Wait, weren't you just at Disney World? An August '14 Pre-Trip Report *updated 8/24*

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 1 - Introductions​

Hello everyone - welcome to my first Pre-Trip Report!

I just finished up my first ever trip report and figured with idle hands being the devil's workshop it was my moral obligation to do something with them ... and thus this Pre-Trip Report was born

Brief introduction, here are a couple of picture of the family from our last trip which was this past October:

Those pictures represent the last trip the four of us will take by ourselves ... because we are currently expecting child number 3!

This upcoming trip came about because of my deft logic I used with my wife, Judi. Here is how I laid out the arguments in my head (sorry to those who have read this story before):

A) We always try to get the new child down to Florida to meet Judi's family, especially her grandmother who doesn't travel to cold weather locals anymore

B) Given (A) it would be weird to go to Florida and not go to Disney World

C) So if we assume (A) and (B) then it definitely makes sense to go while my Annual Pass and TiW are still valid ... so before mid October

D) Well, taking (C) into account and combine with the fact the past few years they have had good room only discounts for mid August through the end of September, and knowing that Olivia starts Kindergarten after Labor Day, the end of August through Labor Day Weekend makes the most sense

E) I actually am taking off a lot of time when the new baby is born as last year I hit 10 years with my company and when that happens I get an extra one time use 4 weeks of vacation to use (I actually realized I have 48 days of vacation to use this year including carryovers from last year). The last week of August would be the last week I was thinking of taking off

So A + B + C + D + E = we would be foolish and irresponsible NOT to go


And here is how the conversation with Judi actually went:

Me: So I was wondering if you were planning on bringing the new baby down to Florida to meet your grandmother

Judi: Yeah, definitely will want to at some point

Me: Well, if we are going down anyway, maybe we could fit in a quick Disney Trip?

Judi: Oh yeah, that totally makes sense, sounds good

Me: Do you want to hear my other 4 points of argument or should I just quit while I am ahead?


So with that it was agreed

Next post: Details of the trip so far

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 2 - Initial Plans​

Ok, so now that you know who we are, here are some details of the trip, so far...

We settled on going the last week of August as that is the last full week before my daughter, Olivia, starts Kindergarten and also the last week I was planning to take off for the new baby - my company rewards its employees with an extra 4 weeks of vacation to use when they hit 10 years with the company and I hit that last year so I had a ton of time to take off this year, so that worked out well.

After looking at room rates and flights we saw it would be much cheaper to only be there during the week, so we agreed to go:

Monday, August 25th to Friday, August 29th


As far as where to stay, part of the reason to go then was the room only discounts they have run in the past that time for either AP holders or Disney Visa holders. Well, those aren't out yet (assuming they do them again) but I wanted to get something booked so that we could get the planning started.

So for now, we are booked in:

a Garden View Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside.

I figure worst case scenario the rooms seem really nice and Olivia will love them. If the discounts do come out we may stay there or may look to move to a monorail resort as we figure that will be easier with the stroller. Given the heavy construction that will be going on at the Polynesian at that time, that probably means the Contemporary. But we shall see.

By the way it looks pretty funny in the My Disney Experience when you have to indicate for a child that is not born yet as you have to enter everyone in your group:

Ok, so now we could get down to planning our days ... which of course means spreadsheet!

So I compile all the info I can about crowd calendars, etc. and map our proposed days with desired ADRs to make ... and today was the day to make them. Given we will have the new baby we are planning to take it pretty easy with lots of breaks, etc. so we didn't plan a ton, but I was able to get almost everything I wanted:

• Monday Dinner: Fantasmic! dinner package at the Hollywood Brown Derby (new for us!)
• Tuesday Breakfast: Tusker House
• Tuesday Dinner: 'Ohana
• Wednesday Breakfast: Cinderella's Royal Table (new for us!)
• Wednesday Evening: Wishes Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party (new for us!)
• Thursday Dinner: Garden Grill (new for us!)

Only thing I wasn't able to get and was interested in was Be Our Guest for dinner. We've done lunch there before and can do that again, but I thought dinner would be nice. Oh well.

So that is basically it for now. I am not sure how often I will update this, but any major developments and I will be sure to make a post.

Also, we are planning to attend the DISmeet in Hersey, PA this June so I will probably post here about that.

TTFN!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm glad that you started your PTR!!!

Exciting stuff! Again, I'm sad that the first time in 4 years we will not be there the same week.

Just wait for it... those summer room discounts and AP rates will be released later. At least they always are.

Olivia will love CRT.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm glad that you started your PTR!!!

Exciting stuff! Again, I'm sad that the first time in 4 years we will not be there the same week.

Just wait for it... those summer room discounts and AP rates will be released later. At least they always are.

Olivia will love CRT.

Thanks Brenda - I'm glad that you are glad

Definitely bummed that our vacations don't overlap ... some year

Yeah, I figure they will be but the paranoid part of me felt more comfortable booking for now a room I am more "OK" paying full rate for. Also, I figure the less people book a monorail resort now the more motivation there is for Disney to offer up those discounts and to make them bigger

I hope Olivia enjoys CRT ... even in review/dining reports where I read some negative experiences there the kids seem to still be captivated by it

 

[guinness408]

Really enjoyed your trip report and looking forward to this PTR as we'll be in disney the same week in august. I think your daughter will love CRT. This is the first trip we're skipping it and doing CP instead as my 10 year old is a pooh fanatic. My 14 year old daughter is bummed to skip CRT!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Really enjoyed your trip report and looking forward to this PTR as we'll be in disney the same week in august. I think your daughter will love CRT. This is the first trip we're skipping it and doing CP instead as my 10 year old is a pooh fanatic. My 14 year old daughter is bummed to skip CRT!

Oh cool! Starting to see a few of us that will be there that week ... maybe we can try to plan a mini-DISmeet!

We love CP - well, we loved the puffed French toast - and meeting Pooh and the gang are fun too!

Figured this was the best time to do CRT as we will be 5 people, but 2 are under 3 years old so only have to pay for 3 people and we still have the TIW card. I think Olivia will love it

 

[khaleesi]

I'm in!!! Yay for another trip!

And LOL @ TBD baby. That's kinda funny.

 

[cstorm65]

I'm signing up. Looks like it will be a great trip.

 

[sweetpeaandevie]

we are staying in a garden view royal room too, but in Sept....I will be stalking, ahem, waiting for pics

love the TBD kid....hahaha

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm in!!! Yay for another trip!

And LOL @ TBD baby. That's kinda funny.

Thank you ... also yeah for planning another trip - that's half the fun! which probably says more about me than Disney

I'm signing up. Looks like it will be a great trip.

Thank you! I hope it will be great! At least, that is the intention. Hoping that since we are going a bit more low key we will be able to appreciate more of the details and the "feelings"

we are staying in a garden view royal room too, but in Sept....I will be stalking, ahem, waiting for pics

love the TBD kid....hahaha

Well, if we do wind up staying there I will definitely have a ton of pics and may try to post some video of it too. We'll see how things work out when the room only discounts come out.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 3 - Tickets purchased​

Not a huge update today, but over the weekend I did purchase the park tickets that Judi and Olivia would need (along with the Annual Pass I already had)

I decided to get tickets now due to the fact that Disney raised their prices again but the Official Ticket Center was still operating under the old tickets for a little while longer (believe they will be changed on either March 3 or 5)

So when I went there I saw they had a deal where you got your 5th day free when you bought a 4 day pass - so that is what we have. 5 day pass with no park hoppers - figured if we were going to take it easy we wouldn't be doing a lot of park hoping. It will actually be nice to have the 5th day as the our departure day has Magic Kingdom rated as the best park to visit that day per the crowd calendars so we can sneak in there and hit up anything we missed on our MK day.

So, getting there - always something additional to get


Oh, and as a small aside, Olivia got invited to a Frozen dress up birthday party. Well, it's basically impossible to find Anna/Esla dresses in the store but did order a reasonably priced one off Etsy:

So she will have that dress to bring with her come August as well (just hope the meet & greet line is lower then than the 3.5 hours it seems to average nowadays)

 

[caitlinnf]

I'm in! This looks like it will be a great trip! Our Oct reservations are for a Royal Room too, because we got a bounceback offer last week but it wasn't good for our original standard king room reservation.

Oh, and I think you should totally name the baby TBD.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[missangelalexis]

WOO HOO a PTR! I'm in! Your plans sound good so far!

 

[middlesista]

Hi! I followed you on over and am so excited to hear about your new baby and August vacation plans!! Congratulations on the new addition to your beautiful family and I like your reasoning method for planning a trip to Disney!!

 

[Leshaface]

I'm not sure how I missed your link to the new PTR but i'm here and caught up!

I've been hearing about how difficult it is to find an Elsa dress anywhere! And I guess even on ebay, people are selling those dresses for astronomical amounts. The one you purchased on etsy is absolutely adorable! She'll look amazing in it

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm in! This looks like it will be a great trip! Our Oct reservations are for a Royal Room too, because we got a bounceback offer last week but it wasn't good for our original standard king room reservation.

Oh, and I think you should totally name the baby TBD.

That's great that you got a bounce back trip! Yeah, naming the kid TBD would like that story of the person who damed their daughter Female (pronounced Fee-mah-lay)

Following along!

Yeah! Welcome!

WOO HOO a PTR! I'm in! Your plans sound good so far!

Thanks! Pretty happy with what we got - excited to be able to customized the MB and do the whole FP+ planning!

Hi! I followed you on over and am so excited to hear about your new baby and August vacation plans!! Congratulations on the new addition to your beautiful family and I like your reasoning method for planning a trip to Disney!!

Thank you! We are excited about both ... plus a baby update in the below PTR update

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm not sure how I missed your link to the new PTR but i'm here and caught up!

I've been hearing about how difficult it is to find an Elsa dress anywhere! And I guess even on ebay, people are selling those dresses for astronomical amounts. The one you purchased on etsy is absolutely adorable! She'll look amazing in it

Glad you made it! Haven't missed too much yet.

Yeah, I am hearing just ridiculous stories and there are some amazing ones available of Esty going for like $2,000. Happy with the one we got, we also got a super cute Olaf shirt for Peter for the Frozen party as well

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 4 - Ticket and MB update ... and baby update as well​

Couple of things to update today

First, I did get the tickets for Judi and Olivia through the Official Ticket Center as they were delaying the price increases. They also had an offer going where you got a free 5th day on a 4 day ticket. So I wound up getting 5-day tickets for them for $50 total LESS than what 4 day tickets would be if I got them right from Disney

They, along with my AP, have been attached to our reservation and our MB have been picked out (Olivia of course had to have pink).

Then I noticed that there were 2 MB orders in my account - apparently they are sending out MB to everyone with an annual pass, so I will have 2. I had them ship the AP one now so that I can start playing around with pretend booking FP+ to see how things work out.

That's it today as far as the trip goes .....

*********************

baby update:

This morning we had Judi's 20 week check-up during which we were able to find out that we are having another girl!

While we were perfectly happy with either option, this is a good result because of two reasons:
1) Olivia really, REALLY, wanted a sister so we did not relish the thought of having to tell her it was another boy
2) We had a girl's name picked out but couldn't decide on a boys ... so now we don't need to worry about it!

Oh, and here is the first released picture of her - already weighing a healthy 13oz:

(hope that didn't cross some TMI line)

 

[missangelalexis]

Awesome that you were able to save some $$ and that you are receiving your AP magic band!

Congrats on adding another princess to the family!! Very exciting!!