*** The Official August 2018 Thread*** - let's have some fun....

[Tomh]

Much of my day today was spent installing a new router, and trying to get all of the important devices in our house hooked back up to the internet. I absolutely hate networking, and port forwarding lol.

Did manage to get the clothing bag for DS14 packed yesterday, and a few odds and ends for the wife and I packed today. Got lots of stuff going on the next few days, and we start our drive to Florida on Thursday!!!

 

[shjrc371]

14 days left!!

 

[DaniMoon]

So I actually got a call from Disney this evening about foregoing mousekeeping for my 1st 3 day at AOA. I needed to get something clarified though because he was quoting $20.

Spent most of Saturday sleeping in and then went to the beach in the evening. Sunday we lounged in anticipation of our drive Monday. Hitting the road early hope to be in Orlando by the Afternoon. Cant believe it's here. Disney here we come!

It’s $10 per night, minus one night. So a 3night stay would be $20.

 

[Andrea1975]

15 days left (but only 3 days of work, having a little staycation with family visiting before we leave).

The news this morning was talking about all the local school districts that are starting this week--so funny when my kids haven't even started our summer vacation yet (our district goes back after Labor Day).

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

So I actually got a call from Disney this evening about foregoing mousekeeping for my 1st 3 day at AOA. I needed to get something clarified though because he was quoting $20.

@DaniMoon already replied, but I wanted to add that our 10 night stay at PORS got us a $90 gift card (so as she stated, 10 nights, -1 night, x $10). It's a pretty significant amount of money. We're all adults so we can look after ourselves. We're just pulling up our sheets each morning and calling for clean towels every couple of days / putting our garbage outside of door and it's getting collected. It's actually nice not having to worry about coming back for a break only to find that you can't get into your room. They emailed me the gift card so I just need to pull up my email on my phone when I'm using the gift card.
Off to Epcot now!

 

[Mousemommy1]

So Disney let you add an adult but not put them on the package? I never knew that was an option, I always thought everyone in the room had to be on the same package. Seriously always learning on the DIS.

lol that is my favorite part about the 10 day countdown too.

It's a good thing I start packing so early because I always manage to feel pressed for time right before the trip anyway.

Oh and UGH I cannot believe we skip the DDP this trip and they have cute seasonal mugs. Oh well - just have to get a popcorn bucket I guess lol

I'm a week out now!!! Wooohoooo!!!

I had every intention of getting a jump on packing, but that never materialized. Maybe tonight....or tomorrow night....lol

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Leave tomorrow morning, flight at 5:59AM.
Going thru all my plans today to cancel ADRs we wont need. (Possibly canceling BOG Aug 17th at 5 and Ohanas either 5:45 or 6:45 Aug 16th) I'll post what I cancel over in the other thread.

Printed my boarding passes to put in my folder, have all our TPs printed and packed everyone but my DS15.

Getting excited, hoping for great weather, atleast while in the parks, it can rain all it wants at night.

Had a dream that we were leaving late to the airport and were going to miss our flight...

 

[Tulles]

I never got the offer to forgoe mousekeeping. I wish I had cause I could have used the $60 for food and they were pretty useless anyway.

 

[chiisai]

We are here now; not online much, but wanted to share that TSL is so lovely at night! So different than day time with the lights.

If you are only going during the day, if can grab a 4th (or beyond) FP for one, I think it’s worth checking out if you have time. We are a party of three, and I see TSM FP pop up a lot, and also A2S, which is a lot more fun than I thought it’d be. Also, I was able to get us a SDD as a post 3rd FP for last night. I let three other SDD times pass because they weren’t at the right time, too. I’ve been refreshing on the bus back to the resort and also while the kids are showering. It took me about 15 min to get SDD around 3:30pm yesterday for a 6:30 FP start time. (Na’vi river journey comes up pretty frequently, but I’ve yet to be able to get FoP to come up.)

Also, mobile ordering is a great time saver.

 

[crazedprincess]

8 more days here! I can't believe how fast the time is approaching! We did quite a bit of packing over the weekend..... sooooooo excited!

 

[DrFacilier]

Can you request to forego mousekeeping at Pop (and get a gift card)? We will be there for 7 nights next week and plan to take midday pool breaks. It would be great to get in our room whenever we would like (and gift cards are nice too

 

[Livelovedance]

Can you request to forego mousekeeping at Pop (and get a gift card)? We will be there for 7 nights next week and plan to take midday pool breaks. It would be great to get in our room whenever we would like (and gift cards are nice too

We did when we stayed at Pop in February!

Edited to add: I've noticed some people on the DIS have mentioned receiving an email to skip mousekeeping and get the gift card. I'm not sure if this is a new thing, but that didn't happen when we went to Pop. When we checked in at the front desk they offered it to us and showed us a card that told you how much money on a gift card you would receive depending on the number of days of your stay.

 

[Mika02]

Hi all got here 2 hours ago made good time considering I left later then I wanted and made one stop.

Sitting by the AOA Big Blue Pool. Loving the resort so far and love our Nemo room kids are fighting over who gets the Murphy bed. I'm just hoping to get one night in a bed alone.

Thanks for the gift card information. Going to go ahead and do it for the stay $20 is better then nothing.

Resort day today and Dinner at California grill tonight MK day tomorrow. Update everyone later.

 

[ffcheff]

Last shift at work tonight before vacation. 5 days until we arrive!

 

[Tomh]

Getting ready for my last 6 hours of work tonight. Cleaning some photos off my memory cards now so I will have room for all the pictures we take on vacation. Did some cleaning around the house, paid all of the bills that will come due while we are gone, and just dealt with some various odds and ends.

Tomorrow we pick up the rental, and go spend some time with our oldest daughter before our trip. She recently announced that she is pregnant with what will be her first child, and neither DW or I have seen her since we found out.

Wednesday we have an appointment for DW at the nail salon, DS and I have to go buy stuff for sandwiches for the drive down, and drinks, and then in the afternoon, we have to get the truck packed up.

Thursday morning DW has her last shift at work, and then we are on the road hopefully by 1 in the afternoon. Busy couple of days ahead of us!

 

[MetsFan]

Kids are taking a nap in the room so I finally have some down time.

They asked me about forgoing housekeeping at AoA but didn't mention a gift card so I said housekeeping was fine.

Epcot was fun on Saturday. Crowds seemed really low and we got on a few rides and met characters with little wait. Akershus dinner was so so but the kids liked meeting the princesses and they even gave my 4 year old a signed bday card which was nice.

Yesterday was AK. We spent the whole day there. Waited stand by for Navi (35 mins) and everest (40 mins even tho posted 25 minutes). FoP was amazing and the safari ride is always great.

This morning was HS. We had a FP for TSM, BatB, and IJSS. That's pretty much all we got to do before coming back to the hotel. We did get to meet Buzz but the woody and Jesse line was pretty long. Slinky dog was already an hour standby at around 9am. We're going back later to do the jedi training and try to get on some other rides.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

Can you request to forego mousekeeping at Pop (and get a gift card)? We will be there for 7 nights next week and plan to take midday pool breaks. It would be great to get in our room whenever we would like (and gift cards are nice too

Yes, we did this at pop last year. At PORS there is a sign at registration saying 'Ask me how you can get a Disney Gift card' ... it's referring to the housekeeping gift card. Our next resort is Beach Club and you can't do the gift card at a deluxe, so we did it for this portion of our vacation, but won't be able to do it at Beach Club portion.

 

[DisneyObsessed87]

Hi all got here 2 hours ago made good time considering I left later then I wanted and made one stop.

Sitting by the AOA Big Blue Pool. Loving the resort so far and love our Nemo room kids are fighting over who gets the Murphy bed. I'm just hoping to get one night in a bed alone.

Thanks for the gift card information. Going to go ahead and do it for the stay $20 is better then nothing.

Resort day today and Dinner at California grill tonight MK day tomorrow. Update everyone later.

I am day dreaming about Thursday and sitting by the Big Blue Pool! Sounds so wonderful right now.

Getting ready for my last 6 hours of work tonight. Cleaning some photos off my memory cards now so I will have room for all the pictures we take on vacation. Did some cleaning around the house, paid all of the bills that will come due while we are gone, and just dealt with some various odds and ends.

Tomorrow we pick up the rental, and go spend some time with our oldest daughter before our trip. She recently announced that she is pregnant with what will be her first child, and neither DW or I have seen her since we found out.

Wednesday we have an appointment for DW at the nail salon, DS and I have to go buy stuff for sandwiches for the drive down, and drinks, and then in the afternoon, we have to get the truck packed up.

Thursday morning DW has her last shift at work, and then we are on the road hopefully by 1 in the afternoon. Busy couple of days ahead of us!

Congratulations on the grandchild to be! That is very exciting! We are keeping busy until Thursday also, so hopefully it helps time fly by!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

Day 7...
Got to bus today at PORS by 7:57am. Sign said 8:04 for next bus to Epcot and it actually arrived by 8:01am. Glad we were a bit earlier today to the bus stop. We were at Epcot at 8:18am and then were in line until 8:28am. They let us through the tapstile and then we were held at the big Epcot ball until 8:58am.
At least by getting in a bit earlier we were able to get pictures at the Epcot ball before my hair went too wacky. I have totally straight hair normally, but this whole trip it has been wild with the humidity - curly and sticking up everywhere. I give up! It's too short for a pony tail and too long to keep it tame. Disney is definitely not a place for fashion in August lol. I've just stopped looking in mirrors.
So then we walked quickly to Test Track only to be held there for 30 minutes!!! Sent DD's to use our 9:05am FP at Mission Space (DH and I can't do that ride ... motion sickness). They got back to us by 9:20am and we were still waiting. Finally got a ride and when we were out, it had broken down again. Then went to Soarin' and it was only a 20 minute standby, so we rode it at 9:55am and were out at 10:18am, just in time for our 10:20am breakfast at Garden Grill. Love the service and character interaction at a late GG breakfast. Characters visited multiple times and joked with our teens. The cinnamon bun and fruit (tons of strawberries, pineapple and a bit of melon/grapes) were amazing. The Mickey waffles (why do they taste so much better than regular waffles???) with nutella topping, bacon/sausages/eggs/tator tots... so awesome and I don't eat pork so they offered me turkey sausage- it was great. DD's got extra bacon after, and we all had POG juice - so good! Then we used our FP for Living with the Land (it was a 30 minute stand by at 11:15am, but didn't look any more than 15 minutes probably). Then we walked to World Showcase with a stop by club cool on the way. We had FP for Frozen in Norway, then visited Germany (Karamel Kuche and used 2 snack credits on caramel shortbread squares to share later), then Japan (DD's love to shop in here), then France (bought gifts for niece here) and then Canada (DD's like to walk through and see where the Canadians are from - once we found 2 working there from our city of about 70,000, so that was neat). On our way out we bought flavoured popcorn (1/2 sour cream and 1/2 buffalo blue cheese) with our refillable popcorn bucket and used a few credits at Starbucks for cold drinks on the way to the bus (I tried the Pink Drink for the first time - it was ok but I don't think I'd get it again. I like their refreshers normally. DD's had an iced tea drink and a green frappacino). Bus arrived after only about a 5 minute wait, so much better luck with buses today! Now we are resting in our room playing cards, sharing the treats from Karamel Kuche and our popcorn with cold drinks in our refillable mugs. So relaxing.
Today was very hot. Used our frog toggs and drank a lot of water while we walked - we bring 4-6 water bottles into the park each morning in our one backpack and make sure everyone is always taking sips. Tonight we will boat to Disney Springs in the evening, after we've had a rest and a swim. Tomorrow is a rest day with an 11:30am reservation at 1900 Park Fare and resort time.
Another great Disney day.

 

[Karenj2]

I don’t even know how I’m going to work or sleep between now and Friday

I know! Someone asked me to do something, and I was thinking, "Don't you know I have so much to do (personally) to get ready for our trip! I don't have time for REAL work!" (Kidding, I worked very hard actually, but in my head I was making lists, and singing Disney songs...

6 more sleeps...