"Honey are you awake?" "Mumble Mumble" - 6/17

[thewesterberg]

So I woke up this morning to get some DISsing done before everyone else in the house woke up. I grabbed myself a bowl of cereal, turned on the TV to Golden Girls for some background noise, and I was in my happy place. Spent some time scanning the community board, checked out a couple threads on the budget board, when something caught my eye.


Free Dining.


Yes, I'd heard of this beast before when we planned a trip last September. However, we were going with my mom, dad, and sister. We decided an off-site house would be a better fit for our situation. But this time it would just be the 3 of us. I had tried to ignore the rumors, but temptation got the best of me and I opened one of the threads. IT STARTS TODAY. I wonder what it would cost to do a value for a week???

I started crunching some numbers. Those numbers were looking good. Really good. We almost have enough in our vacation fund to do this and we'd have a few more months to save.

DH was still sleeping as my wheels were turning. Hmmmmm...... maybe I should go get some laundry to wash out of our bedroom. Where DH was sleeping. Oops. I banged into the dresser.

The lump under the covers rolls over.

"Sorry Honey, did I wake you?"

"Mumble, mumble."

"I was just grabbing the laundry. Sorry about that."

"Mumble, mumble"

"Well since you're up... Say, I was just checking out some stuff on the DIS. Guess what I found out? Free dining starts today. If we went, it would only cost us $XXXX.XX for air, tickets, lodging and our food. What do you think?"

"Mumble, mumble. Disney? Mumble, mumble. When? Mumble, mumble."

"End of August, over Labor Day weekend. It's just a crazy thought. It could be my mother'sday/30thbirthday/anniversary/yourbirthday/christmas/arborday/easter/justbecauseyoulovemesodarnmuch present. But I know it's a long shot."

"Mumble, mumble. We could do that. Mumble, mumble"

WHAT???? Get OUTTA HERE!!! Did you just say let's go for it?!?!?!?!?
Get your butt outta bed and let's book this bugger quick before they run out of rooms or more importantly, before you wake up completely and change your mind!!

(Okay, flashback. The last time I woke him up like this was a little over 5 years ago. He was sound asleep when I came into the room saying:

"I've got two lines."

"Mumble, mumble. What? Mumble, mumble. Two lines? Huh?"

Yeah, I had taken a pregnancy test and it was positive. He tells me now he was glad this morning was Disney and not two lines!)

Back to present day....

But wait, my job is no problem to take time of off. His job, another story. He's an x-ray tech at a clinic. He is a department of one. If he's gone, there's someone that can cover for him, but she also covers other areas. If she's gone or a bunch of other people are gone it's no dice for vacation. It's Labor Day we're looking at. At this late in the game, I better not get too excited.

Yeah right. I was so past that.

So I started the online booking process... Pop Century, 7 nights, free dining (okay, it was already half done before he got down the stairs) while he called work. NO ONE WOULD ANSWER THEIR PHONES! Come one people! He called a bunch of people to check the vacation schedule and no one would pick up the phone!

I continued booking, getting all the way to the payment page when...

....cue heavenly music...

The PHONE RANG!

And caller id stated it was someone from the clinic. If it had been a telemarketer I most likely would have flipped out.

It was a go! He could get all the time off! And the gal he talked to asked me to e-mail her the info because she was thinking it was time for her family to take a little va-ca. Nothing like sharing some pixie dust!

Once again, trying not to get my hopes up too much because for all I know the rooms with free dining may be already gone. So I sat with my fingers crossed, my toes crossed, heck... I think I even crossed my eyes for luck as I waited for the screen that said "we're going to take extra long time to process this, not because everyone and their cousin is trying to book this, but really because we just want to drive you to the brink of insanity" to go away.

And good ol' Disney came through.

We're booked. We're booked. WE'RE BOOKED! We're going to WDW!



Who woulda thunk? Surely not me when I woke up this morning that I would be going to WDW in just a few months.

Man, do I love my husband. I think this one is going to be held over my head for awhile.

The happiness and overwhelming joy consumed me...

and then panic struck...

ADRs.

 

[stagemomx3]

He tells me now he was glad this morning was Disney and not two lines!

Congratulations on your trip.

 

[thewesterberg]

Congratulations on your trip.

Thanks!! I'm pretty dang happy! I barely slept last night thinking about everything!

 

[thewesterberg]

Like I said in my first post, last year when we went we stayed off site at Emerald Island in a great house.

A friend of ours from church has a sister and brother-in-law that own a house there and they gave us a great deal on it. We knew traveling with my parents and sister, we'd like to have room to spread out. This place was a 4 bedroom, 3 bath place with swimming pool, laundry, game room - we loved it!! Plus, we ate most of our meals there. The only ADR we made was for Chef Mickey's. I made sure I called at exactly 180 days out to get my "perfect" time.

However, this was not the case yesterday. Once the shock settled a bit that we were actually taking this trip, I realized:

We're doing free dining.

That means table service.

When lots of other people are wanting table service.

Which means making ADRs.

And at this time in the game, we're way past the 180 days.

Which also means I've got to plan our park days...

Like NOW!

Thank goodness last month I decided to re-up my Tour Guide Mike subscription. I had found the site full of good info to help my obsessive complusive need to plan our trip last year. The winter was getting awfully long up here in Northern Minnesota and I needed to dream of warmer places and start making me some plans so I re-upped. (We're talking about doing a DCL trip with some friends in a couple of years.) Man, was I glad that I had gotten my renewal all worked out so I could just log on and make it work.

So while my co-works met in the kitchen for coffee and donuts, I politely declined. Chocolate donuts would have to take a back seat today - GASP! - and I hopped onto TGM, grabbed a pen, and I went nuts! I had my little piece of paper marked out with AM and PM, days of the week, and filled in with which parks were green, yellow, and red on which days. Last year this took me forever to figure out which parks on which days. Lots of hemming and hawing. I remember sitting at the YMCA with my papers and charts and color coded markers figuring it all out while our son did his swim lesson. I must have looked like such a nerd. But this time there was no time for hemming and hawing. The pressure was on. I needed to make those ADRs PRONTO!

The pressure must be good for me as in a few moments I had circled which days we'd do which parks. I was feeling like a pro at this point. All hail the schedule queen!

This is where I was glad I have spent hours reading about restaurants and TRs on the DIS. I had a good idea where we wanted to go. My DH had only one request - LeCellier, especially after hearing one of the kids from church (a 5th grader at the time) rave about his steak. This kid is a foodie and his opinion carries weight. Most of the meals we were going for the fun/atmosphere factor. Gotta keep the 5 year old entertained. Okay, let's see what I can do!

Here's what I came up with quickly:

Tuesday - SciFi Dinner for supper the night we get in.
Wednesday - Crystal Palace for lunch
Thursday - LeCellier whenever
Friday - Prime Time - whenever
Saturday - our day off from the parks, so Whispering Canyon seemed like a good idea
Sunday - Ahhh, Spoodles, maybe?? I didn't know what to do for this day.
Monday - 'Ohana's for dinner

Time to quickly get on the phone. Yes, I was at work, but I figured if I multi-tasked by typing some e-mails while on hold, I could justify my actions. Much to my surprise a friendly CM answered the phone immediately... You thought I would have been happy, but there went the justification right out the window!

We started out... Yup, we can do that time... Yup, we can do that... Wow! This was way easier than I thought it would be!

We came to LeCellier. I asked for dinner and she went. "Ahhhh... Oh. Yikes." Uhhh... care to explain??? The numbers were actually in the negatives for ADRs and she'd never seen that before. So I'm guessing dinner there that night is a NO. But, lunch was available still! Fine by me, but how early do I want a steak?? Before noon, no. 1:30 sounds much better. The hubby will be happy. It's the least I can do since he agreed to this trip!

The rest of my requests were met with a "Yup, we can do that" as well. She was so friendly and helpful. Why was this not harder???? The internal voices started saying, "Maybe you made bad choices? Maybe this wasn't really a Disney CM and somebody is playing a joke on you by just pretending to take your ADRs?" STOP, voices I say! Let me be happy that things went easy according to plan!!

Time to head home for lunch and share the news with DH!

And for the big question... how long would it take me to fall to the ADR-Change-Call-Disney-Dining-a-Thousand-Times-Before-the- Trip pressure that dominates the PTRs and Restaurant Board?

Any guesses??

Anyone?

 

[stagemomx3]

Thank goodness last month I decided to re-up my Tour Guide Mike subscription. I had found the site full of good info to help my obsessive complusive need to plan our trip last year. The winter was getting awfully long up here in Northern Minnesota and I needed to dream of warmer places and start making me some plans so I re-upped. (We're talking about doing a DCL trip with some friends in a couple of years.) Man, was I glad that I had gotten my renewal all worked out so I could just log on and make it work.

Love TGM!

Your ADRs look good. So how long did you wait to call back? As soon as you got home?

 

[thewesterberg]

Thank goodness for a snow day to enable my planning obsession. Also, it's helping me think of warmer days that are ahead as we look out the window at a foot of snow coming down in wind gusts between 55-65 mph. For crying out loud, the snow was already gone!

But, I'll finish up yesterday's planning shennanigans before I move into todays.

Well, the ADRs last all until I got home 20 minutes later and I realized that I had us going into parks 6 days when the tickets we were getting were 5 day park hopper plus tickets. Oops. I guess that's what happens when you try to plan your entire itinerary in 15 minutes. Something's gotta change. So we talked it over. DH checked out the menus and as he drooled over the keyboard, we figure out our new plan of attack.

Time to get back on the phone with Disney Dining. And once again, got a super friendly CM!

The day we arrived we would no longer go to Sci Fi for dinner and go to Fantasmic. Instead, we'll head to DTD, go to Disney Quest and grab a counter service there. Any recommendations?? This is probably better because I haven't booked our air yet and have no clue when we'll be getting to Orlando. This way we aren't rushing to make an ADR and can enter this vacation relaxed.

Since we really wanted to go to Sci Fi we decided to drop Spoodles. We'll be going to AK in the morning and duh, I forgot we're getting Park Hoppers (didn't have those last time), so we could head to a different park for dinner. Like DHS. At the Sci Fi. Perfect!

We then had one more TS to use and we thought, we had fun at Chef Mickey's last year. Here's a picture of DS4 and DH there (I'm down in the corner on the first picture).

Our little guy was sad because Mickey had to go back to the kitchen to check on breakfast before he got to our table. Pluto came over and DS wanted nothing to do with him. He wanted Mickey. Well, bless Pluto's puppy heart, he started "sniffing" DS rear-end! That got DS warmed up, then laughing and end made him a happy camper the rest of the meal.

Since we had happy memories there, we decided to try for a breakfast there the day we leave. Once again, no airfare at this point and our choices were 8:30am or before or 10:30am or after. Yikes. 8:30 seems early, but 10:30 seems late. I went with the 8:30am. I'm hoping I don't regret this. We're planning on getting a car so it's not an issue in theory of getting there. It's just the getting out of bed and getting there, if you know what I mean!


Disney was once again able to accommodate our requests (for the most part, except the early Chef Mickey's time, but I can deal with that!) So that's the plan for now. We'll see if it sticks!

 

[thewesterberg]

Love TGM!

Your ADRs look good. So how long did you wait to call back? As soon as you got home?

DING DING DING... we have a winner!! (regarding TGM and when I called!)

 

[thewesterberg]

So yesterday was a Disney obsessed planning day. It made the raging blizzard outside seem a bit more bearable. Check out these pictures from our "pleasant spring" day

We have our room reservation, our which park/which day plan, our ADRs (subject, and highly likely, to change).

What's next??? TRANSPORTATION!

Both DH and I are pretty darn close to earning a free ticket on NWA. With this trip and a few more e-reward surveys, we should be good to go for our tentative trip in 2 years. For this reason, we want to stick with NWA. Plus, all those airlines that give the good deals I'm always reading about (SWA, Jet Blue) don't come anywhere near MN.

We're in Northern Minnesota and our closest airport is Duluth. Usually Duluth is WAY more expensive than Minneapolis so we drive the couple of hours to the Cities. When we took our trip last year, we were lucky that Midwest Airlines went into Duluth and there was a bit of a price war (NWA had been the only carrier since American Eagle had left a few years previous so they had a monopoly on the market.) This price war hit right as we were booking our tickets so we nabbed them out of Duluth. However, this time we wouldn't be as lucky as Midwest packed their bags and headed out after putting in less than a year in Duluth. It's back to NWA being the lone carrier (except if we wanted to fly to Orlando via Las Vegas - Allegiant air flies only to Las Vegas a couple of times a week, but I'm thinking this probably isn't too practical!)

So back to crossing my fingers, toes, and eyes when it came to airfare. Not so lucky this time. Must only work for Disney room reservations. It way over $400/person to fly out of Duluth! ... Double

So I punched in MSP. WHAT??? Over $300/person?!?

Now I start panicking. This was suppose to be a budget trip and all of a sudden airfare is close to $100 more per person than what I had hoped. My only consolation is that it's early. I'll keep watching airfares like a hawk and hope and pray and cross my fingers, toes, and eyes religiously that those prices come down.

In a moment of desperation, I went to google maps to see how far it would be for us to drive. One way, One Day + 1 hour. Hmmmmm.... we almost went nuts on a 5 hour drive to the Wisconsin Dells last weekend. (DS flipped out part way through the ride). I think at this point I'd rather _______________ <------- insert the worst creative punishment you can think of here (it's too early for me to come up with something funny) THAN ride in a car with him for over 2 days straight when you make it a round trip. We'd likely cut our losses and leave our car in FL and fly home, if we even made it there in the first place. While it would be cheaper, it doesn't sound like the way to start our vacation, plus DH doesn't have enough time off of work to make this happen. Thank goodness.

Then there was the great debate about a car Last time we had a rental car (since we were offsite) and it was pretty nice.

Here we are at Cocoa Beach, in my Dream Car

We were thinking we'd go that route this time too (not the covertible, something small and practical and cheaper) since we're staying at POP and not too sure about the whole Disney-transportation thing.

I started punching in stuff for a rental and those too are expensive! More than I'd like to pay. After looking for codes and coupons on Mousesavers and trying a bunch of different sites/agencies, I wasn't having any luck. My transportation mojo is off today.

I think we're kind of leaning to just use Disney transportation and deal. Any thoughts on this as we head there over Labor Day weekend???

 

[Birdrav]

How very exciting. Your DS will have soooo much fun!

We are leaving in one week!!! I am in West Virginia with my DD13 and my mother, and we are driving to orlando on friday and my sister lives in Wisconsin ( she also got the snow and is not happy about it at all!! ).
She and her daughter are flying out of duluth and meeting us there.

 

[thewesterberg]

How very exciting. Your DS will have soooo much fun!

We are leaving in one week!!! I am in West Virginia with my DD13 and my mother, and we are driving to orlando on friday and my sister lives in Wisconsin ( she also got the snow and is not happy about it at all!! ).
She and her daughter are flying out of duluth and meeting us there.

Welcome to the DIS!! I feel so honored that your first post is on my PTR!!

Are you super excited for your trip?!?! All packed, ready to go, just biding your time until Friday?? Have a ton of fun! Where are you staying? Thank goodness this snow got out of the way and that spring weather is in the forecast before your sister leaves on Friday. I know the flights yesterday were all postponed until today, poor folks!

 

[Birdrav]

Thanks!!! I only posted because I can relate to where you are.

We ARE super excited. We also made the decision to go out of the blue. It was not in the plans at all for this year, but somehow here we are getting ready to go!
We are staying off property and we will have my car to get around. I know you are debating about getting a rental, and I think it is a good idea if you think you may get disney overload!! I know it sounds crazy, but it does happen.

 

[thewesterberg]

Thanks!!! I only posted because I can relate to where you are.

We ARE super excited. We also made the decision to go out of the blue. It was not in the plans at all for this year, but somehow here we are getting ready to go!
We are staying off property and we will have my car to get around. I know you are debating about getting a rental, and I think it is a good idea if you think you may get disney overload!! I know it sounds crazy, but it does happen.

We stayed off-site last year and loved it! We liked being able to sneak away and it never seemed like a hassle (except our first day, at MK - we got a little carried away about being there! Got there for rope drop, and had full intentions of going back for a rest in the afternoon, then returning for Spectro and fireworks. But one ride led to another and another and another...pretty soon we didn't have enough time to head all the way back to the TTC, get in the car, get back to our place and repeat it all in reverse. By the time Spectro started, our DS4 had a meltdown and I felt like the worst mom in the world.) I hope not to repeat that mistake this trip!

With the rental, I think I'll just play the waiting game. See how much our airfare works out to be, and if I can get it for what I'm hoping, then we can spring for a car. Most of the rental coupons are only good until June (I think) at this point so maybe some good deals will come about as we get closer. We'll see!

 

[PrincessAlways]

WOW!!! You're in hyper speed, aren't you?!?!?! I don't blame you. How exciting!! Your questions about Disney's transportation, I've stayed at Pop a couple of times & their buses are absolutely wonderful! They do not go to any other resort & there is only one area where the buses stop! Quick & efficient!! There's a bus stop for each park. You just go into that que & wait for the bus.....which arrives pretty darn quickly! Plus the ME to & from the airport just can't be beat! You arrive at the airport, go to the ME, get on the bus & start your vacation! No worries!!! Can't wait to hear more of your planning!

 

[Birdrav]

We totally plan to do the same. Get to MK at rope drop, leave as the parade starts at 3:00 (we will have already seen the parade/we are doing MK in 2 days) and head back to the park at about 8:00 (do you think thats too late?)for spectromagic and wishes.

I would like to stay in the park straight through, but my sister's daughter is only 2 years old and I am very scared of that meltdown that WILL come by the time
spectromagic starts.

When you went last year did you use the photopass? We pre-purchased the CD and I want to make sure it will be worth our money!

 

[thewesterberg]

We totally plan to do the same. Get to MK at rope drop, leave as the parade starts at 3:00 (we will have already seen the parade/we are doing MK in 2 days) and head back to the park at about 8:00 (do you think thats too late?)for spectromagic and wishes.

I would like to stay in the park straight through, but my sister's daughter is only 2 years old and I am very scared of that meltdown that WILL come by the time
spectromagic starts.

When you went last year did you use the photopass? We pre-purchased the CD and I want to make sure it will be worth our money!

I think the break is the KEY to a happy WDW experience, especially when traveling with kids. How fun for your niece to get to go!!

What time is Spectro? I know people started lining up at least an hour before. We joined the crowds doing this as we found a ledge for my parents to sit on, we got food and ate while we waited worked pretty good!

We did Photopass... I got in on a share over at the Tour Guide Mike site with some other families. It worked out great and it was fun adding the little "extras" to the pictures when we got home. I don't know if we'll do it this time, since we were just there a year ago and I'm trying to keep our costs to the bare minimum. Another one of those "we'll see's"!

 

[thewesterberg]

WOW!!! You're in hyper speed, aren't you?!?!?! I don't blame you. How exciting!! Your questions about Disney's transportation, I've stayed at Pop a couple of times & their buses are absolutely wonderful! They do not go to any other resort & there is only one area where the buses stop! Quick & efficient!! There's a bus stop for each park. You just go into that que & wait for the bus.....which arrives pretty darn quickly! Plus the ME to & from the airport just can't be beat! You arrive at the airport, go to the ME, get on the bus & start your vacation! No worries!!! Can't wait to hear more of your planning!

Oops.. missed your post! Thanks for dropping in! This is my first attempt at a trip report... glad to see some people are reading it!

Thanks for the tips on the bus! My DH at first was wanting a car but once I told him we wouldn't have to share the bus with another resort and people said POP is one of the better resorts when it comes to disney transportation.

Any other tips about Pop? This is our first time staying on-site... I'm excited!!

 

[janjandis]

Don't worry, your flights and car rentals will go down as it gets closer to your trip! I saw 133 for Detroit to Florida for Northwest for September but its leaving a day too late for me. Just crossing my fingers for a good Northwest rate too!

 

[janjandis]

Thank goodness for a snow day to enable my planning obsession. Also, it's helping me think of warmer days that are ahead as we look out the window at a foot of snow coming down in wind gusts between 55-65 mph. For crying out loud, the snow was already gone!

But, I'll finish up yesterday's planning shennanigans before I move into todays.

Well, the ADRs last all until I got home 20 minutes later and I realized that I had us going into parks 6 days when the tickets we were getting were 5 day park hopper plus tickets. Oops. I guess that's what happens when you try to plan your entire itinerary in 15 minutes.

Did you know that you can add another day to your tickets for very little money? Its only 2.10 to add another day. You can do this when you check in or at one of the theme parks.

 

[thewesterberg]

Don't worry, your flights and car rentals will go down as it gets closer to your trip! I saw 133 for Detroit to Florida for Northwest for September but its leaving a day too late for me. Just crossing my fingers for a good Northwest rate too!

That's what I'm hoping too! $133? I'd LOVE that!!

Did you know that you can add another day to your tickets for very little money? Its only 2.10 to add another day. You can do this when you check in or at one of the theme parks.

Isn't it crazy how cheap it is to add days?? We're getting some special tickets through an education experience and we aren't able to add anything on to them, but that's okay. We could use our 1 day passes that we bought to get the free dining, but I'm thinking we'll hang on to those until our next trip in a couple years. I think our new plan will actually work better for us by not having an ADR the day we get there. Easier to go with the flow and do a CS that night instead in DTD.

 

[PrincessAlways]

Tips on Pop???? Well, I was lucky enough stay in the 50's Tramp section--that's Tramp like in Lady & the Tramp!!! Anyway it was close enough to the food court & bus area & pool without having to pay for "preferred rooms". The one room faced the pool & I was surprised that it wasn't louder. It was on the 3rd floor. The food court was convenient & good. Take time to walk around the resort & enjoy all the theming. It's great!