What is going on here?! Gasp! He Said Yes! We're Going Back! A 2019 PTR

[mdsouth]

Your family is precious. I am sorry for the loss of your daughter, Emma. I have a feeling that on your trip to WDW you experience moments when you call special moments with Emma from previous trips. Being in a place where you experienced good times and laughter as a family in the past will feel like a warm embrace from Emma as your family makes new memories together.

 

[kclark9830]

Your family is precious. I am sorry for the loss of your daughter, Emma. I have a feeling that on your trip to WDW you experience moments when you call special moments with Emma from previous trips. Being in a place where you experienced good times and laughter as a family in the past will feel like a warm embrace from Emma as your family makes new memories together.

Thank you so much .

 

[kclark9830]

Yay! I'm glad I found your report as well!

Your 10 hour drive sounds like a walk in the park. Ours is 27 hours!

I love the Disney Mom shirt as well, too cute! And the kids still look adorable as ever!

Happy Planning!

Thanks for dropping in!

 

[kclark9830]

Guys, I am SO BUMMED. I made my dining reservations yesterday. I grabbed a pre-park opening breakfast at BOG for Ashlyn and I so we could have some mother/daughter time again this trip. I also got a Storybook Dining rez for Friday night, so we could end our trip with a great experience the way we did last year with Mickey's Backyard BBQ.

And then today the opening of Star Wars Land was announced for mere days before our arrival.



We specifically chose our dates for lower crowds, and we have chosen to cancel the trip because of this new information. I don't know if we'll try to reschedule for earlier in the year. That will depend on whether any discounts are offered, but as of now this trip is off. Thank you all for your well wishes. I continue to look forward to hearing about your trips!

 

[Araminta18]

Aw no! I'm so sorry--that is a huge bummer. Disney surprised everyone with an Aug 29 opening date. Crazy. I hope new discounts come out and you're able to maybe go earlier!

 

[kclark9830]

Aw no! I'm so sorry--that is a huge bummer. Disney surprised everyone with an Aug 29 opening date. Crazy. I hope new discounts come out and you're able to maybe go earlier!

I feel less disappointed today than yesterday, thankfully. We talked about it, and waiting for next year will allow us to do a bigger, longer trip at a deluxe vs a value.

And we've been talking about wanting to do a Disney cruise to Alaska for a while now. We might even opt to go with that for next year! Who knows! We will see .

 

[Araminta18]

I feel less disappointed today than yesterday, thankfully. We talked about it, and waiting for next year will allow us to do a bigger, longer trip at a deluxe vs a value.

And we've been talking about wanting to do a Disney cruise to Alaska for a while now. We might even opt to go with that for next year! Who knows! We will see .

Oooh a Disney cruise to Alaska would be really fun! Glad you've got some backup plans in your pocket to dream about in the meantime

 

[jhoannam]

I’m sorry. Disney has really messed with a lot of plans this time around. Like seriously, they couldn’t get their act together when they were announcing Rivers of Light, but somehow are going to mange to pull this off?!? I still don’t get it.

I hope you have a fabulous trip wherever you end up going!

 

[kclark9830]

Hi everyone! I've decided to keep this PTR open, even though our future dates are TBD. We've been talking a lot about what we want to do moving forward. We had been planning the Disney Alaskan Cruise for our 20th anniversary in 2023. Since that is such a big trip we're going to keep that plan.

Our thoughts right now are between two options:

1. Go to WDW next year, probably August before school starts. This will really be changing our crowd level experience, but I think that will be unavoidable moving forward. But as Ashlyn gets older it will be harder to take her out of school.

Yacht and Beach Club (preferably Yacht) would be my ideal resort. I want to experience Storm Along Bay, and we would probably do 7-8 days with two full resort days. But I'd also like to try AKL or POR.

Our other option we're thinking of is a big difference.

2. A trip out west! We would fly to AZ and do the Grand Canyon (we get to do something "new"), then make the 7 hr drive to Disneyland. We'd do a few days at each, and probably do a beach day, too. Then we'd fly home from CA. This would probably be a May trip, as soon as school got out, so it would be earlier than a WDW trip.

Prices would be fairly comparable from what I've researched. So, it's something we have time to think about. Tough choice!!!

 

[kclark9830]

Oooh a Disney cruise to Alaska would be really fun! Glad you've got some backup plans in your pocket to dream about in the meantime

Definitely dreaming!!! I've even been considering this May . I talked myself out of that pretty quickly though. Just not practical for us right now.

I’m sorry. Disney has really messed with a lot of plans this time around. Like seriously, they couldn’t get their act together when they were announcing Rivers of Light, but somehow are going to mange to pull this off?!? I still don’t get it.

I hope you have a fabulous trip wherever you end up going!

Thank you! And seriously! You're so right!

 

[piglet1979]

2. A trip out west! We would fly to AZ and do the Grand Canyon (we get to do something "new"), then make the 7 hr drive to Disneyland. We'd do a few days at each, and probably do a beach day, too. Then we'd fly home from CA. This would probably be a May trip, as soon as school got out, so it would be earlier than a WDW trip.

I like this option. Something new plus Disney is the best. We did a Western Caribbean cruise with Disney this past summer. The kids have said it is their favorite vacation.

 

[kclark9830]

So, we did a thing. I know, we're looking kind of silly at this point , but we realized that if we wait to go to WDW Ashlyn will have turned 10, and Miles will have turned 3. That will significantly increase our cost. Going this year while it's going to be as cheap as it's going to get for a long while makes pretty decent sense. Right?

So, tossing caution and crowds to the wind we have booked the last week of July at ASM.

We chose this week because it is coming upon a time where missing school for Ashlyn makes less sense, so we figured it's as good as any time. We booked with the Fun in the Sun (? I have no idea if that's what it's called!) offer, but I'm not married to this resort. For a measly $50 more I can switch to POP, so I'm leaning toward that. I also looked at POR, because I think hubby would really like it there, but I would like to keep this trip as budget conscious as possible. We want to re-brick our house this summer .

I'm honestly worried about the crowds. I'd appreciate any tips. I'm planning rope drop every day, but I'm clueless other than that.

Our plans are not set yet. I'm working on it, but yay!

 

[kclark9830]

I like this option. Something new plus Disney is the best. We did a Western Caribbean cruise with Disney this past summer. The kids have said it is their favorite vacation.

I am hoping we can pull this off for next year! Fingers crossed!

 

[Araminta18]

So, we did a thing. I know, we're looking kind of silly at this point , but we realized that if we wait to go to WDW Ashlyn will have turned 10, and Miles will have turned 3. That will significantly increase our cost. Going this year while it's going to be as cheap as it's going to get for a long while makes pretty decent sense. Right?

So, tossing caution and crowds to the wind we have booked the last week of July at ASM.

We chose this week because it is coming upon a time where missing school for Ashlyn makes less sense, so we figured it's as good as any time. We booked with the Fun in the Sun (? I have no idea if that's what it's called!) offer, but I'm not married to this resort. For a measly $50 more I can switch to POP, so I'm leaning toward that. I also looked at POR, because I think hubby would really like it there, but I would like to keep this trip as budget conscious as possible. We want to re-brick our house this summer .

I'm honestly worried about the crowds. I'd appreciate any tips. I'm planning rope drop every day, but I'm clueless other than that.

Our plans are not set yet. I'm working on it, but yay!

YAY! That's so exciting! Crowds might be lower than they would be otherwise, what with Galaxy's Edge--crossing my fingers for you. I don't really have any tips, other than the normal rope drop tip. Hopefully other people can chime in with advice, but even with the crowds, it's still Disneyworld....I'm hoping you have an AMAZING time!

 

[kclark9830]

YAY! That's so exciting! Crowds might be lower than they would be otherwise, what with Galaxy's Edge--crossing my fingers for you. I don't really have any tips, other than the normal rope drop tip. Hopefully other people can chime in with advice, but even with the crowds, it's still Disneyworld....I'm hoping you have an AMAZING time!

I'm crossing my fingers for it too. Here's hoping!

 

[kclark9830]

We've made a few choices, though our plans remain not set in stone yet.

Our official dates (as of today) are Sunday, July 28-Friday, August 2. However, we plan to add an additional day at the front end, arriving Saturday, July 27. Since we're booked with the dining plan, and we won't be arriving until later in the afternoon on Saturday, I didn't want to add a day to our package and have to pay for a full day's worth of dining credits. The plan is to try getting a Priceline Express deal for that first night, then checking in with our package on Sunday.

We did decide to stay with ASM because of adding the additional day.

As far as tickets, we currently have only a 3-day base ticket. With adding the extra day onto the trip we will almost certainly add a 4th day to our tickets, but bumping it up to a 5th day is less than $50 more so we'll most likely go with that.

See what I mean about not being set in stone yet?!

What I HAVE managed to do was determine which days we're going to MK (which will be on Tuesday and Thursday of the trip). I snagged a BOG lunch ADR for Thursday, which is the day we plan to RD Fantasyland. Hooray!

I want to talk a little about hubby Micheal now. Y'all, he tells people he doesn't really like WDW. He gripes about going. But guys, when I told him I cancelled our trip a few weeks ago he was DISAPPOINTED. And when I told him the other morning that I did indeed still want to go he IMMEDIATELY said we should do it. Then, when I told him what I'd booked, it was his suggestion to go a day early and increase our park days.

So, methinks he likes Disney more than he lets on!

 

[jhoannam]

Yay!! How exciting, I’m glad you all decided to go. Which All Star did pick? I was at Movies for the marathon in a refurbished room and it wasn’t really nice, the beds were so comfortable.

 

[kclark9830]

Yay!! How exciting, I’m glad you all decided to go. Which All Star did pick? I was at Movies for the marathon in a refurbished room and it wasn’t really nice, the beds were so comfortable.

We will be at Music. No refurb yet, and the lack of refurbished rooms I'm sure plays a big part in why it's the cheapest right now. I don't mind honestly. I'm just so excited!

 

[Araminta18]

I want to talk a little about hubby Micheal now. Y'all, he tells people he doesn't really like WDW. He gripes about going. But guys, when I told him I cancelled our trip a few weeks ago he was DISAPPOINTED. And when I told him the other morning that I did indeed still want to go he IMMEDIATELY said we should do it. Then, when I told him what I'd booked, it was his suggestion to go a day early and increase our park days.

I love this! I thought my husband was just "ok" with Disney, and mostly going for me, and then I discovered that he's totally in to watching Disney vlogs (Tim Tracker is his favorite) and he's started to get into the planning with me. No one can escape the Disney magic!

 

[kclark9830]

Hi everyone! I'm coming to you today for advice and/or thoughts about potential plans. Anyone up for the challenge? I have about 6 weeks to think this through before FP+ day approaches, thus when I need to have my ticket ducks in a row.

As I've mentioned, we're considering adding an extra park day to our tickets. The dilemma is that I'm thinking of a few other options, in place of adding a park day.

I love the parks, and I would love to spend all our time there. But I've learned over the years that breaks are good. On our last trip, our non-park day was fabulous and very vacation-y.

Basically, I'm trying to weigh adding a 4th park day versus keeping that extra "off" day to give us permission to experience something else that Disney has to offer outside of the parks.

Technically, I know we have this theoretical permission already. But if we have tickets? We're going to spend our time in the parks. I know it.

Basically, here are my ideas:

***Add an extra park day to our tickets, and experience Epcot or Hollywood Studios along with 2 MK days and an AK day

***Keep the extra free day and do Hoop Dee Doo Revue, Chef Mickey's, or some other resort activity, maybe stuff at Fort Wilderness. We will already be going to Disney Springs, as we decided we definitely don't want to do 5 park days.

With an extra park day, it would look like this:
- Saturday, arrival day, relax at resort
- Sunday, head into Epcot or HS (not RD)
- Monday, RD EMH at AK
- Tuesday, RD MK, take midday break, come back for HEA
- Wednesday, break day, go to DS
- Thursday, RD MK with lunch at BOG
- Friday, departure day early

If we don't add an extra day, it would look like this:
-Saturday, arrival, relax
-Sunday, break day at DS
-Monday, RD EMH at AK
-Tuesday, RD MK, midday break, watch HEA
-Wednesday, break day, HDDR or Chef Mickey's, some other vacation-y activity
-Thursday, RD MK with lunch at BOG
-Friday, departure day early

Depending on how I work the numbers, the price between these choices is negligible. So, it's really a matter of preference. I haven't brought this up to Micheal yet, though I will. I would like to make sure I'm looking at every angle first!

Input or thoughts welcome!