Ridiculous Update:
A few days after coming back from Disney, Hubby's boss sent out an email about possible conferences for this year, including one that's at Swolphin in October. This email sent us both spiraling, thinking about being able to get the girls back down to Disney to do
MNSSHP.
They LOVE Halloween. On the ME back to the airport, they were watching the little promotional video and telling us, "Did you hear that, Mom? You can trick or treat in Disney. We should do that." Hubby and I just laughed. We had blown all of our Disney budget for the next 5 years on this trip, no way we were going back down for Halloween. But, we had such a great trip! And, trick or treating in Disney is fundamentally more magical when you're 5 years old than waiting until the trip where they're 9-10 years old. We're going to love that trip, it'll be great too, but magic won't be "real" for them the way it is now.
And then, the stupid email got us both thinking. If he already had a room and a flight, then we'd just be talking about flights for 4, transport from MCO to WDW (Hubby would be able to rent a car, but the company wouldn't let him rent a minivan which is what our family of five would require to get from airport to Disney in only one vehicle), park tickets, party tickets, and food. I started pricing flights, looking at ticket costs on his convention site, etc and we decided that we'd be willing to spend a couple grand on those things to be able to have a Halloween trip to Disney.
Then, of course, we found out that his boss sent the email prematurely (he's new) and the funds hadn't actually been allocated for this travel. The rug was officially pulled out from under us. So, I started fiddling again. If we were willing to have x budget to go while Hubby was at a convention, was there a way to juggle those funds and do a super short, MNSSHP trip with that same budget?
Our very good family friends are going on a free dining promotion the last two weeks of August and staying at Beach Club. I was able to snag an awesome room rate at BC as well, we'd fly super cheap with Spirit taking only personal items (our friends can bring a checked bag for us on their Southwest flights), MNSSHP tickets are much less expensive in August, and we wouldn't do any other park days. Plus, our friends fully expect to have extra QS and snacks on their dining package so we'd be able to do food on the cheap, too. Even more exciting, we would take their 3 kids on our arrival night so they could have a date night, reverse it and we'd get a date night the next night, and then we'd all do MNSSHP our last full day before flying home the next. All for the same budget as a couple park days and MNSSHP during Hubby's would-be convention week.
Then, Hubby found out he's been accumulating Delta points for the decade plus that he's been traveling for work (apparently, all other airline points expire but Delta don't, so his 2-4 flights a year on Delta have been adding up) and he has enough points to get us all down to MCO for only the $28 transaction fee. With our airfare budget halved, we could swing one park day in addition to the MNSSHP!
So, now there's a blink-and-you'll miss it Disney trip on the books for us the last week of August. And
then we won't be going back for 5 years, or until Hubby gets sent down for a convention, I guess.
The plan is:
Sunday, 8/25- flight lands at 2:30, ME to hotel, check in, grab friend's kids, QS dinner on crescent lake, probably roast s'mores at campfire and maybe movie under the stars. Friends' kids will have been going since a PPO at BoG, so I'll probably put them to bed early. My girls and Hubby will catch the movie, night swim, or walk around to the evening stuff on BW since they'll be running on day one adrenaline.
Monday, 8/26- Hollywood Studios morning to early afternoon with both families (RD TSL with SDD FPs since this will be my friend's +9 day and she'll be able to book for all 10 of us, do Indy and BatB which we missed in March, meet characters in Walt Dis presents assuming they've changed) until the kids get too hot and we all walk back to Stormalong bay. That night, Hubby and I have ToT and RnR FPs booked on all of the kids' bands plus our own and get a fun, adult ride night. The Star Wars fireworks were the only night show that we missed on our trip, and Hubby would like to see those, too. I know Hollywood studios isn't the park most people would pick if they were only doing one park day, but we'll be at MK already for the party and, between AK, HS, and EP, HS actually makes the most sense in terms of rides and shows the kids liked, plus being able to get back and forth to the hotel quickly to bail on the kids and take an adult night. We discussed EP, but the only FW ride they absolutely loved was TT, whereas they loved all of TSL plus Muppets 3d of all things.
Tuesday, 8/27- resort morning, Chef Mickey's 2pm brunch, then MNSSHP. My friends had HDDR booked for the 25th originally, but they decided they would rather have the date night when we'd be able to take the kids. Since this opened up 2 sets of dining credits, and our family configurations are the same (2a3c), they can use those same credits for all 10 of us to enjoy a big old buffet before the party. The kids aren't going to make it to midnight, but they'll have a fighting chance at a late night since they won't have already spent a week wearing themselves out touring. And, the adults are fine with dragging kids sleeping in strollers through the park so that we can still have fun after they tap out
Wednesday, 8/28- resort time until we fly home. Looking at afternoon or evening flights so that we don't have to be up too early. We can even use our friend's room to shower and change before catching ME, rather than having to deal with public showers and children.
