Mother/Daughter Celebrations...unexpected Feb 2017 trip

[danikoski]

That's my mom and me at the Hoop Dee Do Revue

This is my first pre-trip report, so bear with me...I may or may not do the techy stuff correctly, but I'm going to try.

So the players, there's me, Dani (this is from Dolphin's in Depth):

And my mom (this is from my wedding):

I'm an only child, so my mom and I are pretty close.
I've been to Walt Disney World several times with my mom and dad:
Dad and I at WDW in probably 1991...maybe...

We used to go every year for like five years because Dad had a work conference in Orlando every year
I've also been with other family members in 2004, which my mom was supposed to come, but she managed to break her leg right before we left and so stayed home:

I was lucky enough to go to Orlando for work a couple of times, and get time to hop over to the parks...I also had the opportunity to go to Disneyland in 2007 (a selfie before cell phone cameras):

And in 2013, Mom got a make-up trip for the one she missed in 2004. We stayed at AKV-Kidani in a 2 bed Savannah view room that we shared with a group of friends. We went in November, so we got to partake in the tale end of F&W and MVMCP!

It's not the clearest, but we had fun at MVMCP:

I also persuaded my husband that we should have our honeymoon at WDW in January 2015:

How the trip for Feb 2017 came about has some backstory...that is continued on the next post...

 

[danikoski]

So Mom was looking through one of the photo albums from our old WDW trips, and found WDW tickets from 1991 and 1995...with unused days on them! What???!!!

All those years we used to go, we'd sometimes buy extra days to use the next time...in 1991 we had bought extra days, but than the next year, the company Dad had a conference for bought our tickets for us. In 1995, we bought extra days, thinking we'd be back soon, but life happened. We didn't get back like we had planned.

I then did some investigating and discovered that Disney will still honor them...we both had 3 days of unused tickets.

About that same time I received confirmation that Disney would still honor the paper tickets, I received a PIN for up to 30% off on-site hotel rooms...the universe was conspiring for us to take a Disney trip

 

[danikoski]

I had a dilemma though...do I plan to take the husband and step-son too...

My step-son is 12 yrs old, lives with us 50% of the time, is one of the most fun kids I've ever met, and is also on the autism spectrum.
He's high functioning, but schedules are important, and lines and crowds can be a pain, although he's done well on test runs at local amusement parks.
He has never been to WDW, and I would love to take him. The kicker, we can't take him out of school for an extended period of time, so we would have to go on a school break or in the summer.

My mom did NOT want to go in the summer. We could have tried for spring break...his is a little bit earlier than most schools...however, it'd still be busy at WDW. There are FP and such, but the downside to those old paper tickets is that they can't be redeemed until we get to WDW, which means FP won't be able to be picked until we are on property. That doesn't bode well for the child who can get annoyed with crowds and lines...

Both my husband and step-son are huge fans of Star Wars...sooooo...since the SWE is supposed to open 2019-2020, I'm thinking big, longer 10-12 day trip to WDW then. We will have time to work out everyone's schedules and get tickets that are all the same so planning can be done in advance. Although I'm still taking a gamble with him being a teenager by then, but I'm hoping he stays as fun and sweet as he is now

 

[danikoski]

So, decision was made for just mom and I to go...the next questions were when to go and where to stay...

When to go was really, really tied to my work...Mom's retired, so no problems with her schedule.
I started a job last year where I travel about 3-5 days out of every month...I had some time at the beginning of February that I could go.
It was, at the time, November, so had enough time to plan, although the 180 day window had passed.
I figured I could make it work...

As to where to stay...We had previously stayed at Beach Club way back in the early 1990s (SAB was pretty cool and Beaches and Cream was awesome, at least in my child brain)...
In 2013, I had the opportunity to stay at OKW for a night:
(Only picture I apparently got)


And we also stayed at AKV-Kidani:
Baby Zebra nursing outside our villa...they were there almost every morning we were on the balcony

And my husband and I had stayed at WL for our honeymoon:

I loved them all...I also looked at moderates as well...contemplating POR, with the Royal Rooms, or POFQ...
In looking at prices, with the PIN code, POR Royal Rooms were running $213 a night, POFQ standard were $180 a night....
WL, standard view (which I know right now can also be MK fireworks view for upper floors), was running $215 a night from Feb. 5-10.
Yes! Mom had always wanted to stay there, and even with construction, I wasn't too worried (thanks DISboards)...so we booked!
If only life could ever be that easy...

 

[danikoski]

My Mom hates flying...hates flying...but my stipulation with planning the Disney trip was that we WOULD fly...I wasn't driving the 20 hours from Michigan to Florida, not happening. We used to that, but I wasn't doing it that this time.
However, flying did mean that I would have to fly from Iowa to Michigan to meet my Mom and fly with her to WDW.
She also wanted a non-stop flight, but didn't want to fly out of Detroit...
However, SouthWest has a non-stop flight to MCO out Flint! Yeah!
The non-stop flight apparently only flies on Saturdays and Sundays...Boo!
Our dates were currently Feb. 5-10, Sunday to Friday...dang it...
What to do, what to do, what to do...

Sorry...got distracted by Mickey Waffles (one of my all time favorite things)...

I attempted to modify our reservations on my own, but there was no availability Feb. 5-11 at WL for a standard room...
Yet there was availability Feb. 10-11. So, I took the easy way out and avoided calling WDW travel, and booked a standard room Feb. 10-11...it was more expensive than the other nights, at $234 a night, but hey it worked. My Mom got her non-stop flights, and we got an extra day at Disney