*** The Official August 2019 thread ***

[DISNEY1975]

[

I couldn't care less what the crowd calendar says. The crowds will be what they will be, and I will do what I am doing regardless of them. I have a plan, I have FP in place, and I will have an amazing time whether the crowds are crazy light, or just crazy.

I just want to know before I get there. I dont want to be surprised by wall to wall people. If I know before hand, I know what Im walking into.

Weather-wise, there are only 4 of 13 days I care about.
Day my DD is signed up to be trainer for the day at Discovery Cove (pd $1100 for our tix...it better not rain all day!!)

My Bday Rented patio/cabana at our hotel pool and am having supper at HBD followed by my favorite nighttime show, Fantasmic

MNSSHP

Typhoon Lagoon H20 Glow Party night

Other than those, I wont mind some rain!

 

[kylenne]

[

I just want to know before I get there. I dont want to be surprised by wall to wall people. If I know before hand, I know what Im walking into.

Weather-wise, there are only 4 of 13 days I care about.
Day my DD is signed up to be trainer for the day at Discovery Cove (pd $1100 for our tix...it better not rain all day!!)

My Bday Rented patio/cabana at our hotel pool and am having supper at HBD followed by my favorite nighttime show, Fantasmic

MNSSHP

Typhoon Lagoon H20 Glow Party night

Other than those, I wont mind some rain!

I say this a lot around here any time I see people freaking out over them, but crowd calendars are useless. There’s a reason a particular blogger who used to make them stopped doing it a long time ago (and he gives spot on touring advice that I’ve used to great results, so I trust him).

Touring Plans is great for a lot of things, and I get a lot of use out of my sub, but their crowd calendars are the equivalent of newspaper horoscopes. So often they’re having to put out some post explaining why they were way off, after angry people come back from busy parks that were supposed to be “low”. Part of it is they still use historical data that’s utterly irrelevant to the modern reality of the parks. One time their AK numbers were ridiculously off, because their model was including pre-Pandora data. Then too, what is the functional difference between a 3 and a 5? I don’t get people hanging their whole vacations on this stuff. The best thing to do imo is prepare for the worst and have solid plans and contingencies instead of worrying about arbitrary numbers pulled out of thin air, based on questionable methodology.

 

[omniscientmommy]

Finally we have hit single digits! 9 days left and counting!

As far as crowd calendars go I will check them but not count on them being accurate. The plans have been made and honestly if the crowds feel too much we can always leave.

 

[Tomh]

Rain, yup, it'll do that, usually at the most inopportune time. It downpoured for near half of our MNSSHP last year, really the only major rain we had for the entire trip. My daughter stood in line to see Jack and Sally in that rain, and they kept delaying the meet and greet because of the rain, so she ended up spending pretty well the first half of MNSSHP standing in that line.

The year we went to the Villains party at DHS (this was a few years back) we arrived at 4 expecting that was when they would let us in, but they didn't let us in until much later. I don't recall for sure if it was 5, 5:30, or 6. At any rate, we were all lined up outside the gate, and one of those horrendous storms fired up. It rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain, and lightning too, and here we all were, standing outside in it, no cover over our heads, no protection from the rain, or the lightning. We were all drenched clean through. There wasn't a bit of clothing anywhere on us that wasn't wet. It was miserable, but I really felt back for the people who wore elaborate costumes and / or makeup.

So, I kind of view rain like I view crowds / crowd calendars. I don't set myself up for disappointment. I go into it figuring that the parks are going to be very crowded. If I get there, and they aren't, then I will be pleasantly surprised. I go into it expecting that there will be rain every day. If we get a day that it doesn't rain, great, bonus.

 

[dancergirlsmom]

Today is the day. Disney here I come!!!!

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

This gets even more crazy awesome if you have a rewards credit card. I usually get $100 gift cards from BJs at 5% off. Discover It is a revolving 5% category type of cash back card. This quarter, the 5% categories were Restaurants and PayPal transactions. BJs takes PayPal as payment. As soon as my vacation club paid out from the credit union, I stocked up. Granted they only give you 5% up to a certain cap, but I still made out like a bandit.

I figure I saved at least $200 on my room reservation doing this. More if you count what I got for my AP upgrade. I’m just sad I can’t stack it with Ebates anymore since they changed to Rakuten.

WAIT! BJ's offers 5%off GC cards? I've been going there since they opened -I had no idea. Just spent $450 this week.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

@ariane37 Wait, is that a magic cookie bar as your icon picture??? Now I'm hungry!
I can't wait to get one at PORS in 3 days!

 

[DISNEY1975]

This gets even more crazy awesome if you have a rewards credit card. I usually get $100 gift cards from BJs at 5% off. Discover It is a revolving 5% category type of cash back card. This quarter, the 5% categories were Restaurants and PayPal transactions. BJs takes PayPal as payment. As soon as my vacation club paid out from the credit union, I stocked up. Granted they only give you 5% up to a certain cap, but I still made out like a bandit.

I figure I saved at least $200 on my room reservation doing this. More if you count what I got for my AP upgrade. I’m just sad I can’t stack it with Ebates anymore since they changed to Rakuten.

WAIT! BJ's offers 5%off GC cards? I've been going there since they opened -I had no idea. Just spent $450 this week.

At the stores they offer 4% off the $100 cards (best value at the store). Around the holidays, they are 5% off. The $50 or $150's are 3% off, 4% around the holidays.

But ...... If you're buying more than $5000, you can call /Email their corporate office (if anyone is interested I can search my records for the info) and get 8% - 12% off by buying in bulk. You must buy at least $5000 at one time. The % off depends on how they are meeting their sales quota on GCs for the quarter. If they are down, they will give more of a %. If they are on target, the best you will get is 8%. Their quarters end in April, July, October and January. Best time to check is at the ends of those months. I bought in April this year ($8000 worth) and got 10%. (Paid $7200 with my Disney Visa for another 2%) The terrible part is the gave me $8000 in $50 GCs. I had to enter then one at a time into the Disney site. Took about 9 hours total over the course of a week.

Rain, yup, it'll do that, usually at the most inopportune time. It downpoured for near half of our MNSSHP last year, really the only major rain we had for the entire trip. My daughter stood in line to see Jack and Sally in that rain, and they kept delaying the meet and greet because of the rain, so she ended up spending pretty well the first half of MNSSHP standing in that line.

I got rained out of a MVMCP once. My boys and mother were with us, so 6 tix down the drain. We werent even there an hour and it poured and poured and poured. I dont mind spending money, but I do mind wasting money!

And my worst rainout was at DHS. Out of nowhere.

I bought my DD an adorable short set (she was about 4). The bottoms were red with little white polka dots. When it poured, we were drenched and her shorts were bleeding the red die all on the top of the white shirt and down her legs. Looked like she was in a masacre!! We ran undercover and in typical Disney style, a street vendor came out selling $12 ponchos. We we waited an hour, then decided to buy 6. We got all snapped up just in time for the sun came back We called it quits (our clothes and shoes were soaked and we were all uncomfortable) We went back to the hotel, showered, changed and had a nice meal at the Wave. Nobody wanted to leave the hotel for the rest of the day.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

At the stores they offer 4% off the $100 cards (best value at the store). Around the holidays, they are 5% off. The $50 or $150's are 3% off, 4% around the holidays.

But ...... If you're buying more than $5000, you can call /Email their corporate office (if anyone is interested I can search my records for the info) and get 8% - 12% off by buying in bulk. You must buy at least $5000 at one time. The % off depends on how they are meeting their sales quota on GCs for the quarter. If they are down, they will give more of a %. If they are on target, the best you will get is 8%. Their quarters end in April, July, October and January. Best time to check is at the ends of those months. I bought in April this year ($8000 worth) and got 10%. (Paid $7200 with my Disney Visa for another 2%) The terrible part is the gave me $8000 in $50 GCs. I had to enter then one at a time into the Disney site. Took about 9 hours total of the course of a week.



I got rained out of a MVMCP once. My boys and mother were with us, so 6 tix down the drain. We werent even there an hour and it poured and poured and poured. I dont mind spending money, but I do min

And my worst rainout was at DHS. Out of nowhere.

I bought my DD an adorable short set (she was about 4). The bottoms were red with little white polka dots. When it poured, we were drenched and her shorts were bleeding the red die all on the top of the white shirt and down her legs. Looked like she was in a masacre!! We ran undercover and in typical Disney style, a street vendor came out selling $12 ponchos. We we waited an hour, then decided to buy 6. We got all snapped up just in time for the sun came back We called it quits (our clothes and shoes were soaked and we were all uncomfortable) We went back to the hotel, showered, changed and had a nice meal at the Wave. Nobody wanted to leave the hotel for the rest of the day.

Thank you - I couldn't tie up 5K in GCs- we don't pay for our room and, thankfully, our food, snack expenses don't get that high. I appreciate the info, though because I foresee a larger party trip in our future where that may be ideal!

 

[TJ Bryant]

So slight update to my stay. I was able to find dvc points for rent that ended up being only about $50 a night more to stay at the Grand Floridian instead of off property. But only one night available. So instead of all weekend I’m just going August 31st. And staying at the Grand Floridian!!!! So excited. I love that resort.

 

[Erinmc3]

Quick question. We called in our room request a few days ago (we are already staying in preferred but want ground floor). I was going to do online check in today on MDE and my request is not there. Do they not show up on MDE when you call in? Ground floor is not an option on there and I do not want to request anything else as I heard that online requests override all other requests. Thanks so much!! I was going to post this on the resorts board but figured I would get more responses here .

 

[Becky Mouse]

I say this a lot around here any time I see people freaking out over them, but crowd calendars are useless. There’s a reason a particular blogger who used to make them stopped doing it a long time ago (and he gives spot on touring advice that I’ve used to great results, so I trust him).

Touring Plans is great for a lot of things, and I get a lot of use out of my sub, but their crowd calendars are the equivalent of newspaper horoscopes. So often they’re having to put out some post explaining why they were way off, after angry people come back from busy parks that were supposed to be “low”. Part of it is they still use historical data that’s utterly irrelevant to the modern reality of the parks. One time their AK numbers were ridiculously off, because their model was including pre-Pandora data. Then too, what is the functional difference between a 3 and a 5? I don’t get people hanging their whole vacations on this stuff. The best thing to do imo is prepare for the worst and have solid plans and contingencies instead of worrying about arbitrary numbers pulled out of thin air, based on questionable methodology.

You make a lot of good points, but I think they're still generally in the ball park most of time.

Yesterday (August 2), they predicted 4/10, and the crowds were 5/10

August 1, they predicted 4/10, and the crowds were 5/10

July 31, they predicted 5/10, and the crowds were 5/10

July 30, they predicted 5/10, and the crowds were 7/10

So, I mean, in the end, they aren't perfect, but the crowd calendars let planners know the crowds will be somewhat moderate for an end of July or early August trip.

Things are changing at WDW though, and I think it's getting a lot harder to predict. On July 4, they predicted 10/10 crowds just like every other year, and the crowds were only 5/10 this year on the Fourth of July! So, we can't use the crowd calendars as a Bible. It's a rough estimate, though, and you can't help but question/wonder why the crowd calendars for next week would suddenly shoot up multiple points. Are the crowds not dying down as they expected? Is there an unexpected event going on? Did the hotels start filling up with last minute travel guests? Who knows?

 

[Fairy62277]

We leave in 13 days! Staying at Pop for 5 nights arriving on 8/18! 3rd time driving from RI but 1st time driving with our 6 year old DD. This should be an adventure!

 

[skysmom99]

I wish you could too!
I should definitely get the magic shots, I seem to forget those.

I was looking for a list of the current shots and found this printable brochure.

https://cdn1.parksmedia.wdprapps.di...ads/2019/06/Disney-PhotoPass-Summer-Guide.pdf
I hope it's acceptable to post the link since it's from the Disney website.

 

[han22735]

Quick question. We called in our room request a few days ago (we are already staying in preferred but want ground floor). I was going to do online check in today on MDE and my request is not there. Do they not show up on MDE when you call in? Ground floor is not an option on there and I do not want to request anything else as I heard that online requests override all other requests. Thanks so much!! I was going to post this on the resorts board but figured I would get more responses here .

Correct they will not show in there. And yes they will erase the called in ones if you do pick any online. Have a great trip! 15 days for us!

 

[skysmom99]

Just got an Email cancelling my FP for Primeval Whirl on the 18th

Even sadder is they are replacing it with an EE FP, 3 hours later than the PW I had (we wont be at the park then, having supper at Epcot) and EE is the one and only ride my family will not get on! No big deal, but I will miss PW

We've never been on PW and were going to try it this trip. Guess not.

 

[han22735]

We've never been on PW and were going to try it this trip. Guess not.

Our DD7 is so upset. She's finally over 48" and was looking forward to riding it.

 

[skysmom99]

I know it will be sweltering, buckets of rain will fall from the sky, and crowds of people will be everywhere when we go to WDW in 12 days. Do I still look at the weather sites and at various crowd calendars? Yes. Yes, I do. My husband claims that some people obsess over things. (That's me. I'm some people.) Can't help it. Just how I am. So, will a bad weather report or a high number on a crowd calendar ruin my trip? Heck no! Will I keep reading this board obsessively and checking weather and crowd predictions? Yep. That's just how I pre-Disney.

 

[Erinmc3]

Correct they will not show in there. And yes they will erase the called in ones if you do pick any online. Have a great trip! 15 days for us!

Thanks so much!! Hope you have a great trip too!!

 

[ariane37]

@ariane37 Wait, is that a magic cookie bar as your icon picture??? Now I'm hungry!
I can't wait to get one at PORS in 3 days!

lol yes it is!! It's my absolute most favorite Disney snack believe it or not and WL is my favorite resort, the only other place besides POR you can get them. We even go to Roaring Fork to get one when we aren't staying at the Lodge! For the 4th of July last month we were at the Contemporary and we made 2 trips for the Magic bars. And on one of them we may have bought 6