With only a few weeks to plan, this Disney planner felt a bit overwhelmed. Then again, it was just Mom and I...a lot less to worry about then when I travel with my whole family and plan out each park day. The first question - where are we going to stay? Well, the conference was being held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando
and although it is indeed a VERY nice resort, my Mom really wanted to stay on Disney property. (That statemtent actually cracks me up because the first time she stayed on property was when they joined us in February at the Poly. Guess you could say she was sold after that one trip! She and my step-dad booked a return trip for the two of them for the end of April using the bounceback offer. They were scheduled to return to the Poly and were going all out with Club Level - Theme Park View.)
When I first started thinking about this trip, I was actually ok with doing a split stay (Gasp, I know!) and staying at the Gaylord during the days of the conference and then moving over to Disney property since I thought being onsite would make it hard to leave our Disney bubble every day to go to class. However, we agreed that changing resorts mid-stay wasn't what we wanted to do either. Plus, Mom is a big fan of not dealing with luggage now that she has had such good experiences on Magical Express. She didn't want to give that up either.
Onsite it was.
So, now we had to decide on which resort. 
Of course, we thought of the Poly right off the bat,
but also considered Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Animal Kingdom Lodge. I started pulling the rates up using the 30% off code (I think that's what it was anyway...) and had room rates that weren't too bad. We totally justified the higher expense of staying deluxe due to the fact that if it had been ANYBODY ELSE in the company to go on the trip, they would have had to have 2 rooms but since it was just mother and daughter, we could share a room, therefore saving money!! Disney math at it's finest! 
Then it dawned on me that Mom would be going down at the end of the month (April) for their 4 day stay, plus this trip, and maybe she should take her first ticket that she bought with the package, and upgrade that baby to an AP, therefore, obtaining us the ability to use the AP rate for our room - which was 45% off! Woo-hoo!
Again, I think I'm becoming quite good at Disney math!
It was a definite win-win for her too, because she was going to have to buy a second MYW ticket for our trip anyway, and she would have spent more on the two tickets combined - a 4 day ticket + a 7 day hopper would have been around $540 total, as opposed to the $520 AP! Cha-Ching!! She had already paid for her 4 day ticket, so all she had to do was pay the difference when she went down in April.
Now we were eligible for the awesome 45% AP discount!! Plus now she has a reason to go back this year!
So back to the resort choice. We knew how we felt about the Poly,, so we started pulling up the pictures of the other resorts and comparing everything. We finally ruled out AKL due to location (but we definitely wanted to visit over there). Then we called to see what the availability was for the other 3 resorts. Using our AP code, the only room category available at the Beach Club was Club Level so we ruled that one out. Now we were between Boardwalk and Poly. We just couldn't bring ourselves to not stay at the Poly, so that is where we eventually decided to book! Creatures of habit, I guess. 
Mom thought that since the price difference was only like $55 more a night to go for lagoon view, that we should go for it! I've said it before, she is my Mom AND my boss, so it would be very disrespectful for me to argue!!
Lagoon view it was!
So fast forward a couple weeks to the end of April and Mom left on her trip with my step-dad to stay at the Poly Club Level Theme Park View.
They had a fabulous time! Ate at Artist Point, Citricos, Plaza, Rose & Crown (I planned their park days and ADRs). They did the Behind The Seeds Tour and saw Cirque du Soleil. They had a blast and adored club level and their 3rd floor, TPV, room so much that when she returned she asked me to call and see if they had any availability for US to stay club level. 
Unfortunatley, they did not.
I would have to suffer with just plain old lagoon view!
And again, for picture sake, here are some pictures of the Poly that my DH took last year when we stayed there for the first time. LOVE the Poly!!
Up next .off we go!!
Sara
and although it is indeed a VERY nice resort, my Mom really wanted to stay on Disney property. (That statemtent actually cracks me up because the first time she stayed on property was when they joined us in February at the Poly. Guess you could say she was sold after that one trip! She and my step-dad booked a return trip for the two of them for the end of April using the bounceback offer. They were scheduled to return to the Poly and were going all out with Club Level - Theme Park View.)
When I first started thinking about this trip, I was actually ok with doing a split stay (Gasp, I know!) and staying at the Gaylord during the days of the conference and then moving over to Disney property since I thought being onsite would make it hard to leave our Disney bubble every day to go to class. However, we agreed that changing resorts mid-stay wasn't what we wanted to do either. Plus, Mom is a big fan of not dealing with luggage now that she has had such good experiences on Magical Express. She didn't want to give that up either.
Onsite it was.
So, now we had to decide on which resort. Of course, we thought of the Poly right off the bat,
but also considered Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Animal Kingdom Lodge. I started pulling the rates up using the 30% off code (I think that's what it was anyway...) and had room rates that weren't too bad. We totally justified the higher expense of staying deluxe due to the fact that if it had been ANYBODY ELSE in the company to go on the trip, they would have had to have 2 rooms but since it was just mother and daughter, we could share a room, therefore saving money!! Disney math at it's finest! Then it dawned on me that Mom would be going down at the end of the month (April) for their 4 day stay, plus this trip, and maybe she should take her first ticket that she bought with the package, and upgrade that baby to an AP, therefore, obtaining us the ability to use the AP rate for our room - which was 45% off! Woo-hoo!
Again, I think I'm becoming quite good at Disney math! It was a definite win-win for her too, because she was going to have to buy a second MYW ticket for our trip anyway, and she would have spent more on the two tickets combined - a 4 day ticket + a 7 day hopper would have been around $540 total, as opposed to the $520 AP! Cha-Ching!!
She had already paid for her 4 day ticket, so all she had to do was pay the difference when she went down in April. Now we were eligible for the awesome 45% AP discount!! Plus now she has a reason to go back this year!
So back to the resort choice. We knew how we felt about the Poly,
, so we started pulling up the pictures of the other resorts and comparing everything. We finally ruled out AKL due to location (but we definitely wanted to visit over there). Then we called to see what the availability was for the other 3 resorts. Using our AP code, the only room category available at the Beach Club was Club Level so we ruled that one out. Now we were between Boardwalk and Poly. We just couldn't bring ourselves to not stay at the Poly, so that is where we eventually decided to book! Creatures of habit, I guess. Mom thought that since the price difference was only like $55 more a night to go for lagoon view, that we should go for it! I've said it before, she is my Mom AND my boss, so it would be very disrespectful for me to argue!!
Lagoon view it was!
So fast forward a couple weeks to the end of April and Mom left on her trip with my step-dad to stay at the Poly Club Level Theme Park View.
They had a fabulous time! Ate at Artist Point, Citricos, Plaza, Rose & Crown (I planned their park days and ADRs). They did the Behind The Seeds Tour and saw Cirque du Soleil. They had a blast and adored club level and their 3rd floor, TPV, room so much that when she returned she asked me to call and see if they had any availability for US to stay club level. Unfortunatley, they did not.
I would have to suffer with just plain old lagoon view!
And again, for picture sake, here are some pictures of the Poly that my DH took last year when we stayed there for the first time. LOVE the Poly!!
Up next .off we go!!
Sara
Your pics are gorgeous. I can't wait to read more about your trip. 
Cant wait for more details!!
. 
!!! 
