"We want a laid back, no plans type of vacation." - March 2017

[Jasperann]

If you are anything like me, you are probably wondering why I'm making a Pre-Trip report if I don't plan on planning anything. Well I'm not the one that feels that we should have no plans. I'm all for plans. If I don't plan and we go during this busy time then my family will be like... why didn't we plan anything?!?! So I'm going to plan our trip, but in such a way that my family thinks that it really isn't 'planned' and that it is laid back. Wish me luck. Obviously if my family (really only one of my daughters) is asking for a laid back trip we have done the commando thing in the past. I'll get into that a little more and share some real meltdowns (and fun times or we wouldn't be going back) from our last trip.

Thank you for joining in on the fun! My name is Amy and this is my second pre-trip report. I booked the DVC for this trip at the 11 month mark with very little input from my hubby. We originally were going to go to Hawaii and stay at the DVC resort there. But looking at plane tickets for that and the fact that we have some things we want to do around the house next year kind of nixed that idea. However we own DVC (really I do... I pay for it. :lol and the points we banked the year before were burning a hole in my pocket.

SO...

Where are we staying? When are we going? Why are we going? (Silly question) WHO are we? I will answer all of that in this post, then we can get to the fun stuff. PLANNING!!!


The where:
We are staying at the Beach Club Villa's in a one bedroom. First time staying at this resort. We love the boardwalk area so I'm sure we will love the Beach Club as well.

The when:
March 29th- April 6th!!! It seems we usually go around this time. We really love the Flower and Garden festival. At least I do. My hubby seems to like the different 'shows' (can they be called that) of how to do different things in the garden. Not sure why he likes them because he doesn't do that kind of stuff at home. But between the two of us he is the one with the green thumb.

The why:
Do we really need to have a reason? I say no.

Now on to WHO we are:
We are a family of six and we've been to Disney as a family 5 times, a few of us have been a bit more. This time it is a little different because our family of six will only be a family of five. Taking the girls out of school last year really stressed them out. It didn't have a negative effect on their grades and they still made all A's, but for one of my girls she did not stop stressing the whole time. It really made us consider not doing Disney for a while. I never got around to doing a trip report on that trip, so I will probably do a mini trip report for it on this pre-trip report. At least it is something to keep it busy.


Eric and I -- Crappy picture... gave up trying to find a different one.
Me the 30 something Mom (Seriously I have to do the math to figure out how old I am, I stopped counting at 30). I went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot as a child enough to remember my trips there. We also went to Florida every summer for 2 or 3 weeks on vacation when I was growing up. So of course I want my kids to have a love of the state. Although for the longest time my 13 year old thought my mom and step dad lived in Disney World because she thought ALL of Florida WAS Disney.
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom & Epcot
Favorite Character: Dale… Don’t tell Chip
Favorite Movie: Oliver and Company
Favorite Princess: Merida
Favorite Villain: Hook
Favorite Ride: Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite Show: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: Ohana's
Favorite Counter Service: The Mara, it used to be Casey's corner but the cheese sauce is gone. Boo!
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk Inn

Eric my 30 something hubby (he is almost 40!! Shhh don't tell), he humors us by going on at least one Disney trip a year. I do think it has grown on him though. Enough at least for us to take an adult only trip two years ago in March! Which was a completely different trip for both of us. He is also the love of my life, seriously, in my 7th grade year book (the year we met) I wrote next to his picture that I would marry him someday. However we didn't actually get married until this year in June... Took us long enough.
Favorite Park: EPCOT or Animal Kingdom
Favorite Character: Jack Skellington
Favorite Movie: Toy Story and Nightmare before Christmas
Favorite Princess: Pocahontas
Favorite Villain: Hades
Favorite Ride: Rockin Roller Coaster -- He will be so not happy if they are taking it out.
Favorite Show: Electric Parade (in Magic Kingdom) or any of the other Parades -- I think the things he likes are doomed...lol
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: Teppan Edo (that is a change from last year)
Favorite Counter Service: Cosmic Ray’s
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk Inn (Animal Kingdom Lodge was a close second)



(Old picture, I'll find another more recent one of her once I can connect to our home PC)
Emma my 13 year old DD, she has already planned out what dorm she wants to stay in and what job she wants when she does the Disney College Program. She however has not decided what she wants to be when she grows up. Priorities.
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom tied with EP-A-COT
Favorite Character: Goofy
Favorite Movie: Inside Out
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite Villain: Gaston
Favorite Ride: Peter Pan’s flight
Favorite Show: Illuminations
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: 50s Prime Time
Favorite Counter Service: Casey’s Corner
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk Inn


(Again, old picture - I'll get a newer one)
Kelsey my 12 year old DD, this is my drama child, she can find something to argue about in everything. For real. Sometimes she is right though, so there is that. She has a great future in debate, and is smart enough to be anything she wants to be. At this moment she wants to do hair and makeup for theater shows or movies.
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Character: Sully (Who we have never met.. and probably never will now that he is gone.)
Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Princess: Ariel
Favorite Villain: Maleficent
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Show: Indian Jones
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: Ohana’s (Dinner - Really just the chicken wings -- which she wrote a song about on our last trip, I'll have to find it. )
Favorite Counter Service: Casey’s Corner
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk Inn


(Yeah, you guessed it, old picture.)
You can't tell by his face but he was terrified of the carousal... we had to bribe him to ride it.
Xander my soon to be 10 year old DS - He will be 10 on our trip, he was my scardy cat until our last trip. He was scared of the unknown, so riding new rides was a struggle for him. We used to often bribe him with buying him a pin or something to get him on rides for the first time. This had made him realize he loves, Splash Mountain, Test Track, Star Tours, Seven Dwarfs Mine train... and not so much Tower of Terror, but we will be trying it again next trip. Yes we were those parents, pushing a child to get onto a ride they are scared of... but we know he will love, well with the exception of Tower of Terror (which he will most likely love since he loves something similar at the amusement park we spent the summer at).

We did it this summer at Cedar Point as well and he rode everything he was tall enough for. On our last visit he was tall enough for any of the rides and he added the Raptor onto his must do list. Due to riding all the rides at Cedar Point which are mostly thrill rides he has gotten over his fear of everything and now the fear of rides has been passed on to my 13 year old. He is looking forward to riding Rockin Roller Coaster this trip.
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Character: Stitch
Favorite Movie: Inside Out
Favorite Princess: Aurora
Favorite Villain: Darth Vader
Favorite Ride: Seven Dwarfs mine train
Favorite Show: Fantasmic!
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: 50s Prime Time
Favorite Counter Service: Casey’s Corner
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk Inn – Animal Kingdom Lodge, he totally picks his resorts for the resort slide. We spent the summer going to a water park so his fear of water slides is also non existent. He has really grown up.

And my last daughter, who unfortunately will not be joining us this time due to school obligations. But don't feel to badly for her, she spent the summer working at an amusement park and had plenty of time to ride rides.

Brittany my 20DD, she is going to school for Technical lighting and wants to eventually move to Florida and work for Disney. On her graduation trip we actually talked to one of the professional interns at Beauty and the Beast and he gave her a lot of great tips. She hopes to do the Disney College program next year.
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios (this was due to Art of Animation classes, so her new favorite is probably Magic Kingdom)
Favorite Character: Chip and Dale
Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite villain: ... I'm not really sure, maybe Gaston, she turns pretty red while talking to him.
Favorite Ride: Any thrill ride
Favorite Show: Fantasmic!
Favorite Table Service: Crystal Palace Breakfast
Favorite Counter Service: Cosmic Ray's
Favorite Resort: The Boardwalk


Now that you know about us, I will tell you about our plans!!

 

[Jasperann]

For links

 

[Jasperann]

If you are interested, on our last trip we surprised the kids with the trip the night before we left.

Link

I'll update later with more trip information. And I am going to look back at my notes from my last trip and try to piece together a day one of our last trip update. I'm sure I will not remember everything but I'll remember some stuff.

 

[Jasperann]

A few extra things.

For a little background on this trip report I am going to go back to the beginning of my 'non-planning'. Which was around May 4th of this year (probably a few days before), we had just gone on our trip a month and a half before. I was in the grips of Disney blues (those are real you all! ) and my hubby and I went to Bob Evans for breakfast like we sometimes do after dropping our kids off at school. And like I mentioned before we had been talking about booking at the 7 month mark for Hawaii, but the night before I checked prices for flying there... Maybe $1500.00 per person for just the flight was a bit much! Talk about sticker shock. I slowly watched my dreams of going to Hawaii the following year drift away. So to say I was a little sad would be an understatement.

I think the suggestion for Bob Evans was a ploy to make me happy. Well it seems when my hubby and I are at Bob Evans we talk about Disney. I'm not sure why or how but we always get on the topic. And I said, 'Well since Hawaii is out, we need to use our points that we banked, so maybe we can just do a trip to Disney next year.' Hubby looked at me and said, 'We have a lot we want to do around the house, so maybe we shouldn't go anywhere.' But my logic prevailed and I pulled a reason out, 'Our points will expire, we will lose them, the hotel will cost us nothing and the plane tickets will be so much cheaper than Hawaii (typically $1500.00 for all of us).' He replied with 'Maybe.' I took that as a, 'YES!!! I'D LOVE TO GO TO DISNEY AGAIN NEXT YEAR!!!' That's my selective hearing at work.

When we returned home I started looking up dates. Our kids Spring Break was no longer planned around Easter Week and is now the first week of April. Since they really struggled with not being at school (not in the grades department, in the stress department), I thought the new dates for Spring Break would be great and if I planned it right they would only miss three days MAX of school. Which I knew they would be okay with. And those dates just happened to be 11 months out. So I got onto the website and booked our home resort at the 11 month mark for April 4th-April 12th. Then I told my DH what I did and the dates. He wasn't excited because I guess his 'Maybe', really meant, 'I don't want to say no out right but it's a no.' But I had already booked it, so nothing could be done about it.

Over the next four months it grew on him and he is now excited to be going. All along I was silently planning. When our 7 month mark came around I knew I wanted to see if we could change to an Epcot Resort because that would make my DH very excited. Well I completely forgot about the 7 month mark and remembered a week late. The only excuse I have is that the kids were getting ready to go back to school and my son is in Football. We were busy!! Super busy.

So when I remembered I logged onto the DVC website and availability was spotty for the Epcot Resorts for our dates. Doing split stays are not something that would make my family happy, so I was sad. But then I checked the week prior... I mean if we leave on Wednesday then the kids were still only missing three days of school. Disney logic. And they had openings for the Boardwalk and the Beach Club! (Bonus: the new dates made my hubby happier because he will not miss the reptile show where he sells the snakes he breeds.)

I knew that the kids had always wanted to stay at the Beach club but with six of us it wasn't really possible unless we wanted zero points for a few years. But with the five of us we can do a one bedroom. (Pretty sure you can do a studio too... but didn't try) I quickly got on the phone and the very helpful DVC lady changed our resort and our dates with no issues. Which is how we ended up with our new improved dates.

Then a couple days ago, I went and searched plane tickets for our new dates. (We will not be buying them until we get taxes back.) Well... the prices were very high. I was again in sticker shock. For six of us I could usually get us plane tickets for $1500.00 max round trip. For the five of us it will cost us over $2000.00 round trip. That is if the prices don't go up. It made my heart sink. Of course I started to think about it for a while... On Tuesday I brought it up to my DH, I told him the prices and I was sure his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Kelsey my 12 year old had mentioned a few months ago about how great it would be to drive to Disney... She obviously does not remember our first trip. BUT it made me bring it up to DH... He used to be a truck driver and he loved it, so he loves to drive. It adds a little time to the trip because we are 18 hours away (without stops). But he was receptive to the idea. Since we have decided to drive if the prices don't lower on the plane tickets, the kids will now miss four days of school (which they said they are good with).

He gets off work on Monday morning at 7am, he is going to take the kids to school and come home and go to sleep. I work from 5:00am-3:30pm on Monday and I'm about 45 mins from home, so I'm going to go to work. Then when I get home I'll wake up Eric and we will load the van of last minute stuff and I'll drive for a few hours. When we make our first gas stop we will switch out drivers and he will drive until morning (probably close to 4am or so, I usually get up early since I have to be at work so early) Then I will drive the rest of the way while he sleeps. We will arrive on Tuesday, I figure not later than 5pm or so, that is giving us 24 hours to drive. And we will stay at a resort for the night, I'm thinking Port Orleans. We will probably hang out swimming or at DTD for the evening and then the next morning check into the Beach Club.

That is the extent of my non planning so far.

Our ADR date is coming up soon... September 30th. Which is a work day so I will not be able to make them in the morning with everyone else. I'll have to wait till after I get home for the day. But I really don't fear not getting what we want. With the not planning stuff I can get nothing and just tell them I didn't plan anything because they asked me not too. I am not sure my kids really know how much planning goes into not planning.

Has anyone else planned a laid back trip?

 

[Jasperann]

Today things changed.

My oldest (who will be 20 in October) has decided that she needs to take a break from college. She isn't sure she wants to go for the schooling that she has chosen. With only two years left it's a little sad for me. But I want to be supportive of her. It's her life and she needs to live it how she wants to live it.

However, that means that she will not be going to classes in March/April of 2017 and she is now able to come with us to Disney. The whole thing is bittersweet for me to be honest. It's great that she will be with us on our trip (I was having a hard time thinking of a trip without her), but at the same time... she is SO close to finishing her degree. And she still wants to work for Disney. I think a lot of it has to do with the type of people that are in her program at school. She hasn't had a lot of luck with nice people.

The other sad part of her joining us is that we have to switch from BCV. It's my dream resort. Guess it is going to stay that way for a few more years. Maybe by time we can stay there the Studios will be open for five people. At least it is something to look forward too.

With us in the one bedroom, we obviously needed to find a new resort... at 190 days out that is difficult to say the very least. I went over to the DVC site and was looking at the 2 bedrooms that were open. The ONLY two that were kind of in our point range were Animal Kingdom (either house) or Saratoga. We have stayed at Animal Kingdom in the past. It was nice, but we really felt like the breaks were few and far between, due to the bus rides to and from a park. So even though I LOVED it... with a 'laid back' type of trip it didn't really mix with it. We have never stayed at Saratoga. I have wanted to in the past. I was leaning towards that one...

Then I start texting DH and he says, 'Animal Kingdom was nice. Saratoga is huge.' Really?!?! I need help here husband of mine. So I did what any good wife would, I called him. When he answered he said, 'I can't talk long.' I said, 'That's fine. This will be fast... which resort do you prefer.' Then he went into a huge explanation of why he didn't want to pick either one. I explained that it wasn't a choice, and that we could wait list BWV. He said okay, then Saratoga. I said okay and hung up the phone to call Member services.

...

What did I end up booking?

...

...

....

........

Bay Lake Tower, 2 studios. I dropped a night at the end of the trip and it was the same amount of points as the Beach club. I plan on booking another night on paid for points at the end of the trip. At least that is what I'm planning on now. Who knows what will happen. But with us at BLT we will be able to walk to MK and walking to a park is what DH likes. We can also take the monorail to Epcot so there is that too. I did put in a waitlist for Boardwalk. If it comes through that will be amazing.

It does change everything though. I am now thinking of adding on the QS dining plan. I don't know. So frustrating. This non planning really is exhausting. Heck I might even call back and switch to Saratoga.

 

[Jasperann]

So this is kind of a foodie question... You all are very helpful so I'm sure someone will know. A couple years ago (maybe two max) I remember reading that they allowed you to 'share' your dining plan credits. Is that a normal thing? Is it still allowed? (I'm not asking for a work around, I'm asking about Disney rules) With us now being in two different rooms and if it's allowed we might just get the Deluxe plan on the room with four people and then just share with the other two in the other room. It would allow us to have lots of TS's if we wanted.

I wasn't planning on having any dining plan and then I started mapping out prices (it adds a bit adding on my oldest to be honest ), and I think for my own non-planning piece of mind having a dining plan would be a great idea. I was going to add just the QS one to both rooms, but honestly we do have a few TS places we love to eat at, so I was looking into the regular plan... then I got this crazy idea about the deluxe plan and if it is true that sharing is allowed then I think that is the way we will go. My family would love to be able to eat at all their favorites. And we would pay for my 10 year old out of pocket because he would only order kids meals (of course that is at the places that are not buffets). Obviously we might have some out of pocket costs, but with our plans to eat breakfast in the room a few times and to pick up some lunch meat to have some sandwiches on pool days, I think we would have more than enough food.

Anyone know? Anyone have experience sharing credits at TS places? Is it in writing any where?

 

[balty74]

So excited to follow along as you plan!