Please stand clear of my vacation.Por favor manténganse alejado mis vacaciones (1/7)

[arbolita]

Welcome aboard the DisBoards Pre Trip Report Monorail System. As you board, please move across your car to make room for everyone! We're on our way to planning a Spring Break 2013 trip to the Walt Disney World resort!
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Yes DISers, after nearly a two year break I am back with a new trip report! I have managed to make it to Disney since I wrote my last PTR in October 2010, but most of those trips were fairly last minute. I am so excited to once again have the opportunity to really plan out a trip and have the time to let my excitement grow while counting down the days to arriving in Orlando.

So, who am I? And when is this trip? And when will I stop posing hypothetical questions and actually get on with giving you the details? Well, if you'll watch your head and step (and take small children by the hand), I'll tell you!

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[arbolita]

Links

The Cast
The Trip Details
We Officially Have Plans!
ADRs Booked
Life Update
Days 1 and 2
Day 3
Days 4, 5, and 6

 

[arbolita]

The Cast

Theresa (aka Me!)

The above photo was taken on February 29, 2012 as I was waiting outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom for the park for open for One More Disney Day. And YES, for those of you wondering, I did manage to stay awake and in the park for the entire 24 hours. I made a video of my adventure which you can watch here:One More Disney Day Video

Favorite Park: MGM Studios (which it will always be named in my heart)
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Restaurant: Raglan Road

Other details you need to know about me? I am OBSESSED with two Walt Disney World icons. The first - STACEY!

I love Stacey. I make gifs featuring her and am SO excited to hear that she returned to WDW recently to film new segments for the Must Dos in New Fantasyland!

The second - Gertie the Dinosaur

For reasons I can't explain, seeing Gertie happens to be my most vivid memory from my first trip to Walt Disney World in 1990. I always tear up a little bit the first time I see her while in Walt Disney World, and when people post her picture on Twitter or text it to me while they are in the parks, it's guaranteed to put a smile on my face! Oh Gertie.

Scott (aka my husband)

He's not quite the Disney fanatic that I am, but he does enjoy visiting the Parks for the food, customer service, and to keep me happy

Most of our trips to Disney have been together, including the trip where we got engaged, our honeymoon and for our first anniversary.

 

[arbolita]

The Trip Details


A lot of the specifics of the trip are still up in the air at this point, aside from our dates.

We will be going to Walt Disney World from March 16-20 2013

After having my 3 previous trips take place in 48 hours or less, I'm so excited to be in Orlando for 5 days and to be able to visit all 4 parks during our trip!

As far as where we're staying, that is the big question. Since spring can be such a pricey time to visit WDW, we're currently exploring two potential options.

1) Stay at a Value resort.
I'm not entirely opposed to this, because I do want to stay in every resort eventually, and the only two values I have stayed in are Pop Century and All Star Music. Personally, I'm pretty excited at the prospect of staying in one of the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation! It probably doesn't come as a surprise though that a Little Mermaid room would NOT be my husband's first choice, haha.

Positives: If a discount code comes out for the time we will be in Disney, either for a room discount or free dining, we will easily be able to apply it to our reservation.
Negatives: During my two stays at Value resorts, noise has always been an issue


2) Rent DVC points and stay in a studio
This is the slightly pricier option, but I was surprised to find out that renting DVC points for certain rooms really is not much more expensive than staying in a value or a moderate. This would be my husband's first choice, but as we are under 5 months out from our trip, the number of points we would need to rent for the available rooms might put the trip out of our budget.

Positives: We've never stayed in a Deluxe level resort, so this would be a more affordable way of doing that. Plus, most of the Deluxe resorts have the best restaurants!
Negatives: When renting points, you have to pay that cost up front, which means we would have to put a lot of money down right away.

 

[onelilspark]

Joining in!

 

[arbolita]

Joining in!

=D So I went back to check....you were also the first to join back in my October 2010 PTR, haha And then a year later we found each other on Twitter and here you are! Very excited to have you along on this journey with me again =)

 

[Jazzabelle508]

I'm in Love your PTR Title .

 

[arbolita]

I'm in Love your PTR Title .

Thank you! Unfortunately, I can't claim credit for being creative enough to come up with it on my own, haha. It's from a new shirt which Disney recently started selling in the parks:

I am in LOVE and am hoping to order it and add it to my closet so I can wear it on the flight down.

 

[Jazzabelle508]

Thank you! Unfortunately, I can't claim credit for being creative enough to come up with it on my own. It's from a new shirt which Disney recently started selling in the parks:

I am in LOVE and am hoping to order it and add it to my closet so I can wear it on the flight down.

That's AWESOME!!!! Do you think they will still be selling it in the parks in January? If so I am definitely buying it

 

[arbolita]

That's AWESOME!!!! Do you think they will still be selling it in the parks in January? If so I am definitely buying it

They should be! I believe it just hit the shelves within the past couple weeks, so hopefully it will continue to be around for awhile

 

[onelilspark]

=D So I went back to check....you were also the first to join back in my October 2010 PTR, haha And then a year later we found each other on Twitter and here you are! Very excited to have you along on this journey with me again =)

Man I am SUCH A CREEPER.

 

[__disneygirl]

Hey! YAY I am so excited for you! Great start to the TR. I just watched your video TR from OMDD too. I really hope they do that again the next leap day. Though I don't think I would do the full 24 hours without dropping dead. I'd probably go for opening, sleep from like 3 to 6, and then go back all night.

As for the hotel situation, I say rent points. Paying the cost up front is definitely rough, but when you arrive, you'll forget all about that!

If you do stay at a value, I must give my sage value advice. The rooms that they call "Preferred" because they are located near the main pool and food court are often not what one may prefer. The "standard" rooms are always quieter. Like if you request a room at Pop in the 50's section not facing the pool... you will not hear a peep. Though the walls are thin so if you are placed in a room next to a screaming child/couple, good luck. I'd say definitely go with AoA if you choose value, even over my beloved Pop Century. Though really whether you stay at Pop or AoA doesn't matter because they are bookends of each other. The walk is SO short! I mean I knew it was close, but it's less than 5 minutes! I'd just choose AoA because of the Mermaid rooms and tell my husband to deal with it. Also, it's just ridiculously amazing. I went there last week and I almost fell over, it's incredible. And the food court is EXTREMELY well done too. I wish I was eating there right now!

And a note about All Stars... I love the values, and out of the 3 All Stars, Movies is my favorite... but the All Stars are just so far from everything except Animal Kingdom, plus most of the time you have to stop at the other 2 All Stars before leaving/arriving at yours, and it just TAKES SO LONG. So I wouldn't recommend them for you. I vote AoA or renting points! Whew. That was way longer than I expected. LOL.

 

[arbolita]

Man I am SUCH A CREEPER.

Haha, you're not a creeper, you're dedicated!

Hey! YAY I am so excited for you! Great start to the TR. I just watched your video TR from OMDD too. I really hope they do that again the next leap day. Though I don't think I would do the full 24 hours without dropping dead. I'd probably go for opening, sleep from like 3 to 6, and then go back all night.

As for the hotel situation, I say rent points. Paying the cost up front is definitely rough, but when you arrive, you'll forget all about that!

If you do stay at a value, I must give my sage value advice. The rooms that they call "Preferred" because they are located near the main pool and food court are often not what one may prefer. The "standard" rooms are always quieter. Like if you request a room at Pop in the 50's section not facing the pool... you will not hear a peep. Though the walls are thin so if you are placed in a room next to a screaming child/couple, good luck. I'd say definitely go with AoA if you choose value, even over my beloved Pop Century. Though really whether you stay at Pop or AoA doesn't matter because they are bookends of each other. The walk is SO short! I mean I knew it was close, but it's less than 5 minutes! I'd just choose AoA because of the Mermaid rooms and tell my husband to deal with it. Also, it's just ridiculously amazing. I went there last week and I almost fell over, it's incredible. And the food court is EXTREMELY well done too. I wish I was eating there right now!

And a note about All Stars... I love the values, and out of the 3 All Stars, Movies is my favorite... but the All Stars are just so far from everything except Animal Kingdom, plus most of the time you have to stop at the other 2 All Stars before leaving/arriving at yours, and it just TAKES SO LONG. So I wouldn't recommend them for you. I vote AoA or renting points! Whew. That was way longer than I expected. LOL.

Hey! So are you home yet, or still at your friends house? As much fun as I'm sure you had in Disney, if I were you I think I'd be feeling really homesick for my own bed and pillow by now. I am so excited to read your upcoming trip report!

I definitely think they'll do the leap day celebration again - from what I heard from cast members I spoke with that day, the turnout was MUCH larger than they anticipated, especially in Disneyland. As much fun as I had in February, if I did it again I would either just arrive to be in the park overnight, or I would go take a nap in the middle of the day. I felt really ill after it was over from the lack of sleep and excessive amounts of caffeine.

I'm pretty sure I will be booking a hotel room by the end of the week, so I think it's just going to come down to what DVC resorts/rooms are available. If I didn't have to worry about shopping for people for the holidays, I would definitely go for it!

And you're right about the flexible meaning of the word "preferred." We don't typically do any requests about certain areas of a resort where we want to stay, since let's be real, I'M STAYING IN DISNEY and that's the main thing I care about!

 

[marDgreen88]

Great title, woman. I think that shirt is the best monorail shirt so far!

If you decide to rent points, please let me know how it goes! I've been so curious about that and if it actually ends up saving money. I have no clue but I'd love to know.

If you do stay Value, I'm thinking Scott might warm up to a Little Mermaid room. I haven't looked at any pictures but I've heard it's not a completely girly looking room!

ALSO. I know you stayed at Music for OMMD, and I know that literally everyone says that the All Stars aren't as great as the other values and that they share busses, but speaking as someone who stayed at all three of them in an 18 month span, that is NOT TRUE. The only time I ever shared a bus with another All Star resort was Downtown Disney, and as far as I know that's the norm for DTD busses anyway. AND, even staying at a deluxe doesn't guarantee getting your own bus. (On several occasions while I stayed at BLT, we shared with GF AND Poly. ) Anyways... Movies is a really great choice, but honestly, so is Sports. So anyways, take my word for it! The All Stars are cool. Check my Dec. TR for pics of Sports!

Anyways... I'm here! (Clearly. I just wrote a novel over here.)

 

[danimaroo]

I'm joining in as well! I love your PTR title; I'm a mega monorail fan myself... and I most definitely own the monorail mug that says "Please stand clear of my coffee. Por favor mantangese alejado de mi cafe."

Anyway, I'm just going to throw it out there; if you can manage to afford it, RENT DVC POINTS! It's a nice affordable way to stay Deluxe for way less than what it normally costs! Matt and I have stayed at OKW and Beach Club Villas, and in January we'll be staying at BCV again. Beach Club seriously feels like our second home, that's how much we loved staying there.

DVC gets you sucked in though; we're thinking about possibly buying into it down the line, but we'll see!

I have not rented points but I know if we ever have that as an option, I would definitely rent the points if possible! We're thinking about going again in September of 2013 and renting point is a possibility.

Anyway, awesome start!

 

[__disneygirl]

At the time, I was still at my friend's! It's funny, I was hesitant to go there because I was worried about that too, like being upset about not being in Disney and just wanting to be home, but it was the opposite: It REALLY helped me feel better about leaving Disney. It was like the action was continuing... just not full on Disney action. So I was kind of weened of my Disney trip. LOL.

So what resort did you end up booking?! I must know.

 

[arbolita]

Sorry there hasn't been too much to report recently! We still haven't booked anything yet because we are having a lot of discussions about other vacations we have planned for this year. We currently are booked to go on a cruise in April, but the friends who were supposed to go with us have backed out, so we are tossing around the idea of cancelling the cruise, which would give us a little more money to put into our March Disney vacation, as well as make it feasible to... GO TO DISNEYLAND IN AUGUST FOR THE FIRST TIME! My husband (who, as you remember is not a Disney fanatic like yours truly) is really into the idea of attending the D23 Expo, particularly since Disney bought LucasFilms and there is the potential for the Expo to have Star Wars news.

Since there have still be no general public discounts released for when we're going, and if we have the extra money from cancelling the cruise, I'm leaning way more towards renting points. Hopefully we'll still be able to find a studio room to rent this close to our travel dates!

 

[__disneygirl]

OMG YES. I definitely vote Disneyland over the cruise. I am dying to get out there.

 

[arbolita]

WE OFFICIALLY HAVE PLANS!

With the changes that have come about over the past 48 hours, my PTR title is more accurate than ever! We have finally settled on a resort, extended our trip from 5 to 7 days, AND pushed it forward by two months. STAND CLEAR OF MY VACATION BECAUSE WE ARE QUICKLY APPROACHING!

Here's what happened:
As mentioned in my previous mini-post, we were thinking about cancelling a cruise we previously had booked in April. We weighed our options and decided that neither of us were as excited about this cruise as when we initially booked it, and would rather reschedule for a time when we know our friends would be able to join us. This meant we were refunded our cruise deposit AND as I also mentioned, would be able to adjust our Disney trips.

Since I no longer had to focus on planning my Disney vacation during Spring Break for the university for which I work, decided the best move would be to push our vacation up to avoid both the high costs and large crowds during spring break season and our new dates are January 26-February 1! I was also able to score an great deal on DVC points, and we will be staying at...

Saratoga Springs!

I'll be honest in saying that it wasn't our first choice of resort, but it was the only one with availability for our full stay, and like I said - I got a great deal on points. I've requested the Congress Park section so that we're close to the walkway for Downtown Disney and will hopefully get a view of it from our room!

So now that I have less than two months to go until I am AT WALT DISNEY WORLD (AHHHHHHHHHH), obviously the next item I have to tackle is FOOD. Amazingly, the only restaurant that seems to be booked solid so far during our stay is Be Our Guest (but fortunately I know even if nothing opens up, we'll still be able to go there for lunch one day). I'm hoping to have my days somewhat planned out in the next day or two so that I can set up the bulk of my ADRs over the weekend.

So toss out some restaurant suggestions for me, particularly places that you don't hear much about on the boards/twitter but you really enjoy!

 

[onelilspark]

Yay! That's such a great time at WDW because it's not crowded at all!

My favorite restaurants that aren't talked about a lot are Sanaa & Raglan Road.