***Official February 2017 Thread***

[AaronInWI]

Welcome to the thread! I wish you luck in the convincing department. We drive from Northern Ohio, making That a tricky time frame for us, too! As for ride rehabs? I think not a big deal. Water parks are usually down for rehab but we don't plan on those that time of year. There might be a ride down at each park but lately that's the case year round. And honestly, in our four previous trips during this time of year, nothing has been down that I remember being sad about. I will add you to the roll call. Let me know if it changes.

Thanks! I figure as far as weather goes, we can just watch the forecast and play it by ear. We'd leave on a Saturday morning, and if a storm is coming we can leave town Friday night and drive to somewhere in southern Illinois to say the night; or leave later Saturday and maybe making our stopping point a little more north that we had intended. If we're flexible, we can make it work. And thank you for the reassurance on ride closures. I had read that it is mainly outdoor water rides (Splash Mountain, Kali River Rapids), which we like but certainly not our favorites. And as you said, ride closures can happen no matter when you go. There's no avoiding it. We've never been to a Disney water park. We live about two hours from the self-proclaimed "Water Park Capitol of the World", Wisconsin Dells. I think we're pretty much bored of water parks, Disney or otherwise.

 

[Dreamport]

Sounds like a lot undecided or unknown for you still! Ugh. Hang in there. Planning with the MIL went well. Our challenge is our college age daughter will only be able to join us for four of our 11 days or may not be able to come at all. And she has some things that she wants to see during those 4 days. It makes my head hurt!

At first I was going to argue with you, but you're right; we do have a lot left undecided! It's more I've decided how things will work well but am only 2/3rds sure since two of our group have never been before. I do know one of them is highly interested in Frontierland and Animal Kingdom while the other wants to see Disney Springs and enjoys shopping. It's something! I hope your daughter will be able to join you. Is there a semester break in there or just for the long weekend?

I'll get in on this thread as well, even though it is all tentative right now. As my ticker indicates, we were originally planning on going in September 2017. But some real-life stuff is making me think that February would be better for us. Now I just have to convince my wife of that! ..... My biggest concern is that we drive from Wisconsin, and who knows what the weather will be like for our Wisconsin departure and "re-entry". My wife has two concerns; first, we'd be taking our vacation really early in the year and would have nothing to look forward to the rest of the year. The second concern is increased ride rehabs, which she's heard is typical this time of the year. All legitimate concerns (both hers and mine), but nothing that I'd consider a showstopper. We'll see how convincing I can be the next few weeks...
I figure as far as weather goes, we can just watch the forecast and play it by ear. We'd leave on a Saturday morning, and if a storm is coming we can leave town Friday night and drive to somewhere in southern Illinois to say the night; or leave later Saturday and maybe making our stopping point a little more north that we had intended. If we're flexible, we can make it work.

(Tentative) Welcome to the crew! For what it's worth, changing dates so someone can be there on their actual birthday is certainly a good enough reason in my book We drive or fly from up on Lake Erie so the weather is a concern for us, too. What you have in mind for leaving a night earlier or making your stop further north than expected on Saturday is a good plan. We employed that trick last trip (heading 2 hours to the airport the night prior to avoid driving in the dark during a bad snowstorm) and, despite hitting the early bits of the storm on the way down, found that doing so was well worth the extra money for our safety! Ride rehabs --- maybe Splash or Kali River Rapids, and definitely one of the water parks, but the weather is just nice enough that you really aren't hankering to walk around wet for an hour anyway. Lastly, what do you have to look forward to if you vacation so early in the year??? No idea, I don't know your family well enough. But how about cutting your winter short with a week of Florida sunshine and coming back to only a week or two more of winter before Spring arrives?

Whichever time of year you go, I hope your family has loads of fun! Until then, lets get this list of "Get Wifey On Board with February" started.....
Reason 1 -- Winter cut short
Reason 2 -- awesome weather (with less chance of daily rain than in September)
Reason 3 -- (someone jump in)

 

[AaronInWI]

At first I was going to argue with you, but you're right; we do have a lot left undecided! It's more I've decided how things will work well but am only 2/3rds sure since two of our group have never been before. I do know one of them is highly interested in Frontierland and Animal Kingdom while the other wants to see Disney Springs and enjoys shopping. It's something! I hope your daughter will be able to join you. Is there a semester break in there or just for the long weekend?



(Tentative) Welcome to the crew! For what it's worth, changing dates so someone can be there on their actual birthday is certainly a good enough reason in my book We drive or fly from up on Lake Erie so the weather is a concern for us, too. What you have in mind for leaving a night earlier or making your stop further north than expected on Saturday is a good plan. We employed that trick last trip (heading 2 hours to the airport the night prior to avoid driving in the dark during a bad snowstorm) and, despite hitting the early bits of the storm on the way down, found that doing so was well worth the extra money for our safety! Ride rehabs --- maybe Splash or Kali River Rapids, and definitely one of the water parks, but the weather is just nice enough that you really aren't hankering to walk around wet for an hour anyway. Lastly, what do you have to look forward to if you vacation so early in the year??? No idea, I don't know your family well enough. But how about cutting your winter short with a week of Florida sunshine and coming back to only a week or two more of winter before Spring arrives?

Whichever time of year you go, I hope your family has loads of fun! Until then, lets get this list of "Get Wifey On Board with February" started.....
Reason 1 -- Winter cut short
Reason 2 -- awesome weather (with less chance of daily rain than in September)
Reason 3 -- (someone jump in)

Ha ha! Thanks for all of that! I think the biggest benefit you mentioned was #2 - the weather. It isn't even the rain for us -- we put on rain coats and Keens and hit the parks. What gets to us is the stifling heat. I saw that the average high in Orlando in February is in the 70's with a low in the 50's. That's comfortable shorts and t-shirt or light jacket weather. Perfect! Shoot, we do somersaults when we get that kind of weather in late spring in Wisconsin. Right now I'd say I'm 85% sure we'll be heading down in February. As soon as I get something booked, I'll let you know so you can update the log!

 

[GirlOutlaw]

37 days till ADRs and I am going stir crazy

To feel "productive" in the interim I have started working on costumes for the DDs. If you listen to my DH I go over board but, I love sewing and Disney and when you put them together well.....

so far I have fabric and patterns to start 2ea. Jane Porter (Tarzan) and 1ea. Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, the " make it blue/pink dress. Just waiting on Amazon to ship me the LED fiber optic lights so the dress will twinkle and fade from pink to blue in splotches of "fairy dust".)

still need to gather fabric for 2 Minnie mouse dresses, 1 Merida, 1 female pirate, 2 ea. Jasmine, 1ea Lady Tremaine, 1ea half pink/half blue Cinderella ( another Transformation dress...okay maybe I am crazy...lol), 1ea Isabella Fireside Girl Uniform (Phineas & Ferb), 1 Evil Queen, 1 Maleficent and at least 2 others...haven't decided yet, maybe a Joly Holiday Mary Poppins....

we are going for 2 weeks and I make a costume for each day, plus "robes/jackets" (these are open front costumes that go over for cooler nights, this will be the evil Queen & Maleficent)

I am also shopping for "inspired looks" for myself to match the DDs as much as possible.

I am planning on getting RSVPs for DDs at BBB and the whole lot of us at Pirates League...cant wait!

 

[jgeib]

Joining the Feb thread...

I pushed our week back to 1/29-2/6 @ CBR after the Pro Bowl news... Now the question to the Feb peeps... Go to the parks during the Super Bowl or plan on watching the Super Bowl *somewhere???

 

[hodad]

Two families. Feb. 20-28, off-site, then last two nights on-site somewhere TBD. I'll probably book Pop Century and then check DVC rentals next week, then wait until the Fall to see if there are any good AP room discounts.

 

[babiipiggiex3]

Will be staying offsite, but our dates are 2/16-2/25!!

 

[cmarsh31]

Joining the thread! Flights are booked! DVC for the first half rented!
Feb 18-26th, BVC & OKW split-stay
First 4 days are with MIL, FIL, SIL, her hubby & 2 DNephews. 2nd half is with friends and their mothers - I wanted to do POR for the 2nd half but they're getting a 2bd room at OKW and we all want to be in the same resort. Plus - the Princess 5k for me, friend, and her mom! Going to be our longest trip so far and I'm so excited! Spreadsheet is an endless work-in-progress (will the Star Wars dessert party still be around? Will ROL ever open? Will I finally get a BOG PPO breakfast ADR?)

Traveling with the ILs will be...exciting... they haven't gone since DH & SIL were elementary/middle school. Their options are to do what I've got on the spreadsheet and I'll make all their ADRs & FPs or make their own choices

Can't wait to obsessively plan with all of you!

 

[AaronInWI]

I'd say it is official enough now that I can start to officially plan my trip! My in-laws marked it on their calendar to watch the dog, and that's about as official as you can get. Our dates have changed slightly -- we'll now be allowing ourselves three days to drive down instead of two, just to account for any potentially bad weather. Our new dates are now Feb 7-13. Most likely I'll be booking at BLT, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a discount at the CR Tower, in which case we'll move over there (and MAYBE add a day). I now have 24 days to figure out ADR's, which shouldn't be a big deal since we always do Plaza Restaurant for lunch on arrival day, Hoop Dee Doo some night in the middle, and then a TS our last night in the parks. Besides that, it is all QS for us.

Let the planning begin!

 

[6travel]

Putting my name on the list for February 2017. It will be our third February visit. Love the weather break from the midwest.
We stay at AoA Jan 29-Feb4.

 

[judypriv]

I'm in MAYBE. Parents can babysit dogs, just waiting for the ok from hubby's work. Yay! We've been so broke we haven't been to disney in two 1/2 years by then. Big change from going twice a year!

 

[MamaMaleficent2016]

At first I was going to argue with you, but you're right; we do have a lot left undecided! It's more I've decided how things will work well but am only 2/3rds sure since two of our group have never been before. I do know one of them is highly interested in Frontierland and Animal Kingdom while the other wants to see Disney Springs and enjoys shopping. It's something! I hope your daughter will be able to join you. Is there a semester break in there or just for the long weekend?

There isn't even a long weekend. She will miss class and work, since she's an RA. My guess is she will opt to stay at school, since our last trip was just in 2015... She was there the whole time. I just wish she would decide now instead of later!

37 days till ADRs and I am going stir crazy

we are going for 2 weeks and I make a costume for each day, plus "robes/jackets" (these are open front costumes that go over for cooler nights, this will be the evil Queen & Maleficent)

And I thought I was doing good getting some custom ears and fun shirts! Wow! That is awesome you do all that sewing. How fun.

Joining the Feb thread...

I pushed our week back to 1/29-2/6 @ CBR after the Pro Bowl news... Now the question to the Feb peeps... Go to the parks during the Super Bowl or plan on watching the Super Bowl *somewhere???

Um....I'm a Browns fan. What's this Super Bowl you speak of? Haha! I will add you to Roll Call.


And a big to @jgeib @hodad @babiipiggiex3 @cmarsh31 @6travel and (maybe) @judypriv !! I will add you to roll call.

 

[jpeden]

My wife and I along with my parents will be staying at BLT in two studios Feb. 12-17. We are so excited. My parents have never stayed on property (except for mom who camped at Ft. Wilderness a few times in the 70's right after WDW opened) and my wife and I have stayed at AKL-Kidani and the Poly.

I'm excited to show my parents all that has changed since the last time they went (late 90's). I'm really looking forward to being able to walk to the Magic Kingdom and take the monorail to Epcot.

I'm hopeful that the week we are going will be lower crowds since it's before both President's Day and the Princeas Half Marathon but should be far enough away from the WDW Marathon crowds that may hang around through the end of February. Only 207 more days to go!

 

[Dreamport]

There isn't even a long weekend. She will miss class and work, since she's an RA. My guess is she will opt to stay at school, since our last trip was just in 2015... She was there the whole time. I just wish she would decide now instead of later!

But Muh~OOOOOOOOOM, it's DISNEY you're talking about! How do you quickly and willingly think like an adult and realise, in the end, you're going to stay put at school when visions of Tinkerbells and Dole Whips are dancing through your head because who says no to family time at Disney?!?!

The two newbies of our group are off camping for the moment, but when they come back I'm going to sit down with them and hash out their final food choices, plus the one is going to not-so-subtly nudge their boss to try and get a glimpse at vacation time next year, which will give us a better idea of what weekend to shoot for. We're taking this in baby steps. Book food, plane and resort, park days, fast passes. All at once might make their heads explode.

 

[awaydrink]

Glad I found this thread! I've just been planning and planning with no place to share my excitement.

Reservations are all set POR from 2/2-2/8, flight is booked (yes its very early-ha!), ADRs are just waiting to get made! I'll be going with a good friend and we will be celebrating it as a Bachelorette Disney Trip since she is getting married later in the year.

 

[GirlOutlaw]

flight is booked (yes its very early-ha

Got to book early to get the flights you want! We booked flights back the 1st week of March, lol (got them all on miles and only had to pay $55 in taxes/fees)

Welcome to the thread!

 

[GirlOutlaw]

And I thought I was doing good getting some custom ears and fun shirts! Wow! That is awesome you do all that sewing. How fun.

As soon as I found out we were having a DD I told my DH " we are taking her to Disney and I am going to make a different princess dress for her each day." well now that was 11 years and 3 Disney trips later. We now have 2 DDs so yeah I'm still sewing. This will be older DDs last time in costume as she will hit the 12yr age limit in May so I'm going all out for her, and my 4yr DD is in between sizes of her older sis's costumes so, yeah I'm sewing all new for her too.

 

[Dreamport]

GirlOutlaw, it's awesome what you're doing for your girls! DSis and I are just searching through our closets and clearance racks to piece together Disneybounds for each leg of the trip. They are going to have such wonderful memories (and you can even keep them around for a decade or so for a new generation). Please say you'll share pics of the outfits when they're done? Or along the way.

 

[GirlOutlaw]

Please say you'll share pics of the outfits when they're done? Or along the way.

Sure, here a few from past trips

 

[Dreamport]

Hrm, they're not showing up on my end. But then our internet has been scatterbrained after 10pm.