Headed Back to the World! The Trip the keeps on Changing! Thanksgiving 2017 Update 3/21

[karalecia26]

Hi everyone and welcome to my Pre-Trip report! My name is Kara and I am a site supervisor at a child care center in the city that I live in. I have worked for the same place for over 10 years and it still amazes me when I get to see the children in my care grow! I am going to try this whole pre-trip report again! I have tried to do one before but failed horribly bad but since this trip has been moved up to July from November I thought that I would try and do one again!

Who is going?

Me!

My DH who has vary graciously put up with my new found Disney obsession, but I think secretly likes! (Why else would he ask me if I am going to keep my AP when it expires!)

DD who is 12. Hannah just turned 12 a few weeks ago and we were planning on doing a girls weekend with younger DD, but DGrandma just found out she can't take time off when we first planned, so we are all going to go. We are going to try and find something special for her to do by herself with me on this trip. DD loves to dance and hates fast rides, but says she is going to try and go on them again!

DS who is 10. Nicolas I think has to be just as Disney obsessed as I am. We took a special Mom and Dude birthday trip over his birthday in December and we had a complete blast! He is in the middle of two sisters and sometimes gets overlooked so we thought we would show him some extra fun! He got completely obsessed with SMK and we even upgraded him to a park hopper so we could get back to MK every day so he could get a new pack. It was well worth the extra money for him to be able to do this!

DD who is 6 (will turn 7 in June). Maddalynne is a complete diva and has a personality of her own! Our first trip she had just turned 4 and her favorite ride was Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios! She has continued to be a child with her own mind and is looking forward to being tall enough for RR this time around.

DGrandma- My mom has never been to WDW before and sometimes isn't always the easiest person to travel with. We have already told her that transportation to and from the parks is really easy so if she is done for the day she can go back and we will continue on.

DGrandpa-My dad has also never been to WDW and loves to spend time with my kids. He just doesn't always get the time to do so because of work. He is looking forward to seeing everything and spending time in the resort pools.

Where are we staying?

As of right now I am not completely sure! In December I upgraded my ticket to an annual pass and have been looking at the discounts that are out right now for pass holders. If we can get some good discounts like they have right now I would like to stay at POR or AKL. If we can't, (since we are pushing this trip up by 4 months) we are good with one of the value resorts.

How are we getting there?

We are hoping to fly down this time! We have drove before and even though it is 1500 miles one way my kids are awesome road trippers! Last summer we were able to get awesome flights and got to fly for the first time and it was great to be able to get there in one day and not be completely tired. My DS and I have a $50 credit each on Southwest from our December trip so that will help a little.

What do we have planned?

So far I have done a tentative outline of what we want to accomplish and a few ADR. I was super surprised I was able to get a couple PPO ADR's including Garden Grill. Now I just have to be on the hunt for a BOG dinner which is my favorite place!
We plan on going pretty slow with touring and taking 7 days to tour the parks. We want to be able to show the grandparents our favorite things but also not kill them in the Florida heat!

That is about all for now! I need to figure out a few other things and can't wait to plan this trip!

 

[photophreak]

Your trip sounds awesome!! We are headed back to POR for the second time in April.

 

[karalecia26]

Your trip sounds awesome!! We are headed back to POR for the second time in April.

I hope it is a lot of fun! We have some changes to our trip again now though too and I just started to re-plan for this week! Guess I get to try again!

 

[karalecia26]

It seems that every time that I start to plan something with my parents things have to change! AHHHH!!!! This past winter my dad apparently slipped at work and hurt his knee. He had gone to the doctor a few times and it wasn't getting any better, so yesterday at his doctors appointment the doctor decided that he was going to have to have surgery but since it is a work related injury they have to jump through all the hoops to get it approved and then set a date. So with this news my parents are going to have to wait to go with us next year. We were going to take next summer off, but guess not now! We are still going to go in July but it will just be us. Don't want to waste that AP! Now that we will just have the 5 of us our options for resorts are more open, but also more limited. With a family of 5 we either have to do 2 rooms at a value (which was the plan with grandparents) or go moderate or deluxe. I spent some time looking at a few of the villas and would really love to do a villa at Wilderness Lodge. We had a studio at BWV last summer and it was perfect for us. So many decisions to make and so many more plans to figure out. I know that since we are down to just our family that we will more at the resorts than we have in the past and my kids loved the slide at BWV so having a slide is very important if we are going to spend time at the resorts.

As soon as I get some more plans made I will be back! Have a great day everyone!

 

[photophreak]

It seems that every time that I start to plan something with my parents things have to change! AHHHH!!!! This past winter my dad apparently slipped at work and hurt his knee. He had gone to the doctor a few times and it wasn't getting any better, so yesterday at his doctors appointment the doctor decided that he was going to have to have surgery but since it is a work related injury they have to jump through all the hoops to get it approved and then set a date. So with this news my parents are going to have to wait to go with us next year. We were going to take next summer off, but guess not now! We are still going to go in July but it will just be us. Don't want to waste that AP! Now that we will just have the 5 of us our options for resorts are more open, but also more limited. With a family of 5 we either have to do 2 rooms at a value (which was the plan with grandparents) or go moderate or deluxe. I spent some time looking at a few of the villas and would really love to do a villa at Wilderness Lodge. We had a studio at BWV last summer and it was perfect for us. So many decisions to make and so many more plans to figure out. I know that since we are down to just our family that we will more at the resorts than we have in the past and my kids loved the slide at BWV so having a slide is very important if we are going to spend time at the resorts.

As soon as I get some more plans made I will be back! Have a great day everyone!

We are a family of 5 too, and I know the challenge. Honestly, it would be AMAZING to have 2 connected rooms, but it's just not in our budget, unfortunately. I say all the time that I would just LOVE the chance to be independently wealthy. I just know I'd be so good at it. But in the meantime, we squish into 1 room. haha!

 

[karalecia26]

I know exactly what you mean! We went last July and got an AWESOME deal at BWV in a studio (it was cheaper than an AOA family suite!) and it really was a great location and perfect room size too! I am hoping that we can get as good as a deal this summer as last. I see that you have stayed at POR and are going to stay there again. How do you like if for your size family? Our 3 trips that we have taken have been 2 value and one deluxe so we haven't ventured into moderates yet, but as of right now that is going to be the best deal. I see some awesome reviews for that resort so I am kind of leaning that way. Come on AP rates!

 

[photophreak]

I know exactly what you mean! We went last July and got an AWESOME deal at BWV in a studio (it was cheaper than an AOA family suite!) and it really was a great location and perfect room size too! I am hoping that we can get as good as a deal this summer as last. I see that you have stayed at POR and are going to stay there again. How do you like if for your size family? Our 3 trips that we have taken have been 2 value and one deluxe so we haven't ventured into moderates yet, but as of right now that is going to be the best deal. I see some awesome reviews for that resort so I am kind of leaning that way. Come on AP rates!

POR is cool!! The room was tight, but honestly, we didn't really hang out in the room much. i found that some of the pain points that others have mentioned were true for us- crowded food court, long walks to the lobby + long waits for buses both at the resort and at the parks to get back to the resort. But I think it's still a nice place to stay despite that stuff.

 

[windcriesamy]

I'm glad you all still get to go and take advantage of your APs, but I'm sorry to hear that your parents won't be going. We don't have kids yet, but I get the sense that things are easier with more adults on the trip (for example, your room situation)!

So far I have done a tentative outline of what we want to accomplish and a few ADR. I was super surprised I was able to get a couple PPO ADR's including Garden Grill. Now I just have to be on the hunt for a BOG dinner which is my favorite place!

BOG is one of our favorites, too! Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie and it's just so magical to get to eat there! If you still need a ressie, you might consider subscribing to touringplans.com. They have a function on their site that will notify you if a spot opens up at your selected restaurant during your stay. I got an auto-text this morning letting me know a spot had just opened up at 8:00p on one of the days during our trip, and I was able to book it! I had to rework some of our plans to make it fit into our schedule, but that experience sure is worth it!

 

[karalecia26]

I'm glad you all still get to go and take advantage of your APs, but I'm sorry to hear that your parents won't be going. We don't have kids yet, but I get the sense that things are easier with more adults on the trip (for example, your room situation)!



BOG is one of our favorites, too! Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie and it's just so magical to get to eat there! If you still need a ressie, you might consider subscribing to touringplans.com. They have a function on their site that will notify you if a spot opens up at your selected restaurant during your stay. I got an auto-text this morning letting me know a spot had just opened up at 8:00p on one of the days during our trip, and I was able to book it! I had to rework some of our plans to make it fit into our schedule, but that experience sure is worth it!

I am not sure if it would be any easier with the extra adults except for room situation. We have traveled just our family so many times that we have gotten used to what we need to do and how our kids work. I know that my kids were looking forward to showing grammy and papa all the fun things at Disney.

I LOVE the touring plans ADR finder! I actually was able to get one yesterday morning for a time that I wasn't sure if it was going to work so I snagged it and had the search restarted. Then I got another one for last night for a time that works better and was able to get that one! Now I am hopefully able to give the one we don't need to another DISer! BOG is my favorite restaurant so I am so excited. Our first time there last summer we were sat in the West Wing without even requesting and it was AMAZING![/QUOTE]

 

[karalecia26]

Well it has been a crazy few days around my neck of the woods! We went from 70 degree weather and my kids wanting to wear shorts to a blizzard that has dropped 9.7 inches of snow! That isn't a huge amount of snow for our area (we had a 16 inch snow last March!) but the wind was terrible which made for crazy white out conditions. My girls are in the middle of their competition dance season and it has been a stressful season so far. My oldest DD has a small team and the other 2 on her team don't have the commitment and she is done and frustrated with them. I have never let them quit anything in the middle of the year but right now I am about ready to let her. She feels so defeated and doesn't know why her teammates can't show up to practice. Then my DS has started a travel baseball team and they have started indoor practices already and he is excited beyond belief for the season to start. This is his first year so we will see what it all entails! Now that we have to wait on that stuff to do, what else do we do when we are done shoveling snow? We plan our Disney Vacation!

My youngest DD will finally be 7 when we go this summer. She is so excited that she finally doesn't have to ride with mom or dad on every ride! She wants to ride everything by herself, but we are trying to make sure she realizes that she will end up with one of her siblings or us on a lot of the rides. But it is nice to now that DH and I can ride a few together instead of each time having one of the kids with us.

I have a few tentative plans set in place for our trip which includes some ADR's and a BBB for my DD 7. Other than that I don't really have a clue what I am doing! It seems crazy because our last couple trips I had everything in place and I had flights and resorts already booked. This time we have had to change plans around a few times, so I am waiting for AP discounts to come out to choose our resort and flights are so ridiculous right now that we are really leaning toward driving. With flights almost $400 per person it is almost crazy to even think about flying. The drive is 22 hours straight through so that is the trade off off. Long drive and save over $1000 and stay deluxe or short travel day and have to stay in a moderate and more tight with extras. So many decisions, but I really loved our stay last summer at BWV and would love to another deluxe stay.

Is anyone else in the boat that they feel like they are so far behind on their trip planning? Besides resorts and travel plans hours for the parks are crazy and they haven't been finalizing them until almost the week before! This December we had hour changes up until almost the day before when they added on the Star Wars Fireworks again and H

 

[karalecia26]

So I decided that the name of this Pre-Trip report needed to be changed because this trip keeps on changing! Ahh!!! Well we are now officially booked for our trip, but we have had to change the dates a little so be able to take advantage of an awesome discount through a TA. Now hopefully we can get things figured out and start to plan this trip!

Here is what is happening and who is going for now!

Who: Me, my DH, DD Hannah, DS Nicolas, and DD Maddalynne

When: July 14-22, 2017

Where: POR-standard view room with 7 day park hoppers for the family (I have an AP)

Right now I have made a few reservations and was able to get a BBB for M at 8:50 am on one of our MK days and a Pirates League for H and N at 9:10. DH and I will divide and conquer this morning and I will take M to her appointment and DH will take H and N to their appointment. I am excited for this and I hope they are excited too.

Now that we are (hopefully) set for our dates I will be back with more plans hopefully soon!

 

[karalecia26]

Seriously! I am really glad I decided to change this trip reports name because we had to change again! My DS made a travel baseball team this year (yippee!) and I thought they had all the dates of tournaments figured out and then they throw another one at us! Oh well! So we have decided that we are completely switching it up and are now traveling November 22-27, 2017! This will be over Thanksgiving so crowds will be crazy, but who cares! We are at Disney! Travel plans have been switched over to these dates with an awesome TA deal and since we had booked flights with Southwest, we just now have to wait for our dates to be be released and we can book those flights.

So here are the new revised plans!

Dates: November 22-27, 2017

Where : POR-standard room with 4 day park hoppers

Looking at last years MVMCP, there was a party on Sunday of this week, so we are hoping that this trend is the same. My DS and I did a birthday trip last December and we went to a party on his birthday and we had a blast. We focused mostly on low ride times and enjoying MK during Christmas, but this year the whole family will be with us and will probably enjoy more of the extra party things. This trip we saved about $1000 on the room and tickets, so the idea of having to pay extra for the hard ticket event isn't as scary! I am so excited!

Now unless a major event happens we will NOT be changing our dates again! I am ready for a vacation! (and we still have 246 days to go!)