My Daughter's Know...But NOT My Nieces:)

[kristenrice]

The Dates: October 19-24, 2014

The Setting: Animal Kingdom Villas

The Cast...

My Family...
...Me (Kristen)
...DH (Kevin)
...DD (Kamryn)...age 11 by the time we travel
...DD (Kaedyn)...age 9 by the time we travel

We are DVC Members since 2008. This will be my 15th trip! I initially planned to be in the World for my 40th birthday (October 16), but the kids' vacation didn't line up right, so we're going the week after. The kids go to a Christian school and their teachers have a convention on Oct 23-24 so no school! We opted to let them miss Monday, Tuesday and the half-day Wednesday so that we could travel over my favorite time of year.

My Sister's Family...
...Kim
...Brad...who's birthday is October 25 so we'll be celebrating that one too!
...DNiece (Olivia)...she'll be 6 when we go (same birthday as Kamryn)
...DNiece (Emilee)...she will still be 2!...but her birthday is November 1 so we'll add that to our celebrations list.

...Stay tuned for "The Plan"...

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I'll read along

I think all those Ks are going to confuse me!

My family's next trip will also be at AKV, but we won't get to go until January 2015

 

[kristenrice]

**Subject to change...many, many times**

Allow me to do a quick flashback...June 2012...my parents treated the kids and grandkids to a week's stay at OKW. This was the first trip as adults for Kim and Brad and their first exposure to DVC. Olivia was 3 but her 4th birthday was the day we left for home. Emilee was only 7 months old so she has no memory of the trip. Our two families shared a dedicated 2BR at OKW and my parents and my brother's family shared the 2BR next door. The trip was a hit and everyone decided that we are going to do it again in 2016. (Mom and dad aren't paying for that one too)

Back to the present...

Since we are DVC members, we try to take a family trip every year. In 2014, spring break happens to fall 2 weeks before Easter which keeps it out of Premiere season. DH and I narrowed down three choices: WDW for spring break, HHI for spring break (if we could get a 1BR at 7 months on our AKV points) or WDW in June, right after school breaks for the summer. Then it dawned on me that I will turn the big 4-0 in 2014. I love to go to WDW in October but I don't like the idea of taking the kids out of school for a week. DH and I discussed it and decided that taking the kids out for the two and a half days during convention week would be acceptable this one time. The dates were set...

One day, completely out of the blue, my sister started asking me when we were planning on going on vacation next year. I told her our plans and she casually said she was hoping to be able to get to WDW before the 2016 trip, but she wasn't sure if they could afford it. One of the reasons we'd decided on 2016 was so that every family had enough time to save up for it. I knew that my sister would be on a tight budget but the idea of her joining us in 2014 sounded like fun. My wheels started turning.... I realized that we have points based on travel during the two highest priced seasons but October is in one of the lowest-priced seasons. Lo and behold, we have enough points to be able to bring them along. I also noticed that our week of travel falls the week before little Emilee turns 3 so she would still be FREE!! I officially extended the offer and she accepted.

As of right now, we have standard studios booked for the first two nights at Jambo House. Then, we will move to a standard 2BR at Kidani for the last three nights. This costs us 141 points. We had 145 to use and that would have been the exact amount needed for a value 2BR, but I felt that the studio portion would just be too cramped for Kim's family and their stuff. Even though we had to split the stay, it's less points and I think that we will all be more comfortable. My family likes the amenities at Jambo House (particularly the easy access to zebra domes!) but prefer the rooms at Kidani Village. The split-stay is the perfect compromise. The other reason we did a split-stay is because my sister is considering adding a dining plan. Her kids are the perfect age for character meals and buffets. The dining plan does not work in my family's favor because Kamryn is 10 and she eats like a bird. We want to avoid the buffets, if we can. By splitting our stay, my sister can add the DxDDP for the first two nights and still get three days of meals...expensive meals. After exploring her meal options and looking at her budget, she realized that the DxDDP will fit with all of the meals she wants, but it also consumes about 90% of her projected food budget.

Here is her meal plans, if she adds the DxDDP...
...First night: Dinner at Boma...
...Day 2: Breakfast at Tusker House...dinner at Garden Grill...
...Day 3: Breakfast at CRT...dinner at Chef Mickey's

The cost of the DxDDP would be about $480. These meals alone would cost her about $500. I did not include tips in either calculation because she has to pay those either way. She was planning on buying the refillable mugs so that would increase her savings by another $60. Since we are travelling during F&W, she would also have 12 snack credits to use too and those can be a great deal at some of the festival booths.

There are two snags in this plan...

First, her working food budget is $500 including groceries. The dining plan eats up most of that budget. We're planning on bringing dry goods from home and getting perishables delivered from Garden Grocer. She would have to pack meals or eat in the room for the last two days, which is doable, but not always practical or ideal. She included tickets for the MNSSHP in her budget but she may have to forego that so that she can allocate those funds for dining.

The second, and probably deal-breaking, problem is the YES program. We are planning on enrolling Kamryn, Kaedyn and Olivia in a class so that we can save a little on our tickets. The problem is the class schedule. Looking at the current offerings (obviously our dates are not released yet), there is only one offering per week for Olivia's age group. On top of that, the classes are currently offered M-W only. This would be a problem because it would eliminate the possibility of a TS breakfast on the day of the class. This would leave one, possibly 2 credits up in the air. Since we don't have to finalize the dining plan for quite a while, we can wait until the class schedules are released. We also need to know our flight schedule because if the non-stop flight gets in too late, we may not be able to do dinner at Boma. I always allow at least 4 hours between scheduled flight arrival and the ADR. Since this meal would be at our resort, our flight would need to land by 3pm in order for us to have a 7pm dinner. I doubt a walk-up for 8 would happen at Boma for dinner.

...Stay tuned...more to come

 

[kristenrice]

Of course my kids know we are going to WDW...I can't keep that a secret....

...but my sister wants to keep the trip a secret from her girls.

Unfortunately, my girls are blabbermouths and they could NEVER keep it a secret so we didn't tell them. My kids know that they are going to WDW next year and that they are going to do a YES class, but they don't know when the trip will take place. We have not told them that they will get to miss school either.

Kim is planning on telling her girls where they are going when they get to the airport. Here is the scenario I am picturing...

We are leaving on a Sunday and we all go to the same church. I am kind of hoping that our flight will be in the early afternoon so that we can go to church as usual. Then, we will tell our girls that we are getting on the plane and heading to Disney after church. We will have my mom or dad come to our house and take us to the airport in our vehicle. Everything will be the same as we've done for past trips. Kim's family will get picked up by our other parent and they will go to the airport too. We will try to avoid each other until we get to the gate. Then, the girls can figure out the surprise! My girls will figure out that their cousins are coming too and Kim's girls will figure out where they are going.

My girls know that we are planning the trip in 2016 so every time Kim and I get together to plan, we always make comments like, "We've got plenty of time to decide since this isn't for another 3 years".

Funny story...my dad has a PhotoPass picture of the 15 of us in front of Spaceship Earth that was taken on our 2012 trip. Little Emilee looks at the picture and says, "That's Epricot!". Yesterday, mom and dad were watching Emilee and my girls. Kamryn showed the picture to Em and dad said, "I hear you are going there next year, huh Kam?" Kammy said, "Yup, and we might even take this little goober with us too!". Dad squashed her dream and pointed out that they aren't planning on going again until 2016..

 

[kristenrice]

MyDisneyExperience is at it again! I am eligible to customize and order our Magic Bands already! I even got TWO of the USB drives, one for each reservation.

I was going over my budget yesterday and I was able to knock about $125 off of it by using the "Target Plan" (RedCard + Pharmacy Rewards discounts).

I think I am going to change our room reservations too. Kim has continued to evaluate her dining choices and she has come to the conclusion that the DxDDP (or any DP) is just too much food, money and scheduling. With that off the table (no pun intended), there is really no need for the separate reservations anymore. It will cost me $210 points to but the extra 14 OTU points to make the entire reservation a 2BR. I might be able to get by with only buying 10, but I have to evaluate our 2015 plans....

DD8 was diagnosed this summer with osteochondritis dessicans of her left knee. We found out last week that she now needs surgery on it. She is a very active kid (which is probably why the stable lesion has now become unstable...she would NOT follow the "no-impact" orders) and so the recovery will be difficult for her. She will need to be on crutches for 6 weeks. In order to give her incentive to heal, we told her that she can participate in the 2015 Expedition Everest challenge. DH and I did our first RunDisney event this year (the W&D 1/2 Marathon) and now our girls want to do one too. They loved the medals! So, to keep Kaedy motivated in her rehabilitation, we are going to try and get her to WDW for that event. We will have HHI points (50) and AKV points (100) available in 2015, but we need a lot more than usual in 2016 because of the week-long extended family trip. We may want to stay in a value room in 2015 so I need to keep as many AKV points available as possible.

That's all for now....I'll have more ramblings later...

Happy New Year!

 

[kristenrice]

Now that the family is on board with doing the EE Challenge in 2015, I am tossing around the idea of AP's for this trip. I know that the Y.E.S. class would be off the table, but there's always the possibility that there won't be any available during our trip. Here's how the numbers break down...

5-Day PH via the Y.E.S. program = $1150 (estimate)

ACTUAL cost of AP's = $1784.08 (*Using Target method to buy $1975 in gift cards to apply towards the $1976.64 price tag)

So for an extra $640 or so, I would have our park admission for next year paid for.

This seems like a no-brainer, but there are a few issues...

First, if there are Y.E.S. classes that the girls want to take, then I cannot use AP's. Hopefully, the class info will come out before the annual price increase, but I doubt it...that would be too easy.

Second, the money needed for the outlay could be difficult. The budget was a bit tight already and finding another $650 may be tricky. On the other hand, it will significantly reduce the budget for 2015 since the room AND park tickets will be covered.

What would seal the deal is if DVC offered those discounted PAP's again. I was unable to take advantage of them last year. I didn't want to order them in 2012 and run the risk that our November 2013 trip fell through and I wouldn't get to activate them in time. It worked out OK though. I would probably tell the kids that they don't get a Y.E.S. class but they would be able to go to a waterpark instead. I'm sure they'd be fine with that.

Right now, the waiting is killing me! Waiting for the airfare schedule, waiting for the 7-month window, waiting for the ADR's, and waiting for the Y.E.S. class schedule...

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[kristenrice]

I took a shower and had an epiphany (my best thinking is often done in the shower)...

Since my sister has never been to AKV, I was excited at the prospect of splitting our stay between Jambo and Kidani. Starting at Jambo...walking into that lobby for the first time is truly a unique, jaw-dropping moment. I wanted to give her and her family the "wow" factor that is the Jambo lobby.

Kidani, on the other hand, is also beautiful, and the 2BR layout there is perfect. With the decision to buy the extra points to spend the entire stay in a 2BR, I settled on Kidani because if I'm not going to split it up, I'd prefer the larger 2BR of Kidani.

...and then it hit me...why not do the first two nights in a standard 2BR at JAMBO??? Then move over to Kidani for the last three?? Genius! We were going to split the stay anyways and it is not a big deal to switch within the same resort. This way, we can enjoy ALL of the AKV on one trip.

Now, I just have to run that idea by my sister...I'm sure she will be 100% fine with it..and not just because she is not paying for it.

 

[kristenrice]

Ugh! Why can't AP holders attend a Y.E.S. class without having to buy a park pass!!??? Kamryn really wants to take a class (or two!) but to buy park passes for this trip and then again in May will cost us about $2500! I could buy AP's for under $1800...but then the girls can't take a class. So now I am really stuck. If Kamryn takes a class, we will have to buy a ticket for her and an adult, probably DH. I would buy AP's for Kaedyn and I which would lower the overall expense by about $200.

Recap:
2014 with Y.E.S. tickets for everyone: about $1150
2015 with 4-day PH from RunDisney for everyone: about $1100
...or...
2014 with Y.E.S. tickets for 1A/1C and 2 AP's: about $1470
2015 with 4-day PH from RunDisney for 1A/1C: about $550
...or...
AP's for everyone in 2014 to cover both trips: about $1790

Plan A would have a TOTAL cost of about $2250.
Plan B would have a TOTAL cost of about $2020
Plan C would cost about $1790.

Decisions...decisions...decisions...

Oh, and I didn't even include the option where Kam and Kaedy both want to take the SAME Y.E.S. class which would mean 3 tickets and one AP. I know that if Kaedyn were given the choice between a Y.E.S. class and the race, she would choose the race without hesitation. She wants that medal more than the air she breathes.

If the Y.E.S. program were available to AP holders, life would be so much easier.........

 

[kristenrice]

My sister is excited! The Y.E.S. classes are open for our dates and the ONLY class offered for the 5-8 year olds happens to fall on Monday at 8:30am! This is EXACTLY what she wanted.

So here's a question... The Y.E.S. class is also offered at 8:30am on the day we are scheduled to leave. The non-stop flight on SWA (for the latest open Friday that they have right now) is scheduled to depart at 5:40pm. Would it be possible, if that schedule stays similar, to do the Y.E.S. class on our departure day? We would not have anything else planned that day except killing time until DME shows up. I think it would be a great idea since it would not take away anything from our scheduled park time. We are flying SWA so a schedule change is highly unlikely. What do you think??

It sounds like my kids are no longer interested in a Y.E.S. class. They are really looking forward to the Expedition Everest event in 2015. Kaedyn had successful surgery on Thursday and she is recovering in a hurry. She has had ZERO pain, which is actually not a good thing. Because she is not bothered by her knee, she is really struggling to "stay down". She is doing a good job using her crutches but she also does a lot of hopping around the house on her right leg. I warned her that the repeated hopping could cause her to develop the same problem in her right knee. That would keep her out of the race so she has got to remember to use her crutches. Due to the winter weather, she hasn't been back to school yet since it was cancelled yesterday and today. She has a wheelchair for use at school and hopefully that will encourage her to keep off that left leg. Time will tell...

March 3 is when our flights will be released. That will be the next big milestone date for us. We are really hoping that the non-stops will have reasonable times. I would be very disappointed if we had a return that departs at 10am.

That's all for this installment...Stay tuned for more.

 

[gray52]

Our two kiddos (DS9/DD6) just finished YES classes. They both ran about 2-1/2 hours so you will be fine to catch ME back to the airport.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[kristenrice]

Now that we are closing in on the 7 month window (OK, it's still 6 weeks away, but we are closer than we were in January), I have been thinking again....

At the 7-month window, I plan on buying OTU points (14, to be exact) so that I can switch our first two nights from 2 studios to a single 2BR. We will keep it at Jambo House (if available) so that my sister's family can experience both sides of AKV in the same trip. Then I started thinking...what if we waitlist a standard 2BR at the BWV for those first 2 nights?? It is the same amount of points, it's only for 2 nights AND on Monday morning, Olivia will have to get to Epcot anyways to take her YES class. While I don't hold a lot of faith in the waitlist for a BWV standard during F&W, there are two things in my favor: I need a Sunday and Monday night and I only need 2 nights. Since it can't hurt, I think I will try it. Hopefully, there will be a standard 2BR available at Jambo House for those 2 nights at the 7-month mark...that leads me to a "Member Services"-type question...

I already have Tue-Fri (3 nights) booked in a standard 2BR at Kidani. Let's say that for some reason, I have to waitlist both a standard 2BR at JH and BWV for the first 2 nights. *IF* there is a standard 2BR available at Kidani, and I book it as a back up to the waitlists, will they be able to keep it separate or will they automatically combine it with the last three nights??? Does this make sense?? Ideally, we'd like to stay 2 nights at BWV and 3 nights at AKV-Kidani. Plan B is 2 nights at AKV-Jambo and 3 nights at AKV-Kidani and Plan C is all 5 nights at AKV-Kidani. What is the best way to set this up if the 2BR standard at Jambo is not available?

...Changing topics for the next post...

 

[kristenrice]

DVC has finally put out an offer that we can take advantage of...but should we??

Since we are planning on going back in May, I am almost 100% sure I want to go with AP's. The cost of the DVC AP's for the 4 of us is $1976.64. This works out cheaper than buying YES tickets this year and RunDisney tickets next year so that's the plan for now.

But now there is the PAP offer. We have never been to any of the water parks and I am fairly certain we will not go to any on this trip. In May, however, we might be ready to try one. We tend to spend lazy afternoons in our room, but we also usually book a 1BR. Next May, we have to slum it in a studio so we will be looking to minimize our time in the room. I think we might be able to take advantage of the premium add-ons. The cost for PAP's would be $2061.84 which is about $21 more per ticket. I guess it is a no-brainer to get the PAP's so that we can try out the water parks and Disney Quest next year, right? It would cost over $200 even with the DVC discount to buy 1-day water park passes for our family so it looks like PAP's are the way to go.

 

[kristenrice]

I just knocked about $300 off of my budget. Even better, our park tickets are purchased.

Here's what I did...

I am a member of E-Bates.com (an online shopping rewards site, for those who don't know) and they are offering some travel specials this week. When you purchase Disney tickets from Orbitz (via E-Bates), you get a 20% rebate..On top of that, they are offering "Buy 3, Get 2 Days Free" tickets with park-hopping for about $30 less than Disney's gate price.

Here are the numbers...

I paid $1348.31 for 3 adult and 1 child B3G2 w/ PH tickets. Then, on May 15, I will get a rebate via PayPal for $269.66. I plan on using our tickets for one day and then upgrading them to DVC AP's. I won't be able to take advantage of the PAP offer, but that's OK, since we weren't sure we'd be using any of the premium options anyways. I will take the rebate and use my Target RedCard and Pharmacy rewards to buy $500 in Disney gift cards which will cost another $181.59 after discounts. Then I will use those gift cards to upgrade our tickets in October. As long as the price of the AP does not go up more than the price of the 5-day park hoppers, I should be OK. As the prices are right now, my TOTAL cost for (4) Annual Passes will come to $1544.29!

Next step: Buy $200 in Disney gift cards from Target to buy our OTU points and change our reservation to a 2BR for the entire trip. That will be done in less than 2 weeks!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I purchased my tickets from Undercover Tourist in January! I wish I had waited so that I could purchase them through E-Bates! I don't need an AP, but I think your plan in ingenious!

 

[kristenrice]

On Monday, SWA is releasing their schedule for our dates. We have about 55,000 RR points so I know that we should be able to get 3 R/T on points and probably 1 O/W too. I told DH that I will buy R/T for him and the girls and just a O/W to Orlando for me. My sister is doing the same thing, except she is going to book 3 R/T on points and cash for the last one. I'm going to wait a while to book the last one. We are planning a trip next year (April 30 for 5 nights) and if I end up with a credit from a price drop (not likely), I'd like to be able to use it.

I've been watching the SWA flights and the prices have not budged at all. Even when SWA has a "sale", it is rarely more than $5-$10 off so no big deal. I don't think there will be a huge jump in prices, particularly for a mid-October itinerary.

On a different note...

I was talking to my sister about the MNSSHP and she is not planning on going. At first, I thought it was mostly for financial reasons, but she pointed out that her girls are usually in bed by 8pm. She said that even at WDW, there is no way that they will last too much beyond 9-10pm. For the price, it is not worth it to her to bring the girls to the party because they would either konk out or turn into demons before the parade and fireworks. So that brings me to my dilemma...

MY girls HAVE been to the party and they *LOVED* the parade. This trip in the fall is an anomaly for us so I really don't think they will get another chance to go. DH has never been to the party (he was elk hunting when I took the girls by myself) and he said that he would go if the girls want to go. So far, so good...we all want to go....but...what is going to happen when we are actually there and we tell our girls that it is time to go to the party??

"Aw, MOM!...We're swimming with Em and O"..."We want to stay with them"..."We don't want to go without them"... And then Kim's girls..."Why can't we go to the party too!?"..."Why do they get to go?"..."It's NOT fair!" (Insert overly dramatic 6yo girl temper tantrum here)

As you can see, I am in a bit of a pickle. My kids want to go, but once they realize that their cousins are travelling with us (which will be LONG after the tickets are sold out, or the discount is no longer available), they will probably change their mind. So now what? I talked to DH and he is as confused as I am. It would be so much easier if we could just tell the girls (ours) that Em and O will be there with us but NOT going to the party. Then, they could make a decision that I would be able to hold them to. If I had to make the decision today, I would say we are not going to go. I think that from here on out, I just won't discuss the party. I think my girls may forget about it until it is time to pack and they want to bring costumes. By then, I will be able to tell them that we can no longer get the discounted tickets and I would not be lying.

There are only two trip-planning tasks on the itinerary for March. I buy the airfare on Monday and change our reservation on March 19 when our 7-month window opens. After that, there is nothing to do except save money until our 180-day ADR window opens on April 22.

We are all headed to Disney on Ice: Princesses and Heroes this afternoon. I'm so excited because the 100 Years of Magic has been here for the last 3 years in a row so it will be nice to see a new one! Silly me, I bought tickets in the upper bowl...forgetting that DD8 is currently on crutches. I guess I will be getting some exercise via piggy-back rides.

 

[kristenrice]

...and we've added to the adventure.

We wanted to fly out of Grand Rapids since the airport is about 5 miles from our house, but alas, SWA has let us down. When AT/SWA came to GR, part of their big draw was that they were the only airline with non-stop service to MCO. Well, not any more. There are no non-stops any time in October, and the one's with a layover??? $500 each, round-trip! We looked at DTW since we've done the park and fly out of there many times and found it to be quite convenient. Unfortunately, there were no non-stops available there either, and the fares were not significantly lower. We thought we would be forced into Chicago, but then I remember Flint. I found that we can fly round-trip out of Flint for about HALF of what it would cost to fly out of GR!. I had planned on paying cash for at least one, one-way ticket, but out of Flint, I got all four of our tickets on points and I still have 8,800 left.

The flight to MCO departs at 6:50AM which is the earliest I have ever flown. Until now, I never had a flight that departed before 10am so this will be a new experience. Since we are going to spend the night before (Saturday) near the airport, I began my search. I was not terribly impressed with some of the hotels that I found in the near vicinity of the airport. I forgot that I still have some Marriott Rewards points from when we drove to HHI and also from our previous park and fly stays at the Fairfield and SpringHill properties in Detroit. Lo and behold, there is a Fairfield Inn in Fenton, MI, which is about 15 minutes from the airport and I have just enough points to cover the stay.

These developments have been extremely nice to my budget. When we were able to get the airfare entirely on points, I was excited because that saved me about $150 off my budget. Then I realized that I would need to put that towards the cost of a hotel for the night before we leave. Being able to book the hotel on points put that $150 right back in my pocket and now I can reassign it...Food and Wine Festival??

My sister has a whole different drama unfolding for her family. When we booked the flights, she was unable to get the cheap fares for her return on Friday. We were able to get all 8 of us on the same flight TO MCO, but she had to book her return for Saturday in order to get the cheaper fare. She said that is OK because she will just move to a value resort for Friday night. Since the Saturday flight leaves at 11am (making her DME pickup around 8am), she said she won't bother to unpack. This is not going to go over well with my girls when they find out that their cousins get to stay an extra day...but they will have to deal with it.

Kim's plan is to "just chill" on Sunday (our arrival day) because she thinks that her girls will be a "hot mess" after getting up at 4:30am to fly to Orlando. She bought 5-day park hoppers so her plan is to skip the parks on arrival day which then would give her Monday-Friday to use her tickets. I tried to talk DH into staying an extra day as well and he couldn't get the word "NO!" out fast enough.

That brings me to today...

I checked the SWA flights and the lower fare is now back available for a Friday return. I called Kim to see if she wanted me to switch it for her (she is swamped at work and won't have time) so she is consulting with Brad...stay tuned.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Sounds like a good day for your Disney budget to me!

I'm sure your girls will be jealous that their cousins get an extra night at Disney

I hope that we are able to get an early morning direct flight to Orlando from Birmingham for a decent price.

 

[kristenrice]

Kim and Brad decided to come back on Friday with us. This will make things a lot easier all the way around. When I went to rebook her for the Friday flight, I was surprised to see that the price had dropped...by a whole $1. Somehow, that translated into 56 points. Not only did I rebook her, but I rebooked us too and got 224 points credited back to my account. Then, Kim called me and told me that the flight to Orlando had dropped as well. I rebooked both of us and got another 224 points back.

I did not have as much luck changing our reservation over at the 7-month window. I was going to bank 3 and use 1 of our remaining points, then buy 13 OTU points (long story...don't ask) but I was told that I could not purchase the OTU points if I had current points available. I guess I could have just banked them and then bought the points, but instead, I just bought 10 points. It saved me $45 so that was a bonus. I was NOT able to get a standard 2BR at Jambo House like we'd planned. Fortunately, I got a CM who knew what my plan was and he booked a 2BR standard (dedicated) at Kidani Village but he did NOT link it to our existing 3-night reservation. By keeping it separate, I could set up a waitlist for just those 2 nights. Since we'd like to try BWV (I know, it's a long shot), I opted to waitlist ONLY the 2BR standard at BWV. I know that I can also waitlist at Jambo, but if that one filled, it would cancel the BWV which is our preferred option. As it stands, we are currently booked for 5 nights in a 2BR standard at Kidani Village.

I'm not holding out a lot of hope for our waitlist and so I told Kim to plan on staying at AKV for the duration of the trip. I also have the waitlist set up to expire at 7 days so that we have every possible chance for it to fill.

I sent in our DME request yesterday so that is one more thing I can check off of my to-do list. The next thing will be to customize our Magic Bands. Yeesh! I have no idea how this is going to turn out. DH and I have "current" MB's from our trip last November. We should be getting 2 sets (one for each reservation) and now I read that AP holder will get "special" ones. Since we are upgrading our current passes to AP's, does this mean we will get ANOTHER set once we get there?

Only about 2 weeks until our ADR window opens. As much as I hate it, this is something that we are going to have to do since Kim wants to eat at O'Hana, Tusker House, Chef Mickey's and Garden Grill. I have no idea where our family is going to eat. We have a TIW card (no DDP) and since our oldest DD will be 11, we would prefer to avoid the buffets/AYCE choices. Since Kim has a DD who will not yet be 3, she'd like to stick to the buffets/character meals. As a result, we may not be eating together very often.

Time to get to work and start figuring out where we will be eating...

 

[JessseJ]

I'm following along! We stayed at BWV in January, although it was freezing it was awesome. We are currently in the process of buying points at SSR (resale) and I'm so EXCITED!

Only about 2 weeks until our ADR window opens. As much as I hate it, this is something that we are going to have to do since Kim wants to eat at O'Hana, Tusker House, Chef Mickey's and Garden Grill. I have no idea where our family is going to eat. We have a TIW card (no DDP) and since our oldest DD will be 11, we would prefer to avoid the buffets/AYCE choices. Since Kim has a DD who will not yet be 3, she'd like to stick to the buffets/character meals. As a result, we may not be eating together very often.

Time to get to work and start figuring out where we will be eating...

My DD is 10 so we had the same issue with buffets, she doesn't eat and the idea of paying adult price for her killed me. We didn't have DDP either, we just made reservations at two character meal buffets and we got lucky because they charged us the child price at both. She's very tall for her age so it was double luck for us!