Sweet mother of monkey milk we are heading back to WDW!! A Nov/Dec PTR

[Disneymoon2013]

I'm also following along. We're going to WDW at the same time, and we're also from CT.

This will be my first time to WDW, so I don't know much aside from all the things I've read online and in the Unofficial Guide, but I can tell you we used Small World Vacations to book our hotel and are really happy with them so far. Somehow our (free) travel agent finagled us a $50 discount per night (so $300 total!) at the CR. As a first-timer, I cared most about location/travel time more than theming. After reading a lot of DIS reports, though, I wonder if we should have done the polynesian! Oh well. I wanted to do contemporary because my great grandparents stayed there back in the early 70s, and my great-grandmother, who's 92, was recently reminiscing about it. I'm hoping she'll still be around and I can show her updated pictures.

I went with Small World Vacations because I knew they would keep an eye out for discounts, they find out ahead of time, and they would go out of their way to save us money.

Did you sign up on the Disney site? They send out e-mails sometimes with discounts. I got two emails this week but the discounts are between April and June.

 

[Bethislucy]

joining in from the Dec 2013 thread. I don't know about you but I'm ready for the summer & fall to be over so I can head back to the world.

 

[serene56]

joining too. can some one give me information on the dec face book page

 

[serene56]

joining too. can some one give me information on the dec face book page

 

[MamaJessie]

But I'll take comfort in gazing at giraffe from my balcony eating a poptart! Hahahaha!!!!

You made me lol with that one!! I do like the idea of AK but I am going to try to pick up discounts until I go back to work full time.
Thanks for joining in!

Following along!

Welcome

I'm also following along. We're going to WDW at the same time, and we're also from CT.

Did you sign up on the Disney site? They send out e-mails sometimes with discounts. I got two emails this week but the discounts are between April and June.

Welcome!

For reasons I am not permitted to disclose on the DIS I am not booking through small world vacations. I highly recommend having a Disney TA though, wink wink.

And I have signed up on the Disney site a long time ago, and also signed my husband up and then my daughter, trying to increase the odds. Hope you get a pin!!

joining in from the Dec 2013 thread. I don't know about you but I'm ready for the summer & fall to be over so I can head back to the world.

Welcome! I don't want to rush time too much, but it will add some joy to my fall (my two older kids will each move up to the next level school, *sob* my first baby will be a high schooler and my son will be going to middle school.. *sob*)

joining too. can some one give me information on the dec face book page

Welcome! If you PM me your FB name I am pretty sure I can add you, I don't think you have to be an admin for that.

My computer was being repaired for the last week and a half so I have been lost without my DIS, and left to work enthusiastically on my binder. I know have exactly 1000 more lists than I will ever need. I am going to come back on tonight and update with planning.

 

[Disneymoon2013]

For reasons I am not permitted to disclose on the DIS I am not booking through small world vacations. I highly recommend having a Disney TA though, wink wink.

I'm confused. Are we not allowed to mention or discuss TA companies on DIS? Did I break a rule?

 

[MamaJessie]

I'm confused. Are we not allowed to mention or discuss TA companies on DIS? Did I break a rule?

Not at all. I PMed you so you know what I am talking about.

 

[MamaJessie]

Well, my son decided he HAS to go to legoland and I have no interest at all. Looks like I am going to plan a day for DH and DS to head to legoland while the girls and I do something else. Anyone ever go there before? I have to start looking into it to see if this is going to be a full day thing for them or not.

I think the girls and I will use that day to hang at the resort, maybe go mini golfing, shop at DTD and meet up for dinner. I haven't been to either of the wdw mini golf courses but think Winter Summerland looks like fun since I am going to be in full Christmas mode by then.

Bought some Disney gift cards with my target debit today Every little step makes us just one step closer!

 

[taaren]

Well, my son decided he HAS to go to legoland and I have no interest at all. Looks like I am going to plan a day for DH and DS to head to legoland while the girls and I do something else. Anyone ever go there before? I have to start looking into it to see if this is going to be a full day thing for them or not.

I think the girls and I will use that day to hang at the resort, maybe go mini golfing, shop at DTD and meet up for dinner. I haven't been to either of the wdw mini golf courses but think Winter Summerland looks like fun since I am going to be in full Christmas mode by then.

Bought some Disney gift cards with my target debit today Every little step makes us just one step closer!

I've only been to the Legoland in San Diego, so I'm not certain if they're comparable, but the rides there are severely lacking, mostly designed for very small children. The Lego cities that are built are amazing though, so if your son is into Legos and can appreciate the intricacies it might be worth it for him. My DS would just be bored, but he's more into action than detail.

As for a girls day, I highly recommend going for afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian. When my DS saw Gatorland and HAD to go, my girlfriend and I decided that was a good enough excuse to send the boys on their way and do a nice tea/scones/sandwich afternoon for us and her daughter. It was very cute, relaxing, and girly way to enjoy some resort hopping and check out the GF decorations.

I keep thinking I should sign up for the Target card and start buying GCs for our trip too, but since we're setting up the house right now we have so many other expenses I keep putting it off. At least I'm racking up a ridiculous amount of airline miles!

 

[MamaJessie]

I've only been to the Legoland in San Diego, so I'm not certain if they're comparable, but the rides there are severely lacking, mostly designed for very small children. The Lego cities that are built are amazing though, so if your son is into Legos and can appreciate the intricacies it might be worth it for him. My DS would just be bored, but he's more into action than detail.

As for a girls day, I highly recommend going for afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian. When my DS saw Gatorland and HAD to go, my girlfriend and I decided that was a good enough excuse to send the boys on their way and do a nice tea/scones/sandwich afternoon for us and her daughter. It was very cute, relaxing, and girly way to enjoy some resort hopping and check out the GF decorations.

I keep thinking I should sign up for the Target card and start buying GCs for our trip too, but since we're setting up the house right now we have so many other expenses I keep putting it off. At least I'm racking up a ridiculous amount of airline miles!

That is definitely something to keep in mind with legoland. I'll have my son sit down with me sometime and see what there is and try to guage if it is still something he is interested in. His lego magazine comes out with BOGO admission tickets often enough so it wouldn't be too much of an expense. Thanks for the heads up.

I think my younger two girls might enjoy that but my oldest would probably give me a giant eye roll and maybe one of these lol Maybe if we split up bigs/littles sometime it would be nice to try though!

 

[MamaJessie]

We went to visit my family for Easter yesterday which meant a two hour drive each way. On the way there the kids watched a movie so I got to pick DHs brain about the trip and ask things he would normally be too distracted to really give thought to.

First up was Grandpa. Rich's grandpa lives about 1.7 hours away from WDW and since we very rarely see him I figured Rich would want to head over there one day to visit. I really REALLY like to know when he plans to do this ahead of time so I can, duh, plan. He says "I figured we would drive straight to his house and maybe crash there the first night since I never get to see him. He has a whole house I don't think he'll mind"

I will admit my first reaction was kinda like

and then inside I was ...

because it felt like shorting our vacation for an entire day. I mean I want to visit his family but a whole day seemed like a lot. After I thought about it though I realized that first day we are kinda just tired and out of it, so maybe driving there, saving some $$ and getting an early start on WDW in the am wasn't so bad. And that way we can visit first thing and not worry about traveling during the week and just relax.

So as one thing leads to another this led to...... number crunching!! If we skip a day, could we switch to a different resort and stay within budget? Hmmm...

So when we finally came home I opened up my trusty laptop and got to work

I will try to spare you the boring details but I have come to this conclusion;
if there is no discount we will probably still go with the 2 AsMo rooms.

If there is a room only we will go to AoA

Free dining and DH will get his wish and we will go to Ft.W.

If they do S/P/D I will have to price it out and go from there.

So tonight I will go back to checking resort threads. I had exhausted all the AsMo info I could find so now I will go back to Ft Wilderness maps and AoA reviews and pics.

And of course a complete reworking of our tentative schedule since our first day will be a day later now. Although it is just one day later, arriving in Dec instead of November makes it seem so much longer now :\ Though DH should probably talk to his Grandpa before I put anything in stone

 

[carissanboys]

Hey Jessie!

Okay--my first question is this: I see you live in Connecticut, but your husband is a Saints fan. I was born and raised in Maine and am a diehard Patriots fan so this concerns me.

Look forward to following along as your plans come together.

 

[MamaJessie]

Hey Jessie!

Okay--my first question is this: I see you live in Connecticut, but your husband is a Saints fan. I was born and raised in Maine and am a diehard Patriots fan so this concerns me.

Look forward to following along as your plans come together.

Thanks for joining in

This concerns me too As I sit typing this in my Patriots sweatshirt, I often wondered how Rich fell in love with the Saints when he was with me, what a betrayal It started innocently enough, just watching a few games with his friend on Sunday. Then it escalated to a whole season and a jersey. If I had known his friend was a Saint's fan I never would have let it go that far.
On the plus side since he is NFC and we are AFC we rarely play each other. I have actually grown to like the Saints and he the Pats, I think we have the two best coaches in the league. We came really close to a Saint/Pats Superbowl a few years back and I almost hope that never happens

 

[carissanboys]

Thanks for joining in

This concerns me too As I sit typing this in my Patriots sweatshirt, I often wondered how Rich fell in love with the Saints when he was with me, what a betrayal It started innocently enough, just watching a few games with his friend on Sunday. Then it escalated to a whole season and a jersey. If I had known his friend was a Saint's fan I never would have let it go that far.
On the plus side since he is NFC and we are AFC we rarely play each other. I have actually grown to like the Saints and he the Pats, I think we have the two best coaches in the league. We came really close to a Saint/Pats Superbowl a few years back and I almost hope that never happens

I like the Saints as well and think they're a fine 2nd team to root for--after the Patriots!

 

[mckelvey72]

We too are going 11/30 - 12/7 and we too are doing a day at LegoLand. My son is very excited. Do you want me just to take your son with me HAHAHAHA!!!!!

I live on the DE/MD border so wave when you go drive by. We are flying though...cannot imagine that long drive!!

Donna

 

[MamaJessie]

Well, I went back and forth on this quite a bit. We have never purchased a photopass CD before and last trip was the first time we even had photographers take our picture. When I got home and saw how nice those pictures were, not to mention all of us together... well I definitely saw the appeal in using photopass! I know you can ask each photographer but to be honest with you, if I can leave the camera in the room and just use a camera phone for snapshots here and there, that would be great for me. Not to mention I feel weird constantly asking other people to take my picture for me.

So then the next question was to + it or not. I am such a cheapskate in normal life that the price tag alone makes me 199 for pictures?? But then during our 6 hour drive home from PA last week we had plenty of time to discuss the pros and cons of photopass (yeah, DH was mega psyched that I wanted to weigh the different photopass options endlessly ) and I was finally able to make a decision. Since we want to do the DDP and will end up at some of the participating character meals, not to mention the ride pics, we are going photopass+. I am really excited about it I also love that we will automatically get the prints at the participating restaurants Gah I cannot wait!!!

I have questions for any photopass experts here. About how long did it take you to get your CD? And can you use the images at other sites before you get the CD? I was thinking of sharing my account info in case whoever draws my name in the family secret santa wants to make me a book of our vacation but I didn't know how much more expensive the Disney version of a photobook is.

 

[Tinker326]

I was thinking of sharing my account info in case whoever draws my name in the family secret santa wants to make me a book of our vacation but I didn't know how much more expensive the Disney version of a photobook is.

I don't think you even want to ask this question. We ARE talking Disney here. It will cost you an arm, a leg & a kidney for their book.

Take the CD. Load it into shutterfly. Wait for a coupon & get the book there. You will save LOADS!

I'm also getting the photopass plus for the first time in November & super excited to try it out!!!

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Not a photopass expert, but we do LOVE the photopass. This will be our first year with + and we are psyched!!! We love all the big rides, so that alone will make it worth it. I always want to buy the ride photos, but never do, because I am too cheap. Problem solved!

I am thinking it took less than a week to get our photopass after ordering it.

 

[MamaJessie]

I don't think you even want to ask this question. We ARE talking Disney here. It will cost you an arm, a leg & a kidney for their book.

Yeah somehow I suspected as much Thanks, I think we'll end up ordering through something like shutterfly.

I always want to buy the ride photos, but never do, because I am too cheap. Problem solved!

I am thinking it took less than a week to get our photopass after ordering it.

Yeah I have that too cheap problem too. And a week is great!

 

[::danielle::]

Yeah somehow I suspected as much Thanks, I think we'll end up ordering through something like shutterfly.

Yeah I have that too cheap problem too. And a week is great!

I'm going to rebrand all of us (myself included) into saying that we are NOT cheap. We simply want a good value for our money! After all, someone who is cheap doesn't spend $199 on a photo cd!

Can't blame us for stretching our dollars whenever possible!