Attempting a trip with the TERRIBLE TWO's. Nov/Dec 2017

[allysetraskos]

Welcome to my PTR!
So we went on a vacation last year and it was my first time trip reporting, If you want to catch up on what we did last year please check it out:
Baby's First Trip; Child Swap Til We Drop!! Nov. 12-22nd 2016
This year we are feeling even more adventurous and plan on attempting a trip when our littlest is in his "Terrible Twos".. & let me tell you those terrible twos have hit early because hes a little monster.
Wish us luck!


INDEX:
Meet the Grants
Tell me what you want, what you really really want
Free at last!!
I've created a monster!
Party of 5?
140 Days Away
We officially have a terrible 2 year old
Double Digits!
FP+ Done, But not so fast.
1 Month to go.. I can almost taste the Dole Whip.
3 weeks of chaos... 3 days till our trip.​

 

[allysetraskos]

The Grants:

William, Gavin, Allyse & Greyson

Allyse:
The name is Allyse pronounced: Uhh-Lease, although to my boys I go by Mama!
I work full time as an Senior Ambassador for the largest online mortgage company.
Part time I work as a Disney Travel agent.
I like to scrapbook, take pictures, sew & make videos as well.
Disney is much more then a "like" or a "hobby" to me, my husband calls it an obsession lol
We had a Disney inspired Beauty & The Beast Wedding & honeymooned there, so at least my husband knew what he was getting himself into!
I have loved Disney since I was a little girl & wish we didn't live 19 hours away.
I have two Disney tattoos, love to Disneybound dress up when I go, & make my own ears!
Favorite ride: Splash Mountain / Rock N Rollercoaster
Favorite restaurant: Chef Mickeys
Favorite character: Belle!

William:
This is my husband William.
He works in a factory, he was the one who suggested this trip. My Disney insanity is growing on him and hes slowing becoming obsessed himself. His first trip was in 2013, his favorite part about Disney is Fantasmic and the food hence why we always go during free dining.. He will probably kill me for sharing this but during the Christmas castle lighting he crys... I love it. lol
He is a big Avatar fan so is extremely excited to go on a trip this year, he is also a huge Star Wars fan and cannot wait until the Star Wars land is completed.
Favorite ride: Thunder Mountain / Peter Pans Flight
Favorite restaurant: Pecos Bills
Favorite character: Buzz Lightyear

Gavin:
Gavin will be 8 years old at the time of this trip. He loves playing video games such as Minecraft & Rollercoaster Tycoon. He wants to build rides and be a engineer when he grows up. He plays soccer and football. He is my picky child and cautious child. He is in the phase of being afraid of everything. He hates bugs and will literally have a meltdown if I drive with the car windows open. He is so smart though and can do math in his head better then I can.
Favorite ride: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Favorite restaurant: Chef Mickeys
Favorite character: Goofy

Greyson:
Greyson will be 2 at the time of the trip. He has already WELL hit the terrible two mark only being 1 1/2. He is my WILD child, completely fearless and ALWAYS moving / getting into something. Greyson is the most non-content child you will ever meet but he is a big sweetheart and such a good helper. He loves animals especially puppy's. He had a meltdown over the Easter Bunny this year so hopefully that won't be the situation with the characters in the park.
Favorite ride: Casey Jr. Splash & Soak Station
Favorite restaurant: All buffets
Favorite character: Stitch​

 

[allysetraskos]

We are in the very early stages of planning our trip.
​

I originally booked a trip while Caribbean Beach Resort was offering $75 gift cards a night for 11/11-11/17 however those dates were not going to fall within the free dining promotion soon to be released so we decided to push the trip back a bit from 11/25-12/1 (we plan on staying until 12/2 or 12/3 but it wouldn't let me book that many days so we will have to do a split stay for the two extra days.)
I am hoping all the rumors online are true about free dining and that Caribbean Beach will be included however I have heard that Moderate resorts will no longer get the DDP and will have to get the QS plan. We will upgrade to DDP if we have to. The cost will make the difference $161 between staying at a Value resort so hopefully will all go in our favor!

Last trip we had our niece come along and I REALLY want her to be able to come this time, I don't think my sister in law is going to have the money for her to come and unfortunately I don't think that we can pay for her fully on our own this time. We are still trying to figure it out.

We area looking at flying again unless it would be significantly less to drive... Idk if I can handle 19 hours not including stops in the car with my children, its difficult to drive 20 minutes with them lol

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I loved your last trip report and am looking forward to the next one...

 

[allysetraskos]

I loved your last trip report and am looking forward to the next one...

Thankyou!! It was my first time. I'm kinda short and sweet with my reports, I see some that are super detailed.. I'm gonna try to be a bit more detailed with this one lol

 

[allysetraskos]

Free Dining Released!
​

Today was that day that I love to hate. I woke up at 4am to wait online to see when it was going to be dropped. After waiting 30 minutes I gave up and went back to bed. I woke up at 5:50am.. SURPRISE dining was released at 5:30am so I was 20 minutes late to the party. I quickly tried to modify my standard CBR room to add dining but much to my dismay all that was offered were pirate rooms. I didn't want to pay the additional money so I booked a standard room at All-Star Music. Now I kept the CBR room for now just in case more rooms are released later because I have the gift card offer from booking before March 20th so it would be REALLY nice to get to use both promotions, or even if a room promotion is released. FINGERS CROSSED. I am completely exhausted and have to work until 8pm but wont be home until 9pm AHHHH.

 

[allysetraskos]

I just fell in love with my husband all over again...​

So as I have stated my husband has recently started becoming Disney obsessed. I added him to all of my Facebook planning groups in hope that it would get him more excited about planning a trip. My husband called me yesterday afternoon while I was at work a ton of times in a row, so I panicked and called him back.. He tells me "I saw in one of the planning groups that more Caribbean Beach Resorts dates became available RIGHT NOW.. Go look asap!".. I hang up the phone and go on my computer at work and what do I find... CBR DATES!!! I was able to book 11/25 - 12/1 (they didn't have the availability for 12/2 so were just going to do a room only stay for that last day).
I was so overjoyed! We get Free Dining & to use our $75/night gift cards! We will have to put up a little bit more money up front for the moderate but it will equal out to be the same as a Value after the gift cards!
I told my husband that it was a free dining miracle! - He is SO proud of himself, I am too! This completely just solidified him into becoming Disney obsessed.

Now that my husband is officially a "planner" I'm sure he will have more imput with our ADR selection coming soon... I've created a monster!

 

[allysetraskos]

Party of 5?​

The husband and I have been doing some serious talking about my niece joining us on the trip, the cost of food & tickets for her would be just about $500 which is a lot but we could probably figure it out somehow... but then there is the cost of a flight and from where we live currently it is in the $350/per person range. I wrote a message to my SIL asking if we were to cover the food and tickets if she could cover flight. She said yes, now if you read my last pre-trip report we got screwed out of some money from her before, and still haven't been paid back.. so hopefully that won't happen again. I feel like $350 is very feasible especially since we are not going until November. My niece doesn't get to do a lot of fun stuff and really be a kid so I feel bad and always want to include her. She was also such a big help on the last trip with keeping my older son from being bored and helping out with the baby by pushing the stroller or keeping him entertained when I was doing something that required my attention. - I just went ahead and added her onto our trip. So fingers crossed all will go well.

 

[Smilelea]

Following.
I love trip reports! I've never read pre trip reports but I'm enjoying them so far.

We will be there during the same time but are staying at Sports. We wanted Pop but couldn't get it. This is our 2nd trip in a year and we are excited.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[allysetraskos]

140 Days away feels like forever.

I haven't made any updates in a while so here we go!
We no longer can take our niece with us due to some unfortunate situations with my SIL, they moved half way across country. So we have decided to add a few days to our stay.. Unfortunately we couldn't add on days to the free dining promotion so we will have a split stay Nov 25 - Dec 1 at Caribbean Beach Resort and then we are doing Dec 1 - 5 at All-Star Movies.
I have always wanted to stay at ASMo and am very excited because we had no choice but to book preferred so fingers crossed we will get The Toy Story area.

-I am a little bit concerned since I realized WHY we had to choose preferred since there were no values available, apparently during that time period is POP WARNER..

Ugh... a bit of a bummer but touring plans still states that the crowds won't be too bad. Worst case scenario we just may have to Uber to the parks if the bus lines are bad.

NEXT: I was able to get all the dining reservations I wanted at the exact times I wanted which include:

BOG - Dinner
BOG - Lunch
Chef Mickeys
Garden Grill
Hollywood & Vine
50's Prime Time
Yak & Yeti
(All my husband wants to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner is Pecos Bills)

​

I have been looking at other Quick service restaurants and there are so many with great food options that I have never known about, I am very excited to try new stuff.

We are waiting for airfare to hopefully drop, I didn't realize that now that the baby will be 2 he will need his own seat on the plan which is insane to have to pay such a high fee for a baby but it is what it is. Right now our flights are looking around $1,200-$1,400 ... We spent only $808 last year for 4 people during almost the same time period. I don't know if I should hold out longer or not because if I don't we just may end up driving due to the cost , which I defiantly don't want to make a drive that far it would be about 19 hours non stop which means realistically a 2 day drive since we will HAVE to stop.

I measured the baby, who is starting to not be such a baby anymore since he will be 2 in less then a month and he is exactly 35in with no shoes on so he can officially go on Barnstormer... I told my husband I wonder if he would be 38in in just under 5 months.. adding shoes on.. It just might be a possibility to take him on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

Oh! yah and even though I told myself I wasn't going to "BUY" anything for this trip I got a really good deal on a toddler tula $85 shipped. (Stock Photo)

Our ergo baby carrier is starting to get too snug on the baby... I plan on making a Mickey slipcover for it once it arrives and I can take measurements... They wanted $150 for a slip cover when its legit like less then $10 in fabric. I plan on busting out the sewing machine and going to town.

I also got 1 set of matching shirts it was only like $30 shipped for all of us.

Thats going to be my only purchase I PROMISE!
hahaha.​

Those are the only fun updates I have for now!

 

[JessHuis]

Following along with your pretrip report! We will be there from November 25-december 1 too! My 5 year old daughter's first trip! I can't wait!

 

[allysetraskos]

Following along with your pretrip report! We will be there from November 25-december 1 too! My 5 year old daughter's first trip! I can't wait!

Ahh how cool, what resort are you stayin at?

 

[JessHuis]

Ahh how cool, what resort are you stayin at?

We'll be at Pop Century.

 

[allysetraskos]

Adding a Non-Disney day.
​

I had been stalking flights for months... Legit daily I would look at google flights to compare. We really wanted to fly delta because our experience was amazing last time, plus I got a Delta credit card for my last trip specifically! Well those Delta flights were not going down in fact they are going up, which makes me nervous to keep waiting. I ended up biting the bullet and booking Spirit. I applied for the Spirit credit card which will actually get us 3 additional flights (possibly for next year), they also give a $100 statement credit and the cost was way less then half of what Delta charges. I keep telling myself its only 2 1/2 hours in the air we can do this lol.​

Now since we decided to book spirit there was actually better airfare if we left the day before we were going to check in so I talked to the husband and we decided that we would leave a day early! Since we couldn't add a day to the beginning to our stay because of free dining we had to figure out what hotel we would stay at, I then remembered that my work does this program where we earn points for things we do and I had enough points for a one night stay at a hotel! We tossed back and forth the hotels in the area and since we have a late flight we picked Serlago Suites. My husband has always wanted to go to the Ocean (yes with all our trips he has never been) we are going to rent a car for 1 day and drive over to Cocoa Beach for the day!​

​

With renting a car we will be able to go to walmart or whatever grocery store in the area to buy all our snacks, drinks, case of water and little meals for the week. Plus we can go offsite to the little gift shops to buy souvenirs. . I'm pretty excited and feel good about this plan, I'm going to wait on booking the rental car because I might be able to earn enough points at work to pay for that as well.

My youngest turned 2 this week So we now have official terrible 2 year old, although he is my high strung child so he has been in the mood for a while now! Hopefully we can get some potty training in before we go on our Disney trip. He has his 2 year wellness visit next week so we can see how tall he is *fingers crossed* he might be tall enough for 7DMT by November!.. Hes tall enough for Barnstormer though!​

I also have been tossing back and forth the idea of adding another day of park tickets, to go from 8 days to 9 is only like $30-ish.. That's less then what we pay when we order pizza. (This is how I am trying to coerce my husband). We will see if that works! lol​

 

[Jenny Sanders]

So happy to hear all the plans are going smoothly! November will be here before you know it...We will actually be in WDW in early November.

 

[allysetraskos]

So happy to hear all the plans are going smoothly! November will be here before you know it...We will actually be in WDW in early November.

I just want to make FP+ already lol I'm so impatient!!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I just want to make FP+ already lol I'm so impatient!!

I can totally relate!!!!

 

[allysetraskos]

Double Digits!
​

I have celebrated our Dalmatian Day (101).. Our 100 day countdown and now am so excited to say that we are FINALLY in double digits! 99 days left! - Still feels forever away.

​

I have a friend from work who I booked a trip for that is in Disney right now and I am living vicariously through her. In addition to reading other trip reports trying to fill my void.
I have started to start to really sit down and plan out our days in the parks based off of crowd calendars... I like to visit parks that have no more then a 4/10 crowd level rating because I hate being packed like sardines. I have heard a lot of people having issues getting FP+ for the avatar rides even 60 days out so I am trying to push back our Animal Kingdom days.

 

[Whit64130]

Following along from my PTR!

-I am a little bit concerned since I realized WHY we had to choose preferred since there were no values available, apparently during that time period is POP WARNER..

Ugh... a bit of a bummer but touring plans still states that the crowds won't be too bad. Worst case scenario we just may have to Uber to the parks if the bus lines are bad.

I wasn't there during POP warner but we were there in April for some kind of sporting event. We stayed at Pop in the 80's building. Towards the end of the trip there were buses and buses full of kids being hauled in. I was a little nervous that we would hear them at all hours of the nights but luckily we had a room that faced semi-towards the parking lots and we were in the back of the resort so it cut down on a lot of noise. The Pop buses were pretty packed all week, we didn't really notice any increase in that aspect.

(All my husband wants to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner is Pecos Bills)

I love Pecos Bill's!

They wanted $150 for a slip cover when its legit like less then $10 in fabric. I plan on busting out the sewing machine and going to town.

Good idea! That is a very cute Tula cover!!

Maybe we will run into each other at some point in the week!

 

[allysetraskos]

Following along from my PTR!


I wasn't there during POP warner but we were there in April for some kind of sporting event. We stayed at Pop in the 80's building. Towards the end of the trip there were buses and buses full of kids being hauled in. I was a little nervous that we would hear them at all hours of the nights but luckily we had a room that faced semi-towards the parking lots and we were in the back of the resort so it cut down on a lot of noise. The Pop buses were pretty packed all week, we didn't really notice any increase in that aspect.


I love Pecos Bill's!


Good idea! That is a very cute Tula cover!!

Maybe we will run into each other at some point in the week!

That makes me feel reassured; We book preferred but lots of cheerleaders make me nervous for lines at the buses. & Yes maybe we will!!