When Two Holidays Collide! An Oct. 2012 PTR UPDATE 6/30 Disneyland stuff

[amandaw]

Joining in!

Your little boy is so cute! And how exciting that y'all are going for his 1st birthday!

I can't wait to see your pictures of the Little Mermaid rooms!

 

[kmedina]

Yay to getting the flights booked. I love sharing my Disney knowledge too. Helping your sister must be fun for you. I actually wrote a little about rider swap in my trip report. The post called Never Say Never can give you a better picture. The person who goes second uses the rider swap pass to go through the fast pass line. It is only available on fast pass rides, since that is the line utilized. This is really convenient when the standby line is not long, and you do not want to wait to get a fastpass and return later. The standby line could be long by the time the second person goes through. It is also beneficial if you have larger children, like Xander. You can get a fastpass for the first ride. Then, he could ride a second time with the rider swap pass. Otherwise, he would need two fastpasses to ride with Mom and Dad separately. We did both scenarios last trip. If "Xander" is not riding again, and you are getting fastpasses anyway (to avoid the standby line for the first rider), there is no need to get a rider swap pass.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Congrats on your flight! Feels so real when you get that doesn't it?

 

[tabrizia]

How did your kids do with the characters?

The two older ones both love characters. Not sure about the little one yet. He hasn't had any problem with the few we've seen at Sesame Place and Red Robin, he isn't overly interested in them yet, but he isn't against them either.

I forgot to ask all of you a very important question. Did any of you use rider swap on your trips? How did it work? Was it convenient or a hassle? Would you recommend it? Is it for all rides or just those with fastpasses?

Okay, I think I'm good now.

We haven't yet, we probably will on our next trip, but since that is after your trip that isn't going to help much. As far as I have read though it works really well on the attractions with it.

 

[Momma2Mia]

Jumping in. Excited to hear more about your plans!
Kristie

 

[lbuzz52]

Followed you over from the Oct thread. We went when ds was 9 months, and when he was just over 2 and used the mess out of baby swap! Love It! It will essentially allow you to double up on your FP. For example, grab 1 for Splash and one for Thunder. when you time is active, go get your baby swap at thunder and one ride using FP, then do the same at splash. two rides knocked out with one fastpass window. I'm jealous of your AofA Little Mermaid. I had a hard time chosing between that and the princess rooms, but ultimately decide we will end up at AofA in the future if we have a third. can't wait for more!

 

[kmedina]

Followed you over from the Oct thread. We went when ds was 9 months, and when he was just over 2 and used the mess out of baby swap! Love It! It will essentially allow you to double up on your FP. For example, grab 1 for Splash and one for Thunder. when you time is active, go get your baby swap at thunder and one ride using FP, then do the same at splash. two rides knocked out with one fastpass window. I'm jealous of your AofA Little Mermaid. I had a hard time chosing between that and the princess rooms, but ultimately decide we will end up at AofA in the future if we have a third. can't wait for more!

I never even thought about using it this way. That would have been cool two trips ago when my oldest was too short for a lot of the rides. Maybe we can do that in the future. Thanks.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Joining in!

Your little boy is so cute! And how exciting that y'all are going for his 1st birthday!

Thank you, I'm a little biased, but he's pretty darn cute!

I can't wait to see your pictures of the Little Mermaid rooms!

glad that you've joined in.

I keep checking for updated construction pictures at the AoA. I'm excited about the food court, can't wait to have me some challah bread french toast! I will make sure to take lots of pics.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

The two older ones both love characters. Not sure about the little one yet. He hasn't had any problem with the few we've seen at Sesame Place and Red Robin, he isn't overly interested in them yet, but he isn't against them either.



We haven't yet, we probably will on our next trip, but since that is after your trip that isn't going to help much. As far as I have read though it works really well on the attractions with it.

He really enjoyed the characters, especially Minnie! I guess I'm just hoping he's not one of those kids that suddenly becomes terrified of the characters.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Jumping in. Excited to hear more about your plans!
Kristie

Thanks for joining in! I'll have more coming soon.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Followed you over from the Oct thread. We went when ds was 9 months, and when he was just over 2 and used the mess out of baby swap! Love It! It will essentially allow you to double up on your FP. For example, grab 1 for Splash and one for Thunder. when you time is active, go get your baby swap at thunder and one ride using FP, then do the same at splash. two rides knocked out with one fastpass window. I'm jealous of your AofA Little Mermaid. I had a hard time chosing between that and the princess rooms, but ultimately decide we will end up at AofA in the future if we have a third. can't wait for more!

glad you found your way over here! I want to try out the princess rooms. I'm thinking about it for our trip in May 2013. Yes, I have 3 Disney trips queued up right now, please no judging.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Followed you over from the Oct thread. We went when ds was 9 months, and when he was just over 2 and used the mess out of baby swap! Love It! It will essentially allow you to double up on your FP. For example, grab 1 for Splash and one for Thunder. when you time is active, go get your baby swap at thunder and one ride using FP, then do the same at splash. two rides knocked out with one fastpass window. I'm jealous of your AofA Little Mermaid. I had a hard time chosing between that and the princess rooms, but ultimately decide we will end up at AofA in the future if we have a third. can't wait for more!

Yay to getting the flights booked. I love sharing my Disney knowledge too. Helping your sister must be fun for you. I actually wrote a little about rider swap in my trip report. The post called Never Say Never can give you a better picture. The person who goes second uses the rider swap pass to go through the fast pass line. It is only available on fast pass rides, since that is the line utilized. This is really convenient when the standby line is not long, and you do not want to wait to get a fastpass and return later. The standby line could be long by the time the second person goes through. It is also beneficial if you have larger children, like Xander. You can get a fastpass for the first ride. Then, he could ride a second time with the rider swap pass. Otherwise, he would need two fastpasses to ride with Mom and Dad separately. We did both scenarios last trip. If "Xander" is not riding again, and you are getting fastpasses anyway (to avoid the standby line for the first rider), there is no need to get a rider swap pass.

Thank you all for the information on the rider swap. I'm still not sure if we will utilize it or not (DH likes riding the attractions with me for some reason ), but I'm using this info to help my sister since her kids will be 7,6,4,and 2 when they go so they'll be able to take the older kids on the big kid rides.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Congrats on your flight! Feels so real when you get that doesn't it?

I'm very happy to have flights there, that's more important than the flights home anyway.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Sorry for abandoning ya'll, and thank you for sticking around. I promise to have an update for for you tomorrow. Lots of stuff has been booked since the last update. Maybe, we'll even take a look at the happenings for Day 1.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Thanks everyone for sticking around

Here's all of the reservations that we've made since my last update.

*Since AoA standard rooms were sold out on Oct 30, we will be staying off property at a Ramada in Kissimmee and move over to AoA the next day for our 14 day stay.

*I'm sure ya'll know how expensive car rentals are right now. I was actually able to find a car for around $500 for 15 days through Thrifty rental. Most cars I've been looking at have been going for $800+, but thanks to Mousesavers.com and the Orlando Magic card, I was able to save over $300!

*Of course, we booked AoA Little Mermaid section for Oct 31-Nov 14.

Continued next post.

 

[kmedina]

Yay to a 15 day vacation. I have only had 11 days before, and think 15 would be amazing. It is cool that you are getting a good deal on a car. After all the bad luck we had with Disney transportation this trip, we decided that we will rent a car next trip. I cannot wait to see your pictures of the resort. It is going to be so cool.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Here's a look at our travel day:

*It will probably start out with me getting up at about 3:30am so I can get myself ready and any last minute things packed up.
*I'll probably get DH up at about 4, if he's not already up. Then, I'll get the baby fed and ready to go while DH is getting ready.
*If all goes as planned, we should be catching the airport shuttle at about 4:45 (we're only about 10 minutes away).
*We will be departing SMF at 7:20am and arriving at MCO at 4:55pm.
*We'll get our luggage and rental car and go check in at The Ramada then head out and get our groceries for the next 2 weeks.
*We may head to DTD or possibly Cici's Pizza or Golden Corral (we don't have these over here on the west coast and DH has always wanted to try them).
*Hopefully call it a night early so we can hurry up and check out and head to Disney.

Hopefully this is a very uneventful and quick day.

Next up, we'll take a look at our first park day and MNSSHP!

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Yay to a 15 day vacation. I have only had 11 days before, and think 15 would be amazing. It is cool that you are getting a good deal on a car. After all the bad luck we had with Disney transportation this trip, we decided that we will rent a car next trip. I cannot wait to see your pictures of the resort. It is going to be so cool.

15 days is amazing, still not enough time, but still nice.

I totally agree with Disney Transportation. It wasn't so bad when it was DH and I, but when there's a kid and a stroller involved, I prefer having a car. The only thing that I don't like are the trams with a stroller at the end of the night (mostly at HS). People seemed to always try to beat us on the tram or complain about us and our stroller. I avoid those trams at all costs!

Don't worry, I'll make sure to take lots of photos.

 

[kmedina]

I've eaten at Cici's and the Golden Corral. Both are subpar. I only eat there when other people pick the restaurant. I would never choose to spend money at either. I know he wants to try it, so I almost did not even want to mention it. Just offering my opionion.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

I've eaten at Cici's and the Golden Corral. Both are subpar. I only eat there when other people pick the restaurant. I would never choose to spend money at either. I know he wants to try it, so I almost did not even want to mention it. Just offering my opionion.

Thanks for the heads up. I thought the cheap prices might be too good to be true.