There’s No Turning Back Now! 7/23 - Link to my new PTR!

[-Hope-]

I agree that I'd choose 10 days over 7- especially if it's only a month.

 

[inkedupmomma]

CRAP... I def LOVE MNSSHP and I am dying to try F&W! BUT, I def love the idea of more days vs less!

I hate to say it, but I think you should postpone!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

I agree that I'd choose 10 days over 7- especially if it's only a month.

Yeah, a month will fly by!

CRAP... I def LOVE MNSSHP and I am dying to try F&W! BUT, I def love the idea of more days vs less!

I hate to say it, but I think you should postpone!

It looks like everyone agrees that the longer vacation is the ideal vacation!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Well, you can probably guess from the title of this post that I officially decided to go for the Nov/Dec trip! I really couldn't think of a good reason not to take that trip. I am going to miss the F&W festival, but we have so many awesome ADRs that I think we'll be OK I really wanted to do MNSSHP but now I'll have another year or so to convince the kids to dress up as Woody and Jesse BUT... I talked to a rep at Southwest and the flights I'm looking at are about $300 more than the October flights. Oh well. I figured as much since both flights are going to be on weekend days instead of week days. Not to mention that our flight down will be on Thanksgiving weekend. I was actually worried it was going to be a lot more than a $300 difference, so I'm happy it can still fit in my budget

I haven't changed my resort reservation yet though because I'm still holding out for some sort of discount. It's driving me nuts that the discounts published so far are still only up to 10/01/11. I have a feeling that they won't release any November discounts until August or September, so I might as well change my reservation soon and then call BACK to change it AGAIN once the AP discounts are released. I guess it's not that big of a deal since most of the other vacation planning is already done The only thing I HAVE TO do soon is change my countdown ticker

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Well I'm happy you made that decision. I really think it will be the best for you & the kids. Yes, you most definitely need to update your countdown ticker!!!

 

[-Hope-]

I think you made the right decision! Plus, more planning is always fun, right?

 

[inkedupmomma]

glad to hear you changed! woot for more adrs and more time to save!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Oh, you guys, I know I am a terrible DISer! Once again, it's been nearly a month since I've updated My Summer has been completely INSANE in both good and bad ways. The good has outweighed the bad, so that's all that's important. One of these days, I'll share with you all how our Summer has been so far. And post some pictures. I'll just say for now that we have had more birthdays, more cookouts and more days at the farm picking fruit than I can count! And the Summer isn't even over yet! Throw in a couple of days in a row when the heat index was over 115 and that is a wrap! I was done! Oh, and on top of that, I was sick for three days a couple of weeks ago. But I'm better now and I'm trying to focus on our trip again. Before I go on, let me acknowledge that you all replied after my last post a month ago

Well I'm happy you made that decision. I really think it will be the best for you & the kids. Yes, you most definitely need to update your countdown ticker!!!

I think you made the right decision! Plus, more planning is always fun, right?

glad to hear you changed! woot for more adrs and more time to save!

Thanks for all of the support, guys! I did, in fact, decide to switch the vacation to November and I feel good about it. Especially now that I have to make another change. The plan now is to go for a package instead of doing annual passes. I still want to do APs but now I'm worried that our siblings trip next year might fall through. My brother is going back to school full time this month and he has to cut his hours at work down to part time for now. Also he and his fiancé set a date for next Fall but that means they'll be spending a lot of time and money preparing for the wedding and honeymoon. My sister's BF just started his new job a few months ago, so he isn't sure he'll be able to take a full week off for vacation by next June. The good news is that both of my sisters still want to go with me and my kids to WDW. Since there will just be 5 of us, we can stay in a family suite at ASM! I really hope it all works out but I'm not comfortable banking on it now. I really think the trip is going to happen... but still... you know what I mean?

Anyway, back to this trip. According to the rumor mill, free dining is supposed to be released on Wednesday the 3rd and it is supposed to include our dates! I can't wait until Wednesday! The only thing is, it is supposed to start on 11/27 and we arrive on the 25th. Not to put the cart before the horse here, but what do you guys think about this: should I book room only for 2 days and pay for our meals OOP those days or should I book a room at that Holiday Inn that I booked for our October trip? I'm thinking that I'm leaning towards the Holiday Inn for 2 nights, but it really comes down to budget. I'll have to call to price them before I book our Disney resort. Oh, also, I'm thinking about Pop again. Part of it is budget but part of it is that I really want to stay there! I'm so fickle! I know I'll have to upgrade from QSDP to DDP if they are offering free dining, but it still works out in my favor. Between you all and me, I think I keep making all of these changes because I love planning so much! It's a sickness!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Well, well, well......look who decided to show up yet again!!! I totally understand about how busy the summer can be! OMG!! But, Maine summers are soooo short, that I try to squeeze everything in before it gets cold!!

I've really missed you and I want to hear all about your summer with pictures!! Sorry to hear that your brother may not be able to do the trip with you next year, but at least your sisters will. My plans (right now --- subject to change) are to go down September 6 - 16th 2012, stay at POP with free dining and upgrade to DDP!!! See, it's all planned.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I'm glad your back Erin!! November is an awesome time to see the World. Awesome weather!!

We had to cancel October too, lack of funds. But May is when we are heading back!

 

[micandminforever]

November sounds great you will be able to see the Christmas decorations. Pop is my favorite resort. I love the food court for breakfast, and the fact the gift shop opens at 6:30am and stays open late. The only draw back is my DH and I need a king size bed and they cannot guarantee one at Pop. I wish they would make it a separate category like at the mods. I would be willing to pay a little more.

Have a good rest of the summer with your kids. School started back in our county today.

 

[-Hope-]

Hi Erin! I am all for staying a the Holiday Inn for a few days if it will save money- I'm in budgeting mode right now so any chance to save money sounds good to me! Is it an easy drive? Does it work out to be cheaper after you pay OOP for meals and parking?

I'm so sorry to hear that your siblings trip may not pan out! I know you were really looking forward to it. I think it can be so difficult to coordinate that many families but even if it's understandable it's still disappointing.

I think Pop! looks like a fun place and if upgrading to DDP still works out in your favor I say go for it!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Well, well, well......look who decided to show up yet again!!! I totally understand about how busy the summer can be! OMG!! But, Maine summers are soooo short, that I try to squeeze everything in before it gets cold!!

I've really missed you and I want to hear all about your summer with pictures!! Sorry to hear that your brother may not be able to do the trip with you next year, but at least your sisters will. My plans (right now --- subject to change) are to go down September 6 - 16th 2012, stay at POP with free dining and upgrade to DDP!!! See, it's all planned.

yeah, I know, I know. Summers are so busy! That’s really great that you are planning a trip next year with friends! I think it will be fun to share Disney with other people! I can’t wait to do that myself next year!

I'm glad your back Erin!! November is an awesome time to see the World. Awesome weather!!

We had to cancel October too, lack of funds. But May is when we are heading back!

I agree! The weather in November is fantastic! Not too hot, not too cold. I’m really looking forward to going back that time of year. I’m glad you guys get to go back in May

November sounds great you will be able to see the Christmas decorations. Pop is my favorite resort. I love the food court for breakfast, and the fact the gift shop opens at 6:30am and stays open late. The only draw back is my DH and I need a king size bed and they cannot guarantee one at Pop. I wish they would make it a separate category like at the mods. I would be willing to pay a little more.

Have a good rest of the summer with your kids. School started back in our county today.

I love the Christmas decorations! I think we might dedicate an afternoon to resort hop and look around! We have about 3 more weeks of summer left and we’re trying to squeeze in as much fun as we can! I hope your school year started off well

Hi Erin! I am all for staying a the Holiday Inn for a few days if it will save money- I'm in budgeting mode right now so any chance to save money sounds good to me! Is it an easy drive? Does it work out to be cheaper after you pay OOP for meals and parking?

I'm so sorry to hear that your siblings trip may not pan out! I know you were really looking forward to it. I think it can be so difficult to coordinate that many families but even if it's understandable it's still disappointing.

I think Pop! looks like a fun place and if upgrading to DDP still works out in your favor I say go for it!

Yeah, the Holiday Inn should work out well because it is only about 5 minutes from WDW…but all of the hotels say that, don’t they? My sisters definitely want to go on the trip next year so if my brother and his fiancé can’t go, we will still go. It is a little disappointing to have them and my sister’s BF drop out, though. Oh well, next time

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

So did you book free dining for the November trip? Were your dates included!?!?!?!?

Hey, do you realize that if we can't save enough for our end of Jan 2012 trip that we will be there next fall too? I figure if I keep pushing my trip off, eventually I'll end up going when someone on the DIS goes.

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

So did you book free dining for the November trip? Were your dates included!?!?!?!?

Hey, do you realize that if we can't save enough for our end of Jan 2012 trip that we will be there next fall too? I figure if I keep pushing my trip off, eventually I'll end up going when someone on the DIS goes.

My trip dates were included in free dining! I’m going to post an update (finally LOL) in a little bit That would be so cool if you and Ann were in Disney at the same time! I’m looking forward to my first DISmeet too but I’m also always switching my dates!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Ever since Disney released free dining I’ve been working on a new plan based on having a Magic Your Way Package. One thing I didn’t have in my favor, though, was our arrival day. Mind you, I haven’t even changed our flight dates yet because I wanted to get the other things in order first. So anyway, I’m not sure if I mentioned it before that Black Friday is supposed to be a really good day to fly because most people have done their travelling on the days leading up to Thanksgiving – and most people won’t leave for home again until Saturday or Sunday. Well, apparently, the day after Thanksgiving is a horrible day to try to check into a Disney resort! Who woulda thunk it? I couldn’t get a room reservation for November 25th or 26th at Pop, but I could get one for November 27th – December 4th! We’ll have a full week of free dining – upgraded to DDP – and one day we’ll have to pay for dining OOP. Why am I saying “we”? The kids aren’t helping me pay for this trip! So that will give us 7 table service meals each. Well, I already had 11 meals planned. But… I planned these meals when I thought I was getting annual passes and pay for everything OOP with the Tables in Wonderland discount. The beauty of paying OOP was that True could order anything she wanted off of the adult menu, because I’m telling you right now, there was no way in the world that True would go to Le Cellier and order a hot dog! I mean, is it just me or does anyone else get irritated at the lack of choices there are on the children’s menus in some restaurants? It’s not just Disney, of course. My kids rarely order off of the children’s menus anywhere.

Back to Disney. Since the plan is still to fly in on November 25th, we’ll be staying the first two days at the Holiday Inn that I previously booked for the October trip. I was really happy that I was able to get a similar discount to the one I got before and the free kids dining at the on-site Applebees is still in play so we’re good on meals there! I’m just not sure we’ll need them because I had other meals planned for those two days. I’ll have to pay for Whispering Canyon Café and ‘Ohana OOP. Hopefully, I’ll have a gift card for T-Rex from My Points. In addition to that, I’ll have to pay OOP for Le Cellier, Coral Reef and Brown Derby because of the kids menu issues and because LC and BD require 2 TS entitlements. It would be ridiculous for us to spend 4 TS credits and only have 3 left over. I’d have to cancel those three meals because they would cost me hundreds of dollars OOP. Which got me to thinking…

What if I upgraded to DxDP??? That’s crazy, right? We are big eaters, but I always figured that there would be no way that the kids and I would be able to eat all of that food… but…then I looked at the DxDP again. 3 meals each – table service and/or counter service – and 2 snacks each. Not to mention that DxDP also includes appetizers and includes a refillable mug (which we would have had to purchase separately on this year’s DDP). I LOVE that mugs are included in next year’s DDP, though! Anyway, upgrading to DxDP would be several hundred more, but according to my fuzzy Disney math, still less than what I would’ve paid for the extra TS meals, the apps that we might order separately and the refillable mugs! I checked the menus for Coral Reef, Le Cellier and Brown Derby again and the kid’s selections aren’t terrible but they just aren’t as varied as True might like. She’ll eat the grilled steak at LC and she might eat the fish strips or meaty macaroni at BD, but I’m not sure if she would eat the seared mahi mahi from CR. She loves fish, though. I’m sure she’d at least give it a try. Worse comes to worse and I’ll just order something she’d like from the adult menu and we’ll trade. She and Coy and I have done that it before. Plus, we’ll all fill up on the apps and desserts too! OMG this is going to be good!!! I can’t wait!!!

So, since I had 21 credits to spend, I added a few restaurants to our ADRs! Oh, and I also had to cancel Tony’s Town Square because the ADR was at 2:35 on MVMCP afternoon but without the APs, we can’t enter MK until 4pm. Oh well, next time! So here is our revised list of ADRs:

Fri – 11/25: Arrival Day

Dinner @ Whispering Canyon Café (I’m really looking forward to eating here)


Sat – 11/26: DTD Day

Lunch @ T-Rex (Kids’ choice! Mine too – LOL)

Dinner @ ‘Ohana (I’m hoping we’ll have a good view of Wishes from the table!)


Sun – 11/27: MVMCP Night

Breakfast @ Cape May Café (One of the few character breakfasts we haven’t done)


Mon – 11/28: EPCOT

Breakfast @ Akershus (another character breakfast we’ve never done)

Dinner @ Le Cellier (Need I say more?!? LOL)


Tues – 11/29: AK (morning)/ EP (night)

Lunch @ Yak & Yeti *NEW! (Although the kids and I make Chinese food and eat take out, we’ve never eaten in a Chinese restaurant before. I know calling Y&Y a Chinese restaurant is a stretch – but still )

Dinner @ Garden Grill! (Family Fave!!!)


Weds – 11/30: MK (morning)/ EP (night)

Lunch @ Teppan Edo *NEW! (I’ve never taken the kids to a Japanese Steakhouse either. I think we’ll all enjoy it!)

Dinner @ Coral Reef (Cannot WAIT for this!)


Thurs – 12/1: AK (morning)/ HS (night)

Breakfast @ Tusker House (Another family tradition)

Lunch @ Brown Derby (There were no Fantasmic! Packages left, but I couldn’t resist the allure of grapefruit cake!)

Dinner @ Boma *NEW! (This is going to be a lot of food for one day! We’ll probably eat a fairly light breakfast at TH like we usually do, so we shouldn’t be too full for our BD lunch. Then our Boma dinner is about 8 hours later, so hopefully we’ll have room for that or – at the very least – Zebra Domes!)


Fri – 12/2: HS Day

Lunch @ Sci-Fi *NEW!

Dinner @ Chef Mickey’s *NEW! (We’ve had breakfast here, but not dinner. Now that I think about it, we’ve never done a dinner buffet at WDW. I’ve heard mixed reviews about dinner at Chef Mickey’s, but the kids and I love the Fab Five!)


Sat – 12/3: MK

Breakfast@ Crystal Palace (Before park opening, of course! Another family tradition )

And – DRUMROLL PLEASE –
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Dinner @ Cinderella’s Royal Table *NEW! (I couldn’t believe that I was WAY less than 180 days from our trip and I was still able to score a dinner ADR at CRT!!! Sweet!!! I think this bodes well for crowd levels that week, but that was part of the reason I chose this week for a vacation, wasn’t it? I am too excited and I am not telling the kids about this one. It is an early dinner ADR so we will be able to have a relaxing dinner and still have enough time after to enjoy our last night of our trip at MK )

So that uses up 16 of our 21 meal entitlements with 5 each left over for CS meals. This seems like quite a bit, but it’ll give us the chance to grab something at Flame Tree or Casey’s Corner or Sunshine Seasons or Pecos Bills or San Angel or Yorkshire County or… so many choices! This is, of course, assuming that we won’t be stuffed every day! I haven’t even gotten to the 2 snacks per day! I have a feeling that we will be taking a lot of treats home with us for souvenirs and to share with family and friends. I might need to pack an empty suitcase!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

OMG, I thought that I was having a gluttonous trip! It sounds AWESOME!!!! We have the opposite (but easier) problem. Savannah wants kids meals but is considered an adult, so we'll be "ordering down" when we are there, which obviously is easier b/c Disney isn't losing money. If it weren't free dining, I would suggest changing her age, but since it's FD, that would be cheating the system kind of.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Love the new plan! And I LOVE the DxDP! I think you will really enjoy having everything paid for up front and not having to think about food so much! As long as you pace out your melas it is not too much food! Eat how normally would!

So excited for you! Especially for being able to snag CRT!

How many days are you at?

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

OMG, I thought that I was having a gluttonous trip! It sounds AWESOME!!!! We have the opposite (but easier) problem. Savannah wants kids meals but is considered an adult, so we'll be "ordering down" when we are there, which obviously is easier b/c Disney isn't losing money. If it weren't free dining, I would suggest changing her age, but since it's FD, that would be cheating the system kind of.

We are going to be stuffed! I do wish Disney was a little more flexible about who is considered an adult and a child on the dining plan. I mean, if someone wanted to pay extra to have a kid added as an adult, or pay less for an "adult" aged kid to be considered a kid, life would be so much easier! It wouldn't be difficult to monitor because the kids would use their kid-sized entitlements when they ordered at the restaurant. We need to put that in a suggestion box somewhere!

Love the new plan! And I LOVE the DxDP! I think you will really enjoy having everything paid for up front and not having to think about food so much! As long as you pace out your melas it is not too much food! Eat how normally would!

So excited for you! Especially for being able to snag CRT!

How many days are you at?

It will be great to have everything paid off. It makes the vacation that much more relaxing I think it might be a challenge not to eat too much but I'll try to remind myself and the kids that we need to save room for the next meal. This might be tough on our TH/BD/Boma day though! I'm so excited about CRT too! It won't be long now! We're 103 days out as of today! Double Digit Dance soon to come!

 

[-Hope-]

OMG that's a lot of food!! And the places you picked are all places I'd love to go!! CRT is going to be so much fun! If it's in your budget I highly recommend the slipper dessert (it's only $15).

One great thing about all that food is that you'll be able to use your snack credits for drinks if you work up a thirst while your touring.