Holidays & Hammocks - Dec. 10-19 - Poly Club!!! ~ Updated 1/10: TR Started!

A few updates tonight.

The most important one is that we found out this morning that Dug's grandma probably does not have very long left. She's had Alzheimer's and has been in a care center for a few years now, but she's been slowly declining. The family started getting calls from the care center yesterday, advising them to come visit her, as she wasn't eating much anymore.

We don't know if she has a few days, a few weeks, more? Tough to deal with.

We left work early this afternoon and met up with Dug's dad, Dug's sister and her husband, and Dug's grandpa to visit his grandma. She has gotten very tiny and not very responsive. So sad. We all said our goodbyes to her, as no one really knows how long she has.

And, although we feel guilty for even thinking about it, we're concerned that this could affect our trip. We're scheduled to leave in 6 days. We'll just have to see what happens. If there is a funeral, we need to be there. Dug wasn't able to make it to his other grandma's funeral (when he was in college) and wouldn't dream of missing another one. So, we need to be ready to be flexible about our trip.

I think Disney would let us change our resort dates without fees. There's some availability the following week. Not necessarily the resorts we want (Poly), but we could make do. We have APs and TiW, so there are no package cancellation fees hindering us. Because we used miles to book our flights, and had the schedule change, there's maybe a better chance of getting our flights changed without fees? Not ideal, but we're trying to accept it. Or, of course, everything could happen as planned. We just don't know. :sad1:

In other news, two things:

*The changes in park hours have indeed become official. They are on Disney's website. Now we have two 1am nights at MK (one EMH and one not). Should be fun! We do love the late nights in the MK!

*We got our room requests in:

Pop: '80's building, higher floor, King bed
Poly: Tahiti building (has two sinks in the rooms!), 3rd floor (for a balcony)
BLT: room # ending in 18 (these are the ones with straight-on MK views), higher floor

I think we'll hold off on doing online check-in, due to the situation.


I guess one other thing to mention: we have a pretty strange list of "must-do"s. Because this is the end of the Year of Disney, I think we're getting all nostalgic. Of course, we want to do a lot of the "popular" things again, but we also want to do things like Snow White, the Great Movie Ride, Carousel of Progress, Journey into Imagination, etc.

I think that's all I got right now. It's weird, we should be excited with a trip so close, but I'm just uneasy right now. A damper has definitely been put on things.
 
:grouphug: I can totally understand how you're feeling. That has to be rough. Don't feel too guilty about thinking about your trip. It is something you have to work out, too. Hope everything works out without too much extra stress on the both of you. Keep us updated!
 
:hug: for you and Dug! So sorry to hear about Dug's grandmother's declining health!
Hopefully things will work out so that y'all's trip can still go on as planned. Sending some pixie dust y'all's way that things work out!
 

Crossing my fingers for you!!!

:grouphug: I can totally understand how you're feeling. That has to be rough. Don't feel too guilty about thinking about your trip. It is something you have to work out, too. Hope everything works out without too much extra stress on the both of you. Keep us updated!

:hug: for you and Dug! So sorry to hear about Dug's grandmother's declining health!
Hopefully things will work out so that y'all's trip can still go on as planned. Sending some pixie dust y'all's way that things work out!
:grouphug: Thanks, everybody! We went to visit Dug's grandma again today. Pretty much the same as yesterday, but she was napping most of the time today. Hospice care starts on Monday. It was nice to spend some time with Dug's family today (his grandpa, parents, sister, and brother-in-law were there).

Even with the uncertainty, we made more Disney trip-planning progress last night. You may remember that when we got the BLT night, we mentioned trying to maybe get a last-minute Chef Mickey's ADR. Cause, when you're staying at BLT, why not go downstairs and have breakfast with the Fab 5 on your last day?

Anyway, thanks to stalking the December ADR Cancellation thread over on the Dining board, we are now the proud owners of a 7:20am ADR on our last morning. (Early, we know, but that should allow us to also do rope drop at the MK. In fact, we originally snagged an 8:35am ADR, but then the 7:20am came up and we switched to that.)

I think that's about it for now. I originally thought I'd be packing this weekend, but it's hard finding the motivation to do that now. Maybe I'll try to get some stuff together tomorrow.

Thanks again for the well-wishes! :goodvibes
 
I'm so glad you got into Chef Mickey's first thing in the morning, that is how we end all of our trips!!!!! :goodvibes
 
Sadly, Dug's grandma passed away yesterday. :angel: The funeral is on Friday. This Friday. You may have seen that day in our agenda. Enjoying the Poly, Osborne Lights, etc. Well, obviously that's changed.

We have been incredibly stressed trying to deal with all the changes. I will be taking bereavement leave from work for the next few days, though, so that will give me some time to actually plan for and pack for our trip, since there's a lot to be done in those departments, because we were spending a lot of time with family when I'd originally intended to be packing. Expect some updates!

Last night, we of course whipped out our FDM Calculators :teacher: (Fuzzy Disney Math) and crunched numbers. And came up with crazy spreadsheets of resorts and prices and dates. Have you ever tried to plan and book a WDW trip, nearly from scratch, only a few days out?! :scared1: Not to mention, changing your flights, resort reservations, ADRs, etc.

One solid thing we accomplished today, though: Flights! We were very lucky that Delta decided to waive the $150/each change fees. They were going to make us use extra miles, though, since all of the "acceptable" flights had gone up in miles, being that the dates are so close. However, this afternoon, Dug found a new return flight being offered and it was the same # of miles we used to purchase our flights! :yay: So, we have new dates. And the first and last one are further apart...

Dec. 10th (evening flight, after the funeral and family time) to Dec. 19th (afternoon)!!!!!!!

Because we had to shift our start date one day back, we had to shift our return a day back, to still have a shot at doing everything we wanted. That would have meant returning on a Thursday. And what sense does that make to come home, work one day, and have a weekend? Why not just take the extra day off and have a few more Disney days? Well, that's what the FDM calculator said, at least! :rotfl: Besides, the only flights we could get back any day that were the right mileage and non-stop (I don't like to fly as it is, so I wasn't liking the puddle-jumper, layover in Cleveland thing) were over the weekend. So, we had no choice. ;)

So, now we have a few extra days! :woohoo: That might change our schedule a bit... ;) I'll be working on that soon.

The other big piece of the puzzle is resorts. Disney has confirmed that they will not charge us any cancellation fees, even though we're only a few days out. We'll need to drop that first night at Pop, as we'll no longer be flying out that day. We'll also probably be dropping BLT :sad2: - that's what the FDM calculator told us to do. I think we'll be keeping the four nights we have reserved for the Poly. The last 5 nights are a little more up in the air. We'd go with Pop, but it's not available all the nights. And we're not real jazzed about the idea of All Star Sports instead. We could get a room at POR, which we like. But no King beds available. Dug started looking a little bit at Coronado Springs today and likes what he sees. That's looking like a likely option, but I still have to check it out and put the FDM calculator to work on this again. Anybody know anything about CSR?

The only ADR we'll miss is San Angel Inn, which we had scheduled for this Friday night. I jumped online last night and grabbed a couple ADRs there for later in the week, though, so we can still go there.

Luckily, we will not miss our Candlelight Processional or Very Merry Christmas Party nights, as I think those would be hard to change.

We'll be able to take things at a much more leisurely pace now. And maybe do some things we didn't think we had time for.

As a side note, Disney's online reservation system is crazy when you are trying to get Passholder rates this close in! Rates and availability change, depending on your dates, even when they're the same dates. We've had weird things, like when you take away a day, your price goes UP! And a lot more. Hard to explain, but trust me, it's a huge crazy pain!

Well, enough rambling for now. I've got to eat dinner, then warm up that FDM calculator...I'll be keeping it busy for awhile!
 
So sorry to hear about Dug's grandma. Glad you were able to have a nice visit with his family. :grouphug:

That's great about the flight, but not so great about some of the other stuff. We did CSR for a night and it wasn't bad. I don't think we'll do it again, but you'll probably enjoy it. It wasn't "Disney" enough for me, but I have children who want characters on everything. We just slept, walked the resort, and didn't use buses. I don't have much info. :rotfl:

I know what you mean about AP rates so close to a visit. It's crazy how it seems to work. I've been trying Pop for just one night and it won't let me have it. I could book two, but the rate jumps the next night. It's too frustrating.

It's nice that you can relax a bit during this visit. Your last trips were so rushed and you need this. Have fun with the FDM calculator! :rotfl:
 
Oh Duggette, I'm so sorry to hear about Dug's Grandmother. I know your heads must be swimming with all the details of what needs to be taken care of now. It sounds like things may be coming together though. I'm glad to hear that that you are not going to lose your CP and MVMCP reservations though.

I'll be checking back regularly to see if you post any updates and please pass on my condolences to Dug.
 
So sorry to hear about Dug's grandma. Glad you were able to have a nice visit with his family. :grouphug:
Thank you! We did have a nice dinner with Dug's immediate family Saturday night, after our last visit with his grandma. Went to a French bakery, had delicious food, and shared memories of times with his grandma. Dug's dad said that we would all remember that night and he was right.

That's great about the flight, but not so great about some of the other stuff. We did CSR for a night and it wasn't bad. I don't think we'll do it again, but you'll probably enjoy it. It wasn't "Disney" enough for me, but I have children who want characters on everything. We just slept, walked the resort, and didn't use buses. I don't have much info. :rotfl:
Good to know you thought it was okay. We really knew nothing about it until a couple days ago. Seems like the rooms are pretty nice? Looks like the grounds are pretty too. Dug found it amusing that there's a CPA conference there during our dates...I work in accounting (but I'm not a CPA), so he figured I'd fit right in. :rotfl:

I know what you mean about AP rates so close to a visit. It's crazy how it seems to work. I've been trying Pop for just one night and it won't let me have it. I could book two, but the rate jumps the next night. It's too frustrating.
I'm glad we're not the only ones who were being tortured by the reservation system! One issue we had, when dreaming of a Poly-filled vacation, was that if you book the Poly from the 15th-19th, you get $336 rates over the weekend, but if you book from the 14th-19th, you pay $580 for the weekend days! :scared1: That's quite the surcharge for an extra night! Of course, both are too pricey for us, anyway, but still...:confused3

It's nice that you can relax a bit during this visit. Your last trips were so rushed and you need this. Have fun with the FDM calculator! :rotfl:
I'm thinking that there's some Disney law that states, "The more time you have available, the more "must do" activities will spring up to fill that time." At least, that's the way the new rough draft is looking. And the FDM calculator is smoking at this point! :rotfl:

Oh Duggette, I'm so sorry to hear about Dug's Grandmother. I know your heads must be swimming with all the details of what needs to be taken care of now. It sounds like things may be coming together though. I'm glad to hear that that you are not going to lose your CP and MVMCP reservations though.

I'll be checking back regularly to see if you post any updates and please pass on my condolences to Dug.
Thanks! I am so glad that my boss told me to take today and tomorrow off as bereavement leave (and the funeral on Friday, of course, I get 3 days max). I knew I was stressed, but I didn't really realize how much there was to do and how behind on things we were until I had a chance to tackle them today. Making progress, though!
 
As I posted last night, our new flights are set. The funeral is on Friday and we fly out at 7:20pm that night. Should be perfect timing. A nice thing is that one of Dug's early memories of his grandma was when he went to Disneyland with his grandparents. So, in a way, jetting off to Disney that day is a way to honor her memory.

One thing I have neglected to mention through this whole PTR is that we received free passes to the Delta Sky Club quite awhile back and we plan to use them before our departure from MSP. Maybe grab some snacks and relax for a bit, depending on how much time we have before the flight. Should be cool. Free is often cool. :)

In fact, speaking of free... Not only are we getting a free flight (miles used) and free Sky Club access, but it appears that Delta is providing free in-flight wi-fi through the holidays. I'm not clear if there's a catch, but if not, we can use our iPod Touch and iPad to get online from the air! I can read/write TRs! :thumbsup2

A nice thing about our schedule change is that our first night will now be spent at the Poly instead of Pop. We considered changing that night to a value (since we get in around midnight), but nothing was available, so we stuck with the Poly. We don't want to lose time there, since we've been dreaming about it for the last year. :cloud9: Anyway, the cool thing is that Captain Cook's is open 24 hours, so we can immediately have a Dole Whip upon arrival! :woohoo:

We did call Disney last night to change our reservations. We dropped that original first night at Pop. And we decided that we needed to book something for the rest of our trip, even if we might change our minds later. So, we went with a standard room (queen beds) at Coronado Springs. I had wanted to hang onto BLT, just in case the FDM calculator okayed it, but we had to drop it in order to book Coronado (apparently you can't double-book rooms, only ADRs! :lmao:). So, we're booked now! Not to say it won't change....but we're feeling decent about it.

I will say that the changes are breaking our budget. But we'll deal. My calculations show that with the plans as they are right now (extra nights at resort and extra ADRs), we're about $450 over budget. And that's actually after throwing in $150 from my "fun money" and Disney Visa rewards. And throwing in $100 extra that we had over-budgeted for Christmas gifts. But we can make this up. There will likely be extra money coming in soon from a few things. Cash Christmas gifts can go towards the extended trip. I will probably get a commission check soon (my old Cutco customers buying gifts - even though they order directly though the company, I still get something). Dug is getting a $150 gift for signing up for a Disney Visa (though it's unclear if we'll receive it in time for our trip). So, I think we'll be able to offset that $450 overage fairly quickly. Fun with budgets! :teacher:

Anyway, I do have a rough draft of the new plan. I'll wait to post it until Dug reviews/modifies it. He's visiting with his grandpa right now, so hopefully I can get the update up tonight or else in the morning. The plan now includes a lot of things that were not in the original, like:

Way more ADRs (including a hard-to-get one - thanks Disboards! ;) )
Mini Golf
Yeehaw Bob
Poly Torch Lighting Ceremony
Gelato
Fantasmic!
Color-coding! :rotfl:

Things are shaping up! I'll post more later, once Dug's home.

Time to do more :laundy: now!
 
I'm thinking that there's some Disney law that states, "The more time you have available, the more "must do" activities will spring up to fill that time."

Truer words were never spoken! This exact disney law is exerting pressure on me as well.

I just wanted to drop a line to let you know that I am sending you and Dug some good vibes for your your day tomorrow as well as the trip. I hope that you are able to end your "year of Disney" in style and that this proves to be the best trip ever. :goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes
 
Truer words were never spoken! This exact disney law is exerting pressure on me as well.

I just wanted to drop a line to let you know that I am sending you and Dug some good vibes for your your day tomorrow as well as the trip. I hope that you are able to end your "year of Disney" in style and that this proves to be the best trip ever. :goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes
Thanks, A&Bmama! :goodvibes I hope you are right!
 
Well, pretty much packed at least! :thumbsup2

We had a nice evening tonight with family that came in from out of town. But we're tired! Not the best way to start a trip that's shaping up to be fairly busy, but that's okay.

We had a scare last night! I got an email from Delta telling me that it was time to check in. But it had the 12/9 departure date on it. I figured it was probably just an automatically generated message that they couldn't stop, even though we'd changed our flights. But, when Dug got home, I asked, "Should I be concerned that I got an email from Delta telling me to check in for my Thursday night flight?" He wasn't too concerned either, as he'd checked the confirmation number online and the correct flights had come up.

I insisted on checking again to make sure that BOTH of our names showed up. They didn't. Just Dug's. :scared1:

Upon closer inspection of the email I got, it had our ORIGINAL dates on it. Keep in mind, we changed our flights twice - once to add a day, then to delay/extend the trip. This reservation had never been changed.

After Dug put in a call to Delta, all was well with the world again. Whew!!! pixiedust: I am so glad that we caught this in advance. Otherwise, I don't think we would have had a clue until we showed up and found out I wasn't on the flight!

Crisis averted! However, we don't have seats together, so hopefully we can fix that when we get to the airport tomorrow night.

Anyway, our trip is looking pretty busy. I think a lot of that is ADR-driven. And that is due to me finding last-minute ADRs and feeling like I need to snatch them up. But, really, counter service would be fine. So, maybe there will be more changes. Probably. I'll post details of each day in the coming posts.
 
Sorry about the formatting, but to save time I'm cut & pasting these out of our Excel sheet (with a few additional comments):

8:00 Eat in room (cereal from home for me, but Dug will be acquiring Tonga Toast from Captain Cook's)
8:30 Monorail to MK
9:00 MK Opens
9:30
10:00
10:30
11:00 Contemporary (see decorations)
11:30
12:00 Captain Cooks (lunch)
12:30 Relax at Poly
1:00 (swim)
1:30
2:00
2:30 Monorail to Epcot
3:00 Visit JC040404 (are you still planning to be in Epcot that day?)
3:30 Storyteller
4:00 Garden Grill 4:15
4:30
5:00
5:30 Storyteller
6:00
6:30 Candlelight Processional 6:45
7:00
7:30
8:00 Storyteller
8:30 La Hacienda (appetizers and margaritas)
9:00
9:30 Illuminations (from La Hacienda)
10:00
10:30 Hop to MK
11:00 (or quick break at Poly)
11:30
12:00
12:30
1:00 MK Closes
1:30 Monorail to Poly
 
8:30 Kona 8:25 (my turn for Tonga Toast! :woohoo:)
9:00
9:30 Dtwn. Disney (Christmas gift shopping :santa: )
10:00
10:30
11:00
11:30 Meatball bar (at Portobello)
12:00
12:30 Ghirardelli (sundae!)
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00 Break at Poly
3:30 (rent boat??)
4:00
4:30
5:00 Kona (dinner)
5:30
6:00 Go to MK
6:30
7:00 MVMCP starts
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00 Cream Cheese pretzel
9:30
10:00 CHH tuna sandwich
10:30
11:00 Dole Whip
11:30
12:00 MVMCP ends
12:30 Monorail to Poly
 
6:30 Eat in room (cereal/bars from home)
7:00 Bus to AK
7:30
8:00 AK EMH
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:00
10:30 Go to AKL
11:00 Boma 10:55 (brunch)
11:30
12:00 AKL decorations
12:30 Zebra domes
1:00 Bus to AK
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00 Yak & Yeti (early dinner)
3:30
4:00 Parade 4:05 (watch from Yak & Yeti, if possible)
4:30
5:00 Bus to Contemporary Resort
5:30 Walk to MK (this whole transition is awkward, not sure about it)
6:00 Castle Lighting 6:15
6:30
7:00 Corn Dog nuggets
7:30 Boat to Ft. Wilderness
8:00 (Wishes going on-maybe see from boat??)
8:30 Sleigh Ride at Ft. Wilderness
9:00 Boat to Poly
9:30 Nap at Poly
10:00 Sushi for Dug
10:30
11:00 Monorail to MK
11:30 Lunching Pad hot dogs
12:00
12:30
1:00 MK EMH ends
1:30 Monorail to Poly
 
7:00 Monorail to MK
7:30 Empty MK pics :cool1:
8:00 Crystal Palace 8:15
8:30
9:00 MK opens
9:30
10:00
10:30 Monorail to Epcot
11:00
11:30 Via Napoli
12:00
12:30 Storytellers
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00 Bus to CSR
3:30 Check in at CSR
4:00 Pick up milk, etc
4:30 Nap at CSR
5:00
5:30 Get to Poly (not sure how, again awkward transition)
6:00 Torch Lighting at Poly (wanted to put this in Monday night, but they apparently don't do it on Mondays...there was no night while staying at the Poly that we could get this in)
6:30 Boat to Wilderness Lodge
7:00 Visit Gellybean (or maybe another time, since we have more overlapping days now)
7:30
8:00 WL Decorations
8:30
9:00 Bus to Dtwn Dis
9:30 Earl of Sandwich
10:00 Goofy's Candy Co
10:30 Bus to CSR
11:00 Gelato - café rix
11:30 Rix Lounge - drinks
 
7:30 Eat in room
8:00 Bus to DHS
8:30
9:00 TSM Stampede
9:30
10:00
10:30
11:00
11:30
12:00
12:30 Bus to AKL
1:00 Sanaa
1:30 Zebra domes
2:00 Bus to AK
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00 AK EMH starts
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00 AK EMH ends
9:30 Bus to AKL
10:00 Jiko 9:45 (flatbreads and desserts)
10:30
11:00 Bus to Dtwn Dis
11:30 Bus to CSR
 
7:30 Eat in room
8:00 CSR free time
8:30
9:00 (Maya Grill?)
9:30 Walk to WinterSummerland
10:00 Mini Golf
10:30
11:00
11:30
12:00
12:30
1:00 Walk to CSR (or bus to DHS, if available?)
1:30 Bus to DHS
2:00 Mama Melrose 1:50
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00 Osborne Lights
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00 Go to Epcot
8:30
9:00 San Angel Inn 9:15
9:30
10:00 Bus to Port Orleans Riverside
10:30 Yehaa Bob
11:00 Explore POR/FQ decorations
11:30 Bus to MK
12:00 Bus to CSR
 












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