Have pity on us, Elsa!! An August 2016 PTR - Poly, Preschoolers, & DxDP! (UPDATED 7/28!)

[PirateRachel]

Hello there! I stumbled upon your pretrip report, it was a good read!! I will be in Disney Aug 11-19, I am also worried about the heat and humidity. I also suffer, yes suffer, from RA, some days I want to peel the skin off my bones!!! I love the planning of a disney trip, it always puts me in a great mood. We will be stay staying at the pop. I've only stayed deluxe or off site so this should be interesting, my son picked it and I said great, save me some $$$. The resort looks cute enough, but double beds...yikes We are doing quick service plan, Ive done the regular dining plan twice, the first time was free, so that was nice, but I felt like I ate way too much. I am planning one character meal at Hollywood and Vine, Minnie's Summer time dinner for the boy, he just turned 9 so I hope the characters are still cool with him. Ive planned a couple of more sit downs at the parks. I'm trying to eat at places we haven't been. I can wait to read your final trip report, your family is so cute, I'm sure they will love it!!! Happy Planning, take care

 

[nimbuscat]

Hello there! I stumbled upon your pretrip report, it was a good read!! I will be in Disney Aug 11-19, I am also worried about the heat and humidity. I also suffer, yes suffer, from RA, some days I want to peel the skin off my bones!!! I love the planning of a disney trip, it always puts me in a great mood. We will be stay staying at the pop. I've only stayed deluxe or off site so this should be interesting, my son picked it and I said great, save me some $$$. The resort looks cute enough, but double beds...yikes We are doing quick service plan, Ive done the regular dining plan twice, the first time was free, so that was nice, but I felt like I ate way too much. I am planning one character meal at Hollywood and Vine, Minnie's Summer time dinner for the boy, he just turned 9 so I hope the characters are still cool with him. Ive planned a couple of more sit downs at the parks. I'm trying to eat at places we haven't been. I can wait to read your final trip report, your family is so cute, I'm sure they will love it!!! Happy Planning, take care

Thanks for joining in! We were on vacation (not Disney!) last week, so I'm playing catch-up here on the DIS. More updates to come!

 

[nimbuscat]

I'm baaaaack! Unfortunately, this probably won't be a regular thing because I'm starting my new job next week, which means significantly less "computer time" in my life. However, I do promise to continue to update as often as possible so I can keep this PTR going as we inch closer to our trip in August!

I did something I promised I wouldn't do...haha...can you guess what it is?

Come on, take a guess!

Yup. Our first two nights are now at AKL in a pool-view bunk bed room, instead of POFQ. (I know, I know!!!) For some reason, the prices at AKL Jambo House came down for that room category, and I just couldn't turn down a deluxe for the price of a moderate. I'm super excited, but let's be honest...I was also super excited for All-Star Movies! I'm just ready to be there and start our vacation. We have a very busy summer planned, and with starting my new job, I have a feeling it will be here before we know it!

And really, I'm still kind of second-guessing this move. I was thrilled about POFQ and the new aquatic play area for my girls. I just have to keep reminding myself, they would only get to use that area for a couple of hours for one day, tops, since it's only a 2-night stay...and the Poly has something similar that they can use multiple days! I really think I could see us staying at AKL on our next family trip, which will probably be in 2018-19 after the new Star Wars stuff opens. A savanna view room on a longer trip would be pretty special!

 

[nimbuscat]

*Dusts off the mic*

Anyone still here? I hope so! I'm reviving my PTR because...drum roll, please...I am SIXTEEN (16!!!) days from our trip!! Holy moly macaroni!

Considering we started at over 200, I am beyond ecstatic that the trip is almost here! A lot has been going on since my last post in April...

- I started my new job. It's going well, just keeping me very busy!
- I tweaked our ADRs about 90,000 times and made a bunch of changes (will post update below).
- I made about 3 or 4 more resort changes for our first two nights...
- I read countless dining and trip reports, inspiring me to make even more changes, bwahaha!

So, here's where we currently stand...and given there are only 16 days left, I hope that's where I leave it!

As of this morning, all 9 nights of our trip are now at the Poly Villas in a standard view studio!! As a refresher, we started out with 7 nights at the Poly on rented DVC points. I decided we could add on 2 nights (cash reservation, not points) at the beginning of our trip, and thought it would be fun to try out a different resort. We were literally all over the map, but as I started packing this past week and realizing how much STUFF I had to bring with my 2 girls and all their costumes and all that, I started dreading the idea of having to unpack and get settled twice. Now I do realize with a split stay that we may still have to change rooms, but that is certainly easier than changing resorts...and since both reservations are in a standard view studio, I feel like chances are good they will let us keep our first room. (Fingers crossed!) My Disney math convinced me this morning that the price of my sanity outweighed the price increase of the Poly for those 2 extra nights, so I made the call and made the upgrade. Woohoo!

So excited for this (though I doubt we have such a nice view)!

We have Memory Maker, our tickets (5 day MYW with Water Parks & More add-on), and regular dining plan on the first reservation. Our DVC point rental reservation is the resort and deluxe dining plan. I am a little anxious about the check-in/check-out of our two reservations and what that will do to our dining plan and snack credits, but I'm sure it can all be sorted out at the resort if there are any kinks on that transition day. I will try not to worry about it!

Here are our new dining plans...

Day 1 (Arrival night):
QS dinner at Contempo Cafe (me + girls) and Captain Cook's (Gammy, when she arrives later)

Day 2:
Gospel Brunch at House of Blues
Dinner at Artist Point

Day 3 (Magic Kingdom):
Breakfast at BOG (was supposed to be PPO, but MK hours were updated and they open at 8 am that day. Oh well!)
Late lunch at The Plaza
Dinner at 1900 PF

Day 4 (Magic Kingdom):
PPO Breakfast at Crystal Palace
Late lunch at Kona
Dinner at Cosmic Ray's

Day 5 (Hollywood Studios):
PPO Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine
Fantasmic lunch at Mama Melrose
Dinner at Sci-Fi

Day 6 (Epcot):
PPO Breakfast at Garden Grill
QS lunch at Sunshine Seasons
Dinner at Akershus

Day 7 (Typhoon Lagoon):
QS Breakfast at Captain Cook's
Lunch/snacks at Typhoon Lagoon
Dinner at Raglan Road

Day 8 (Resort day):
Breakfast at Ohana
Snacks at Oasis Pool
Dinner at Mickey's Backyard BBQ

Day 9 (Magic Kingdom):
Early Morning Magic!! breakfast at Pinocchio's
Late lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table
Dinner at Rainforest Cafe at AK

Day 10 (Travel home):
Breakfast at Kona

Doesn't that just make you hungry while thinking about it??

You may notice a few things...one, we omitted our day at Animal Kingdom. Why? I don't know...I love that park, I really do...but a.) we are going when it is hotter than hades, and AK seems to be the worst for heat...and b.) I'm boycotting the refurb of Dinosaur. Seriously--it was probably the ONE ride I was most looking forward to taking my 5-year-old on! She was too little to ride it on our last trip in 2014, and she is a dinosaur freak! She and I were both so looking forward to it...so now we are going to pout in the corner and not even go to AK this trip.

Secondly, we traded AK for a day at Typhoon Lagoon. Since that day is Gammy's birthday, I splurged and reserved a beachcomber cabana for us on this day. I think we will really enjoy having a shaded area as our home base!

And thirdly, we are doing Early Morning Magic on our last MK day! I'm super excited to ride 7DMT and Peter Pan over and over and over. Winnie the Pooh, I can take or leave, but I'm sure both girls will love it. Plus, breakfast buffet at Pinocchio's. Randomly, I kept feeling like I needed to eat there, but their lunch/dinner menu sounds less than appealing. Now I get my Pinocchio's fix with a special buffet for breakfast. I'll take it!

Ok, let me know if you're still out there reading! I may have time to sneak in another update or two before we leave. I'm going to finish packing the girls' stuff this weekend, because I go to Chicago next week for a business trip. Then when I get back, I have exactly one week until we leave, and I'll need that week to get my own stuff gathered and packed! Can't wait!

 

[nimbuscat]

Oh! One more quick update for the day....

1) Both CarterBear and Z-Zah met their height goals! Carter is at least 33" tall now, so she will be able to ride Tomorrowland Speedway! And Z-Zah was 43.75" back in March at her 5-year well check. She's had a growth spurt since, and while I haven't measured her, I am 100% certain she is over 44" now. Bring on the big rides!

2) Remember back when I was all, oh, yeah, I'm planning to travel with just backpacks for all of us? *snort* I currently have a large, 28" suitcase nearly full JUST for the kids. In fact, I went ahead and went online and reserved 2 checked bags with Allegiant because I know I'll need another suitcase for my stuff, or we'll be way over the weight limit (which is only 40 lbs...don't get me started...).