She's Turning Five at Disney World, a September 2014 PTR

[karaokevixen]

We're glad to have you joining in. Have you looked at doing anything through Disney to celebrate your child's birthday? We are thinking maybe have a cake delivered somewhere, or perhaps to the room, we'll have to think about that.

So where are you guys staying? POR is our new thing for this trip, but we're really looking forward to it.

We're sure something will work out with the passes, we would just rather deal with it now than spending the first day in Florida doing it.

I want to do something for his birthday, but I'm not sure what yet. I'm thinking maybe a special dining experience for him, but I don't know where, and I want maybe a special t-shirt, maybe those birthday ears... There are just so many options! lol

We're staying at Art of Animation and I'm actually really excited about it! I looked into most of the resorts, but what it boiled down to was which was the most "Disney" of them. The resorts are all nice and have something to offer, but I know my kids would enjoy the Disney immersion rather than the subtle Disney touches.

Melissa, that dress is too cute!!! You're very talented! I wish I could sew, but my skill lies with a hook or knitting needles. Also, don't hesitate to call back and talk to someone sooner about the ticketing issue. I mean, I'd wait for an email, but don't give them a month. A company like Disney should have a response in a few days...or at least a form email saying that they've received your email and are looking into it. If you haven't heard back in a week, call. Good luck!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Signing on and so excited another trip is planned. Sorry about the ticket hassle.
Hope it all works out soon

Thanks! We're glad to have you following along. The passes will get sorted out, it is just a weird deal. We're surprised that CA and FL just don't communicate, but they are separate systems.

I want to do something for his birthday, but I'm not sure what yet. I'm thinking maybe a special dining experience for him, but I don't know where, and I want maybe a special t-shirt, maybe those birthday ears... There are just so many options! lol

We're staying at Art of Animation and I'm actually really excited about it! I looked into most of the resorts, but what it boiled down to was which was the most "Disney" of them. The resorts are all nice and have something to offer, but I know my kids would enjoy the Disney immersion rather than the subtle Disney touches.

Melissa, that dress is too cute!!! You're very talented! I wish I could sew, but my skill lies with a hook or knitting needles. Also, don't hesitate to call back and talk to someone sooner about the ticketing issue. I mean, I'd wait for an email, but don't give them a month. A company like Disney should have a response in a few days...or at least a form email saying that they've received your email and are looking into it. If you haven't heard back in a week, call. Good luck!

Yeah, we are going to have breakfast at Crystal Palace on Allie's birthday, but the rest of the day will be free. That's why we thought maybe having cake at the room would be neat. We know she'd be happy to have a surprise show up somewhere for her.

AoA should be neat. We were really close to going with it. We visited it in 2012 and enjoyed it, and will probably stop by there at some point during this trip.

Thank you for the kind words! I really do love sewing and I'm glad Allie still likes wearing what I make ;-) We did get an automated response from Disney but nothing else yet. I'll call in a couple weeks if I don't hear anything else. We also have the option of stopping at DL guest services the next time we are there to see if they can help out in any way.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I hope you get the ticket thing worked out before September. If your Premier Pass is dated Sept 30th, then they should honor it at WDW. I hope the CM's agree with me.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I hope you get the ticket thing worked out before September. If your Premier Pass is dated Sept 30th, then they should honor it at WDW. I hope the CM's agree with me.

Yeah, we want to know it will be good. Since we have the Sept 30th date on the passes we should be good, and the CMs in Florida agree with that, but so far recommend that it might take a day or so to work out. We would rather get that done before. In a worst case we could add park days to our package, but we really shouldn't have to.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

So I'm sitting at my desk today and I got a call from a nice lady at Disney about the email we had sent regarding our AP expiration extension. She had a couple questions, mainly just how did this happen because I'm still showing a September 7th expiration. So I went through the whole story again. Unfortunately there is nothing she can do as far as changing the expiration dates on her end, that still has to be done via a guest relations booth but she gave me a case number and all of her contact information incase we have problems. In short, I'm disappointed that we can't have it all figured out before we go but at least we know with certainty that we won't have to buy park tickets when we get there.

I am impressed with how Disney handled this. It is still super odd that nobody can see both the CA and FL systems at the same time, but at least they did get back to us and it will work out. She even suggested going to the Downtown Disney booth for shorter lines. Perhaps we'll head over there the night we arrive, since it is relatively close to POR.

So anybody know what time they might close?

The website says during normal operating hours, but with parks closing at 5PM, 7PM, 8:30 PM, and 9 PM I wonder wahat the ticket booth hours for DTD are? Anyway, that is a minor issue compared to potentially not having park tickets.

Very minor. Oh and in other Disney news our AP MB's shipped! So we are expecting those sometime this week!

Yay! Melissa is threatening to wear hers as soon as it arrives.

I have seen people walking around Disneyland wearing them, I don't know if I'd go that far but I am excited to try the Easter Egg with the MB within the Disney Infinity game. Check it out here.

Oh yeah, that will be cool! (And I guess this is just one more indication how completely Disney addicted we really are..)

A small sewing update, I spent last night on Pinterest coming up with inspiration and I'm about ready to sit down and make a list so that should come soon.

In the mean time I guess we'll spend our time waiting and watching the spirited debate that surrounds Fastpass +...

I have to admit I'm a major lurker on the DIS, I do have my own screen name but don't post often. I have been following closely the FP+ debates and whether or not it has ruined Disney or made it better. I can't form an opinion on whether or not we like it for us yet obviously because we haven't experienced it but I am excited to try it and from everything I've read it really won't impact us or our touring style that much. I am actually looking forward to pre-booking some of our must do attractions. So eventually we will sit down and figure out what to book when.

Yeah, we are so laid back in how we do the parks that I really don't think it will affect us much, but we will schedule a few items and that should help avoid the worst lines for the must do things for Allie, like meeting characters. It is interesting that some standby waits are longer, but since we'll be there in September, we really don't have much to worry about.
I guess that's about all for now, but we're super excited and only 163 days away from being there!

 

[Wood Nymph]

That's too bad that you have to go to a Guest Relations booth to get your pass straightened out. Maybe they just want to see the actual card to verify the expiration date on it.

Isn't there a boat from POR to DTD? I think it would be fun to go there via boat, since it certainly isn't very much fun to take the bus.

We have Annual Pass MagicBands waiting to be shipped. We really don't need them, since we already have three sets with a fourth set ordered for October. But for some reason, it would be fun to have them anyway. We will probably never get annual passes again. It was a one time deal for us.

I like being able to schedule the fastpasses. It has been great for rides like Soarin' and TSMM, two rides we never usually ride because we don't want to bother with the long lines or the mad dash at rope drop. When we were at WDW in January during a low crowd period, we almost never needed to use the fp+'s that I had scheduled. Many of the rides were walk on's. You'll probably be lucky like that in September.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

That's too bad that you have to go to a Guest Relations booth to get your pass straightened out. Maybe they just want to see the actual card to verify the expiration date on it.

Isn't there a boat from POR to DTD? I think it would be fun to go there via boat, since it certainly isn't very much fun to take the bus.

We have Annual Pass MagicBands waiting to be shipped. We really don't need them, since we already have three sets with a fourth set ordered for October. But for some reason, it would be fun to have them anyway. We will probably never get annual passes again. It was a one time deal for us.

I like being able to schedule the fastpasses. It has been great for rides like Soarin' and TSMM, two rides we never usually ride because we don't want to bother with the long lines or the mad dash at rope drop. When we were at WDW in January during a low crowd period, we almost never needed to use the fp+'s that I had scheduled. Many of the rides were walk on's. You'll probably be lucky like that in September.

Going by Guest Relations really won't be bad, we just wanted to know ahead of time that doing that would work out fine and we wouldn't be buying tickets. The CM who contacted Melissa was really nice, and gave us a case number to mention at Guest Services and assured us that it would be no problem.

There is a boat from POR to DTD. We have ridden it during our trips the last two years, and it is a nice trip. It is longer than the boat from WL to MK, but the resort is still relatively close to DTD so it shouldn't be as big a deal to get over there as it would be from WL.

I'm glad to hear your Fastpass+ experience went well. We are looking forward to it. Like you we often skip rides with long lines, so perhaps we'll get a few more good ones in this way. It's Disney and we'll be thrilled to be there, no matter what we do!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We got home the other day and found three identical boxes on our porch.



They were our AP Magic Bands! Each shipped in it's own box.


Even though we won't be there for 157 more days, it is still cool to know that we could get in now.


well at least until September 7th

 

[Wood Nymph]

We got home the other day and found three identical boxes on our porch.

They were our AP Magic Bands! Each shipped in it's own box.

Even though we won't be there for 157 more days, it is still cool to know that we could get in now.

well at least until September 7th

That's exciting that you got the AP MB's, but crazy that they shipped them in separate boxes.

I remember that you missed getting MB's last time by just a few weeks.

 

[AmandaInWonderland7]

Oh how exciting for Allie! I always wanted to spend my birthdays in Disney as a kid, and it never worked out. (Although I did celebrate my 21st birthday in Disney, and will be there on my upcoming trip for my birthday-who needs to grow up?)

Also, hooray for September b-days! Mine is 4 days after Allie's I look forward to following along.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

That's exciting that you got the AP MB's, but crazy that they shipped them in separate boxes.

I remember that you missed getting MB's last time by just a few weeks.

Yes, some resorts had MBs when we were there last, and they had switched over to RFID for everything, but we weren't part of the testing so we didn't get to play. It should be fun!

Oh how exciting for Allie! I always wanted to spend my birthdays in Disney as a kid, and it never worked out. (Although I did celebrate my 21st birthday in Disney, and will be there on my upcoming trip for my birthday-who needs to grow up?)

Also, hooray for September b-days! Mine is 4 days after Allie's I look forward to following along.

We're glad you found us and are following along. Last year we had Allie's birthday noted as a celebration in our ADRs, which meant she got special surprises (like cupcakes!) but this kind of confused Allie, who knew it wasn't her birthday yet. So this time we decided to be there for the day. Now we are looking at Disney cakes and figuring out what to do for that.

Congratulations on getting to spend another birthday at Disney. It works out great because September is such a great time to get to go. Further congratulations on getting to honeymoon at Disney. We did that in 2007 and had an amazing time. It was Melissa's first WDW trip and my first since I was five, so we had a lot of catching up to do with WDW. It is a great place to honeymoon, and will always be special for you two.

 

[kastoney]

Subbing in. Followed along on last years PTR and just caught up on last years actual trip. Just getting back to the dis after life took me a way for a few months but enjoying jumping back in.

The ticket issues aside, looks like you've got some great plans already. Though I can't imagine with tickets that say 30 Sep on them they will give you issues. Fingers crossed.

How fun for Allie to be there for her actual birthday. We went a month before my daughters bday last year but called it a birthday trip. She was infinitely confused. BTW we did H&V the first week doc and sofia were there and she loved it. It wasn't very busy so she got to meet both several times and even got in some quality dancing. Via Napoli is also our personal favorite, though the pizza is so good I've never even considered anything else.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Subbing in. Followed along on last years PTR and just caught up on last years actual trip. Just getting back to the dis after life took me a way for a few months but enjoying jumping back in. The ticket issues aside, looks like you've got some great plans already. Though I can't imagine with tickets that say 30 Sep on them they will give you issues. Fingers crossed. How fun for Allie to be there for her actual birthday. We went a month before my daughters bday last year but called it a birthday trip. She was infinitely confused. BTW we did H&V the first week doc and sofia were there and she loved it. It wasn't very busy so she got to meet both several times and even got in some quality dancing. Via Napoli is also our personal favorite, though the pizza is so good I've never even considered anything else.

Hello! We're glad to see you over here. We are confident the ticket deal is worked out, we just have to plan on stopping by guest services when we are there.

We are glad that it will be an actual birthday trip for Allie. It should avoid confusion. She still talks about having her birthday at Crystal Palace last year, even though it was a few weeks early. It will be great to be there on the day. We are still trying to figure out what to do about a cake or surprise Disney gift.

That's so cool that you got to see Sofia at H&V. We have come to really enjoy that restaurant, and Allie should love the chance to see Sofia. She is one of few characters we waited in line for last year.

We are looking forward to trying Via Napoli. Because we think we all will want to share pizza, we think we will do it OOP and that gives us another dining plan meal to use.

Congratulations on your upcoming trip and return to the Dis. You should love WL, it is a great resort. We still love looking at the pictures we took there.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

So there isn't a whole lot going on with our Disney planning right now, which is a nice break considering the chaos it looks like others are going through with the Free Dining offer rearranging their schedules. We had our free dining locked in at POR via a bounceback, but were hoping for it for my parents.

We were a little disappointed the parentals couldn't get free dining for our trip but we weren't willing to change resorts and planning again. Fortunately they were able to get a RO discount so that helped make up for it.

Yes, we are very excited about trying POR and couldn't get as excited about any other moderate. We're glad that it is all booked and ready, so now all that's left is the waiting. Perhaps not including POR in the offer will mean the resort is less crowded when we're there, but it usually isn't too bad in September anyway.

We did make a minor change though, after Melissa's reading reviews of Via Napoli and Boatwrights.

We decided that we'd really like to try Boatwrights (read: I sent Paul link after link of Boatwrights dining reviews for weeks to convince him we needed to try it before he finally relented). So adding an additional TS restaurant means one of our TS meals would need to be OOP. From everything I've read and after looking at menus and options we are going with Via Napoli OOP.

Yes, I was convinced by this thread.
I wasn't convinced enough to remove Trail's End from our plans, so with doing Via Napoli OOP we'll still be able to visit the one consistent restaurant between all of our WDW trips (and I'll get more of those BBQ ribs, Mmmm).

So we made an ADR for Boatwrights which we'll do on Allie's birthday. I am still trying to figure out some surprise or way to make her birthday special on the day but being late in the trip it's hard. I looked into a delivery from the Disney Florist but we can't take balloons on the airplane. I've also thought about having a cake delivered to either of our meals that day CP breakfast or Boatwrights but I'm afraid we just would be too full to enjoy it.

I really like the idea of a surprise showing up for Allie from Mickey, since we'll be there on her birthday, but it is hard to figure out what she'll get to enjoy and be able to bring home with us. You can add dolls to floral deliveries, so we'll probably do that, but we're still undecided about what to have them deliver that she'd enjoy.

Whatever we do will be special and a total surprise, until then I can spend my time going back and forth between a cake and a delivery from the Disney Florist

It's part of the fun to have something to agonize over.

 

[Wood Nymph]

That's too bad that your parents couldn't get free dining. I think everyone was surprised that POR was excluded this year. Will they still purchase the dining plan or pay OOP?

How is the weather in September? We are thinking about going to WDW the last week of September instead of the end of October, but I'm worried that it will be too hot.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

That's too bad that your parents couldn't get free dining. I think everyone was surprised that POR was excluded this year. Will they still purchase the dining plan or pay OOP?

How is the weather in September? We are thinking about going to WDW the last week of September instead of the end of October, but I'm worried that it will be too hot.

The dining plan wound up being one of the highlights of the trip for my parents last time, so they wanted to do it again, even if they had to pay for it. We did the cost spreadsheet and they aren't saving much vs OOP, but since my Dad is a lot like me he enjoys not having to worry about the high cost of each individual food item. It is nicer to pre-pay and not worry about it. They were able to apply the Visa room discount to ther existing package and saved enough to cover about half of the dining, so it is better than paying rack rate for everything.

We have been going the second week of September and it is hot. There is often rain to cool it down a bit but overall it is hot out. We are going later this year and maybe it will be a little cooler, but we are inside enough that we don't mind the heat too much. At home it would be 100 degrees anyway, but the big difference in Florida is the humidity.

 

[WDWKOOK]

Just curious - if you did change resorts and/or dates, would you all be able to use FD or a nice RO discount? Switching is really easy, sometimes too easy and your trip is still a ways off so have you ruled out any changes at all?

Looks like you're accumulating lots of MBs, too. I read that if you want one after arrival, just for the parks and not for your room key, they are $12.95 each. We recently got 3 more sets - one for APs (which came with a cute little AP charm) and one set for each RO reservation. Did you get a special PP charm? Plus, we still have multiple sets from last year and the batteries are supposed to be good for several years. I wonder when they're going to start limiting the number they send out?

Did you make a Frozen M&G FP for MK? Did Allie see the movie or is she a tad young? Just a reminder that you can now make 7DMT FPs. Allie should be just tall enough by September, right?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Just curious - if you did change resorts and/or dates, would you all be able to use FD or a nice RO discount? Switching is really easy, sometimes too easy and your trip is still a ways off so have you ruled out any changes at all?

Looks like you're accumulating lots of MBs, too. I read that if you want one after arrival, just for the parks and not for your room key, they are $12.95 each. We recently got 3 more sets - one for APs (which came with a cute little AP charm) and one set for each RO reservation. Did you get a special PP charm? Plus, we still have multiple sets from last year and the batteries are supposed to be good for several years. I wonder when they're going to start limiting the number they send out?

Did you make a Frozen M&G FP for MK? Did Allie see the movie or is she a tad young? Just a reminder that you can now make 7DMT FPs. Allie should be just tall enough by September, right?

Hello We are glad to be not making any more changes. We did change the reservation once since the bounceback was originally for WL, and yes they made it super easy but we are excited about staying in the preferred room at Riverside. It is the moderate we really want to try, and overall we are saving money. If we did switch to WL (which of course would have some appeal, particularly to me) it would cost us more overall, despite the fact that my parents would get a little better discount by getting free dining. We could save them a bit more by going to a different Moderate, but they are excited about POR and were willing to pay full price for it, so getting the RO discount helped.

Basically the short answer to your question is yes, we've ruled out changes now that we know the discounts and are happy with what we're doing. We are locked into our dates since we purchased our airfare, but the cost of that has gone up 50% since we booked, so we are happy we all got that booked early.

We did get the AP charms for the MBs, although there was nothing special for the Premiers. They included a discount card that they later said was a mistake, and that we should use our pass cards for any discounts. No problem. This is our first experience with MBs, as we just missed them last September.

Allie is completely into Frozen. She was a little scared by it when we saw it the first time, but now it is her favorite and she wants to be Elsa for her BBB appointment. Since shiny blue dresses are in super high demand right now, this sets up a sewing challenge for Melissa. What's crazy is even many of the popular fabrics to make an Elsa dress are sold out some places, but I'm sure we'll figure something out, and we'll write about it here. One of our first FastPass+ reservations will be to meet Elsa. We're still at 121 days out, so we've got a little bit to wait still, but we are looking forward to FP+ and will post more on our plans as we make them.

It is cool that 7DMT FPs are available too. (I'll admit, I had to look up the acronym ) My parents haven't even seen New Fantasyland yet, so it will be cool for all of us to see it finished.

Allie is getting taller, and just reached the 40 inch milestone, but with her the issue will be convincing her to ride if she thinks it will be scary. She can be a little unsure of stuff, so she'll analyze it for a while before making her decision.

 

[marymac123]

I can't wait to hear what your thoughts are on POR being WL nuts. That's the 1 resort our family keeps pricing out but never quite book. DH doesn't like change & we love WL staff so much. Baby steps...

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I can't wait to hear what your thoughts are on POR being WL nuts. That's the 1 resort our family keeps pricing out but never quite book. DH doesn't like change & we love WL staff so much. Baby steps...

Us too! We're looking forward to seeing what we think of POR. We have visited it during every one of our WDW trips, and always enjoyed it so it will be fun to see how it is staying there.

Personally, I don't think there will be many areas where it surpasses WL, but with the price difference it doesn't have to. We'll see how the separate buildings work with the weather, but we are looking forward to being closer to DTD. It will be strange to be at WDW and not staying at WL, we'll see if we forget and go back to the wrong resort.