*****Official October 2011 Thread*****

[bellebookworm9]

Southwest has dropped a ton of fares-our return flight is now $80! Trying to get it changed now...

Southwest is actually running a promotion for 72 hours only! Fares must be purchased by June 23. $40 one way for flights 0-450 miles, $80 one way for 451-1250 miles, $120 one way for 1251+ miles.

Promotional rates not available for flights on Fridays or Sundays!

For all of you that have been waiting to book your airfare....THIS may be your chance! Possibly prices you can't beat!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!

I just changed it-saved $120! Now we have credits to use for our grad school scouting trip in January!

 

[Parla]

Looks like a lot, but the green ones are the only ones I'm set on right now. I'd like to move Coral Reef to 10/17 or 10/21 and switch CP to CM on 10/21. After writing all of this out, I'm beginning to think my DH is correct and I'm going crazy. This is supposed to be a vacation, right?

Yes, it's an awesome vacation. Some people don't like having to stop for ADRs and such but it always makes our vacation so much easier. I love knowing where we're going to eat (no arguing) and not having to try and find a place to sit down with the tray is worth the extra time spent in the sit down restaurants. All these hours that go into planning can really make the fun part more enjoyable.

 

[MinnieLee]

Not that we are on countdown but....... October 28th through November 6th at BCV!!!!

 

[sjs314]

Yes, it's an awesome vacation. Some people don't like having to stop for ADRs and such but it always makes our vacation so much easier. I love knowing where we're going to eat (no arguing) and not having to try and find a place to sit down with the tray is worth the extra time spent in the sit down restaurants. All these hours that go into planning can really make the fun part more enjoyable.

I have to agree with you 100% about that. Nothing worse than standing in a long line waiting to order then after finally getting your food searching for a place to sit down.

Not that we are on countdown but....... October 28th through November 6th at BCV!!!!

Whose counting 118 days here!

 

[disneygal58]

Eighteen Weeks! 126 Days!!!!!! Come on Free Dining!!!!!
Is it true that you can no longer purchase Disney Dollars at Disney Stores?

Dawn

 

[attain]

Yes, it's an awesome vacation. Some people don't like having to stop for ADRs and such but it always makes our vacation so much easier. I love knowing where we're going to eat (no arguing) and not having to try and find a place to sit down with the tray is worth the extra time spent in the sit down restaurants. All these hours that go into planning can really make the fun part more enjoyable.

I have to agree with you 100% about that. Nothing worse than standing in a long line waiting to order then after finally getting your food searching for a place to sit down.

Yes, especially with a child who will need breaks anyway. Even before kids, we realized taking the time to site down, relax, and eat gave us renewed energy. Of course, we take our time in the parks and don't really plan how the day will go other than what parks we will be at what day.

Whose counting 118 days here!

116 days for us! I hate to wish away summer, but I'm so ready to see that castle again!

 

[exwdwcm]

We chose to take the 5:45am flight. I HATE waking up that early. That now means we have to wake up at 3:00 am to leave for the airport by 3:30 am at the latest. But, at least we get to MCO at 10:50am We will head out to downtown disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich. Then over to OKW resort to see if our villa is ready. Plenty of time to go buy groceries and head to a disney park.

I like taking the early flights! HOwever, DH does NOT. Last December, we took a 6am flight out of Dallas and so we were up at like 3:30am. He hated it. So this trip, he said no way. boo!!! i love arriving early and having the whole day. However, he was sort of right this last time. we arrived at 9;45am, did DTD, then tried to check in BLT by 1pm, room not ready. We were so ready for a nap, especially my 3yo. Our room wasn't ready until almost 4pm. So we had been going 12 hours straight and poor DS was exhausted! We were all pretty cranky! lol! This year we are on a noon flight, arriving at 6. but it is earlier than I had planned, we had planned to come in late that night, but i talked DH into an earlier flight (due to pricing!).

Just read the first and last page and perhaps one day will try to weed through the others!
Add us to the party! October 26th through November 2nd. 2 Rooms at Pop Century. Myself and new hubby as well as my two now grown daughters and one of their boyfriends. SOOOOO excited - haven't been in 5 years. First trip for my handsome man and daughter Erin's boyfriend!
Looking forward to munching our way around the Food and Wine Festival. Just looked at Park hours, thinking no early entry days (first time ever), but no real plans. It is so different travelling with adult "children". Hoping for Free Dining.
I have the Planning Party scheduled - July 16th, complete with prizes for the Trivia Contest. Planning DVD, every Disney feature from the Travel Channel, HGTV and History Channel. (Maybe I should have alerted my DH to my slight obsession before we married?????)

Thanks,
Dawn

woo hoo- welcome! love the planning party. We do that on our big extended family trips too. My DH just rolls his eyes when we start watching disney shows or the video. He's like- can't you see that when you get there?

After waiting what seemed like FOREVER (actually 3 months), I got a PIN today and booked our trip! (Just 16% off, but better than nothing!) They didn't have any standard rooms available at any of the moderate resorts, but I was able to get Pop Century. We've only stayed at POR in the past. Any comments on the differences? I may call back later to see if any moderate resorts get an opening. I'd love to stay at POFQ. I also went ahead and booked Cape May Cafe breakfast, but may change it to a breakfast that includes Mickey if I can. If FD comes out, I'll probably switch to that. I went ahead and booked the DDP since I figured we want to eat at LTT, Nine Dragons, and at least 1 character meal.

Any suggestions on good character meals for a a 2 year old? He knows the fab 5, but not Winnie the Pooh or Disney Jr. characters.

The only big thing I still have to do is buy our MNSSHP tickets. Oh, and figure out who is going to watch the dogs while we are gone!

And after my fun Father's Day plans getting ruined, it was nice to have some Disney magic in my email.

I can't comment on the value resort, but I love POR and POFQ too!

for the character meal- we took my son at 2.5. He loved Crystal Palace, but he knew the Pooh characters. We also did Chef MIckey's and he really enjoyed that! Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and nice buffet. We prefer the breakfast over dinner. Plus, great chance to explore the Contemporary. Another good one we are trying is O'hana at the Poly for breakfast. Stitch, Lilo, Mickey and I think Pluto.

I am so sorry again. Meant to post last week, but Justin had a doctor's appt daily last week and after driving to and from the children's hospital in north Atlanta, I was exhausted after getting home. I am super busy this week too, with work stuff. I promise I will get caught up with the list next week, both kids will be at Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps and dh is going to camp with Justin, so I will be alone all week.

to all the newbies to the thread. I hope everyone has welcomed you all with open arms. This group is great! If you want your info on the list, please PM me.

Gotta go make dinner, hope you all have a great night.

sounds like you are busy busy busy! welcome back!

 

[Mom2micayla]

Eighteen Weeks! 126 Days!!!!!! Come on Free Dining!!!!!
Is it true that you can no longer purchase Disney Dollars at Disney Stores?

Dawn

True, unfortunately. The only place I know you can buy them is actually at WDW or DLR.

111 days for me today. Still debating on MNSSHP. It's over $300 for my family of 6 to go, which is outrageous IMO. I wouldn't even consider it, but my kids were watching the planning dvd (they have no idea we're going!) and all 4 of my kids were like "wow! That looks sooooo cool!". Ehhh, I don't know.. I might splurge, but it just seems like so much for what you get. They seemed interested in Pirates League too, so maybe I'll do that instead. They do girls at Pirate's League too, right? I have 2 boys and 2 girls. I wish WDW had a Studio Disney 365 like Disneyland. My girls got their "big girl" makeover done there 2 weeks ago and LOVED it! It was way cheaper than BBB, and not so "princess" geared.. more like rock star/Hannah Montana/Selena Gomez, etc.

 

[iteach7th]

Still debating on MNSSHP. It's over $300 for my family of 6 to go, which is outrageous IMO. I wouldn't even consider it, but my kids were watching the planning dvd (they have no idea we're going!) and all 4 of my kids were like "wow! That looks sooooo cool!". Ehhh, I don't know.. I might splurge, but it just seems like so much for what you get.

For several years we went and would be in MK on the days of MNSSHP but never went. We always planned on being on the back side of the park when they started announcing closing for MK, catch a few rides because the lines were down and slowly walk to the front. It was amazing to watch the transformation that MK went through with the decorations coming out and all the people that appeared in costume. Finally we sucked it up and bought tickets the last visit. It was WONDERFUL!! Was it really worth the $300 it cost us? Probably not THAT much but it was close. That was the one part of the trip that they talked the most about once we got back.
I was glad that we waited until the kids were a little older - at that time the youngest person in our traveling party was 5. Between us and my sister's family we had 5 kids from age 5 to 12. The ones that enjoyed it the most were age 8 and up. We didn't do costumes except my DS who was 8 went as Darth Vader - we found a Mickey halloween applique and had shirts made for the girls and my 12 yr old DS who was too "cool" for dressing up wore a shirt that said "This is my Costume".
The fireworks were unbelieveable, never seen anything like it before. You must be in front of the castle to watch because of all the special effects and we through the first parade was so great - we came back for the 2nd parade. There are so many character meet and greets with short lines and it is characters that you don't usually see like Tarzan, Jane and the monkey. You can not ride a single ride and have a wonderful time!

 

[Parla]

True, unfortunately. The only place I know you can buy them is actually at WDW or DLR.

111 days for me today. Still debating on MNSSHP. It's over $300 for my family of 6 to go, which is outrageous IMO. I wouldn't even consider it, but my kids were watching the planning dvd (they have no idea we're going!) and all 4 of my kids were like "wow! That looks sooooo cool!". Ehhh, I don't know.. I might splurge, but it just seems like so much for what you get. They seemed interested in Pirates League too, so maybe I'll do that instead. They do girls at Pirate's League too, right? I have 2 boys and 2 girls. I wish WDW had a Studio Disney 365 like Disneyland. My girls got their "big girl" makeover done there 2 weeks ago and LOVED it! It was way cheaper than BBB, and not so "princess" geared.. more like rock star/Hannah Montana/Selena Gomez, etc.

The main reason we are even taking this trip is because I wanted to take the kids to MNSSHP before they were too old to appreciate it (had forgotten when F&W was so that's a pure bonus for ME). I know it's a lot of money but I've heard so many wonderful things about it. DD8 is not remembering much about the trips we took when she was 3 and 4 so I'm expecting this one to truly leave lifetime memories etched in her brain.

 

[Mom2micayla]

For several years we went and would be in MK on the days of MNSSHP but never went. We always planned on being on the back side of the park when they started announcing closing for MK, catch a few rides because the lines were down and slowly walk to the front. It was amazing to watch the transformation that MK went through with the decorations coming out and all the people that appeared in costume. Finally we sucked it up and bought tickets the last visit. It was WONDERFUL!! Was it really worth the $300 it cost us? Probably not THAT much but it was close. That was the one part of the trip that they talked the most about once we got back.
I was glad that we waited until the kids were a little older - at that time the youngest person in our traveling party was 5. Between us and my sister's family we had 5 kids from age 5 to 12. The ones that enjoyed it the most were age 8 and up. We didn't do costumes except my DS who was 8 went as Darth Vader - we found a Mickey halloween applique and had shirts made for the girls and my 12 yr old DS who was too "cool" for dressing up wore a shirt that said "This is my Costume".
The fireworks were unbelieveable, never seen anything like it before. You must be in front of the castle to watch because of all the special effects and we through the first parade was so great - we came back for the 2nd parade. There are so many character meet and greets with short lines and it is characters that you don't usually see like Tarzan, Jane and the monkey. You can not ride a single ride and have a wonderful time!

Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely contemplating it. It's just hard to swallow paying $380 for only 5 hours, kwim? If I buy the tickets, I'll just have to not think about what all I could do with that money instead.

Does anyone know why certain dates are more expensive? The only dates that work for me are Oct 13th and 16th. On the 16th I have Garden Grill @6:30 which I know I won't be able to find any other night, so that almost forces me to go on the 13th, which lucky for me, is more expensive. I'd think a Thurs. would be cheaper than Sun., but apparently not.

 

[smitch425]

Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely contemplating it. It's just hard to swallow paying $380 for only 5 hours, kwim? If I buy the tickets, I'll just have to not think about what all I could do with that money instead.

Does anyone know why certain dates are more expensive? The only dates that work for me are Oct 13th and 16th. On the 16th I have Garden Grill @6:30 which I know I won't be able to find any other night, so that almost forces me to go on the 13th, which lucky for me, is more expensive. I'd think a Thurs. would be cheaper than Sun., but apparently not.

You can get into MK as early as 4pm with your party ticket so you really get 8 hours of park time. I have no idea why some nights are more expensive than the others. We are going on the 16th.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

The nights that are more expensive are the ones that tend to sell out..like putting a premium on your holiday buffets. We aren't going to any parks that day other than MK for the party because you can enter with your MNSSHP ticket at 4pm..that gives you much more than just 5 hours for your ticket cost!!

 

[attain]

I can't comment on the value resort, but I love POR and POFQ too!

for the character meal- we took my son at 2.5. He loved Crystal Palace, but he knew the Pooh characters. We also did Chef MIckey's and he really enjoyed that! Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and nice buffet. We prefer the breakfast over dinner. Plus, great chance to explore the Contemporary. Another good one we are trying is O'hana at the Poly for breakfast. Stitch, Lilo, Mickey and I think Pluto.

After reading your reply, I checked the website to see what character meals were available, thinking I would book O'hana if I could. A 5:20pm Garden Grill was suddenly available, so I took that one. I haven't seen any openings for Garden Grill for any of our dates! I think it will be nice that our last meal in the park is with Mickey! Now, we will have 1 TS meal a day, which I think will be nice and not too overwhelming. I have to verify my choices with DH tonight, but I will be canceling 4 of our ADRs this evening (2 for LTT, 1 Coral Reef, 1 Crystal Palace.) I will post it in the cancelation thread before I cancel.

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Can you add me to the list? Oct 14-22 All Star Sports!

 

[exwdwcm]

Eighteen Weeks! 126 Days!!!!!! Come on Free Dining!!!!!
Is it true that you can no longer purchase Disney Dollars at Disney Stores?

Dawn

yep, no more disney dollars at the disney stores. only in the parks. My mom used to buy them for us and do disney movie nights before our trip and do games to hand them out as rewards. now they are sort of forcing you to buy the gift cards instead.

After reading your reply, I checked the website to see what character meals were available, thinking I would book O'hana if I could. A 5:20pm Garden Grill was suddenly available, so I took that one. I haven't seen any openings for Garden Grill for any of our dates! I think it will be nice that our last meal in the park is with Mickey! Now, we will have 1 TS meal a day, which I think will be nice and not too overwhelming. I have to verify my choices with DH tonight, but I will be canceling 4 of our ADRs this evening (2 for LTT, 1 Coral Reef, 1 Crystal Palace.) I will post it in the cancelation thread before I cancel.

I didn't even think of Garden Grill, that is one we haven't done yet, but will probably try and do next trip since we want to eventually try every restaurant. it sounds like a great one! 1 TS meal a day is what we like to do as well and doing it at lunch (especially if you don't take a midday break) is great- sort of a built in break.

Can you add me to the list? Oct 14-22 All Star Sports!

woo hoo- those are our dates too! We are at BLT! welcome!!!

 

[exwdwcm]

back from a great week in the Smoky Mountains, our first vacation this year! Of course the schedule change while i was gone freaked me out, but it appears it hasn't messed with our plans really. I hadn't planned on Epcot EMH really anyhow for night. I had planned Epcot morning EMH, but the day they moved it to, i was already plannign to do Epcot that am too- so no biggie!

heading to Vegas for 6 nights in late July for our big work user conference. I hate being in Vegas for that long. I was just there twice last year. Any good new restaurants to recommend? of course i might have to stop by Earle!

Just booked a short weekend to San diego for August 25th too! Have to be there for a day for work and since I wasn't able to use my 2 free AA vouchers for WDW, i was able to fly DH and DS out to SD. So that is vacation #2. any tips on what to see other than the zoo or legoland (and beach of course). we only have thursday night (after 5), friday, Saturday and then until about 3pm on sunday.

WDW is vacation #3!!! That is the one I am most looking forward to of course! October can't get here soon enough.

 

[lmc318]

Southwest has dropped a ton of fares-our return flight is now $80! Trying to get it changed now...

How are you doing that??????? Ours are still so expensive! Man!

Good for you thought!

I'm having a crappy day at work. I just sat through a 6 hour demo and I'm tired. I have to get 2 spinal MRIs done tonight and I'm just thinking I spent all morning sitting in a chair and I'll spend 2 hours this evening in a tube. Not a happy day. I think I'll surf the DIS the rest of the day!!

 

[Family Loves Disney]

The list is update as of now. Please check to see if your info is correct. If your info is not on the list, just PM me.

to all the newbies to the thread. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. The people here are great and my hope is that you will come to call them friends if not family as I have.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Thanks! I looked at your TR and it was very helpful, thanks! I've made some dining reservations, I'm hoping my almost 3 year old will enjoy as much as your son did!

When I called to make reservations for Tusker House, the CM offered to help me figure out what other meals we wanted with our DDP meals. After getting off the phone, I realized some of them won't work. I have only cancelled one so far because I'm still not 100% sure on what we will be doing and I don't want to give us the timeslot until we have decided. My biggest concern is that we have Coral Reef booked for the only night that Fantasmic is showing while we are there. We haven't seen the show for the last 3 or 4 trips, so we'd really like to make this one. And I keep hoping they will add another day or two of the show so we can see it another night and keep our reservation as it is. Anyway, here is my current list. I will eventually be narrowing it down to only 6 meals.

I think my DS will do better with breakfast or lunch than dinners. In case he gets cranky as the day goes on, I'd like to be free to return to the hotel and not miss an ADR. Comments/Suggestions welcome!

10/16 (arrival day) @ 6:40pm - 1900 Park Fare
10/17 @ 8:30am - Tusker House
10/18 @ 11:55am - Liberty Tree Tavern (probably will cancel)
10/18 @ 5:20pm - Liberty Tree Tavern (MNSSHP night, so will probably keep this one)
10/19 @ 12:05pm - 50's Prime Time Cafe (One of DH good memories from before we met and I've never had it.)
10/19 @ 6:20pm - Liberty Tree Tavern (probably will cancel - we really like LTT, can you tell? )
10/20 @ noon - Nine Dragons (DH favorite)
10/20 @ 7:35pm - Coral Reef
10/21 @ 9:15am - Crystal Palace (will probably cancel, especially if I can get Chef Mickey's)

Looks like a lot, but the green ones are the only ones I'm set on right now. I'd like to move Coral Reef to 10/17 or 10/21 and switch CP to CM on 10/21. After writing all of this out, I'm beginning to think my DH is correct and I'm going crazy. This is supposed to be a vacation, right?

I added just the green ones so once you know for sure what you are going to keep, post them again!