****Official August 2014 Thread****

[Mousemommy1]

All updated.

 

[huggiebear23]

Happy Monday!! I'm stuck at work!! luckily I get out in 15 mins.. Hope everyone is having a great day!

 

[KSL]

Thanks again for all your tireless work on maintaining the list on the first page. You rock!! Agreed!

Some time ago, we changed our dates from the Saturday-Saturday to Sunday-Sunday for the better flight prices. So our dates are now the 17th to the 31st.

Gina, what ever happened with your DH and his work schedule? Hoping all is sorted out, since I see you still have a 2-week stay planned!

 

[KSL]

Any suggestions for something fun to do with/for my DD turning 10 on our trip in August?

We have already asked where she wants to eat and will let her pick our park(s) that day, and we know to get her a birthday button. We are not doing BBB (did last year and it was great but that was a one-time treat), and there are no special characters she wants to see that day. I am planning on doing pick-a-pearl with all 3 of my girls as a surprise, so that's out, too.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'd love any input. TIA!

 

[maddiebee]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

 

[mrstomrice]

Any suggestions for something fun to do with/for my DD turning 10 on our trip in August?

We have already asked where she wants to eat and will let her pick our park(s) that day, and we know to get her a birthday button. We are not doing BBB (did last year and it was great but that was a one-time treat), and there are no special characters she wants to see that day. I am planning on doing pick-a-pearl with all 3 of my girls as a surprise, so that's out, too.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'd love any input. TIA!

How about the Wild Africa Trek in AK? It's a 3 hour tour at Ak. You can get more here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/animal-kingdom/wild-africa-trek/#
We hope to go soon...unfortunately DS 7 will be 1 month too young to go this trip...oh welll...guess we have to go back You could rent the speed boats at one of the resorts, go to Hoop Dee Doo Review, go horseback riding at FW or do the Wishes Dessert party.

 

[mom2willnbrendan]

COOL! I have never done it before, I wanted to 2 years ago but we weren't able to get a reservation. I am really excited about it.

Me too! And it's a surprise or the family (for supporting me through nursing school) I can't wait!

 

[DisMom1981]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

Laptop took about 40 minutes.

 

[xlsm]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

I made ours online right at 5am central time. It took maybe 15 minutes? 20 tops.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Gina, what ever happened with your DH and his work schedule? Hoping all is sorted out, since I see you still have a 2-week stay planned!

Aw, thanks for asking, KSL. You have one fine memory .

Believe it or not, DH still has not received approval for his vacation time. No "refusal" of the second submission, but no approval either .

DH says we will be going for the two weeks come hell or high water, and says he will go over his bosses' head to the HR department if needed (he has confirmed that no such company policy exists to prevent him from taking 2 of his 5 weeks at a time). So.....we press on as if all is a-go. DH's idiot boss said DH would need "approval" from his co-workers (the fellows on the other shifts who do the same job he does) for him to take a 2-week vacation as no one else will be given the same privilege. He talked to each of them, and they all said no problem, go and have a great time.

Vacation requests by the associates were supposed to be all submitted by February 15th. Production Managers (which is what my DH is) are supposed to be given consideration before the associates. We are hoping for something more definitive within the next few weeks.

Between that and fretting about who will take care of my poor cat who's in renal failure (assuming she is still alive and kicking by then) and I will definitely need a vacation from my vacation planning by the time August rolls around!!!!!

 

[jaz0308]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

I did it online (computer not app)and it took about half an hour! Everything went very smoothly (and I printed everything when it was done in case it disappears later!)

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

I did mine by phone as MDE wouldn't let me book my +10 in any of its formats!

Probably took me about half an hour but I think I *could* have done it more quickly if MDE had worked.

 

[RedskinFan]

Today is my 180 days and I was able to book Ohana for Aug 17th but can't book any further out even though I am staying on resort. I will be giving training at 7:00am this morning but will definitely be calling in my remaining reservations as soon as I am done!

 

[alicat8]

Any suggestions for something fun to do with/for my DD turning 10 on our trip in August?

We have already asked where she wants to eat and will let her pick our park(s) that day, and we know to get her a birthday button. We are not doing BBB (did last year and it was great but that was a one-time treat), and there are no special characters she wants to see that day. I am planning on doing pick-a-pearl with all 3 of my girls as a surprise, so that's out, too.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'd love any input. TIA!

How about the afternoon tea? I can't wait to do it with my daughter when she's older! https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/afternoon-tea/
Or the dessert party??

 

[alicat8]

For those of you who made your ADRs, how long did it take? Did you do it online or over the phone? Do you find that one is more efficient than the other?

I did them all online-it was actually my first ADR experience and it was easy! It probably took about 25 minutes. We got:
8/16 Sanaa 11:30 lunch
8/18 Chef Mickey 9:30
8/19 Dessert Party 9:00
8/20 Hollywood and Vine 12:35
8/21 Garden Grill 5:55

 

[jvattes]

Hoping I can join this thread, as most of our stay will be August. I don't count the 29th since it's mostly a travel day for us.

Made reservations last week. Our family of 4 (me, DH, DD10, DS6) staying at Pop. Looking forward to enjoying some old favorites for dinners (Chef Mickeys, Backyard BBQ, and Tusker House) while checking out some new ones too (Ohana, Mama Melrose, and Biergarten).

A little worried over the whole FP+ controversy, with reports of FP lines that are longer than ever, but trying not to stress. Trying to maintain my attitude that all will be well and a great time will be had by all.

-Jennifer

 

[RedskinFan]

After being on hold for over 30 min, I was able to make our dining reservations for the first part of our split stay.

8/17 Ohana
8/18 Garden Grill
8/19 Fantasmic Package - Mama Melrose
8/20 Chef Mickey Dinner (kids and inlaws)
Narcoossee's (DH and I)

And the kids have reservations at The Pirate's League for the 17th. Our AAA travel agent should be making BBB and Cinderella's Table reservations for 8/20 for DD and her grandparents. I did not want to have to get MIL's credit card info or I would have made the reservations myself.

 

[Rjmdds]

Hello all. This is my first post on these boards. I have been a member of another board for many years however decided to expand my resources and began reading posts here a couple of months ago. I am joining the August 2014 thread as we will be heading down from August 22-31. It will be our first trip during the summer. We have typically gone in either April, November or early December. So this will be a new experience for us. We are hoping for the manageable crowds that last week that I've read about. We will be staying at the GF Main Building Club Level. My kids can't wait. They are 11 and 8 and have been to WDW 5 and 4 times respectively. We book our ADRs on Sunday. August can't come soon enough, especially with NJ looking like a glacier all of the time these days.

 

[alicat8]

Hello all. This is my first post on these boards. I have been a member of another board for many years however decided to expand my resources and began reading posts here a couple of months ago. I am joining the August 2014 thread as we will be heading down from August 22-31. It will be our first trip during the summer. We have typically gone in either April, November or early December. So this will be a new experience for us. We are hoping for the manageable crowds that last week that I've read about. We will be staying at the GF Main Building Club Level. My kids can't wait. They are 11 and 8 and have been to WDW 5 and 4 times respectively. We book our ADRs on Sunday. August can't come soon enough, especially with NJ looking like a glacier all of the time these days.

I hear ya! I'm in CT and it's basically the arctic-climbing over ice to get to everything, walking through snow tunnels. 6 months!!!

 

[Heidi K]

I did it online (computer not app)and it took about half an hour! Everything went very smoothly (and I printed everything when it was done in case it disappears later!)

I did ours this morning and it took about 35 minutes on-line (laptop). I can post them later. One thing I wish I had realized, though--I initially searched for each reservation by meal ("breakfast") and was being offered very limited times. When I actually searched by the time I wanted ("8:00 am"), I was offered times much closer to the ones I was looking for. I assumed that a breakfast search would reveal ALL times available from 8 am to 11 am, for example, but it didn't.

I did a "breakfast" search for Crystal Palace and the first time available was 8:45. I did a search for "8 am" and they gave me one for 8:05!