Help me decide

[abbyndrewmom]

I received one of the dinning pin codes for the QS meal plan and am considering a trip with just me and the kids to Pop Century. Dh (who is a teacher) is taking a group of students to Montreal at the end of June and I am thinking of taking advantage of the free dinning offer and just taking the kids to Disney. It would have to be a budget trip as I still want to take a family vacation as well this summer. Here are a couple of things that concern me:

1. Staying at a Value Resort - we stayed at the ASMv a few years ago and hated it!! I found the rooms small, the pools crowded and everything just kinda tired looking. I really like the Mods but just can't justify it for this trip. I'm hoping since the Pop is newer it won't have that same feeling also since there will just be 3 of us in the room (and the kids are older= less stuff) it won't feel as crowded.

2. The busses: I'm not a big fan of the Disney busses, we have always rented a car - the one time we tried to go without the car rental I ended up calling Alamo after one day and renting a car on site. However DH is the driver and I am the navigator (with Garmin) not sure if I can do both on my own. My thought is to take DME to the hotel and then rent a car on site as I know I want to do some off site shopping & possibly take one day to go to Universal for the new Harry Potter world. This way I don't have to worry about navigating around the airport.

2. Being on the QS meal plan, again we have always eaten at the sit down restaurants or been on the dinning plan. This would be a real change for me as I usually arrange our trips around our dinning plans. I feel like by not doing the sit downs I would be missing out on a huge part of the Disney experience. On the other hand I can see it kinda being liberating to not be on a dinning schedule and to focus more on the parks & other activities rather then just dinning. I am seriously consider upgrading to the sitdown dining plan, with a 10 & 12 year old it does add money on to the package with out the value as it would for 3 true adults. Anyone that usually does the regular dinning plan try the QS what were your thoughts?

What do you think would you go? I would probably just do 4 - 5 days, get 2 day tickets with the Water Park option and do 2 park days & 2 water park days (we love the water parks.) Maybe one day at Universal if possible. The dates I will be looking at are June 28th - July 2/3 and my budget will be around $ 2,000.00 including airfare (I can fly from DTW for just under $600.00)

Thanks for your help,

 

[java]

Personally without my husband I would just roll with QS freebie. The kids are not going to mind and for such a short trip- I would just do some of the better QS(Like wolfgang puck)

You could also just pay for one table service meal so you get that "Feeling" out of pocket.
Paying for one sit down is way cheaper than getting the dining plan for the days.

JMHO.

I can't help on hotels. If you are doing free QS I would look into at least a moderate to see if it's possible.

 

[abbyndrewmom]

That what I was thinking - we really like WPE last time we ate there twice even though we were on the regular dinning plan. Don't think I can upgrade to a mod- I really have to keep to a tight budget this trip. This will be a whole new experience for me as we usually do a more upscale trip but I think it could be fun in a different kind of way - plus I love the idea of doing something on my own with the kids.

 

[sksjasams]

Since its just you and the kids, I agree, take a go with the flow attitude. Stick with your budget plan. Stay at POP, quick service dining plan and disney busses. We loved POP and had no trouble at all with the busses.

As far as dining, I think you will enjoy the freedom of not being tied to a reservation - eat when you are hungry, and eat what happens to sound good at the time! Sounds good already, doesn't it?

I would skip Universal, since you would need to rent a car and spend more on the tickets and buying food there. Just stick with WDW - it is a very short trip.

Since it will be hot and crowded at the parks, I would recommend getting up early and being to the parks before rope drop. You will have less wait for the busses and an easier time touring the parks. Ask the kids what the top things on their list to do are and try to hit those.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[ceecee]

We love the buses and haven't had any trouble. The time you are thinking of going will be packed though and that does slow the buses down. Values do have a lot of buses running and I think if you go in knowing it will be crowded you should do okay. Much easier than renting a car, parking and navigating yourself.