No Grumpy Guses Allowed! Updated 5/15- We have plane tickets!

[-Hope-]

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Hi Hope,

Just ran across your thread! I am definitely going to follow. My family and I are booked for May and are staying at the AOA. Once my kids saw the decor, they fell in love. Really glad to see that you and your daughter have lots in common. My teen daughter wouldn't be caught hanging with her mom in daylight,lol. Keep up the great thread.

Glad to have you here! You'll have to share your thoughts about AoA. Kya has her heart set on it but I'm nervous about the long walks to the LM rooms.

I am pretty lucky to have so much in common with my girlie.

 

[-Hope-]

So today Grumpy Gus #1:



and I celebrated the 20th anniversary of dressing up to eat some pretty good cake:



And I use the term celebrated loosely. It's freaking cold, we both had to work, and we just chilled at home with the kiddos. We'll probably go out to eat or something this weekend. Maybe a movie and Taco Bell to recreate our first date.

Anyway, nothing Disney related to report. Just wanted to say that even though he's sometimes grumpy when it comes to Disney (and travel in general) I still think I'll keep him.

 

[Steppesister]

Happy Anniversary!!! What a beautiful picture of you and your honey!

Hope you're surviving the frigid temps!! EEK! Be safe!

 

[-Hope-]

Happy Anniversary!!! What a beautiful picture of you and your honey! Hope you're surviving the frigid temps!! EEK! Be safe!

Thanks!

It's soooooo cold! I hope you're staying as warm as possible.

 

[-Hope-]

I'm on my phone so the fanfare is small (which is okay because it's still far away) but I almost forgot to say- 10 MONTHS!!

 

[Emduc]

Glad to have you here! You'll have to share your thoughts about AoA. Kya has her heart set on it but I'm nervous about the long walks to the LM rooms.

I am pretty lucky to have so much in common with my girlie.

I will definately check it out and let you know! Super Excited!!

 

[ursalita]

Joining in! Your mother/daughter trip sounds like so much fun! What a great relationship you guys have.

We also had to wait to book anything until Southwest released their flights. Since it will be April vacation here I couldn't get exactly what I wanted but I did find a good alternative. It was good that I held off on booking the resort or dining because I would have had to go back and change it all. But you're probably not going to run into that problem I would think. It's still fun to do all the pre-trip brainstorming so you know what you want when it does come time to make reservations.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Happy Anniversary!

 

[-Hope-]

I will definately check it out and let you know! Super Excited!!

Joining in! Your mother/daughter trip sounds like so much fun! What a great relationship you guys have.

We also had to wait to book anything until Southwest released their flights. Since it will be April vacation here I couldn't get exactly what I wanted but I did find a good alternative. It was good that I held off on booking the resort or dining because I would have had to go back and change it all. But you're probably not going to run into that problem I would think. It's still fun to do all the pre-trip brainstorming so you know what you want when it does come time to make reservations.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Happy Anniversary!

So glad to have you here!

It's SO hard to wait!! I have enough money set aside to make our reservation and every day (or several times per day) I debate myself about making the reservation. It's not that difficult to change so I could do it. But I also need to keep that money so I have it when the airfares are released. The logic doesn't make it any easier to wait though.

 

[-Hope-]

So, you should realize by now that I'm a crazymadplanner. I may be nearly 10 months out but I think I have my park days figured out.

Some feedback would be great though so PLEASE feel free to chime right in if you see something that could be improved.

Our tentative arrival date (and the one I'm using for my ticker down there) is November 9th. There should be a party that day going by historical dates, HOWEVER if there's no party we'll probably adjust our arrival day. It's a short trip and to fit everything in AND make MK our first park (and really, doesn't it NEED to be our first park?) we need to go to MVMCP on our arrival day. So, without further fanfare...

Day 1: Travel/MVMCP

• Fly to Orlando: I plan to stay at a Sleep-n-park hotel the night before. We don't live near the airport and aren't really morning people so this helps us manage early flights AND it's actually about the same cost as using a parking lot and simply paying to park. Win, win!
• Depending on our flight time we'll probably just fill up on the breakfast offered at the hotel and snack on the plane so we can eat at the resort once we arrive. I thought about other options but they always left me paying OOP and having an extra CS meal left on our DDP which makes no sense! So, ME to AoA and a late lunch (CS1) after check-in!
• We'll head to MVMCP so we can arrive by 4:00. I plan to have some FP+ reservations for the hours before the party PLUS I want to be sure we get in line early to meet Jack Skellington- ahem, I mean Sandy Claws.
• We'll eat CS(2) for dinner and I'm sure enjoy some of the cocoa and cookies offered at the party. :

Day 2: Monorail Resort Hopping/MK

I really didn't want to have my MK day back-to-back with the party BUT I also really wanted to sleep in after the party/travel. We don't need to make RD at MK because we'll have 2 days worth of FP+, short lines at the party, and more time in this park than any other. So, it makes sense for this to be our MK day even though it's on the heels of our MK evening.

• Late-ish (9:30 or 10:00) TS (1) breakfast at 1900 PF
• Take the monorail to MK- we'll have some early afternoon FP+ ressies plus we'll do whatever we miss at the party (will probably save the things that don't have long lines for this day- Carousel of Progress, Philharmagic, Hall of Presidents, etc.)
• Hopefully we'll be able to get a FP+ ressie for BOG and have some dessert (two TS meals this day so no need for a big lunch but perhaps some soup and definitely The Grey Stuff)
• TS (2) dinner at Crystal Palace
• Some monorail resort hopping to see the Christmas decorations- it won't ALL be up since we're going in early November but SOME will be. This can actually take place any time during the day- after breakfast if we have time to kill before our FP+ windows, after we ride and have time to kill before our ADR, or after we leave MK. It's pretty flexible which is kind of nice.

Day 3: DHS/DTD

• Breakfast in our room, RD at this park!
• TS (3) lunch at Sci-Fi
• We'll head to DTD after we finish up our list of musts at DHS for some shopping and a light dinner (OOP) at RFC. The plan is to just split an appetizer and a volcano.

Day 4: EPCOT

• Breakfast in our room, RD in this park as well!
• TS (4) Lunch at Coral Reef
• CS (3) Dinner in WS

Day 5: Travel

• CS (4) Breakfast at resort before catching ME to start the journey home

So... thoughts??

ETA: I also have some loose touring plans but I'll save those for another day...

 

[ursalita]

H! Your plans look great and really well organized. It looks like it will be easy to switch things around if schedules change as you get closer. I hope you get to see lots of decorations. Where are you thinking of eating at WS? There are so many options!!

 

[-Hope-]

H! Your plans look great and really well organized. It looks like it will be easy to switch things around if schedules change as you get closer. I hope you get to see lots of decorations. Where are you thinking of eating at WS? There are so many options!!

I'm leaning heavily toward the CS in Morocco though Kya isn't interested at all and I suspect she'll get fish-n-chips or something similar. The overall idea is that with so many great options we'll be able to eat when we're hungry and shouldn't have trouble finding something close by. We'll also prob use quite a few snack credits in WS. I love the churritos in Mexico and am dying to try both the school bread in Norway and the chocolate hazelnut crepe in France. I suspect in the end we'll share our snacks and meals so we get to try more things.

 

[Steppesister]

Plans look well put together! Definitely a chill kind of trip with sleeping in and flexibility on CS places. I love the Rice Cream snack in Norway over the School Bread, but that's a fantastic option too!

Someday, a Christmastime trip would be fun. The idea of mono-hopping to see the decs would be amazing!

 

[-Hope-]

Plans look well put together! Definitely a chill kind of trip with sleeping in and flexibility on CS places. I love the Rice Cream snack in Norway over the School Bread, but that's a fantastic option too! Someday, a Christmastime trip would be fun. The idea of mono-hopping to see the decs would be amazing!

We quickly learned on our first trip that we can't do all out commando. We're more chill IRL and my travel philosophy is that you're not going to suddenly be someone you're not just because you're on vacation. So, if your kids get crabby when you wake them too early or get stressed by mom trying to rush them from one place to the next they'll still do that stuff at WDW. The trick is to accept it and be glad that if they're driving you nuts at least there's a trip over the orange groves in it for you.

The resort hopping in the monorail is pretty high up on my must list. I had kind of given up on the idea of a Christmas trip but then the Grumpies have us their blessing to go without them and I became a TA for an Earmarked agency which gives me some pretty good perks. So, ho ho ho!

 

[-Hope-]

So, I'm reconsidering the dining plan...

Neither of us is overly excited about Coral Reef (or really any other TS restaurant in WS). I think we'd rather leave things loose and share some CS entrees and snacks so we get a little taste of everything. Keeping that in mind I ran some numbers.

The 2015 DDP is about $60 per person per night. That comes to $480. If we just pay OOP we can still keep the other TS choices we wanted, order the most expensive things on the menu (which we wouldn't do even with the DDP), have top dollar snacks and CS meals, and it still only comes up to about $360. That's at the high end because a lot of the time when Kya and I are out and about together we just share an entree and get a dessert or appetizer to share as well. (I did NOT count on that when I was making this estimate though.)

So, I'd be paying $120 (or more since $360 is a high estimate) extra for less flexibility with ordering options and one more TS meal neither of us actually wants.

I think I may just get $400 worth of Disney gift cards to use specifically for dining. Thoughts??

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm just going to sit her and let you change things around 20 million times and not say anything until you get it "just right" and then I can tell you how perfect it is.

You know you'll keep changing your mind!

Gift cards are a good idea if you don't want to carry around cash, although with MB's, you don't have to carry cash anyway!

 

[-Hope-]

I'm just going to sit her and let you change things around 20 million times and not say anything until you get it "just right" and then I can tell you how perfect it is. You know you'll keep changing your mind! Gift cards are a good idea if you don't want to carry around cash, although with MB's, you don't have to carry cash anyway!

I learned all about changing things from the master.

The main reason I was considering gift cards is because I can just go to Walgreens and get one when I have extra money so I'm not tempted to use it for something else. But I kind if forgot about the convenience of the MB so maybe I'll just have to try to be disciplined.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I learned all about changing things from the master.

The main reason I was considering gift cards is because I can just go to Walgreens and get one when I have extra money so I'm not tempted to use it for something else. But I kind if forgot about the convenience of the MB so maybe I'll just have to try to be disciplined.

I'm the same way with gift cards (says the person with nearly $50 in Starbucks gift cards saved up for our trip in a few weeks! LOL) it's a good idea! Besides, you can just USE the gift cards to pay off your balance after using your MB!

 

[ljcrochet]

So, I'm reconsidering the dining plan...

Neither of us is overly excited about Coral Reef (or really any other TS restaurant in WS). I think we'd rather leave things loose and share some CS entrees and snacks so we get a little taste of everything. Keeping that in mind I ran some numbers.

The 2015 DDP is about $60 per person per night. That comes to $480. If we just pay OOP we can still keep the other TS choices we wanted, order the most expensive things on the menu (which we wouldn't do even with the DDP), have top dollar snacks and CS meals, and it still only comes up to about $360. That's at the high end because a lot of the time when Kya and I are out and about together we just share an entree and get a dessert or appetizer to share as well. (I did NOT count on that when I was making this estimate though.)

So, I'd be paying $120 (or more since $360 is a high estimate) extra for less flexibility with ordering options and one more TS meal neither of us actually wants.

I think I may just get $400 worth of Disney gift cards to use specifically for dining. Thoughts??

DDP doesn't work with how my family likes to eat. DH would love to get an appetizer and skip dessert. Some places I like to get an appetizer as my entree and get dessert. Before our last 2 trips we got gift cards at target (save 5%) and BJ's that paid for most of our food.

 

[-Hope-]

I'm the same way with gift cards (says the person with nearly $50 in Starbucks gift cards saved up for our trip in a few weeks! LOL) it's a good idea! Besides, you can just USE the gift cards to pay off your balance after using your MB!

Well, I learned about stockpiling gift cards from you too.

DDP doesn't work with how my family likes to eat. DH would love to get an appetizer and skip dessert. Some places I like to get an appetizer as my entree and get dessert. Before our last 2 trips we got gift cards at target (save 5%) and BJ's that paid for most of our food.

Yep, that's my issue as well. On our recent trip to Kansas City we ate at T-Rex; Kya and I shared an appetizer sampler and it was more than enough food for both of us. It just seems silly to lock ourselves into something that may not work for us.

 

[ursalita]

I think the DP works for some people but I don't like it for our family. We've done it in the past and it was fine but this time I'm trying it without it for exactly the same reason as you stated: flexibility. We often share entrees or get appetizers. We rarely get desserts and if we do we split one among the four of us.

Getting gift cards is a great idea. In the past we've used our Disney Visa reward $$ on food.