Which came first, the ADRs or the Hotel Room?
Since this all started because I needed to cancel my ADRs, I figured I should see what I could get for one person, understanding that there was a chance that I would have to cancel them either because I couldn’t get time off or because at the last minute my mother would want to come with me as my father is convinced I won’t enjoy myself on a solo trip. But since I was operating on a solo mentality, I decided that while this trip might not be heavy on the table service meals, I should at least attempt a few that would never interest other travelling buddies.
So where to first? Well my first thought was the Crystal Palace, because who wouldn’t want to be in the park before rope drop? Unfortunately, no tables were open until 10:15 on ANY of the days I was there. Boo.
So it was off to look at other options. Be Our Guest was booked solid for prepark shenanigans and I wasn’t terribly interested in the Garden Grill over in Epcot… but wait! There’s more! Tusker House seems to have some really great reviews for their breakfasts and while Animal Kingdom is never terribly crowded first thing in the morning (or at least that’s what it seems with AM EMH), it could totally be fun.
Well that was taken care of and there was one more thing that I knew I just
had to do and that was book a Fantasmic! package for one night I was there. I remember stalking the threads back in July/August when the calendars were just coming out and Fantasmic was not listed ANYWHERE for February. I was bereft, as it is my favorite show/spectacle and wanted to share it with my friends. My last trip (January 2015) I had discovered the dinner package which is basically getting a meal and a free fastpass to go with it. My initial ADR for was for Mama Melrose’s, which I’ve had good luck with over the past few visits. Good, solid, Italian food.
Then, I thought why am I limiting myself. Why not splurge a little and book the Brown Derby? I looked at the price for the Fantasmic Package ($58/pp for anyone that’s doing the math) and then looked at the menu and decided that it was worth it for a once every ten visits meal.
Then I got word that my mom would
NOT be joining me on this lovely, spur of the moment trip, which just confirmed suspicions I already had. So after work, I hurried my butt over to Orbitz and Disney (two separate windows) to compare prices and availability with my new handy-dandy Annual Pass Membership.
Only now I was wondering if I really, really, really wanted to be at Port Orleans-French Quarter. Riverside was a little cheaper because Disney was offering their discount, but if I end up getting a Tables in Wonderland card it could be used in POFQ's foodcourt, but not POR's (conceivably because POFQ doesn’t have a table service restaurant). Decisions, decisions.
Then, since I was stuck on which moderate to choose, I began looking at Deluxe resorts because in my last visit we were able to stay at the Beach Club, which I absolutely
loved, even more when they graciously upgraded us from a Garden Room to a Concierge Level Water View. Yeah. We were stunned. And spoiled. And how could I go back to a moderate after that?!
Down the slippery slope I went until I just finally decided to click on it and ended up at the Poly page. I tried to talk myself out of it. (Twice as expensive as either Port Orleans!) But really, I know myself. I am going to want to spend as much time in the Magic Kingdom possible (especially since my beloved MGM, I mean Hollywood Studios, is all but gutted) and the monorail cannot be beat.
So I made the decision, rationalizing the way only a true Disney fan could. It hurt. And I might have to skimp on everything else, but knowing I have just the monorail to look forward to when I want to escape from all the noise and hubbub? Yes please. Ticket for one. Now to only wait until I get home.
I bet you can guess what happened next…
…Go on guess.
It completely sold out on Orbitz with the nice little discount (It was $1990 the night before, I swear!) and unless I wanted to pay $2700 to stay at the Polynesian.
I honestly thought about it, but even I could not rationalize such a thing so I spent forty minutes or so dickering over what hotel I should be looking at now that I wasn’t going to spend my days in the Polynesian Village. Ultimately, the Wilderness Lodge won out because that’s where I originally wanted to stay last year, but they were sold out of non-bunk bed rooms and my mom and I weren’t having any of that. So we were off to the Beach Club, but that is the topic for a failed trip report.
So, with my hotel in hand I scouted the room options on Orbitz and Disney’s websites and gave our friendly Disney Vacation Advisors a call just in case they could find me a better deal. Though I apparently had a Unique Offer code that was even better than the Passholder discount, none of them could beat Orbitz so off I went to play
travel agent.
Thankfully, linking the Orbitz reservation into
MDE was relatively painless, but then it was off to book airfare and since I was using airline miles my biggest decision was checked bag or no checked bag. And then if I wanted to catch the 2:30 pm flight or the 8:30 am flight. I initially thought I could go into work for a half day on Friday but let’s be honest here, I would be utterly useless as I checked what time it was every five minutes. And really, who wants to be at work for 3 hours anyway when I could give myself 6 extra hours of possible park time.
So after making my selections I go back to pay… except we can’t because my father linked our frequent flier accounts and since he’s head of household he had to log in so I could actually book my ticket. What should have taken 20 minutes (because the JetBlue’s website actually hates me) took more than hour.
Adding the Magical Express information was even MORE complicated. While I knew that Disney couldn’t change my reservation since I made it through Orbitz, I thought they would be able to at least add the DME and some comments (like birthday celebrations!) but no, that had to go through Orbitz, though the very nice agent told me that
http://www.disneymagicalexpress.com/usa would allow me to input a MDE reservation, but the website only worked in Chrome, not Firefox or Safari, and though I got an email it’s not appearing in MDE just yet.
So let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.
