September 2013 with a twist - New 9/13 - we are on our way!

[lsenquiz]

I’m in!!

We’ll be there the 11-19th! I’ll see if we have any match ups on our days! It looks like this is certainly an adventurous trip! Lots of pirates that’s for sure! Haha.

I’ve always wanted to stay at BLT, it’s really the only part of the Contemp that appeals to me, haha. We’re doing CM’s our arrival day too, haven’t eaten there yet, but I’m hoping it’s good!

We’ll be at Epcot the same day, that’s for sure! I love Turtle Talk! There’s no kids in our travel group but I’m always insistent on making a stop here, it’s super cute!

From what I’ve heard you miss the “design a car” thing in the FP line.

Looks like great minds think alike, we’re at MK/MNSSHP the same day too! It’s our second MK day so we’re starting at Crystal Palace pre park opening! My guess is we’ll be in the Frontier/Adventureland side of the park most of the day, but also all over the place, bahah.

Awesome that wait times have historically been that low! That’s GREAT! Our party plans are pretty much the same but we’ll be heading to the Princess/Prince line instead of the dwarfs!

We share a love for FOTLK! I would sit and watch that show all day!

Those cruise plans sound great! I want to do a Disney cruise, but am a little afraid of the whole boat thing, bahaha. I’m sure I’d be fine once on one, but I feel like I’d rather do a cruise with more port time than at sea time, your itinerary looks perfect, lol!!

We are at Disney right now enjoyng a wonderful 2 weeks. We'll be back June 8th and then it will be full speed ahead planning our September trip!

 

[klacey1]

Subscribing! I love big extended family trips to Disney-- I've done a few with my cousins, as well. Always a good time!
We're also going in September, but earlier in the month. I can't wait to read about more of your plans!

 

[indimom]

We are at Disney right now enjoyng a wonderful 2 weeks. We'll be back June 8th and then it will be full speed ahead planning our September trip!

Hope everything is going well and you are getting lots of pictures and autographs. Can't wait to hear about both trips!!!

 

[lsenquiz]

Now that we are back from our May/June trip we have decided to make major changes to this trip. We learned so many lessons from the last trip on what works and does not work for us. We have also decided to ditch the cruise part of this trip because I could just not stop worrying about cruising during peak hurricane season.

So I am at a loss on how to proceed. Should I just close this PTR down and start from scratch or just revise this one? Our changes include changes in lodging, park days, dining choices, must do list and ditching the cruise (so pretty much everything) so I am leaning toward starting over but would love some suggestions.

 

[indimom]

Now that we are back from our May/June trip we have decided to make major changes to this trip. We learned so many lessons from the last trip on what works and does not work for us. We have also decided to ditch the cruise part of this trip because I could just not stop worrying about cruising during peak hurricane season.

So I am at a loss on how to proceed. Should I just close this PTR down and start from scratch or just revise this one? Our changes include changes in lodging, park days, dining choices, must do list and ditching the cruise (so pretty much everything) so I am leaning toward starting over but would love some suggestions.

I think you could keep this one open. I've certainly seen big changes in PTRs before. Sometimes the resort changes several times. But, I don't think it would hurt a thing to start a new one either. Just make sure you point me in the right direction. Sometimes I get lost. Can't wait to hear your new plans!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Hm I agree that you could probably go either way. I think it would be fine to continue this one because change is part of the PTR process, but I could also see why you might lean towards starting a new one.

Either way, I can't wait to hear about the new plans!

 

[Alysa]

Hi Lisa, Hope you had a great weekend! Keeping this one is good - I changed my plans and dates twice with mine!

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Aww, I hate that you decided to cancel your cruise, but I understand! I would love to read about your changes. . .I say just keep this one and update it!

 

[lsenquiz]

I think you could keep this one open. I've certainly seen big changes in PTRs before. Sometimes the resort changes several times. But, I don't think it would hurt a thing to start a new one either. Just make sure you point me in the right direction. Sometimes I get lost. Can't wait to hear your new plans!

Hm I agree that you could probably go either way. I think it would be fine to continue this one because change is part of the PTR process, but I could also see why you might lean towards starting a new one.

Either way, I can't wait to hear about the new plans!

Hi Lisa, Hope you had a great weekend! Keeping this one is good - I changed my plans and dates twice with mine!

Aww, I hate that you decided to cancel your cruise, but I understand! I would love to read about your changes. . .I say just keep this one and update it!

Ready to move forward again. I will just keep this PTR

 

[lsenquiz]

Resort changes and we ditch the twist​

Before I get into our changes I first want to say that I am ditching the code names for Kenny(Grumpy) & Gabriel(Buzz) because it is just too confusing for me. I will keep the code names for everyone else and do my best to keep track of who is who

So, ever since we started planning this vacation I have been on the fence about whether we should take the Cruise part. Honestly cruises have really never been Kenny or my thing (we have taken two). I also worried a lot about cruising during the peak of Hurricane season. However, Tink wanted to go so I was willing to tag along.

Well that all changed after our two week May/June trip. We had such an absolute amazing time. After each moment (and there were a ton of them) Kenny and I would look at each other and say I really wish we were spending our whole trip here and not going on that cruise in September. We said it so many times that by the end of our two weeks I decided that I just had to talk Tink out of the cruise. I started with Tink's Mom. It was pretty easy to get her on board so then I went to work on Tink. It was actually surprising easy to get her on board also. She still wants to go on a cruise but her and her DH are just going to take one with just the two of them. Yeah! Win win for everyone .

So now that the cruise was off the table we needed to figure out where we would stay for the days that we were supposed to be on the cruise. Normally I rent a 2 bedroom villa at Boardwalk for that week through DVC points. Unfortunately that was not an option this year because it has to be done at least 9 months in advance (I usually do it 11 months on advance). We also had some date changes for some of our party which impacted the resorts for the first week of the trip.

The trips days look like this now:
September 14th 28th Kenny, Gabriel and I
September 20th 28th Tink, Swat, Ariel and Stitch
September 21st 28th Aunt P, Uncle F, & Gunz

I was also having second thoughts about our resort choices for the first week of our stay because we had really missed the Boardwalk when we were at the Beach Club for the 2 weeks in May/June. So we switched everything up (believe it or not this is the first time in all our trips to Disney that we have changed resorts after making our original reservations).

Our resorts look like this now:
September 14th 22nd = BWV Studio Kenny, Gabriel and I
September 20th 21st = Dolphin Tink, Swat, Ariel and Stich (Swat has enough points to pay for both nights)
September 22nd 28th = Cabin at Fort Wilderness - Kenny, Gabriel, me, Tink, Swat & Stitch
September 21st 28th = AoA Suite Aunt P, Uncle F, Gunz & Ariel(joins them on the 22nd)

We ended up getting free dining with our Cabin stay. This has actually never been a value to us before but made things more affordable for Tink & Swat for this trip. Kenny and I always pay for the room portion of our trip when we stay in the two bedroom at Boardwalk so we are still paying for the room portion of the cabin for this trip. I just figured out what that would be by pricing out a room only trip using the discount room rate for September.

Kenny, Gabriel and I also have APs so we just booked the reservation for 2 day tickets for each person in our party. Tink, Swat and Stitch will upgrade their tickets(as well as the one that would have been for gabriel to use for Ariel) to 6 days and Kenny and I will keep our two day tickets and put the value toward our AP when it is time to upgrade.

Then I created a budget for what Kenny, Gabriel and I would normally spend on food and we agreed to pay that much toward the reservation.

This left Tink & Swat owing about $1,400 for the week lodging, tickets and food for Tink, Swat and Stitch using the regular dining plan. We will pay for Ariel's food separately. Tink's other son Gunz already has a nonexpiring ticket with 4 days left so he will be good since Aunt P, Uncle F and Gunz like several down days while they are there.


So with our resort changes complete I am off to review and redo our daily plans.

 

[indimom]

Resort changes and we ditch the twist​

Before I get into our changes I first want to say that I am ditching the code names for Kenny(Grumpy) & Gabriel(Buzz) because it is just too confusing for me. I will keep the code names for everyone else and do my best to keep track of who is who

So, ever since we started planning this vacation I have been on the fence about whether we should take the Cruise part. Honestly cruises have really never been Kenny or my thing (we have taken two). I also worried a lot about cruising during the peak of Hurricane season. However, Tink wanted to go so I was willing to tag along.

Well that all changed after our two week May/June trip. We had such an absolute amazing time. After each moment (and there were a ton of them) Kenny and I would look at each other and say I really wish we were spending our whole trip here and not going on that cruise in September. We said it so many times that by the end of our two weeks I decided that I just had to talk Tink out of the cruise. I started with Tink's Mom. It was pretty easy to get her on board so then I went to work on Tink. It was actually surprising easy to get her on board also. She still wants to go on a cruise but her and her DH are just going to take one with just the two of them. Yeah! Win win for everyone .

So now that the cruise was off the table we needed to figure out where we would stay for the days that we were supposed to be on the cruise. Normally I rent a 2 bedroom villa at Boardwalk for that week through DVC points. Unfortunately that was not an option this year because it has to be done at least 9 months in advance (I usually do it 11 months on advance). We also had some date changes for some of our party which impacted the resorts for the first week of the trip.

The trips days look like this now:
September 14th 28th Kenny, Gabriel and I
September 20th 28th Tink, Swat, Ariel and Stitch
September 21st 28th Aunt P, Uncle F, & Gunz

I was also having second thoughts about our resort choices for the first week of our stay because we had really missed the Boardwalk when we were at the Beach Club for the 2 weeks in May/June. So we switched everything up (believe it or not this is the first time in all our trips to Disney that we have changed resorts after making our original reservations).

Our resorts look like this now:
September 14th 22nd = BWV Studio Kenny, Gabriel and I
September 20th 21st = Dolphin Tink, Swat, Ariel and Stich (Swat has enough points to pay for both nights)
September 22nd 28th = Cabin at Fort Wilderness - Kenny, Gabriel, me, Tink, Swat & Stitch
September 21st 28th = AoA Suite Aunt P, Uncle F, Gunz & Ariel(joins them on the 22nd)

We ended up getting free dining with our Cabin stay. This has actually never been a value to us before but made things more affordable for Tink & Swat for this trip. Kenny and I always pay for the room portion of our trip when we stay in the two bedroom at Boardwalk so we are still paying for the room portion of the cabin for this trip. I just figured out what that would be by pricing out a room only trip using the discount room rate for September.

Kenny, Gabriel and I also have APs so we just booked the reservation for 3 day tickets for each person in our party. This will allow Tink, Swat and Stitch to use 2 each of the three day tickets for a total of 6 park days(I seriously hope there is no rule against doing this.

Then I created a budget for what Kenny, Gabriel and I would normally spend on food and we agreed to pay that much toward the reservation.

This left Tink & Swat owing about $1,500 for the week which includes the cost of purchasing a 6 day ticket for Ariel out of pocket, lodging, tickets for Tink, Swat and Stitch and food for Tink, Swat and Stitch using the regular dining plan. We will pay for Ariel's food separately. Tink's other son Gunz already has a nonexpiring ticket with 4 days left so he will be good since Aunt P, Uncle F and Gunz like several down days while they are there.


So with our resort changes complete I am off to review and redo our daily plans.

Sounds like a great plan, especially the part about the tickets. I've never read that you can't do that, so hopefully it's a go! Sounds like an exciting trip so far. I can't wait to hear more.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

I think your new plans look terrific! We love Boardwalk, too! I thought I wouldn't like it, but when we stayed there in 2010, it quickly became one of my favorite DVCs!

Now. . .bring on the park plans!!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I completely understand your reservations about cruising during hurricane season.

Glad everyone agreed to the change! And it's great that you were able to decide your changes based on your experience this trip.

The new resort plans sound great and I'm impressed with how you figured out the financial aspect of everything! You made it seem easy and I would've been totally lol!

I don't see why they wouldn't be able to use the tickets like that. I've heard of people doing similar things with tickets when APs/free dining came into play so I'm sure it will be fine!

 

[lsenquiz]

I think your new plans look terrific! We love Boardwalk, too! I thought I wouldn't like it, but when we stayed there in 2010, it quickly became one of my favorite DVCs!

Now. . .bring on the park plans!!

Boardwalk will always be my first love. I just love everything about that resort.

Sounds like a great plan, especially the part about the tickets. I've never read that you can't do that, so hopefully it's a go! Sounds like an exciting trip so far. I can't wait to hear more.

I completely understand your reservations about cruising during hurricane season.

Glad everyone agreed to the change! And it's great that you were able to decide your changes based on your experience this trip.

The new resort plans sound great and I'm impressed with how you figured out the financial aspect of everything! You made it seem easy and I would've been totally lol!

I don't see why they wouldn't be able to use the tickets like that. I've heard of people doing similar things with tickets when APs/free dining came into play so I'm sure it will be fine!

I feel so much better knowing that we do not have that cruise this year. Especially with the way the weather has been so far this summer. I think it is going to be a tough year weather wise.

We have actually made some more changes since I made my reservation. I belong to a FP group for people going in September (Courtney - if you do not already belong you should join!) A person in that group explained to me (in a very nice way) that I was totally screwing up with my plans . Once she spelled everything out for me I realized that by keeping the tickets that were assigned to Kenny, Gabriel and I and applying their value to our AP upgrade when it comes due and just upgrading the tickets from 2 days to 6 days for Tink, Swat & Stitch that we would save about $500 So for anyone that was considering my idea, sharing tickets is not a good financial decision!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I feel so much better knowing that we do not have that cruise this year. Especially with the way the weather has been so far this summer. I think it is going to be a tough year weather wise.

We have actually made some more changes since I made my reservation. I belong to a FP group for people going in September (Courtney - if you do not already belong you should join!) A person in that group explained to me (in a very nice way) that I was totally screwing up with my plans . Once she spelled everything out for me I realized that by keeping the tickets that were assigned to Kenny, Gabriel and I and applying their value to our AP upgrade when it comes due and just upgrading the tickets from 2 days to 6 days for Tink, Swat & Stitch that we would save about $500 So for anyone that was considering my idea, sharing tickets is not a good financial decision!

I agree-- mother nature seems totally mad at us this year.

Wow! That was great of that person to explain that to you! $500 is a HUGE savings That does make a lot of financial sense since it's so much cheaper to add more days than to buy a new ticket.

I would love to join the FB group but I might be one of the only people left that isn't on FB

 

[lsenquiz]

I would love to join the FB group but I might be one of the only people left that isn't on FB

I think you might be right. My 73 year old dad even has an account now although he refers to it as "The Space Book"

I will say I only use mine for Disney. I belonged to a May group for our May/June trip and now belong to the September group. I really enjoy it (especially since it has saved us $500 )

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I think you might be right. My 73 year old dad even has an account now although he refers to it as "The Space Book"

I will say I only use mine for Disney. I belonged to a May group for our May/June trip and now belong to the September group. I really enjoy it (especially since it has saved us $500 )

I had one all through high school and the beginning of college but found that it started to be a big time waster and the cause of a LOT of unnecessary drama.

In time, I may find myself back on there but definitely with a smaller friends list and to use for useful purposes such as Disney groups (and not Farmville )

 

[lsenquiz]

Day 1 - Sat Sept 14th​

Originally we were supposed to be checking into Baylake Towers on Sunday September 14th but our revised plans now have us checking into Boardwalk on Saturday the 14th .


BWV entrance by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from Oyster.com


BWV Check in by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from Oyster.com


Anyone that is reading my TR for our May/June trip knows that we stayed at the Beach Club for that entire stay. While it is a very nice resort I missed the Boardwalk every day that I was there. So this trip it is back to the Boardwalk Villas for us (at least for the first week). . We will be staying in a studio since it is just Kenny, Gabriel and I.

I suspect that we will end up driving ¾ of the way on Friday night (will probably stop in Gainesville) so we should get to the Boardwalk pretty early in the morning on Saturday. After we get checked in we will spend some time here:


BWV pool 1 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from Oyster.com


I know some people are freaked out by the pool slide but Gabriel loves it. I also love it because I can sit in a lounge chair and watch him walk clear to the top of the slide and then see him come off at the end.


BWV clown by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from Oyster.com


I expect that we will stay at the pool until we get the text that our room is ready. That is usually after lunch for us so we will probably eat at the pool bar.


BWV Pool Bar by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from Oyster.com


Once our room is ready we will head up to unpack. We have actually never stayed in a studio. We have stayed in a 2 bedroom many times and I know the studio is just the extra room in the 2 bedroom but the other family in our party always stays in the studio and we always have the master.


BWV studio by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from the internet


studio-kitchenette by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed from the internet

Once we are unpacked we will head down to the Boardwalk to explore.


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC04433 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I am sure that we will also head to Epcot for a little while. We may do a Perry Mission while we are there.


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

At dinner time we will head back over to our traditional first night restaurant.


Big River Grill by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
Borrowed form Oyster.com

I love sitting outside and having dinner at this restaurant on our first night. This is always the point where it finally sinks in that we are back at our happy place and I am able to let the stress of everyday life go away.

After dinner we will hang around the Boardwalk and watch some of the performers before we call it a day.

Up next: Day 2 – Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom

 

[indimom]

Looks like a great plan so far. I'm sure you'll love being back at your home resort! What's the weather like that time of year? Still warm, but not so humid?? I've never gotten a chance to make a fall trip, but Matt and I are thinking about doing either Fall or early Spring (just the two of us) once the kids are in college/flown the nest.

 

[lsenquiz]

Looks like a great plan so far. I'm sure you'll love being back at your home resort! What's the weather like that time of year? Still warm, but not so humid?? I've never gotten a chance to make a fall trip, but Matt and I are thinking about doing either Fall or early Spring (just the two of us) once the kids are in college/flown the nest.

With the exception of one cooler trip the weather is not much different than summer. It can be very hot and humid. It still stays light until about 8:30pm but does cool down a liitle at night so the mornings can we cooler.