A Tale of Two Holidays ... with a Two Year Old 12/24 UPDATE!

[ariel1025]

I have been to 'Ohana, but only for dinner. LOVED it. Would be going back on our upcoming trip if DH and I were not doing the luau. Breakfast with Stitch is a definite must-do for our next family vacation, as he's one of my youngest DD's favorites.

I've also been to Cape May, but again, only for dinner. It was really good... and DH are going here on our October trip!

I've been to dinner (are we sensing a pattern?) at Chef M's... we had no complaints about the food. I know the Fab 5 appear here. But what characters are at Cape May? If the choice is to see all of the Fab 5 or just Mickey and Minnie in beach attire, I think I'd go with Chef M's.

I've never been to 1900PF, but if I had to choose, I would go for dinner. For one reason: the stepsisters. The interaction we had with those characters at MK was one of the best we've ever had... they were hilarious!

I think we only did one character meal on our 2010 trip (breakfast at CP)... but on our 2007 trip, we did 3 (breakfast at CP, lunch at Akershus, dinner at Chef M's) Breakfast at CP is one we love... we've only done it twice, but it feels like it should be a tradition of sorts. We've always done a late-ish breakfast, but I'd really like to schedule one prior to the park opening so we can get in and walk down an empty Main Street!

We did 'Ohana for dinner for the first time a couple years ago and are converts for sure So much so, in fact, we are going back before our cruise next month

I'm not 100% positive, but I believe that Cape May has Mickey, Minnie and Donald for the character breakfast. I guess I should double check on that, because my little guy has suddenly decided Pluto is the funniest thing ever - laughs everytime he comes on TV

When we've gone in the past (just the two of us) we have usually done 2 character meals. I would imagine we will do at least that many on this trip

 

[ariel1025]

Hello? *tap* *tap* *tap* Is this thing on? Anybody out there

I seriously cannot believe that it has been so long since my last update. So long in fact that I had to go back and read what I posted last

Well, in my absence we have made one more decision regarding where we want to stay on this trip ... two actually!

First, we will not be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani or Jambo) for this trip. It's our home resort and we have loved it the last two times we have stayed there, but for the length of our trip and the parks we will be visiting most - it just doesn't make sense.

We have also decided not to stay at Beach Club Villas either. Honestly, this one doesn't come as a surprise to me since I was the only one voting for it anyway. I love the resort, the pool, the restaurants, the access to Epcot but I still can't get past the rooms. Combining that with the fact that Candi simply isn't a fan at all - we have decided to officially cross it off the list.

So, to save you from going back to page one to look at what that leaves I'll give you the updated list of possibilities

1. Bay Lake Towers
2. Villas at Wilderness Lodge
3. Grand Floridian Villas (or whatever they will call them)

As you can see we have narrowed it down to the Magic Kingdom area hotels. But, now we are really struggling with which one to choose. We definitely want to wait until we can see what the GF rooms will look like (and how many points they will be!) before we make a final decision. So, for now, only time will tell ... I guess that's ok since we still have 518 days to go

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

As far as character meals, I've only done CP. The food was good and fresh. The characters were interactive with the adults and kids, Piglet actually fed me. I'm not a big Pooh fan, but I would definitely consider doing it again in the future.

This will be DS's second trip to WDW but our first time doing character meals with him. We are doing Chef Mickey's and 'Ohana for breakfast and Akershus for dinner. I'll let you know how those pan out.

Your DVC resort choices sound great. I don't think I'd be able to choose either. DH ans I are looking to purchase DVC in the next couple of years. My choice would be Bay Lake Tower, with Kidani being a second choice.

 

[Alysa]

What a great idea, going to the two parties at once! It never even occurred to me to do that!
Your son is adorable!
Looking forward to seeing which resort you choose, I'm excited to try the GF as well! Bay Lake towers is nice because you can just walk over, heaven!
I think over the years we have done breakfast and lunch or dinner at almost all of the character meal locations you mentioned (except Cape May and 'Ohanas - only breakfast there) and maybe I'm just not a fan of buffet dinners but I prefer the breakfasts at all of them, with the exception of 1900 Park Fare. I agree with PixieMama, the step sisters are hysterical!
Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[ariel1025]

As far as character meals, I've only done CP. The food was good and fresh. The characters were interactive with the adults and kids, Piglet actually fed me. I'm not a big Pooh fan, but I would definitely consider doing it again in the future.

This will be DS's second trip to WDW but our first time doing character meals with him. We are doing Chef Mickey's and 'Ohana for breakfast and Akershus for dinner. I'll let you know how those pan out.

Your DVC resort choices sound great. I don't think I'd be able to choose either. DH ans I are looking to purchase DVC in the next couple of years. My choice would be Bay Lake Tower, with Kidani being a second choice.

We just did CP a couple weeks ago on our MK day before our cruise. We had the first reservation for the day and agree that the food and characters were great

Can't wait to hear how your character meal experiences turn out!

Congratulations on the possible DVC purchase! We went with Kidani because the price per point at the time was considerably less (although the annual dues are slightly more). We love it there, but are ready to try out somewhere new

What a great idea, going to the two parties at once! It never even occurred to me to do that!
Your son is adorable!
Looking forward to seeing which resort you choose, I'm excited to try the GF as well! Bay Lake towers is nice because you can just walk over, heaven!
I think over the years we have done breakfast and lunch or dinner at almost all of the character meal locations you mentioned (except Cape May and 'Ohanas - only breakfast there) and maybe I'm just not a fan of buffet dinners but I prefer the breakfasts at all of them, with the exception of 1900 Park Fare. I agree with PixieMama, the step sisters are hysterical!
Looking forward to hearing more!

It never dawned on me for the longest time either

I'm just excited to see some updates on GF - room mock ups, artist renditions ... something!

Yeah, I'm not a huge buffet fan either, which is what deters me from booking character meals as dinners. However, Candi loves buffets and since James won't be 3 yet, he is free at buffets so economically it makes sense

 

[ariel1025]

Hello again! If any of you are following along on my PTR for our Disneyland trip, than you have heard that we (very) recently took a pretty big financial hit It is what it is, and it couldn't be prevented but we had to empty our savings account to cover the situation. Because of that we sat down to really break down our budget for that trip and see if it was still feasable.

In doing that it made me realize that anything can happen at any time. Ok, I already knew that but it was a mighty big reality check Because of that, last night Candi and I sat down and put pen to paper to determine the real cost of this trip too. Sure, we have over a year before it comes, but it never hurts to be (over)prepared

Now keep in mind that I know (without a doubt!) that these numbers will change. For starters, these are all based on the current prices of things and goodness knows it will go up. Also, this is based purely on the "if money wasn't an obstacle" point of view. Basically, we know that we will have to make some adjustments along the way. But, I like to plan for the largest number and watch it get smaller versus the opposite way!

So, here we go:

Flight: 1 roundtrip ticket x 3 people = approx $793
Since flights aren't actually released that far out I input it for the same dates this year

Tickets: 9 day base tickets x 2 adults = $566
Park hopper x 2 adults = $110
WPFM x 2 adults = $110
MNSSHP x 2 adults = $139.90
MVMCP x 2 adults = $117.90
Initially we weren't going to do the Water Park option, but we've quickly realized that we have a little water baby on our hands But, what are temperatures like in early November? Is it warm enough to do a water park?

Spending: $100 x 10 days = $1000
This is the standard number we always use for trips. It covers things like souvenirs, snacks, items we forgot at home, adult beverages etc

Deluxe dining: $85.52 x 10 nights x 2 adults = $1,710.40
Ok, I about fell on the floor when I calculated this number. Seriously? $1700 for food for 10 days? You have got to be kidding me! Needless to say, once we better break down where we would like to eat this will be changing!

TOTAL: $4547.20 / 62 pay periods = $73.34/paycheck
Yeah, we're kinda weird and like to break everything down by paycheck. It makes the number seem less drastic We were hoping for the final number to be more like $50/paycheck so we have some work to do here, but it's a starting off point

Looks like we better get back to restaurant picking again

 

[ariel1025]

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great ending to their weekend. We went to a graduation party yesterday and we were supposed to go have a picnic at the Gardens today. Unfortunately, the little guy is feeling under the weather . So, instead, it's lots of sleeping for him and chores, work and blogging for us.

I know I said we were going to get back to restaurant picking 'n choosing, but when we sat down to do it we realized that we would rather decide where we are going to be and choose where we eat based on that. So, although it's too early to have a real, solid plan we decided to look at our best guesses and go from there.

The first thing I did was take a look at the best park days according to Touring Plans. Now, these dates aren't actually released for next year yet, so we (as always) used this years dates as our guide. Based on using this year's dates for best park days we would be doing the following:

Oct 30 (arrival day): MK
Oct 31: MK
Nov 1: AK
Nov 2: MK
Nov 3: AK
Nov 4: Epcot
Nov 5: Epcot
Nov 6: HS
Nov 7: HS
Nov 8: HS
Nov 9: Travel Home

Now, we've never been one to follow these predictions all the time, and we've never really regretted it. Has there been a time or two that we've felt a park was too crowded and hopped to another one? Sure! Was it a big deal? Nope!

So, here's what we know for sure about this plan (besides the fact that those recommendations will most likely change).

1. We don't tend to go to the same park two days in a row - we prefer to fluctuate between the parks for variety
2. We normally don't visit a park on our arrival day. There are only two options when traveling to WDW for us - leaving at the crack of dawn or arriving at dinnertime. Neither is an appealing option for visiting a park.
3. We definitely don't see a need to go to HS three days (especially in a row!)
4. Two of those days will be party days (MNSSHP and MVMCP)

So, how does all that change our (very early) plan???

 

[ariel1025]

The (we are crazy to be making a plan this early)Plan: Travel Day

So, one thing we have decided for sure, is that we will absolutely not be taking a flight that requires us to be out of bed before the sun rises. Along with that, we will also not be taking a flight that has us landing in FL after the sun goes down. If the cards play in our favor, we will be able to grab a flight around 10ish and land with enough time to leisurely get ready for dinner once we arrive. That's not asking for too much right

Although we had a fairly long wait for Magical Express on our most recent trip, we are still fans of this service and will be utilizing it for this trip too. So, after getting off the flight we will make our way down to ME and board a bus to our (as of yet, unchosen) resort.

Once we arrive there will (fingers crossed) be a room ready for us, where we will then unpack whatever we have in our carry ons before setting out to do one of a few things. 1. Grab a quick bite to eat in our hotels quick service restaurant; 2. Explore our new home for the next 10 days; 3. Take a dip in the pool; or 4. Settle in and take a nap. This will all depend on what time we arrive, what time our dinner reservation is and how tired we are.

Although the plan is to take it nice and easy on our travel day this time (versus every other time where we were rushing to get out the door as soon as we arrived ) we will be making a dinner reservation for that evening. We have decided that this will be a restaurant in whatever hotel we end up staying at. So, either Chef Mickey's, The Wave, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Grand Floridian Cafe or 1900 Park Fare. I know there are other restaurants within the 3 hotels we have narrowed it down to, but we will definitely not be eating at a Signature restaurant this night (if any!).

Now, I have to be honest, I kind of like the idea of eating at Chef Mickey's for James' first meal (not counting the potential QS for lunch ) of the trip. So, I guess that's a bonus point in Bay Lake's favor

After dinner we will then do one of a few things 1. bath and bed; 2. take a dip in the pool; or 3. catch Wishes! or the Electrical Water Parade. It will depend on how late our dinner was, how tired we are and if seeing either of those items is an option where we are staying. Regardless, I will make sure to work in time to get us unpacked before we head to bed that night. If that means unpacking the bedroom items while Candi gives James a bath and unpacking the bathroom items after James goes to sleep, than so be it. I just feel so much more relaxed having everything unpacked and easily accessible during the course of our stay!

So, although the (current) prediction of a 1.5 crowd level at Magic Kingdom does sound uber appealing, I am much more drawn to the nice relaxing evening we have decided on instead!

 

[PixieMama]

Hmmmm... BLT, WLV, or GFV. Personally, I think my choice would be WLV... I've never stayed at WL, but have been there to dine at WCC. I love the whole look of the resort, especially compared with the other two. My 2nd choice would probably be BLT.

Decisions, decisions!

 

[ariel1025]

Hmmmm... BLT, WLV, or GFV. Personally, I think my choice would be WLV... I've never stayed at WL, but have been there to dine at WCC. I love the whole look of the resort, especially compared with the other two. My 2nd choice would probably be BLT.

Decisions, decisions!

We love WL too - that's where we stayed for our honeymoon as well as our last big WDW trip. Problem is, as much as we love the hotel itself we are not fans of the Villas and love the transportation options at BLT and GFV.

Such a tough life decision

 

[ariel1025]

So, I'm a few days late in inputting it into my numbers, but I'm sure you all know by know that the price of tickets went up a few days ago I knew it would happen (at least once) before our trip but it makes me sad none the less.

So, here is what that does to our budget now:

Tickets: 9 day base tickets x 2 adults = $616
Park hopper x 2 adults = $114
WPFM x 2 adults = $44 (if we get both the park hopper and WPFM, $114 for only one option)

Hmmm, are my eyes deceiving me? It is actualy $12 less than before the price adjustments - shocking, but I'll take it

Not that $12 makes a huge difference, but hey, a savings is a savings. So now the overall budget looks like this

TOTAL: $4535.20 / 62 pay periods = $73.15/paycheck

Hot dog a whopping 19 cents per paycheck saved

We are still debating if we want to add the Water park option or not. Still need to look into average temperatures to see if that would be somewhere we would make time for or not. I know James would love it, so if it looks warm enough we will probably do it. Plus, with the new pricing it's cheaper to add it than to just purchase each of us a 1 day water park ticket (which we've done in the past). And it looks like now it is also good at the miniature golf which we always say we want to try out. So ... I guess it looks like probably, but not definitely

 

[JennisSilly]

Hmmm, are my eyes deceiving me? It is actualy $12 less than before the price adjustments - shocking, but I'll take it

Not that $12 makes a huge difference, but hey, a savings is a savings. So now the overall budget looks like this

TOTAL: $4535.20 / 62 pay periods = $73.15/paycheck

Hot dog a whopping 19 cents per paycheck saved

We are still debating if we want to add the Water park option or not. Still need to look into average temperatures to see if that would be somewhere we would make time for or not. I know James would love it, so if it looks warm enough we will probably do it. Plus, with the new pricing it's cheaper to add it than to just purchase each of us a 1 day water park ticket (which we've done in the past). And it looks like now it is also good at the miniature golf which we always say we want to try out. So ... I guess it looks like probably, but not definitely

I was shocked as well- after the hike at Disneyland I thought they'd have a huge increase at WDW too. I think we're going to by our park tickets through tickets at work as soon as they go up with a 12/31/13 expiration I'm case they decide to do a big rate hike with the opening of fantasy land expansions.

We too are having the water park debate for our Oct trip. DH loves them but I just don't know if it'll be warm enough for DD. :/

 

[ariel1025]

I was shocked as well- after the hike at Disneyland I thought they'd have a huge increase at WDW too. I think we're going to by our park tickets through tickets at work as soon as they go up with a 12/31/13 expiration I'm case they decide to do a big rate hike with the opening of fantasy land expansions.

We too are having the water park debate for our Oct trip. DH loves them but I just don't know if it'll be warm enough for DD. :/

Oh, good thinking I hadn't even thought about them raising prices due to the expansion. I'm going to have to keep my out to buy tickets ahead of time as well!

 

[ariel1025]

500 DAYS

Ok, ok, I know that is still a really long time but it's a milestone nonetheless

On the planning front, Candi and I have spent a lot of time debating and we have decided not to add the Water Park option to our tickets. From everything we have researched the average temperatures are the mid to high 70s and we just don't think that's warm enough for James (or ourselves!) to be jumping in and out of water for the day. Perfect T-shirt weather for a park? You bet ya! Perfect for water slides? Not for us!

So, not a huge dent in the budget, but $44 saved is still money saved

Now, if by chance, it is super warm one day while we are there we will just purchase a one day ticket for the waterpark. Not the way to go in regards to saving money, but we will just take it from our spending money for that day. I would rather pay more and use it than pay less now and not use it resulting in wasted money.

We have also decided to add Animal Kingdom Lodge back to our list of possibilities. I know! We just took it off the list. But, since we are also doing Disneyland next year, the value point rooms are too good to pass up. If we want to say in a 1 bedroom, than that's the only place to do it for the bulk of our trip. It would, however, requiring doing a room switch after the first three days and I'm not sure I want to deal with that. But, the one bedroom space is super appealing so we will see what happens

Guess that's all I've got for now. Hope everyone is having a great Father's Day and enjoying some awesome warm weather!

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

Just joining in now. I hope your planning is going well. I cant wait to hear all about your trip with your little guy. We are planning on going next year too when mine will be 2.5 years old.

We did both parties back in 2010 when I was 3 months prego. I LOVE IT I will tell you that the best is Nov 1st MNSSHP. Low crowds and they give you ALOT of candy. Also the 1st MVMCP was great too! Low crowds. I would do those dates. Try to go to the F&W on Mondays or Tuesday and do early if possible. Lower crowds for sure. Friday and Saturday was a nightmare.

I look forward to reading more soon. Have fun planning. I have been playing since last year around this time too! It is never to early to start.

 

[ariel1025]

Just joining in now. I hope your planning is going well. I cant wait to hear all about your trip with your little guy. We are planning on going next year too when mine will be 2.5 years old.

We did both parties back in 2010 when I was 3 months prego. I LOVE IT I will tell you that the best is Nov 1st MNSSHP. Low crowds and they give you ALOT of candy. Also the 1st MVMCP was great too! Low crowds. I would do those dates. Try to go to the F&W on Mondays or Tuesday and do early if possible. Lower crowds for sure. Friday and Saturday was a nightmare.

I look forward to reading more soon. Have fun planning. I have been playing since last year around this time too! It is never to early to start.

Thanks for joining in!

How exciting to be planning a trip yourself. Do you have a PTR?

Thanks for the advice on the parties. We will definitely be going to the first MVMCP due to time constraints. I will strongly consider the Nov 1 MNSSHP. Did you partake in Halloween events on Oct 31 anywhere else while you were there?

 

[ariel1025]

Well, after much, much, much debate we have made a decision on where we will be staying during this trip. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel our Disneyland trip for early 2013. But, the one positive from that is we are now able to use all our DVC points for this trip, which gives us more possibilities than before.

Candi's first instinct when I brought this up was to stay the entire trip in a value 1 bedroom at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo. Now, while I love the idea of staying in a 1 bedroom the entire trip, I just wasn't sold on staying at AKL (again). So, we talked through all the possibilities and even though it will require a split stay we have chosen

Bay Lake Towers!!!

I am so so so so so excited!!!!

I love having so many dining options that are easily accessible, the transportation options, the walkway to Magic Kingdom, the splash area and pool for James. The whole thing just makes me giddy!

So, where will we be staying for the first three days?

Well, that hasn't been entirely decided. The majority of that will be determined based on budget. How much money we want to contribute to that portion of that trip mixed with what deals Disney will be offering at that time. But, we have narrowed it down to our favorites in each Disney defined category.

Value:

We've never actually stayed in a value resort before, and the idea kind of excites me. It's Disney and I think that they do everything above average, so I'm not worried, at all, about the quality of the resort. In addition, I think James would absolutely love the courtyard(s) and the pool(s) with all the over sized characters and such.

With that being said, and I hate to say this, but I think the rooms are just slightly overkill with the drowning of Disney. I know! Flame me! I understand it's Disney and I expect Disney to be apparent, but I almost feel this is a little much. At least in pictures. Perhaps I would feel different in person?

So, why is this our value of choice? Well, the idea of staying in the newest value resort is appealing to me. I think James would adore the "character" of the rooms and everything else, as discussed above. And, it was Candi's first choice vote.

Moderate

Caribbean Beach Resort

We are drawn to this resort primarily for the pirate rooms. At almost three, and having bigger interest in Jake and the Neverland Pirates with each passing day, I think James would totally get (and be into!) the pirate rooms. If I were a young boy I know I would totally dig it. Ok, perhaps at just over 30 I still dig it

Plus, if we got the moderate route we want to try somewhere new and we did Coronado Springs previously.

With that said, we also have Port Orleans Riverside on our radar

This was chosen for two reasons. One, Candi has always been drawn to the Port Orleans resort. Two, I was instantly drawn to the new Royal Guest rooms. The latter reason would be specifically for my benefit as they boys could care less about being in a girly room. And, for that, I feel a little selfish in choosing this resort. But, POR also has boat transportation to Downtown Disney and since we almost always spend our arrival night there it would be convenient. Not to mention nice to avoid the bus to DTD for once

Deluxe

First, let me just say that this will not be happening unless Disney either releases a super amazing deal or we get an elusive pin code. But, just in case we narrowed these down too.

Yacht Club

I was voting for Beach Club, but Candi is more fond of the decor at Yacht Club and since it still gets me access to Stormalong Bay as well as the boat and walkway to Epcot I wasn't feeling a need to argue

We have always wanted to stay in the Epcot area, but since we aren't fond of the DVC rooms at Beach Club or Boardwalk it hasn't happened yet. So, we feel this could be our opportunity to do it, even if it is only for a few days.

However, I just couldn't close out the options for deluxe without including my dream resort

Ahhh! I have always, always, always wanted to stay at the Polynesian. It was our first choice for our honeymoon, but the cost for it just wasn't in the cards.

But, I still dream about the day we do, finally, stay here. Maybe, just maybe, a three night stay will fit the budget ...

So, what's your advice? Where would you stay? Anywhere you suggest we steer clear of? Anywhere we left off you think we should consider?

 

[ariel1025]

So, I know I've been such a slacker when it comes to updating this little baby lately. But, that thing called life has gotten in the way - and really, can't complain about that. Plus, I think I needed a little hiatus to help ease my sadness about cancelling our Disneyland trip.

Unfortunately, I don't have time for a full update today either, but I wanted to let y'all know I'm still here and hope to get back to updates real, real soon.

For now, here are things we have made major decisions on concerning the trip:

* Hotel(s)
* Restaurants
* Park tickets
* Parties
* Cruises

and the biggy



























Babies!

Eek, so excited to tell you more. Soon! Promise!

In the meantime, I leave you with the awesomeness of my Son over the past month or so

Awesome baby, er, I mean toddler shoes

Loves him some pasta and pizza

Video - click to play
A corn lovin' kid (just like his Mama!)

Slam Dunkin' (just like his Daddy!)

Seriously, when did he start looking so big? Please stop time!!!

Super Cinco!

Ready to go racing with Grandpa

Snuggles while watching "ache!" aka Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Jumping on the hotel bed. What? It's a right of passage

Infatuated with the polar bears

If you say the words "bye" "outside" "chalk" or "go" you better mean it because that boy is at the door putting on his shoes in about .2 seconds flat!

Hope everyone else is having a fantastic summer too

 

[ariel1025]

Alright, let's get back to planning this little trip. Ok, truth be told, we have continued to plan, I just haven't been sharing with y'all You wouldn't think it would be so hard to get on here and type out our little thoughts. But, by golly, by the time I put my head on my pillow at night I'm at a loss for where the time went that day. Cinco keeps me on my toes constantly, work has been chaos, my sister texts me baby question all day, the house is always in need of one (or several!) rooms that need some cleaning ... the list goes on and on. Truth be told? I wouldn't have it any other way! Well, except the work and house chores - those I would gladly get rid of

Moving on, as I said last week we have made several major changes and decisions regarding this trip and here they are ...


Hotel(s)

After many discussions we have decided that we will be switching our 7 night stay in a one bedroom at Bay Lake to a 6 night. Although we both really, really want to stay in a one bedroom as long as possible it just didn't make sense to pay money to stay somewhere else the other three nights. So, by shortening our stay at BLT by a night, it opened up enough points for us to also book a studio, thus not spending any of our cash on lodging So, for the first four nights of our trip we will be staying in a value studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo

In the beginning we were trying to avoid staying here since that's where we've stayed on our last two trips. However, there were just so many things that made sense:

1. Not paying out of pocket (this was the biggy!)
2. More chance to explore the lobby (no time before our cruise, at Kidani the previous trip)
3. A chance for Cinco to use the kids area at the Kidani pool (didn't make it last time)
4. Time to explore the grounds, animals etc (rushed on last trip)
5. A great excuse to finally try breakfast at Boma

Now that it's all set in stone - at least in our heads, we can't book it until November - I am really loving this plan!

Restaurants

Using our initial itinerary (yes, we are that sick and have made one already ) we have decided where we want to eat for almost every day. I will share when we start revealing our daily plans.

Tickets

This was the shocker for me ... we have decided not to get park hopper passes for this trip. This will be the first time we have ever gone to WDW for more than a day and not had them. I'm a little nervous, but with James, we don't think we would want to devote much time to traveling between parks. So, we have decided not to get them. I know in the past you could add them to your remaining days at any time, so if this is the case and we decide while we are there that we want them, then we have agreed we will use our spending money towards them. Again, we made an initial itinerary and on paper it seems to work not having them. Should be interesting ...

We have also decided that we are going to get tickets for only 7 of the 10 days that we will be there. We want to devote 1 day to a complete down day and I know we would be too tempted to hit a park if the option was there. And, we have also decided that we won't be going to a park during the day on the days we are attending parties. In the past you could get into the parties at 4:00 with your party tickets, so I am hoping this holds true when we go.

Parties

There was an insane amount of discussion over this one, but we have finally decided which nights we are planning on attending the parties.

MVMCP was easy, it will be on November 8 as it is the only night it is offered on our trip. This is the first night of the party so I don't expect that it will be too crowded. I just hope that MK is decked out in it's holiday finest since it's so early on in the month. But, I have faith that Disney won't let me down and wouldn't offer the party if the ambiance wasn't going to be there ::fingers crossed::

Now, MNSSHP was a whole other ballgame when it came to making decisions. Very early on, you might remember that we were debating between our arrival day, Halloween night or November 2. We quickly vanquished the idea of going to the party on arrival night. If our travel day wasn't so long, didn't require us to be up so early, and didn't arrive so late in the afternoon then I think it would be a great way to kick off the trip. However, since all those factors come into play I think it would be a waste of a ticket because we wouldn't be able to get there for the 4:00 entry that is typically allowed and we would all be too tried to truly enjoy it.

That brought us to the option of Halloween or November 2. Initially we were positive that we wanted to go on Halloween night. However, after further thought there were two factors that were deterring us:

1. The ticket is quite a bit more expensive that night
2. The crowds, I'm sure, will be insane

So, then we jumped to the November 2 party making the most sense. But, after I read that there is no longer Halloween festivities offered in DTD I wanted to jump back to the Halloween night party. Call me crazy, but I didn't want James to miss out on trick-or-treating on the actual night of Halloween. Seriously, call me crazy, Candi did. I realize he will be (just under) three and will have no clue - but, I would and it bothered me.

Finally, after what I think was seriously a week of discussion at random times I googled "trick-or-treating at WDW." By doing this I found several discussion boards and blogs that stated there are Halloween activities, including trick-or-treating, at the resorts. Once again, Disney did not let me down. Once I realized this we decided it only made sense to go to the November 2 party. Less money and (hopefully) smaller crowds is a win/win in my book!

Cruises

Ok, that header is a little misleading. No, we are not thinking about switching this trip to a cruise or adding on a cruse. What we did decide is that we want to do one of the fireworks cruises.

Initially, we were debating between the Illuminations cruise or the Wishes cruise. However, upon doing research I stumbled upon information for the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruse. Considering James is currently 100% in love with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, well, I was sold! Just don't tell Peter Pan that he is actually a fan of Captain Hook. No lie! He claps every time Captain Hook comes on and says "uh-oh mama" every time he sees Peter Pan

Has anybody ever done the Pirates and Pals cruise? Any feedback or expectations you can provide me?

Babies

No, I'm not preggers! But, the topic of babies did start surfacing. It actually started being discussed at the beginning of summer. I think it was initially just because we were on our cruise and I was pregnant with James the last time we had cruise before that. But, then it started becoming a serious discussion.

At this point we know that we want a second baby and we are thinking sooner rather than later. Which is why I'm bringing it up here. It could possibly put major changes into our trip, or even cancel it.

One thing we know for sure is that we would like to avoid having another winter baby. James was born in January and we had a bitter cold winter all the way through March. So, even after the recommended 6 weeks of being "house bound" with a newborn we still couldn't go anywhere because it was too cold to have him out. After ten weeks of being inside I was about to lose my mind. Don't get me wrong, we did go out here and there and when necessary (Dr appointments mostly). And, Candi did offer to watch James so I could go do things myself. But, being unable to go out as a family "just because" on a regular basis really drained my morale a bit.

So, ideally we would like to get pregnant between now and Thanksgiving. That would put us with a baby born sometime between April and August. Obviously, you can see where that could put a kink in our plans for this trip. If we had a baby in April/May I think I would be ok with continuing on with the trip with a 6ish month old baby. Although I know all babies are different, I remember that age with James and it was the easiest as far as sleep, eating, fussiness etc. However, any younger than that and I would say no go.

If the latter were to occur, I will be putting on my fake eyelashes and batting my baby blues at Candi to get him to agree to a trip a lot earlier, while I am pregnant. I would like to give James one last trip with just the three of us, and I think I would cry if I don't get back to WDW until 2014

Whew! Ok, that was way more long winded than I was anticipating. Hope I didn't bore ya too much and you don't mind some of my personal life topics.

Give me your feedback, are there any plans we made which you think should be changed? Did we miss something important when making these decisions? Are we totally crazy not to get a park hopper?

 

[JennisSilly]

A
Babies

One thing we know for sure is that we would like to avoid having another winter baby. James was born in January and we had a bitter cold winter all the way through March. So, even after the recommended 6 weeks of being "house bound" with a newborn we still couldn't go anywhere because it was too cold to have him out. After ten weeks of being inside I was about to lose my mind. Don't get me wrong, we did go out here and there and when necessary (Dr appointments mostly). And, Candi did offer to watch James so I could go do things myself. But, being unable to go out as a family "just because" on a regular basis really drained my morale a bit.

So, ideally we would like to get pregnant between now and Thanksgiving. That would put us with a baby born sometime between April and August. Obviously, you can see where that could put a kink in our plans for this trip. If we had a baby in April/May I think I would be ok with continuing on with the trip with a 6ish month old baby. Although I know all babies are different, I remember that age with James and it was the easiest as far as sleep, eating, fussiness etc. However, any younger than that and I would say no go.

If the latter were to occur, I will be putting on my fake eyelashes and batting my baby blues at Candi to get him to agree to a trip a lot earlier, while I am pregnant. I would like to give James one last trip with just the three of us, and I think I would cry if I don't get back to WDW until 2014

Wishing you lots of baby dust!

You could always:

1) Book your trip as soon as your booking window opens... then I mean you'd want to use your points in that use year right? (even though technically I suppose as long as you're not borrowing points you can cancel and get your points back...) So then if you got pregnant, you'd either "use" or "lose" your points, so you'd get to go earlier...

2) Move to AZ. We don't have winters. Even if you had another January baby, after 6 weeks, we'd be in the 80's.

I feel those are two very viable options