TheDreamsComeTrue
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
- Messages
- 6,313
Ooooh! The candlelight processional, I can't wait to do that!
I like how the CM was smiling!
I like how the CM was smiling!
How the Other Half Lives ~ Updated 10/22: I Forgot Something!
- Thread starter Dugette
- Start date
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
We seriously laugh every time we see that picture with the CM grinning!I laughed too when I saw the cast member in your pic!
I can't WAIT to visit the caramel store. mmmm....
Yes, definitely check out the caramel store - maybe more than once! 
I'm sure the garden view will be great...we liked it! 3533 (which we were in) is a good room because it has trees off the balcony (not all of them do) and it's close to the lounge and the elevator. And, hey, you never know, you could always get magically upgraded to theme park view.
Watching Wishes in the lounge is great, I'm sure you'll love it. Also, with a 3 year old, the snacks and such in the lounge will probably be convenient. I noticed quite a few people with small children really making use of the free snacks/meals for their little ones.I just found this today and have enjoyed catching up on the first few installments!! We are headed to the world for Christmas 2011 (our first Christmas trip since 1997!) We are SO excited, and reading your TR is a great way to keep me pumped since I still have 10 more months to wait!!!!How blessed to get the upgrade to CL at the POLY!! You should have gone next door and thanked the Noisy Noisersons!!
I'm sure I can keep you occupied for a good chunk of that time between now and your Christmas trip! I can't believe I'm still only on the first day of this! Yes, we were SO lucky on this trip. If only the Noisy Noisersons knew what they set in motion! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww............My dog and my mom's dog would totally fit in your family!!
Same coloring
I showed Bailey that picture on our laptop and she walked around and looked BEHIND the laptop screen...I think she was trying to find them to say hi! It's not too often that we see other black and white cocker spaniels!
Yeah, the CP is fun! Although, getting the package reserved was a nightmare. But it looks like waiting standby is also a nightmare, so can't really avoid that. But it is worth doing.Ooooh! The candlelight processional, I can't wait to do that!
I like how the CM was smiling!
If you ever get to WDW during December (no F&W!The Candlelight Processional looks so amazing!!!I really need to do that someday!
Love the PP pics!
), check it out!Thanks on the PP pics...lots more to come (better ones)!
SRUAlmn
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2004
- Messages
- 9,821
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww............
I showed Bailey that picture on our laptop and she walked around and looked BEHIND the laptop screen...I think she was trying to find them to say hi! It's not too often that we see other black and white cocker spaniels!
I know! No one ever believes us that she's a cocker spaniel because they've never seen a black and white one, so when she and my mom's dog are together people go nuts
Oh, and my mom's dog's name is Bailey too!!!! 
Soooooooo cute that she was looking behind the computer!!
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
I know! No one ever believes us that she's a cocker spaniel because they've never seen a black and white one, so when she and my mom's dog are together people go nuts
Soooooooo cute that she was looking behind the computer!!
Wow, that's crazy that your mom's dog's name is Bailey too! And we always have people mistaking her for a springer spaniel puppy, since they've never seen a black and white cocker before.
Dug tried to show Bailey the picture again and this time she started trembling uncontrollably! I think she was scared that the dogs somehow shrunk themselves down and fit into the computer to sneak into her house.
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
Although the long line at Karamell Kuche delayed us, we managed to make it over to La Hacienda and check in just in time for our 8:30pm ADR (Illuminations was at 9:30pm that night).
This was an ADR we debated about in our pre-trip planning. Due to the Candlelight Processional package, we would be allowed to watch Illuminations from a preferred viewing area (standing room only) that night. It seemed like a shame to give up something like this. However, most of the reviews of the preferred area sounded not-so-amazing. And wed had an amazing experience on our last trip: Illuminations from La Hacienda. Wed loved it so much that we really wanted to do it again. So, we figured we would go ahead with the ADR and one of two things would be the case:
1.) Wed get bad seats where we couldnt see very well. If so, we could eat appetizers quickly and leave. Watch Illuminations from the preferred viewing area.
2.) Wed get good seats and enjoy chips/drinks/apps while watching Illuminations.
As we checked in, we requested a window seat. Last time, wed had a table near, but not right next to, the window and that had been fine. This time, however, we got a seat right next to the window!
We had asked if our excellent waiter from last time, Jonathan, was there, but he wasnt working that night. Although I dont remember his name, the waiter we had this time was excellent also. Very good service there!
The yummy, fresh chips and salsa were brought out to start:
We really had to force ourselves to take it easy on the chips. They are very addictive, but you have to remember that we were eating at the Garden Grill only about 4 hours ago. We were not starving yet! We had decided in advance that we would only order drinks and appetizers, as we had technically already had dinner.
Last time, wed had the margarita flight, which was a great way to sample five different kinds of margaritas. From that experience, we both knew what we wanted more of. Dug got an Orange Mango Fire margarita:
I got the Guava margarita:
We both really enjoyed these. So good!
For my meal there was no question that I was getting the Queso Fundido again (melted cheese with poblano peppers, chorizo, and flour tortillas). I had loved this on our previous visit:
It was very good this time, too, but maybe not quite as amazing as the first time. Although, I suspect it had something to do with not being very hungry this time.
Dug went with the Botana appetizer sampler (a sampling of Mexican favorites: chicken tostado, Chilorio sope (marinated pork), and cheese empanada), because wed heard the empanadas were good:
Dug enjoyed it all, but said the chicken tostado was the best part. We had talked about getting another appetizer (the taco trio) if we were still hungry, but that wasnt the case. Instead, we just slowly enjoyed our food and margaritas while waiting for Illuminations to begin. (By the way, our waiter was totally okay with us just ordering drinks and apps).
And the crazy thing that happened last time happened again: people with good seats started leaving shortly before Illuminations! What are they thinking? I just dont get it! This was the area around us shortly before the show started (window to the right; table directly in front is where we sat last time):
Well, at least we didnt have to worry about being in anybodys way! It was definitely the right choice to watch Illuminations from La Hacienda again. The temperature had dropped and it was getting chilly outside. And crowded. We were in a warm indoor place with yummy food and drinks and no crowds. And I could see the big Mexico torch burning right outside of our window. Soon enough, they turned down the lights and piped in the sound. Dug was excited that the inferno barge was working this time (had not been on our last trip):
Since it was December, Illuminations also had the Christmas tag, which was nice. Cool fireworks. Once the show wrapped up, we finished up at La Hacienda and headed out.
It was nice walking through a closed Epcot, enjoying the pretty Christmas tree and the Goodnights in different languages that were being projected onto Spaceship Earth. It was chilly, though. The day had been nice, but we were shivering now.
Just before the exit, we stopped to have some Photopass pictures taken. Heres the one they took with our camera:
And heres what they took with their camera:
There was another PP pic that turned out really bad. It looks like Im being eaten by a plant. So, I decided Stitch was involved:
Okay, Im silly.
Anyway, we made our way up the monorail ramp and caught a monorail back to the TTC. We had initially planned to either go straight to the MK for EMH until 1am or, if we were tired, go back to the Poly and take a nap, then go to MK. However, we didnt anticipate how crazy our first day and a half would be, and we were both exhausted. There would be other late nights in the MK. We decided to just go back to the Poly and go to sleep for the night. (I know, those of you whove followed our other total-lack-of-sleep TRs are probably shocked!
)
The nice thing about staying at the Poly is that you can walk back from the TTC. We passed the boat dock and saw the pretty castle in the distance:
The walk back was pleasant, with tiki torches lighting our way. Soon enough, we were back at the Hawaii building using our golden key. We settled into bed to rest up for the other 8 days of our trip.
Up next: Another video! Were finally done with the first day, so well put together a preview of the second!
This was an ADR we debated about in our pre-trip planning. Due to the Candlelight Processional package, we would be allowed to watch Illuminations from a preferred viewing area (standing room only) that night. It seemed like a shame to give up something like this. However, most of the reviews of the preferred area sounded not-so-amazing. And wed had an amazing experience on our last trip: Illuminations from La Hacienda. Wed loved it so much that we really wanted to do it again. So, we figured we would go ahead with the ADR and one of two things would be the case:
1.) Wed get bad seats where we couldnt see very well. If so, we could eat appetizers quickly and leave. Watch Illuminations from the preferred viewing area.
2.) Wed get good seats and enjoy chips/drinks/apps while watching Illuminations.
As we checked in, we requested a window seat. Last time, wed had a table near, but not right next to, the window and that had been fine. This time, however, we got a seat right next to the window!
We had asked if our excellent waiter from last time, Jonathan, was there, but he wasnt working that night. Although I dont remember his name, the waiter we had this time was excellent also. Very good service there!The yummy, fresh chips and salsa were brought out to start:
We really had to force ourselves to take it easy on the chips. They are very addictive, but you have to remember that we were eating at the Garden Grill only about 4 hours ago. We were not starving yet! We had decided in advance that we would only order drinks and appetizers, as we had technically already had dinner.
Last time, wed had the margarita flight, which was a great way to sample five different kinds of margaritas. From that experience, we both knew what we wanted more of. Dug got an Orange Mango Fire margarita:
I got the Guava margarita:
We both really enjoyed these. So good!
For my meal there was no question that I was getting the Queso Fundido again (melted cheese with poblano peppers, chorizo, and flour tortillas). I had loved this on our previous visit:
It was very good this time, too, but maybe not quite as amazing as the first time. Although, I suspect it had something to do with not being very hungry this time.
Dug went with the Botana appetizer sampler (a sampling of Mexican favorites: chicken tostado, Chilorio sope (marinated pork), and cheese empanada), because wed heard the empanadas were good:
Dug enjoyed it all, but said the chicken tostado was the best part. We had talked about getting another appetizer (the taco trio) if we were still hungry, but that wasnt the case. Instead, we just slowly enjoyed our food and margaritas while waiting for Illuminations to begin. (By the way, our waiter was totally okay with us just ordering drinks and apps).
And the crazy thing that happened last time happened again: people with good seats started leaving shortly before Illuminations! What are they thinking?
I just dont get it! This was the area around us shortly before the show started (window to the right; table directly in front is where we sat last time):
Well, at least we didnt have to worry about being in anybodys way! It was definitely the right choice to watch Illuminations from La Hacienda again. The temperature had dropped and it was getting chilly outside. And crowded. We were in a warm indoor place with yummy food and drinks and no crowds. And I could see the big Mexico torch burning right outside of our window. Soon enough, they turned down the lights and piped in the sound. Dug was excited that the inferno barge was working this time (had not been on our last trip):
Since it was December, Illuminations also had the Christmas tag, which was nice. Cool fireworks. Once the show wrapped up, we finished up at La Hacienda and headed out.
It was nice walking through a closed Epcot, enjoying the pretty Christmas tree and the Goodnights in different languages that were being projected onto Spaceship Earth. It was chilly, though. The day had been nice, but we were shivering now.
Just before the exit, we stopped to have some Photopass pictures taken. Heres the one they took with our camera:
And heres what they took with their camera:
There was another PP pic that turned out really bad. It looks like Im being eaten by a plant. So, I decided Stitch was involved:
Okay, Im silly.
Anyway, we made our way up the monorail ramp and caught a monorail back to the TTC. We had initially planned to either go straight to the MK for EMH until 1am or, if we were tired, go back to the Poly and take a nap, then go to MK. However, we didnt anticipate how crazy our first day and a half would be, and we were both exhausted. There would be other late nights in the MK. We decided to just go back to the Poly and go to sleep for the night. (I know, those of you whove followed our other total-lack-of-sleep TRs are probably shocked!
)The nice thing about staying at the Poly is that you can walk back from the TTC. We passed the boat dock and saw the pretty castle in the distance:
The walk back was pleasant, with tiki torches lighting our way. Soon enough, we were back at the Hawaii building using our golden key. We settled into bed to rest up for the other 8 days of our trip.
Up next: Another video! Were finally done with the first day, so well put together a preview of the second!
IheartDDuck
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
- Messages
- 6,506
I'm totally with you on the Photopass CD. I had never gotten it before, and I got it on my last couple of trips and I think it's really worth it. Their pictures are so much better than mine!
Tnkrbelle565
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 8,490
ooooh La Hacienda looks really good!!!! I might have to add that too our adult only trip ADR list. Can't really be sampling margaritas with a certain little lady around
TheDreamsComeTrue
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
- Messages
- 6,313
The food looks so delish!
I love your photopass pictures!
I love your photopass pictures!
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
The margaritas are good! Those two were our favorites, but the sampler of five we got last time were all very good! Maybe we've just been lucky, but we've had great experiences both times we've been to La Hacienda. I hope you have a great meal there too!
Yeah, we were really conflicted about it. Especially because we didn't pre-order, so we had to pay full price (but got some free prints with it). Our other trips, we didn't have enough photos taken to even consider it, but this trip we really made a point to have lots of photos taken. And so many of them turned out way better on the PP shots versus the ones they took with our camera.
I hope you are enjoying!When is your adult only trip? I don't remember hearing about that. If you can get a well-timed Illuminations ADR, go for it!ooooh La Hacienda looks really good!!!! I might have to add that too our adult only trip ADR list. Can't really be sampling margaritas with a certain little lady around
Yes, I would love one of those margaritas right now!Mmmm those margaritas look yummy! Disney margaritas are always so good!
Looks like a fun way to watch Illuminations!
Your PP pics are so cute! I love the Stitch one!
It is a great way to watch Illuminations!
Thanks on the PP pics! I'm glad someone else is enjoying the Stitch one! I just couldn't let the bad pics go to waste!
It was delish! Love that queso fundido! Thanks on the PP pics!
MNTwinsMom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2009
- Messages
- 361
You found a great way to spend a snowy Minnesota afternoon - Updating your TR!
Great review of La Hacienda. We ate at the CS location and commented what a great location the TS side would be for Illuminations in the cold weather.
Great review of La Hacienda. We ate at the CS location and commented what a great location the TS side would be for Illuminations in the cold weather.
SRUAlmn
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2004
- Messages
- 9,821
LOVE IT!! Please forgive my ignorance, but I've seen a few different TRs that do these videos and I always wonder............how do you do it!?!? Is there a particular program that allows you to use the certain movie type intros/credits, but change the words? I would love to TRY to create something like this! 
407-W-DISNEY
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2009
- Messages
- 596
Great TR! Glad I found this towards the beginning...can't wait to read more.
p.s the movies are a great touch!
p.s the movies are a great touch!
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
I LOVE your videos!!! Very creative.
and thank you! Gotta do something during all the crazy snowstorms this winter!
How was the CS location? Any good? Yeah, watching Illuminations from inside La Hacienda is perfect when it's cold outside!
Really, there are others doing trailers? I haven't seen them! Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but we just use the templates in iMovie (we have a Mac). It's actually really easy, just throw in video clips and change the words and credits! That last video was actually made using the "sports" themed trailer. We're trying not to re-use any templates, but there are only so many!LOVE IT!! Please forgive my ignorance, but I've seen a few different TRs that do these videos and I always wonder............how do you do it!?!? Is there a particular program that allows you to use the certain movie type intros/credits, but change the words? I would love to TRY to create something like this!
I'm glad to have you here! I'm home sick from work right now with a nasty cold, so I think I'm gonna try to get another update going today (if I can manage it)!
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 5,775
Today was scheduled to be a fairly relaxed day, by our standards. Breakfast at Kona, shopping for Christmas gifts at Downtown Disney, lunch at the meatball bar in Downtown Disney, snacking on a Ghirardelli sundae, dinner at Kona, and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in the evening. 
Our breakfast ADR at Kona was at 8:25am. We were seated quickly and our waitress was very nice. I knew in advance what I was getting:
Mmmmmmmm, Tonga Toast. Yummy! With this strawberry sauce on it:
I debated getting a glass of Lilikoi juice because we had free access to it in the Club Lounge. But it sounded so good with the Tonga Toast, so I got one anyway!
Dug decided to order something new and got the Samoan. According to allears.net: poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash:
The waitress told us that this was her favorite dish; she just loved it! She said that, if Dug got up on his chair and declared it the best thing ever, she would pay for our breakfast. Well, it was so good he seriously thought about it! But we didn’t want the waitress to have to pay for our breakfast!
Dug also splurged on something he only gets here:
I’m not a coffee drinker, so that was all for Dug. He actually gave up caffeine a few years ago, but makes exceptions for exceptional coffee, which this qualifies as! He said that it made him bouncy, like Tigger!
While we were enjoying our delicious breakfast, we discussed how to take full advantage of our newfound golden key status.
With Club Level access during the Poly portion of our split stay, we wanted to utilize the lounge as much as possible.
We decided to do some ADR juggling. It didn’t make sense to have dinner at Kona this night anymore. For one, we had wanted to see the castle lighting ceremony and our ADR conflicted with that. But now, we also wanted to take advantage of the dinner offerings in the lounge while we could. However, we didn’t want to entirely give up our Kona dinner, because it’s delicious! So, Dug hopped on his iPhone to see what came up on the ADR site. We could move our Kona dinner to Tuesday night instead!
This worked out well, as we’d be checking out of the Poly (or so we thought!
) on Tuesday morning, so no need to worry about dining in the lounge that night. But we’d planned to return to the Poly that evening to watch the torch lighting ceremony, as we wouldn’t be able to see it while we were staying there. Then, later that night, we were heading over to the Wilderness Lodge for a DIS-meet with Gellybean and to check out the decorations. Kona would fit perfectly into that! So, Dug went ahead and reserved that. We now would need to cancel our original ADR for Kona and the tentative ADR we had for Artist Point on Tuesday night (that we hadn’t been sure we would do). We figured we’d have the concierge take care of that once we got back to the Hawaii building.
Dug had also done some research on Club Level perks and found one other thing he hoped to take advantage of: a special Wildlife Excursion at Animal Kingdom! It was just offered for Club Level guests (for $50/each) and sounded really cool. We figured we’d ask the concierge about that also.
We wrapped up our leisurely breakfast at Kona, excited at all the fun that was awaiting us. Dug snapped a pic of this cool decoration on the way out of Kona:
Once we made it back to the Hawaii building, we found that our keys would not open the doors to the building anymore! During our stay, they were doing a major system change at WDW and this would be the first of many problems with our Keys to the World.
Luckily, they let us inside and we had a team of concierges to fix this!
Lawrence was the first one available to help us. First, he got our keys reprinted. Next, he got our ADRs cancelled. Then we asked about the Wildlife Excursion. The first one we’d be able to do was on Wednesday morning. However, when Lawrence made a call for more info, he found out that guests have to be staying Club Level on the day of the excursion. But we’d be checking out the day before! Too bad, right?
Well, Dug and I had tossed around the idea of seeing what kind of deal we could get to stay in our Hawaii room for the whole trip, rather than moving over to Coronado Springs. We weren’t really expecting much, given that this was Club Level and all, but we were curious. This seemed like a good opportunity to find out. So, Dug asked Lawrence how much it would be to extend our stay by a night or two, which would allow us to do the excursion and enjoy more Poly. Lawrence made a call…
We were stunned by the response he received. Same rate that we were paying, even through the end of our trip, if we wanted. No upcharge for Club Level. No upcharge for weekend nights. Just our measly 40% off Garden View Bounceback rate! ($246/night total).
We did some quick FDM (Fuzzy Disney Math) on this and realized that it would be about $550 to change our 5 night CSR stay to Poly Club Level. And we’d just saved $246 by not having to pay for our first night. We could drop a few other ADRs in favor of Club Lounge food and offset most of that difference…
Even though we’re cheap, and the idea of spending more money was painful, we realized that we would likely never have a chance like this again! I mean, upgrading from a moderate to Poly Club for about $60/night? So, we snatched it up!
Yay, we’d get to stay in our same room in Hawaii THE WHOLE TRIP!
We also booked the Wildlife Excursion for Wednesday morning. Again, who knows if we’ll ever be able to do this again.
So, after Lawrence finished making all of our dreams come true, we headed back up to our room to celebrate.
We enjoyed our beautiful balcony on a nice morning:
We did some research and found that our room’s rack rate was $630/night and $900/night on weekends! And we were staying for less than $2k for the whole 9 night trip! Wow!
We headed in from the balcony and celebrated our good fortune. Did some more unpacking and were just generally giddy. It started to get icky outside. The palms were swaying in the wind and it started to rain. We sat inside on the couch and enjoyed our caramels from the night before.
Dug’s caramel marshmallow swirl (very good):
And a before and after of my dark chocolate caramel (also very good):
We also munched on some of the remaining caramel corn:
It was nice to spend some relaxing time at Disney. We didn’t really have any deadlines, just needed to get to Downtown Disney at a reasonable time. This was a very magical morning!
Up next: Christmas shopping, Downtown Disney style!
Our breakfast ADR at Kona was at 8:25am. We were seated quickly and our waitress was very nice. I knew in advance what I was getting:
Mmmmmmmm, Tonga Toast. Yummy! With this strawberry sauce on it:
I debated getting a glass of Lilikoi juice because we had free access to it in the Club Lounge. But it sounded so good with the Tonga Toast, so I got one anyway!
Dug decided to order something new and got the Samoan. According to allears.net: poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash:
The waitress told us that this was her favorite dish; she just loved it! She said that, if Dug got up on his chair and declared it the best thing ever, she would pay for our breakfast.
Well, it was so good he seriously thought about it! But we didn’t want the waitress to have to pay for our breakfast!Dug also splurged on something he only gets here:
I’m not a coffee drinker, so that was all for Dug. He actually gave up caffeine a few years ago, but makes exceptions for exceptional coffee, which this qualifies as! He said that it made him bouncy, like Tigger!
While we were enjoying our delicious breakfast, we discussed how to take full advantage of our newfound golden key status.
With Club Level access during the Poly portion of our split stay, we wanted to utilize the lounge as much as possible. We decided to do some ADR juggling. It didn’t make sense to have dinner at Kona this night anymore. For one, we had wanted to see the castle lighting ceremony and our ADR conflicted with that. But now, we also wanted to take advantage of the dinner offerings in the lounge while we could. However, we didn’t want to entirely give up our Kona dinner, because it’s delicious! So, Dug hopped on his iPhone to see what came up on the ADR site. We could move our Kona dinner to Tuesday night instead!
This worked out well, as we’d be checking out of the Poly (or so we thought!
) on Tuesday morning, so no need to worry about dining in the lounge that night. But we’d planned to return to the Poly that evening to watch the torch lighting ceremony, as we wouldn’t be able to see it while we were staying there. Then, later that night, we were heading over to the Wilderness Lodge for a DIS-meet with Gellybean and to check out the decorations. Kona would fit perfectly into that! So, Dug went ahead and reserved that. We now would need to cancel our original ADR for Kona and the tentative ADR we had for Artist Point on Tuesday night (that we hadn’t been sure we would do). We figured we’d have the concierge take care of that once we got back to the Hawaii building. Dug had also done some research on Club Level perks and found one other thing he hoped to take advantage of: a special Wildlife Excursion at Animal Kingdom! It was just offered for Club Level guests (for $50/each) and sounded really cool. We figured we’d ask the concierge about that also.
We wrapped up our leisurely breakfast at Kona, excited at all the fun that was awaiting us. Dug snapped a pic of this cool decoration on the way out of Kona:
Once we made it back to the Hawaii building, we found that our keys would not open the doors to the building anymore! During our stay, they were doing a major system change at WDW and this would be the first of many problems with our Keys to the World.
Luckily, they let us inside and we had a team of concierges to fix this!Lawrence was the first one available to help us. First, he got our keys reprinted. Next, he got our ADRs cancelled. Then we asked about the Wildlife Excursion. The first one we’d be able to do was on Wednesday morning. However, when Lawrence made a call for more info, he found out that guests have to be staying Club Level on the day of the excursion. But we’d be checking out the day before! Too bad, right?
Well, Dug and I had tossed around the idea of seeing what kind of deal we could get to stay in our Hawaii room for the whole trip, rather than moving over to Coronado Springs. We weren’t really expecting much, given that this was Club Level and all, but we were curious. This seemed like a good opportunity to find out. So, Dug asked Lawrence how much it would be to extend our stay by a night or two, which would allow us to do the excursion and enjoy more Poly. Lawrence made a call…
We were stunned by the response he received.
Same rate that we were paying, even through the end of our trip, if we wanted. No upcharge for Club Level. No upcharge for weekend nights. Just our measly 40% off Garden View Bounceback rate! ($246/night total). We did some quick FDM (Fuzzy Disney Math) on this and realized that it would be about $550 to change our 5 night CSR stay to Poly Club Level. And we’d just saved $246 by not having to pay for our first night. We could drop a few other ADRs in favor of Club Lounge food and offset most of that difference…
Even though we’re cheap, and the idea of spending more money was painful, we realized that we would likely never have a chance like this again! I mean, upgrading from a moderate to Poly Club for about $60/night? So, we snatched it up!
Yay, we’d get to stay in our same room in Hawaii THE WHOLE TRIP!
We also booked the Wildlife Excursion for Wednesday morning. Again, who knows if we’ll ever be able to do this again.
So, after Lawrence finished making all of our dreams come true, we headed back up to our room to celebrate.
We enjoyed our beautiful balcony on a nice morning:
We did some research and found that our room’s rack rate was $630/night and $900/night on weekends!
And we were staying for less than $2k for the whole 9 night trip! Wow!We headed in from the balcony and celebrated our good fortune. Did some more unpacking and were just generally giddy. It started to get icky outside. The palms were swaying in the wind and it started to rain. We sat inside on the couch and enjoyed our caramels from the night before.
Dug’s caramel marshmallow swirl (very good):
And a before and after of my dark chocolate caramel (also very good):
We also munched on some of the remaining caramel corn:
It was nice to spend some relaxing time at Disney. We didn’t really have any deadlines, just needed to get to Downtown Disney at a reasonable time. This was a very magical morning!
Up next: Christmas shopping, Downtown Disney style!
-
Is Disney Undermining the Value of Its Own Disneyland Hotels?
-
What Adult-Only Activities & Amenities Are Available on a Disney Cruise Line Vacation?
-
Is Magic Kingdom's Halloween Party Due For a Refresh?
-
Disney World Breakfast with Santa Bookings Now Open with Discount!
-
Scare Zones, Food Booths, and More Now Ready for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights
-
New Disney x Tweezerman Collection Launches with Furry Friends
-
Costume Rules You Need To Know for Disney Halloween 2025
Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
