November 2017, party of 7 or 9 or 11 or 13

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 171 days

My other cousins family is not join us, what a relief. I mean I want them to come but I just wish they would have let us know months ago when they were asked.

Party total: 7 and Grandma and Grandpa on AK day only

Dining
We were able to get an 8am reservation for Crystal Palace on Wednesday November 15th! Woohoo!

We have a Touring Plan reservation finder out for a later BOG lunch. Since they are now starting the FOF parade a 2pm our 2:05 reservation will not work.

Flights
Well on Tuesday I went to book but all the return flights said 1, 2 or 3 left for the Wanna Get Away fares. We had a bit of a panic. We plan on all flying out together and if only 3 were left that wasn't going to work. We went ahead a book our flight down. Peggy and them might end up driving if we can't all fly back to Indiana together. We would all cover the cost of a van for the week and just ride back with them.


Things left to do

• Tweak reservations: 1900 Park Fare (may not need to be moved if they drive) and BOG
  
• Finish paying off my portion of the trip.
  
• Save save save!

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 166 days

Quick non Disney update...Here is how I focus my energy when I'm not planning Disney trips lol

Indy 500

It was our first race and I'm ready to go back next year! I'm glad Takuma Sato won! He is an Andretti Autosport driver and I love my Andretti Autosport!

Memorial Day Family Photos
This is my Aunt Peggy and these are her grandkids. They have never had a photo all together like this. So yesterday we went to a park out of town and I took some family photos for them.

MM, Peggy, ML, D, J, C, K and R (C and R are not twins)

I have decided I am not prepared to take all those kids to Disney, I'm glad we are only taking two lol

I might not do an update for awhile. Dining is done and Fast Passes are not until September. I'm sure I can find something to plan

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 158 days

Flights
Southwest is having a 72 hour sale. None of our return flights home have changed they are still $200 plus. Peggy and Kristi haven't purchased their flights down yet. They will be arriving on November 13. The lowest price that day is $99 but it doesn't arrive until 7:35pm well past our dinner reservation.

Peggy is going to let us know what time they decided. There is a flight that lands at 4:40pm but that would be pushing our reservation for dinner, it is priced at $109 which is just a dollar more than we paid for our flight in.

Renting A Car
If the price of return flights do not go down another option is to drive back home. For 24 hours through Enterprise we can get a 7 passenger van and child seat for $228.11, that is picking up in Orlando and returning to Indianapolis. I have no idea if that is a good deal. My aunt said they would charge a fee if we dropped it off somewhere we didn't pick it up but no fee was listed on the Enterprise website.

We could rent a car for a week from Enterprise for $593.43. We are AAA members but Hertz is not showing any availability for the day we need. I can look at a week availability but I'm not sure if my Aunt wants to drive down. It would be cheaper if they did but it takes longer.

Trying to figure out when they will be arriving is beginning to stress me out. I hope we can push back our 1900 Park Fare to maybe around 7 or 7:30 because I would like to be done so we can watch the Fireworks at the Grand Floridian. Why is flying out of MCO so much more expensive than flying out of IND. No one wants to come to Indiana in November, its cold haha

What to do? What to do?

 

[Shrfleen]

This is my feeling right now.

The Southwest return flight has dropped a little to $180, which isn't horrible not ideal but not horrible. I think we are going to go ahead and book it as long as my Aunt can agree. They have not booked their flights yet. They keep dragging their feet hoping for lower fares but honestly I don't see them going much lower. That flight leaves at 10 pm which is good because my Aunt wanted to go to Disney Springs before we left.

Does any following along have experience with the Southwest Wanna Get Away Fares begin reusable? If we cancelled are the reusable funds available right away or does it take away to get them?

Once we have our return flight booked, I believe I will feel less stressed.

The others are still thinking about flying in at 4:40 so I have hoping we can get a dinner reservation at 1900 Park Fare for 6:45 or 7 just in case.

Oh the joys of planning!

 

[dnllmz]

This isn't the same thing but I'm thinking it would work the same way, last year my SW flights prices went down so I got a credit which went through within a day. But I had to use that credit for a flight that was within a year of my original purchase.

So I bought tickets 5/22/16, i had to fly before 5/22/17 to be able to use the credit. Unfortunately I misunderstood that and thought I could use the credit for my July flight as long as I booked it before 5/22. So i lost my credit. It wasn't a ton but still I like to keep my money.

 

[Shrfleen]

This isn't the same thing but I'm thinking it would work the same way, last year my SW flights prices went down so I got a credit which went through within a day. But I had to use that credit for a flight that was within a year of my original purchase.

So I bought tickets 5/22/16, i had to fly before 5/22/17 to be able to use the credit. Unfortunately I misunderstood that and thought I could use the credit for my July flight as long as I booked it before 5/22. So i lost my credit. It wasn't a ton but still I like to keep my money.

Great I was hoping the credit was pretty quick.

The rest of the family purchased their tickets today and will be arriving Monday at 4:40pm. I hope we can find a 1900 Park Fare reservation for a tad later now.

Went to buy the return flight and it's up $100...yeah I think I'll just wait haha

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 141 days

We haven't had much Disney planning lately. Monday we should have a little and officially confirm when Peggy, Kristi, D and K will be arriving.

I have been planning our next trip though...well maybe. Sarah really wants to return to England and I really want to go to Scotland. We have been looking at Adventures by Disney so we could still get that Disney magic on our next vacation.

Serious wanderlust going on in this house
​

Since we haven't been doing much Disney planning we've been up to a few other things so here is a life update:

Last weekend we went to our college friend Val's wedding in northern Indiana. We had about 3 hours between the ceremony and reception so we went to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. We went to the beach and saw Chicago...it was muggy but we saw it haha

​

We are well over 100 days out and I've already been working on Mousekeeping envelopes. We have have been saving all of our change for the last few months and we cashed it in. I have a list of things we need extra cash for: mousekeeping, parking at the airport, dining tips and D's Pirates League. We plan on putting the tips and Pirates League on their own giftcards. Anyway here are our Mousekeeping envelopes this year

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We just need to keep saving the change and we will make it there! We are over half way paid off on our Disney trip which is good. I hope to have it paid off by the first of October. Peggy plans on paying off her portion on Monday when we go up for a visit to the zoo.

Things left for Disney

• Return flight
• Move reservation for 1900 Park Fare to later
• Finish collecting change to pay tips, airport parking and Pirates League
• Start thinking about FP+
• Update Touring Plans

Well everyone I kind of rambled on tonight, thanks for joining in! I probably won't have an update for a few weeks unless something really cool happens!

 

[Shrfleen]

Great I was hoping the credit was pretty quick.

The rest of the family purchased their tickets today and will be arriving Monday at 4:40pm. I hope we can find a 1900 Park Fare reservation for a tad later now.

Went to buy the return flight and it's up $100...yeah I think I'll just wait haha

Southwest has changed when the rest of family will be departing Indianapolis, their new arrival time is 5:30pm...definitely not going to make our current reservation for 1900 Park Fare. We have a reservation finder out for 7:30pm, hopefully we can find one if not I have a Whispering Canyon one for 7:30pm but we really wanted to eat at 1900 Park Fare.

 

[Shrfleen]

Hello everyone!

Days until Disney: 125 days

This week my mother, Aunt P and D all went to Florida to visit our Grandparents. They have confirmed that they are planning on joining us on our Animal Kingdom day! Our Grandmother has bad knees and barely made it through the Tampa Zoo, so my mom suggested we chip in and rent Grandma a scooter. I have no problem doing this but she might not be willing to use it. We will see how that suggestion goes.

Flights
Still no return flights booked but the flight we are looking at went from $280 to $235 over the weekend. I'm not trilled about the price but I'm fearful we need to book soon or we won't have a good option. Maybe Dumbo has some friends who can help us out lol

Dining
Currently still have our reservation finder out and keeping an eye on the DIS cancellation thread. Hopefully what we want will open up.

Hotel
We currently have WL booked with no discount. I'm not holding out hope for one but it would be nice lol

Other Disney Planning
We are looking into going on a Disney Cruise next year. I would love to do the 7 day Easter Caribbean one but it doesn't look like we would be able to afford it unless we waited closer to a year and half from this vacation to take it. So we are looking at a 4 Day Merrytime Cruise in December of 2018.

 

[Shrfleen]

Quick update!

Days until Disney: 123 days

We have a return flight! I repeat, we have a return flight! We won!

We will be leaving sunny Florida on a Southwest flight at 10 PM. That gives us from 11am to 6:30pm to go to Disney Springs and visit other resorts if we want.

The price...$175. Not horrible, so I will take it. The awesome thing about Southwest is we can cancel and rebook for free if the fare goes down. We were not taking any chances so we scooped those up and let the rest of the family know to do the same. Hopefully they do.

Now our planning continues!

 

[dnllmz]

Quick update!

Days until Disney: 123 days

We have a return flight! I repeat, we have a return flight! We won!

We will be leaving sunny Florida on a Southwest flight at 10 PM. That gives us from 11am to 6:30pm to go to Disney Springs and visit other resorts if we want.

The price...$175. Not horrible, so I will take it. The awesome thing about Southwest is we can cancel and rebook for free if the fare goes down. We were not taking any chances so we scooped those up and let the rest of the family know to do the same. Hopefully they do.

Now our planning continues!

Yay! I know that must be a relief.

 

[Shrfleen]

Yay! I know that must be a relief.

Very much! Now I can get to the real planning haha

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 99 Days ....we are in double digits!!

Quick Updates​

Dining
We haven't been able to change our 1900 Park Fare dinner reservation or our Be Out Guest lunch reservation yet but I'm not losing hope yet. I was playing around with the dining reservations and saw some opens for about a month out. Fingers crossed when people start making their FP+ selections we can snag those changes.

Park Plans
We are a little over a month away from FP+ selections but once we secure those we will be able to nail down our touring plans and our break schedule.

Payments
We are less than $1,000 away from paying off our trip. We have the money set aside for Mousekeeping already. We have the money for D's Pirates League, I think I'm going to put $55 on a gift card and just have her use it for the package and tip. We have about half saved for parking at the airport for the week and we just need to figure out how much to bring for dinning tips.

Getting ready for Disney
I made little activity books for D and K. K doesn't really color yet but hopefully his mommy will help him and it will keep him occupied on the plane and DME.

We've been doing some prepping for Disney with the kids. We went to the fair and rode some rides and we went to Colts Training camp to practice walking and meeting "fluffy" characters.

Both events were pretty successful.
​

I forgot to add the best news! My friend Allie sent me a message on Facebook the other day asking if we were going to Disney in November. I said yes the 12th-18th. She then responded they are going the 8th-14th! I was so excited! She asked where we were staying and I said Wilderness Lodge. She said her family was going to stay there but they got a room at Copper Creek! I told her that is the same building. I haven't seen Allie since we graduated IUPUI together. She just had a beautiful baby girl and I am excited that I will be able to meet her at Disney of all places! It is a small world!

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 92 days

Dining

I am working of figuring out how much money to bring for tips. Since we are a party of 6 or more an automatic 18% is expected. While we are a party of 7, our bill will be divided. I'm assuming the 18% is on each pre taxed bill and not the total pre taxed of the two bills? Anyway here is what I figured out...about $100 or so per family to cover all the dining reservations.

We plan on using our extra dining credit at The Wave and paying out of pocket for the other 2 meals.

Stroller

Since we are all flying down and relying on Disney Transportation to get us from Point A to Point B , Kristi will be renting a stroller at each park. The cost is $13/day if we pre paid, total cost $65.

Grandparents Visit
We plan on renting a EVC for our Grandmother when she joins us at the Animal Kingdom. Cost is $50 plus a $20 refundable deposit.

We purchased a room at Pop Century for our Grandparents to crash in, following the long day at Animal Kingdom so they do not have to drive back home. It was only a little over $100 with the holiday discount.

We will be paying for their breakfast as they join us at Tusker House, we are using 2 of our dining credits.

$$$
We are almost done paying off the trip. I anticipate the trip to be paid off my next month. Then it is on to saving for souvenirs.

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 82 Days

Disney planning is in full swing. We have a tentative plan created now, we just need to add the characters we want to meet into the mix.

We also purchased disposable placemats and a Anti-Loss bracelet for K. He likes to run off when he is walking so the bracelet will keep him near but still free enough to walk around. He is not going to be happy to be stuck in a stroller so the bracelet will help. The placemats are for quick service meals and maybe the table service meals. K has recently taken to picking up all the plates on the table. He thinks he's playing but he is just being a handful. lol


I took some time off the Disney train yesterday to experience the partial solar eclipse. It got pretty cloudy before and during so here was the best picture I got. I must admit, I looked and didn't wear any glasses. It was very cloudy and I only looked up to take this picture for 5 seconds. I'm sure I'll hear all about how I have damaged my eyes but I only looked once and didn't stare.

​

MVMCP

Sarah and I have been going back and forth over what type of ears and shirt to wear to the Christmas party. I wanted ugly sweater ears because I thought they would be cute. We found an over sized ugly sweater bow and peppermint swirl Minnie shirt. Sarah is going to wear a green bow with green sleeves and I'm going to wear a red bow and red sleeves. We might be twins but it doesn't mean we have to wear the exact same thing lol

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Walking

Sarah and I signed up for the Disney virtual 5Ks this summer. We finished the series but that hasn't stopped up. Our goal is to walk at least 3 miles every weekend until our trip. We told Peggy and Kristi they need to start walking or their feet are going to kill them.

​

I received a Disney unique pin code yesterday, but I couldn't access it. When I called, I found it was in Kristi's name (which her reservation is not linked to my account). They were nice of enough to check to see if it had any availability and there were none. Looks like we will be paying rack rate for this trip with no discounts.

 

[Whit64130]

Sarah and I have been going back and forth over what type of ears and shirt to wear to the Christmas party. I wanted ugly sweater ears because I thought they would be cute. We found an over sized ugly sweater bow and peppermint swirl Minnie shirt. Sarah is going to wear a green bow with green sleeves and I'm going to wear a red bow and red sleeves. We might be twins but it doesn't mean we have to wear the exact same thing lol

Love the outfits for MVMCP!

 

[Shrfleen]

Love the outfits for MVMCP!

Thank you, they are super light weight. So if there is a sudden heat wave, we will be prepared.

 

[Shrfleen]

Days until Disney: 64 days

We are only 4 days from Fastpass day! Here are our plans:

Epcot
Frozen Ever After
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Spaceship Earth

Try for a Test Track after FP+ are done.

Magic Kingdom
Peter Pan's Flight
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Big Thunder Mountain

Try for Enchanted Tales with Belle and Haunted Mansion after FP+ are done.

Animal Kingdom
Na'vi River Journey
Kilimanjaro Safari
Mickey and Minnie

Hollywood Studios
Toy Story Mania
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Star Tours

Those might change depending on what we can get.

Dining
We are still trying to hunt down an 1900 Park Fare time change and later BOG lunch time so we can watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.

Money
I need to make my final payment! I only have $100 left. That is my goal at the end of the week!

Other updates
With Hurricane Irma I've been calling my Grandparents asking what their plans on. They said a few days ago, oh its not coming this way we will be fine. Then last night it edged even closer to Spring Hill. They have decided to hunker down. I told them to call when it passes and let us know they are safe. We really tried to get them to evacuate but it didn't work.

On a sunny note. Last night was our fourth Ed Sheeran concert. We have another Ed Sheeran next month in Ohio! If you haven't seen him live, he is amazing.

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Also, my cousin Brittney has decided to move up the date for her wedding. She decided to have a small immediate family only ceremony as well. She moved it to November 11 and want to make sure we could attend. This is the day before we leave for vacation but we are going and Sarah and I will be taking photos. It's going to be a busy weekend before we leave, but I wouldn't miss her wedding for the world.

Well that is all I have now. I'll post another update after Fastpass day.

 

[paradesintherain]

Did you get all the Fastpasses you wanted? And did you get your trip paid off! It's getting so close now!

 

[Shrfleen]

Did you get all the Fastpasses you wanted? And did you get your trip paid off! It's getting so close now!

Yes! We had to wake up the next day to make our cousins Fastpasses but we were able to tweak most of them so we can go in at the same time and now it won't clog up Sarah's MDE account. I just paid it off, now to save more money for souvenirs lol