The *Official* February 2011 Thread - Happy Dance Time...The Park Hours Are Out!

[scrappinmom]

Gina - I LOVE the pins!!! very cute


As for the dining plan...we've gotten every time...the first time in 2005 we had free dining, & I guess the Disney marketing Gods had peeps like me in mind...we loved it! I just loved not having to worry about what i was getting, whether I'd have enough money left over for our last dinner, what the kids ordered. Even now when both my girls count as adults, I'd still get it, free or not. In my opinion we eat a whole lot more then $40 ish a day - we never have any left over, so I don't feel like I'm wasting credits..just my .02

& we love character meals! So we use up those credits on those in a flash.

doing the under 40 days dance

 

[Gina]

oh, one thing about having the dining plan that might make it worth the $$$ is that now I will order whatever I want vs. looking at prices. A lot of times I get what's cheap like chicken or a sandwich and not what I would really like, like prime rib or seafood.

That is exactly why I love the dining plan so much. DS & I do the quick service dp, because that is what works best for us -- I hate being tied down to ADR's, and we love love love having those two snacks per day on the QSDP!! And like you said, it allows me to order things I wouldn't normally order, even on counter service.

I'm just naturally, um... frugal. Yeah, let's go with that one, it's nicer than "cheapa$$". lol. Frugal is what gets us to WDW in the first place! But it's hard to turn off. With the dining plan, I don't have to say "no" to myself or my DS. Want a Mickey bar? Sure! Want the $15 rib/chicken plate instead of the $8 burger? No problem! Without the dining plan, I would be counting out every penny. I love not having to worry about that, just for one blissful week.

And thanks for the nice words about our Mickey heads! Can't wait to be wearing them!!

 

[BethR9]

Gina,

Did you see my post on looking for input on HS. Do you have any?

You seem to be very in tune to all things Disney so I was wondering what you thought.

 

[prittfamily98]

Staying an Old Key West for a much needed vacation. ADR made - using DDDP... eating our way through WDW...

My family and I will be at WDW from Feb 6-11. I am so excited!

 

[Gina]

Gina,

Did you see my post on looking for input on HS. Do you have any?

You seem to be very in tune to all things Disney so I was wondering what you thought.

That's so sweet, Beth, and I did see your post -- I just didn't really have any insight for you. My son is almost 15 now, so it has been a while since he was your child's age at DHS. When he was that little, all we really did was Muppets 4D, Star Tours when he was a tad older, and the big play area that y'all have already talked about. We're not much into parades except for the MSEP, so I can't comment on the parade there at DHS. I do know that I always had to practically pry him out of that play area with a crowbar -- he would have happily stayed there all day, lol. But it's scary for parents -- You never know where they are. They can't leave the area, but still it's a huge pain to go find them.

Now, DHS is still just a half-day park for us... RnRC, Muppets (I refuse to miss that!), and TSM, and that's about it with Star Tours still closed. Without hoppers, we wouldn't go at all, but that's just us. We could spend a week at MK and a week at Epcot, and be totally happy.

Sorry I can't be of more help!

 

['OhanaMama]

Woot!! Woot!!

32 Days!!

Woot!! Woot!!

 

[BethR9]

Thanks, Gina! Your insight was helpful even if you don't think it was.

 

[srauchbauer]

I had the best CM on the phone this morning she spent 45 minutes with me finding TS for each day we are at DWD even in the places we wanted to eat. I could not believe it - so with that in mind we have decided on the dining plan since most of our TS are character meals.

So tell me what you think of this plan:

Sunday Feb 13: MK lunch at CP
Monday Feb 14: AK breakfast at Cape May Cafe
Tuesday Feb 15: Epcot lunch at Corral Reef
Wednesday Feb 16: MK Dinner at Chef Mickey
Thursday Feb 17: DHS lunch at Hollywood and Vine/ Fanstamic
Friday Feb 18: 1/2 day Epcot Breakfast with the Princess (can't remember how to spell the location) then heading home.

I am pretty amazed at myself just decided to go on Friday and I have all this done already (couldn't have done it with DH help - thanks Jeff).

 

[srauchbauer]

Another quick question:

when i went into the calendar for the parks I noticed shows but not refurbs where are refurbs found.

Thanks

 

[Joy1619]

Hi Joy1619
Did you get the lovely blizzard yet? No snow just very heavy wind with the snow blowing Calgary was in a white out situation -13 but with wind chill -32

Can't wait until Feb I just hope it is good weather

Oh yeah, we've had just lovely weather the past few days - we got the nasty windchills and several inches of snow and icy roads and bad visibility and on and on...we didn't get it as bad as you guys did though, but it's STILL snowing and I am desperate to see some sunshine! I'm not liking the Florida weather right now, it doesn't look like it's getting very warm there at all, so I've got my fingers crossed that they will get a nice loooooooong heatwave while we're there! I would like to see some mid-20C s at least! I will keep my fingers crossed for you too!

 

[Gina]

Another quick question:

when i went into the calendar for the parks I noticed shows but not refurbs where are refurbs found.

Thanks

This is where I go -- Deb keeps her site pretty updated:

http://allears.net/tp/rehabs.htm

 

[Marlynmik]

One month from today!!

It is SO COLD here, I can't wait to leave the snow and below 0 temps!!

I've made an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of park hours, ADRs, shows, methods of transportation including estimated travel time, etc. DH thinks this is overkill, but it's not like I'm planning every minute of our trip, just a general idea of what's going on (so we're not wandering around like dummies trying to decide where to go, what to do, how to get there)

 

[Gina]

One month from today!!

It is SO COLD here, I can't wait to leave the snow and below 0 temps!!

I've made an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of park hours, ADRs, shows, methods of transportation including estimated travel time, etc. DH thinks this is overkill, but it's not like I'm planning every minute of our trip, just a general idea of what's going on (so we're not wandering around like dummies trying to decide where to go, what to do, how to get there)

Then your husband would truly think I'm nuts... lol. But when I'm organized, and my available data is organized, I feel so much more relaxed!! I have color-coded spreadsheets for packing, for park hours and EMH times, for crowd levels, and for dining plan credits. Then there's the phone apps for shopping lists, to-do-list, flight trackers.... lol. And my wonderful, indispensible PassPorter is never more than a few feet away! Hey, my life is way busy -- without all my lists and charts, I'd end up at WDW with no underwear, all the lights left on at home, and probably on the wrong flight.

The funny thing is, I'm only this OCD when it comes to travel! My house is definitely *not* organized.

 

[lamb616]

My DH still refuses to talk about the trip with me. When it was time to make ADRs about 140 days ago, he told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to talk about where and when and what we'd be eating 6 months from now. So I laid off for a few months and didn't bring anything up. Now the other day I thought *surely* he would be interested in looking over my 3-ring-binder with separate sections for hotel info, dining info, park info, etc. etc. And he said no. I asked when he would be excited about the trip and/or want to hear about our plans and he said on the plane, lol. Every time he sees me with my binder he tells me I'm nuts. He's such a party pooper.

 

[Shunasee]

My DH still refuses to talk about the trip with me. When it was time to make ADRs about 140 days ago, he told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to talk about where and when and what we'd be eating 6 months from now. So I laid off for a few months and didn't bring anything up. Now the other day I thought *surely* he would be interested in looking over my 3-ring-binder with separate sections for hotel info, dining info, park info, etc. etc. And he said no. I asked when he would be excited about the trip and/or want to hear about our plans and he said on the plane, lol. Every time he sees me with my binder he tells me I'm nuts. He's such a party pooper.

Thats my DH!! We are about 30 days out, and I try to talk what parks and ride does he really want to do, and I get stonewalled.

 

[lamb616]

last night I showed him my color coded chart/daily itinerary and he commented that this is a VACATION and he wants to relax and not need a "vacation to recover from his vacation"......... he clearly has no clue what a WDW trip with 2 young children is like.

 

[Marlynmik]

I'm not considering this trip a true "vacation" and that means I get to plan a post-Disney vacation for when we get back. I'm addicted to planning vacations I'm actually planning our vacation for next winter, probably Mexico or a Caribbean cruise

 

[daybreaker]

Question: Anybody know of any special Valentine's Day stuff going on at the park? My wife and I will be there the whole week encompassing Valentine's Day.

 

[Shunasee]

Daybreaker - from reading the boards, nothing planned for Valentines Day in the parks. I would imagine they would have a collectable pin, or something of that nature.

DH and I are out there that week also, and I was hoping for something to surprise him with.

 

[daybreaker]

Daybreaker - from reading the boards, nothing planned for Valentines Day in the parks. I would imagine they would have a collectable pin, or something of that nature.

I saw they're having a HUGE pin trading event on Feb 5th, with all sorts of unique pins. Too bad thats a week before I get there... Hopefully they have some of those new pins left over. We really like collecting them.