She's Going Back to Back: A September 2019 and February 2020 PTR

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi Melissa and Paul,

I found your pre-trip report the other day and wrote a nice reply, but somehow it disappeared. Maybe I forgot to hit the post button.

I hate it when that happens. Some of my best comments are the ones that get lost. oh well. We’re glad to have you join in.

Anyway, I am really glad to see that you have started your report. It is always fun to follow your plans. I agree that you just have to keep Trail's End in the rotation. It kind of belongs with a WL trip. It is really hard to get to Trail's End from any other resort than WL.

Yes, we have found that difficulty. We have found ourselves trying to go to Trail’s End from Epcot, and the quickest way is still via Wilderness Lodge. We’ll still make the trip though, perhaps during the WL portion of a split stay with Beach Club Villas.

I'm sorry that we won't overlap trips this fall but you never know, we usually plan a winter trip and February is a great month to go to Florida. The average rainfall in February tends to be the lowest of the year.

It was a treat to finally get to see you last year, although we don’t wish you any last minute changes of dates again, that had to be stressful. Perhaps a February trip will work out. We are excited about the different (especially drier) weather.

You got a great deal on airfare. Now let's hope that they stop messing up the flight schedules for you.

Our fingers are crossed, although we started pricing the airfare for February. It isn’t cheap yet, but we are watching for it to drop under $1000 total for us and then we will book it and keep both sets of fingers crossed.

I have read some great reviews of Shula's steakhouse. I bet it will be good. We have only eaten at Picabu's Restaurant in the Dolphin resort. It is just a quick walk from the Yacht and Beach Club resort and has a lot bigger selection than the Disney resorts.

We are looking forward to exploring that area some more, and the reviews do sound great. We hadn’t heard about Picabu’s but it does look to have some nice variety. We are hoping to have enough room for some Ample Hills ice cream from the Boardwalk for dessert if we aren’t too stuffed by then.

 

[KPeterso]

Sounds like you are off to a great start. We are going to be there 9/13-9/26, so just after you. I was also hoping for 1 more quiet trip before Galaxy's Edge, but alas no. And being DVC, my room was also booked before the announcement. We will also be making the best of it. Did you go to Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland during the reservation time? We loved it! And the reservations made it so quiet. Oh and we also got airfare early for September from LAX, but we are going Delta and got $380 round trip in the Comfort+ section, so we were quite happy with our flight costs too.

 

[KPeterso]

Our fingers are crossed, although we started pricing the airfare for February. It isn’t cheap yet, but we are watching for it to drop under $1000 total for us and then we will book it and keep both sets of fingers crossed.

I am looking for airfare from LAX to MCO for early March, and the prices are still so high. More than I am paying for Comfort+ section for September for the regular economy. But, I will hold out and at some point, the airfare will come down. Although for this past March, it never really came down very much.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Sounds like you are off to a great start. We are going to be there 9/13-9/26, so just after you. I was also hoping for 1 more quiet trip before Galaxy's Edge, but alas no. And being DVC, my room was also booked before the announcement. We will also be making the best of it. Did you go to Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland during the reservation time? We loved it! And the reservations made it so quiet. Oh and we also got airfare early for September from LAX, but we are going Delta and got $380 round trip in the Comfort+ section, so we were quite happy with our flight costs too.

Thanks for joining in. It is neat that you'll be there right after us. We fly home on the 14th, so we won't pass in the sky, but we'll get the place ready for you... We'll also post some real time updates about what the crowds look like. We're optimistic, but we'll see.

We don't have passes for DL now, so we have completely avoided the Galaxy's Edge stuff in the parks. It does seem that the crowds were nice with the reservations, and reviews from everyone who has been are so positive that it is exciting. We had dinner at the Grand Californian last Sunday and were pleasantly surprised that it didn't seem more crowded than usual.

I am looking for airfare from LAX to MCO for early March, and the prices are still so high. More than I am paying for Comfort+ section for September for the regular economy. But, I will hold out and at some point, the airfare will come down. Although for this past March, it never really came down very much.

We have come to really like the LAX nonstops. We also try to have a fairly late departure to take full advantage of our last day there, but that adds another limiting factor and drives the price up. For February we have seen just over $300 a person, but are hoping to be closer to the $250 range before we buy. At least we have some time.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

This should be a timely post since AP prices seem to be the topic of the day. One big benefit of having two trips in under a year is the chance to buy annual passes. When you couple that with our DVC discount and chance to buy Gold AP's, our most economical choice for the trip was pretty clear.

It took us a bit to save up for the tickets but we decided the earlier we could buy them the better ahead of any price hikes.

As soon as we had the airfare booked we started saving for them. We get to buy four of them since Marshall is three now. We watched anxiously for a few months, fearing a price increase, but finally we pulled the trigger and bought our passes in early May.

Which today we rejoiced over as we saw they had made the dreaded ticket hike effective today.

Buying them early saved us $360! Being excited about avoiding the increase for this year helps us temporarily avoid the pain of price increases that we know is coming. I am hoping that 15% annual increases won't be common, but whatever they are we are kind of along for the ride.

I'm really glad we did that and it helps us out for the next two trips. Which for us really equals the next two years since we won't take a second trip in 2020

Yeah, our per year cost for park tickets is nice and low, and then we'll just have to start saving for tickets or passes for September 2021. We probably won't be doing the premiere passes again anytime soon though, since they are now $2099 each! That $8400 would go a long ways towards something that won't expire in 365 days...

Also going with these APs means we won't have water park access, which the kids aren't going to be too thrilled about, but I'm sure we'll have plenty to do.

For sure, fitting water park time in is always a challenge. I think spending more time at the resort pools will be just fine this year, especially in February when we probably won't swim at all.

They also have a new pass option for DL that we may try next year, where you need reservations to come on certain days. Since we tend to plan, that might work well for us, so that we could finally see all the changes at DLR (after it calms down for a bit...)

So, that's all for today. We hope the crowds stay reasonable and the quality more than justifies the increased ticket cost. We will gladly go and make our own firsthand assessment and report back...

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Glad that you already got your tickets. I am just glad we have ours for now. And don't have to worry about it for awhile.

 

[KPeterso]

We have come to really like the LAX nonstops. We also try to have a fairly late departure to take full advantage of our last day there, but that adds another limiting factor and drives the price up. For February we have seen just over $300 a person, but are hoping to be closer to the $250 range before we buy. At least we have some time.

I have come to like the nonstops from LAX best. I live very close to John Wayne (like under 10 minutes away), but still go up to LAX so I can take the direct flights. And I have tried them all (United, American, Delta, Virgin America), and usually go with the best price. Although, I really loved Virgin America and miss them! And we do the same for the return trip taking the late flight that usually leaves between 7-8 PM.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Your dining plans sound great. Definitely a nice mix of old and new. I feel that pain of wanting to try new things but also just wanting to go to your old favorites!

California Grill is my very favorite restaurant on property so hopefully you will enjoy that!

And hopefully you get a waiter/waitress at 50s Prime Time who is in the mood to play along! My brother once hid his greens in my Dads backpack and our neighboring table told on him. He and the tattle tell both had to hold a sugar packet up on the wall lol it was a lot of fun! Although he never seems to want to go back there...haha

 

[Wood Nymph]

Which today we rejoiced over as we saw they had made the dreaded ticket hike effective today.

I would be happy to have beat the price increase, too, especially since you now need four of them.
I worried about park ticket prices going up for the trip with our son and grandsons. I bought the tickets from Underground Tourist and then a few weeks later the prices went up. I saved $133 which felt pretty good.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I have come to like the nonstops from LAX best. I live very close to John Wayne (like under 10 minutes away), but still go up to LAX so I can take the direct flights. And I have tried them all (United, American, Delta, Virgin America), and usually go with the best price. Although, I really loved Virgin America and miss them! And we do the same for the return trip taking the late flight that usually leaves between 7-8 PM.

Ahh yeah. We never wound up with a Virgin America flight but heard good things. We live closer to Ontario, but can't get a good deal on a nonstop from there, and hate paying more to have a layover. Frontier did a nonstop that some of our friends tried, but the fees add up quickly. So, we wind up with whichever LAX nonstop we can get the best deal on. For February Delta is looking competitive with American right now, so we will see who lowers the price first...

Your dining plans sound great. Definitely a nice mix of old and new. I feel that pain of wanting to try new things but also just wanting to go to your old favorites!

California Grill is my very favorite restaurant on property so hopefully you will enjoy that!

And hopefully you get a waiter/waitress at 50s Prime Time who is in the mood to play along! My brother once hid his greens in my Dads backpack and our neighboring table told on him. He and the tattle tell both had to hold a sugar packet up on the wall lol it was a lot of fun! Although he never seems to want to go back there...haha

Yeah, we always want to do some new stuff, and these ones are ones we have wanted to try for a long time. I'm glad that you like California Grill so much, we think we will too. We have more that we want to try in February, and will post that list soon.

I would be happy to have beat the price increase, too, especially since you now need four of them.
I worried about park ticket prices going up for the trip with our son and grandsons. I bought the tickets from Underground Tourist and then a few weeks later the prices went up. I saved $133 which felt pretty good.

Isn't it funny how getting to temporairly avoid a permanent increase makes us happy, but higher prices are inevitable, so it is nice to save when we can. Congratulations on getting the thickets for everyone through Underground Tourist.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We got our Magic Bands on Wednesday! Last Friday we noticed that some more of the custom ones with graphics were available, so we decided to place our order. Since they came out with the custom logo bands availability has been very spotty, and we weren't sure that we'd be able to get them or what choices we would have, but we had time so we waited through the first few weeks of chaos. Once the bands we wanted showed up online again, we went ahead and ordered them.


The coolest part is that after ordering them on Friday we had them the following Wednesday.

The options for the printed ones are really nice and more exciting than the solid colors. Marshall decided he just wanted red though which surprised me. He didn't want Mickey on it or anything, just red.

Allie had chosen the white Castle band, so I decided to get it as well. Then it turns out she changed her mind to switch to the Stitch band, but that change didn't get saved in the system, so we will be twins.

The castle band is really pretty. I decided to just go with plain pink because I plan on using the puck holder on my watch band anyway.



I like green and white, so I am thinking I will swap pucks between the castle band and a green one, giving me two custom cool ones to wear.

So, that's about all for now. We are just over a week from our Fastpass date for September, and narrowing down our February ADRs. Check back for more info on those soon.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We have been declining our bands since we have plenty of them but I think I am going to order one of the special ones.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I always enjoy your updates!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Woo Hoo on getting your magic bands!

 

[Leesha.Monster]

I just wanted to come here and say that you were absolutely right about the filet at Teppan Edo! My son requested that we dine there again, so we made a second reservation on this current trip. He said it was the best steak in his life (he’s only 10) haha

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Wow, that makes two of us that went to Teppan Edo for the filet based on @GrandCalifornian 's previous trip report! Teppan Edo should pay royalties to Paul and Melissa, LOL!

 

[joviroxx]

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[dnllmz]

As soon as we had the airfare booked we started saving for them. We get to buy four of them since Marshall is three now. We watched anxiously for a few months, fearing a price increase, but finally we pulled the trigger and bought our passes in early May.

Nice timing!

For sure, fitting water park time in is always a challenge. I think spending more time at the resort pools will be just fine this year, especially in February when we probably won't swim at all.

This is why we never go to the water parks. We have such a hard time fitting it in our plans. The kids don't really know much about the water parks so they never mention them. They do enjoy pool time so each trip we try to do a little more of that. Our upcoming August trip has a lot of potential pool time in it.

Allie had chosen the white Castle band, so I decided to get it as well.

That's the band I got too! It's really nice.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Were you able to get all the FPs you wanted?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We have been declining our bands since we have plenty of them but I think I am going to order one of the special ones.

I also have more bands than I need, but when I can get a neat one for only $10, I couldn't say no...

I always enjoy your updates!

Thanks! They should be more frequent as we get closer to the trip, and then we will have a whole lot to say between the trips.

Woo Hoo on getting your magic bands!

Thanks! Despite all the issues with them becoming orderable, they sure showed up fast once we were able to order them.

I just wanted to come here and say that you were absolutely right about the filet at Teppan Edo! My son requested that we dine there again, so we made a second reservation on this current trip. He said it was the best steak in his life (he’s only 10) haha

That's great! It doesn't surprise me at all that I have a 10 year old's opinion on steak!

Wow, that makes two of us that went to Teppan Edo for the filet based on @GrandCalifornian 's previous trip report! Teppan Edo should pay royalties to Paul and Melissa, LOL!

We like the sound of that! it is just one of those restaurants that you don't hear as much raving about compared to how good we found it to be. Whether the show is like a Benihana or not, we loved the steak!

following

Great, thanks for joining in. We should have more coming up here soon.

This is why we never go to the water parks. We have such a hard time fitting it in our plans. The kids don't really know much about the water parks so they never mention them. They do enjoy pool time so each trip we try to do a little more of that. Our upcoming August trip has a lot of potential pool time in it.
That's the band I got too! It's really nice.

Yes! We really say the biggest cost of the water parks is time, since it takes up a huge block of time that we could be somewhere else. This time we will hang out and enjoy the pools at the resort, which is more relaxing than packing up and heading to a water park for us.
The castle bands do look cool, and we;re excited about them.

Were you able to get all the FPs you wanted?

Yes, thanks for asking. We'll go over that in more detain in the next post, but we are super happy with how we did.