Our First Trip as DVC Members! and Summit! April/May/July 2021-UPDATE! 5/18 Back from Summit!

[karalecia26]

More fun planning! Southwest has released flights for our trip time and since I have flight credit for some of us and some points for others I went ahead and booked our flights down to Orlando this morning. I will keep track of flight prices and decide to book our flight home when I feel more comfortable with the flight prices. I know they will come down either at our home airport or I may even change airports and plans will all together change! (We live 1 1/2 away from one airport and 3 from another but sometimes the Kansas City airport we can get direct flights as Omaha doesn't usually have direct to MCO). With the prices being a little higher than I thought they would be right now, I booked us coming in late Friday night instead of Saturday. Now I am trying to decide if we want to stay at the Hyatt the first night or add on to our reservation for the night either with borrowed points or see what is available onsite for one night. So many decsions! And the way that I change my mind, our flights may change in the end so I may not do anything right now anyways!

Speaking of changes, we sat and looked at the DVC website and thought that we really didn't want to go from a 1 bedroom at VGF to a studio at BWV. We have done a studio at BWV and really liked it, but for a few more points we could switch from a studio to a 1 bedroom Savannah View at AKL-Kidani Village! Having the 2 bathrooms and space for us to spread out the whole vacation is going to amazing and who doesn't love to wake up and see animals out their balcony! When we did our DVC tour in 2018 we toured these villas and fell in love with them, so we are so excited to be able to stay there.

Not many other plans have been made right now, especially since we can't make any reservations until 60 days out right now. Normal years we would be getting ready to make dining reservations and experience reservations but alas times have changed. I guess I am one who really likes the planning, but am also willing to change things as we go if we are too tired or have decided that it isn't exactly what we want to do. This has been a big driver to us purchasing DVC. From our first visit we knew we were going to be back and purchasing DVC is now letting us take our time and really enjoy the resorts and what all Disney has available to guests besides the parks.

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Hello,
I just started your trip report. We will be going down in June 2021 also. I also just bought into DVC, but I am saving those points for a December trip. I bought at BLT.

I haven't booked our airfare yet. I have a big Alaska credit from our cancelled Disneyland trip and I am waiting for the prices to go down.

Good luck with planning.

 

[karalecia26]

Hello,
I just started your trip report. We will be going down in June 2021 also. I also just bought into DVC, but I am saving those points for a December trip. I bought at BLT.

I haven't booked our airfare yet. I have a big Alaska credit from our cancelled Disneyland trip and I am waiting for the prices to go down.

Good luck with planning.

Thanks for following along! I am so excited to do our first DVC stay! We looked at doing BLT for our points, but in the long run decided that we really weren't that picky on where we want to stay when we go down and SSR was the best money for the amount of points that we wanted. Also with the new renovations to SSR we are actually really excited about staying there on our next trip! Airfare is kind of crazy right now! Even with some flight credit from canceled trips this past year we may end up having to pay for some of our flights. I wish we had bigger airports near us to be able to find better prices or at least direct flights!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Thanks for following along! I am so excited to do our first DVC stay! We looked at doing BLT for our points, but in the long run decided that we really weren't that picky on where we want to stay when we go down and SSR was the best money for the amount of points that we wanted. Also with the new renovations to SSR we are actually really excited about staying there on our next trip! Airfare is kind of crazy right now! Even with some flight credit from canceled trips this past year we may end up having to pay for some of our flights. I wish we had bigger airports near us to be able to find better prices or at least direct flights!

I was so close to buying SSR. I love how close it was to Disney Springs. You really can't go wrong with the amount of points you get there. I am definitely hoping to stay at SSR. AKL was also on the list. I have a bad case of wanting to add on points already, but I think I need to have at least one trip done before I think about adding on. Plus, I need to save up.

We fly out of Portland, OR and Alaska is the only one offering a direct flight. Sun Country did once during the summer, but I haven't seen it offered again. I really don't like the layovers and am trying to avoid them. We have done all types of flights and I like the direct best.

 

[karalecia26]

I was so close to buying SSR. I love how close it was to Disney Springs. You really can't go wrong with the amount of points you get there. I am definitely hoping to stay at SSR. AKL was also on the list. I have a bad case of wanting to add on points already, but I think I need to have at least one trip done before I think about adding on. Plus, I need to save up.

We fly out of Portland, OR and Alaska is the only one offering a direct flight. Sun Country did once during the summer, but I haven't seen it offered again. I really don't like the layovers and am trying to avoid them. We have done all types of flights and I like the direct best.

I would also love to add one more points, but for the moment I think we will be good! It is so tempting, but you know, real life and responsibilities keep popping up! I love direct flights, but my DS loves to stop at airports. His favorite is St Louis, I really don't know why either!

 

[karalecia26]

Why not change some plans again! I think I need to change the name of this trip report to the "Never Ending Changes by Kara!" All in all this has been kind of a rough holiday season for me. With having to cancel our trip to one of my staff members quitting on me right before Christmas, the week of vacation that I had planned on taking, was out the window. I have been pretty down on myself and found myself being more short with my own family, and I really don't like that! My kids were great and enjoyed our Christmas at home, but just something was missing. So I talked with DH and he was okay with me planning a trip over Easter! He decided he wanted to stay home with the animals and oldest DD wants to stay home, so right now we have loose plans for April 1-5, 2021 with DS and younger DD. I am trying to decide if we want to change resorts for our June trip and use points for the weekend or just book a cash room and go with that. I need to decide what I want to do and just go with it and not change things and not give into work either. During this whole pandemic us as Early Childhood/Child Care providers have been pushed to back of everything but we have worked every day to make sure that "essential workers" can go to work. Most of us work for small centers that are working to keep afloat and even thought our employers would love to pay us more, it isn't always a possibility. Since March, I have only taken 4 days off (other than the weekends) to make sure that all my children and families can get to work and care for their children. I need to now step back and take care of myself and my family before I go nuts! My boss is totally supportive of what I do and is going to make sure that I am able to take this time off. Sorry for the rant! It has just been a crazy time lately and I need some time to go away to our happy place! I hope that everyone had a great holiday and here's to a better year for all of us!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Why not change some plans again! I think I need to change the name of this trip report to the "Never Ending Changes by Kara!" All in all this has been kind of a rough holiday season for me. With having to cancel our trip to one of my staff members quitting on me right before Christmas, the week of vacation that I had planned on taking, was out the window. I have been pretty down on myself and found myself being more short with my own family, and I really don't like that! My kids were great and enjoyed our Christmas at home, but just something was missing. So I talked with DH and he was okay with me planning a trip over Easter! He decided he wanted to stay home with the animals and oldest DD wants to stay home, so right now we have loose plans for April 1-5, 2021 with DS and younger DD. I am trying to decide if we want to change resorts for our June trip and use points for the weekend or just book a cash room and go with that. I need to decide what I want to do and just go with it and not change things and not give into work either. During this whole pandemic us as Early Childhood/Child Care providers have been pushed to back of everything but we have worked every day to make sure that "essential workers" can go to work. Most of us work for small centers that are working to keep afloat and even thought our employers would love to pay us more, it isn't always a possibility. Since March, I have only taken 4 days off (other than the weekends) to make sure that all my children and families can get to work and care for their children. I need to now step back and take care of myself and my family before I go nuts! My boss is totally supportive of what I do and is going to make sure that I am able to take this time off. Sorry for the rant! It has just been a crazy time lately and I need some time to go away to our happy place! I hope that everyone had a great holiday and here's to a better year for all of us!

I hope you get to go. Even a short trip will be so fun and the weather is so nice in April. Taking some time for yourself is really important, even if it seems impossible to do at times.

 

[karalecia26]

OMG! More changes are a coming but it is for the most AWESOME reason! My DD10 and DS are both part of an All Star Cheer Team. The gym we are a part of is new and has only been open for 2 1/2 years and most of the athletes have only been part of the cheer program for a year or two. With a new gym and new team we NEVER thought the Summit was even on the horizon for these kids, but they surprised all of us last weekend and got a Wild Care Bid to Summit! After parent meeting last night, we all decided that we would take the bid and we are heading as a team to Disney the end of April/beginning of May! Details are pretty slim right now, but everyone is so excited! We will see what all the team is going to do then decide if we (as parents) will stay with the team or send kids with the team and we use some points and stay somewhere else!

Hope everyone is surviving January and will be back with more details when I know more!

 

[karalecia26]

SUMMIT UPDATE!!!

Welcome back to an update and an Iowa Winter! It is currently a balmy -8 degrees and school was canceled for the day because we started off at -28 degrees before windchill. I keep telling my DH that we need to move to Florida, but he laughs at me and tells me no! I will someday get him to change his mind!

So right now I do have some updates with our cheer team trip! Registration has just opened and as soon as our team is confirmed they will get where they are staying as a team. The choice our team has chosen is either Pop Century or All Star Movies. (The other one was Coronado Springs). Most of the families that are going are going to do the Varsity Package and stay with the team, but because of our DVC and having available points, myself and my BF are going to be staying at AKL-Jambo house in a 1 bedroom! Looking forward to being able to show her this amazing resort! The reason I went with Jambo House (especially since most of it is closed) is because we are in a standard view and the option of either a pool or partial savannah view is almost a given at Jambo House. We won't be at the resort a ton, but we have put our 3 kids on our reservation with us also in case they want to come over to our pool or stay with us. They all will move over to our room the last night as we will take the ME from Jambo together.

When we were told we were going and the dates, I was really debating on how much time I wanted to take off, and if I should take as little as possible, ect. But in the long run, I decided that I NEEDED the time off of work and with the blessing of my boss we are going to be in Florida April 28-May 3!

Here are our plans so far for our trip:

4/28
Our flight leaves at 6:50am. The airport is an hour and half away, so we decided that after cheer practice on Tuesday, we are going to head to a hotel close to the airport and stay overnight. I am not really wanting to drive at 2am in the morning down to the airport and the cost of the room split by 2 was more than enough for us to say lets start vacation the night before!
Our flight lands at 12:20pm and since we decided to come in the day before, we are going to be heading to Loews Royal Pacific Resort for the night and head to Universal Wednesday evening and Thursday! My family already has AP's from before and for our summer trip, so I was talking to my BF and she decided to do AP's too! So we have a Thanksgiving trip in the plans to Universal for our whole families!
4/29
After a fun day at Universal we will head to WDW! We will get the kids all settled before heading back to our resort for the night! Next day is our first round of competition so they need to get their sleep!
4/30
Right now this day is Wild Card day! We don't know what it is going to look like right now (fingers crossed that we can actually go and compete!) so everything is up in the air for this day. It is possibility that we are only going to be able to watch our team and no one else so if it does I am not sure what we will do the rest of the day. Possibly head to Disney Springs or pool time (depending on weather)
5/1
This is for sure a free day and we have decided to do Magic Kingdom this day. I know it is going to be busy but this is for sure the day that we don't have to compete and we want to spend as much time as we can at MK. I other than going to MK we don't have ton of plans. Just enjoy the parks as much as we can! Our tickets through Varsity do have park hoppers, but not sure if we will use them or not. Just depends on park hours and what our group wants to do.
5/2
This is finals day for the competition. Depending on how we do on Friday will determine if we get to compete today, so once again everything is up in the air! As a planner this really does kind of bother me, because I want to be able to make park reservations and be able to go into the parks, and not knowing right now is driving me crazy!
5/3
Our last day in Florida. Our flight doesn't leave until after 5 so we will either have time for a park or pool time. We are going to try and figure out either today or tomorrow some more plans.

Well that is our loose plan for Summit. Right now so much is still up in the air that it is kind of hard to make plans. Right now I need to remember that this will not be our normal trip (which we will have about 6 weeks later!) and to make the best of it! Once I have more information I will be back! Stay warm and safe everyone!

 

[karalecia26]

Summit Update!
Our athletes are now registered and we are waiting on hearing what resort they are going to be put in. This is our first time going to Summit and right now I am not too impressed with the way things are being handled and the information (or lack there of) that they are providing for our gym. I guess this is normal for them, but super frustrating for me as a planner and not knowing where my kids are staying and so on. We still don't know if we are going to be able to watch other teams or if we are going to only be able to watch our own kids. I know that this is still COVID time but still the planner in me is going nuts!

Speaking of planning a few things have changed but it seems to be okay. First, Southwest has changed our flights both to and from! The early flight they completely canceled and first put us on a flight that left at 8:00am and arriving at 2:15. Not terrible, but when I went into the flights to see what else I could change too, there was a 9am flight that arrived at 2:15 also. This one had a stop, but we didn't have to change planes, so changed all of our flights to the 9am one and now can relax and not get off the plane! I am pretty sure that this one won't change, because as of right now the lower fare is already sold out and only the higher tiers are available. Our departing flight was also changed to leave earlier and we really didn't want that (we want to spend as much time in the park as we can) so was able to change to the latest flight out so we don't have to be to the airport until 4pm.

I was also able to score a new room my BFF and I! Unicorn of a room popped up this morning on the DVC site (I really need to stop looking all the time and leave along my trips!) and we are now staying in a Lake View Room at the Villa's at the Grand Floridian! I am so excited! My BFF has been to Disney 7 years ago, but they stayed in Clearwater at a VBRO and just drove to Disney the days they wanted to go so this is her first time on Disney property. I can't wait to show her the pictures and just be there!

I have done a couple dining reservations for us while in the parks. BOG and Sci Fi Dine-In. We will see if we keep these, but I wanted to have a couple planned if we were able to do them.

I think that is all for now! I do have a few changes for June, but I need to concentrate on getting this Summit trip planned, packed and done before I do any more focusing on June! Hope everyone is still doing good and has a great weekend!

 

[karalecia26]

BACK AGAIN! FINAL UPDATE FOR SUMMIT! 2 weeks to go!!

Wow I can't believe it has been a month since I have updated and we have just gotten some final information for our Summit trip. I can honestly say that as a Disney Planner and not being able to know what is going on in some areas of this trip has been hard! I have had to let go a little with some of the normal planning, but have survived. First and foremost this trip is for our kids to be able to compete at Summit then time at the parks. But honestly, for our kids and most of our parents, it is more about the parks. Our cheer team has a great group of athletes, but they really don't stand a chance of moving on to finals in the level that they are competing in (L2 Jr Small that has over 20 teams in just the wild card division), but we are all okay with that. This is only our gyms 3rd year to be open and a lot of athletes 1st or 2nd year of cheer so they have a lot of learning to do to be able to compete with some of the larger gyms. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for them, just sad that they aren't going to be able to watch any other teams because of COVID.

We finally got the notification on where they have put our team. The athletes and parents that have registered with Varsity for our group will be at All Star Movies. My kids are excited to see the new rooms and this will round out the All Stars for them (we have done Sports and Music before). The one really crappy thing that Varsity is doing though is not giving teams/parents their reservation number so they can't link the resort to MDE and get Magic Bands at the pre-arrival price. They were given ticket numbers once you paid in full so you were able to reserve your park days, but that also took forever to come! Luckily our gym did get our bid early and we got paid before all the parks started to fill up. It has been crazy following some of the Facebook groups that have gyms that haven't registered yet and can't get park reservations.

My BBF and I are still staying in a Lake View Studio at the GF (haven't changed that at all!) and our flights haven't changed either (fingers crossed!). Since we are arriving a day before the kids package starts they are going to be in our room the night before. Right now we did buy extra tickets for them and plan on doing a short arrival day park and since we are right next to MK and they are open now until 9, we will be heading there! Not a whole lot planned for the first night as it is an add on day, but just so excited to be able to walk down Main Street and see what we can accomplish.

Our first full day in the parks will be Thursday the 28th and we have a Hollywood Studios park reservation. We are going to try for a ROR and was able to get a reservation to build a droid and SciFi Dine In. We are going to do as much as we feel we can without making the kids tired before their competition. The kids get to check into All Star Movies this evening too and we get to leave them with their coaches and decide what we want to do! Since we have park hoppers and depending on when and what is going on with the athletes, we may hop over to EPCOT for the evening.

Friday is competition day! Right now they just released a block schedule and our team can compete any where between 1:55pm and 8:45pm. They should get their for sure time in about a week, but our coach is hoping for an earlier time so they can go to EPCOTO for the evening. I have never been to ESPN before and this is a huge competition, so this is going to be an interesting day.

Saturday is Magic Kingdom day with the whole team. Our coaches are going to try and get everyone to MK as early as they can, but this will be interesting! Since we are at GF, we will just meet them there! I love my kids but I am not going to try and get to Movies then back to MK. They are old enough to get ready themselves and my DS is 14 1/2 and can and will get on the bus without the rest of the group if they are making him late! Coaches plan for the day is to spend time at MK then move to HS. We will see if this happens and what it all entails.

Sunday is finals day, and like I said the top 5 move on to finals and with a large division we are almost for sure not going to compete this day, but that's okay! Coaches said that this is going to be a family day and we can do whatever we want to do, but most of the families chose to do AK this day. I am excited to go back into Pandora and have Satuli's Canteen...mmm. I do think we will hop either back to MK or EP in the evening. We do have to go back and have the kids get their things all packed up and get ready to move their stuff back over to our room for ME the next day. Plans at the moment is to UBER/LYFT back to GF with their suitcases.

Monday is travel day, but our flight doesn't leave until 6:45pm so the kids will get all their stuff packed up and brought back over to GF (should just be a back pack of what is left over and they are planning on taking a bus to MK and either walking or monorail over to us. This will be a pool or Disney Springs day depending on how tired everyone is.

So a pretty laid back, not planned trip in the long run. It is making me a little nervous on how things are going to work out and traveling with a larger group in the park. All the athletes (except DS BFF and he will hang with us) will have parents with them so in the long run if group things don't work parents can take their kids.

Fingers crossed for an amazing time for us and I will be back after this trip to focus on our summer trip and all the changes and craziness that is following that trip! Have a great weekend!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I just read all your posts.

It's interesting to see the progression from making plans a year ago to now and how the information changed so much.

Isn't it fun to play with your DVC points?!

Are you still starting at Universal later this week? Regardless, your plans look fun and I hope you have a great trip!

 

[karalecia26]

I just read all your posts.

It's interesting to see the progression from making plans a year ago to now and how the information changed so much.

Isn't it fun to play with your DVC points?!

Are you still starting at Universal later this week? Regardless, your plans look fun and I hope you have a great trip!

I am so sorry I didn't see this message before we left! It has been a lot of fun messing with our DVC points and deciding what we want to do and stuff like that! We didn't end up doing Universal this trip and just added on a couple days at Disney since it was cheaper for all of us to do. Fingers crossed for a Universal trip with my oldest DD and her BFF over Christmas week!

 

[karalecia26]

And we are Back from Summit! (Well have been back for 2 weeks but it has been the most insane/emotional 2 weeks!). We had a lot of fun, a lot of new, and also a lot of compromises but all in all a great trip! Here are some picture highlights of our trip!
Views of our Lake View Studio, Corner Room 1314

.





Me and BFF hanging with the penguins in the fountain!



DD on the bus to Magic Kingdom



DS and his BFF in front of the castle



This was our first stay with our DVC points and loved the location of the Grand Floridian, but will be honest that the rooms are starting to look a little worn in and around the rooms but the room and the location was just amazing! I will get back to the room and resort in a minute but I wanted to give an idea of our flight/airport experience.


Our flight was out of Omaha at 9am and we had a stop in St Louis (didn't have to change planes) and then onto MCO! Our flight was at least 75% full of cheerleaders and their families and it was a really neat experience for our 3 kids. They got to talk to a lot of other cheerleaders who had been down to Summit before and get their suggestions about what to do and how to handle competition. The flight had quite a bit of turbulence (like up and down rollercoaster! )but we all survived and landed in Orlando 20 minutes early!

The week before our arrival we were notified by Varsity (who was putting on the competition) that we had to pick up our park passes/ESPN passes and drop off our waivers at Port Orleans Riverside in a drive thru line. There was a lot of extremely angry parents and coaches (discounted ticket families and commuter athletes) because a lot of us did not have transportation to get to Port Orleans to pick up tickets and didn't know if UBER or Lyft would wait in a line people to pick up tickets. Talking with my BFF we decided that we should look at doing a car service from the airport to Port Orleans then to the Grand. After looking around I contacted Orlando On Wheels and we were able to reserve a car and driver to pick us up from the airport, stop at POR and then drop us off. Since it was a last minute booking I wasn't sure if we would get a ride or not, but we did! Cost was a little higher than we were thinking at first but in the long run it was so worth the money!

Our driver picked us up at the bottom of the escalator with an iPad with my name on it (that was so cool!!) and he walked over with us to get our luggage where I swear they were off loading 5 flights at one time, then walked straight out the doors by luggage claim where he went and grabbed our SUV and loaded up and out of the airport in 20 minutes! The best MCO experience ever! We weren't sure how the ticket pick up was going to be and our driver hadn't done one before (they had just started pick ups that morning) but I had everything I needed and we were able to drive in, get tickets, and get out in 5 minutes! Another amazing experience. Once we got to the resort we were dropped off at the Villa's where we unloaded and bell services was right there to get our luggage and take to our room! From plane, to luggage, to ticket pick up and then to the resort we were there in under an hour! Our driver was amazing and such a safe driver! And after hearing the horror stories from other families about the long lines at MCO for rental cars and ME, I am so glad we had to do it this way!

I will be back with the rest of my thoughts about our trip and what we experienced! We are getting close to our full family trip and I need to finish that planning too!