scribega
Where's Perry??
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2007
- Messages
- 324
We just arrived back home today from our 3-day trip to WDW. This trip happened at the VERY last minute.
Some background: I needed to go down to Orlando for business and was planning to leave Thursday for a quick turnaround trip. At the last minute I asked if the DW and two kids wanted to come along. Of course, they did. This put my DW into hyper packing mode. I booked the hotel room Wednesday at 11am. We were on the road Thursday at 530am.
I checked the WDW site and they had rooms available at the POP. Cool. I used the 25% off special and booked three nights. A few hours later I did online check-in. I requested a ground floor room near transportaton.
We left 530 am the next day from just north of Atlanta. We drove down and got to WDW around 130pm. We checked in and got our room assignment. To our disbelief, we got a ground floor room near transportation. We had a room in building 10, which is right next to the Classic Hall.
After checking into the hotel we headed to MK with our GAD tickets. We went to will call and redeemed our vouchers and then upgraded the tickets to 2 day park hoppers. Very easily done. Great CM.
Park level was projected as an 8. So we were a little worried since we are use to going in off peak times when crowds are 4 or 5.
We strolled into the park and headed to the barber shop to get my son's haircut. We have done this before and there is usually a pretty good wait. This time we waited about 5 minutes. I even had time to get my hair cut.
Crowds were not as bad as we thought it would be. And as the night went out the crowds really thinned out. We were pleasantly surprised. We were there for 5 hours and were able to hit all the major rides.
Friday was a day that I had to work. So while I went to my conference the rest of the family hit the pool. I got back to the hotel around 3pm. We then headed to DTD. We hit the shops and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Saturday was going to be our only full day we had. Friday night I went to the concierge at POP and just took a shot that they might have an opening at La Cellier for Saturday. They did! For 1:15pm. After thinking about it, making the reservation was going to throw a major kink in our plans. We wanted to go to Animal Kingdom in the morning and then Epcot later that day so we decided to cancel the reservation.
Saturday came and we headed to Animal Kingdom and left around 2pm. We took a short break at the hotel and then headed over to Epcot. About 6:30 we were headed to get a counter service meal for dinner and just took a shot at La Cellier. We walked up (yes, walked up) and asked if they had room for a party of 4. "Yes, no problem." The hostess said.
Um...what? Really. We were seated 20 minutes later.
Wow. Really!?!
So rooms at the POP at the very last minute - check
Room requests granted - check
Light crowds during a busy time - check
Walk up at one of the most popular restaurants on a weekend during a peak eating time - check
Seems like everything that happened flys in the face of planning that we all do when going to WDW.
Would I wait until the last minute to book a week-long trip that we take every year and not book TS meals 180 days out? Not a chance.
Serious pixie dust happened for all of that to happen at the last minute. Great, great quick trip.
Some background: I needed to go down to Orlando for business and was planning to leave Thursday for a quick turnaround trip. At the last minute I asked if the DW and two kids wanted to come along. Of course, they did. This put my DW into hyper packing mode. I booked the hotel room Wednesday at 11am. We were on the road Thursday at 530am.
I checked the WDW site and they had rooms available at the POP. Cool. I used the 25% off special and booked three nights. A few hours later I did online check-in. I requested a ground floor room near transportaton.
We left 530 am the next day from just north of Atlanta. We drove down and got to WDW around 130pm. We checked in and got our room assignment. To our disbelief, we got a ground floor room near transportation. We had a room in building 10, which is right next to the Classic Hall.
After checking into the hotel we headed to MK with our GAD tickets. We went to will call and redeemed our vouchers and then upgraded the tickets to 2 day park hoppers. Very easily done. Great CM.
Park level was projected as an 8. So we were a little worried since we are use to going in off peak times when crowds are 4 or 5.
We strolled into the park and headed to the barber shop to get my son's haircut. We have done this before and there is usually a pretty good wait. This time we waited about 5 minutes. I even had time to get my hair cut.
Crowds were not as bad as we thought it would be. And as the night went out the crowds really thinned out. We were pleasantly surprised. We were there for 5 hours and were able to hit all the major rides.
Friday was a day that I had to work. So while I went to my conference the rest of the family hit the pool. I got back to the hotel around 3pm. We then headed to DTD. We hit the shops and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Saturday was going to be our only full day we had. Friday night I went to the concierge at POP and just took a shot that they might have an opening at La Cellier for Saturday. They did! For 1:15pm. After thinking about it, making the reservation was going to throw a major kink in our plans. We wanted to go to Animal Kingdom in the morning and then Epcot later that day so we decided to cancel the reservation.
Saturday came and we headed to Animal Kingdom and left around 2pm. We took a short break at the hotel and then headed over to Epcot. About 6:30 we were headed to get a counter service meal for dinner and just took a shot at La Cellier. We walked up (yes, walked up) and asked if they had room for a party of 4. "Yes, no problem." The hostess said.
Um...what? Really. We were seated 20 minutes later.
Wow. Really!?!
So rooms at the POP at the very last minute - check
Room requests granted - check
Light crowds during a busy time - check
Walk up at one of the most popular restaurants on a weekend during a peak eating time - check
Seems like everything that happened flys in the face of planning that we all do when going to WDW.
Would I wait until the last minute to book a week-long trip that we take every year and not book TS meals 180 days out? Not a chance.
Serious pixie dust happened for all of that to happen at the last minute. Great, great quick trip.
