What are the chances & what should I look out for...DVC stay Disney @ Xmas rotating 4 guests in&out

[indyannamom]

I'm excited about the possibility...but I'm worried that in my excitement I'm going to miss something:
DH and I have been taking a big WDW trip with the kids every 3 years and our next trip we'll be DVC owners.
We have 3 kids, at the time of the next trip, they'll be DD12, DS10 & DD9

We'd like to be able to invite grandparents to come along...and for family politics reasons, we need to do it all in one trip.

Here's what I want to do...is this possible?

BLT is what we what our home resort to be but for this first trip, because of the grandparents, we want to stay at AKL.

We have to go over the Christmas holidays for several reasons so we'll be there Dec 22nd-31 2017 and we need a 2 BR, would prefer a dedicated, but will take a lock off , would prefer a standard, but should have enough to book a Savannah if we have to. (We'll be banking 2016 points, using 2017 and pulling down what we have to of 2018). Given that AKL won't be our home resort, what's the likelyhood we'd be able to book this 7 months out?

Here's the second part...
We'll be there 9 nights and need to rotate in and out 4 sets of grandparents (both DH and my parents are divorced and married...and) they'll each get a turn to join us without the other grandparents.

Will we be able to have that many people come and go on our reservation?
So 5 of us will be there the whole time, and on hone transition days, one set will leave and another will join us...so not more that 7 sleeping there at any time.

What do. I need to consider and/or plan for?

Is this possible?

TIA for any help and advice!!

 

[nicole88s]

I can't help with the second part of your question, but I can offer some insight on the first part.

I just booked AKV 2 bedroom standard view a few days ago. Despite it being 9 months out, my first dates were sold out (December 3-11). I had to move into the next week. Obviously the week of Christmas is much more popular, so IMO it will sell out before the 7 month mark. You never know though! Good luck!

 

[CarolMN]

Remember to put the cost of full cleanings in your budget between guests - unless you plan to wash sheets and towels yourself, of course.

I'd skip the dining plan and if none of the grandparents need DME, I'd just register the first set. I'd collect keycards/magic bands parking passes after each set leaves and pass on to next set.

If anyone outside of your immediate family needs DME (or if you want to do the DDP), I'd book studios for the grandparents and a 1 bedroom for your family. That way, each set of grandparents could do as they'd like regarding MDE, Dining Plan, etc. and you'd not have the cleaning cost (or work). Make 4 separate studio reservations and request that they be located near you. Tell MS you DO NOT want the studio reservations combined. With this option, you'd also be able to easily cancel if someone needs to cancel for some reason.

Good luck - sounds like quite the trip!

 

[disneynutz]

IMO expect problems. Too much activity IMO, is this a grand parent WDW/DVC show off or a vacation? I would pick 2 and tell the others they can go next time. Just getting everything working for a family vacation can sometimes be a challenge for Disney, switching people adds to the possibility that the reservation gets messed up, MBs don't work, MDE issues, room not cleaned, unhappy family and/or grandparents.

Bill

 

[icc2515]

I'm going to make some assumptions here number one is that you are going in 2017 since you plan on borrowing 2018 points. Remember you are going at the absolute busiest time of the year, a huge chunk of nites, and you want to book a room at seven months out. There is nothing wrong with being optimistic and hoping for the best but there also is nothing wrong with having a back up plan.

What I would do is on January 17, 2017 I would go online at exactly 8 AM Eastern time and book a 2br standard view room at Bay Lake Tower for seven nights. Then every other day at exactly 9 AM Eastern time I would call and move the reservation to head 2 days until you have the 22nd to the 31 at BLT. You should have the points as AKL savanna is 581 and BLT is 564. This is your backup plan.

Then on May 17 I would look at AKL and if and only is there is a big block of rooms fitting your criteria, I would cancel BLT and book 7 nites at AKL and walk the reservation ever day till you had all your nites. Looking at availability right now for 2016, you are probably not going to get Jambo but Kidani is open.

 

[zavandor]

Walking at 7 month doesn't ensure to get the last nights, expecially if the last night is December 30th. Cancelling if there is only partial availability is risky.
Given that this reservation involves a lot of people I'd not risk to be stuck with a waitlist.

If you are looking for Kidani it would be easier than Jambo.

 

[Pirate Granny]

Sounds wonderful to me...be prepared for some glitches, but you can make it work...

I once flew in from Prague and daughter flew from Denver to Minneapolis...oldest daughter flew in from Detroit to Minni with both grandparents, not related to each other...hubby drove from Detroit with godfather and godmother also not related to Minni. We all arrived in Minni within two hours of each other. We were traveling to our youngest daughters University graduation. No glitches...surprising...so sometimes the planets all align.

Have a wonderful trip...I would book your home resort, OR rent points for the AK resort and rent your own points out. That's truly a hard reservation to get at 7 months.

Are the grandparents getting the Master bedroom? I would wash the sheets and towels myself rather than getting a full cleaning...but there is the bathroom issue, hopefully they are all respectful that others will follow in this room.

 

[Nanajo1]

I'm going to make some assumptions here number one is that you are going in 2017 since you plan on borrowing 2018 points. Remember you are going at the absolute busiest time of the year, a huge chunk of nites, and you want to book a room at seven months out. There is nothing wrong with being optimistic and hoping for the best but there also is nothing wrong with having a back up plan.

What I would do is on January 17, 2017 I would go online at exactly 8 AM Eastern time and book a 2br standard view room at Bay Lake Tower for seven nights. Then every other day at exactly 9 AM Eastern time I would call and move the reservation to head 2 days until you have the 22nd to the 31 at BLT. You should have the points as AKL savanna is 581 and BLT is 564. This is your backup plan.

Then on May 17 I would look at AKL and if and only is there is a big block of rooms fitting your criteria, I would cancel BLT and book 7 nites at AKL and walk the reservation ever day till you had all your nites. Looking at availability right now for 2016, you are probably not going to get Jambo but Kidani is open.

Is it possible to cancel the first 7 nites at BLT then cancel,walk the ressie until you have all your nites? At least you would have rooms.

 

[pinklotusflower]

If it was me to get the 11 month booking window at animal kingdom I would purchase animal kingdom points to transfer in so I had control over the booking and rent my points. I do think it was a good suggestion about booking a one bed and a studio and then you book each set in separately so you get a full clean in between. It'll also give you your own spaces but could mean your not that close to each other.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I will say I think you're being very generous and generating a lot of stress for yourself on behalf of "family politics," which suggests to me "elders behaving badly."

 

[indyannamom]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions!

To answer a few of the questions asked...

We're totally fine with kidani...bordering on preferring it.

DH and I will have the master, grandparents will have the other bedroom. Kids in the living room...although 3 of the grandparents will likely invite some them in their room to make use of the otherwise the empty bed.

We'll wash the sheets and towels between grandparents and I don't mind cleaning the bathroom a bit in between.

I'd thought about separate reservations, but we really would prefer to have everyone together. We won't have the points to swing a grand villa...but still would like everyone together.

I agree, I'm catering to politics...but this is a solution for us. We'd like to be able to include grandparents individually later on, but the trips will be years apart, and the "who goes first" is impossible to get around. Getting them all in and out on this first trip will serve us best in the long run.

We couldn't care less about showing anything off...DVC is what we want long term, and it is also making this trip possible.
Will this be potentially more stressful than our other WDW trips? probably!
Will the stress involved change depending on which grandparent is with us? Absolutely!
Am I walking into this with my eyes open? yes!
Do I love having DIS boards to ask questions and be as prepared as I can? No question!

Thank you again to those who have shared thoughts and ideas. I look forward to hearing from anyone else who has experience to add too

 

[Dean]

I'm excited about the possibility...but I'm worried that in my excitement I'm going to miss something:
DH and I have been taking a big WDW trip with the kids every 3 years and our next trip we'll be DVC owners.
We have 3 kids, at the time of the next trip, they'll be DD12, DS10 & DD9

We'd like to be able to invite grandparents to come along...and for family politics reasons, we need to do it all in one trip.

Here's what I want to do...is this possible?

BLT is what we what our home resort to be but for this first trip, because of the grandparents, we want to stay at AKL.

We have to go over the Christmas holidays for several reasons so we'll be there Dec 22nd-31 2017 and we need a 2 BR, would prefer a dedicated, but will take a lock off , would prefer a standard, but should have enough to book a Savannah if we have to. (We'll be banking 2016 points, using 2017 and pulling down what we have to of 2018). Given that AKL won't be our home resort, what's the likelyhood we'd be able to book this 7 months out?

Here's the second part...
We'll be there 9 nights and need to rotate in and out 4 sets of grandparents (both DH and my parents are divorced and married...and) they'll each get a turn to join us without the other grandparents.

Will we be able to have that many people come and go on our reservation?
So 5 of us will be there the whole time, and on hone transition days, one set will leave and another will join us...so not more that 7 sleeping there at any time.

What do. I need to consider and/or plan for?

Is this possible?

TIA for any help and advice!!

IF you do the DP you'll need to get it for everyone. If I'm counting correctly, that's 13 people. Assuming you don't need Me for them or all of them, I'd just list as many as you can getting at least one person from each rotating couple since you can put 10 people on the room. There is risk as you note, good luck with that. Availability is not likely to be a problem but I'd book BLT 11 months out of possible. I'd book Savannah in this situation and wait list it if needed. Good luck.

 

[crisi]

Don't forget you'll also have the politics of who gets to go to which park and watch the kids ride Dumbo. You may have a vacation where your kids need to do the same thing several times to meet Grandparent expectations. Prep the kids. And be prepared for four rides on the Jungle Cruise

 

[indyannamom]

IF you do the DP you'll need to get it for everyone. If I'm counting correctly, that's 13 people. Assuming you don't need Me for them or all of them, I'd just list as many as you can getting at least one person from each rotating couple since you can put 10 people on the room. There is risk as you note, good luck with that. Availability is not likely to be a problem but I'd book BLT 11 months out of possible. I'd book Savannah in this situation and wait list it if needed. Good luck.

I would love to do the DP for our family of 5, but I know about the restriction for all in the room, so we'll be paying OOP for this trip...it doesn't make sense to pay for 9 days of dining plans for someone who will only be there 2!

Some will need DME, some may not...but I won't know that until much closer to the trip...I need to keep that option open for now.

Don't forget you'll also have the politics of who gets to go to which park and watch the kids ride Dumbo. You may have a vacation where your kids need to do the same thing several times to meet Grandparent expectations. Prep the kids. And be prepared for four rides on the Jungle Cruise

Too funny! I'm ok with riding the rides multiple times. Keep in mind we're talking 4 sets of grandparents (they're all remarried) so we'll have 4 adults and 3 kids...we can split up at times (within the same park) if we need to. We'll probably end up doing a MK day with each set of grandparents, and then one other park. Each set of grandparents has different personalities and I can "see" them liking different parks. We love them all, so it really doesn't matter too much. We'll have one, "just us" day either on the day of arrival, or departure...so we'll make up for what we need to.

 

[indyannamom]

I will say I think you're being very generous and generating a lot of stress for yourself on behalf of "family politics," which suggests to me "elders behaving badly."

Alas, it is what it is. They can all be in a room together, and they are fine on short special occasions like a kids event, or holiday (ie we host the holiday meal and everyone comes to our house, and then leaves...we're kind of Switzerland in the larger family dynamics). But we only have 3 kids, and we can't share them 8 ways at Disney.
If you think wrangling kids at Disney is hard, I can't even imagine trying to coordinate DH, our 3 kids, and 8 grandparents at the SAME time...my hair would be on fire by the end of the first day

 

[crisi]

We'll have one, "just us" day either on the day of arrival, or departure...so we'll make up for what we need to.

We've done this every time we've taken a trip with extended family. And its been awesome - not only in the making up what you didn't get to do way, but also in the "oh, good, we get some family time that doesn't involve my mother making snide comments about something, or my father in law droning on about something no one care about or me having to bite my tongue about his sister to keep the peace."

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Alas, it is what it is. They can all be in a room together, and they are fine on short special occasions like a kids event, or holiday (ie we host the holiday meal and everyone comes to our house, and then leaves...we're kind of Switzerland in the larger family dynamics). But we only have 3 kids, and we can't share them 8 ways at Disney.
If you think wrangling kids at Disney is hard, I can't even imagine trying to coordinate DH, our 3 kids, and 8 grandparents at the SAME time...my hair would be on fire by the end of the first day

Well, you're one ahead of my family. We used to have 3 separate Christmases every year. I know the "elders behaving badly" routine well.

It was a huge relief when suddenly we could stop the whole thing and Christmas became a quiet, immediate family occasion.

 

[Dean]

I would love to do the DP for our family of 5, but I know about the restriction for all in the room, so we'll be paying OOP for this trip...it doesn't make sense to pay for 9 days of dining plans for someone who will only be there 2!

Some will need DME, some may not...but I won't know that until much closer to the trip...I need to keep that option open for now.

Then I'd list the ones that need DME as the first group to add to your reservation.

 

[Andyman33]

honestly, i would just list one set and have them pass along the bands. seemst o be the easiest. and its not the end of the world if they had to get a taxi to your hotel instead of dme. further, once it is closer you can always add those that really want dme to the reservation later.

 

[indyannamom]

How would park tickets work if different people use the same magic band... the fingerprints would keep them from using the same ticket wouldn't it?