TheNeverEndingPTR! Sept2010...no, November...WAIT! January?Ugh. maybe September 2011!

[Twoboysnmygirl]

AAAAHHHHHHH! I just called to change from the family suite to 2 rooms and they said there were none available!!!!!!

crap, crap, crap. Not sure if we'll be able to upgrade to DDP now.

 

[-Hope-]

Holy cow!!! I can't believe they are already booked- they haven't even announced free dining yet- which makes me worry!!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I can't believe it either, BUT, you know how they say they can't guarantee rooms connected? I think they just say that, but I think there were no CONNECTING rooms. Either that or the computer didn't want me to switch from the more expensive room!

I think I can make this work! I'm working on my new itinerary with 3 OOP meals: Biergarten, Tusker House (there is NOWHERE else for a vegetarian to eat in AK...sigh) and Park Fare. It's cheaper than upgrading and we will have TONS of food since we are paying for 3 meals OOP.

 

[-Hope-]

It's more than a little ironic that they only serve food made from animals in AK.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Ugh, just told Savannah and she's NOT happy. Apparently she likes the sit down meals.

We're only going to save about $150 not upgrading and paying OOP, BUT...and it's a big BUT...we will have LOTS more food. Double the CS and double the Snacks that we would have had on the ddp. I think the only way we'll do ddp is if they offer it free, but it looks like it will be qsdp for values.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Why oh why do you have to mess with my plans Disney??? Don't you know that only I am supposed to call the shots here?

So, how many hours since I posted my last itinerary??? Huh? Maybe I should just stop posting them until right before the trip.

I called WDW to change some things this morning. First, I took Eli off the reservation and added 6 day park hoppers (no WP&M) tickets. Then I went to change our Family Suite reservation to 2 connecting rooms. NO DICE.

I don't know if it's b/c there weren't actual connecting rooms available or if there were no more regular rooms available with my free QSDP pin, but either way we are now stuck in the family suite. This, in itself, it's that bad, BUT, I was going to take the $200+ savings, minus the base ticket for Eli and upgrade to DDP. Now, we are having to spend that money on the family suite and I just can't justify upgrading and adding more cost.

With upgrading, tips, an oop meal, and mugs, we would be paying about $610. If we pay OOP for 3 meals (Park Fare is so dang expensive! I wish it wasn't a must do for us), we will only spend about $485. AND, one of those meals I included alcohol (Biergarten). Also, we will have DOUBLE the CS's and Snacks that we would have had on the DDP. So, we will have to give up some places we wanted to try. Maybe Rey & I can try them in Feb! The kids will be disappointed, but we need to focus on making this trip happen and that means not going crazy with extras.

So...if your eyes aren't bleeding yet from all the itinerary changes, here's our new QSDP with 3 OOP meals Itinerary. AND I'm sure Disney will change something and make me rework this whole dang thing in a week, but I guess it will give me something to do.

Saturday, September 25-
-Flight to Orlando
-settle in/explore hotel/swim (wait for Rey & Dylan to arrive)
-CS(1) lunch resort
-DTD
-CS(2) Earl of Sandwich

Sunday, September 26-
-breakfast in room
-Magic Kingdom rope drop
-CS(3) Columbia Harbor House or Cosmic Ray's
-ASMU mid-day break/swim(snack in room if needed)
-TS(OOP) 1900 Park Fare dinner 5pm

Monday, September 27-
-DHS rope drop
-breakfast in room
-CS(4) starring rolls(Karen), Backlot (everyone else)
-back to ASMU
-kids swim party afternoon (2-3pm)
-hop to Epcot (go by way of Boardwalk!) Bakery Snack?
-CS(5) Epcot CS-pick when arrive!

Tuesday, September 28-
-Epcot Future World rope drop
-breakfast in room
-CS(6) Sunshine Seasons lunch
-Kim Possible Mission (girls)
-break/swim
-DTD/boat to POFQ!
-CS(7) Sassagoula Floatworks


Wednesday, September 29-
-AK rope drop
-breakfast in room
-TS (OOP) Tusker House lunch
-back to resort to swim/rest
-CS(8) Contempo Cafe or Mara-then to MK
-Spectro/Wishes


Thursday, September 30-
-breakfast in room
-World Showcase 11am
-TS(OOP) Biergarten lunch
-(F&W soft opening)
-Snack credits (4 each) food & wine soft open
-CS(9) Marrakesh or other CS at Epcot
-Illuminations


Friday, October 1-
-sleep in
-breakfast or in room
-Food & Wine opening Day! Epcot World Showcase 11am
-Snack credits (4 each) for F&W
-CS(10) if needed for lunch
-MNSSHP!
-CS (11) Columbia Harbor House dinner or Pecos Bills

Saturday, October 2-
-sleep in
-CS(12) breakfast
-pack & check out
-DTD
-CS(13) Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang
-S(any leftovers) snacks to take home
-LATE flight home (around 5pm)

****allocated 4 Snack credits each for F&W both days.
6 free snack credits for everyone after this.
****also 1 free CS open for breakfast one day if needed

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I can't believe the rooms would all be booked, either. That makes no sense. I bet the 2 rooms will become available if you keep calling every day. Pretty soon they will be so tired of you calling that they will give the rooms just to prevent more calls! Just look at it this way ---- the hours should be out within 2 weeks. Yeah! My Mom is leaving for Sarasota next Sunday. She stays with a friend of hers for the month of March. And I get to drive her to the Portland airport....I'll be wishing it was time for me to leave!!!! I'll just think of it as practice!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Wow, that is pretty scary if all of the rooms are booked!! Maybe there were only so many that were available right now with our pin. I bet if you can't get it changed now, you will have better luck when free dining is announced to the public? Maybe! There will have to be rooms available for them!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

What a pain! But why don't you see if you can get two rooms and one of the other value resorts? If you're not doing the suite, then is there another reason to keep the ressie at ASMu? Either way, you should definitely keep calling back, things open up everyday.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

What a pain! But why don't you see if you can get two rooms and one of the other value resorts? If you're not doing the suite, then is there another reason to keep the ressie at ASMu? Either way, you should definitely keep calling back, things open up everyday.

Well...we wanted to be at the same hotel as Hope b/c the girls wanted to swim together! I suppose I could look at Movies since they are so close, but now that we've been talking about it Savannah seems He** bent on staying at MUSIC (she's a music freak so it's right up her alley)

No interest in staying at Pop b/c we've been there and wanted to go somewhere different. It's also a little BIG for Rey, he doesn't like crowds and I thought the smaller Value's would seem smaller to him. :shrug

I have looked into POR, I LOVED the pics I saw of the outside, loved the buildings, the trees, the river...but I can't stand the look of the rooms in Alligator Bayou where they can fit 5! It's just too rustic and country for me. I LIVE in an area that is predominately this style and I don't want to see it on vacation. AND, we would have to squeeze in 1 room, even if it is a moderate, it would be tight!

So, I have a sore throat this morning. I caught a cold Savannah had, I think. BUT, Hope is still coming for Movie Day! See, we are total die-hards, even when sick! I took a shower, put on clean pj's and I'm all ready!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Well, Karen, as long as you put on clean pj's it's all good!!! What's on the moive agenda tonight???

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

It's Fox & The Hound is the movie today! Hope is bringing friendship bread and they are going to make friendship collages, Savannah printed out a bunch of pictures of them from all our movie days so far.

 

[BabyEeyore]

What cute ideas for The Fox and the Hound! That is one of my DH's fave movies so I'll have to write those down!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

It's Fox & The Hound is the movie today! Hope is bringing friendship bread and they are going to make friendship collages, Savannah printed out a bunch of pictures of them from all our movie days so far.

Awe, that sounds so cute!!! Gee, you have the hound dogs to go along with the movie...ok, so they are not hound dogs, but they should be part of the festivites too, right????

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Fox and The Hound Movie Day!!

We waffled a little about what movie to do this week, so much that there was no time to get a movie from netflix, so we decided to watch one of the movies that Hope has from her Mom's VHS stock! Problem was...neither of us have a VCR anymore!

Well, Hope kind of did! She had an old small tv/vcr combo, so she lugged it over and the kids watched it in Savannah's room THIS WAS A HIT!

Before watching the movie though, they made friendship collages and ate friendship bread!

we had to beg the girls for a picture...I hope they aren't pictured-out by the time we actually go to WDW!!!

but it didn't take long and they joined in the fun!

Hope and I sat on the couch and rearranged our itineraries while they worked on their collages! Here are their masterpieces...

Savannah's:

Kya's:

Jace was there today, but I didn't get a picture of his, I think he got tired of it earlier than the girls! He seemed to cheer up when they finally went to watch the movie.

but first they had to eat their friendship bread!

Watching the movie in the room was a big hit for ALL of us! It allowed Hope and I to talk Disney the whole time and the kids liked getting up on the bunk and watching the tv from there! (excuse my bad pics, the light from the window did not help!) The girls hid at first when they saw the camera, but wanted me to go away so they stopped hiding so I could get a shot!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

THAT is the question!

So, I have 6 day hoppers booked. We already decided (WHY do I always put WE? Let's get real folks...I decided!) to not get WP&M this trip b/c of the cost. Savannah & I were the only ones that wanted to go and we've been on both trips. To be honest, they were ok, but not worth a park day to me.

Anywho!...I just assumed we would need them, Rey likes to go with the flow and tolerates my planning only b/c I'm not commando once we get there (ahem...unless it's 15 minutes past rope drop and they still aren't out the door@#*%&#(&$@)...oops, wrong trip report!

Where was I???

So, I was changing my itinerary for the trillionth time when Hope was here and talking about how she had found a way to make it work without the hoppers. IF...and only IF there is a Spectro on Sunday night (our MK day) then we might be able to do it. Last year, however, the calendar says there was not. And to make matters worse, it it's an EMH evening, I'm not sure I'm willing to brave it. I follow TGM's suggestions pretty well and last year this sunday was green in the AM but yellow in the PM. We'll just have to see when THE HOURS COME OUT!!!!!

I'm going batty waiting. Don't they know I'm waiting???

So. It will save us 250$. We can always get them when we are there if we NEED to (freak storm, someone gets sick, etc.) but I think to save the money upfront on the package may help. I'm feeling totally stressed about coming up with all this money, so I'm trying to cut costs.

Now, if Rey and I get AP's, we will NOT save 250$ in the long run. When we go to upgrade, we will need more money (100$ more) for those hoppers that aren't on our tickets. But anyway, right now I'm trying to focus on making this trip happen, I can't think about the next trip yet!

So, how do you feel about not hopping? I'm totally on the fence. Rey doesn't seem opposed to the idea since we will be hitting Epcot 2 days and then a third bonus day on the start of F&W (we're going to MNSSHP that night, so that takes a hard ticket and we don't need hoppers. )

You know another think I keep wondering? How LONG will my table of context be by the time September arrives???

 

[donaldsgal]

I follow TGM's suggestions pretty well and last year this sunday was green in the AM but yellow in the PM. We'll just have to see when THE HOURS COME OUT!!!!!

I'm going batty waiting. Don't they know I'm waiting???


So, how do you feel about not hopping? I'm totally on the fence. Rey doesn't seem opposed to the idea since we will be hitting Epcot 2 days and then a third bonus day on the start of F&W (we're going to MNSSHP that night, so that takes a hard ticket and we don't need hoppers. )

Here are my thoughts. First, as a TGM'er, you know he says you don't have to avoid the yellow nights - you just need a plan. Sounds like you have one, so I say go for it if you want to on going to MK on a yellow night.

We also get the hoppers. Knowing it will save you money later (you and Rey) seems to make that make sense. Now, I know it's more expensive for the current trip, but as you said, if there's any chance you'll want them, I say get them. It provides more flexibility - you can start out at EP and then to MK if you want, you don't have to eat in the park you visit all day, etc. I say get them if you'll use them. I'd hate not having them - I'd be afraid I'd feel like veering from my plans but not have the option to do so.

Just my 2 cents, though. Go with your gut!

 

[Charlefours]

I go back and forth about PH too. DH wants to keep them and I am fine either way. I think after looking at the park hours I will make the decision. If we are not going to take advantage of them, than I will drop them. At least WDW lets you change without penalty up to 45 days out.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I was under the impression that you could add hoppers at ANY TIME once you were there. Is this different for package tickets that come with the room??? anyone know?

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Asking my expert here -----

You left a link to the travel agent hours in my ptr, but all I saw was September 2009 hours listed. Have 2010 come out yet?

Also, do you use any old iron on paper for your t-shirts or I thought I read one time that you use special transfer paper?

As for tie dyes ---- is your shirt damp before you start dying them? The instructions didn't say anything about having them damp, but maybe that's why I had such a hard time with Victoria & mine last time.