Mama Needs a Dole Whip- A February 2016 PTR

[missbecca]

Wanted to update- not entirely sure anyone is still reading, but thought I'd do so anyways.

As you can see, my ticker has changed

A lot has gone on unfortunately, and I had to cancel our entire trip. We have agreed to postpone our trip until December 2015, which will be a nice way to celebrate DH's birthday I suppose.

Anyhow, thanks for all the help and for following along. I deeply appreciate all the kind words and general awesomeness.​

 

[missbecca]

Well with our trip having been pushed back to December 2015 we've looked at all of our options again. We're considering staying at Shades of Green now, as the rate just can't be beat. The only real downfall that I see with staying at SoG is that you can't tie in a dining plan. Oh, and parking isn't free as it is at the Disney resorts. And I would still want to purchase MagicBands for the convenience. So really I don't know. Ideally I would still love to stay at POR, get the QS dining plan, and have a nice, all-inclusive vacation. I don't really like the idea of having to set aside money for meals in the park or still having to make 3 meals a day while on vacation, I guess. That doesn't really seem like the relaxing vacation that I desperately need. I just want to get there and enjoy myself knowing that most of the stuff is already taken care of.

I guess we'll see! I will likely be booking in February or March no matter where we stay, so I still have plenty of time to weigh the options.

Here's what we have so far:

Dates: 13-17 December 2015
Resort: Either POR or Shades of Green

​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Not to make your decision harder but the spring discounts just got released. No free dining but this seems almost better. % off the room and a free day on your tickets if you get at least 4. Might be worth checking out.

 

[missbecca]

Not to make your decision harder but the spring discounts just got released. No free dining but this seems almost better. % off the room and a free day on your tickets if you get at least 4. Might be worth checking out.

sigh... I know. And I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't considered it. But if we do that and stick with our original April 2015 dates we'd be spending a lot more of our tax refund than we want to on this trip, whereas if we stick with December 2015 we will have all year to save up. And when I went to check prices for POR this morning with the Spring discount, the website said that there was no availability for our party size (of 5- 2 adults, 3 children), which leads me to think that it might be only the royal rooms at POR that are discounted. That's the same situation that we ran into when the military rates were announced. It was only the royal rooms that were available for that promotion too. Still extremely generous of Disney to offer the discount, but it didn't really work out for me this time.​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Bummer. But If you aren't attached to POR CBR now has rooms for 5. The standard rooms there are included in the discount.

 

[missbecca]

Bummer. But If you aren't attached to POR CBR now has rooms for 5. The standard rooms there are included in the discount.

Thanks so much for the recommendation! Still aiming for a December 2015 trip (unless Uncle Sam is overly generous this year!), but now CBR is my frontrunner resort. With the renovations it looks really great!​

 

[missbecca]

I'm so excited! Mr. Missbecca was talking to his sister on the phone the other day and told her that we were planning a December trip to Disney World. She said she had always wanted to go, and we told them that we would love to have them come with us when we go. Knowing that I am an obsessive planner, she asked me to run some numbers, which I gladly did. I put together an entire spreadsheet full of resort options, dining plan costs, tickets prices, travel costs, and pros/cons of each option (I told you- OBSESSIVE.). She looked it over, giggled at my obsessiveness, talked it over with her Husband, and THEY ARE IN!!!

We've all agreed that we will be staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort, and they've appointed me master planner lol. Hopefully we can all make our reservations this week once we get some final details nailed down. They're keeping this trip a secret from their kids, too so we will have some extremely excited children on this trip! So now we've gone from a family of 5, to a family of 11!​

This is going to be amazing!!! ​

 

[missbecca]

We're almost under 11 months! It still seems like forever away, but still- hooray!!!

Still haven't booked- we're all still trying to nail down details as a group. We've settled on QS Dining for this trip, and I don't think we will do any table service meals. With a group of 11 it seems a little daunting to even try. Maybe a breakfast at 'Ohana? Or maybe spend that money on MVMCP? I dunno, I guess we'll see.

Some dates for me to keep in mind:

ADR's (if any): June 16, 2015
FastPass+: October 14, 2015
45 Days Out: October 29, 2015​

 

[missbecca]

We're officially less than 11 months to go!!!

We're getting there slowly but surely!

Today is our first actual snow day of 2015- actually for this winter at all. This time last year we had already had 2 or 3 snow days under our belt here in the DC area, so this seems to be a pretty mild winter so far. Not that I want to jinx that or anything, but it seems a bit strange. First thing I did this morning was sneak into the kids' rooms and turned off their alarms. Super sneaky ninja Mama here. So now I'm sitting on the couch getting my Disboards fill and listening to Disney music on iTunes.

Still not booked- hopefully soon because I keep waffling between POR and CBR LOL!​

 

[missbecca]

We're BOOKED!!!

I am so beyond excited right now! The reservation agent that I spoke with was so unbelievably awesome, and was really keeping the excitement alive throughout our conversation. She asked me why I was booking at Caribbean Beach when it was pretty clear that I really wanted to stay at Port Orleans Riverside, and I told her that I really didn't have a good answer for her. Since we will be purchasing military tickets we wouldn't be eligible for free dining (which isn't available at POR anymore anyways). She told me that CBR was upgraded with the murphy beds to handle the overflow from POR during the busy seasons, which is pretty neat. So I went ahead and booked at POR instead! I opted for the Disney Dining Plan, and I might decide purchase Memory Maker as we get closer.​

 

[missbecca]

Time for an update!

I figured it's been nearly a month since the last update, so it's probably safe to update for the month of February. Let's see... we're less than 10 months away! Also, my countdown clock on my phone tells me that we now have 298 days until the trip of our lifetimes! SO exciting!!!

Things that I've purchased in the past month for the trip include items for the childrens' travel bags- new Disney coloring books, earbuds for their electronics, and Frozen tote bags (from the Target dollar aisle!).

Things that I plan on doing through the next month:
Research dog boarding facilities
Make another payment towards the trip
Work on Dining plan!

Current Dining Plan:
Monday 12/14- BOG dinner
Tuesday 12/15- Biergarten dinner
Wednesday 12/16- Sci-Fi Dine In dinner
Thursday 12/17- Teppan Edo dinner
Friday 12/18- 'Ohana breakfast
​

 

[missbecca]

March Update!

So a few big changes to note this month- first, the cast has gotten smaller. You'll remember back before I booked I was so excited because DH's sister and her family had decided to come along on this big adventure with us. Unfortunately her family ultimately decided that it just wouldn't work out for them this time. She said it's just too much planning, and it wasn't really the type of vacation that they wanted to take. Oh, and by the way, did we want to take a trip with them to Outer Banks instead of spending "all that money on Disney?!"



Second, we've decided to tell the kids earlier rather than as we get closer. We've kind of come to this realization that telling them now might actually help us to put more effort into saving the money since the kids will be looking forward to it, and I really feel like these kids need something to look forward to right now. My son will be starting middle school this fall, and he's all kinds of anxious about that. Truth be told: Me too.



My ticker is also finally under 9 months! I'm loving seeing the countdown get smaller and smaller! So hopefully I will be able to update again soon with the kids' reactions! I was hoping to make a reveal video with our Disneyland photos from previous years, but my hard drive crashed last year causing me to loose so much. DH says we might have them backed up to an external hard drive that we have though. He's going to look for them today while I'm at work and hopefully, if he finds them, I can still go that route. Otherwise, I will be hitting up Pinterest for other ideas!

Have a great week everyone!

​

 

[missbecca]

We told the kids!!! This was huge for us- we had originally planned on telling them when we got closer, but they really needed something awesome to look forward to. So last night, after tucking them all into bed, DH found all of our old Disneyland pictures from the past few years and we put together a pretty fantastic reveal video for them. I can't show you all here because it includes photos of my nieces and nephew and I'm to comfortable putting their pics online without permission, but to describe it, it started out with "When You Wish Upon a Star" then changed over to "Best Day of my Life." After the pictures, we put PDF's that said "Dylan, Lainie, and Violet- you are going to Disney World, December 2015!!!" They were shocked! My son started crying these big, happy crocodile tears. My middle daughter sat wide eyed with her mouth wide open, and my youngest started jumping up and down for joy! It was pretty incredible!

​

 

[missbecca]

Good golly it's been so long since I've updated this thing! Lot's of things have changed, some are Disney related and some are not. I guess the biggest change has been that I was promoted at my job from Cashier to Supervisor which has been terrifying but overall a very good thing. With the promotion came an increase in pay and health insurance, so yay for those fantastic things!



But it also comes with less time with my family

Another big change is that my Mother will be coming to live with us later this Summer. She's going through some tough stuff lately and so we've offered her to come stay with us in exchange for helping us out with the kids when they go back to school. So it shouldbe interesting! She will also be coming with us to Disney World, so yay!

We've changed our resort from POR to Shades of Green. I'll be honest- I was a bit leery of staying "off-property" but in the end I think it'll work out well. Plus we will be paying for 2 rooms for what we would have payed for one room at POR. This also means of course that we'll be paying for our meals out of pocket, but I think that I've got that part figured out as well. We'll still eat breakfast in the room, then pack lunches in a cooler, then only eat in the parks for Dinner. So my new ADR schedule only includes 2 sit down meals- Be Our Guest for Dinner one night, and Chef Mickeys or 'Ohana for breakfast on departure day. The other dinners will be counter service meals which will work perfectly.

Things that I've done the past 2 months to prep:

Purchased a Toyota Sienna! Yep, I've swallowed my pride and gave up my Jeep in favor of a 2013 Toyota Sienna. It's much friendlier on gas, and it a MUCH more comfortable ride for all of us. It will be really nice to drive down to Orlando!



Booked the pup his hotel stay at the Best Friends Pet Care right across the street from POR!

Purchased more little odds and ends for the kids' travel fun bags and Tinkerbell gifts.

Things I need to do within the next few months to prep:

Find a really nice soft-sided cooler

Find filtered water bottles for all of us

Book a second room at Shades of Green (because I'm lame and keep putting it off)

Keep making that money!


So that's it for now, I think. I'm 186 days out, and can start making reservations soon. I guess that's one of the bummers of staying off site- not being able to make all the ADR's at once. Ah well, I'll get over it.

​

 

[missbecca]

When did I become so indecisive?

I am usually a very decisive person- I set my mind on something that I want to do, I make my plan, and I STICK TO THAT PLAN! I am headstrong and confident in my planning, down to the finest little detail, and never stray from the plan. And then there was Disney.



SO.MANY.CHOICES. I've felt like a kid in a candy store from the very beginning of this planning adventure, and it's not really gotten any better. I know that I will have an incredible time no matter where we stay or where we eat, but in the excitement of planning, it's gotten a bit out of control.



So now that we have Mom staying with us we needed to find room for 6- 3 adults, 3 children. Originally we thought- Cool! We'll just book a second room at Shades of Green. Cause they're cheap and nice. And then, as we do, we watched Youtube videos about Shades which lead to us watching a video of Shades' junior suites. "Wow!" I thought. A small kitchenette would be perfect for eating our breakfasts in the room! A microwave would really help us broaden our breakfast options! But wait! If a junior suite at Shades is $250, how much is a family suite at a Disney resort? Not much more overall at All Star Music, and only about $200 more for 5 nights at Art of Animation? Could we pull that off? With a little tweak to the budget here and a tiny tweak there... we could! No buying Magic bands separately, and no having to pay for parking. It seems like a no brainer here. So I cancelled our Shades of Green reservations and am back to square one: All Star Music Family Suites, or Art of Animation Suites? After reading tons of reviews for ASMu, I am not sure it will be that great for us. The price is nice, but I guess I just find AoA more visually appealing. If I'm honest, the only real sticking point for ASMu is that the sleeping situation is more intuitive. My girls could share the sofa bed, my son and Mom get their own beds with the chair and ottoman. At AoA it's a little trickier with only 3 beds. Who shares a bed with who?



WAIT A MINUTE!!!

I'M GOING TO DISNEY! What am I doing stressing about sleeping situations?!

So forget about that mess, I'm done with that. Art of Animation works better, so Art of Animation it is. After doing some math, Quick Service Dining works best for us, so Quick Service Dining it is. I made 2 ADR's for some OOP meals- Sci Fi Dine In for our Hollywood Studios half day, and 'Ohana for our departure morning. That's it- I'm done. Rather I will be done once I book again with Disney. So here's what we have so far for our itinerary:

Day 1- Sunday: Travel Day, arrive at AoA in the afternoon, check in, chill out at the pool, dinner at the Landscape of Flavor

Day 2- Monday: Magic Kingdom Day- breakfast in the room, lunch at BOG, Undetermined QS dinner

Day 3- Tuesday: Epcot Day- breakfast in the room, lunch & dinner at undetermined QS locations

Day 4- Wednesday: Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom Day- breakfast in the room, lunch at Sci-Fi Dine In, dinner at undetermined QS location

Day 5- Thursday: Animal Kingdom & Epcot Day- breakfast in the room, lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, dinner at undetermined QS location

Day 6- Friday: Departure Day- breakfast at 'Ohana.

That's it. THAT'S IT.​

 

[missbecca]

Booked! Again, and hopefully for the last time this trip...
Art of Animation Cars Suite and Quick Service Dining!

​

 

[missbecca]

So uh, remember a few days ago when I had this huge earth-shattering revelation that I just *knew* AoA was it and I needed to put all that resort changing nonsense to rest?​

​

Oh good, me either.

See, our party size changed. Again. Mom won't be able to come with us for various reasons and a suite just seemed too much with one less person. So Caribbean Beach it is. And Caribbean Beach it will stay. Let me tell you why.

I called Disney to make a change. Granted I do this a lot, but up until now it's been nothing but a great experience. So when this reservations agent answered the phone I expected nothing less. But by the end of our phone call I inexplicably had 3 resort reservations all at the same time. Two were even at the same resort.



Um, wha? No thank you please. When I began to question her about the total due she started to get pretty frustrated and actually I think in her frustration she accidentally hung up on me. I don't think it was intentional, but it was still pretty frustrating. But at that point it was already time for me to go to work so I couldn't just call back and straighten things out. So I called the next day and the reservations lady that I spoke to removed one of the extra reservations but when I asked her about the other extra reservation she claimed she had removed it despite the fact that I could still see it on my Disney account.



But again, it was time for me to go to work. So I got to work, sat in my car figuring that all of my resort changing nonsense has finally caught up to me and broke down in tears. Obviously I looked like a crazy person to anyone walking past me in the parking lot, but whatever. So I emailed Disney. I explained my situation, I told them what had transpired in the past 2 days. And the next day I got a phone call from a Disney rep. Except I missed it because- you guessed it! I was working. This working to pay for Disney thing is obviously not working out. But it looks like she was able to clean up my reservations mess because the extra reservation is no longer there, so yay for that!

We're officially about 5 months away! Now that Mom won't be going with us we won't need the pup hotel for the pooch, so there's a bit more in the vacation fund. I'm thinking that Memory Maker would be a nice little add on.

Things I've done in the past month to prep:

Purchased ponchos
Finalized ADR's (BOG lunch, Sci-Fi lunch, 'Ohana breakfast)
Purchased a years worth of Touring Plans
Made rough touring plans

Things I need to do in the next month:

Research FP+ options
Purchase tickets (early September)
Research Garden Grocer/other grocery options​

 

[vleeth]

Wow, your trip seems to change as much as mine.

Although, most of the changes didn't make my pre-trip report.

 

[missbecca]

Wow, your trip seems to change as much as mine.

Although, most of the changes didn't make my pre-trip report.

Lol, yeah... I'm a sharer!

 

[mercydisney]

LOL!! I understand you! At one point I swore the CM was going to answer the phone and say. "Yes, MercyDisney which resort do you want to switch to now"?
Have you thought about buying Disney Gift cards at Target? You save 5% ifyou have a Target Red card. I know it is not much but when staying at Disney every penny counts. You can pay for your Sit Down Ressies this way.