Pre-Trip Planning - Our 18 night Adventure

[MelanieC]

Pre-Trip Report:

Today marks 110 days till our 18 night trip in August at POP Century.


Our family is:

Me (Melanie) - Loves all things Disney. I grew up in Vegas and our vacations were to Disneyland. I've been hooked with WDW the first time we went in 1995. My goal is to make sure we go yearly.

DH (Bill) - Loves our long trips to Disney even though he likes to act all cool and say "were not going to Disney AGAIN are we".

DD17 (Taryn) - She will be a Senior next year, and is a High School Varsity Competition Cheerleader.

DS11 (Ryan) -Will be in the sixth grade next year, plays guitar and the trumpet.

We didn't get to go last year because DH was in Afghanistan from July-Sept, when we normally go. This is DD17's last summer at home as a kid prior to graduation next summer and heading off to College.

We are departing after work on Wednesday August 5, 2009 and will drive to North Carolina and stay overnight. The next morning we will get up and drive the rest of way and arrive at POP Century sometime around 6pm or so on Thursday August 6, 2009.

We have two reservations booked at POP.

The first 10 nights is booked room only using the military rate. For this part of the trip we are using the following tickets:
Disney:
1 Free 5 Day Military ticket for DH and we bought 3 of the $99 5 day Military companion tickets.
Universal:
1 Free 2 park 7 day Universal Studios Military ticket, 1 Free 2 park 7 day Universal Studios Superbowl ticket (I won this), and we bought 2 $89 Military companion tickets.
Sea World:
4 free Sea World Military Salute tickets

Since part of our trip was during the free dining we decided to add the free diniing to our last 8 nights of our trip.

8/16-8/24 Free dining and an 8 day MYW ticket.


My preliminary plans for this trip are (the dates may change depending on what the actual EMH and times at each park are)

First 10 nights - no dining plan:
8/6- arrive hotel have dinner at POP
8/7 - AK: Lunch Yak & Yeti, Dinner Jiko
8/8 - MK: Lunch LTT, Dinner O'hana
8/9- MGM: Lunch Sci Fi, Dinner Prime Time
8/10- EPCOT: Lunch Coral Reef, Dinner Teppan Edo
8/11 -Islands of Adventure: Lunch Mythos, Dinner ?
8/12 - Universal Studios: Lunch Finnegans Bar & Grill Dinner?
8/13 - IOA/US: Lunch ? Dinner T-Rex (DTD)
8/14 - Sea World: Lunch Sharks,
8/15 - MK: Lunch Tony's Town Square, Dinner The Plaza Restaurant


Last 8 nights on Dining plan
8/16 - AK: Lunch -Pizzafari Dinner Boma
8/17 - EPCOT: Lunch - US/Tangierine Cafe Dinner Biergarten
8/18 - MGM: Lunch CS? , Dinner Mama Melrose Fantasmic
8/19- MK: Lunch Cosmic Rays, Dinner Crystal Palace
8/20 - EPCOT: Lunch Cantina San De Angel ,Dinner LeCellier
8/21- AK: Lunch Flame Tree BBQ, Dinner Whispering Canyon
8/22- MK: Lunch CS?, Dinner 1900 Park Fare
8/23- EPCOT: Lunch CS?, Dinner Cape May Clam Bake
8/24 - Driving home

 

[vettegirl]

18 days! I am so jealous. I wish I would have planned for Univeral as well as we could have taken advantage of the military promo there as well. Too late though we are 3 weeks away from out trip and everything is set. I hope you get all your ADR's and happy planning

 

[MelanieC]

18 days! I am so jealous. I wish I would have planned for Univeral as well as we could have taken advantage of the military promo there as well. Too late though we are 3 weeks away from out trip and everything is set. I hope you get all your ADR's and happy planning

Thanks - Planning is half the fun. About 12 days till the August hours will be out (give or take).

Looking foward to that so I can actually set the exact plan of what parks on what days.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in our your pre-trip report. We will be at Pop the same time! We drive from Louisiana and will be leaving after work on August 5th. We'll drive the rest of the way the next day and check into Pop Century mid-day on August 6th. I wish we could stay 18 days too but, alas, we only have 10 days of vacation.

I am soooo looking forward to the park hours being released so I can decide where we are going on what day. That's how I plan our ADRs too.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[MelanieC]

Joining in our your pre-trip report. We will be at Pop the same time! We drive from Louisiana and will be leaving after work on August 5th. We'll drive the rest of the way the next day and check into Pop Century mid-day on August 6th. I wish we could stay 18 days too but, alas, we only have 10 days of vacation.

I am soooo looking forward to the park hours being released so I can decide where we are going on what day. That's how I plan our ADRs too.

Can't wait to read more!

How cool - we will both be leaving for Disney on the same day after work. Maybe I'll see you at check in on 8/6 if we somehow get there early. 10 days is still pretty good. We used to go for 10 days when we started going to Disney. Somehow we just kept on adding days (we added 2 this year).

 

[jpmom97]

18 days! What a dream come true! Please thank your husband for his service and keeping us safe, I am glad he is home safe and sound.

 

[MelanieC]

In the past few weeks DH has gotten a large envelope that he has put the following in:

1. Companion Military tickets we bought
2. The Disney Gift Card we ordered from our points from Disney Visa.
3. The Sea World Military validation form for free tickets.
4. My free Superbowl 2 park 7 day Universal ticket.
5. The receipt showing that we paid for the companion tickets.
6 His military orders from Afghanistan in case Disney wants to see these (I've read they don't need them now - but just in case).

I took my Disney bag that I bought in WDW in 2007 and started putting stuff I am going to take with me.

I've also started my spreadsheet for the parks/ADR's for the whole trip. I print a copy for each day we are going to be there and just throw a new copy in my bag each day when we are in Disney.

I've already started throwing some tolietries in the bag.

 

[mickeystoontown]

How cool - we will both be leaving for Disney on the same day after work. Maybe I'll see you at check in on 8/6 if we somehow get there early. 10 days is still pretty good. We used to go for 10 days when we started going to Disney. Somehow we just kept on adding days (we added 2 this year).

I plan on having my lime green Mickey head tag on my backpack. I may do a little window decoration. It won't be too much 'cause I don't want to get tagged with a clean up fee.

Our 22 year old daughter hasn't been with us to Disney in two years because she's been away doing missionary work while in missionary college. We are soooo excited that she is coming along with us this year. And, she may be coming home for a while.

We are celebrating her graduating her second year of missionary college, our son's 12th birthday and our 25 wedding anniversary! Can't think of a better place to celebrate except for Disney World!

 

[ColoradoLime]

Wow - 18 days!! I dream of the day I can be in Disney for 18 days. Have fun!

 

[MelanieC]

Hey everyone - So i've done some tinkering and taken off the first day of our trip and added it to the end so we have an extra night of Free Dining.

Original Dates
8/6/09 -8/15/09 - Military Rates (10 nights)
8/16/09-8/24/09 - Free dining (8 nights)

New Dates
8/7/09-8/15/09 - Military Rates (9 nights)
8/16/09-825/09 - Free dining (9 nights)

Woo hoo - just saved another day of food costs

 

[MelanieC]

WOW today I was able to make some dining ADR's.

This past week has been long with all the waiting for park hours to come out. They didn't come out on Friday May 1st like we had hoped. I think it wasn't until Tuesday that they actually started rolling out.

So my new plan looks like this after looking at the hours. The only way I'd change a day is if TGM say's something that I didn't take into account for the days that aren't out yet (second half of Aug).

Here is our new plan:

8/6 after work we leave to drive to Florida. We will try to get as far as possible (hopefully to NC) before getting a room.
8/7 finish driving and arrive at POP in the evening - hopefully not too late
8/8 - MK
8/9 - AK
8/10-EPCOT
8/11-DHS
8/12- IOA
8/13 - US
8/14- IOA/US
8/15- Sea World
8/16-AK
8/17- MK
8/18-Epcot
8/19-MK
8/20- DHS
8/21- EPCOT
8/22-MK
8/23- AK
8/24-MGM or EPCOT -depending on how we feel
8/25 - Drive home

I was able to make these dining ADR's today
8/8 - LTT lunch, Plaza dinner
8/9 -Yak & Yeti lunch, Jiko dinner
8/10 Coral Reef lunch, Teppan Edo dinner
8/11 - Prime Time lunch, Sci Fi dinner
8/16- Boma dinner
8/17- Ohana

I coudn't make the other ressies yet and they said I have to wait until 5/18/09 because I have two seperate hotel ressies for 9 nights each.

Edited to Add: I have been able to make the extra ressies before the 90 day's of my second reservation. I've been able to call up daily to add each extra day on(mind you one person said I couldn't- but I calle back and had no problem).

 

[MelanieC]

I've also added these now

8/18 LeCellier
8/19 Crystal Palace
8/20 Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package
8/21 Biergarten
8/22 - Making these tonight for 1900 Park Fare.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay! You're quickly going through making the ADRs. Have your wait times been bad? I made eight ADRs and it took a total of over 56 minutes!

 

[souda]

WOW!! 18 Days. I am so jealous. Sounds fabulous. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[MelanieC]

Yay! You're quickly going through making the ADRs. Have your wait times been bad? I made eight ADRs and it took a total of over 56 minutes!

After the first few mornings, the wait times got better. One morning I started the call at 6:58am and got through in about 3 minutes.

After a while, I stopped gettingup in the morning and called later in the day because I knew that some wouldn't be as hard to get. I definately called first thing on my Fantasmic Dinner day and LeCellier. I got exactly the time I wanted for LeCellier and for my Fantasmic day I got 3:35pm, and when I got in the shower to get ready for work I got to thinking I could switch the days so I called back. I then got 4:45 on the changed day, and before she finalized those days she checked one more time on the day I had originally wanted and she got 5pm for the Fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose so we took that.

The first few days of calling I was on the phone forever. Even when I got through quickly and I only had to make a few dining reservations or looking to change some I still had total time on calls of over 30 minutes sometimes.

 

[MelanieC]

WOW!! 18 Days. I am so jealous. Sounds fabulous. Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks - we have been adding a day or two on over the years. Last time we stayed for 15 nights and the year before that 14 nights. We started off this trip booking it for 16 nights, then we addd a night and then another, lol.

We stay at the values and use things like military discounts and luckily free dining this time. It really helps. We are saving tons this year with the military discounts on the tickets and the free dining.

 

[MelanieC]

So here is my final plan (well final for today, lol)

8/8-8/16 - Military Rate - No dining package
8/8 - MK LTT 11:35am / Plaza 6:30 PM
8/9 - AK Yak & Yeti 11:00am / Jiko 6:20 PM
8/10-Epcot Coral Reef 11:30am / Teppan Edo 6:30pm
8/11-DHS Prime Time 11:05am / Sci Fi 5:45pm
8/12 - Islands of Adventure -Mythos Lunch / T- Rex 8:00pm
8/13- Universal Studios - Finnegans Pub /
8/14 - IOA/US -
8/15 - Sea World - Sharks Grill

8/16- 8/25 - Free Dining

8/16 - AK Flame Tree Lunch @11a / Ohana 6:30pm
8/17 - MK -Pecos Bill lunch @11a / Whispering Canyon 6:35pm
8/18 - EPCOT- Sunshine Seasons lunch @11a / LeCellier 6:00pm
8/19 - MK - Cosmic Ray lunch @11a / Crystal Palace 6:05pm
8/20 - DHS -Backlot Express lunch @11a / Mama Melrose Fantasmic Dinner 5:00p
8/21-Epcot Tangierine Cafe DD17 & me & America DH & DS11 @11a /Biergarten 6:15p
8/22-MK ?? lunch / 1900 Park Fare 6:15p
8/23 Ak / Pizzafari @11am / Boma 7:30p
8/24 DHS or Epcot ?? lunch / Cape May Cafe 5:45p

 

[MelanieC]

73 days left. It's actually going really fast. Probably because I want to lose 15 pounds before I go. I think the reality that it's approaching fast is hitting me.

I ordered another $100 Disney gift card from this Health program we have at work. I had $150 of them when I went in March and they really came in handy. Nothing like spending free money at Disney!

Hearing all the problems that everyone had in getting LeCellier, Fantasmic packages and Ohana during free dining - I feel pretty good I got decent times on everything.

The kids went and got their new military dependent ID's, now I just have to get mine. Guess I'll have to take an afternoon off work to meet hubby.

 

[MelanieC]

Wow - We are down to 2 weeks. We leave two weeks from today, after I get home from work. I'm actually starting to feel that stress of getting everything done before we go.

Even at work I feel it, so I'm trying to make some lists of things I need to accomplish and get done before I leave work that afternoon.

I'm also need to start making some home lists to make sure we have everything.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wow - We are down to 2 weeks. We leave two weeks from today, after I get home from work. I'm actually starting to feel that stress of getting everything done before we go.

Even at work I feel it, so I'm trying to make some lists of things I need to accomplish and get done before I leave work that afternoon.

I'm also need to start making some home lists to make sure we have everything.

I can feel your pain girl!

We start our drive to Disney in just 12 days and arrive in just 13 days. We'll leave out when I get off work too.

Since I work, I have to think of "how many weekends do I have?" not "how many days do I have?" I know that's probably what you're thinking too.

Last weekend, we drove 10 hours to see our daughter graduate her 2nd year of missionary college. We are having a garage sale this weekend and the kids get to keep the money as their Disney spending money. I hate the hassle of garage sales but we do it every year before going to Disney so it's kind of a necessary thing. So, needless to say, I didn't get anything accomplished last weekend and won't probably get anything "Disney" accomplished this weekend. And, some time next week, one of the other mission students is coming to stay for several days. Ugh! How will I get anything done?

I take that back, we did decide while driving that long 10 hours that we are just going to order our Cokes and water and breakfast stuff from Garden Grocer rather than make a trip to the grocery store when we get to Disney World. I guess you could say that was something we can check off our list. IF I had one made yet.

I do have my "Disney" box in the corner of the room that I occasionally throw trip stuff in. It's pretty full which means I probably don't have to buy anything else.

Oh and I found out yesterday that the lady that I had lined up to fill in for me at work can't come in. Then, I found out that my backup lady can't either. I'm now frantically looking for somebody else.

Sorry about the long spiel but I wanted you to know that we are both in the boat. But, it'll settle down. We'll get everything done. And, we'll both have a fantastic Disney vacation.