Onsite for the first time in forever. October 2014 PTR

[JMSMommy]

Okay, so we are a fairly Disney obsessed family that would be more so IF we had more money to spend on Disney trips. Aren't we all though?! There are 6 of us in our family (thus why we typically end up offsite for our vacations).

Seriously, we were hard core Disney fans for our first few trips and always stayed onsite. Then, our family grew and grew and grew. My in-laws gave us a week at Bonnet Creek and we just fell in love with having SPACE…and a washer and dryer in the unit. Once we added our youngest it became more of a financial decision and we stayed in Windsor Hills. When my family joined us, we were going to have 14 (ended up with 12) and we rented a 5 bedroom house with private pool and were completely spoiled. When FastPass+ was announced, we knew our days of offsite were numbered (and we have had to take fewer trips). This trip is 2.5 years from our last, and the longest we’ve been away from Disney since our oldest was 2!

Basically, free dining got us. Hey, feeding 6 people (3 of which are competitive swimmers isn’t cheap)! So, now we’re staying onsite for the first time in forever (well since February 2007).

So, this is us November 2010

My husband is Britt - who is recognizable while in the parks because he always wears a pirate Goofy hat. Why? 1 - so we can spot him easily in a crowd, 2 - he's growing a wee bit older and that hair is thinning...and well Florida sun. I’ll have to link his DisBoards user name here, and maybe he will join in and tell his side of things. He’s my enginerd…er engineer excel guru.

Me - I'm the one happily gazing at the clusters of balloons enjoying the little sounds they make as they bump against each other in the wind. Well, really, it's more I'm pushing a stroller, trying to keep track of the kids, and still trying to absorb the magic of the place. I used to love planning Disney trips, then I planned a trip for 12 people. I am trying to adjust to Fastpass+ now, and I must say there are things I like and things I dislike. I’m just truly thankful we aren’t trying to plan this trip for 12 people! ::


Our oldest son is 15.5, he's been to Disney since he was 2 (which was 2 weeks after 9/11 and an offsite trip with the in-laws in their time share). He's a thrill ride junkie, and other than the rollercoasters, Le Cellier, Star Tours, and seeing his youngest sister ride "Tower to Tower" again he is most looking forward to visiting Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. His biggest distinction is the year Mission Space opened, he rode it 7 times in one day...as a 4 year old. My husband and I were about to pay people to take him on it. Oh, he also insists on scoring 999,999 on Buzz Lightyear each trip (and says if it stops then it's cheating). The plan this year is to put him with his youngest sister who insists on controlling the spinning. ::evil laugh::

Our 2nd child, our 12 year old son - is Mr. Happy Go Lucky (or was until those pesky teenage hormones started in). He has suffered my overprotectiveness at Disney for years, and he might actually get to ride Mission Space Orange this time (he gets motion sick when he spins in circles especially AND he has asthma). He loves rollercoasters, but is looking forward to Disney Quest. His first trip to Disney was when he was 19 months old and it was the most wonderful trip our of lives. It was truly magical, and it was when we really fell in love with Disney. I have the BEST photos of him as a tiny toddler hugging Sully, walking and dancing with Geppetto, playing with Pluto, and giving Goofy a "low" five.

Our 3rd child, our 8 year old daughter. Her main goal is finally see if she can meet all the Princes. Why? Because she thinks it's silly to like the princesses when the princes are so cool! Her favorite? Prince Charming. She's begged to meet him for the past 2 trips. She hates roller coasters, or really any indoor ride that has any surprises, or any outdoor ride that has a surprise. She has the distinction of being the ONLY child I have ever known to scream in terror on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Seriously. Her first trip was when she was 2.5, and she was screaming in terror on It's a Small World (it's indoors) until she realized it is dancing and singing dolls. Thus, Small World is now her favorite ride and we must ride it at least 5 times a trip.

Which brings us to our 4th child, our almost 7 year old daughter. She's the quintessential princess crazy 6 year old who loves anything glittery. This will be her 3rd trip. Her first trip was the week she turned 3 (she turned 3 on Thanksgiving y'all), then her second trip was in May 2012 when we met my family there making us have a total of 12 people. The girl likes to imitate her sister and say she's afraid of everything, but in May 2012 she was exactly 40" tall and rode Tower of Terror which she calls "Tower to Tower". When she got off of it, and came to find me, her eyes were HUGE and she said, "Momma, my stomach when into my eyes!" The photo of that was hilarious! My husband, my oldest son, my sister, her husband, her two kids and little bitty daughter across the back row. All 3 adults and my son were reaching for my daughter to make sure she was okay and didn't shoot out (she only weighed something like 28 pounds). We *think* she will love all the thrill rides (she's 44" now). But we are working hard to secure Elsa tickets to please this little princess.

Our May 2012 trip (this was our last day in the parks)

Enough about us…on to our decision to go to back to Disney!

and as soon as I can figure out HOW to do attachments other than linking from an older blog I will add in some of our fun images.

 

[JMSMommy]

well, hopefully I will be able to figure this one out. If not...well, just remember I tried. I really did, and once upon a time I used to be good at all things internet and website and forum. 4 kids have done me in!

The Big Decision - or rather, how can we make up last year's vacation to the kids?!

In which we experience vacation bloat...

We discover the horrific thing and very nearly lose all magic for this trip

The time our 15 year old made our hearts melt

FastPass+ selections, or the agony and ectasy

This is the Best! Day! Ever!

Hurry up and wait.

The 45th iteration of our plan

Next best day of planning our trip

To Party or Not to Party

 

[JMSMommy]

Background on our family. We love Disney. No one else in our family does. The rest of the extended family had kind of sort of guilted us into thinking about non-Disney vacations. We made out our lists of places we’d like to take the kids someday and it included Arizona/Grand Canyon, Hawaii, New York City/Boston/Philadelphia, Washington DC, China, Europe tour of the WW2 significant places (oh wait that was the oldest son's wish), and Yellowstone. So, our vacation for 2012 was in April/May to Disney with 6 of my immediate family members (my parents and my sister’s family). That should be sufficient to explain that trip (it was really lovely actually, and I promise I really didn’t try to kill my dad with all the walking but I grossly underestimated both his physical ability and the amount of walking we actually do in Disney). We spent a total of 12 days on that vacation. Yep…12.

That summer we heard that my husband’s sister had finally met “The ONE.” Since they are older, we knew it would not be a long engagement/dating, and thought to ourselves, okay so sometime in 2013 they will likely get married. That might have to be our vacation…a trip for her wedding. She lives in NYC, but we were hoping for a beach wedding. She chose Dec 7, 2013…in New York City. 3 of our kids were in the wedding (and we were beginning to think that this might become our most expensive vacation ever). We left the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving and got home on Monday December 9, so another incredibly long vacation. Thanksgiving Day and the 2nd day of our vacation found us in the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum, and my youngest daughter said, “Museums are boring. I hate museums.” Unfortunately the entire rest of our vacation was mostly museum. I think we visited 9 more museums after that day, and needless to say, the vacation was okay but not on the tops of any of our list. The highlight for the girls was getting to see their very first musical which was on Broadway and was Cinderella. They loved it (and now to explain why all other musicals and plays aren't exactly like Broadway ones).

We HAD to make it up to them, but the length of that trip was long, and New York City (and Baltimore and Philadelphia) are expensive when you have 6 people. So, we knew we had to wait for either a REALLY good deal and do a budget trip to Disney or wait until spring 2015. With the introduction of Fastpass+ we were evaluating all our options, and because we like staying offsite, we were considering annual passes. Only, that definitely was NOT a budget idea. But if we could do those, and plan for “The Year of Disney” then we could just not do Disney again for a very long time. The oldest was on board with this idea because he wants to do Star Wars weekends. I was thinking it would be a great 18th/19th/20th wedding anniversary trip (since we had honeymooned and spent our 10th anniversary there). Plus, if we had annual passes, maybe…perhaps…I could do a race. I had big plans. Unfortunately the budget was disagreeing. But since my sweet husband loves me, we started saving for Disney annual passes AND Universal annual passes (because why not at that point?).

Then, Disney announced free dining.

I called my friend “Fairy Godmother” who is a travel agent and I told her we have the Disney card, and she looked up 2 value resort rooms with free dining and 5 day base tickets. It was as cheap as we could ever expect to go. I quickly called my husband and told him what I was looking at – last week of October, 2 value rooms, free quick service dining. What did he think? He asked the price, and I was thrilled that he was excited as I was about the total. He pulled up his handy dandy excel spreadsheet, plugged in our “extras” like oh GAS to get there, typical expenditures on souvenirs, extra food stuff that the quick service dining would not cover for our family, and then he looked at our saved amount. We could do this!

I booked us at Pop Century! Wooohoo!!!! We had our confirmation email, and we were good to go. I started looking at Pinterest for count down ideas, got my TouringPlans account set up…and started planning.

I laid out which parks we were likely to go to on which days (it stays pretty much the same because we are creatures of habit and we do know to follow suggestions from TouringPlans). I also looked up Halloween Horror Nights at Universal so I would know which days to avoid those parks (got to keep the tween/teen happy with thrill rides and I want to see Diagon Alley).

I made the mistake of looking up dining reservations….
 

 

[JMSMommy]

So in my excitement, I look up dining reservations because there are some restaurants we always like to try to do. Only, I didn't look those up. Oh no, I didn't. I punched in 6 people for Cinderella’s Royal Table on the Wednesday. I got a 12:20 reservation pop up. I quickly…quickly called my friend the travel agent. I asked her what to do…do I reserve it? What do I do?!!! She told me to send her an email and she would see if she could get us EVERYTHING I wanted and good times. I wanted Be Our Guest on our arrival day, but since that was a MNSHHP night I doubted I could. I mean, we were less than 6 months out and there was a table for 6 at CRT!

I looked at my husband. I sent that email. Here was our “wish list” that I sent, and we had 6 nights:

Be Our Guest – Sunday
CRT – Wednesday or Sunday if BOG didn't happen
Le Cellier (didn't think we’d get it) - Monday
1900 Park Fare (because hello PRINCE CHARMING is there and our daughter would love it) - Thursday
Sci-Fi (because the boys love it) - Friday
Ohana breakfast for our off day - Thursday
Garden Grill dinner (because we like it) – Monday in place of LeCellier

Y’all, we got CRT, Le Cellier, 1900 Park Fare, Sci-Fi, and Garden Grill (which put us over). Ohana wasn't high on the priority, but we could have gotten this one I think. We were shocked, because we were less than 180 days out, party of 6, and free dining had been out for over 24 hours. We had to prepay for CRT of course since we weren't on the free table service dining yet. We booked it all with the idea that if we chose to stay with quick service dining we could cancel them.

Now, we had to decide – upgrade from quick service to table service and STAY in Pop Century or upgrade to Moderate resort? My husband wondered if the girls REALLY would want to eat in the castle because they are both kind of over Cinderella.

While I was on the phone with my friend, the girls were wandering around the kitchen and aware that I was talking Disney plans. I told them, “I’m on the phone with the Fairy Godmother, would you all like to eat in Cinderella’s Castle? Fairy Godmother is going to ask Cinderella if you can join her for lunch one day.” The girls jumped up and down with excitement, and my oldest daughter said, “You mean we can go IN the castle?!” That sealed the deal. Yes, indeed.

Upgrading to table service is an extra $500. Moderate resort room (times two you know) was another $500. We chose to get just a little bit extra room, and really Caribbean Beach resort looks so lovely!

Our “Fairy Godmother” started that process, and was supposed to call and get our pre-paid CRT changed over to our dining plan. We had a few months, so I wasn't too worried. I was just so excited to see the itinerary in My Disney Experience! All those lovely meals that I wasn't sure we’d get.

This left us trying to figure out the rest of our schedule, and trying to fit in Universal. The girls scare easily, so I didn't want to be there on a Halloween Horror night for sure. Didn't want to risk being in those parks on one of those days either, so limited choices (but those lined up with our days for Disney plans already). We were set, except instead of 2 days at Universal with 2 parks, we were looking at the 1 day 2 park tickets to Universal…and front of the line passes. Doing that meant no MNSHHP for sure.

Welcome to vacation bloat. We were now over what we had saved, but had a few months to save up more. It was still cheaper than the original plan of “The Year of Disney (and Universal)” though.

 

[JMSMommy]

The horrific event that still causes me nightmares with planning our trip:

After the initial flurry of vacation excitement, we settled into our normal life. Summer swim team started up. Our grocery bill expanded again. I worked on our personalized Touring Plans. In early July, I noticed that our CRT had not been credited back yet. So I called our “Fairy Godmother” who said she knew what to do and would take care of it. Dh noticed it was credited, and that was that.

We were counting down the days for FastPass+ selection, and when we were 4 days away from that we had dinner over at the “Fairy Godmother’s” home. She was asking us how our MDE accounts were because we had 2 rooms and sometimes things can be wonky.

Ours of course was wonky. We were trying to help our travel agent figure out what was wrong, and how she could help get it fixed. My husband’s account wasn't showing any of the kids, but we were linked. I was only showing that I and 3 kids had tickets but yet the itinerary said all 6 of us had tickets. Because we only paid one deposit, and had 2 rooms, we only had 1 reservation number. Typically, if you have 2 rooms you have 2 reservation numbers and it’s easy to link things properly. But, we had to be difficult I guess, and it was all wonky. While we were talking, I scrolled down and looked at all my itinerary. I had dining reservations for LeCellier, 1900 Park Fare, and Sci-Fi.

Where was Cinderella’s Royal Table?! We were almost 60 days out. WHERE WAS CRT?!!!!

In a panic, “Fairy Godmother” called Disney Dining. The CM who was “refunding” the amount cancelled the reservation. OOPS! (we've since learned the proper protocol is to cancel the reservation and immediately rebook using the dining credits when you have someone who previously paid for CRT that moves to dining plan). “Fairy Godmother” went up the chain, and the supervisor CM had to talk to the CRT manager to see if we could get an overbook since they (the CMs) could see it was their fault and not something we had done. We would not know anything until 3 days at the earliest because it was late Saturday night.

I am in a panic. Dh is in a panic. What do we do?! We are about 60 days out, and really what are the chances we can get a table for 6 now? We've already told the girls that Cinderella had invited them to eat in her castle. So, we waited and hoped for the best.

We got the snafu fixed with our wonky MDE. We researched how to book fastpasses because if we couldn't eat in the castle, then we really needed to make our youngest daughter’s wish to meet Elsa come true. We made plans of how could we possibly make this work. On Monday morning, I happened to check online for dining reservations, and a CRT for 2 people popped up. I quickly grabbed it, and talked to our travel agent. I didn't want to have it mess up if the manager could get us a 6 table, but I was hoping that they could expand the 2 person to at least a 3 IF they couldn't get a 6. We were worried about it, but I held onto it.

No one could tell us anything. We were in a wait and see mode…for 10+ days. I was getting frustrated. Dh was getting frustrated. “Fairy Godmother” was getting frustrated. It felt like our Disney vacation was tarnished. CRT was the reason we even thought of going to table service free dining. We had discussions of what to do if we couldn't get it – do we drop back to Pop Century and do the 30% off room rate and pay out of pocket for dining? If we do that, do we drop all table service? What about 1900 Park Fare and Prince Charming?! Did we really want to give up the extra space? We even discussed cancelling the entire vacation!

I can’t believe our CRT was cancelled on us by accident!

 

[JMSMommy]

So, there we were, waiting to find out about CRT and having to make FastPass+ reservations. We sat the 15 year old down and asked him for his opinion. Would he want to ride Dumbo with the family, or would he rather go with his brother and ride one of the thrill rides? Since he had already opted to ride Space Mountain while we took the girls to Anna and Elsa character meet (still hoping for those fast passes!), I expected him to say “Definitely skip Dumbo.” But he surprised me, oh yes he did! He said, “I would rather stay with the family as much as possible. I don’t want it to be a vacation of us splitting up. I actually want to see the girls’ faces when they get to climb into the castle to eat, and riding Dumbo is really classic. I would rather stay with you all as much as possible, but I really do NOT want to meet Anna and Elsa.”



I believe our hearts melted a little bit, and he earned some extra time on the computer to game with his friends. Plus, my heart cried out a little bit because he wanted to be with the girls when they ate in the castle and I ONLY had space for 1 adult and 1 child at the moment, and while I figured they could add in a second girl at the podium (they’re tiny girls and could even share a seat if they needed to), I did not see how I could make that happen without Disney doing something about the situation with CRT!

Now, the trick is going to be remembering that sweetness during one of our mornings on vacation when he is grouchy and grumpy and getting irritated by his siblings.
 

 

[JMSMommy]

We had done our research, and finally had our MDE all sorted out. We had the day/time we could book our fastpasses circled on the calendar, and I only had to remind my husband a few times it was 11:01pm the day before the magnet said because the magnet is set to EST. We kicked the boys off computers early, reset the router, rebooted all computers, and started the refresh-refresh-refresh. Dh had our 2nd day in MK and I had our 1st day.

No Anna and Elsa. Period. We even split up into singles.

But we did get 6 7DMT for our 2nd day at MK together, and got 3 at 12:30 and 3 at 3:30 on our 1st day at MK. Everything else we were able to get what we wanted. ::sigh::

The next day my husband was able to snag a single Anna and Elsa. Great, our 8 year old could go by herself. (not happening) The next day he snagged 2 (6 year old and me) for the OTHER day we are there).

Then, our 8 year old watched the video of 7DMT and looked at us and said, “That is a rollercoaster. I don’t ride rollercoasters.” Um, dear heart, you have fast passes for Space Mountain! We’ve been in a constant state of watching, rearranging, trying to figure out how to get these fast passes for a child we hope will actually LIKE some of the thrill rides when she gets there, fast passes for a child that will likely refuse to step onto anything but the Carousel and Small World, fast passes for 2 thrill seeking tween/teen boys, and still look for Anna and Elsa. Then, what IF little Miss I don’t ride rollercoasters decides she actually LIKES them?! We really kind of need those fastpasses for Space Mountain then to ride as a family.

::bang head::

The level of planning I am doing is more than we did for our wedding! I mean, touring New York City was less planning (and trying to find accommodations in December for a family of 6 that weren’t super-duper expensive was easier than planning this Disney trip).

After weeks of stalking MDE, our first day in MK we now have 5 7DMT together now, then 5 Space Mountain, then 1 7DMT, 1 Anna and Elsa, and 6 Peter Pan. It’s been 2 weeks of checking 3-5 times a day for alternate time to move that 1 7DMT and looking for other Anna and Elsa (still hoping though)! Right now, our plan is to drop the two singles, book a thrill ride, and in that 2 hour time slot opening where those were, Dh and I will take the girls standby for Anna and Elsa and send the boys to ride lots of somethings (hopefully we’ll get it all sorted out for the magic bands).


 

 

[vleeth]

Planning FP+ when you don't know what your kids will ride is a pain.

My DD rode a roller coaster at Sea World when she was 5 so planning for our last years trip she said she would ride every coaster (she was 8 on our last trip.)

Maybe going to Universal first is where we messed up. She got on The Mummy ride and that was the end of that. She did end up riding and enjoying BTMR and RNR. We skipped Hulk, Dragons & RRR (at Universal.)

The old FP system was much better for these situations.

 

[JMSMommy]

Planning FP+ when you don't know what your kids will ride is a pain.

My DD rode a roller coaster at Sea World when she was 5 so planning for our last years trip she said she would ride every coaster (she was 8 on our last trip.)

Maybe going to Universal first is where we messed up. She got on The Mummy ride and that was the end of that. She did end up riding and enjoying BTMR and RNR. We skipped Hulk, Dragons & RRR (at Universal.)

The old FP system was much better for these situations.

It's our 8 year old daughter, who is 48 inches that is terrified of any and all roller coaster type rides. It was definitely easier planning trips with the old fast pass system in this situation, because you'd know before pulling the fast passes that she would refuse to ride.

Glad that she ended up enjoying some of the fun rollercoasters! Here's hoping that both our daughters will learn to love them.

 

[JMSMommy]

Getting back to the CRT fiasco. We suffered through Labor Day (visiting with the in-laws at the beach which was better than being at home wondering if we could get CRT fixed or not). We had a few days until we had to pay in full, and we were still debating whether or not we'd drop free dining and all our dining reservations or not. But that would mean no Prince Charming at 1900 Park Fare. We were totally conflicted. We had some good friends go on their trip, and I loved following along as they posted photos which made us realize that we really were looking forward to going despite all the turmoil. Their sweet daughter showed up on Tuesday afternoon in an Elsa dress! Woah!! My youngest had been asking for an Elsa dress to wear at Disney and for Halloween. I had been looking online, around in stores, and had even resorted to Etsy (which has some beautiful dresses that are out of my budget range). So, I asked my friends that night where they got that dress, and when they told me that they had gotten it at Sir Mickey's that day, I was excited that it might be out there somewhere to purchase. I looked a little more and could NOT find anything.

Wednesday morning, it had been 10 ish days since we had found out about CRT, and I talked to my friend the travel agent again. She was planning to call once again that morning to see what the status was on whether or not the manager could get us in to CRT or not. Plus, she was going to ask what could be done to at least expand our 2 person reservation to a 3 (the poor teen and Dh wouldn't get to eat with the girls in the castle, but at least the girls could). I was just so frustrated by the whole experience at this point, and I decided to write up what had happened and how it came to be that it looked like we had cancelled a 6 person reservation and then called about it and then booked a 2 person. I was fairly nice (at least I think so), but I wanted someone to know what had happened so it would NOT happen to another family. Plus it had been around 10 days, and we still did not know anything. My written up account ended up being 3 pages typed in word. I ended up with telling them that I did not know which girl to choose if I had to choose, and thus I would not. Which led to me dreading the conversation with them where I had to inform them that Cinderella had uninvited them to the castle. In girls' eyes, THAT is how they were going to feel about it because when we booked it, I told them Cinderella had invited them to the castle.

Around lunch, after scouring the internet for Elsa dresses yet again, I sent a message to our friends asking (or rather begging) if they could pick up an Elsa dress in size 5/6 for our youngest daughter. I figured, it can't hurt to ask, right?!

A few hours later, and about 4 hours from when I sent the email to Disney, my friend and our “Fairy Godmother” called to say “I have GREAT news!!!” Disney fixed our CRT and had expanded our reservation for 2 to a reservation for 6!!!!! I think I started crying while jumping up and down. Our new reservation was at 2 (which was 2 hours later than our original, but at this point who cares…we get to eat in the castle with the girls). She then told me there was a little snafu, the manager charged our Visa for the extra 4 people and did not use our dining credits. However, no one was going to touch this reservation to even attempt to fix that. We are to tell the CRT cast members when we check in, and our server, that we want it all on DDP credits and to refund the charged amount to our Visa. I hope it’s as easy as that, but we have CRT back.

::big HUGE sigh of relief::

Then just a little bit later I get a message back from my friends saying that of course they could pick up an Elsa dress for my daughter. Oh this day just kept getting better! She warned me that they ran out of the dresses quickly, but she thought they could get it. Okay, so I wasn’t going to be totally excited about it until they had the dress in hand, but I thought it was a good chance. That night, Dh got a text from our friends saying that the dress was bought!

Best! Day! Ever!

The only thing that could have made it better was to get Anna and Elsa fastpasses, but alas, we couldn’t get them.

Our 8 year old daughter's first trip to Disney Feb 2009. She was 2.5.

 

[JMSMommy]

Now that all the excitement and stress of missing CRT, fastpass+ selections, and getting everything settled, we are in the boring waiting for our trip to start. Less than 40 days now. Every day the kids ask how many more days until Disney, and we answer.

I’m beginning to see why parents wait to surprise kids for these trips.

I've even allowed myself to get excited, and we are experiencing more vacation bloat. We will be there for Halloween, and since our youngest got an Elsa dress, I looked online for our other daughter a costume. I let her choose, and our little tomboy who hates rollercoasters asked to wear the Mulan dress! Then, she saw the Jessie costume and asked for it as well. When I asked her to choose, she couldn't. I couldn't choose either. The two together were more than the Elsa dress though. I waited, and tried to see if she could choose. But Disney put out a discount on Halloween costumes AND sent a Disney Visa discount code, which made both of them together cheaper than that Elsa dress! Score!!!

Now, to dress the rest of us. Dh and I still have “Incredible” t-shirts from 2005, so we will wear those (provided I can find mine). The oldest asked for something that was more expensive, but it’s so perfect for him and he will definitely wear it other times – he’s wearing a Luke Skywalker pilot costume t-shirt under a Tauntaun hoodie (complete with lightsaber zipper pull and satin “entrails” fabric on the inside). Our other son was happy with the Darth Vader costume t-shirt. At least the boys are easier than the girls to appease.

This is our roller coaster hating tomboy of an 8 year old during our last trip where she agreed to Pirate's League instead of BBB. She chose Jake the Pirate.

 

[JMSMommy]

(at least that is what it feels like at this point)

In an effort to save some of the costs, we are driving. 10-12 hours each way, but driving none the less. So, this is the general plan for our trip.

Saturday – leave home, drive until we are about 1 hour from Orlando. It might be 2 hours from Orlando depending on how many times we have to stop because we can’t seem to synchronize bladders while on road trips. Or, who knows, the kids might make it the entire way.

I can dream, right?!

Sunday – drive on into Orlando, stop by Caribbean Beach and get parking pass or something, park there and ride the bus. We are hoping this is by 10am or so. We have 12:30 fastpasses for 5 of us for 7DMT (well they range from 12:30-1:05 start times). We will while away the hours in the MK and leave when they kick us out for MNSHHP at 7. Around 2 we have Space Mountain, and finally around 5 we have Peter Pan.

Monday – EPCOT day. We will be there long before park opening, and will likely close the park down…or not. All depends on how things go and how we all feel. We have Le Cellier ressies sometime for lunch.

Tuesday – Universal Studios AND Islands of Adventure day. Both parks. One day. There is no Halloween Horror Night this day, so hopefully it won’t be too bad. The boys chose to start with Islands of Adventure and Hogsmeade, then ride Hogwarts Express over to Universal and finish up there. Then, we will blaze through Universal side because not too many of their favorite rides. We will make it back to Islands of Adventure and let them ride all the rollercoasters they want. Me and the girls? I guess we will entertain ourselves around where they are and spend lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of time in Seussland.

Wednesday – back at the Magic Kingdom! Woohoo!! I have fastpasses for 10ish for Space Mountain, then around 11ish for 7DMT again, and finish up early afternoon with Peter Pan (again). Our CRT is for a late lunch. After that we will wander around and enjoy ourselves. The girls want a parade, so hopefully we can get that. We WILL stay for Wishes of course.

Thursday – REST DAY. We will sleep in. Hallelujah. Then, we head to Downtown Disney, Disney Quest and fun. The kids have asked for the Lego store specifically, Britt and I just want Earl of Sandwich. That night is the dinner at 1900 Park Fare where our oldest daughter finally gets to meet Prince Charming!

Friday – Hollywood Studios. This day is still a little bit “in flux” as far as fastpasses. We all have Tower of Terror tickets, but I doubt we all go on it. The girls want to do Frozen Singalong and the 15 year old has begged to be allowed to skip that particular event because he is so tired of the songs. We also have TSM and Star Tours – but those are morning fastpasses.

Saturday – our last Disney day. It’s at Animal Kingdom, and my favorite coaster of Expedition Everest. We are trying to decide if Kali River Rapids in late October will be good or not, and really, do we want to travel in wet clothes? How hard would it be to change before we left? Loads of questions here for the afternoon. But, sometime before Animal Kingdom closes and after we have had our fill of a Disney day, we will leave the most wonderful place and start our journey home. It’s our hope to get at least 3-4 hours away so we have less driving to do on Sunday to get home.

Wondering if there are any tweaks someone with more experience would make? I’ve thought of getting everyone a 2nd ticket to Universal for our rest day and doing that instead of Disney Quest, but not sure if that is what we would want to do or not.

 

[JMSMommy]

Otherwise known as stalking Disboards, subscriptions to threads, and stalking MDE pays off.

We joined the A&E fastpass cancellation thread, and have been religiously checking MDE. Then, on a Saturday morning I checked my email and saw a notice that someone posted that they were releasing A&E fastpasses for the day that we were looking for, and even better?! They matched up with the single one we already had! SCORE!!!

I may or may not have jumped out of bed, raced to the computer with dried slobber on my face in an effort to reply to that post that I WANTED THOSE FASTPASSES!!!! Then, I read the instructions and sent a PM. Hoping against hope that I was first to grab, I may or may not have refreshed Disboards 50 million times.

Yes! I was first. I jumped at the chance to coordinate our watches Right! That! Moment! As soon as we confirmed that I had indeed gotten those fast passes, I think the sun was shining a wee bit brighter (or maybe it had just risen higher in the sky since it was Saturday morning).

We now only need to change out 2 minor things, and our plans are set how we wanted them to be. Which means it’s time for update #1350982 to our plans.



This little star is going to be THRILLED!!!!

 

[vleeth]

I think your plans sound great!

You said you'd be at Disney for halloween??? Did you know the resorts do trick or treating and other fun stuff on Halloween Day?

I personally would stick with one day at Universal. A day at the pool sounds better than a second day as Suessland (I'm not a big fan of Disney Quest.)

 

[JMSMommy]

I think your plans sound great! You said you'd be at Disney for halloween??? Did you know the resorts do trick or treating and other fun stuff on Halloween Day? I personally would stick with one day at Universal. A day at the pool sounds better than a second day as Suessland (I'm not a big fan of Disney Quest.)

I did not know that! Oh how my candy loving girl will be thrilled. She has been upset and worried about not getting her yearly Halloween candy stash.

Hmmm. Maybe we need to be back at the hotel more that day! LOL

 

[JMSMommy]

Somehow along the way the subject of MNSSHP got brought up around the kids. The oldest remembers when we went, and remembers it was really kind of cool. This prompted a trip down memory lane which has led us to discussions of whether or not to party.

We have 3 choices available, well actually 4…

1 – Sunday night. It’s arrival day. We have fastpasses planned for Magic Kingdom starting at 12:30. We have BOG lunch 11:25-11:55. NONE of us sleep good the first night on vacation. We will have had to get up early to drive the rest of the way into Orlando, check into the hotel, and boogie our way quickly to the Magic Kingdom for that BOG and 7dmt. We can do “check in” which means we leave our bags in the van, get our parking pass, and the resort will let us know when the room is ready. So, after we finish being in the park that day we will have to unload the van.

Pros for doing the party this night – it’s early in our trip. It’s a Sunday night. Great way to “start” a vacation. Lines should be shorter than the rest of the week at the Magic Kingdom.

Cons – we will be tired from our traveling. We will finish the party really late, then we will STILL have to unload the van. Our bedtimes will be so late that it will be difficult at best to get to Epcot for rope drop. Then, Tuesday to Universal early enough for Harry Potter, then Wednesday for rope drop at MK.

2 – Tuesday Night. It’s Universal day. 2 parks one day…really do we need to make it 3 parks one day?!

Pros – Tuesday night crowds might be lowest of the week.

Cons – really? The thought of 3 parks in one day?

3 – Thursday Night. It’s 10/30. It’s our off day. We will have been able to sleep in. Should be well rested. 1900 Park Fare and Katie’s meeting of Prince Charming is at 7pm!

Pros – Rest day. It’s NOT Halloween.

Cons – Must find another ADR for 1900 Park Fare.

4 – Friday Night. It’s Halloween Night and currently sold out. I could see if someone is selling 6 tickets….ROFL!!!!! Yeah, and we think adding a night to our vacation is expensive.


Obviously, #4 is out. I’ve also ruled out #2 (I can barely stomach the idea of 2 parks in one day as it is). Which leaves us with choices #1 and #3. Oh my…both of which require lots of juggling and rearranging.

(This is the cutie who is wanting to meet Prince Charming...she looks just like a Princess huh?!)

My first idea, let’s call it Vacation Bloat #2.
We leave home on Friday, drive about 6 hours (this means we change hotel from Saturday night to Friday night and totally change hotels…here’s hoping Hilton has openings for using reward points). Then, Saturday finish driving on in. We book an extra ROOM ONLY night at Caribbean Beach for Saturday. Then, use a park ticket to go on into Animal Kingdom (it’s a 6 out of 10 day…yikes). But they are open until 8pm, and sunset is at 6:48 (meaning I get to ride my favorite roller coaster my very favorite way…in the dark!). We should get back early enough to unload the van (if we weren’t able to unload earlier). Then, we sleep in Sunday…totally relax that day. We go into the parks for MNSSHP at 4pm (making use of our A&E fastpasses which are 3:40 and 4:20 start times). Stay to ??? Should be well rested enough to make it until rest day.

This adds an extra (x2!) to our resort stay. If we get into Orlando by say Noon, then we should be at Animal Kingdom no later than 2pm, and then we’d have 6 hours there. Should be enough for us to do what we would normally do there (and still provide for enough rides of EE in the dark).

However, this means we MUST let go of our BOG lunch reservation (good bye grey stuff!). It will also mean letting go of 7dmt. We have 7dmt on our Wednesday MK day. I’m sure in the 4-?? Time for the party we’d ride 7dmt with stand by. I’m positive we would. I’m even thinking we’d ride it stand by that day. We would have plenty of time for Buzz Lightyear battles (yes we ride multiple times to compete…or act silly).

THEN, we have to decide if we stick with AK for our last day or do we scrap that day and do another park? Like maybe MK again?! We’d have to do rope drop to get to 7dmt in, but could schedule our family’s 2nd tier favorites since most of our 1st tier are likely gone with fast passes. Or do we leave AK on that Saturday (11/1 – it’s a 2 out of 10), and do MK the night of Sat 10/25 and just go in for the Electrical Parade and Wishes…and a few favorite rides?

See, he really gets intense about Buzz Lightyear!

Dh’s first idea, let’s call it Relying on Fate

We try for 1900 Park Fare for Sunday night. If we book 6 of us, then it’s FATE…we book MNSSHP for 10/30, on our rest day.

This is technically the easiest “move” of things. No extra resort stay. No rearranging of fast passes. On Sunday, we’d ALREADY be at the MK and easy to get to 1900 Park Fare from there. Plus, we get 2 of the girls’ requests done. BUT!!! We have to get an ADR for 6 to 1900 Park Fare less than 30 days out, on a party night.



My 2nd idea – Vacation Bloat x2

Same as above, except our Saturday (11/1) ticket day gets used on 10/30 for an evening show of some sort…or what not…maybe? Then add in a 2nd day at Universal (which it would be a 6 out of 10 there and HHN which means we’d definitely need to be gone no later than 4pm ish). FYI, to add an extra day to Universal for us would be $260. On top of the $440 for MNSSHP. Then, of course Caribbean Beach x2 for one night. Yeah…and extra money for food.



Dh's 2nd idea we’ll call it Stick in the Mud plan.

Leave everything the way it is. Stop being sentimental and not do a party. It’s cheaper that way. The girls will never know the difference.




The oldest’s plan we will call NO WAY ON EARTH

He suggested HHN…I told him, I don’t do scary. Period. He was interested to see me scream. I told him that I screamed in terror during Toy Story…did he REALLY want to go to HHN with me?!

 

[vleeth]

This is some kind of complicated!

Have you tried to move 1900?

 

[JMSMommy]

This is some kind of complicated!

Have you tried to move 1900?

Yes! We were able to get 4 of us for dinner on 10/26. I'm trying to either get a table for 6 or a table for 2 near the same time as the party of 4. It's dinner at 8:55 though as well, which is REALLY late. We've eaten dinner that late here many times, but I'm thinking it will take an hour to eat, then we still have to get back to the hotel, unload the van...and get the wild munchkins to sleep.

 

[JMSMommy]

For what it's worth, I think I would like my first plan and Britt would like his first plan.

Oh, and to add fuel to the fire...

I can get 1900 Park Fare on 10/28 - it's the Tuesday of Universal Studios killing us in one day at 8:45pm. I *think* Universal closes at 7, though it might be 6. But would we be too tired?! I'm thinking we'll be too tired...

 

[JMSMommy]

Okay, we are down to 2 options.

I managed to snag a 1900 Park Fare for 6 after MK closes on Sunday.

Option 1 - My Vacation Bloat #2 plan, modified by my husband.

Travel all day Friday (extra day of vacation), stay in hotel about 1-2 hours away using Hilton points.
Saturday - travel on in to Orlando, go to either AK (hello EE in the dark) or MK (OMG it's open to 12a/2a). Stay at a Hilton family hotel just outside the park using the rest of our points from our NYC vacation.
Sunday - sleep in, check into resort hotel, relax, go to MK with MNSSHP at 4pm....But we know that our rooms might not be available until 3pm, so really, we could stay at our local area hotel until 10am/11am, then go on to resort (the kids would be happy to relax at the pool)

The rest of our vacation stays the same.


Option 2 - Dh's It's Fate plan.
Travel all day Saturday, stay in hotel about 1-2 hours away.
Sunday - check into resort, go to MK and use the BOG lunch and SDMT fast passes, stay until 7pm, then go to 1900 Park Fare...back to hotel and unpack.
Monday - Wed stays the same
Thursday - sleep in, Disney Quest (the boys are begging for it), and then 4pm for MNSSHP.

Sunday is 10/26 and Thursday is 10/30. I'm thinking 10/26 MNSSHP will be LESS crowded.

Plus, by Thursday we will likely relish a SLOW day, sleeping in, going back to hotel to pack for return trip, pool...

Thoughts?