This is another insightful post. Thank you. Can I ask what the problem is with bringing strollers on buses? Is there a no stroller policy? We haven't taken our son on public transportation yet (that's not how we get around in our neighborhood really). I get that buses can get packed and it might be annoying for other travelers, but our stroller folds up so it's not a huge space sucker: it's smaller and more narrow than an adult. I'm also from NYC and am used to riding packed buses and subways so the cramped factor doesn't bother me so much.
Also, I was considering VGF. I've always wanted to stay there and the monorail + MK proximity are big pluses. Food options seem cool too and my wife digs that it has a spa. But what do you mean it's still tough to get at 11 months around xmas? If we tried for a one-bedroom owning there and couldn't get one, then that would be a non-starter for me.
Thanks again!
As some of the quotes below - *getting stroller ready to fold* is probably the worst, then folding the strollers and then carrying child + stroller + stuff can be challenging, especially if it's late and said child was sleeping.
We LOVE VGF and it's sort of hard to get during Xmas for studios, not so much for 1br. We've generally not had a problem with 2br either, but haven't booked those so much. It still remains to be seen how all those points for resort studios will affect the system. 2020-2022 wasCOVID excess points + revenge travel; everything eased up a bit in the summer 2022 (?) when VGF resort studio points were sold and opened - a lot of availability in the system as people moved TO the resort studios at 7mo, etc etc. Our more recent VGF bookings haven't been at 8am on the dot other than our Xmas booking (2br) which I canceled when I got VGC...
As someone who is still in the stroller stage, the whole bus/stroller situation (IMHO) is less about collapsing the stroller itself and more so making the stroller 'ready' to be collapsed.
We have the Babyzen Yo Yo - super compact and ridiculously light - and at this point I can pretty much collapse using one-hand while holding an iced coffee in the other.
BUT before I can do that, I need to first find some place to stash the fans, water bottles, sunscreen, wipes, ponchos, ears, leftover baguette from Les Halles, oversized souvenirs, Mickey bubble wand (yes, I'm a sucker). If you're already carrying all that stuff in a backpack, then NBD but most folks take advantage of having the stroller.
^^ this! We rented a city mini double for many years - my oldest was fine to walk for miles, but when it's hot or late or they're tired, or you just want to get somewhere and it's easier to give them food while walking ... We didn't bring a big backpack, but there was always water bottles, popcorn bucket, ponchos, hats and sunglasses, baby carrier, etc... We are now stroller free and travel very light, because the only "group" things to carry are ponchos in a light backpack (dad), a popcorn bucket and a large water bottle, which the kids and I switch off carrying. My
loungefly has the $/cards/gift cards/phone etc and can fit a sunscreen in it. It's so freeing. But I was very nervous to give up the stroller completely.
Here's a hypothetical question, if I were to make an 11-month booking, but then I saw a reservation that I immediately wanted at 7 months, is it easy to instantly cancel the 11-month one and grab the 7-month one? I'm envisioning a scenario in which I buy AK but then see a Grand Californian opening during the holidays and try to grab that.
However, I’ve read that when modifying a WDW reservation the DL and AUL resorts might not show as options. In that case you’d need to call MS to make the switch, but again you wouldn’t need to cancel AKV and take the chance of losing it if VGC availability disappeared in the meantime.
Well, online booking opens at 8:00 AM Eastern but MS doesn’t open until 9:00, so a highly-competitive reservation like a VGC studio can disappear in that time. The other unknown is how long it takes to get MS on the line - sometimes hold time is longer than others. It wouldn’t take MS long to make the switch once you’re talking to them.
Unfortunately, I don’t know any way around the issue. But at least everyone else who has an East Coast reservation and wants to switch to the West Coast is in the same boat!
All of this. As others have said you cannot modify from WDW to CA or HI. And VGC rooms especially are often gone by 9am. So an 8am workaround: if you have extra points, you could use those to book a few nights at 8am, then cancel the WDW booking and then modify your CA booking to add the extra nights.
Yes; I asked Member Services about this the other day. No modifications from one coast to another; you can cancel and rebook though!
That can be dangerous if you're canceling a popular resort (e.g. VGF) or room type. In the old days of the RAT, you could have 2 screens up to the point where you have to choose your contracts/points, and cancel on the other screen, and then use points on the booking screen. Not sure if that's possible now - I'd definitely practice before trying it.
I've found VGC to be **possible** if: you don't expect that you will get it, you don't *have* to be in studios, your dates are flexible, you have a backup plan. Upcoming trip we are in a 2br over Xmas that I booked at 8am from my phone while walking the kids to school. Probably helped that 2br are a bazillion points then so normal VGC users are not likely to bother? This will be our second time staying at VGC but I've actually booked at 7mo 3 more (random) times, pre and post Covid, where we've then changed plans and gone somewhere else.
