**Official August 2016 Check In Thread**

[I459WDW]

Hoping I can stay on this thread! Just in the beginning stages of planning and until it's all booked I can't believe our first ever DL trip is true! I'm hoping an 8/20 - 8/27 trip gets us into Haunted Mansion before it closes for Nightmare overlay. (looks like last year it started in August) We are a family of 5 including 15, 13 and 9. Right now our resort is looking like Park Vue Inn or Desert Inn. I had tried to get the Candy Cane Inn but most or all the 5 person rooms seem to be getting refurbed for our trip. ugh. But some have said that's a blessing so I am going with that! We investigated HOJO and we may regret not going with it, but the kiddie pool seemed too kiddie for our age group so that we thought the closer spot, even a little bit, won over HOJO. So far anyway. Ha. Talk to me tomorrow and maybe I'll be booked at HOJO. LOL I'm a WDW gal, so it's disconcerting that I can't book dining or see the hours or anything! (Maybe I'm missing it somewhere?) Truly this is a "frugal" trip though and the only dining I'm thinking of booking would be for the WOC show. If it didn't seem like that was pretty important I wouldn't even book that. Boy am i "stressed" about picking the right spot for that. Ok. So you can see I'm going to be the worrying person in the group.

 

[bcwife76]

@I459WDW Well, welcome!! Hopefully your trip becomes less stressful along the way with planning

 

[OneThree]

We'll be at the DLH August 29th - September 2nd. DW and I have been to DL/DCA many times but this we'll be the first time with our kids (DS 8 and DD 5)!

 

[bcwife76]

We'll be at the DLH August 29th - September 2nd. DW and I have been to DL/DCA many times but this we'll be the first time with our kids (DS 8 and DD 5)!

We will be there the same exact dates (not the same hotel though) and our kids will be the exact same ages lol

 

[Belle2006beauty]

Just booked our hotel today for July 31st-Aug 4th. We'll be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary! We never had a honeymoon, so we'll be treating this as our honeymoon. This will be our second visit to DL, and I can say we are already hooked, and cannot wait to be going back!

 

[Disney_Alli]

Just booked our hotel today for July 31st-Aug 4th. We'll be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary! We never had a honeymoon, so we'll be treating this as our honeymoon. This will be our second visit to DL, and I can say we are already hooked, and cannot wait to be going back!

Yay more anniversary/honeymoon/romantical trips! I love heading to DL or WDW as a couple it's such a great place to just be with your SO.

 

[Belle2006beauty]

Yay more anniversary/honeymoon/romantical trips! I love heading to DL or WDW as a couple it's such a great place to just be with your SO.

That's probably what I'm looking forward to the most. When the pressure is off my DH is like a big kid and is so much fun. Two kids and opposite work schedules don't leave us a lot of couple time. We went during off season last time so we could see more stuff. This time I told him, as long as we get on our favorite rides, I don't care how long we have to wait. People watching and chatting together will be the best part.

 

[Disney_Alli]

That's probably what I'm looking forward to the most. When the pressure is off my DH is like a big kid and is so much fun. Two kids and opposite work schedules don't leave us a lot of couple time. We went during off season last time so we could see more stuff. This time I told him, as long as we get on our favorite rides, I don't care how long we have to wait. People watching and chatting together will be the best part.

I hear ya! Hubby and I don't have kids but we do have the opposite work schedule - generally we have 2-3 days off together each month - so it's so nice to be somewhere we can just be us together.

 

[Belle2006beauty]

Does anyone have any experience with going at this time of year? According to touringplans.com it is going to be 7-9 for crowd levels. As I previously said, we realize this and are going to be fine waiting in long lines. I'm more wondering how much of the park people were able to accomplish in a day.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Does anyone have any experience with going at this time of year? According to touringplans.com it is going to be 7-9 for crowd levels. As I previously said, we realize this and are going to be fine waiting in long lines. I'm more wondering how much of the park people were able to accomplish in a day.

I have never been to DL this time of year but spent 3 weeks in WDW this time last year. The beginning of our trip was fairly busy and I was hearding 6 newbies around but we got a TON done every day with good use of Touring Plans and pushing through. We definitely got the highlights of all the parks with only one day per park. I'm hoping DL will be similar but with A LOT less humidity. Not sure if that helps at all.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Sooooo... We might be losing our minds... This was supposed to be a relaxing trip compared to our 3 week marathon wedding trip last August in WDW but now we're contemplating upgrading both our passes to AP's (Cole's basic, mine the lowest level with Photopass included) so that we can hit the parks on our arrival day (plane lands at about 2pm) and what was going to be our down day (Saturday) it would save us almost $300 in Photopass add-ons as well as the cost of 1 or 2 character meals as we'd not do Goofy's Kitchen for dinner on arrival day and possibly one on departure day too as we could easily hit a couple of rides that morning (flight not until 2pm) it's almost $500 to upgrade my ticket and another $250 for Cole's. We were debating doing mine anyway for Photopass and to increase our food and merch discounts from 10% (DVC) to 15-20% (AP). I feel like it's a little crazy to upgrade but at the same time we'd get WAY more park time... Decisions, decisions...

 

[bcwife76]

@Disney_Alli lol good luck with your decision :0 Nice to have choices!!

 

[BriannaRuth]

August 13-20, staying at the Sheraton Park Hotel the first 6 nights, then the DLH the last night. Me, DH, DD16 and DD12. This is our 4th or 5th trip to DL, plus one trip to DW. Normally we stay onsite -- we've stayed at DLH, GCH and PP before, plus Hojo our first trip when the girls were little -- but this time I'm using a bunch of accumulated SPG points for a free hotel stay. But we have to stay at DLH one night so the girls can have a day at the pool and Trader Sam's.

We've gone this time of year a couple of times -- I've never had a huge problem with the crowds but we do a lot of planning on when to do what.

 

[Disney_Alli]

August 13-20, staying at the Sheraton Park Hotel the first 6 nights, then the DLH the last night. Me, DH, DD16 and DD12. This is our 4th or 5th trip to DL, plus one trip to DW. Normally we stay onsite -- we've stayed at DLH, GCH and PP before, plus Hojo our first trip when the girls were little -- but this time I'm using a bunch of accumulated SPG points for a free hotel stay. But we have to stay at DLH one night so the girls can have a day at the pool and Trader Sam's.

We've gone this time of year a couple of times -- I've never had a huge problem with the crowds but we do a lot of planning on when to do what.

Have you stayed at the Sheraton before? That's where I stayed on my last 3 trips. The rooms tend to be a little smaller than most Sheraton's I think but still very nice. The park views can be awesome from there too.

 

[bcwife76]

Ugh, anyone else wish DL would release their park hours more than 6 weeks in advance?! If WDW can do it why can't DL?

 

[Disney_Alli]

Man I totally wish they'd release park hours and dining earlier. Those of us used to the almost militant planning at WDW freak out with the much more laid back approach at DL.

I'm still waying the pros and cons of getting the APs for us. For the moment I'll keep my 5 day only plans and work out another plan based on going to the parks every day. It looks like our tax return is going to be almost $1K more than we'd thought so that gives us a little more wiggle room on options. I'd dearly love opnions from those out there. Should we go for the more relaxed trip leaving time for pools and so character meals or should we hit the parks every day? WWYD?

 

[joenan88]

Grand Californian 8/15-20 Very excited

 

[I459WDW]

Man I totally wish they'd release park hours and dining earlier. Those of us used to the almost militant planning at WDW freak out with the much more laid back approach at DL.
WWYD?

It's KILLING me! LOL! Especially worrying about attraction closures.

 

[disneycrazy2004]

First times here! Done WDW lots of time but newbies to DL. We will be there Aug. 26 - Sept 1st staying at Paradise Pier and extra couple of night closer to Universal but haven't booked that yet. Prior to Aug. 26 we will be in Disney Aulani for DD sweet 16 celebration. Beyond excited and overwhelmed with all the planning! So much different then planning for WDW. Can't wait

 

[bcwife76]

Yay more firsttimers as well! You'll never forget your first trip to Disneyland

@disneycrazy2004 sounds like you've got a fabulous trip planned!