain.



Hmm... you know… our anniversary is 11/18… and DH’s birthday is 12/6… and the Unofficial Guide says that one of the best weeks to go is the week after Thanksgiving. Which is the week before DH’s birthday. And like 2 weeks after our anniversary. Value rates. Cool weather (but still warmer than home). CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! MVMCP!!



Hmmmm…….maybe I should just call and see what those prices look like…….

So I called and spoke with a very helpful CM named Otis. Otis and I chatted about May vs. December at the World. I told him that I if we decided to come in December, I really wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge because I had heard that it was just beautiful at that time of year. He agreed. I gave him my PIN code and he looked up the price for me.

11/28 – 12/5
7 nights/7 day base tickets w/ DDP
Wilderness Lodge – Woods View
2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant
$2821.11

Not bad AT ALL!! Gotta love that 40% discount!

Otis asked if I was ready to book and I told him not yet. I needed to discuss with DH before making any definitive decisions.



I waited until Darren was in a really good mood. (Always a good idea when it’s time to talk Disney.) He was (somewhat surprisingly) extremely supportive of moving the trip to Nov/Dec. I think it was the idea of having 6 extra months to save $$, plus having 11 days in a row off of work (including the Thanksgiving holiday) that sold him on it. He told me to go ahead and book it.



I picked up the phone to call Otis back. (Well, the WDW Travel Co, anyway) But while I was on hold, I made my new ticker. And I thought – Good grief! 10 months is a loooong ways away! Then I made the one that counts down the number of days. And it was over 300!! UGH!! That is so far off!


So I hung up the phone.


I started looking again at the price of our May trip ($1968.80). I looked at all of the ADR’s that I had already booked. I looked at the itinerary that I had already planned out. And I thought again about how much fun my little boy was going to have on his 3rd birthday “with” all of his favorite characters.



You know what?

Christmastime at Disney World can wait.

Until next year at least.

Next

 

[disneylovin24]

Good choice not moving your trip, your next one is a lot closer then 300 days for you to change it now

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Good choice not moving your trip, your next one is a lot closer then 300 days for you to change it now

Oh yeah - 118 days is MUCH better than 300+!!

 

[ladybugmom]

Awww man!! I was getting all excited since we're staying at WL and are going Nov. 27-Dec. 4. Oh well!! At least you don't have to wait as long AND you're saving $!! Boy do I wish they would send me that pin code!

 

[MHTeacher]

You'll still have so much fun celebrating your little one's birthday in May/June.

MAYBE.....you could shorten the time on each vacation/ to lessen the expense...and still get two trips in?!?! Just an idea......

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Awww man!! I was getting all excited since we're staying at WL and are going Nov. 27-Dec. 4. Oh well!! At least you don't have to wait as long AND you're saving $!! Boy do I wish they would send me that pin code!

I know! I was getting excited thinking that we would be there at the same time, and at the same resort!! Oh well! What I've heard from a lot of people that got that PIN is that they went on the WDW website and saved offers for a bunch of different times of the year (personally, I saved one for DD's bday week, DS's bday week, and the week in Nov/Dec). A couple of weeks later I got the PIN.

You'll still have so much fun celebrating your little one's birthday in May/June.

MAYBE.....you could shorten the time on each vacation/ to lessen the expense...and still get two trips in?!?! Just an idea......

Hmm, that's a good idea! Maybe I should price that out......

 

[MHTeacher]

Hmm, that's a good idea! Maybe I should price that out......

YES...drag out the Disney Notebook, and start pricing out/writing down all kinds of Disney scenarios !

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

YES...drag out the Disney Notebook, and start pricing out/writing down all kinds of Disney scenarios !

Are you a fly on my wall? That is exactly what I've been doing!! I'm trying really hard to make it work out. So far I've figured out that if we went for 4 nights the week of 11/28 - 12/4 (exact dates TBD), the room would cost ~ $648 with the discount.

If I cut our May/June trip short 2 days and we stayed from 5/28 - 6/2, keeping our resort at Pop in a standard room and taking the 30% room discount, we would save ~ $616. BUT we would lose out on the $300 gift card. If we chose to keep the GC, we would only save ~ $434. BUT we probably could get by with spending very little OOP (since we will be on the dining plan).

If I cut our May/June trip short 3 days and we stayed from 5/29 - 6/2, taking the 25% room discount at Pop, we would save ~ $776. But again, we'd lose out on the GC.

As if all of that wasn't confusing enough, then I started looking at buying tickets in Nov vs. upgrading our May tickets to an AP. So now my head is spinning!

Then I asked DH if he would rather take two shorter vacations or one longer one. He said one longer one. So I probably just wasted an hour of my life as only the Disney-obsessed can.

 

[MHTeacher]

Are you a fly on my wall? That is exactly what I've been doing!!

No---I hate flies! I swat those little fellows everytime I see one!

Then I asked DH if he would rather take two shorter vacations or one longer one. He said one longer one. So I probably just wasted an hour of my life as only the Disney-obsessed can.

Never ask........

The other night at dinner, DH asked "What are the dates for our May trip?" I told him, and he proceeded to pull out his phone, find the calendar, and mark off the days !

 

[elizablake]

Oh my, you have a hard decision. I doesn't sound like you can go wrong either way.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

It's a sickness. A disease, really. I think I may need professional help. I just can't stop...

CHANGING MY ADR'S!!!

After reading a few birthday TR's (I'm talking about you, MHTeacher ) I decided that I wanted to do a character dinner on DS's birthday. So I went to the Disney Dining website (oh, how I love being able to book online! ) and sorted by character dining. (*Side note: I really like the layout of this portion of the Disney website. It's very user-friendly. They got something right! ) Then I began the elimination process. 1900 Park Fare was out because Dakoda could care less about Cindy and her family. Same for CRT. We are going to AK that day (and we don't park hop), so The Garden Grill, Akershus, H&V, and CP are all out. I can't stomach even the sight of seafood, the Cape May Cafe is a no-go. That leaves us with:

Chef Mickey's or Garden Grove ​

Since I couldn't find any solid info on what characters appear at GG, I decided to go with CM's. I'm really not a huge fan of buffet food (unless it's breakfast), but DS eats well at them, so I'll suck it up. I'll just have to have a snack before we go. Or eat a lot of dessert. I'm going to have a cake delivered, too. Hopefully I can find a cute one that won't cost me an arm and a leg. It's Disney, though, so good luck, right?



You may recall that we were scheduled to have breakfast at CM's on 6/4. Since we were going to be there on Sunday night, I decided to switch that ressie to somewhere we hadn't been before. I've heard good things about the character breakfast at 'Ohana, so I booked us for there.



So here is the new (and improved?) ADR list:

5/30 Tusker House 8:00 am
5/30 Chef Mickey's 7:35 pm
5/31 The Crystal Palace 8:10 am
6/1 Hollywood & Vine 8:00 am
6/2 Akershus 8:00 am
6/2 Teppan Edo 1:00 pm
6/4 'Ohana 7:40 am

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