Planning, planning, panicking... A Spring Break PTR

[bookluvingbabe]

Once upon a time...

I had to bribe my then 4-year old son (BLKid) to go to the beach for a week. My boss has a condo in Daytona and he offered it to us. My husband doesn't have nearly the amount of vacation I do so I decided to hit the road with DS and we'd have a grand time.

Except that someone didn't want to go on vacation without his father.

And while he doesn't have veto power, I didn't really relish the idea of 10 days with a whiny 4 year old.

Until I casually, without really thinking, said, "You know, we could go see Pooh Bear if we went."

The whining stopped.

I confirmed that Disney was 90 minute from Daytona. I confirmed you could actually meet Pooh. And have breakfast with him. And lunch. And dinner.

We went one day, mid-trip, and actually did have all 3 meals at the Crystal Palace. We met Pluto and Mickey and Minnie too. We rode on the Winnie the Pooh ride and the Carousel and tried Micky's Philharmagic (he hated it) and that was it. We were probably classic examples of how not to do Disney.

But we both loved it.

The next summer we brought along my skeptical husband to the beach and for a day at Disney. We stayed overnight at Pop Century. A few hours in, DH looked at me and said, "It really is a Magical Kingdom."

We then scrounged and saved and did 5 nights right before Christmas 2012. We flew, rather than drove, and stayed offsite. 2 days at MK, one night at HS, one day at Epcot and one day at Animal Kingdom. Plus we did the Christmas Party and the Tomorrow Land dessert party. It was a pretty perfect vacation except for staying offsite.

So we planned another trip--2 weeks, over Christmas and NYs. Free dining, Caribbean Resort, Park Hoppers. The whole 9 yards.

And then the air-conditioning died at home over the summer. And then my car air-conditioning died while at the beach. And there was the uncertainty of the government shutdown looming over our heads (DH was a fed but has since moved on.) I cried uncle and cancelled everything. (And I did cry actual tears. I made DH cancel all the perfect dining reservations I had because I couldn't do it. I had BOG for dinner on Christmas Eve!!!!)

Which is just as well as I had pneumonia in December and couldn't have gone anyway.

I'm better now. DH has a new job. BLKid is about to turn 7 and has a spring break that doesn't coincide with Easter or Passover.

So DS and I are going March 29-April 5th.

Staying at All Star Sports.

Details and panicked thoughts to follow.

 

[bookluvingbabe]

More plans, to distract myself from having deleted all the pictures and videos off my ipad by mistake just now. I'm sure I've emailed the good pictures but the videos are lost. I am an idiot...

So...

We are flying on JetBlue. We leave at 7 am and get in a little after 9 am. We are renting a car because we want the option of going to the beach, easier resort hopping and doing at least one grocery store run. We eat primarily paleo although all the rules are relaxed at Disney. But I looked at Garden Grocer and the others and just didn't think I'd be as happy as if I just went to Whole Foods straight from the airport.

So after picking up the car and stopping at Whole Foods, we'll head to All-Star Sports to drop our bags, stow the cold stuff and head to the parks. I'll assume the room won't be ready at this point--which should be 11:30 or 12.

Next: Head to the Magic Kingdom. We have 5 day hoppers from UT. I'm going to upgrade to Annual Passes on our way back out. And buy a Tables in Wonderland Card.

Beyond that I don't have a plan for Saturday.

The rest of the trip, I'm hoping to follow the following pattern:

Breakfast in the room
RopeDrop at the park with EMH
Possible 10:30 Character breakfasts depending on the park (this will serve as a late breakfast/early lunch)
Midday park hop/or stay and use FP+.
Early evening dinner either in park or near the park in resort.

Except on Epcot days when I want to just wander the Flower and Garden booths while DS enjoys Agent P Adventures.

DS is up at 6 every morning so I'm not worried about making RD. We won't be doing late nights in the parks though!

Complicating factors: DS would like to hold off on deciding parks until we know the weather. Given the chance he would ride Splash Mountain all day, every day. The new FP+ is upsetting him greatly and he doesn't believe me when I tell him it will be okay.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[bookluvingbabe]

I will figure out how to add pictures at some point soon.

I'm in a bit of a panic with the rumors flying that non-Disney purchased tickets won't be eligible for upgrades. The last version of the rumor I saw indicated AP would still be able to upgrade. There may have been wine last night between that rumor and another snow day.

We discovered that one of BLKid's classmates will be doing a trip at the same time we are--overlapping 7 of the 8 days. The mom and I chatted briefly about plans. It will be fun to see if we run into them while we are there.

My current dilemma--

Should we do a FP+ of BOG on the 29th? Our plan lands at 9 am. I'm giving us an hour to get the bags and rental car. Another hour for Whole Foods. And 30 minutes to drop stuff at All-Star Sports. That puts us at 11:30. FP+ BOG lunch is available for 1:30. Since lunch there isn't TIW eligible, I could do my AP, TIW purchases on the way out of the park.

Would that work?

Oh, and BLKid announced that he didn't really care about princesses but it sure would be cool to eat at Cinderella's Castle.

My impression is that some reservations pop up as people cancel as their trips approach. I was able to get a Chef Mickey's reservation by obsessively checking the website and got one the day before we wanted to go. I don't know that I want to spend the trip hitting reload on the website but I don't mind humoring him either. DH will be home. I could give him my passwords and put him in charge of searching for stuff while we are at Disney though....

Pondering...

 

[MatoMany]

I think the BoG FP would work. Even by some chance you miss you it you won't be out anything, just means you don't get to use the FP.

As for CRT good luck! Ive been looking 3 times a day for the last month for reservations for March and NOTHING is coming up for our trip time. You will probably have better luck since you are searching for 2. With 6 reservations for just about anything is harder to come by.

 

[bookluvingbabe]

I think the BoG FP would work. Even by some chance you miss you it you won't be out anything, just means you don't get to use the FP.

As for CRT good luck! Ive been looking 3 times a day for the last month for reservations for March and NOTHING is coming up for our trip time. You will probably have better luck since you are searching for 2. With 6 reservations for just about anything is harder to come by.

Thanks! I'm going to keep an eye our for CRT but not stress about it. If there is a little pixie dust and it happens great! If not, we're buying APs, we'll be back!

 

[bookluvingbabe]

So...

The Magic Bands arrived. I think it is starting to feel real to BLKid.

We discovered that 3 other families from his school will be at Disney at the same time we are, including two teachers (one his) and one classmate. So we're up to 4 families, plus us from one very small school going to Disney at the same time.

BLKid confessed he he was worried that he was worried about running into his friends. What if they saw him at the Winnie the Pooh ride and thought that was lame???

I sighed. I think there is going to be a lot of that this trip.

I told him he could always explain that I picked the ride.

Now my newest dilemma ...

Memory Magic Maker (Magic Memory Maker....Whatever it is called...)

Is it worth the $149? I'm usually too cheap to get the ride pictures so that would make him happy. It would also be nice to get more recent pictures of us. But it seems like an awful lot of money.

 

[bookluvingbabe]

The theme of this trip seems to be that when I see something I should just buy it.

Rental car rates were $100 for the week. I futzed around and didn't reserve and they doubled. And have not come back down.

I saw, and I would swear it was on the Disney Store website, the cutest Birthday Ears hat. Since BLKid is turning 7 just days before our trip, I thought it would be a fun present for him.

I went to the website today to order it, along with an autograph book, and I can't find any trace of it.

And of course, I had the Vera Bradley bag in my shopping bag and then decided to wait. And now it is sold out. Because I am an idiot.

I need to write out my ADR plan and general overall plans. I told DH I was starting to panic.