V & Me 3rd Times a Charm! August PTR

[nannye]

Well I finally went and did it. I started a PTR. I figure it will help keep me organized! (ya right! ) Really I was trying to wait until I had finished writing our TR from last year but.......

I'm Erin, and V and I are going to Disney!

V is my charge, Ive been her nanny for 5 years. I have the most amazing bosses who took me with them to Florida in August 2011 and July 2012 and dropped V and I off at Disney for a week of fun. We're going back!

V is a whole ball of things She can be timid when she wants to, and shy; Or completely outgoing. I think she gets a bit nervous meeting characters, so she really doesnt talk to them much. It depends on if they engage her or not, however we had some fabulous character interaction and one comment from her that sent everyone into hysterics!

She LOVES Princesses, however she WILL NOT watch Disney Movies. When I say she is timid I mean EVERYTHING scares her in movies. The only princess movie that is sort of ok is Cinderella. She refuses to watch movies, no fairies or Tangled. Shes seen Tangled and most of Tink once, but wont watch them again. She was terrified during Brave, yet she still likes the movie.

V LOVES Pink! It is by far her most favourite color! She also loves purple and anything glitzy and girlie.

She is starting Senior Kindergarten at a Bilingual school and LOVES school. She also loves playing with her friends, choir, dance class, gymnastics, oh and Disney!

And me? Im Erin her Nanny. Im 30, and since Aug 2011, a Disney Freak! I am V's part time nanny now that she is in school and I also work as a supply teaching within my local school board. I love scrapbooking and I've taken up sewing. I love customs and have lots planned for V for this trip.


The final Details
August 20-27 2013, 7 nights and 8 days. I have a room only reservation for the night of the 27th and I fly home on the 28th.
Port Orleans Resort Riverside Garden view Room
Just V and I
Regular Dining Plan with lots of character meals and Fun things!
Here we are!

 

[nannye]

The Schedule

Saturday August 17 Fly to Florida via Tampa Airport with V and my bosses and head to their house in Sarasota.

Tuesday Aug 20 Head out bright and early for DISNEY! We have a 10:50 reservation for 4 at O'hana. After a late breakfast we will check in at POR and say goodbye to V's parents. V will hopefully get to swim before heading to our dinner reservation for 4pm at Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. (HMMMMM I HAD to pick the latest breakfast and the later Hoop Dee Doo just didn't work time wise. ah well, I guess we will be well fed that day!

Wednesday August 21 MAGIC KINGDOM! BBB at 8:35 am and CRT dinner at 4:25. We plan to do the Dessert Party that night so fingers crossed and checking all the time to see if it is open.

Thursday August 22 ANIMAL KINGDOM We have an 8:15 reservation for Tusker House. I'm a little unsure about this one since it means that we have to be up early and we will have been up late the day before. AK does close at 6, so I am hoping that we will just put in a full day, be gone by 5 and go to bed extra early!

Friday August 23 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS I booked us an 8 am breakfast at Play & Dine and dinner at 50's primetime dinner at 620. I am hoping our experience at 50's will be better than last year. I'm giving it another chance. I am hoping to use this day as V's late night swim day. She LOVES staying up and swimming after dark.

Saturday August 24 This is our down day. We will swim, swim and swim! Hopefully we will swim at POR, maybe just in the quiet pool for even 30 minutes. We will go to Downtown Disney for a bit and eat lunch there. I am a bit worried that DTD will be CRAZY! On the way back, we will stop at POFQ. I am hoping that we get to spend atleast 1.5-2 hours. V has been dying to go to the pool there. She really wanted to stay at POFQ but I didn't. I considered a split stay, but in the end the discount was with POR. I am thinking that we will have to leave POFQ by 2:30 as we have a 4:45 dinner at Park Fare with Cinderella and the stepsisters and we will need to head back to change. For this reason I am thinking that we won't swim at POR in the am and just head straight to DTD for a bit to give more time in the afternoon at POFQ V can always have a short swim at POR before bed.

Sunday August 25 MAGIC KINGDOM This is going to be an interesting V wants to try for family of the day, but that means getting up really early for it so I don't know. I booked us the Family Magic Tour at 10am. We have a BOG dinner at 4:55

Monday August 26 EPCOT We only have 1 day in Epcot. I'm not sure how this will do. I had to sacrifice an epcot day in order for us to have a down day. I am not thrilled about only 1 epcot day but we'll make do. We are really going to have to be choosy about what we do. I really want to spend a good portion of time in The world showcase, but IDK we'll have to be choosy. We don't have any ADR's for this day. We will eat around the world!

TUESDAY AUGUST 27 This trip just seems like it will fly by. I don't know if it is the schedule or the fact that we have only 1 day at Epcot. but this is our last park day. We will hit Park fare for breakfast at 8:15 and then we have dinner at Chef Mickey at 5 pm After dinner we will meet V's parents at POR and they will take her home. I will be staying 1 more night in a room only reservation and flying out on the 28th.

That's the basics of it!

 

[DMGeurts]

I am here!

Your plans sound great Erin!

Not sure how the rest of your trip looks - but our first 2 days overlap totally (but I think we knew that)... We even have an, almost, overlapping meal at CRT. I believe our ADR is for 4:10... Still trying to get one just a wee bit later, maybe 4:30 or 4:45? If not - we will make due.

Looking forward to meeting up with you and V!

D~

 

[nannye]

I am here!

Your plans sound great Erin!

Not sure how the rest of your trip looks - but our first 2 days overlap totally (but I think we knew that)... We even have an, almost, overlapping meal at CRT. I believe our ADR is for 4:10... Still trying to get one just a wee bit later, maybe 4:30 or 4:45? If not - we will make due.

Looking forward to meeting up with you and V!

D~

welcome
My internet gave out last night so I never even finished, you're too quick for me!

 

[happybelle]

Joining in.

 

[newtexan]

here to follow along and see the customs you make for V

 

[cindianne320]

I'm in!

 

[nannye]

Well everyone, Please cross your fingers and say a prayer for me if you do. I asked V's mom if we could add one more day. I'm thinking she'll say no but maybe a prayer or two wouldn't hurt lol

Welcome everyone else.
I am finally finalizing the customs list and thinking how the heck are we going to get this done! It is more so customs as opposed to costumes this trip!

I'm also waiting to hear back from Princess Pie Bowtique, I'm hoping that we will be able to get 1 or 2 custom hair pieces for V from her. Her work is just insanely awesome, it would be an honor! I have some backups in mind but really hoping Princess Pie can fit us in for some.

 

[DMGeurts]

Well everyone, Please cross your fingers and say a prayer for me if you do. I asked V's mom if we could add one more day. I'm thinking she'll say no but maybe a prayer or two wouldn't hurt lol

Welcome everyone else.
I am finally finalizing the customs list and thinking how the heck are we going to get this done! It is more so customs as opposed to costumes this trip!

I'm also waiting to hear back from Princess Pie Bowtique, I'm hoping that we will be able to get 1 or 2 custom hair pieces for V from her. Her work is just insanely awesome, it would be an honor! I have some backups in mind but really hoping Princess Pie can fit us in for some.

Can't wait to hear what you are planning to order from PPB... She does marvelous work! I hope she is able to get you in too.

D~

 

[tinkbell13]

Hi Erin! Joining in!

 

[nannye]

And.... the verdict is in! we're staying another day!

whopeee!

 

[nannye]

Joining in.

Thanks for reading!

here to follow along and see the customs you make for V

That there will be lots of I hope! my list is pretty long... Is it wrong to have 2 outfits for every day?

I'm in!

hi Cindi!!!

Hi Erin! Joining in!

Hi Lorre!

 

[mousetravel]

Joining in on another one of your TR's! Looks like fun! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[nannye]

I asked my boss if i could add one more day at Disney at my cost. She said yes. I really wanted to add another day so we could have 2 days at epcot. And it will give us a bit more time at magic kingdom too. Trying to squish epcot into 1 day was not going to work.

Now here comes the difficult part of figuring out what to do. It would be so easy if I could just add another night to our current reservation but I can’t because there isn’t the availability.

We got the summer discount applied so we get 25% off on all rooms. V’s parents are paying $2200 anything above this is coming out of my pocket since really if they paid for everything we probably wouldn’t go. Things coming out of my pocket are things like BBB, my staying 1 extra night and flying home the next day. I am doing this because flghts are early, mid-day and late at night and the mid day is the one that works for me, souvenirs, extra meals etc...

TABLE SERVICE: This is important to know for later so I’ll post it first. Currently we have 7 table service credits and 9 table meals booked. This means I will have to pay OOP for 2 meals. For those two meals I picked 50’s Primetime and Park Fare since they seem to be the cheapest.

CRT (2 Credits)
Tusker (1)
Play & Dine (1)
50’s Primetime Around $30 or (1)
Park Fare Dinner (1)
BOG (1)
Park Fare Breakfast (1) or Around $40
Chef Mickey (1)

We are booked at O’hana on our first day for breakfast with V’s parents and I am paying OOP for that probably around $100 and I booked Hoop Dee Doo Revue Category 1 Seating for V and I $100 already paid.

I refer to my cost as what I am paying OOP for the room.

Scenario A. (This is what I have booked now)
Port Orleans Riverside, Garden view room the 20-27th with 6 days of tickets and 7 nights of dining
I have a separate room only reservation for 1 night poolview room.
$2,193.70 + $166.23 = $2359.93 - $2200 = $160 (my cost)

Scenario B. – Adding another day and room only reservation.
The reservation above of 7 nights gardenview plus 2 nights room only in a pool view. With adding 1 more day, V will be with me for the first night and then I am by myself the next night. This is room only so no dining etc.. Things that would need to be added OOP are ... 1 more day of tix to the other reservation ($20), counter service meals for the extra day and departure day and snacks ($70) 2 nights pool view room ($332.46).
$2,193.70 +$20+ $70 +$10 misc +$332.46 = $2616.16 - $2200 = $426.16 (My cost)
Of course when I check in, I could say hey I’ve paid for 2nights room only in a higher room category but, I’d really like to stay in the same room if possible, can that be done even tho I won’t be refunded the difference in room categories. They may make that happen! There is a decent chance it could happen too!

UPGRADING
I cannot add dates to our regular room gardenview booking. I can upgrade to a royal guest room. V would love the upgrade. We stayed in them last year so I’m not overly concerned with them, I’d rather save money BUT it make be easier and make more sense to just stay in the same room for the whole time. The difference in the price upgrade is $25 per night. The fact that I am changing to a different number of nights tho means that it is more difficult to compare numbers. But..... $25x7nights = $175 and $25x9 nights = $225 so technically I am paying an extra $175 -$225 to upgrade to a higher room category. Is it worth the convenience of staying in the same room? Is it worth that we will have 2 more nights of dining (granted I still have to pay for those two nights) Something to consider, that $175-$225 of My cost will just be a room upgrade.
I looked at the Royal Guest Room Standard view vs. Garden view. I did decide I’d rather pay the extra $50 and go with a gardenview, because room location should be better. My worst fear is ending up at the back of the resort and just that extra time walking up. And a nicer view. I decided that was worth $50. As it turns out when I checked tonight, RGR standards are no longer available anyways so I have to go gardenview.
There are 2 scenarios for upgrading. 1 involving 8 nights RGR Gardenview and 1 night of a room only gardenview and the other is doing all 9 nights in a RGR gardenview.

Scenario C
8 Nights in a gardenview RGR and 1 night room only and 7 days of tickets and dining. I will need to pay OOP for about $20 on my departure day.
$2,643.85 + $20 + $170 = $2842.85 - $2200 = $619 (my cost)
HMMMM so changing from 7 nights in a regular gardenview, + 2 nights Poolview room only and 7 nights dining TO 8nights in a RGR and 1 night room only in a RGR and 8 days of dining $193. Is $193 worth it to stay in the same room, higher room category and dining? Keep in mind this does include another $70 in dining credits. This means that I will then have to pay 1 meal OOP ($30 50’s primetime). But we will also get more snacks and counter service. I am pretty sure that we will use all out counter service.

Scenario D.
9 nights gardenview RGR + 7 days of tickets + 9 days of dining
$2895.48 - $2200 = $693 (my cost)
So that is a difference of $74 between scenario C and D which is really just the cost of adding the dining plan for 1 day. BUT now all those meals are covered by dining credits and we have more snacks and more counter service meals. All in all this is easiest, no paying OOP for meals, less OOP for snacks if we run out of credits, staying in the same room, more counterservice etc.. Something that also could play in is that I had to cancel an ADR before and V really wanted to go to it, so I May add Crystal Palace again which is about $50 for breakfast. If I did, I would use that as a dining credit and still pay OOP for 50’s primetime. YES V will only be there for 8 nights and we would get dining credits for 9 nights but she’d still use all of hers up.

So Cheapest Scenario is B my cost is $426 and most expensive scenario is D at $693. That is a difference of $267 keep in mind with B I will then have to pay OOP for 2 table meals which are not included in calculations (about $70) There is also the pain of paying for additional quick service meals for our extra day in cash and We have to change rooms (most likely).

With Scenario D I am not paying OOP for 2 table meals since they are included in the dining plan, we stay in 1 room and we don’t have to switch. I don’t have the hassle of checking into a different room. We have the dining plan for all nights. (V even has the dining plan for 1 night she isn’t there) that gives us more credits. V gets a princess room which she’ll like.

Which would you choose?

Want a wrench? If any regular gardenview rooms open up for our entire stay, before the 45 day mark. I’ll switch back to save money on that room upgrade.

Nothing like comparing apples to oranges. Is the more expensive stuff worth the extra money for convenience or a few extra meals?

Ugh My head hurts,

So if anyone followed me all the way through do you have an opinion?

 

[DMGeurts]

Oh wow... YOu totally lost me Erin! I tried really hard to stay focused - but I lost track after C...

I would keep the cost down as much as possible, and do whatever you can to stay in the same room category. Hopefully that helps?

D~

 

[nannye]

ugh I know, I loose myself! But then does changing room categories, work out better because of adding dining for the extra night (or two) and staying in the same room rather than switching rooms for the last 2 nights.

I am so confused lol.

 

[Marsheliz]

I'm in too! I cant wait to see what you make for her... I wish I knew how to sew! it would definitely save me some money!

I used to be a nanny too! So much fun!

 

[nannye]

I'm in too! I cant wait to see what you make for her... I wish I knew how to sew! it would definitely save me some money!

I used to be a nanny too! So much fun!

I have to laugh and say HA! don't be fooled. Sewing does NOT mean you save money, more like SPEND more money!

 

[nannye]

Trip Update:
So after number crunching and trying to explain and going over options and giving myself such a headache and getting all worked up over making a stupid decision. I got spooked by the fact that the garden view standards sold out as did the river view regular rooms at POR (the summer discount rooms) in the same week so I called up Disney and switched to the gardenview guest rooms worried that they would sell out and I wouldn't have the option anymore.
Sigh
Did I make the wrong decision???? I don't know. I hope not.

I will however continue to look multiple times a day to see if any regular garden rooms open up during our stay and if they do I will switch back in a heartbeat!

But if not we will be "home" in 82 days. I do wonder if another resort will sway me away from feeling like POR is home after being there only once last summer. What drew me to the resort last year was the princess rooms as soon as I saw them I was sold. Sure it was pretty but "home"? really? Well it was! Can't wait to go back

82 days and we will be back in the Royal Guest Rooms at POR unless something comes available.
but for now....

 

[nannye]

ugh customs....

the list is long, I'm still trying to decide on themes and we have 82 days! nothing like adding pressure.

I am really excited that Princess Pie Boutique will be doing some accessories to match

The problem is I think I have like 2 per day! oye. I haven't thought about anything for me yet, but I think I will make a couple shirts that would match.