Ten Kilometers of Bay Lake Fun: 5 people in a studio? (Jan '16)

[twinsouvenirs]

We splurged this January (2015) and got a 2 BR at Bay Lake Towers with my parents for a week, followed by RunDisney's WDW Marathon Weekend at Old Key West in one of the huge 2 Brs there. We did the 5K and man, was that fun! We're not runners, but we are very fast walkers--we can easily walk 14 minute miles. Long legs and northern impatience, I think. The kids did the kids races, and we had a BLAST.

So my husband and I, in a fit of energy and buoyed by those fabulous rubbery medals and the energy of sunrise on the world showcase, vowed that we'd do the 10K in 2016. He soon forgot, but I quietly booked a studio with our remaining points for the 2015 use year at the Grand Floridian Villas, one of our home resorts. Won't he be surprised

* * *

Although we had an unbelievable view of the Magic Kingdom, the lake, and vultures swooping and diving (our toddlers were totally enraptured the whole week-- "ANUDDER VULCHER! ANUDDER VULCHER!!!") I'm not in love with BLT. I AM in love with GFV. However, I've got a tiny bit of insanity that makes me want to try for the Poly studios when we get to our 7 month window. I'm nearly positive that this will be impossible to finagle due to the popularity of the weekend for runners/DVC'ers, but it's worth a shot. Thus simply Bay Lake in the title.

That said, Grand Floridian is NOT a bad backup.

However, with the exception of one long weekend with just my husband and I, we have always stayed in 2 Br units. A studio with two three year olds and a 1.5 year old is going to be crazy--am I right?

The Poly studio is 4 points less for our nights. The Grand is 374 sqft, Poly is supposedly 444! So I think it's worth trying to make the switch at 7 months. I'm just not sure if we'll have room for three pack n plays It might be time to make the 3.5 year olds sleep in grown up beds to train.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

We are in the same position. Squeezed in an extra trip this August in studios. We've never stayed in a studio before. We only have one child though, not three! Can your twins sleep peacefully together? If they were able to share the pullout the space would be okay. When my son was little we used to put pillows under the bottom sheet to form a sort of bed rail. Good luck, I hope we both survive our studio stays. Also, aren't those Disney kid races fun?! My son still talks about his race from over a year ago.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Oooh I will look forward to hearing how yours goes!! And I'm also going to read your trip report with a potty training toddler. Ideally the girls will be done by our September trip but in a few years our little dude will be up--and obviously we won't let potty training stand in the way of Disney The kids races were so fun. I am going to definitely sign them up again

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Oh, and in answer to your question--our girls loooove to snuggle up so they would love sharing a pullout We have to force them to stay in their own beds at home because we are mean parents

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Not really an update--but I mentioned that I'd secured our dogsitter for both our Fall trip and the January trip to my husband. He said "what January trip?"

I said "well, you said you might want to do the 10k, so..." and then he said "why not go whole hog and try to do the marathon?"

I said "because you're crazy. Let's work our way up slowly so we have things to look forward to "

We're really hoping to give our kids a fun legacy and an interest in fitness by doing this yearly. I'm not really the athletic type--I do sports and such recreationally. My husband was a very competitive athlete. They did the kid's races last year and I'm planning on signing them up again this year. My husband plans to frame the medals each year. I'm wondering if we should include photos in the displays or just the medals.

So anyway. Sounds like he's on board. Just waiting till I can book our races and see if we can switch our reservation from Grand Floridian to Polynesian.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

So just a few months ago, we did the fun run with our little ladies. My husband doesn't want our photos public so I 'censored' this one. This is my husband holding the girls back until the 'go' signal!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Here was the result of a potty training failure... new outfits in Japan!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

So of course today is a day to update! Despite the early advantage DVC/AP holders get in booking, I still missed booking our 10k slots on the early opening day. I think the early slots sold out within hours... by 2:10 pm EST the slots were gone. I booked the kids for the races, and called my husband with the bad news. He suggested that if we couldn't get the 10k, we could go for the half. I suggested that he is crazy, but since I am also, I agreed that the half would be our backup plan as I calculated it would hang out for a few more hours.

ARGH. Then came the debacle of Lilly for Target, but we won't even talk about that. I refuse to buy the resale items on eBay. It's the principle of the thing!

So by last night, I was getting very sick of events that seem like flash sales. I understand limited quantities, but I also feel like many of these companies can certainly plan for the anticipated volume. These events have to be like printing money for Disney, because they get the $ for these things up front and can order merchandise based on pre-orders. Even then things fly off the shelf! I don't have the time or energy, or maybe I'd enter the fray and buy the special bags, etc.

Oh well.

THAT SAID, it was a real race to get registered. Last year the 10k sold out in about an hour and a half. Based on the sellout of the pre-registration spots, I calculated a sellout of 45 minutes. Turns out I was right on. However, due to stalking the site and refreshing repeatedly, I had two registrations for the 10k before 12:10 am. Upon review, however, my registrations were BOTH in my name. After a momentary surge of dread, I called runDisney. By some miracle, they answered and the woman who did easily fixed the name on the registration with the Men's shirt I was stunned by how easy the fix was and how calm and friendly the phone rep was. I wish I had asked her name, but I was flustered, as you can imagine.

BUT we're in!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

We're getting closer every day to the 7 month mark before our trip. I keep vacillating between wanting to keep our room at the Grand and switching to the Polynesian--the Grand is so bright and polished, and the Poly, although exciting, has always struck me as a little dark. And of course there is Old Key West, which felt like a clubhouse for the runDisney--the place was packed and energized with tons of runners. The thing about DVC is that it's hard to pick a place since they are all so fun! I envy those committed people who can just book at the same resort repeatedly and don't stress for months about where they might stay.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

So here we are... two days away from the 7 month mark. The tricky issue I have: We'll be literally on the road on the morning that our window opens. I have no idea if we will be anywhere with wifi, and I do not want to take a laptop on this trip. I had no luck with an iPhone last time. Why the paranoia? We're talking right before Marathon weekend. THE STRESS!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Well, it's not a huge surprise, but we did NOT snag the Poly. It was my own fault--we were on a trip and I totally forgot about it till about 10 am. I didn't have wireless access, so I called and waitlisted both types of room. Worse comes to worse, we've got GFV booked, and that's not too shabby. I keep tossing around OKW because it was such fun last year for the two days we stayed there, but it was also really loud really early when the races began and they did the starting fireworks. At 3:30 am.

I'm so excited though It's going to rock. I think I am just going to plan on the GFVs and go from there. We LOVED them when we stayed there last February. The pool is wonderful and has a great zero entry, and the kid's water play area is so fun.

I can't believe it's under seven months away. DVC is totally spoiling me with these twice yearly trips. Since we'll be at the world in September, I suppose my husband and I should grab AP's then. We'll have to crunch the numbers in Jan to decide if we should buy the little girls passes or just get a few one day tickets. It's a short trip, after all.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

I have pretty much given up on the idea of going to the Poly--although after our September trip I am almost convinced I should add dates onto our trip either before or after Marathon Weekend.

After a lot of reflection and experimentation, we have determined that lots of ADRs is just not our style. We feel like we are slaves to the calendar. So this trip, we'll probably pick one or two dinners and/or a breakfast, and order groceries to cover us for the remaining dates. We'll probably also get a bit of counter service but I just don't think we're cut out for eating out all the time. Which means that I should probably get on our grocery menu early. Last time we waited for a while until we had settled our ADRs and the service we use (WeGoShop) didn't deliver our food until later that day. Usually that would be no problem but we were able to check in early so we could have finished unpacking sooner. The owner of the shop said she prioritizes delivery by time of ordering so I am getting this order in earlier. That said, I have NO plans for meals so far I think a celebratory early dinner after the 10k would be a good idea though!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

We've returned from an eventful trip to the Beach Club that was curtailed by an alumni football game my husband was invited to, and a wedding! I've determined we need to plan longer vacations in the future. A lot of people reference 10 days as the perfect amount of time, which makes sense to me. We have 31 points in holding and I'd love to add a few more days to our trip. A quick scan shows the days before our trip are open in a few places (including Animal Kingdom, which has a lot of availability), but I can't book those points until 60 days before the trip (meaning sometime in November). We'll find out how it's looking then! I'll hold off on flights. I'd love to add Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to this trip. I'm even willing to borrow points to make that happen, especially because I am currently on a 3 year plan to get more points. I think once the kids are just a little older we are going to want to put them in a bedroom rather than scattering them around the main room. Right now they sleep in pack n plays (three individual pack n' plays, it's crazy) but we're running out of real estate in the main room and the girls are getting tall enough that the pack n' plays will soon cramp their legs, not just their style. At that point, I'll be wanting two bedrooms. Which means a 50-80 point add on, I think.

Cost savings item--our twins are now officially paid Disney guests. That means we'll have to be judicious about tickets going forward. My husband and I have annual passes that should be good till Sept 2016, but we now have double child admissions to consider. Unless we are going back again this August or September as a family, we may just get the girls day tickets for this trip.

Photopass/Memory Maker--I am getting spoiled. I may see if I have any friends going that weekend who want to get Memory Maker too. The photos are just such great quality.

For now...our very incomplete plans!

Weds, Jan 6 - Arrival day! Since we don't have our flights chosen yet, I'm not going to plan this day too intensely. But I learned my grocery lesson this trip (they didn't arrive till later in the afternoon even though we were able to check in at 11 am) and I will probably plan on lunch out and about or at a restaurant. Ideally, we'll still be able to have dinner in the villa so I'll probably plan on a frozen lasagna, a salad and some garlic bread. That's always a winner We also need to pick our race packets. We may be able to do this Thursday morning instead, depending on when the

Thurs, Jan 7 - KIDS RACES! I am tempted to use this as a relaxation afternoon or head to Downtown Disney, especially as we had an action-packed trip earlier this month. Honestly, a lot may depend on weather. If there is a day that we can reasonably hit the pools (high seventies, low eighties is probably the best we could hope for) we just may do that. We've gotten lucky in Jan/Feb before so if there is a day that would work for the pool we may just do that. We can also do the Community Hall for a while. I think this trip I'll bring a novel or two and really give the kids a few hours in there. This might also be nice in the afternoon of the 8th.

Fri, Jan 8- The 10k! Our babysitter has been booked and we are excited to wake up at the crack of dawn (well, actual start at 5:30 am) to run 6.2 miles through Epcot. So far, the longest race my husband and I have done has been a 5.25 miler so this will be pushing it a little--but we did the 5.25 miler pushing strollers up and down hills, so perhaps this will feel like a breeze! This is the day I am tempted to plan a lunch or dinner, somewhere close to the resort--or perhaps an 'event' dinner, so we won't have to pay for park admission for the kiddos that day! We just did the luau, and last Jan the Hoop De Doo... and with two extra paid heads those things are not quite as easy to slide into the plans. This could also be a fun night at DTD/Disney Springs--the kids will be cheaper a la carte for sure. They might get a huge kick out of TRex or Rainforest Cafe!

Sat, Jan 9 - I hate to hit the MK on a Saturday, but if we can't add any extra days before Wednesday, this might be an ideal park day, primarily Magic Kingdom. I usually like to do that first thing with the girls, and the little guy will be almost a year and a half, so he will probably be really enjoying things too. It's so weird to think my kids are getting so old!!! We didn't let them see Anna & Elsa or the talking Mickey this trip because they were in meltdown mode, so I am kind of hoping we can try that again. If we splurge for Park Hoppers for them, we could do evening in EPCOT. The nice thing about staying on the resort monorail loop is that you can theoretically only take monorails if you are comfortable skipping DHS, which this trip, I think we are.

Sun, Jan 10 - Departure day. Way too soon as usual. It seems like the direct flights all leave around 11 am, so ME will pick us up at 8 am. There has to be a better way. I'm already depressed just thinking about it

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Ok, so this is going to sound crazy. I don't know if I've mentioned this one yet but I have been dying to take my kids to SeaWorld. I love orcas and the girls are starting to get obsessed with Beluga whales thanks to the Raffi song. I have persuaded my husband that the current length of our trip is simply wayyyyy toooo short, and that I really want 7 or 8 nights next time. Trying to snag rooms on either end of our trip is proving to be a challenge (he's not even aware we are in point 'debt' for next year but I try not to worry his pretty little head about such things). So I am thinking about trying to rent out the 31 points we have that are 'trapped' in this use year and booking four nights at a SeaWorld resort before or after the WDW portion of our vacation. I'm not sure this will accomplish the desired relaxation but who knows--and I do know the kids will loooove SeaWorld. And I really want them to see orcas, and I'm not sure if the current political battle against captive orcas will be successful or not.

Anyone split a trip with another park/experience, and if so, what were your lessons learned?

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Ok, here we are... two sleeps away from jetting off the the WORLD!

I finally got my act together and scheduled Magical Express, a USPS Mail hold, our Owner's Locker delivery, Memory Maker, and bought tickets to SeaWorld. I made a bunch of placeholder fastpass+ bookings because I have no idea what day we're doing what. I'm kind of loosey-goosey this trip. These post holiday trips are tough because Christmas takes so much prep... sigh. Luckily, this year I got a huge block of time off because of the way the holidays fell.

As predicted, we did NOT have a Poly waitlist come through. Someday... but the Grand will be juuuuust fine. I accidentally double booked our son in the kids races--a wasted $25 but oh well. Also booked an extra night with the sitter. Will update our loose agenda above!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

I lied, I am adding to the agenda. I totally forgot to mention we booked a beginning stint at AKV Kidani!!! I also miraculously remembered to put in room requests yesterday.

Sunday, Jan 3 - Arrival day! As usual, morning flights booked, so we should get in just in time for lunch. I think this is the last day ever of the Osborne Family Lights, so I am hoping to convince my husband that would be a good use of the day. I made fast pass pluses for HS just in case. Another fun thing would be Disney Springs--but we have a sitter that night so might be able to save that for the evening. Apparently the Steelers play at 1pm but my husband seems to think the game is unimportant at this point for some reason, so we no longer have to beeline to ESPN. I think we'll actually plan to eat out both meals this day because WeGoShop came pretty late in the day last time and we unnecessarily stressed about whether we should wait for dinner.

Monday, Jan 4 - Not gonna lie, I'm think Magic Kingdom. It's hard to imagine a trip without making this one of the first stops. I have to check the crowd calendar and the weather though. Have ordered a frozen lasagna for dinner.

Tuesday, Jan 5 - Animal Kingdom or a resort only day, I think. I want to soak up the AKV experience! We may consider putting the kids in Simba's Cub House and going out a bit that evening too.

Weds, Jan 6 - This is resort switch day. I think we'll head to SeaWorld so we have motivation to get out early! Then we'll get home and have an easy dinner.

Thurs, Jan 7 - KIDS RACES! I am tempted to use this as a relaxation afternoon or head to Downtown Disney, especially as we had an action-packed trip earlier this month. Honestly, a lot may depend on weather. If there is a day that we can reasonably hit the pools (high seventies, low eighties is probably the best we could hope for) we just may do that. We've gotten lucky in Jan/Feb before so if there is a day that would work for the pool we may just do that. We can also do the Community Hall for a while. I think this trip I'll bring a novel or two and really give the kids a few hours in there. This might also be nice in the afternoon of the 8th.

Fri, Jan 8- The 10k! Our babysitter has been booked and we are excited to wake up at the crack of dawn (well, actual start at 5:30 am) to run 6.2 miles through Epcot. So far, the longest race my husband and I have done has been a 5.25 miler so this will be pushing it a little--but we did the 5.25 miler pushing strollers up and down hills, so perhaps this will feel like a breeze! This is the day I am tempted to plan a lunch or dinner, somewhere close to the resort--or perhaps an 'event' dinner, so we won't have to pay for park admission for the kiddos that day! We just did the luau, and last Jan the Hoop De Doo... and with two extra paid heads those things are not quite as easy to slide into the plans. This could also be a fun night at DTD/Disney Springs--the kids will be cheaper a la carte for sure. They might get a huge kick out of TRex or Rainforest Cafe!

Sat, Jan 9 - I hate to hit the MK on a Saturday, but if we can't add any extra days before Wednesday, this might be an ideal park day, primarily Magic Kingdom. I usually like to do that first thing with the girls, and the little guy will be almost a year and a half, so he will probably be really enjoying things too. It's so weird to think my kids are getting so old!!! We didn't let them see Anna & Elsa or the talking Mickey this trip because they were in meltdown mode, so I am kind of hoping we can try that again. If we splurge for Park Hoppers for them, we could do evening in EPCOT. The nice thing about staying on the resort monorail loop is that you can theoretically only take monorails if you are comfortable skipping DHS, which this trip, I think we are.

Sun, Jan 10 - Departure day. Way too soon as usual. It seems like the direct flights all leave around 11 am, so ME will pick us up at 8 am. There has to be a better way. I'm already depressed just thinking about it

 

[vbmom40]

We splurged this January (2015) and got a 2 BR at Bay Lake Towers with my parents for a week, followed by RunDisney's WDW Marathon Weekend at Old Key West in one of the huge 2 Brs there. We did the 5K and man, was that fun! We're not runners, but we are very fast walkers--we can easily walk 14 minute miles. Long legs and northern impatience, I think. The kids did the kids races, and we had a BLAST.

So my husband and I, in a fit of energy and buoyed by those fabulous rubbery medals and the energy of sunrise on the world showcase, vowed that we'd do the 10K in 2016. He soon forgot, but I quietly booked a studio with our remaining points for the 2015 use year at the Grand Floridian Villas, one of our home resorts. Won't he be surprised

* * *

Although we had an unbelievable view of the Magic Kingdom, the lake, and vultures swooping and diving (our toddlers were totally enraptured the whole week-- "ANUDDER VULCHER! ANUDDER VULCHER!!!") I'm not in love with BLT. I AM in love with GFV. However, I've got a tiny bit of insanity that makes me want to try for the Poly studios when we get to our 7 month window. I'm nearly positive that this will be impossible to finagle due to the popularity of the weekend for runners/DVC'ers, but it's worth a shot. Thus simply Bay Lake in the title.

That said, Grand Floridian is NOT a bad backup.

However, with the exception of one long weekend with just my husband and I, we have always stayed in 2 Br units. A studio with two three year olds and a 1.5 year old is going to be crazy--am I right?

The Poly studio is 4 points less for our nights. The Grand is 374 sqft, Poly is supposedly 444! So I think it's worth trying to make the switch at 7 months. I'm just not sure if we'll have room for three pack n plays It might be time to make the 3.5 year olds sleep in grown up beds to train.

We just stayed at the poly and the bed that folds out from the TV could fit both of the 3 year olds one on each side and one pack and play you will have tons of room left. The tub bathroom is huge and the extra sink and shower are awesome. There were 3 adults and a 4 year old. If you are going to do laundry ask to be in the one with the Laundry we were in Pago Pago. Good luck to you!