This Trip Can't Get Here Soon Enough - A May 2017 PTR

[compshu]

As I sit here listening to D-Cot, there are still a couple months before our next trip, and I’ve started feeling the itch, so I thought that maybe writing a PTR would help pass the time. I’ve written a couple post-trip reports, but this will be my first pre-trip report.


My name is Josh, and travelling with me, as always, is my wife Becky, daughters, and son. This will be the last year that our eldest will be a “Disney child.”



We made our initial plans and booked back in January for 7-nights at Caribbean Beach Resort with DDP, and 5-day base tickets staying in mid June. We figured that since the kids would be on summer break, my wife’s birthday is early June, and our 10 year anniversary is the 17th, that would be a good time to go. Also, our eldest has End-of-Grade exams in May, and we weren’t sure when those would be.



We were going to look into mid-April while the kids’ school is on Spring Break, but we wanted to see Pandora: The World of Avatar as well as the new MK fireworks show. The only thing we were bummed about was missing the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival.


I was excited when I found out about the construction, which was announced a few weeks after we booked our package. With the gift card factored into the budget, that freed up some money that would have otherwise gone to paying tips and drinks with the DDP. It’s always good when your trip cost is lowered after you’ve already booked.



Last week, we were going over our plans, as well as our schedule. I don’t earn a ton of PTO at work, something like 6 hours a month with a mandatory usage between Christmas and New Year’s, such is the life of government contracting. Anyway, I figured after this past December’s usage, I would be short by about 10-16 hours in PTO by June, depending on when the balance is calculated in comparison to the end of the pay period and when the timesheet gets turned in. We factored that into the budget and made a plan to make up for it between now and then, in addition to the trip budget and everything else. We decided to price out moving the trip up a few weeks to include the Memorial Day weekend/holiday and also to shorten the stay a little. We were able to get the info about our daughter’s exams so we knew she wouldn’t miss those during that week.



I got ahold of our TA (we could plan/book everything ourselves, but he’s a good friend and I like supporting his business) to find out what he could get for us. He said it was good we decided to do this at now, because in 3 days (this was on the 16th) they would be cutting off the gift card offer for those staying at CBR during the construction. We restructured the package to a 5-night stay with DDP, and 5-day base tickets for May 24-29. This means that I will only need to use 24 hours of PTO, instead of the 48 hours needed for the longer stay not covering a paid holiday, so I won’t have any loss in pay when we get back. It also lowered the cost for the package, which means more money for souvenirs and stuff.


There are a couple other big exciting bonuses too! We get to be there for our 4th consecutive F&G festival, and we get to be there for the Pandora grand opening, and still get to see the new fireworks at MK. We love love LOVE the Flower & Garden Festival, and were really upset that we were going to miss it until we changed the dates. Now we’ve been looking into the info for this year’s festival, which I had been avoiding because I didn’t want to know about what I’d be missing. So that has us super excited, not to mention the fact that the countdown magically went from 85 or so days down to 64 and we make FP+ this weekend instead of in 2 weeks.

 

[compshu]

For anyone that was reading this PTR and planning to follow along, I must apologize. I pulled a George R.R. Martin – promised a great story (well, not as great as an award-winning professional author) before realizing that my busy schedule means some unintended delays are necessary. While what follow is decidedly not The Winds of Winter, it is the continuation of my PTR. So please let me say thank you for following along!






So, the first thing we tend to plan for after we’ve booked a trip is food. We love WDW dining, and always wind up getting the DDP, as it makes it much easier to keep track of food costs, plus we do a few character meals and buffets so we always get our money’s worth out of it.



Our original plan gave us 7 table service credits to use for ADRs. That allowed us to grab a couple of our favorite places, and something like 4 new places for us to try, including Whispering Canyon Cafe, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, and The Plaza Restaurant. One of our favorites that we go to just about every trip is Tusker House. We managed to get an 8:30 PPO for the Rivers of Light package, good deal.


When we cut the trip down in scale and moved it up in schedule, we knew we would be sacrificing some of the table service experiences in favor of the outdoor kitchens of F&G. So we lost 2 table service credits, and had to find ADR availability just over 60 days out.



We were able to grab our annual Biergarten meal for our arrival day, May 24th. The next day, we will be in Magic Kingdom Park, so we got Tony’s Town Square. I know some people really dislike Tony’s, but we enjoy it (even with being originally from upstate NY, with a large Italian immigrant population).


We always make our Tony’s ADR for after the 5pm flag retreat so that we can go right in after. We plan to be in DHS on Friday, May 26th, but couldn’t find anything available for Sci-Fi, so we went with Whispering Canyon Cafe, to keep that new experience. Our 8 year old is really looking forward to asking for ketchup, she says. And yes, she has seen videos, so she know what happens.


Saturday is the grand opening of Pandora, so we have to go to Animal Kingdom that day. Unfortunately, we were unable to find availability at Tusker House, so we made an ADR for 1900 Park Fare for dinner so that we’d still have a character experience. We’ve had breakfast there a couple times, but this will be our first dinner. Our eldest says she is looking forward to the taco bar.


Sunday, May 28th is our last park day, and final day before we check out and head home. We will be finishing up in Epcot. We had planned, back when we’d be there in June on our anniversary, to have our anniversary dinner at Tutto Italia. We weren’t able to find dinner, but we got a lunch ADR instead, so we can still celebrate.

We also made a rough plan for our quick service credits. We are going to eat at Tangierine Cafe, Columbia Harbour House, Pizzafari, Backlot Express, and probably either D-Luxe Burger or Earl of Sandwich on our check out day on the way out of WDW. Other than that, we’ve been checking out the menus for the outdoor kitchens and coming up with the booths we want to hit the most to use up all those snack credits. I love that they changed the way the QS desserts work, and that they added an additional snack. The only QS place that I really have to get a dessert is Columbia Harbour House, but only if they have the blueberry cobbler. Other than that, I’d rather have extra snack credits to use at the food booths.

 

[compshu]

Saturdays are busy days for us. Our eldest plays hockey, and the closest ice rink to us is 2 hours away. So we get up at 6am and head out for that. Last Saturday was our 60-day mark, and at 7am our window opened for Fastpass+. We were a little nervous about using the app on the road to make our selections. Luckily, my wife was able to get everything we wanted by 7:30. Here's what we got:

Wed, May 24
Spaceship Earth
Frozen Ever After
Living with the Land

Thur, May 25
Meet Cinderella and Elena
Peter Pan's Flight
Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid (for my wife, eldest daughter and son)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (for myself and our younger daughter)

Fri, May 26
Toy Story Mania!
Star Tours
For the First Time in Forever

Sat, May 27
Na'vi River Journey
Finding Nemo – The Musical
Rivers of Light

Sun, May 28
Soarin'
Mission: Space (for me and the girls)
The Seas with Nemo & Friends (for my wife and son)
Journey Into Imagination With Figment

 

[steviethegreat]

Your plan looks awesome so far! Keep trying for Tusker House! You can set up a TouringPlans request through their reservation finder. That's how I found reservations at Be our Guest and Akershus. (And a Cinderella's Royal Table, though it was at 12am and I totally missed it.) If it's just the food, maybe look into Boma. I think it's one of my favorite restaurants on property. Breakfast was fantastic.

I hope you have a great trip! I've never been to Flower and Garden before, but I'm looking forward to it! I imagine it must be pretty great if it's one of the reasons you switched around your trip dates.

 

[prettylittlelady]

Luckily, my wife was able to get everything we wanted by 7:30.

That's because I'm awesome.

 

[compshu]

Your plan looks awesome so far! Keep trying for Tusker House! You can set up a TouringPlans request through their reservation finder. That's how I found reservations at Be our Guest and Akershus. (And a Cinderella's Royal Table, though it was at 12am and I totally missed it.) If it's just the food, maybe look into Boma. I think it's one of my favorite restaurants on property. Breakfast was fantastic.

I hope you have a great trip! I've never been to Flower and Garden before, but I'm looking forward to it! I imagine it must be pretty great if it's one of the reasons you switched around your trip dates.

Well, like I said, this will be our 4th straight year for Flower & Garden, so I'd say we enjoy it. Epcot just seems so bare between festivals, and they always have beautiful flowers and great food for F&G. I think you'll enjoy it.

 

[compshu]

That's because I'm awesome.

Yes you are. Now you just need to make time move more quickly. 50 days!

 

[compshu]

So, yesterday we hit our 30 day mark. We're coming into the final countdown now. We purchased Memory Maker, and our Magicbands are in the prep for shipment phase. In less than a month, we will be back in WDW.

For the last 2 trips, we have gotten up early and hit the road by 7am to drive down to Orlando. This trip will be a little different. Part of the cost savings and PTO savings required us to choose between only having 4 days in the parks, or using a park day on our arrival. The problem with going to the parks on arrival day for us is that we are about 10-11 hours away. So that would mean that even if we got on the road by 6, we are looking at getting to the resort by 5 or 6pm. Even if we went straight to the park, we would be exhausted and would only have a couple hours to enjoy the park. So what we decided is to get a hotel in Georgia for the night before. As soon as I get home from work, right around the same time the kids get off the bus, we will freshen up and head out. The hotel we booked is right off I-95, and is only about 7 hours away, so we should be there by 10:30pm. We'll sleep and then get up early the next day to finish the drive. That should get us to the resort by around 10am, and we hope to be in Epcot by noon.

 

[compshu]

Our Magicbands have shipped and are estimated to be here between Monday and Wednesday! 28 more days!!