What are we going to do with 26 mugs?? A November 2015 PTR

[DIS_MERI]

Hello! I am Melissa, a 40 year old Mom of up to 5 (or more, at times). We started planning a November 2015 trip just before the 180 day point. We have changed what this trip was going to be like at least a half million times. I'm thinking we can still change it several dozen times in the next month or so....

Let's start with our original cast of characters

We have here DD12 on the left (she is the 'R' in MERI). She will turn 13 during our trip. She used to be pretty adventurous, but now I will be lucky to get her on anything more exciting than Big Thunder Mountain. Slightly behind her left shoulder is DS15 (the 'E' in MERI). He was never adventurous and also probably won't want to ride anything more exciting than BTMRR. To DS15's left is STBXH. He complained constantly about the trip, and I for one will be happy to not have him along (I filed for divorce last week, but it definitely won't be finalized before our trip. In 3 words: He cheated. Repeatedly. We would have married for 3 years in December). Between he and I is DD8 (the 'I' in MERI). Her birthday is the day after DD12's and she will turn 9 on the trip. She is still disappointed I didn't take her on Tower of Terror on either of our other trips (she was 4 and 6 for those trips), but I have promised we will make it this time, as well as hitting RNR. Behind me is DS16, A2 (STBX's from his first marriage, but we will still hang out). He loves roller coasters and wouldn't mind never going to Disney again (he'd rather do Universal), but he's been a good sport about the trip from the get go. Last is DD19, A1 (like DS16, STBX's from his first marriage, but we will still hang out). She is a freshman in college, and didn't enjoy our other big family trip to Disney (June 2013), at least partly because the heat really got to her. She is really looking forward to this trip since it shouldn't be so ridiculously hot. We let DS16 invite a friend (he is paying for airfare and park ticket, we've got room and board covered). He chose to invite DS15's BFF, J. J went to Disney for spring break this past year and loves Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. He is 14, and all 3 boys get along great. J has had a rough time of life (his Mom died of colon cancer before he was 1 and his Dad didn't take good care of him so he lives with his grandparents; he struggles in school too, and has to have tests every few months to make sure he isn't developing colon cancer as well).

When I decided last week that I would file for divorce, the one thing all the kids wanted to know was: Are we still going to Disney. Of course. We'll just change plans a bit. Since I homeschool the younger 3, we worked our school schedule around making this trip. Original plans were for the younger 3 and I (MERI) to fly down Nov 17 or 18 for 2-3 nights, and the other 4 to join us Nov 20-23 (so the public schoolers only miss 2 days of school). I own DVC, so we started from there....and then I started looking into free dining. See, when MERI went on our first trip in June 2011, we stayed at Pop Century. And, apparently, that is the Best Place Ever to stay. Beach Club? Wilderness Lodge? Poly? Nope, they want to stay at Pop Century. Ok, sure, we will do free dining at Pop (upgraded to regular dining because we like TS). It made more sense to go Nov 16 for 4 nights (okay, that's not quite true, I just really wanted to go to F&W). We already had 4 tickets to use, and this gave us 4 more to complete our group. Perfect. We got a 2 bedroom at OKW for the other 3 nights, but decided to hop on a chance for a night at BLT in a 2 bedroom for the last night.

When our plans changed last week, I started trying to think of what adult would be perfect to replace STBXH. I mean, DD19 is old enough to lead our motley crew, but she's only flown once and is a bit flighty, so an actual adult was desirable. Someone who could check into a hotel room and not freak out. Fortunately, I had booked STBXH's southwest flight on points, so it was easy once I decided on BFF2, Jammi. She has been one of my 2 best friends since 6th grade. She and her boyfriend (D) had a surprise baby 2 years ago (S, to go with her other 5 kids, ages 8-21, from her first marriage). We were down to 7 in our DVC rooms with STBXH out, so now we'd be able to fit Jammi, D and little S. I don't have a picture of all 3, so here's Jammi and S

So, now we have our cast of characters....and we have a plan, right? Well, since we don't need to hang out with STBXH for the weekend before we leave, why don't we just add on a couple of days at Disney for MERI?? Okay, so only POFQ is available, we will go ahead and book that as a ticketless package wtih QSDP, Nov 14-16. That will give us 3 full days of F&W instead of just 1 Of course, it also makes it a quad split stay for MERI. Yikes. Oh well, get a bit of the new with the old this way, right?

 

[DIS_MERI]

I am actually still finalizing Jammi and S's flights. I got Jammi's last flight this morning, but S's flight down jumped up to 207, and I am still waiting on Cardpool to get me the Target gcs I got to buy southwest gc with....because nothing can ever be simple, right?

Anyway, aside from S's flight, here are our plans. ERI and I will drive down on Nov 13 to a stay, park, fly hotel at Indy. Our flights are at 530am on Nov 14. Ugh. I have to make sure they even have a shuttle that early....but, we should land in Orlando at 815. We will catch the magical express, get checked in at POFQ for 2 nights with QSDP. We already have 5 day WPF&M hoppers that we are going to turn into Gold APs at some point. I am also planning to get a sampler package at the F&W. First day will be at least partially at Epcot, but we will cut out pretty early to avoid Saturday F&W madness. We may go let the kids enjoy the pool and get some shuteye since nothing but AK is recommended by easywdw.

On Sunday 15th, we will likely spend some time at Epcot for F&W, but may well hit MK as well, pre-party. Planning to make a fairly early night of things as well. I think I may have a Tutto Italia at 735pm that I forgot to cancel from an earlier permutation of the trip that we could use as well.

Monday the 16th we check out of POFQ and begin part 2 of our 4 part split stay....

 

[DIS_MERI]

Monday 16th begins our 4 nights of free dining (u/g to regular dining) at Pop Century. With the 4 mugs we will get from POFQ, this will bring our mug count up to 8....this was originally scheduled to be the start of our vacation, before I added on the 2 days at POFQ. We have afternoon FPs for EPCOT and will finish up F&W. If we look like we will use up all our snacks, I will get us another sampler package. I have a feeling the Canada filet is going to be *very* popular with my crowd, though, so it is definitely budgeted in. If we get done early today then we will head over to HS because my younger ones love Star Tours. And DD8 is itching to get on Tower of Terror and RNRC.

Tuesday 17th we also had scheduled for EPCOT (we may well be sick of it by then, though). We have an 830am Akershus ADR. EMH today are probably going to make it less fun than we would like, but HS closes early and we also have a 6pm Cape May ADR (the number 1 required ADR of our trip), so I am not sure we will leave. Maybe since we have so many other days to hit our headliners in EPCOT I will just have us do HS (changing our FPs beforehand) until it closes after Akershus, and make our way to Cape May from there and decide what to do after that (like sleep).

Wednesday 18th is scheduled for MK. We have an 855am BOG ADR and should finish up our FP by 130. I have a BOG lunch at 1030, but only for 1....none of the kids want to eat there, though, so I might just go for me We currently have a 940pm Ohana, but honestly, I am not sure I think it would be worth it (we haven't been before, though). We would pay OOP for Tusker House breakfast the next day if we kept it.

Thursday 19th we have scheduled for AK, but we were only going to do a partial day, and let DS15 go to Typhoon Lagoon while the girls and I go to Disney Quest. However, we may well do that on an Epcot day instead, because we have a 415pm 1900 Park Fare ADR. We also have a 950am Tusker House. From my understanding, we will have 2 DQ vouchers in our packages. We also have4 10 day No Expire WPF&M tickets; 2 do not have park hopper and I want DS to use 1 for the waterpark so I can try to add PH to it. I want DD8 to use 1 because it is a child ticket. Then DD12 and I can use 2 of the vouchers. I may well let DS15 and DD12 go again another time in the week with the vouchers from the other package. If it is too cold for DS to hit the waterpark in our first 6 days then we will send the 3 teen boys to DQ with vouchers and NE tickets.

Friday the 20th we check out of Pop Century and begin part 3 of our quad split stay.

 

[DIS_MERI]

On Friday the 20th, we have HS in our sights. Originally, we planned this day in this way because the only thing STBXH loves about Disney is Fantasmic! We are going to keep our plans as is, because I don't want to redo ADRs and FPs.

We will check out of Pop Century and head straight to HS for an 815am ADR at Sci-Fi. We are planning to pay OOP for this. I am super excited about the macadamia nut french toast We also have a 9am TOT FP. From there, we will head over to OKW to pick up the rest of our party. We have a 2 BR villa and I am thinking we will get the DDP (since we will spend more than it costs per night) The rest of our peeps will have done the same thing on the 19th that we did on the 13th; meet up at the stay, park, fly hotel and catch a shuttle in the morning. We will have 2 rooms for them, and their flight leaves at 625am on the 20th. After we get their carryons dropped off and are all checked in, we will head back to HS. We have a 330pm ADR at Mama Melrose with F! for 4, and a 620pm H&V Minnie Dinner for 4 that we will somehow divide up between whoever wants them, and let whoever doesn't care eat counter service It is entirely likely that the teens will head to MK for some Sorcerers fun after they use up their FPs. By this point, DS15 should be well versed in how to add additional FPs at the kiosks, and they are all good kids, so I am not worried about them getting in trouble. Stuff now will be more about what DD19 and DS16 want to do since the younger kids and I will have already had 6 days to do what we want...

Saturday 21st my first baby girl turns 13. She wanted to eat with Pooh and friends on her birthday, so we have an 950am CP ADR, but it is only for 8. We will try to add 2 more, or we may let Jammi, D and S do their own thing, or play it by ear. I also have a 110pm BOG for 3 that they can use. We then have a complicated dinner BOG situation. We have an ADR for 4 at 825, and another for 4 at 845....we shall see if we can get a single ADR for 10....or see who is hungry and split up.

Sunday the 22nd we check out of OKW for a night at BLT....

 

[DIS_MERI]

Sunday the 22nd is my baby-est girl's 9th birthday. She wanted to eat at Coral Reef for her birthday, so we have yet another EPCOT day (although the first for the 2nd half of our party). Our ADR is for 1145 because we weren't sure if DD19 would be allowed to miss class on Monday 23rd, and if she couldn't she would have to fly out that evening (she can miss, though). Again, this ADR is for 8, so we have to decide what to do with Jammi, D and S. DS16 really wants to eat at T-Rex for some reason, so we also have a 10pm ADR there for 8. I've been trying like mad to get one earlier, but no luck so far I did snag a 11am for 6 the next day, so that *might* work....we swap over to BLT this day, because I wanted us to be able to walk from MK on the 23rd so we could maximize park time.

Our flight on the 23rd is 435pm, so I figured we would need to be available at BLT for ME by 1pm. We have an ADR for T-Rex if we want it MK has EMH starting at 7, so the kids can head there super early if they want. With the 8 mugs we will have from the 2 packages, the 9 mugs from OKW and the 9 mugs from BLT, we will have 26 mugs in all!! I was joking with DS15 last night that we will need a suitcase just for mugs

 

[LanaBear-ox]

Following along on your PTR. Exciting that it's less than a month away now