ericstac
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2013
- Messages
- 1,070
Whats a man to do, I know, create a pre-trip pan and report until we launch on our magical holiday vacation!! 
This year was just another year, we thought about Disney but yet, like last Christmas, the school holiday schedule was just not right so it wasn't even on the list of things to do.. it was going to be another year without Mickey
One afternoon hanging out at the beach with the in-laws trying to escape from the 100+ degree weather my mother-in-law says "we should go to Disney". I laugh inside and decide to play along knowing darn well we are not going. This entertained me and the wife for a good couple of hours while we pretended to plan how to make it work with her mother and sister.
Fast forward a few weeks and we are now sitting around a living room, again with the in-laws, and we go more into detail about actually doing a trip. By this time the bug has hit me and I'm actually for real about going. Some time passes and the wife and I while relaxing at home begin looking into what has now become our 2013 Disney Vacation!!!
We decide to just tell everyone sorry we cannot be home for Christmas and have our trip at Disney and celebrate Christmas in our room
I'm good with that! Time to book our vacation at Port Orleans Riverside and called Disney Reservations that night, must of been 11pm when we called.. it was late I know that. POR ended quickly as there were no rooms for my family of five, so we opted for our favorite resort anyway, the Contemporary... NOPE... ugh.. well, we loved the Beach Club's pool so we decided on that. BOOM! done.
yeah right!
Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/23/2013 - 1/2/2013
Beach Club Resort
8 day park hopper
Basic meal plan
A few weeks go by, no planning yet, only ideas are being tossed around of what, when, and where.. Then Free Dining was released!! YES!! but the last day was December 22nd or was it really a sad day? Nope! We called the reservation number and added a night to our vacation so we would could get free dining, saved us a good amount of money on 4 adults and a kid . We also changed to the Polynesian Resort because we really enjoy the grounds there, love the restaurants, and love being on the monorail. Done!! NOPE!!! I love food.. like really love food. I VLOG about food on youtube, thats how much I love it and 95% of the year I am counting how much fat, carbs and protein I eat in every single meal... Disney is the one time a year I can just sit back and enjoy the food and let loose of the food scale and let what happens happen. so I upgraded to the Deluxe Dining Plan! There are so many places we want to eat and we got so much extra stuff it seemed like the right thing to do. YOLO! 
So Boom, we are done.
New Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/22/2013 - 1/2/2013
Polynesian Resort
9 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
Upgrade to Deluxe Dining Plan
THEN we remembered the complimentary deluxe resort stay we have! So back on the phone with this time with a wonderful lady at the Contemporary (where the letter was from) She called the Poly Resort and booked the 3rd for us, on the house, to finalize our magical vacation for the third time
The New Extended Version Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/22/2013 - 1/3/2013
Polynesian Resort
10 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
Upgrade to Deluxe Dining Plan
Now time to plan our meals, YES!!
All the great food choices at Disney, what is a foodie to do first. Well, Kona Cafe for breakfast the first morning pre-arrival for some of the awesome looking tonga toast and pancakes. omg.. cant wait...
At this point, while reading all the threads and blogs and google images of all the great foods, looking over all the menus etc. we finalize our entire trip. But wait, all this food and we still have a ton of used table service and snacks.
So I put pin to paper and realize it isn't worth the upgrade so back on the phone with Disney reservations to cancel the Deluxe Dining.. Anything else while we are on the phone? Sure why not...
I still really wanted to try the Beach Club and the 30% discount codes were out by now so, to my wifes surprise, we ended up booking the BCR as a pre-trip vacation on the day before our trip. IT only made sense.
We originally were planning on waking up at 3am on the 22nd and drive all day to get to a cheap hotel outside the park only to sleep, wake up and drive to the Poly for breakfast at Kona and a very early check in.. Well, this was just wasted money. Why not leave the night before, drive through the night and get to BCR and relax poolside for the day eat some Disney foods, walk the Boardwalk that night and most importantly, experience a great resort we want to stay at one day anyway!.. so its done..
New FINAL SCHEDULE
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/21/2013 - 12/22/2013
Beach club Resort
No tickets
No meal plan
Just R&R and food of course
12/22/2013 - 1/2/2013
Polynesian Resort
10 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
1/2/2013 - 1/3/2013
Polynesian Resort
no tickets
no meal plan, but original meal plan is good til midnight on the 2nd
We have three reservations in one trip and you know what that means, 3 MagicBands for everyone!!.. if they get released of course lol.
Itinerary
Friday 12/20/2013 9:00pm: Leave Sugar Land, TX for Disney World.
Saturday 12/21/2013 approx 7:00am: Pit stop at Krispy Kreme donuts in Gainsville for breakfast.
Saturday 12/21/2013 11:00am: Early arrival at BCR
Check in early, then lay poolside and watch the boys play while we rest from the trip.
Eat a coconut bar and oreo bon bons at the Marketplace, Eat at Beaches n Cream, and enjoy the Boardwalk later in the evening.
Sunday 12/22/2013
Transfer to Polynesian
Breakfast at Kona Cafe at 10:00am
Enjoy the resort, get settle into the room, hopefully lacking construction scene.
Dinner at O'hana at 7:50pm
Monday 12/23/2013
Magic Kingdom
Breakfast at the Corner
Sleepy Hollow or BOG for lunch
Dinner at Tony's at 8:15pm requesting a balcony table for the parade
Tuesday 12/24/2013
Animal Kingdom
Beat rope drop to eat breakfast at Tuskers
Yak and Yeti at 2pm for lunch
The Wave for a late Dinner
CHIRSTMAS!
No Park
8am O'hana breakfast with Stitch!
Resort hop to see decorations and do some sort of foodie crawl
Luau cove dinner
Thursday 12/26/2013
Epcot
Via Napoli for lunch
do a foodie crawl around the world
Friday 12/27/2013
Hollywood Studios
Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Lunch at 50's Primetime
Dinner Mama Melrose
Saturday 12/28/2013
Epcot
Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
Lunch at Garden Grill
Dinner at La Hacienda hoping for a fireworks spot
Sunday 12/29/2013
Magic Kingdom
Day of QS and snacks
Monday 12/30/2013
Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Tuskers
T-rex for Linner at 3pm
Tuesday 12/31/2013
Magic Kingdom
Beat rope drop with a breakfast at The Crystal Palace
The Plaza for lunch break
Tony's late dinner, parade watch?
stay til it closes, NEW YEARS!!!
Wednesday 01/01/2014
Epcot
sleep in and walk over to O'hana breakfast at 9am
Chef Mickey Dinner
Thursday 01/02/2014
Free day
Friday Check out and head home
That's it for now... oh wait the famm!!
DW, ME, DS13, DS10, DS5
Can't forget about the others:
They are arriving on 12/28/2013
Inlaws
Grandma and Papa
Auntie, Uncle Dustin, Elijah (5) and Chase (2)
Cousin Karin and her two kids and parents
and My brother Uncle Bryan and Emma (10)
This year was just another year, we thought about Disney but yet, like last Christmas, the school holiday schedule was just not right so it wasn't even on the list of things to do.. it was going to be another year without Mickey
One afternoon hanging out at the beach with the in-laws trying to escape from the 100+ degree weather my mother-in-law says "we should go to Disney". I laugh inside and decide to play along knowing darn well we are not going. This entertained me and the wife for a good couple of hours while we pretended to plan how to make it work with her mother and sister.
Fast forward a few weeks and we are now sitting around a living room, again with the in-laws, and we go more into detail about actually doing a trip. By this time the bug has hit me and I'm actually for real about going. Some time passes and the wife and I while relaxing at home begin looking into what has now become our 2013 Disney Vacation!!!
We decide to just tell everyone sorry we cannot be home for Christmas and have our trip at Disney and celebrate Christmas in our room
I'm good with that! Time to book our vacation at Port Orleans Riverside and called Disney Reservations that night, must of been 11pm when we called.. it was late I know that. POR ended quickly as there were no rooms for my family of five, so we opted for our favorite resort anyway, the Contemporary... NOPE... ugh.. well, we loved the Beach Club's pool so we decided on that. BOOM! done.yeah right!
Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/23/2013 - 1/2/2013
Beach Club Resort
8 day park hopper
Basic meal plan
A few weeks go by, no planning yet, only ideas are being tossed around of what, when, and where.. Then Free Dining was released!! YES!! but the last day was December 22nd
or was it really a sad day? Nope! We called the reservation number and added a night to our vacation so we would could get free dining, saved us a good amount of money on 4 adults and a kid . We also changed to the Polynesian Resort because we really enjoy the grounds there, love the restaurants, and love being on the monorail. Done!! NOPE!!! I love food.. like really love food. I VLOG about food on youtube, thats how much I love it and 95% of the year I am counting how much fat, carbs and protein I eat in every single meal... Disney is the one time a year I can just sit back and enjoy the food and let loose of the food scale and let what happens happen. so I upgraded to the Deluxe Dining Plan! There are so many places we want to eat and we got so much extra stuff it seemed like the right thing to do. YOLO! So Boom, we are done.
New Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/22/2013 - 1/2/2013
Polynesian Resort
9 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
Upgrade to Deluxe Dining Plan
THEN we remembered the complimentary deluxe resort stay we have! So back on the phone with this time with a wonderful lady at the Contemporary (where the letter was from) She called the Poly Resort and booked the 3rd for us, on the house, to finalize our magical vacation for the third time
The New Extended Version Original Plan
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/22/2013 - 1/3/2013
Polynesian Resort
10 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
Upgrade to Deluxe Dining Plan
Now time to plan our meals, YES!!
All the great food choices at Disney, what is a foodie to do first. Well, Kona Cafe for breakfast the first morning pre-arrival for some of the awesome looking tonga toast and pancakes. omg.. cant wait...At this point, while reading all the threads and blogs and google images of all the great foods, looking over all the menus etc. we finalize our entire trip. But wait, all this food and we still have a ton of used table service and snacks.
So I put pin to paper and realize it isn't worth the upgrade so back on the phone with Disney reservations to cancel the Deluxe Dining.. Anything else while we are on the phone? Sure why not...
I still really wanted to try the Beach Club and the 30% discount codes were out by now so, to my wifes surprise, we ended up booking the BCR as a pre-trip vacation on the day before our trip. IT only made sense.
We originally were planning on waking up at 3am on the 22nd and drive all day to get to a cheap hotel outside the park only to sleep, wake up and drive to the Poly for breakfast at Kona and a very early check in.. Well, this was just wasted money. Why not leave the night before, drive through the night and get to BCR and relax poolside for the day eat some Disney foods, walk the Boardwalk that night and most importantly, experience a great resort we want to stay at one day anyway!.. so its done..New FINAL SCHEDULE
2013 Disney World Vacation
12/21/2013 - 12/22/2013
Beach club Resort
No tickets
No meal plan
Just R&R and food of course
12/22/2013 - 1/2/2013
Polynesian Resort
10 day park hopper
Basic meal plan = FREE
1/2/2013 - 1/3/2013
Polynesian Resort
no tickets
no meal plan, but original meal plan is good til midnight on the 2nd
We have three reservations in one trip and you know what that means, 3 MagicBands for everyone!!.. if they get released of course lol.
Itinerary
Friday 12/20/2013 9:00pm: Leave Sugar Land, TX for Disney World.
Saturday 12/21/2013 approx 7:00am: Pit stop at Krispy Kreme donuts in Gainsville for breakfast.
Saturday 12/21/2013 11:00am: Early arrival at BCR
Check in early, then lay poolside and watch the boys play while we rest from the trip.
Eat a coconut bar and oreo bon bons at the Marketplace, Eat at Beaches n Cream, and enjoy the Boardwalk later in the evening.
Sunday 12/22/2013
Transfer to Polynesian
Breakfast at Kona Cafe at 10:00am
Enjoy the resort, get settle into the room, hopefully lacking construction scene.
Dinner at O'hana at 7:50pm
Monday 12/23/2013
Magic Kingdom
Breakfast at the Corner
Sleepy Hollow or BOG for lunch
Dinner at Tony's at 8:15pm requesting a balcony table for the parade
Tuesday 12/24/2013
Animal Kingdom
Beat rope drop to eat breakfast at Tuskers
Yak and Yeti at 2pm for lunch
The Wave for a late Dinner
CHIRSTMAS!
No Park
8am O'hana breakfast with Stitch!
Resort hop to see decorations and do some sort of foodie crawl
Luau cove dinner
Thursday 12/26/2013
Epcot
Via Napoli for lunch
do a foodie crawl around the world
Friday 12/27/2013
Hollywood Studios
Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Lunch at 50's Primetime
Dinner Mama Melrose
Saturday 12/28/2013
Epcot
Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
Lunch at Garden Grill
Dinner at La Hacienda hoping for a fireworks spot
Sunday 12/29/2013
Magic Kingdom
Day of QS and snacks
Monday 12/30/2013
Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Tuskers
T-rex for Linner at 3pm
Tuesday 12/31/2013
Magic Kingdom
Beat rope drop with a breakfast at The Crystal Palace
The Plaza for lunch break
Tony's late dinner, parade watch?
stay til it closes, NEW YEARS!!!
Wednesday 01/01/2014
Epcot
sleep in and walk over to O'hana breakfast at 9am
Chef Mickey Dinner
Thursday 01/02/2014
Free day
Friday Check out and head home
That's it for now... oh wait the famm!!
DW, ME, DS13, DS10, DS5
Can't forget about the others:
They are arriving on 12/28/2013
Inlaws
Grandma and Papa
Auntie, Uncle Dustin, Elijah (5) and Chase (2)
Cousin Karin and her two kids and parents
and My brother Uncle Bryan and Emma (10)
