Nice to have you back on the board...we were on the same Nov 2012 thread.
While we were there in Nov we were able to book the bounce back FD offer for this August so we're going Aug 19-26. We're staying at POR this time. We stayed at AoA in November but the LM rooms were excluded from the FD BB offer for August and I really wanted to try a different resort. Our ADR'S and flights are already booked.
We honestly didn't think we would be able to go for the BB last year so we just dismissed it. We were on the fence about it until this week when we researched other summer trips and found Disney to be the cheapest of them all.
We pulled the trigger on the trip yesterday. Bought the plane tickets and booked the Disney piece of it. We opted to go with QS instead of DP because it will allow us flexibility to eat pretty much wherever we are rather than locking us into a schedule of parks and times. Also on our last trip our girls wound up falling asleep in the restaurants half the time and for one meal we didn't even order food for DD1! Thankfully that was an OOP meal so we saved a little bit of money there. We will still be able to eat at BOG for lunch and we'll get to hit up Pizza Planet, which we still haven't had a chance to eat at in our previous trips. We've opted to go with 4 day tickets and added the Water Park option. This essentially gives us 8 days worth of attractions or we can mix the water parks and theme parks in the same day. We'll probably hit the water park when we arrive, then MK, HS, EP, water parks/AoA pool, MK then home. We will skip AK this time as aside from Everest we didn't really have a lot of fun there.
We're staying at AoA LM again as my wife and the girls loved it. It is similar to Pop but small things make it nicer. If fall promotions come out that make it significantly worthwhile to change rooms then we may, but I think we're good at the moment.
We're still planning a trip in June 2014 so maybe we'll get a BB when we are there this time. We've told the kids about this trip rather than keeping it a secret so they are excited and can help us figure out some of the things we would like to do this year. DD2 really wants to see Gaston again, which works out well because my wife wants a LeFou's Brew and I want a Pork Shank.
We're also thinking low key on souvenirs and autographs this time. Having just gone in November and going again next year we aren't feeling the urge as much to spend on junk. We'll likely bring some little trinkets from the dollar store again to tide the kids over for their cheap plastic stuff.
We've also learned that since the kids don't like the fireworks (too loud) that we can skip Wishes and Illuminations and hit rides instead. Last time we saw the finale of Wishes from the Astro Orbiter and my wife and I thought it was awesome plus there was no wait. The kids were distracted by the ride so they didn't care at that point about the noise. Same thing with the parades. We've seen the parades so we can skip those and hit up rides instead. No sense backing in the Florida August sun for a parade when we could be on a ride or two.
We've never been the type to take the afternoon breaks but we may do that this time. With the weather being warm enough on this trip to use the pools we may very well go back to AoA and hit up the pools in the afternoon or swing over to one of the water parks to cool off in a lazy river or splash park.
The crowd calendars look promising. We were there during Thanksgiving and we could tell it was very busy, but it wasn't unmanageable. The crowd calendars for the end of August are much lower than what we saw at Thanksgiving. The parks are still open late too, which is nice.
We're flying this time instead of driving due to some low cost tickets so we'll be taking the buses, which we don't really mind. It relieves me of the hassle of driving and parking for a week and the girls think it's a treat. It also makes you feel more like you are on vacation when you don't have to worry about driving.
The only thing up for debate right now is PP vs PP+. We were happy to get PP+ for the dining photos last year. The ride photos were a bonus. This year we're not doing the dining so we won't need that aspect of it. We also did our family Christmas pictures at Disney last year so PP was huge for us. We had over 800 pictures for the week! We will still rely on the PP folks for pictures as we won't take as many ourselves this year. Ride photos aren't the most flattering of pictures though since they are taken in the moment. We may still get them though since it is a memory from the trip and this will be the first time that DD2 gets to ride Splash Mountain, so that may be worth it.