Help! DL Vets attempt WDW trip December 2012! PTR & TR.

[SueTGGR]

Just happened across this thread and thought I would give you our experience as a West Coaster (and spoiled VGC owner). We are also planning our trip to WDW (we've been 4 times over the last 7 years?) and our stay will be in between a 7 night and a 4 night cruise but we are crazy and going this June (more humidity, I know). Then we are headed to Aulani in August for my b-day!

Things we have on our MUST DO list so far:
DH has us already booked for dinner at the Yachtsmen because it is his favorite place.
DH is also hinting that we do Hoop De Do again and he is not a show-type person. We all had a blast including my 2 older sons who were bratty teenagers at the time. DH thought it was good food, too.
I may talk him into renting a boat, again, to watch the Epcot IlluminaNations show. I am not one to stand around "wasting my time" just to get a good viewing spot for something like this. The boat was great, if they still do this.

Also, prior to being DVC owners we stayed @ the Yacht Club and LOVED the convenience of being able to walk to Epcot and being able to take a short boat ride (or a long walk) to DHS (DO NOT miss the Osborne Family Lights!). It did make me feel more like DLR that we could walk to a park.
Hope that helps & I am reading to see if I can catch anything I may have missed. Enjoy your time @ Aulani, too!
Sue

 

[taaren]

Just happened across this thread and thought I would give you our experience as a West Coaster (and spoiled VGC owner). We are also planning our trip to WDW (we've been 4 times over the last 7 years?) and our stay will be in between a 7 night and a 4 night cruise but we are crazy and going this June (more humidity, I know). Then we are headed to Aulani in August for my b-day!

Things we have on our MUST DO list so far:
DH has us already booked for dinner at the Yachtsmen because it is his favorite place.
DH is also hinting that we do Hoop De Do again and he is not a show-type person. We all had a blast including my 2 older sons who were bratty teenagers at the time. DH thought it was good food, too.
I may talk him into renting a boat, again, to watch the Epcot IlluminaNations show. I am not one to stand around "wasting my time" just to get a good viewing spot for something like this. The boat was great, if they still do this.

Also, prior to being DVC owners we stayed @ the Yacht Club and LOVED the convenience of being able to walk to Epcot and being able to take a short boat ride (or a long walk) to DHS (DO NOT miss the Osborne Family Lights!). It did make me feel more like DLR that we could walk to a park.
Hope that helps & I am reading to see if I can catch anything I may have missed. Enjoy your time @ Aulani, too!
Sue

Thanks for the input! I'll have to take a look at Yatchsman and Hoop de Doo. The Illuminations boat is on my list since I saw a call for DVC-ers this past New Years Eve to fill a boat where a DISser was proposing to his gf. Wonder if I could find people to fill a boat here on the DIS ...

Totally jealous of your sandwiching a stay between 2 cruises. If we could afford to do more than 1 cruise a year I'd hop onto any DCL ship as much as I could!

 

[tofubeast]

Hey, since you mentioned your PTR on our 12/12 thread, I thought I would stop by. Glad you have your resorts reserved. Looks like you are in great shape. If you take a peek at my previous TR, you will see I am a former SoCal girl now living in FL. So I traded home parks, though DL will always be the one that first had my heart!

We will be at WDW the same time as you....during that 2nd week at least. This is my first time being at WDW during the holidays. (I had been to DL YEARS ago at Christmas time.) If you have any questions, I am happy to help or add my two cents. I will be following your thread here. I hope to start one myself in the near future.

 

[taaren]

So I think I've narrowed down our dining choices:

Week 1: Arrival night T-Rex, Dec 2 - ?, Dec 3 - Le Cellier or Chefs de France for lunch, Dec 4 - Whispering Canyon lunch, Dec 5 - ?.
Somewhere in there not on Dec 3 or 4 we'll be having a character meal, probably dinner at Chef Mickeys since its conveniently at the Contemporary, but possibly Garden Grill ... Katie's favorite characters are Chip & Dale while I just want as many of the Fab Five as I can get.

Week 2: Dec 9 - Chefs de France or Yatchsman. Also this week would like to hit Coral Reef to eat by the tank (as close as they'll let us get), Donald's Safari Breakfast (on whatever day we decide to return to AK), Kouzzina, and whatever didn't get hit on the birthdays (Le Cellier/Yatchsman). And Wolfgang Puck Express and Fairfax Faire, but I won't need ADRs for those so I'm going to put that on a shelf for now, figure we can go to those when we're at the correct place and the mood is right.

Really trying to avoid "island-style" food, including Asian food and anything California style because we're so used to the authentic stuff I think we'd be disappointed by the Florida version.
Only going to plan one breakfast out, as we aren't usually rope droppers in California, and with the time change we will be even less inclined.

That being said, we're going to try to avoid the morning EMH's and maximize use of the evening EMH's. September is up right now, which is 7 months out. Does that mean December's won't be up until May, when I'm going to have to make my ADRs 6 months out? How do you people do this? BTW, is there an ADR date calculator somewhere like the DVC "this is the date you can make your reservation" calculator?Not sure if I should be calling on June 1 (6 months before the first reservation) or 10 days prior to that? Or 5 days prior to that since our first villa stay is 5 nights long?

We'd like to plan a Pirate's League appointment for the two boys and possibly the one girl on our MK day. Also leaning towards an Illuminations cruise on either Dec 3 or 4, either leaving the kids in the room with a babysitter or possibly at the Beach Club kids club.

Atm I'm thinking we'll do breakfast most days in the room, pick a park for the morning, hopefully have a late lunch ADR in that park, after lunch go back to the room to nap/rest, then head to whatever late EMH there is or show we want to see that night, then do a quick cheap dinner either CS on the way out or pizza/something quick in the room. Really hard to figure this out without knowing where the EMHs are though. Leaning towards week one having 2 days Epcot, 1 each of the other three since a lot of the MK attractions are repeats of DLR. Week two we'll hopefully know what we liked and want to go back for more, but probably 2 days Epcot, 1.5 DH, 1.5 AK, 1 MK.

 

[taaren]

Also good to know, when I listed the average plate prices and totaled everything up for just me, DH, and DS5 if we got the new DVC TIW for $100 we would break even but not really save anything. It would probably be a great help to the rest of our party but not sure if they would want to pitch in for it. So it looks like we're definitely going cash for meals ... just have to figure out if there's any other way to get any kind of a dining discount. So used to our Annual Pass discounts at DLR even just the 10% makes us spoiled!

On the other hand, it looks like all of our Dream Reward Dollars will be going towards the 8-9 table service meals we have planned (~$500 already!), so we're going to have to budget another few hundred for counter service meals and grocery. Wow this is much harder to stay on a budget than DLR!

 

[tofubeast]

ADR Calculator: http://pscalculator.net/pscalc.php

 

[Zarabear]

I'm subscribing to your thread. We will also be traveling to the world at this time, and coincidentally... I went to high school with your DH!

Will read back and post more pertinent information later. My sleep schedule is all wacky from staying up 24 hours for Leap Day at DL.


~Zara

 

[taaren]

I'm subscribing to your thread. We will also be traveling to the world at this time, and coincidentally... I went to high school with your DH!
Will read back and post more pertinent information later. My sleep schedule is all wacky from staying up 24 hours for Leap Day at DL.
~Zara

What a small world this is! I guess Vacaville-ians are everywhere though.

Very jealous that you got to go for Leap Day. I was hoping to have an excuse to be on the mainland for it since we have APs but as it turns out I had to travel to California 3 weeks before and a week after, so shoehorning another trip in wasn't going to happen. I heard it was a madhouse with 66,000 AP holders and another 40,000 non-AP holders. The sheer spectacle of it must have been amazing, though it does make me afraid of what opening weekend of Carsland will look like. We have a reservation at VGC for that weekend that we made a long time ago based on what DH's boss said he would give him for time off, had no idea we might run into opening weekend itself.

 

[taaren]

And MYW 10-day Park Hoppers are bought! Had some extra income this month, so went ahead and took the plunge on Undercover Tourist through the Mousesavers link. Even though we only saved $14 per ticket, I figure for the three of us that's still a meal or maybe an few extras one evening at the World.

Vacation fund has not been dipped into yet, and lodging and tickets are paid for. Which is good since our airline tickets getting from Hawaii to the West Coast will probably take up most of the vacation fund, with a little leftover for dining/souvenirs. As soon as I file our taxes and get the refund, paying off the cruise will be taken care of, and as soon as Southwest Airlines releases the December dates we'll be able to book it on points ... C'mon Southwest! Release those dates!

Its becoming more real now ...

 

[taaren]

So Katie and I have hammered out a rough schedule for the first week, mostly around what we would like to do for our ADR's. If we have to move parks or days to avoid morning Extra Magic Hours or catch evening EMH's we'll be okay with that.

Their family will probably be taking a red-eye in and arriving early Saturday morning. I'm still waiting to see about Southwest fare differences between Friday and Saturday to see whether we'll fly in Friday night and stay at an airport hotel or leave California Saturday morning and arrive at 4p Saturday, Dec 1. We'll find out May 21 when Southwest releases their December fares!

Sat Dec 1 - possible no park, or if we get there early enough Animal Kingdom, DTD and T-Rex Cafe for dinner around 7p.

Sun Dec 2 - Magic Kingdom in the morning, nap and lunch in the villa, then Epcot in the evening (or possibly AK if we didn't get to it the day before) and have counter service dinner in the World Showcase somewhere.

Mon Dec 3 - Epcot in the morning, Chefs de France for Michael's b-day lunch. Back to villa for a nap, then go to DHS. Or if we're feeling up to it head straight to DHS without a nap.

Tues Dec 4 - DHS in the morning, get all the rough rides in, then Sci-Fi for Brian's birthday lunch. He asked for a really good burger. Then back to the villa for a rest, then MK for the evening, barring CP happening this night. Reservation at Whispering Canyon for appetizers and desserts around 8p, and if we make it great, if not we're okay with that too.

Wed Dec 5 - Character breakfast at Tusker House, then head to Animal Kingdom. In the evening, we're hoping to book a cruise to watch Illuminations and leave the kids either in the room or at the Beach Clubhouse and spend an evening in Epcot.

Thurs Dec 6 - We head for the cruise!

Now I just have to figure out what we're doing the second week. And wait for the December schedule and May 21 for flights, and June 4 for ADRs.

 

[DsnyMama]

Subbing along! We'll be in the world at the same time!

 

[taaren]

Thanks for reminding me that I haven't update this in awhile. Its always good to get input and think out loud, especially when my planning spreadsheet has grown to a frightening 7 pages!

Lots of progress made: ADR's have been booked, flights have been bought on the opening day for Southwest from Oakland to MCO at a very reasonable rate, mostly now we just need to perfect our Touring Plan for the individual days. I also am still working on finding reasonable prices for the OGG-OAK portion of flight, probably booking on Alaska.

It worked out best for both families to fly in Friday, the night of November 30th in part because Katie and I didn't want to waste a day in Florida with flying. So we'll be coming in around 10p the night before and sharing a two bedroom at the MCO Marriott Residence Inn, which at $155 is really affordable when split. We'll head back to the airport to take Magical Express in on Saturday December 1st. From there our plan is this:

Sat, Dec 1:

• 8:30 Take ME to BLT to check in
• 9:15 Check in at BLT, leave luggage, head to AKL (probably via cab)
• 10:00 ADR for Tusker House Character Breakfast!
• Noon Take bus to Animal Kingdom, squeeze in as many attractions as we can before 5. Emphasis on "relaxing" attractions - we'd love to see Finding Nemo, let the boys explore the boneyard, just gawk at the animals that are out.
• 5:00 Take bus back to BLT, groceries should have arrived. Have a relaxing evening/dinner in the room, possibly with pool time for the kids if weather allows. Try to watch fireworks and EWP from the room if it has a good view, TOTWL if not. Entirely possible some of the adults may want to head over to Epcot for some counter service Intl Pavilion options if we have a lot of energy; its open til 9:30p.

Sun, Dec 2

• Wake up as late as the kids will allow us and after a quick breakfast in the villa head into MK around 10a.
• Pirates League and Mermaid appointments for the two boys and young lady at 11:30a ... 3 adults will stay with the kids while the other two collect FP's.
• Ride rides with an emphasis on ones that are substantially different from Disneyland; ie Buzz, Splash Mtn, BTMRR, Stitch, Space. If we can get 5 rides done by 5ish we'll be happy. Have a CS lunch or snack inside the park if the kids are hungry.
• 5p return to the room for a rest/nap.
• 6:30p ish Head over to DHS via bus to see the Osborne lights and enjoy the evening EMH. Have dinner at a CS, probably Fairfax Faire, and if there's a second Fantasmic! catch that showing, if not we're not worried about it. Ride some rides, the kids will insist on TSMM, adults will want TOT, Star Tours and other coasters even if they're identical to our DLR ones.
• 10-11p Depending on kids' stamina (and whether they've adjusted to time change, we're hoping not) head back to villa via taxi.

Mon, Dec 3 - Michael's b-day

• Wake up as late as kids will allow and ride monorail to Epcot.
• 11a Seas with Nemo, Test Track, and Mission Space are at the top of our attractions list, hopefully to accomplish before 2p
• 2:10p Chefs de France ADR, for the birthday meal, hoping to catch Remy at 2:50 (don't tell the kids!)
• 3:30 Explore the World Pavilions for an hour or so before sending the kids back via monorail for a nap with dads, moms stay and explore for a bit longer.
• 5p Back to villa for a rest, probably with a snack from one of the Pavilions
• 6:30p Head to MK for the 7p Electrical Light Parade, stay for evening EMH. Jungle Cruise, and anything we missed yesterday or that has a short line. Late night for whoever can handle it.

Tues, Dec 4 - Brian's b-day

• Wake up as late as kids let us and ride bus to DHS. Shows emphasis today - LMA, Indy, and Beauty and the Beast are at the top of our list as none of those exist in DLR.
• 12:30 Sci-Fi ADR. Then ride rides til they turn on Osborne lights, and head over to DTD for
• 8:00p T-Rex ADR for the kids.
• 9:00p early night, another chance to catch fireworks or EWP from the room or TOTWL

Wed, Dec 5 - Last park day as a group of 8

• 8:00A Most likely heading to the AK morning EMH via cab, unless we did everything we wanted to on Day 1 and feel that Epcot needs more time for us.
• Rides emphasis - preferably the first safari of the day, Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest and more atmosphere soaking in.
• 5p Head to pick up car from Alamo at Dolphin via bus, back to villa to pack, have dinner, pool time for kids.
• 7p Kids get a babysitter and adults head to Boardwalk via car
• 8:30p? IllumiNations pontoon cruise reserved for 5 adults as a grand finale to the trip. Found a full complement of 10 cruisers here on the DIS, so its affordable as well.

Thurs, Dec 6

• 9a Everybody checks out of the 2 bedroom, half our party goes to AoA, we take the car to head to Port Canaveral!
• 11a Drop car at port, check in to cruise, head for AquaDuck and lunch, hopefully at Enchanted Gardens since we'll be missing our dinner dining rotation there.
• Our requested dining rotation has Royal Palace tonight

Frid, Dec 7 Nassau

• Stay on ship and take advantage of all the amenities and Aquaduck
• Our requested dining rotation has Animators up tonight

 

[taaren]

The second week of the trip is much less complicated and detailed as there is only 4 of us. Also, after we've seen each of the parks we'll be playing it by ear to see what we want to do more of, and what we've already had our fill of. I figure on the cruise we'll discuss which parks will get top billing for our second week. Katie has already noted that there's not nearly enough time for Epcot in our first week (which we did minimally so the three kids together will have more fun), so they have that in their schedule along with Harry Potter time when we're on the cruise and I suspect we'll also want more Epcot when we come back.

Sat, Dec 8 - Castaway Cay and my

• Snorkeling, Pelican Plunge, explore CC
• Palo for dinner for DH & I, possibly for DBF

Sun, Dec 9

• 8a Breakfast, disembark, pick up car at port, drive to BWV
• 11a Check in at BWV 1 bdr, head to DHS most likely. May need to return car to the Dolphin as the rate I have is $40 for one day from the port to resort, but I'd like to keep it for at least 3 so will keep checking rates.
• 8p Kouzzina ADR ... originally this was going to be my bday meal then DH insisted on Palo instead so not sure if I'm going to keep it. Maybe Yatchsman instead?
• 9p DHS evening EMH potential

Mon, Dec 10

• Epcot in the morning
• 12:15 Coral Reef ADR, may eat just lunch dessert just really wanted to experience eating by a giant fish tank. After may head to World Pavilions for a real CS meal as there's so many we want to try there.
• 5p break in villa ... would like to drive to WL, check out decorations, may taxi
• 6:30p Whispering Canyon ADR
• 8:00p head over to MK for evening EMH til quittin time

Tues, Dec 11: non park day

• We haven't added WP&M to our tickets yet, still waiting to see what the weather is like. If its warm enough I'd love to head to Blizzard Beach (via car). If not, we'll resort hop, enjoy the clown pool. Either way, having a car this day will be somewhat important.
• 8p California Grill ADR, probably just going to get appetizers and desserts and watch the holiday fireworks.

Wed, Dec 12

• 8a AK early EMH. Repeat safari, any other favorites. Back to villa.
• 7p DTD, Wolfgang Puck Express. DH & I loved this restaurant in Las Vegas, as well as the Honolulu version. If we buy the WP&M option we'll head to DisneyQuest tonight, if not just enjoy DTD (though we're not really shoppers).
• Alternate plan for 7p - catch the Electrical Light Parade if we missed it last week or if we want to see it again, then move Wolfgang Puck to tomorrow night. Its only playing on M & W this week.

Thurs, Dec 13

• Another relaxing park day, wherever we want to go the most. DHS? Epcot? MK has early EMH, so probably not there. We'll probably be tired/ winded at this point in the trip so Tues & Thurs this week are my "vacation from my vacation" days.
• Contemplating a sleigh ride at WL (or is it FW?) for DH & I for a romantic interlude.

Fri, Dec 14 Last full day/park day

• Epcot day again. It has evening EMH today, so I think we'll wake up late, pack a bit, work on polishing off any remaining groceries, maybe pool time in the morning.
• 2:20p Le Cellier ADR. This place gets such rave reviews, we have to try it.
• After eating, head back to villa for nap for DS6 and then try to stay up for EMH, maybe one more time watching IllumiNations.

Sat, Dec 15

• Now we're really tired, and its really over. Time to check out of our BWV 1 bedroom and head to the airport. Flight departs at noon, and I'll start nailing down details of our Dec 2013 DLR trip that I'll need to reserve in January ...
• Spend the night in Oakland at Michael's house, visiting friends before heading back to Maui on Sun or Mon.

 

[taaren]

Random thoughts after writing all that out:

If I'd known about the EMH's, etc earlier (and how ambitious my schedule would end up) I would have planned on only 4 nights after the cruise and flown home 2 days earlier when flights are dramatically cheaper. Such is the curse of DVC, you're forced to pick days and stick to them 11 months out. Hopefully the slow pace of the 2nd week is something I'll learn to enjoy (DH always wants more sleep-in time, less scheduling from me, less of a need to go, go, go!).

Still nailing down the car situation for week 2. If anybody sees some great coupons/rates that one can use to pick up at WDW or at Port Canaveral, let me know! I'd really like to have one for convenience sake since we'll be doing a bit more resort-to-resort driving with more ADRs, even though I hear the parking lot situation at BWV isn't great.

For week one, with a party of 8 renting a van was just too expensive, so we settled on using mostly foot-power or boats to MK, monorail to Epcot, and then for AK and DHS we'll be taking the bus in one direction and taking a taxi in the other and its still substantially cheaper than renting a car would have been ... we may wuss out and take a taxi both ways to DHS and AK if we feel short on time.

Also tinkering with the idea of going to Harry Potterland on Tues 11th or Thurs 13th (or both!). DH really wants to see it, but the tickets are just so darn expensive when we've already spent so much on the 10 day hoppers for DisneyWorld and the cruise fare. I told him budget-wise he had to pick between Universal and the Dream Cruise, and he said Castaway Cay and the cruise experience wins hands down, but maybe I'll surprise him with a HP day if I can find a little extra in the budget after paying for the Hawaii airfare and finishing off the last 1/3 of paying for the cruise.
I know I'm a librarian and therefore supposed to love HP, but I read so much that I just couldn't fall in love with HP since it was written so poorly compared to so many other fantasy books. Bad soap box.
The new Despicable Me ride really looks appealing (its one of our favorite family flicks) and I know DS6 would adore Mavel land.

 

[tofubeast]

I am so jealous of your 2 weeks of Disney -land and sea fun!!! ahhh. too cool.

I see several days you mention sleeping in. Just want to reiterate the value in waking up and doing rope drop. You get so much more done, and then can rest in the afternoon etc. Things are a lot more crowded at the World than at DLR.

I would probably skip US. From all the travelling and walking, it just might be too much. You say you might go back to FL in '15. I would do US then. By that time, the HP expansion might be done? (Not sure about that).

 

[SAT887]

Your trip looks great!! I like the cruise in the middle I have never been on a cruise - makes me somewhat anxious to think I would be stuck on a boat for a few days(I know I am crazy!!) .... I think I may have to try a short one to see if I liked it. I know my husband would love it.... Plus DCL looks so nice!

Well I can't wait to see the rest of your planning!! I am currently enjoying how awesome my daughters imagination is right now and want to figure out how to add some pixie dust to her vacation (thinking Minnie and Cinderella need to send some breakfast/dinner invites!)

 

[taaren]

I see several days you mention sleeping in. Just want to reiterate the value in waking up and doing rope drop. You get so much more done, and then can rest in the afternoon etc. Things are a lot more crowded at the World than at DLR.

I would probably skip US. From all the travelling and walking, it just might be too much. You say you might go back to FL in '15. I would do US then. By that time, the HP expansion might be done? (Not sure about that).

Yeah, I haven't mentioned the idea of US to DH yet, but when I told him about the two days when I have nothing planned he was pretty excited about that. Poor thing really likes a much more relaxed pace on vacation than I do. I can only relax within the framework of a schedule or a goal. I think I'm going to put that one off since I can't seem to find anything better than an $81 per person rate on tickets (and that's with our friends' military discount) and spending $240 on one day just seems excessive. Plus they're building an HP Land out here in California so that might be open by 2015 last I saw.

I'll see if I can add a few rope drop days in for us. I'm thinking Dec 2 and 5 we won't be up late the night before and the kids will probably be raring to go. (The kids waking up is kind of a wild card since I don't know how they'll react to such a large time change from Hawaii/Pacific time.) Another idea we're toying with is if I can find really cheap points to rent, (ie if someone's points are expiring in November and they need to ditch them in October) Katie and I are thinking about going down to grab a few studios on 11/30 at either SSR or AKV (they still have availability) so then we could rope drop at AK on 12/1, and just have our luggage transferred from AKV to BLT while we're in the park, instead of moving them from the airport to airport hotel, then back for ME. I checked out values but we can't see spending double the price for two value rooms as we would for a single 2 bedroom at the airport.

Your trip looks great!! I like the cruise in the middle I have never been on a cruise - makes me somewhat anxious to think I would be stuck on a boat for a few days(I know I am crazy!!) .... I think I may have to try a short one to see if I liked it. I know my husband would love it.... Plus DCL looks so nice!

Well I can't wait to see the rest of your planning!! I am currently enjoying how awesome my daughters imagination is right now and want to figure out how to add some pixie dust to her vacation (thinking Minnie and Cinderella need to send some breakfast/dinner invites!)

DCL is amazing, we just went on our first cruise last year and all three of us were crying to leave the ship they had just created such an amazing vacation experience. Because we're social creatures we love the parks more than the ship due to the quality time with our best buds, but the cruise was like being on a 5 day party where you kept running into the same strangers that became friends over time. In fact, one of our tablemates on that cruise was a DISser from San Diego, and the next trip I took to DLR she ended up joining me since I had an extra bed in my Grand Californian studio I didn't want to go to waste and we had a fabulous time together.
Really looking forward to Castaway Cay on this trip.

 

[taaren]

I'm hitting a few snags in making up my mind these days.

Issue 1) Strollers for the 5, 6 and 7 year old. Katie and I are of two minds about this, since its $60ish to rent a double for the week but have to haul it back and forth to the parks and we know the DHs will complain about that. We don't generally use strollers at DLR, but I know WDW is much larger, and we think the 5 year old will want one by the end of the evening, but probably not on the 3 nights we quit early. So we're leaning towards instead just renting strollers in the parks on the two nights we're planning on doing a late night, which will also come to $60. We're also thinking though, that if the 5 year old has a stroller, the bigger kids might want one too. Or they might be proud of their "bigger" status and refuse one. I originally thought a double would be good since then 2 out of 3 could ride at any given time, then I realized, if we have it the 5 year old will always want to ride, and then if either the 6 or 7 year old wants to ride the other one won't want to be walking. So we're either going to need 1 or 3 strollers, in the evenings. Probably going to be a play it by ear thing.

Issue 2) TIW vs OOP. When I crunch the numbers on what we would typically order, esp given that the adults often share meals (ie couples split an entree or girls share and guys get their own) we end up $40 shy of breaking even, pre tax and pre-tip, partly due to the fact that several of the places we want to go like T-Rex don't take TIW. When I add in all 8 people we're $40 over breaking even but I don't know if that's worth the trouble. I'm guessing everybody usually goes over budget on food? I'm setting aside $500 for table service for both weeks, and I have most of that covered with my Disney Reward Dollars though we'll probably be using a bit of that for CS as well and eating all breakfasts and about 1/3 of the dinners in the villas. While I like the idea of having discount on alcohol, we're the type that are more likely to go for an extra milkshake or dessert at the restaurant then perhaps have some shots in the room to hang out together. Problem is I can't really play this one by ear as I'll have to pick it up on the first day of the trip, somehow grab it before the character breakfast at Tusker day 1. Hmm ...

Issue 3) The car. We're pretty settled with not getting a car week 1. But apparently Alamo is difficult to drop at the port since they won't shuttle people to the ship, which is what I have reserved right now. I usually use Enterprise who doesn't like one-way rentals, and someone on this thread I started mentioned that Hertz has a location at Shades of Green which is easy to get to with a convenient drop off but they're kind of expensive. Beginning to wonder if I should keep an eye out for cheap weekly rates from Dec 5-12 and just rent WDW with no drop off at port then use a park and cruise. Seems silly not to use the car for 3 days I'm paying for it, but if I can find a rate for $125 or so it might be worth it, then even with $15/day parking at port per day my rental would be $24. Still seems high, but I don't know if I'll be able to nab a rental for much less than that. Guess I'll need to watch for transportation discount codes. Really want to have a car for 3 days after the cruise.

 

[SAT887]

I'm hitting a few snags in making up my mind these days.

Issue 1) Strollers for the 5, 6 and 7 year old. Katie and I are of two minds about this, since its $60ish to rent a double for the week but have to haul it back and forth to the parks and we know the DHs will complain about that. We don't generally use strollers at DLR, but I know WDW is much larger, and we think the 5 year old will want one by the end of the evening, but probably not on the 3 nights we quit early. So we're leaning towards instead just renting strollers in the parks on the two nights we're planning on doing a late night, which will also come to $60. We're also thinking though, that if the 5 year old has a stroller, the bigger kids might want one too. Or they might be proud of their "bigger" status and refuse one. I originally thought a double would be good since then 2 out of 3 could ride at any given time, then I realized, if we have it the 5 year old will always want to ride, and then if either the 6 or 7 year old wants to ride the other one won't want to be walking. So we're either going to need 1 or 3 strollers, in the evenings. Probably going to be a play it by ear thing.

Issue 2) TIW vs OOP. When I crunch the numbers on what we would typically order, esp given that the adults often share meals (ie couples split an entree or girls share and guys get their own) we end up $40 shy of breaking even, pre tax and pre-tip, partly due to the fact that several of the places we want to go like T-Rex don't take TIW. When I add in all 8 people we're $40 over breaking even but I don't know if that's worth the trouble. I'm guessing everybody usually goes over budget on food? I'm setting aside $500 for table service for both weeks, and I have most of that covered with my Disney Reward Dollars though we'll probably be using a bit of that for CS as well and eating all breakfasts and about 1/3 of the dinners in the villas. While I like the idea of having discount on alcohol, we're the type that are more likely to go for an extra milkshake or dessert at the restaurant then perhaps have some shots in the room to hang out together. Problem is I can't really play this one by ear as I'll have to pick it up on the first day of the trip, somehow grab it before the character breakfast at Tusker day 1. Hmm ...

Issue 3) The car. We're pretty settled with not getting a car week 1. But apparently Alamo is difficult to drop at the port since they won't shuttle people to the ship, which is what I have reserved right now. I usually use Enterprise who doesn't like one-way rentals, and someone on this thread I started mentioned that Hertz has a location at Shades of Green which is easy to get to with a convenient drop off but they're kind of expensive. Beginning to wonder if I should keep an eye out for cheap weekly rates from Dec 5-12 and just rent WDW with no drop off at port then use a park and cruise. Seems silly not to use the car for 3 days I'm paying for it, but if I can find a rate for $125 or so it might be worth it, then even with $15/day parking at port per day my rental would be $24. Still seems high, but I don't know if I'll be able to nab a rental for much less than that. Guess I'll need to watch for transportation discount codes. Really want to have a car for 3 days after the cruise.

1) Strollers - I can't help you much there - I bring a double umbrella style from home - and the last time I brought that and a jogger. However, my kids much younger I really don't like the park rentals - they are hard plastic and look really uncomfortable and bulky... With that said - I have also never used one. But, just a thought - couldn't you see how it went and even rent one while you were down there - from a rental service? I know the crib rental place we used dropped the rentals off at the resort and mousekeeping actually brought it to our room....

2)TiW- We are opting for TiW - I think we will save a lot - however everywhere we are dining accepts it. Also, some quick service counters in Epcot and Animal Kingdom take it too (according to this app for my iPhone) I am not counting on that but it will be a plus. The other thing I like is you can use it on drink, appetizers etc which is a benefit because I definitely am getting some wine and cocktails this trip and a lot of time I get an appetizer for dinner because Disney meals are a lot of food for me.

3) I also suggest hotwire.com for car rates - I've gotten some very good prices closer to when we leave from them.



Also - I may try DCL in the future - I would think a better idea when my 1 year old is about 3? It sounds like fun - I am pretty social but love my space too hehe... It always seems like I don't have enough -but I think the key for me is finding people who have similar OCD's rotfl I also like your screen name - reminds me of my daughters middle name "Taryn"

 

[taaren]

I also suggest hotwire.com for car rates - I've gotten some very good prices closer to when we leave from them.

Also - I may try DCL in the future - I would think a better idea when my 1 year old is about 3? It sounds like fun - I am pretty social but love my space too hehe... It always seems like I don't have enough -but I think the key for me is finding people who have similar OCD's rotfl I also like your screen name - reminds me of my daughters middle name "Taryn"

Thanks for liking my name, taaren is also my first name IRL and I hate it but with hippie parents what are you going to do? I would have much preferred a more conventional spelling at least like Taryn, but its pronounced the same here in the states (I had an affable Norwegian professor once tell me I pronounced it wrong, and also spelled my last name wrong but that's another story).

I'll have to keep an eye on hotwire. I've used them for hotels before, but never for cars.

DCL is definitely something that's better with a potty-trained child who can go to the Oceaneer's Club/Lab as the Lab was a highlight for my DS when he was 4, so 3 should be a great age to go. Plus then they can use the big kid pools, can communicate with the servers who will fawn over them, etc.


I also resolved the stroller issue - we're going to play it by ear and rent in the parks, but when Katie's mom heard about our conundrum she offered to supplement the stroller budget, so now we're just not going to sweat it.
And for the TIW, we've decided against because someone pointed out that I could use the DVC member discount ... and when I checked our ADRs vs the list of restaurants that offer DVC member discount, fully half of them (5 out of the 10) offered 10-20% off, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Pretty much negated any advantage that paying $100 for the DVC TIW would have had for us. And the DVC one includes T-Rex and Chefs de France which are going to be our most expensive meals for the party of 8.