It wouldn't be spring without an Epcot F&G Festival! New pg 35

[DisMomAmy]

Hi.. Im following over here too..
Love the dueling PTR on one!!!

That resort looks fabulous. My IL's have stayed at the one closer to Disney a couple of times but never at the Villages. From the pictures it looks great.

It's not as good as staying at Disney, but it's so nice to have all the space (for a lot less money)!

I just found your Pre-Trip report. Heidi got me laughing
My friend and I had planned to go to WDW in February 2013. We have now changed that to 7th April 2013. I'm really looking forward to reading your plans and in a few months be reading your trip report

 

[eandesmom]

It looks really really lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice and roomy

 

[MRYPPNS]

When we (read “I”) originally planned this trip, we planned to spend three days at DH’s brother, Jeff’s house.

Who are these Jeff and Karen people?? And why are they in my PTR??

The first things that were booked for this trip were our off-site timeshare villa, Sheraton Vistana Villages and our airfare on Southwest. We booked our flight on 4/19 into Tampa. It also happened to be cheaper

Finally! Amy gets my plans right.


I have made a few corrections below....you seem to keep getting my departure date and times wrong ....oh well....I'm not paying you very much to do this for me

We have an early flight on the 19th, arriving in Tampa at 10:30. Our flight home on the 28th is earlier than we'd like, but the only other option for a direct flight was really late. We're flying home out of Orlando & our flight leaves at 1045am. That will get us back into NH around two.

We are booked at Vistana Villages from Saturday to Saturday in a 2 bedroom villa. We stayed at Sheraton Vistana Resort (which is a little closer to Disney) on our last two trips and liked it very much. Sheraton Vistana Villages became available first, so we decided to give that a try this time.

Once we decided not to visit Jeff & Karen, (again with these strangers ) we needed to find accommodations for Thursday, 4/19 – Saturday 4/21 !!! . More on that next time!

Good job! But you forgot to mention that I'm renting a car at Alamo in Tampa and returning it Orlando and that too is cheaper.

 

[DisMomAmy]

It looks really really lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice and roomy

We've enjoyed Vistana Resort so I hope we like Vistana Villages too!

Good job! But you forgot to mention that I'm renting a car at Alamo in Tampa and returning it Orlando and that too is cheaper.

Oh yeah... Heidi is renting a car in Tampa for the length of her stay and will return it in Orlando. Yes - cheaper than renting Orlando to Orlando.

And I will be doing the same. We have a minivan... I don't remember what she has but I don't think it's a minivan.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

I'm putting my vote in for a joint TR too

 

[DisMomAmy]

I'm putting my vote in for a joint TR too

I'm sure Heidi will vote for that too!

 

[MeMom]

Looks great! I am already loving the pictures of blue skies and palm trees. Happy planning!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Here for all the fun, Amy!

Heidi, you are CRACKING me up!!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Looks great! I am already loving the pictures of blue skies and palm trees. Happy planning!

Thanks MeMom!

Here for all the fun, Amy!

Heidi, you are CRACKING me up!!!

Heidi is cracking me up too! We totally didn't plan to do a PTR together! I just told her she could jump in if she wanted to!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Originally we had planned to visit Tim's brother & his girlfriend, Jeff & Karen, for three nights prior to checking in at Vistana Villages. Once we decided not to do this, we had already booked the airfare, so we needed a plan for those three nights. All along we had planned to take a day to visit Islands of Adventure so when we needed to find a home for three nights, we booked a deluxe room at the Hard Rock Hotel. We now planned to get 3 day/2 park tickets for Universal & Islands of Adventure. I began to explore the attractions & dining options at Universal. There were plenty of dining options but the more I learned about the parks, the more I worried that the kids wouldn’t enjoy spending three days there. We’ve been to Six Flags & Busch Gardens in the past year and both times, the boys visited a few attractions, then wanted to go home! I’m afraid this would happen again!

After some thought, and thanks to the spring room only offer, we cancelled our reservation at Hard Rock & booked my dream resort… The Beach Club!! We really wanted to stay there in November but we rented DVC points and the DVC member owns at BWV. We booked there hoping a waitlist request would come through for BCV but it never did. We spent some time there during our trip, for breakfast at Cape May, kids club visit to Sandcastle club & a photo session. It only made me fall even more in love with the resort!

After a couple days, I upgraded our room to Club Level. I wanted to surprise Tim, but I’m bad at keeping secrets & lying when confronted about them so I caved after only a few hours filling Tim in on the secret. I think he’ll love it! One of the other things I’ve learned from our past trips is that Tim’s stomach is the key to keeping him happy!!

And only a few days later, the AP discounts came out, saving us another 5%! I didn't see our Garden View Club Level room available on the website but when I called, the CM was able to apply the AP discount to our current reservation. I'm am over the moon excited to stay at Beach Club & have reworked our itinerary so that we can take full advantage of everything the resort has to offer!

The new wallpaper on my laptop:

Our plans are now to arrive in Tampa on Thursday, 4/19 and head right to the Beach Club! We'll spend three nights, checking out on Sunday 4/22. We'll spend some time at Epcot, then head to Vistana Villages in the afternoon.

Up next: More about our itinerary!

 

[JPFamilyMom]

I knew about the Beach Club Ressie, and I'm so excited for you. But I didn't know you had decided on Club Level, so

I'll be anxious to read your report on that and see all your pictures.

Looking forward to reading about what you'll do with your time on Disney property

 

[Native NYer]

Enjoying your PTR.
BC CL sounds amazing!

Heidi, your updates are hilarious!

 

[eandesmom]

Ah, BC Club level! It doesn't get any better than that. What a wonderful way to start your trip!!!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I am still so excited about your Beach Club stay -- it's really going to be fantastic!

I am pretty bad with keeping secrets, too, so I am sure I would have caved after just a couple of hours, too.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

I knew about the Beach Club Ressie, and I'm so excited for you. But I didn't know you had decided on Club Level, so

I'll be anxious to read your report on that and see all your pictures.

Looking forward to reading about what you'll do with your time on Disney property

Very excited about club level!! I can't wait to share it with you! (Ok - Yes I can... because that means our trip will be over! )

Enjoying your PTR.
BC CL sounds amazing!

Heidi, your updates are hilarious!

I'm so excited for BC!!

Ah, BC Club level! It doesn't get any better than that. What a wonderful way to start your trip!!!!!

I know we are going to love it! I can't wait to explore SAB with the kids!

I am still so excited about your Beach Club stay -- it's really going to be fantastic! I am pretty bad with keeping secrets, too, so I am sure I would have caved after just a couple of hours, too.

I can't wait! Only 94 days to go! It would have been so fun to surprise Tim with the CL upgrade... but I blew it.

Count me in!!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Before I get into our itinerary & touring plans I want to share a little bit about what has gone into planning this trip. I've been so lucky to have taken nine trips to Disney in the past six years! Three of those trips were in 2011! (Links to TRs are in my signature for anyone intersted.)

With each trip, we learn more & more about what we do & don’t like to do at Disney. For this trip, we want to take things a little slower and stop to smell the roses! We won’t be park hopping every day and we’re even planning two days of resort time! A first for us! On our February trip last year we learned that mom & dad need to take more control of the vacation plans! We tried to go with the flow a little too much & the kids took over, then they got cranky & we got cranky! In November (our anniversary trip) we took back control, pre-planned everything, built in a reward system & consequences for bad behavior and presented the kids with our plan… the morning we left for Florida! That’s right – we sprung a surprise on them! It was a wonderful trip & we hope this trip lives up to that one! We plan to use a lot of the same strategies again this time around. We also discovered how much the parks take a toll on DH’s feet! Not so much blisters, but plantar fasciitis. I didn’t plan out our touring strategies as well as I could have so we put a lot of extra mileage on our feet. My goal for this trip is to minimize the walking wherever possible. One way I’m doing this is by reducing the number of days we park hop. When the kids were little, we park hopped every day because we took a mid-day break every day. If we were heading back out, it was just as easy to go to a different park. This time around I’m dedicating one day to each park. Then we’ll have some hopping later in the week to go back & visit our favorites & the things we missed.

What do we have for park tickets? In February I was nearing the end of an annual pass but Tim & the boys had multi-day park hoppers that I'd purchased through Undercover Tourist (highly recommended). We were actually thinking about another trip within the year & were considering upgrading their tickets to APs. But the trip didn't end well & I wasn't going to bring up the next trip so we left without upgrading the tickets.

On our November trip, we were more realistic. We knew that trip was a special trip & that we'd still be going on our annual spring break trip too. I was also hoping for a getaway without the family sometime next fall (2012) so I got a new annual pass & purchased Tim & the boys 10 day non-expiring park hoppers with the waterpark & more option. They used four days in November & have six days left for this trip. Plus they each have 10 waterpark & more tickets left!

Up next: So what exactly are our plans?

 

[DisMomAmy]

By the way... yesterday was 3 months until our trip!!! And today is 90 days!!

​

 

[eandesmom]

A little OT but Evan had some great luck with PT and Chiro for plantar fascitiitis. Plus new shoes and inserts lol.

Plans sound good though, how wonderful to have tickets all set and take the time to enjoy the resort. Plus you couldn't be at a better resort to do that!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I love not park hopping! It makes the trip feel more relaxed. I think your plans sound great Amy!