An obsessive planner's 2nd annual Once-in-a-lifetime trip CANCELLED :( 3/22

[Tink-erin-belle]

Hi, Hope! Are you feeling better? Well, as you said, at least you were able to take advantage of your down time to share your plans! LOL They are great, as usual, and I'm glad you decided to do Tusker House for brunch. I think you all will enjoy it

 

[-Hope-]

Hi, Hope! Are you feeling better? Well, as you said, at least you were able to take advantage of your down time to share your plans! LOL They are great, as usual, and I'm glad you decided to do Tusker House for brunch. I think you all will enjoy it

Thanks Erin, I am feeling better. Not 100% but definately on the mend.

I'm really looking forward to Tusker House but nervous about it as well. The character breakfast gets very mixed reviews on the restaurant boards. People seem to either love it or hate it and there isn't much in between. (Or maybe the in between folks don't feel strongly enough to post.)

 

[lledman]

So, we have beautiful weather and I'm laying on the couch sick. I feel fine when I'm not exerting any energy- which makes me think I'm better so I get up and do something like load the dishwasher and then I just feel exhausted again. So, I figured I'd take advantage of this forced vegetation and update my PTR.

First, a confession- I've been holding out on you guys because I didn't want you to think I was completely nuts in planning so much so far in advance. But we had some very bad weather that kept me in with nothing to do but obsess about Disney. The weather has been nicer lately so I've just been tweaking what I already had planned but still, I've been planning! So...

Hope you feel better soon Hope. I don't think you are crazy for having your plans made so far in advance - in fact we still haven't settled on the details for our 2012 trip so I have 6 sets of plans in the works - January, February and March then on and off site - Anyway, I think your plans look great!!!

 

[-Hope-]

Hope you feel better soon Hope. I don't think you are crazy for having your plans made so far in advance - in fact we still haven't settled on the details for our 2012 trip so I have 6 sets of plans in the works - January, February and March then on and off site - Anyway, I think your plans look great!!!

I'm feeling much better, thanks!

And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who plans so far in advance. I can always count on my fellow disers to help me feel normal.

 

[-Hope-]

Okay, you didn't really think that itinerary would be the absolute final one did you? If you did you don't know me very well! I may keep it how I originally posted but I'm also thinking of something completely different...

I'm considering 5 day base tickets instead of 4 day hoppers. For one thing 5 day base tickets would save us about $60 which I could apply to the food budget (and possible another TS meal??) The main reason I'm considering this though is that we could go to MK on our arrival day.

For those who didn't follow my TR I didn't really "get" why it mattered what park we went to on the first day until we were actually there. When w arrived at Disney I kept waiting for the magic to hit me. We checked into our resort, looked around a bit, took the buses to MK and saw the sign welcoming us- nothing. But then when we rounded the corner on Main Street and saw the castle- it was magical! I'd really like to have this be our first impression of Disney again and with 5 day base tickets I can make that happen.

HOWEVER the main reason I was getting hoppers is because then we could go to MK on Tuesday- a day recommended by both TGM and TP- even though there will probably be a party that night and we won't get to see MSEP or Wishes. Not a problem with hoppers because we can see them another night. If we decide to do the base tickets I'll have two choices:

A) keep our park day on Tuesday and miss MSEP and view Wishes from somewhere outside the park (maybe that extra TS meal could be at the Poly or Contemporary).

B) Change our MK day to Wednesday which is yellow according to TGM and neutral according to TP. This might not be such a big deal considering we'd have already spent several hours at MK on our arrival day. We wouldn't need to squeeze as much into one day so the higher crowds might not be an issue. We went on Wednesday last year and didn't find it too crowded at all.

Another thing to consider is that without hoppers we will only have one day at Epcot. I'm actually okay with that and think it will be plenty. We didn't like breaks when we were relying on buses and it took two hours just to travel to and from the parks but with our own car and a house about 10 minutes away I think a break late afternoon will work well. We can eat a light dinner at the house and still make it back to Epcot in time for Illuminations. It's really the same thing we were doing before except we were going to go to MK for Wishes after the break instead of back to Epcot.

DHS wouldn't really be affected by any changes because if I did MK on Wednesday I'd just do DHS Tuesday which is still a best park day. AK wouldn't be affected either except we might actually try to do a couple more things in Dinoland if we aren't trying to hop to another park later.

So, what do you think? Hoppers or not? If not then MK on Tuesday or Wednesday?

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

OR, and I'm just throwing this out there...

You could arrive on Saturday instead and go to MK AND Wishes that evening?!?!? Remember, we already have the house rented from Friday to Friday either way!

 

[-Hope-]

Ooooh, that's something to think on...

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm gonna have you with 6 day base tickets and a week long trip by the time this is all said and done!

 

[-Hope-]

Well... 6 day base tickets are only $1 more than 4 day hoppers...

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Well... 6 day base tickets are only $1 more than 4 day hoppers...

 

[lledman]

Well... 6 day base tickets are only $1 more than 4 day hoppers...

Sounds like a plan to me

 

[Victoriasmom98]

OR, and I'm just throwing this out there...

You could arrive on Saturday instead and go to MK AND Wishes that evening?!?!? Remember, we already have the house rented from Friday to Friday either way!

Yeah, Karen's just "throwing it out there!!!!"

 

[DrMomof3]

A few thoughts....
1. I think, for a shorter trip (5 days or less), park hoppers are not really worth it. For a longer trip, the per day cost is low enough to justify it. The only exception is if you are going to be dining at Epcot every night...
2. The recommended parks are only recommendations. You are not going during peak season. Don't tie yourself to the recommended park if it doesn't work for you.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

Sounds like a plan to me

I'm seriously considering it- although I'm not sure how my "quick 3 day trip" has turned into 6 days. Oh, that's right- my best friend is in the Mouse Mafia.

Yeah, Karen's just "throwing it out there!!!!"

Yeah, she's pretty good at playing the innocent isn't she Ann.

A few thoughts....
1. I think, for a shorter trip (5 days or less), park hoppers are not really worth it. For a longer trip, the per day cost is low enough to justify it. The only exception is if you are going to be dining at Epcot every night...
2. The recommended parks are only recommendations. You are not going during peak season. Don't tie yourself to the recommended park if it doesn't work for you.

Amanda

Very good points Amanda. The homeschool tickets offer pretty good rates on the park hoppers which is why I was considering them. However I'm still not sure it's really worth it.

True about the recommendations- I like to avoid crowds but like I said, we went to MK on a "yellow" day last year and had a great day.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Mouse mafia!!

 

[-Hope-]

We had our 2nd Disney Day today! We decided to forgo the movies and it opened up a lot of possibilities. Today was... Soarin'.

This is my FAVORITE ride at Disney so it was lots of fun to think of fun ways to theme it at home.

As all good DISers know we had to have our FPes...

We also needed gliders...

These turned out to be really complicated to make but the girls had fun trying and kept refolding them into different paper airplane designs to try to get them to fly better.

We spotted some hot air balloons...

The girls had lots of fun with these too. They kept adding and subtracting beans trying to get them to float just right.

We also saw some oranges from the groves and in the background you can see the ocean water (courtesy of Sonic).

And finally there were fireworks over Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

To make these pics the girls colored white paper with lots of different colors. Then they painted several layers of black paint over it...

Then they added pics of Sleeping Beauty's castle and Tinkerbell. Finally they used plastic toothpicks to scratch away the black paint in firework designs, revealing the colors underneath.

The girls had fun with all of their activities and also just hanging out and playing. Of course Karen and I talked Disney- park days, ADRs and just general Disney fun!

It was a fun day and we already have another one in the works!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

I just love the Disney Days that you and Karen are posting! They look like so much fun! As far as the tickets go, if you don’t decide to go with the 6 day base tickets recommended by the Mouse Mafia ( ) then I would definitely say that it sounds like your best bet would be the 5 day base tickets, going to MK on Tuesday and watching Wishes from one of the resorts while eating a TS meal! I heard the view can be great at ‘Ohana if you get a window table (this is why we are having dinner there on our arrival day) – or even just watching them on the beach at the Poly after dinner. There are lots of good restaurants at the Contempo too, though. Or…maybe get sandwiches from the quick service restaurant at Poly (can’t recall the name right now, but I’ve heard good things about the sandwiches) and relax at the beach while watching the fireworks!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Hey did you read that they put up Rapunzel's tower in Germany?!? I haven't seen Tangled yet, but I know you guys liked it!
DIS link

 

[-Hope-]

Cute! My kids BOTH loved this movie despite Jace's initial protests about going to see a princess movie.

We may have to make an exception and do an actual movie day when this comes out on dvd. (Or is it out already??)

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Not sure if it's out yet or not, but I think we should do it when it is!