MagicBands + Margaritas + Muggles + Minions = TRP. New TR link is up! 10/31

[jedijill]

SW opens on March 3 for booking through 10/31.

I really am up in the air until I see the available flights.

I hadn't heard of any issues in PR. I will have to go research it. I really would like to see the bio-luminescent bay and the rainforest. I don't really care about the beach.

Jill in CO

 

[Pinkocto]

Well if it's one of his only requests I can see your point. I hadnt heard anything about SJ so that's news to me. I'm not that good with news though. And if it adds more Disney time that's always a bonus! Which resort are you thinking about?

 

[eandesmom]

SW opens on March 3 for booking through 10/31.

I really am up in the air until I see the available flights.

I hadn't heard of any issues in PR. I will have to go research it. I really would like to see the bio-luminescent bay and the rainforest. I don't really care about the beach.

Jill in CO

I would like to see both of those as well. I'll need to figure out exactly what we can pull off with the little time we will have.

I hadn't heard of any issues either but then again, I trust Jeff to keep up on all that stuff. I don't think it's anything like a travel advisory just more overall living conditions and economy.

We thought about waiting till the SW fares came out but decided to buy one leg last night as I just don't think we will see a better fare for that leg. Which means it is official we are getting to SJ from Orlando, via Jet Blue. I just don't think the SW fare will be less and we'd both prefer to fly JB anyway.

Almost bought another one last night as well but decided to hold a little bit. but likely won't hold for long.

Well if it's one of his only requests I can see your point. I hadn't heard anything about SJ so that's news to me. I'm not that good with news though. And if it adds more Disney time that's always a bonus! Which resort are you thinking about?

And it will save us $. Not a ton as I will have to buy some one time use points but still, some.

We are thinking about AKV. Probably on both ends. That is his other request. Which of course is a bit out of the way for F&W but that's ok and will certainly be perfect for the days before. What I don't know is how fast it will book up for those dates, or if I need to worry about it at all. I know there could be free dining for those dates so it is a little tempting to wait and see and not purchase any of the 1x points until I know but...that will be quite a while before that comes out I think.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

There has been a fair amount of trip stuff going on around here which has kept me from my TR update.

I'm ok with that. It makes for one TR in which I'm not hopelessly behind!

I'll spare you the resort options until we decide how many dates. Oh and yes, in this instance if we go this route...we WILL be getting travel insurance.

Good call! That was going to be my one suggestion.

 

[eandesmom]

I'm ok with that. It makes for one TR in which I'm not hopelessly behind!

Good call! That was going to be my one suggestion.

I am hopelessly behind everywhere myself!

Yes, Trip Insurance is a must in this case.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Of course, Food and Wine does not start until the 26th which means the only way we could enjoy that...would be to stop on the way back as well.

here are the options on the table in order of price

1. Red Eye weds night with 1 stop, 2 nights in Orlando, Cruise, home.
2. Red Eye weds night with 1 stop, 2 nights in Orlando, Cruise, 2 nights in Orlando after.
3. Non Stop to Orlando on Thursday, 2 nights in Orlando, Cruise, home.
4. Non Stop to Orlando on Thursday, 2 nights in Orlando, Cruise, 2 nights in Orlando after.
5. Non Stop to Orlando on Friday, 1 night in Orlando, Cruise, home.
6. Non Stop to Orlando on Friday, 1 nights in Orlando, Cruise, 1-2 nights in Orlando after.

Prices do no change if we do 1 night versus after the cruise but I'd vote for 2 simply because we'd get in early evening on Saturday and if we only stay one night, would have less than 24 hours to do F&W and that hardly seems worth it. All of the options assume an evening direct flight from Orlando or an afternoon 1 stop one from San Juan. Only 1 night in Orlando on the way down and it's basically a sleepover, 6pm to 4am so not a huge fan of that option (plus it costs more). Only real advantage is one less vacation day away from work.

Thoughts??? Dizzy yet?

Dizzy? YES!!!

Reading some of the comments back and forth, and having read enough of your TRs to know how you like to travel, I would go option 2, and if that doesn't work with airline times vs. $$$, then definitely option 4!

With F&W within your grasp, no way you are flying straight home. And you may as well have enough time to enjoy your stays at Disney!

 

[Leshaface]

TBH, i'm shocked you even have that many options! I'd think 2 days before and after would be a no-brainer But then again, this is Cynthia i'm talking to, and the more options the better

 

[eandesmom]

Dizzy? YES!!!

Reading some of the comments back and forth, and having read enough of your TRs to know how you like to travel, I would go option 2, and if that doesn't work with airline times vs. $$$, then definitely option 4!

In this case, at least right now, the red eye is cheaper. We actually currently have our choice of 2 at the same price, one has the long layover in LAX, the other one leaves a lot later at night and has a slightly shorter layover in DFW. We are still leaning towards the LAX one, while I don't love the idea of landing at 5:20 am, I do like the timing of the layover from a dinner perspective and I know I'll be able to check 2 bags for free on that one. While I "should" get the same privilege on American as it's a partner airline, I don't trust it to work based on stories I've heard from others.

With F&W within your grasp, no way you are flying straight home. And you may as well have enough time to enjoy your stays at Disney!

Jeff really surprised me. I figured he'd vote for 2 days on one end or the other but not necessarily both!

TBH, i'm shocked you even have that many options! I'd think 2 days before and after would be a no-brainer But then again, this is Cynthia i'm talking to, and the more options the better

Well there are vacation days and kids to be watched to consider so that was a factor but if price is equal or better than yeah, kind of a no brainer huh!

 

[eandesmom]

Holy moly. I always think I'll have time and then well, we all know how that goes! My weekend was crazy. I didn't expect it to be but it was. A few exciting things happened.

I had a lovely valentines day with Jeff. I hope everyone else did too!

We made a decision on the cruise

AND

I booked a couple of flights!

We have decided to definitely stay in Orlando for a couple of days prior to the cruise and fly in to San Juan that morning. We are also pretty positive we will do the same on the return! I booked the leg from MCO to San Juan as the price was just too good to pass up. I also added some ground transportation once we land there, very happy to know that DCL (for a price of course) will take us to the port and though we will arrive at the port before it even opens, because we are doing the transfer through DCL…the bags will check straight through to the ship! So we can go eat, wander (and not have to schlepp our bags or find a place to stash them) come back, check in, board, get back off and go explore some more.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

It is an EARLY flight. I could have done one later and still landed before the port opens but I figured better safe than sorry and more wiggle room is good. It will make for an ugly ugly MDE time though (like 3am). Good thing about a 2 night stay is you don't really unpack. We may take a cab or a towncar to get more sleep. We will see.

I almost booked the red eye from Seattle to Orlando but decided to hold off There are 2 red eyes at the same great price at the moment and since neither would let me apply the credits I had because it was a mixed airline booking, I decided it, and my wallet, could wait a couple of weeks. If for some reason the am direct drops to the same price, we will do that instead but I don't expect it to. Based on todays prices we think we can hold on our return flights until April, at which point we can use miles on one of the legs, I always like that!

My big debate now is when and what to book for our rooms in Orlando.
This is what was available this morning that we can "afford" with what's left of our points.

9/18-9/20
• Boardwalk Standard View (23 points)
• Animal Kingdom Standard View (24 points)
• Old Key West (23 points)
Only one night was available for Animal Kingdom Value View (21 points)

I can't see availability for 9/27-9/29 at anything except for Boardwalk, which is sold out for those nights. For now, the 18-20th I booked Boardwalk. Here was my thinking.

Ideally I'd probably want to do Animal Kingdom for the 1st 2 nights and Boardwalk for the last if we want to mix it up. However I don't think we will be able to get those last nights at Boardwalk as thanks to food and wine they've been booked up for a long time. My thought is wait till the 27th, see what is available at Animal Kingdom for the 27-29th. If the value view is open, snag it as it is the best deal. If it isn't then we have a couple of options.

• Book standard view at Animal Kingdom for those dates and keep Boardwalk for the 1st 2 nights.
• Book standard view at Animal Kingdom for the 1st 2 nights and book Old Key West for the last two, cancelling Boardwalk entirely.
• Book Animal Kingdom standard view for the 1st 2 nights and book Old Key West for the last two but add a waitlist for the Boardwalk Standard View for those 2 nights. Not likely, but not entirely impossible.
• Waitlist the animal kingdom value view for the 1st 2 nights and hold off on booking the last 2 while we see if it comes through. Chances aren't good though that it will and we probably don't want to wait more than 1-2 months tops as what we can afford to book is limited and the low point rooms go fast. In this scenario I don’t want to make the 2nd booking on the off chance it goes through as given the time of year of the trip, any extra points not used if a waitlist came though would basically be lost. So if we have a room at 23 points, the 21 pointer comes through, those 2 points are gone for all practical purposes as they'd have to be used by 11/31/13 and well, that wouldn't happen. It just has to do with time of year and banking deadlines but I'd just as soon not lose a thing of course.

I took the Boardwalk 2 nights as I knew those would go and I know we will be using at least that amount of points no matter what we book and sure enough, now there is only one of the nights available so we took the last one.

The other wildcard, which may really not be, is that it is likely they will almost certainly offer free dining during our dates. I did take a look at it and while numbers aren't out yet it looks like the only way it would save us $$ is if we stayed at one of the moderate hotels for a couple of nights instead of using points. To do it at a deluxe would cost us more. I will say this, looking at at the cost of rooms with Free Dining or even an AP room discount makes me appreciate owning DVC that much more. YIKES!

That would only make sense for the 1st 2 nights if we did do it since food and wine is at the end of our trip. Major drawback of course is no balcony (which is pretty much sacrilege to us) although with the point options we have our views may not be fabulous as it is. That could get released in early March, or it might not until May. No way to know. If we did want to consider that we would want to hold off on the 2nd reservation until we decided. If we did decide to do it, at a moderate resort, it would free up some points though so we could probably get a higher view category at Boardwalk during food and wine if we booked it now. However that negates the whole idea of AK and I really want to stay there and am even ok staying there on both ends of the trip if we want that.

I'm going to have to buy some one time use points to fill the second reservation so I'd like to see if I can get a lower point stay with the bulk of what I have left to use before purchasing possibly more than I need. Still, even with buying the points, it is less than the hotel in SJ would have been and we already have tickets and TIW so we are pretty darn excited about the whole thing! Our fallback plan is AKV standard view for both stays and I figure I have anywhere from 1-3 months before that is really an issue of it not being available. You never know though, but I would prefer not to be buying 3 more flights, one time points and Disneyland park tickets all in the same 2 months if I can avoid it lol. UGH. Not sure I can though. All I know for sure is one of the stays will be at AKV.


Whew!

Except….breaking news!

It was just announced that food and wine will start on the 19th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But since I'd already typed all that out…I left it in.

Winner Winner STEAK dinner. In Argentina. Or New Zealand, or Hawaii…

YAY!



See, the minute I over think, overplan, magic happens.

AND I just realized that it will also be MNSSHP during our trip. Not sure if I can con Jeff into that but it's a possibility!

In other exciting news...

Ann and I also booked our return flight from Disneyland for the half marathon. You have to love Yapta, I got an alert on a price drop so we jumped on it, and got the last 2 seats at a really great price. I’m tracking the outbound now so we are ready to jump if and when any of those drop. It is nice that we have a lot of options to choose from, does make me thing something is likely to drop a bit and they aren't horrible now.

WHEW!

Let's get back to the trip at hand, shall we? When I left you we had ditched the kids (or they had ditched us, depends on your point of view I guess) grabbed a coffee and watched a parade. We were then off to our first FP+ of the trip. Well mine anyways, Jeff and my sister Melissa had made it onto BTMRR with the kids.

I was excited for this one; we were going on a Jingle Cruise! This ride is a classic and while it might not be my dream first ride on a trip, it was a nice way to start it and thanks to FP+, not having to wait at all was awfully nice too. I loved the Holiday touches on the boat and in the queue but honestly I do think they could have done more with it, a lot more. We had a decent skipper and well, who doesn't love seeing the back side of water? Even if you don't bother to take a picture of it.







What can I say, day one, photo mojo not terribly present!

After our cruise we touched base with the kids, the plan had been to meet over at Splash, which was their FP+ while we were on the cruise. They'd already gone on it so we decided to push back our meet until our next group FP, which was Space. With a bit of a window we decided to wander towards space and do whatever struck us along the way. We decided to wander the long way around.

By way of the Haunted Mansion! Which had a very short wait. Or at least short enough that we figured we could fit it in







And short enough we barley played with anything in the queue (or took pictures).

Now I love this ride but I do have to say that I truly can't stand the queue after the stretching room before it gets into the single file. Holy claustrophobia batman! Jeff is not a huge fan of this ride and whined a bit. Mostly afterwards when no one could hear him. LOL! I still like it, it makes me smile. Finishing up I started to get some texts. I had a special DISmeet planned at our FP+! Actually it hadn't really been planned, more just like dumb luck in the planning (or great minds thinking alike) but still it had worked out. Pat (poolrat) had a FP+ for Space the same time we did. We had actually been texting all day updating each other with where we were but hadn't actually seen each other yet. We had met before, back during my 2012 food and wine trip. She arrived before I did, and let me know the boys were there waiting for us! Gotta love the DIS, there are eyes everywhere. And while they didn't know Pat, she recognized them and it was nice to know ahead of time that they were in fact, following directions! And apparently behaving. As we headed out we split up, my folks had zero interest in Space, instead they headed off to Splash.

We checked in with the kids, they had enjoyed doing some Sorcerers, their FP on Splash and then, of all things, had decided to go on It’s a Small World. I did NOT see that one coming. In all fairness, the E's had never been on it and wanted to check it out. Still, it cracked me up that of all the rides to pick, 4 teenage boys had selected that one! I had sent them with the PP+ lanyard, Evan is clearly already practicing his posing!





We whizzed through the FP line and soon enough were flying through Space.

Apparently Q&K thought it was loud





Melissa was bored and Evan a cheeseball



I am apparently going for "look ma no hands", Pat's got the camera angle down pat (and yes, this is PROOF that we met) and Jeff, well, who knows!



Space, to me, ties with BTMRR as the best "first" ride to do in the world, or at least in MK and while I'd missed out on one mountain, I was feeling pretty darn good about what we’d been able to get done so far. On that note, while I'd rebooked our BTMRR Fast Pass for after space, we figured we'd never make it and then it turns out it went down anyways!


By this time it was about 2:45 pm and we figured the kids needed a snack. Dinner was at 5;15 and 5:30 (2 reservations but hoping to sit together) but still, none of us had eaten since breakfast and that now seemed like a long time ago. Gaston's seemed like a likely place to go for a snack and something fun and different. It was also a mid way spot to hook up with my parents.

Who had gotten soaked on Splash.



This may well be my FAVORITE picture of the trip!!!!!!!!!!!

Heading back to Fantasyland to meet?

BAD IDEA.

The skies opened up.

And then some!

I had some ponchos with us, Jeff and I each took one, me to protect the camera, Jeff to protect himself, Eric took one as well. Arriving at Gaston's....
There wasn't a single thing anyone wanted. We were wet. We were cold. We weren't hitting a wall yet but that wasn't far behind. Instead, we decided to get the heck out of dodge. At this point, heading to the room before dinner was a requirement, not an option. With no break in the rain to see we did, after texting mom and dad, what anyone would do.

We RAN!

To the main street train station to meet up with them.

Just a little soggy out





Luckily my folks got to the train station right about when we did. So we ran some more! To the bus stop.

And waited

And waited

And waited

As we did so, one thing became blatantly clear.
We were cold
We were wet
We needed to change
All our stuff was stored at the Boardwalk. Or at least all our carryons were stored there with bell services. Theoretically the rest of our bags were in our room waiting for us.
There was no way my folks would have time to get their stuff, get to the Swan, get checked in, change, and make it to dinner on time.
11 of us were going to have to dry off as quickly as possible, all at once if we wanted to make it to dinner on time.

And even that might be pushing it

 

[KatMark]

Darn; we are at the AKL on the 19th and 20th. But we will have to figure something out so we can hook up.

What a fun update.

I love the pic of you and all the family on Space Mountain. And bonus points for getting to ride with Pat!

Oooh...that looks like some of the rain we had in June and August. Smart move to go back to the resort to dry off and change before dinner.

 

[jedijill]

F&W starts on the 19th?~?!?!?!?!? ARGH! You just made my planning harder!!!!

Great update.

Jill in CO

 

[afwdwfan]

here are the options on the table in order of price

If that order is low to high, as I take it to be, I'm not even sure why you're asking for our input. You know the answer is #2. Yes I realize vacation days and kids are a consideration, but those are just minor details to sort out...

We have decided to definitely stay in Orlando for a couple of days prior to the cruise and fly in to San Juan that morning. We are also pretty positive we will do the same on the return!

And my opinion is totally invalid and too late. But it looks like I was right.

It is an EARLY flight. I could have done one later and still landed before the port opens but I figured better safe than sorry and more wiggle room is good.

I will say this, looking at at the cost of rooms with Free Dining or even an AP room discount makes me appreciate owning DVC that much more. YIKES!

Please talk to my wife about DVC...

It was just announced that food and wine will start on the 19th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But since I'd already typed all that out…I left it in.

Winner Winner STEAK dinner. In Argentina. Or New Zealand, or Hawaii…

YAY!



See, the minute I over think, overplan, magic happens.

But overplanning is never a bad thing. That is a nice little surprise to have fall into place for you.

AND I just realized that it will also be MNSSHP during our trip. Not sure if I can con Jeff into that but it's a possibility!

Well... if I'm following the story correctly... you'll now be at Boardwalk during F&W, correct? So why not take advantage of a day of F&W before the cruise and do an MNSSHP night instead of F&W when you're staying at a non-EPCOT resort? Seems like a solid plan to me.

I loved the Holiday touches on the boat and in the queue but honestly I do think they could have done more with it, a lot more.

I was afraid that might be the case...

Now I love this ride but I do have to say that I truly can't stand the queue after the stretching room before it gets into the single file.

Those herding corrals where they force you to fill in all available space prior to resuming an orderly single file line are near the top of my list of pet peeves at Disney World...

We checked in with the kids, they had enjoyed doing some Sorcerers, their FP on Splash and then, of all things, had decided to go on It’s a Small World. I did NOT see that one coming. In all fairness, the E's had never been on it and wanted to check it out.

I don't know if I'm more surprised that they chose to ride it, or that the E's had never been on it!

Heading back to Fantasyland to meet?

BAD IDEA.

The skies opened up.

And then some!

So your parents aren't the only ones that got soaked?

Arriving at Gaston's....
There wasn't a single thing anyone wanted.

Pork shanks??? Cinnamon Rolls??? Nobody wanted either of those????

We were wet. We were cold. We weren't hitting a wall yet but that wasn't far behind. Instead, we decided to get the heck out of dodge. At this point, heading to the room before dinner was a requirement, not an option.

When it is 4th and long, sometimes you've just got to punt.

11 of us were going to have to dry off as quickly as possible, all at once if we wanted to make it to dinner on time.

And even that might be pushing it

 

[Linda67]

Fab ride photos - love them !
Sounds like your other trip plans are coming together nicely

 

[Poolrat]

Just checked Beach Club and SSR and both are showing 9/27-9/29 availability. Probably doesn't do you any good but I thought I would let you know...

SSR is 27 and BCV is 31 for a studio.



I think I need to catch up since I arrived earlier than you but I have rain pictures..... Oh my. The heavens did open up like a summer time storm.

I am glad we "planned alike" but sorry we didnt get to spend more time together. Weather was just wonky that trip.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

on the F&W at the beginning - I say go enjoy some good stuff!

And score on the flight deal for DL.

On to the TR at hand - The E's have NEVER been on IASW?????? Well, it's about time!

I'm surprised no one wanted anything at Gaston's!

Run for cover!!!

 

[rentayenta]

I saw today on Twitter that F&W starts earlier this year. Lucky girls!

Glad Disneyland planning is coming along nicely. Gabby did get that many job so now my whole summer is jacked up, not surprised.

Your plans are making my head spin and I love it. You are going to have an amazing year of Disney. I like the idea of a few nights pre-cruise.

Your Splash photos are great. Did you buy them? I may have to pull your redneck card. I'll take it to the committee and see what they say?

 

[annmarieda]

I am so excited for you in booking BWV!!! It gives me a bit of hope that I may be able to book there for my fall trip.

Too funny that the teens chose IASW!

The photo pass pics are great... especially of your folks!

What a pain that it was so rainy! I feel your pain though... it wasn't much better when we were there. And it was a weird rain. Normally on our trips, we might see a sudden cloud burst... but this time when it rained it was like non stop.

 

[eandesmom]

Darn; we are at the AKL on the 19th and 20th. But we will have to figure something out so we can hook up.

Ugh, based on your FB info we are going to be close to being 2 ships that pass in the night! Hopefully we can figure something out.

What a fun update.

I love the pic of you and all the family on Space Mountain. And bonus points for getting to ride with Pat!

Pat and I met up several times actually...this is just the only official picture. Which is pathetic! It's so funny, the whole PP+ thing with the rides was kind of like "why not" and now that we have them I am SO glad...though by the end of the trip they were yelling at me not to scan the card, that we had more than enough. Which of course we did.

Oooh...that looks like some of the rain we had in June and August. Smart move to go back to the resort to dry off and change before dinner.

Our original hope was that we'd have enough time to get back and change anyway, not to mention getting our luggage to the room and maybe mom and dad checked in. We waited SO long for the bus even getting changed seemed in question but as soaked as we were, it wasn't an option not to!

F&W starts on the 19th?~?!?!?!?!? ARGH! You just made my planning harder!!!!

Great update.

Jill in CO

Sorry.

But just so you know...it's only $123 right now from MCO to San Juan on the 20th. On Jet Blue. It will be interesting to see what SW comes out at, it looks like $176 was as low as they went for that leg but I will be checking on the 3rd!

Just sayin'

If that order is low to high, as I take it to be, I'm not even sure why you're asking for our input. You know the answer is #2. Yes I realize vacation days and kids are a consideration, but those are just minor details to sort out...

Yeah, they'll be in 8th and 10th grade, they can just fend for themselves, right?

It's kind of funny, Jeff was originally pushing for #4 and as we started talking about it he was like "what am I thinking! Of course we want the red eye"

And my opinion is totally invalid and too late. But it looks like I was right.

And it IS nice to be able to say that last part isn't it?

Please talk to my wife about DVC...

Well it's all relative. I mean really, I'm not kidding myself. We aren't truly saving, we pay dues! But it is pre-paid. And when I looked at the rack rates as I toyed with the idea of Free Dining for the 1st 2 nights, it about gave me a heart attack. But I will say, were it not for DVC there is no way we could add a spontaneous 4 nights there on each end of the cruise, it just flat out wouldn't be in the budget. Unless we stayed at POP. Which wouldn't happen. Jeff would probably rather go to San Juan for 2 nights.

Nothing against POP mind you....

But overplanning is never a bad thing. That is a nice little surprise to have fall into place for you.

Very nice surprise!

Well... if I'm following the story correctly... you'll now be at Boardwalk during F&W, correct? So why not take advantage of a day of F&W before the cruise and do an MNSSHP night instead of F&W when you're staying at a non-EPCOT resort? Seems like a solid plan to me.

Yes, that occurred to me today too. I don't know if Jeff would be up for MNSSHP or not. If the projected dates hold then it is possible we could do it the 28th.

I was afraid that might be the case...

Yeah, it was almost a tease. Cute though.

Those herding corrals where they force you to fill in all available space prior to resuming an orderly single file line are near the top of my list of pet peeves at Disney World...

It's horrible. Thankfully there aren't that many of them but a few of them are truly awful and HM is near the top, if not at the top.

I don't know if I'm more surprised that they chose to ride it, or that the E's had never been on it!

In all fairness, it's never been open any time we've been to MK. Which I know seems improbable but it's true! Bad refurb mojo I guess and then in 2012 we only went to AK.

So your parents aren't the only ones that got soaked?

Nope. They just got soaked, before getting soaked.

Pork shanks??? Cinnamon Rolls??? Nobody wanted either of those????

Neither are very "snack" like, or quick to eat which was the goal.

When it is 4th and long, sometimes you've just got to punt.

Yep. I'd have chosen different shorts to punt in though.

Fab ride photos - love them !
Sounds like your other trip plans are coming together nicely

Thanks! It's really fun to have them all for once, we usually red neck it!

Just checked Beach Club and SSR and both are showing 9/27-9/29 availability. Probably doesn't do you any good but I thought I would let you know...


SSR is 27 and BCV is 31 for a studio.

Yah. BWV is open for those dates too, for Pool/Garden view at any rate which is the same point value as BCV. Problem is I've 48 total to play with for the 4 nights which definitely restricts my options. I can see SSR but at 27 it's not of interest...not that it was of interest anyway. We'd vastly prefer to stay at OKW if we can't be at AKV. Though Jeff will be really mad if we aren't at AKV but I'm not worried about getting it as long as I don't wait "too" long.

I think I need to catch up since I arrived earlier than you but I have rain pictures..... Oh my. The heavens did open up like a summer time storm.

They sure did didn't they? I wasn't expecting it, at least not at that torrential deluge level. I swear that day soured me on carrying my good camera the bulk of the trip, just wasn't worth worrying about. Of course in hindsight if I think about it, it seems that the days I did take it, were the especially soggy ones....

I am glad we "planned alike" but sorry we didnt get to spend more time together. Weather was just wonky that trip.

VERY wacky weather, we had it all didn't we! Of course at the time it was happening I was kind of smug knowing we had a washer and dryer in the villa.

I am glad we have this one "proof" picture. I think we saw each other 4 times total, pretty pathetic it's the only picture. Of course it's hard to truly hang out in a group our size but it was so much fun doing what we could together!!! Border nightmares aside, I'm very glad we got the PP+ option, the ride pictures are a ton of fun and I'd not have splurged for them otherwise.

 

[MEK]

Wow, that's an early food & wine. But I like it. Not that it helps me, but I'm thinking more for 2015. I wouldn't mind doing an early F&W and then heading back for Christmas. That could definitely work!

Glad you got one flight book. that's a start.

I'd definitely go with BWV. It's a perfect location for F&W.

Fun update. I love all the FP ride pics. They turned out great and some of the facial expressions are priceless.

Boo to being wet. I got really wet in October and I have to say that, after all the trips I've been on, that was the first I just wanted to get out of the park and get dry clothes on.

 

[eandesmom]

on the F&W at the beginning - I say go enjoy some good stuff!

We plan to! At least early in the day and afternoon before it gets too crowded. We don't want to be up late that night anyway.

And score on the flight deal for DL.

Yes, the price on that leg is about as low at is goes so we are happy and it's a good airport.

On to the TR at hand - The E's have NEVER been on IASW?????? Well, it's about time!

I'm surprised no one wanted anything at Gaston's!

Run for cover!!!

Believe it or not, it's been closed all 3 times the boys have been there!

Gastons has "food" more than snacks, nothing was quick or easy or light.

I saw today on Twitter that F&W starts earlier this year. Lucky girls!

that was lucky!

Glad Disneyland planning is coming along nicely. Gabby did get that many job so now my whole summer is jacked up, not surprised.

for you but for Gabby. She will be wonderful!!!

Your plans are making my head spin and I love it. You are going to have an amazing year of Disney. I like the idea of a few nights pre-cruise.

It is ridiculous isn't it!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Splash photos are great. Did you buy them? I may have to pull your redneck card. I'll take it to the committee and see what they say?

I bought the Photopass Plus. Which includes all ride photos. No way would I buy them individually (though I've bought a couple over the years).

Expect red neck photos in DL...maybe in Universal/IoA for that matter (I don't recall lol!)

I am so excited for you in booking BWV!!! It gives me a bit of hope that I may be able to book there for my fall trip.

If you are going for garden/pool view right at 7m you have a good chance. If you want me to check dates just let me know Standard and Boardwalk go early, often at 11m

Too funny that the teens chose IASW!

Isn't that a riot! I loved it!!!!!!!!! It's not like they didn't know what they were getting into.

The photo pass pics are great... especially of your folks!

I almost cried laughing so hard when I saw that one.

What a pain that it was so rainy! I feel your pain though... it wasn't much better when we were there. And it was a weird rain. Normally on our trips, we might see a sudden cloud burst... but this time when it rained it was like non stop.

Torrential!!!!!!!!! And this was not the worst or wettest day. Not by a long shot.

Wow, that's an early food & wine. But I like it. Not that it helps me, but I'm thinking more for 2015. I wouldn't mind doing an early F&W and then heading back for Christmas. That could definitely work!

Well.....that would make it hard to do the Wine and Dine Half...which is in November

Glad you got one flight book. that's a start.

Every leg helps!

I'd definitely go with BWV. It's a perfect location for F&W.

It's so funny as I was totally obsessing about wanting AKV for the 1st weekend and then BWV for the 2nd and neither looked good.

And then the stars aligned.

Fun update. I love all the FP ride pics. They turned out great and some of the facial expressions are priceless.

Oh my, some of them just crack me up and there is a lot more to come! I really enjoyed having the PP+, far more than I expected

Boo to being wet. I got really wet in October and I have to say that, after all the trips I've been on, that was the first I just wanted to get out of the park and get dry clothes on.

This day was not really all that bad as it was time to go anyway. There is worse to come. Biggest drag was that I was wearing white denim bermuda shorts.

Not good rain wear!