We are back from a mostly pleasant vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC. Mostly pleasant because hurricane Irene stayed enough off-shore to allow us to really just lose two days to the weather, and we didnt evacuate or anything. We ended up spending an evening in our hotel room watching Lion King 1.5 and Despicable Me. Then hunkered down for a windy, rainy night. We never lost power though, and so it really wasnt too bad. Made it home safe and sound.
Even though we were on a vacation, it didnt stop us working on our plans for our Disney vacation! Theres been two events recently that have thrown our plans into (somewhat) disarry:
1) The possibility that we may not be able to pick up our tickets for our package early. Theres been much discussion on the boards about this, but our plans have us going to the parks on the 11th and 12th even though our package doesnt start until the 13th. If we CANT get our tickets early, then it would really screw up our trip.
2) The fact that free dining dates were moved up a day, from November 13th to November 12th. However, to date we have NOT been able to extend that day while staying at our current resort Port Orleans French Quarter (POFQ), but COULD move to another moderate to take advantage of the extra day.
In addition, I should point out that the two issues are sort of linked together. Getting free dining a day earlier would also allow us to pick up our tickets a day earlier without the early pick-up issue.
The first issue is really the bigger one, because the second one is really about cost savings than anything. I suppose to first is that also as well, but when you consider day tickets at $85 a piece it a much, much bigger cost issue.
Well, as soon as all the confusion about ticket pick-up came out, I decided to start on a back-up plan. See, one of our very good friends mother works for a company that has a sponsorship agreement with Disney, and she is able to get day-passes through her work. She already helped us out once with passes when we went in December 2009. While she cant get us 40 days worth of day passes (what we would need for a full trip) she was able to get us passes for DMIL one 4-day hopper and four day passes that allowed us to not have to buy tickets for her. (Well, a one-day ticket that we havent yet used.)
So, I called my friend and explained the situation, that if his mom could get us either 4 or 8 day passes, it would be a HUGE help in the off chance we CANT pick up our tickets. (If we had to, we could switch Saturday for our water park day, and wouldnt need the day passes in that case. At the time he wasnt sure what she could get, but he wrote me back this morning saying he had the tickets. I dont yet know if he got 4 or 8 I was too busy thanking him to enquire. However, it looks like we are all set in that regard!
So, onto dilemma #2. Getting an extra day of free dining versus staying at our preferred hotel. By moving to Port Orleans Riverside (POR) or Carribean Beach Resort (CBR) we would get that extra day of free dining which assuming we are still paying rack rate for the room comes to a savings of about $150 on our overall package.
So, the question in our minds are Is it worth $150 to stay at a different mod?
What it really comes down to is, why do we want to stay at POFQ? Weve stayed there three times before , in 2006,2007,2008, and since then have stayed at Pop Century twice and AKL once. Its not that we are against trying the other moderates, but there are certain things about the resort that we really like that we know are missing from both POR and CBR:
A) The size of the resort we really like the limited walking distance around the resort. It is especially nice after a long day at the parks. One thing we liked about POP is that the walks werent nearly as bad from the bus-stop back to our room as we thought, and one of the things we disliked about AKL was the distance from our room to well anywhere.
B) This also ties into the size of the resort, but POFQ is always, always quiet and uncrowded. It just feels like an oasis away from the constant crowds of the rest of the Disney world. Pop Century definitely did not feel like that, and even AKL didnt always feel as quiet. It really makes POFQ feel like a place you look forward to coming back to.
C) The lack of resort amenities never bothered us yeah, theres only a small food court, but to be honest we hardly ever eat at the resort. (I think we only ate two meals from Mara in 10 days at AKL and one was in our room.) The pool is as nice as any of the others weve used, and DD absolutely loves the Dragon slide.
D) Queen size beds POFQ has all been recently refurbished with Queen Size beds, and we really want this. Both for us, but also for DD and DMom, who will be sharing the second bed. DMom was at first concerned that she would wake DD up, but I am more concerned that floppy bed-hog DD will be waking DMom up. A queen-size bed will reduce the likelyhood of this problem significantly. Now, POR is having a refurb done as well and two of the mansion building should be ready with queen beds by the time we get there so going to POR might be an option.
E) Last, but probably most important the buses. We do not rent a car, and really enjoy using the Disney Transportation services. However, not all resorts are created equal. POFQ and POR share buses much of the time, and most important POFQ gets picked up first and dropped off first. Therefore, staying at POFQ almost guarantees you get on the first bus that comes along going to a park. In addition, were the first ones off the bus at the end of the day, and you can imagine that 5-10 minutes shorter bus-ride can feel like a BIG difference. In fact, we got the opposite affect at AKL because Kidani mostly picks up first, we were on the other end of the bus situation for the whole trip, and I admit I found it a bit tedious after a week. And I remember sitting on that crowded bus going around to all the back depots at POR and thinking how much it would stink to be trying to jam yourselves on that bus. (POP had a single bus stop which was one of the great things about POP.)
So, after listing all those things out, we decided that, $150 extra be damned, for now we are going to stay at POFQ. I think if I hadnt been able to get in there to begin with I would probably be more OK with trying somewhere new
but between not having been there in 3 years, not likely to be going back for at least two more, and that we are already all booked weve decided not to make any changes.
However, I do have a caveat that may hang over us a little longer. WE are still hoping for a room only discount for our first three nights. Now, if that discount comes out, and it can be applied to our stay
that $150 becomes more like $100. (A 25 % room-only discount would save us $157 for the 3 nights.) On the off-chance that we cant apply the room only discount to our room at POFQ, but we COULD apply it to a room at POR for the first two night (11/10 and 11/11) along with the extra day of free ding well, now were talking a cost difference of $250 less for POR versus POFQ. And I think THAT would be enough to overcome the above negatives and get us to give POR/CBR a try.
So, whats your opinion? Would you go for the $150 cost savings versus the change in resort? Have you tried the mods before? Id love more feedback.
Hopefully over the next few weeks I can continue updating our day plans as well.
TTFN,
SkierPete
