#Changingallourplans

[ljcrochet]

I might lose my mind planning our next Disney trip. We are going at the end of the summer between camp finishing and school starting.
Who is the we you ask?

Wait that is not WDW. Here we are at Ohana last trip.

As of now our cast is going to be

Me: I love WDW, and usually just go along with what DH plans, after giving some hints on what we should do.

DH: who loves to plan our WDW trips ( usually while we are still on a trip)

DD1: will be 9 when we go. Here she is having fun with the camera while waiting for Primeval Whirl last time.





DD2: DD1’s twin sister so she will also be 9.



Last trip DD2 took a different hat/ears/ headband to wear each day we were in WDW.

As of now it will only be the 4 of us. DH’s aunt asked me to let her know the next time we are going to WDW. They live about 3 hours away in Southern FL. They did join us in WDW in March 2008 for a day or two the week after Easter. They were with us the day we did 3 parks in one day ( but they might have only joined us for 2). I will add their pictures later.
I was hoping they were in this picture but I don't see them.


FIL and his wife T, might want to join us, but they were just with us in December, and will be staying with us at least twice between now and when we go.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

subbing!!!

 

[dreamer17555]

Following! Your DDs are gorgeous!

 

[DMGeurts]

I am here and following along!

I loved meeting you and your family - looks like a fun group. I love that your DH enjoys Disney and enjoys planning... That's rare and awesome!

Looking forward to hearing all about your plans!

D~

 

[ljcrochet]

subbing!!!

Welcome

Following! Your DDs are gorgeous!

Thanks!
You will probably see lots of pictures of my girls.

I am here and following along!

I loved meeting you and your family - looks like a fun group. I love that your DH enjoys Disney and enjoys planning... That's rare and awesome!

Looking forward to hearing all about your plans!

D~

I think my DH enjoys planning more than I do. I have lost count of how many times we have changed things on this trip.

 

[ljcrochet]

Before I get into more pre-trip planning, I figured I would do a quick run down of past disney trips.
1993ish was my first trip. DH had been before, but I never had. We were dating at the time, and he was going on a cruise for his grandparents anniversary then a few days at WDW. It was my first time on a plane ( and I was alone going down to FL). I flew to Miami and drove up to Orlando with DH, both BILs, FIL and T.
We stayed at a Ramada. The only on-site restaurant we did was 50's prime time.
1996 DH and I were going to go on vacation Christmas week with friends, but they backed out as we were all set to book. I don't remember why, but DH and I changed our trip to a 4 day Carnival Fantasy with 3 nights at a comfort suite with WDW tickets.
2000 Just DH and I at *** ( that is weird, wonder why All Star Sports - i take that back i know why it got started out). Funny thing was I found my scrap paper about that trip and wrote about it here.
2005 one or 2 nights at pop century with FIL and T
2006 ASM family suite with FIL and T followed by a few nights at the JW Marriott near Sea World.
2007 ASM family suites, this time one BIL and MIL joined us. We also did the DVC presentation on this trip.

 

[ljcrochet]

Here is a picture of DH, FIL and my girls on that first trip
October 2006 031 by LJcrochet

I don't remember why we didn't plan, i was a lurker on disboards since before our 2000 trip, but the first night we were cranky trying to get dinner. With 2 17 months olds in a stroller, qs was a big pain.

October 2006 223 by LJcrochet

If you notice my girls are each in their own umbrella stroller. The week before the trip, we realized our double stroller was cracked. I did not want to take the double jogging stroller on the plane. I thought it would be big of a pain in the butt, but 2 umbrella stroller with the connectors was an even bigger pain in the butt, especially on the buses.

We went to the desk at ASM to see what places we could eat. We wound up booking BOMA for dinner, whispering canyon, the breakfast at resturantours in AK
October 2006 095 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
and the biggest score was CRT for breakfast on FIL and T's last day.
October 2006 226 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
October 2006 224 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

 

[ljcrochet]

In September 2007 when the girls were 2 1/2 we went back with BIL and MIL. I don't remember why other BIL did not join us. We booked the dining plan this trip. At the time the regular DP was great, included appetizers and the tip. Most places were great with the girls, i remember we switch something at the last minute for turf club. MIL and I with the girls took the bus from the park. DH and BIL drove the rental van. I'm thinking they had to first go back to ASMu to get the car. Part of the reason I remember this was, this was one place that the waitress said we would have to pay for the girls drinks. I don't remember what they wanted. I said since I only wanted to drink water, the girls could have my drink. With 4 appetizers and 4 main dishes, we didn't have to get the girls meals at most places.
From pictures I know we ate at Crystal palace. I love their french toast
September disney 635 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
September disney 622 by LJcrochet, on Flickr


We ate dinner at 1900 Park fare. I know people rave about this meal, but I didn't like it.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/n4t3tR]September disney 420 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
September disney 414 by LJcrochet, on Flickr


We also ate at Liberty tree tavern. I miss the characters at dinner, We have not been back since they took them away
September disney 281 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
September disney 279 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

We had breakfast at Hollywood and Vine. Best part of this meal was the girls got disney sippy cups

September disney 122 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

Girls enjoyed mickey pops
September disney 171 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

DH and BIL with Goofy

[/url]September disney 477

Hugs!

[/url]September disney 429 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

 

[DMGeurts]

Awww... I loved seeing your pictures from previous trips! The girls are so adorable!!!

Our first trip was much the same... I didn't realize that I NEEDED to research for a Disney trip... We got there and we were so clueless. Yup - we were the ones who wanted to sit down to eat, but didn't have reservations - nor did we have the $$ to do so, as we were caught waaay off guard at the expense of the meals in the park. Sad. So, our next trip (5 long years later) was a do-over... But we did it over right, and continue to do so.

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

D~

 

[ljcrochet]

Awww... I loved seeing your pictures from previous trips! The girls are so adorable!!!

Our first trip was much the same... I didn't realize that I NEEDED to research for a Disney trip... We got there and we were so clueless. Yup - we were the ones who wanted to sit down to eat, but didn't have reservations - nor did we have the $$ to do so, as we were caught waaay off guard at the expense of the meals in the park. Sad. So, our next trip (5 long years later) was a do-over... But we did it over right, and continue to do so.

Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

D~

Thanks!
We have certainly gotten better at planning the more we go, or planning not to plan. This will be the first trip that all the disney meals are credit card holds. I can see that being a slight pain. Christmas week, we had a reservation for Maya grill and decided to go chevy's instead. I was nice enough to call disney dining to cancel. The CM was very unmagical. She said you know you are going to be $60 to cancel. I told her I wasn't since I booked it before the holds went into effect. .


During the christmas week trip, we did some disney math and left WDW with AP. We promised DDs that we would come back in the summer and go on the rapids in AK and go to a water park.
We got disney mail on Friday
image by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Look at the cool blue slide hiding under the bands.

Figured out when girls finished camp assuming we sent them for the full 8 weeks, then DH logged on at exactly 7 month to try and get our first choice of resorts.
Will he be able to get it?

 

[ljcrochet]

Saturday was such a nice day, I told DH lets go for a family bike ride. There is a new opening to a state park on a road we pass all the time, that we talked about trying out.

I started to put the bike rack on DH's jeep, we should see if the hitch receiver we had on our old odyessy works on the new odyessy. It is usually a struggle to get the 4 bikes on the bike rack. They have to be lined up just so.
We drove to the entrance, was about to park on a local side road when a person who lives on that street came over and started to give us a hard time. Very nicely telling us all about the new parking lot they built for the trail. We would up pulling away and parking on the main road.
Trail had all these nice new empty sign post. I can't wait to see how it is when it totally finished
Family bike ride by LJcrochet, on Flickr
We stated at mile 2.2

Here we are getting ready to cross a street
Family bike ride by LJcrochet, on Flickr
They really need to put in better crosswalks/ stop signs so cars will stop for the bikes.
I thought about using the cycle tracking in runkeeper, but figured it was labeled I did not have to. But when we got one spot, we lost the mile markings. No clue if we ventured off the main trail , since we still were on a bike trail.
We got decided to turn around, i turned on runkeeper. It was kind of funny since i forgot to turn off the workout intervals. I had it set for the last time I went for a run 30 seconds slow and 1 minute steady.
My phone is mounted on my handlebars so I took a ride selfie
Family bike ride by LJcrochet, on Flickr

DD stopped to pose
Family bike ride by LJcrochet, on Flickr
I took a screen shot when we got back to the car, it was 2.35 miles.
DD2 and I were behind DD1 and DH. They had already crossed the street was ready for more.

We biked all the way to a big picnic area with a playground in a state park. Runkeeper said it was 4.66. So we had biked 7 miles Girls played for a few minutes at the playground Then we biked back to the car. I stopped runkeeper while the girls played, restarted it for the ride back which was 2.35 miles. So it was a total of 9.35mile bike ride.

I tried another selfie but this time the sun was on my back
Family bike ride by LJcrochet

We load the bikes back on the bike rack. It was the easiest it ever was till we went to put the lock on the bikes. We usually put the pin through but didn't this time and the rack shifted about back so the whole did not line up. We had to take the bikes off, put the pin in and then load the bikes again.

 

[DMGeurts]

IT sounds like you had a fun bike ride. Loved the action selfie!

D~

 

[ljcrochet]

Our March 2008 trip came about in a very strange way. Girls wanted to see Playhouse disney live. I don't remember if they were not playing locally or not, but we saw they were playing in West Palm beach the sunday of my birthday weekend. I think on my birthday. We asked FIL how close that theater was to his house. Next thing I knew we were going to see it and staying at FIL's house for the week. Then FIL starts to tell us about a marriott grand vacation club offer he got, for a 2 bedroom.
Never checked the calendar to realized that the day we are going to see the show is Easter sunday. He books the room for the next 3 or 4 nights. At this point the girls are under 3 so they don't need park tickets.
DH's aunt and uncle decide the want to join us, but due to a friend of their's dying they joined us a few days late.
FIL bought a TIW card, tried to use it at Mama Melrose with the Fantasmic package. Instead of the waiter saying it was not good on the Fantasmic package, they say it is a blocked out week. FIL got them to give him the discount.

Next day was our 3 parks in one day.
Started out at AK for tusker house breakfast
100_5501 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

Went to MGM or was it already HS? Girls napped as we waited for the parade
100_5640 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

DH with his aunt and uncle
100_5661 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

we headed to MK
100_5670 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

100_5667 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Till it was time for our dinner reservation
100_5675 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
at Ohana.
Next day we went back to MK to have dinner at LTT
100_5824 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
I'm pretty sure DH's aunt and uncle left this day because they were not with us at CRT for breakfast
100_5905 by LJcrochet, on Flickr


Since we stayed on a special deal at the a timeshare we had to sit through a timeshare presentation. DH and I kept on looking at one enough during the sales pitch saying why would we do this over DVC ( we had done the DVC presentation in September).
Before we left MK to drive back to FIL's house, FIL and T went into guest services to upgrade their tickets to season passes. DH and I for fun decided to price out what AP would cost us. I don't remember the exact cost but it was less that $200 ( i don't remember if that was both or just one). So we decided to buy the tickets and plan a trip.


We came home from FIL, and started planning out a early december trip staying at the Poly. I can't remember why we picked early december. We put a deposit on the room reservation, when we got an postcard from our DVC tour guide. If we bought 160 AKV points we would get 160 developer points to use at SSR, we did some disney math and bought DVC

We switched our december stay over to SSR using the developer points. We told FIL what we did, and of course he bought DVC as well

 

[ljcrochet]

DH checks to see if we can get our first choice of resorts for the last week of august at our 7 month window. There are 2 DVC that we not stayed at on WDW property, GFV and BCV. Every since DD2 saw GF she wanted to stay there.

DH checks, and can only get 2 nights at the beginning of our trip. He then winds up checking and seeing there is an animal kingdom concierge studio available, so grabs that for 2 night. I'm pretty sure he had to first cancel and rebook GFV since we have 2 DVC contracts: HHI and AKV. You can book your home resort at 11 months, and other resorts at 7 months. So need to use AKV points for the AK since it was no yet 7 months.

4 days later DH goes and books the rest of our trip at BCV. Yep we are planning on staying at 3 different resorts.
We had tossed around driving, till DH realized we had enough jetblue points to pay for the flights down. Realized that if we fly down an day earlier, the flights are less points. We wait-list GFV and book at OKW.

Yep 8 nights and 4 resorts.

We start to make a plan, dh books our ADRs, then changes them, then books them again. At this point we still have not booked our flights.

 

[ljcrochet]

We waitlist GFV for the first night, and make our ADRS. Girls really want to go back to Chef Mickey's for breakfast, beirgardgen for dinner. I wanted to go to crystal palace for breakfast. I want to try LTT for lunch and try the ooey goey cake.

DH created a spreadsheet comparing dining plan vs tiw.

 

[ljcrochet]

I really should not post before I drink my coffee in the morning.
We were comparing if it made sense to get the dining plan or TIW. The good thing about a split stay is you can do the dining plan for part of the trip, the bad thing is the credits are only good for that stay. Tried to figure out where and what we would eat if we had the dining plan vs if we didn't. My girls like to eat. I'm thinking at a lot of the meals they would be better off sharing a main course. I might want an appetizer as my entree to save room for dessert.
We booked 2 different breakfast ADR for Crystal palace, on for the first morning if our wait list came through. One for later on in the trip if it didn't.

Then i get a call form DH asking me when the girls go back to school. I tell him when there first day back is. He says what do you think of going wednesday to wednesday. Work needs him in for some of the days we were going to be gone.

So back to the drawing board. We are able to get Board walk for the whole week. We wait list part of the week at Grand Floridian.

We have to change all our ADRs

 

[ljcrochet]

I'm calling this ADR's take 2, but it probably is take 3 or 4 at this point.
Day 1: flight is leaving NYC around 6:30am, getting to MCO around 8:30.
lunch 12:55 Liberty tree tavern. Can't wait to try the fried cheese and the ooey gooey cake
dinner: Ohana 8:30pm

Day 2 chef Mickey's at 8:10
day at typhoon lagoon
dinner 7:00 at crossroads house of blues
Day 3: breakfast at Fresh Mediterranean market 8:30
dinner at 5:15 50's prime time cafe
Day 4 breakfast tusker house at 10:10
dinner at 7 at Akershus Royal Banquet hall
Day 5 breakfast Kouzzina at 8:20
dinner at 6:45 biergarten
Day 6 dinner The garden grill at 6:30
Day 7 breakfast crystal palace at 8:05am
diner : rose and crown at 7:15
Day 8 Home in the afternoon Since the girls are starting school the next day we have a mid afternoon flight home.


I wish i saved all of DH's changes We added in the epcot sparkling dessert, on our 50's prime time day. Moved 50's prime time to lunch. Then decided to do dinner at rose and crown hoping it will work out for illuminations instead. Moved the 50's prime time back to dinner.

At some point in the planning, DH looks over the ADR list, and decided that the dining plan makes the most sense since we have a lot of all you care to eat places. We had a meal booked for beaches and cream which he canceled.

 

[ljcrochet]

I was looking up something and came across another Disney site that had transportation times

Transportation Times Between Bay Lake Tower/Contemporary Resort and Disney Destinations
These times are approximate, provided to give you an idea of average travel times. Please plan on up to a 20 minute wait for Disney transportation in addition to walking time to resort or theme park transportation stops.

Magic Kingdom – 12 minutes walking, 19 minutes monorail
Epcot – 22 minutes by monorail, 22 minutes by car
Disney's Hollywood Studios – 21 minutes by bus, 23 minutes by car
Disney’s Animal Kingdom – 25 minutes by bus, 20 minutes by car
Downtown Disney – 30 minutes by bus, 19 minutes by car
Blizzard Beach water park – 24 minutes by bus, 18 minutes by car
Typhoon Lagoon water park – 25 minutes by bus, 20 minutes by car

Transportation Times Between Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Jambo House and Disney Destinations
These times are approximate, provided to give you an idea of average travel times. Please plan on up to a 20 minute wait for Disney transportation in addition to walking time to resort or theme park transportation stops.
Magic Kingdom – 22 minutes by bus, 35 minutes by car (with transfers)
Epcot – 18 minutes by bus, 18 minutes by car
Disney's Hollywood Studios – 15 minutes by bus, 16 minutes by car
Disney’s Animal Kingdom – 11 minutes by bus, 7 minutes by car
Downtown Disney – 20 minutes by bus, 18 minutes by car
Blizzard Beach water park – 18 minutes by bus, 14 minutes by car
Typhoon Lagoon water park – 25 minutes by bus, 17 minutes by car

The trip that DH did his dining report (link is still in my sig) we did a split stay at AKV and BLT. We said that the transportation at AKV was better for getting every where except MK.

 

[DMGeurts]

I love all of your ADRs - they sound great!

And the travel times are awesome - I need to go look at those. THanks for posting!

D~

 

[ljcrochet]

I love all of your ADRs - they sound great!

And the travel times are awesome - I need to go look at those. THanks for posting!

D~

I had fun looking at the travel times last night. I know you are thinking of staying at a monorail resort, i have heard that their is only a bus to epcot if there is a problem with the monorail.

I'm trying to decide what the best site is for linking photos. My photobucket is full, flickr adds that weird link at the end that I keep on forgetting to take out.
I have so much stuff in my photobuck
Look how little and cute my girls were on our first tirp

or how sad DD1 is


Journaling on the page reads:

Wednesday October 25 was our last day in Walt Disney world. Daddy got the rental car. We decided to drive to Animal kingdom instead of taking the Disney bus since there was no need to go back to All Star Music after the park. It only took about 5 minute to drive to Animal Kingdom. We parked in Unicorn 27. We got on the tram for the ride to the gate, while joking about how close we were. When the tram got to the park, the driver slammed on the brake. The sound of Sydney’s head on the seat in front of her was not a sound I want to ever hear again. Yes I had been holding you, but it did not matter, you still went flying forward. We got of the tram and saw the bump on your forehead. Saw how gently the next tram stopped. We went in to the park. Our first stop was first aid. The nurse looked you over, gave us an ice pack. You were pretty good about letting me hold the ice on your head. Of course you were fine. There was not even a black and blue mark the next day.