Will I go once, twice, not at all? Will I runDisney? A Fall '19 PTR(s)

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Hi everybody! Welcome to my Fall 2019 PTR(s)!

I'm Leah and I'm a mid 30's Realtor and Pet Business owner from Minnesota. I was lucky enough to visit WDW twice in 2018, which were my first trips to the world since a rough family vacation when I was about 10. Over Christmas, my cousin A (the great Disney planner) and I started discussing a 2019 trip, hopefully with free dining. Our cousin H was hoping to join us for her first trip to WDW and we were thinking of taking cousin E for her 15th birthday. Have I confused everyone with my crazy big family yet? All these cousins are from different families too, no siblings

We all decided to start saving and wait for the free dining announcement in April and we were expecting to go in November. Of course, Disney surprised us all and and released free dining a few days later with earlier dates. The best laid plans...lol. We started looking at Aug/Sept dates instead and trying to coordinate everything. With the changes and due to some personal reasons, cousins E & H will not be able to join us, but a friend of A & mine, D, will be able to come!

At this point, it looks like our best prices will be early September and we are considering staying Deluxe to get the DDP free and to be able to go back to the resort quickly in the heat of the day to relax. I've only stayed at POFQ so looking at a Deluxe is very exciting! We also thought about skipping the free dining and going in November anyway but the prices were much higher, especially since we'd still want to get the dining plan. We are all big eaters and enjoy trying new restaurants so the DDP is a good value for us and TS meals are a great way to enjoy some A/C during the day.

In the meantime, a friend of mine told me she is running the Wine & Dine challenge in November and invited me to join her. I just started running last summer but I think it would give me plenty of time to train. I had originally planned to do the Star Wars weekend in 2020 but with Galaxy's Edge opening that might be a madhouse. I'm still hoping I can make the dates and finances work to go to W&D this fall too, especially since it's my birthday weekend.

Right now we are still working on coordinating everyone's schedules and preferences but we hope to have something scheduled in the next few days.

Stay tuned!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Sounds exciting! We are going in August this year.

We have grown to love the hot August trips! We know Minnesota summers are short but we still like Disney in the summer as well as winter!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Sounds exciting! We are going in August this year.

We have grown to love the hot August trips! We know Minnesota summers are short but we still like Disney in the summer as well as winter!

I don't mind the heat but my traveling companions are less excited. I have a much harder time dealing with cold weather than hot but we are all compromising by planning to take it slow and take plenty of breaks.

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Update!
We are booked for September 3-9 at the Contemporary! I'm beyond excited to stay deluxe (and just to have a trip planned). Cousin A decided to go with the Contemporary and is paying the difference in rates as a treat to us because of the bigger room sizes and convenient location. I purchased MNSSHP tickets for the 8th and it will be the first time for any of us to attend that. Now we are on to watching flight prices and waiting for our ADR date.

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in! Congrats on booking at the Contemporary! MNSSHP is the best, I hope you will love it!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Joining in! Congrats on booking at the Contemporary! MNSSHP is the best, I hope you will love it!

Thanks! I'm so excited to try a new resort and MNSSHP. This year won't go by fast enough!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

It's Saturday morning, I have my coffee, and I'm procrastinating on shoveling the 5 inches of snow that fell yesterday, so it must be time for an update!

We have 5 days until we can start making our ADR's for the September trip and we've been brainstorming places we'd like to try. After listing almost every restaurant on property, we are just waiting to see what has availability at the times/days we are looking for. Unlike past trips, we don't really have picky eaters this time other than that Cousin A and I don't eat fish or seafood. D is up for eating just about anything.

I've also been doing more planning for my potential second trip for Wine & Dine. I'd been expecting it to be a solo trip where I would meet up with my friend and her dad but now it sounds like my dad might be interested in joining me. He wouldn't be running the races with us but we could split the hotel room and do the parks afterwards. My dad hasn't been to WDW since our disastrous family trip about 25 years ago but he and I went to Universal in 2015 and had a great time together. I've started making lists of things I wouldn't want him to miss, restaurants he'd like, potential resorts, and have come to realize this would need to be a 2 week trip to fit it all in Now I have to prioritize everything. I'm thinking of trying to get a room at POFQ because I really like it there and I think my friend and her dad will also try to stay there. My dad is more of a ride wimp like me but I'd definitely want to try for FP's for FOP, Slinky Dog, and 7DMT as headliners.

This is the first time I'm planning a trip without help from my cousin and I'm also considering using a TA that works with runDisney to make that part easier. My friend and her dad use one so I want to talk to her about it first!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Yay to planning more trips! I have only made 2 ADR’s for August, haha!

I think POFQ is a great choice, a very nice adult resort!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Yay to planning more trips! I have only made 2 ADR’s for August, haha!

I think POFQ is a great choice, a very nice adult resort!

I figure, if I'm running in the morning I don't want to waste energy walking around a giant resort!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Well, quite the surprise today with Galaxy's Edge opening before both my trips. This is just the trip of surprises! Cousin A, D, and I had expected a quieter week for our September trip and I think that's probably blown out of the water. We discussed it a bit today but our plans are set and we'll just make the best of it. A and I were also at WDW for the opening of Toy Story Land last year so I guess we just hit the openings! My November trip is a bit more urgent to get booked now since I think resort prices may jump but I'll just see what happens. Today is also our 180 day mark so A will be making our dining reservations tonight - stay tuned!

 

[missangelalexis]

Kind of exciting to be there when it's open though! You will make the best of it for sure!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

It's been a crazy week at work so I'm hiding from the world on the Dis Boards
We have our ADR's for the September trip all made and I'm really excited about all of them! We're doing Chef Mickey's on arrival night since it's at our resort and will be a fun way to kick off vacation. We've got a day 2 dinner at Teppan Edo, which we've done before and really enjoyed but we didn't get the most exciting chef. Day 3 will be lunch at Sci Fi Dine In, which is another of our favorites. We got a late dinner on Day 4 at La Hacienda de San Angel and hopefully we will be able to watch the fireworks during the meal! Day 5 we are meeting our Aunt and Uncle in Disney Springs for dinner and got a reservation at Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill. They live about an hour outside of Orlando so it's always great to see them. Day 6 we have lunch at Be Our Guest and then an early dinner at The Wave because we also have MNSSHP that evening. The next day will be traveling home and we'll all be sad

In November trip news, I picked our dates (10/31-11/6) and found a travel agent I like to help me with everything. He's booking the trip today including my bibs for the Wine & Dine 5K, 10K, and Half marathon. We stuck with the plan to stay at POFQ and after looking through a ton of menus, we decided to go with the dining plan for this trip too. Now I just have to keep my training on schedule!

 

[missangelalexis]

Your ADRS sound great!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

How do you run in this god forsaken stateI would imagine indoors!

Both your trips sound wonderful, we love POFQ and the one time we stayed at CR (garden wing) we really liked it. Our walk was exactly 1/2 a mile to the middle of Fantasy Land!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Your ADRS sound great!!

Thanks! I'm so excited!

How do you run in this god forsaken stateI would imagine indoors!

Both your trips sound wonderful, we love POFQ and the one time we stayed at CR (garden wing) we really liked it. Our walk was exactly 1/2 a mile to the middle of Fantasy Land!

Oh yes, all running in the winter is on my treadmill...except for right now since my basement flooded yesterday
I really like POFQ too and it will be nice to be back there. I'm sure CR will be fantastic as well but I can't afford that twice!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in!

How awesome that you're staying at the Contemporary!

We've also registered for the Wine and Dine event but are sticking to the 5k since it will be our first race ever!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Joining in!

We've also registered for the Wine and Dine event but are sticking to the 5k since it will be our first race ever!

Thanks for joining in! Unless I run a race this summer, Wine & Dine will be my first races too. I'm trusting my friend that talked me in to going when she said it's not too bad to run all the races assuming you've trained. And hey, I've got plenty of time, right?!

 

[evre13]

Love reading your plans! runDisney races are some of the best out there — honestly, how I became a runner. Can’t wait to hear more

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Love reading your plans! runDisney races are some of the best out there — honestly, how I became a runner. Can’t wait to hear more

Thanks for reading! I just started running last summer and this was certainly a big motivation for me. I had originally planned to wait until Star Wars 2020 but when my friend said she'd be going to Wine & Dine I decided to move it up.

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

November trip update!

This Spring has been insanely crazy for me at work at planning my Nov. trip has fallen by the wayside. Luckily, the Sept. trip is being planned by my cousin so all I need to do is send her some money I talked with my TA a few weeks ago about the next steps for the Nov. trip and he recommended buying our own plane tickets and just sending him the info. Well...many weeks later I finally got around to price shopping airfare and realized that we could save a LOT of money by staying an extra night and flying out the next morning. So, email to TA to see about getting an extra night at any hotel. 3 days go by, no answer. Email again plus voicemail, 4 more days go by without an answer. At this point, I look up my reservation confirmation email and realize I already had us booked for that extra night. Doh. So, flights are purchased! And I never did hear back from my TA. I also figured out how to link my reservation to my My Disney Experience account and set up an account for my dad. My TA was going to do that for me over a month ago. Next step is booking some ADR's but every time I look at our schedule the over planner in me gets bogged down trying to figure out the perfect park for each day and where we'd want to eat and what fastpasses we might be able to get on what days and then I just stop. Maybe this weekend I'll finally get something done! I can also get park tickets purchased for my dad now that we know exactly how many days we'll be there. I asked him what color Magicband he wants and he said "just pick something". Obviously not as excited as me, I'm thinking he'd look good in pink!