Top O the Morning Dads
Too bad Pirates, Cubs & Cards are in the same division the way all 3 teams are playing this year.
Nice Plans, like them a lot. I have talked about switching resorts during trips but have been met with family push back. Have you done this before or is this the first time? Be interested in some "selling points" for the family on moving hotels.
The split stays were DEFINITELY NOT part of the plan. LOL.
I am often solicited for advice on Disney World (sometimes I just force feed my opinion, too J ) and there is one piece that I universally present to people.
“Have a plan, but be flexible.”
Now, being candid, as much as I offer that sage piece of wisdom, I’m not always the most willing to change plans. In fact, I am more likely to stomp my feet and pout. Yes, I just indicted myself with my wife as potentially being part of the reading audience. Although this is nothing that she doesn’t already know and probably just had an epiphany in that our youngest inherited this trait from me.
Although the flexibility perspective has not historically been my forte, I do have a penchant for planning.
In fact, I begin planning our next trip within about 10 days of our return. I think it’s less about me being a control freak and more about the enjoyment that comes with prepping for a Disney World trip.
Much as you would expect, our resort was booked 11 months out (Bay Lake Tower) and modified (VWL) at the 7month window per our normal DVC process. Everything else fell into place….ADRs at 180 days, prepping for ourFP+ at 60 days…even booked
MNSSHP the day tickets went on sale.
Then the bombshell went off….
Our school’s calendar was online and my wife saw a critical school event for our oldest. ….and it was while we were on our trip.
My daughter is flexible and reasonable enough to adjust to most situations, but this even is kind of like a rite of passage for kids in our elementary schools. The type of thing that is well known by all the lower grades and that you look forward to in 5th grade. It was the class camping trip. To outsiders, it doesn’t sound a like a big deal, but it is. And Renee and I were both beside ourselves with what to do. All of the planning just went right out the door! We talked in circles trying to figure out a variety of options and running various scenarios. Would work allow us to be able to change our vacation weeks? Could we find a resort? What about airfare? We even considered sending our daughter back early and having a family member pick her up at the airport. We finally decided, if we could change vacation per work, we’d go all in to move our plans. Anguish and anxiety abound. The next day Renee spent the ENTIRE morning on the phone with multiple cast members, conferencing me in at work and via a litany of texts. She and I each had details in our notebooks that looked like something out of the DaVinci code. After it was all said and done…we moved our trip back from Sat-Sat to Tue-Tue….saved around $100 dollars on airfare, transferred our MNSSHP tickets to another night and salvaged 98% of our ADRs. Because we moved our booking date up, it just so happened that our FP+ window opened that same night at midnight. Can you say exhausting day?
Now…the most intriguing thing about this is how you can embrace a situation that is outside of you control. I mentioned that we were booked for VWL. Well, we’re not split-stay sort of people…but when your trip is 60 days away and it’s during the Food & Wine Festival…beggars can’t be choosers!
<sarcasm font>Our plans now have us staying in 3 different rooms across 2 resorts! We will begin with a 2 BR Savannah View at Kidani Village (Oh, the humanity. I’m not sure I can handle having to sip my coffee on the balcony whilst looking at African wildlife.) Sadly we have to move from that dumpster to the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. Pickings were slim and the best that we could manage was a Club Level, Deluxe Room. At this point I’m not sure why we even bothered with joining the Disney Vacation Club! What am I supposed to do with all of that open access to snacks, desserts, various beverages, etc. And finally, moving on to a 2BR within VWL. </sarcasm font>
So…we’re definitely titling this trip “Sounds like an adventure.”
While I certainly never expected our trip planning to take this route, heeding my own advice was a cruel but worthwhile twist of fate.
Whenever ya feel a bit blue or down, just head back to your cruise TR or pull up some pics from you last one to turn the tide 
