You Get a Suite! You Get a Suite! Everybody Gets a Suite! December 2023 Trip Report! (RL Update 10/6!!)

[2xcited2sleep]

Yes, Candlelight is highly scripted so it's true for all the narrators that they really only have a couple opportunities (opening & closing) to infuse any personal remarks. NPH does sing along and sometimes nods his head along with livelier songs. I will say, having seen him several times that he repeats some of the "bits." I saw John Stamos last year and he was really genuinely emotional; unfortunately it also rained so that very literally put a damper on things. Still a lovely show and definitely gets me in the Christmas spirit. Also fun during the day to see if you can spot the narrator around the parks. We saw Josh Gad riding Living with the Land one year!

 

[VAtink]

Yes, Candlelight is highly scripted so it's true for all the narrators that they really only have a couple opportunities (opening & closing) to infuse any personal remarks. NPH does sing along and sometimes nods his head along with livelier songs. I will say, having seen him several times that he repeats some of the "bits." I saw John Stamos last year and he was really genuinely emotional; unfortunately it also rained so that very literally put a damper on things. Still a lovely show and definitely gets me in the Christmas spirit. Also fun during the day to see if you can spot the narrator around the parks. We saw Josh Gad riding Living with the Land one year!

Ahhh, yeah being our first one I assumed he drew in such big crowds since he went off script a lot, so I was surprised that he really didn't say much off script outside an opening remark. He did do an amazing job though, it was such an amazing show! I did notice he was singing along too, I just assumed all the narrators did that!

It's funny, the following day I saw so many post on various Disney Facebook groups of sightings of him around the parks! That must have been cool to see Josh Gad on LWTL! The funny thing is, I could be standing right next to a celebrity and have absolutely no idea I was. It's actually happened before, I was waiting for a flight at Logan, and this guy came and sat next to me, and a few moments later a bunch of guys with cameras rushed over and started taking pictures of him. I was SO confused, but it turns out this guy was one of the main characters on Desperate Housewives, which was huge back then, so he was fairly famous. I was totally clueless.

 

[Wood Nymph]

In just over a week we'll be booking our ADRs for our September/October trip, and I can't wait!

Our ADR date is coming up, too, and I need to think about where we want to eat. Let me know if you want to get together for a dining reservation. There is always a lot to talk about when the topic is Disney.

The show was amazing, I was practically in tears throughout! Although I will say I don’t understand the draw of NPH. Like he was great and all, but he only made like one or two remarks off script, so it wasn’t like we were getting a special show with him. And frankly I think I’d much prefer to see Brendan Fraser the following week since I used to have the BIGGEST crush on him back in the day!

At least you had a good view of NPH.

 

[VAtink]

Our ADR date is coming up, too, and I need to think about where we want to eat. Let me know if you want to get together for a dining reservation. There is always a lot to talk about when the topic is Disney.

Oh maybe! What days do we overlap again? I'll be coming down on the 27th, my mom is coming down on the 28th, and then we're there for a week.

At least you had a good view of NPH.

Haha, well sort of, that drum set ended up being a bit in the way, but the show was amazing. I cannot wait to see it again!

 

[VAtink]

Back again with a quick RL update! So we updated our January trip a bit, we decided to add a day, and switched resorts! We had been booked at the YC, but with the pool and hotel refurb, we just didn't want to be around all the construction again (although it did lead to a free trip before...hmmm ). Anyways, we switched over to the Boardwalk for this trip! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that discounts will come out so we can upgrade to club level, but for now we're just in a regular room. Actually another reason we switched from the YC was because club level isn't available in January (guessing the refurb starts there), and we wanted the option to upgrade, so Boardwalk it is!

We also booked my birthday trip for next June, and in a wild turn of events, we are not staying at our usual home! Nope, this time we're staying at the Wilderness Lodge! For this we do have club level booked, although again I'm hoping for some discounts so we can save some money.

So why Wilderness? Well, a few things. One, I decided a few months ago that I wanted to check out each club level on property, even if only for a night or two, and amazingly my mom agreed we should try that. So this is going to check off another club level for us. Second, we LOVE Geyser Point, and really love the idea of eating there multiple times during a trip! Plus we figure if we're back to the pre-2020 Epcot festival schedules, there shouldn't be a festival this time, so there is not a big draw to stay near Epcot for this trip. I'm excited, we haven't been in June since 2013!

Now I just can't wait until they open up booking for December 2025, we have another big holiday trip planned, although this time just my mom and me. Trying to get as much use out of these APs as possible!

Anyways, that's all the updates for this weekend. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!​

 

[VAtink]

Oh dear, I just a summons for Jury Duty and of course it's during out September trip! And, because apparently we live in the stone ages here in VA, it looks like they only accept postponing requests via fax! Like what?!?! Who still has a fax machine?!?! Ugh. I sent them an email asking about it, so hopefully it can be postponed (and not during one of our other trips coming up this year!).

Also, I don't like the way VA does it. I've only had jury duty once before up in MA, and back then we just had one day we had to go sit in a courthouse waiting room to see if we were needed, and if not, we were done! Here we're on hold for two weeks! So I have to call every day for two weeks to find out if I'm needed. And while part of me thinks it would be cool to be on a jury, I wish they gave us like a list of dates to pick from to avoid stuff like this and also help planning with work.

Anyways, hope this works out ok, and hopefully they'll give me options of new dates to do it. That would be ideal! ​

 

[KPeterso]

Oh dear, I just a summons for Jury Duty and of course it's during out September trip! And, because apparently we live in the stone ages here in VA, it looks like they only accept postponing requests via fax! Like what?!?! Who still has a fax machine?!?! Ugh. I sent them an email asking about it, so hopefully it can be postponed (and not during one of our other trips coming up this year!).

Also, I don't like the way VA does it. I've only had jury duty once before up in MA, and back then we just had one day we had to go sit in a courthouse waiting room to see if we were needed, and if not, we were done! Here we're on hold for two weeks! So I have to call every day for two weeks to find out if I'm needed. And while part of me thinks it would be cool to be on a jury, I wish they gave us like a list of dates to pick from to avoid stuff like this and also help planning with work.

Anyways, hope this works out ok, and hopefully they'll give me options of new dates to do it. That would be ideal! ​

Sorry to hear about the summons. CA is easy to get a postponement. Just have to go online and request it. I keep expecting to get a summons as it has definitely been awhile. My Dad got one a few months ago, but he is 89, no longer drives, has a hard time hearing, and can't walk far. I went online and got him permanently excused as it just would not work for him to be on a jury.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Wow!! Who on earth can put their life on hold for TWO WEEKS just in case?!? That seems like a crazy way to manage things and so disruptive to so many lives. Here you get called for a specific day and can call the night before to see if you'll be needed (and if you are needed you may or may not get picked for an actual jury). Hope you can postpone with no issue!

 

[VAtink]

Sorry to hear about the summons. CA is easy to get a postponement. Just have to go online and request it. I keep expecting to get a summons as it has definitely been awhile. My Dad got one a few months ago, but he is 89, no longer drives, has a hard time hearing, and can't walk far. I went online and got him permanently excused as it just would not work for him to be on a jury.

Thanks, yeah it's wild how it's done here. I ended up calling and they were super helpful, apparently you can email instead of fax, thank goodness! They need to update their summons letter to say that!

 

[VAtink]

Wow!! Who on earth can put their life on hold for TWO WEEKS just in case?!? That seems like a crazy way to manage things and so disruptive to so many lives. Here you get called for a specific day and can call the night before to see if you'll be needed (and if you are needed you may or may not get picked for an actual jury). Hope you can postpone with no issue!

Right? I'm not sure how to handle this with work, we get like 20-30 projects assigned to us each week and they are due anywhere from within 3 days to 20 days, and since I won't know until the night before for those two weeks if I have to go in, I can't give my boss much notice at all. So no idea how he'll handle that. Especially since I just got notice that the dates have been changed (yay!), but now fall during the time my coworker is out of the office for a week, so if I get called in I don't know who will do the work or handle all the meetings.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Oy! JD (don't want to say the words because it might be like Beetlejuice and summon the call to me). I get the worry about work because that is where my brain goes first also BUT - I do believe (and I could be wrong because it has been a hot minute since Civics class in high school) but your boss has to let you go and can't hold you responsible for missed work. Now, for most people, knowing that doesn't help. Just thinking about it starts my panic planning mode - how do I cover classes? What about rehearsals? so I know you must be feeling the same. Hang in there. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you don't actually have to go.

 

[VAtink]

Oy! JD (don't want to say the words because it might be like Beetlejuice and summon the call to me). I get the worry about work because that is where my brain goes first also BUT - I do believe (and I could be wrong because it has been a hot minute since Civics class in high school) but your boss has to let you go and can't hold you responsible for missed work. Now, for most people, knowing that doesn't help. Just thinking about it starts my panic planning mode - how do I cover classes? What about rehearsals? so I know you must be feeling the same. Hang in there. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you don't actually have to go.

Oh yeah, my boss has to let me go, I mostly worry because he has a history of assigning me stuff while I'm out that's due while I'm out so it looks bad on me and gives me so much extra work when I get back. Fortunately his boss is aware so hopefully will step in and make sure he doesn't do that anymore!

 

[VAtink]

Popping in with another RL update! So the jury duty appears to have been resolved, they emailed saying they postponed it for after the trip, so that's good. I just need that to be reflected on their website now for me to fully believe it's been resolved!

This morning was ADR day, although maybe I should have done it yesterday with how easy it was to book for the entire split stay. I was up nice and early to book the stuff for our second hotel stay (our first is only one night which is why I didn't do anything yesterday morning). Got everything we wanted at the time we wanted, even early in the trip, so that was nice and easy.

A bit before 7 I got up again and signed back into MDE to jot down our resort reservation numbers since I know they usually ask for them when you call. While scrolling through our plans I noticed that two of the ADRs I booked were on wrong days! What! So I pull up the confirmation emails I got and saw I had booked them correctly, but somehow the system changed them. Great.

Since it was still a bit before 7, I had time to modify them to the right days, one modified no problem, but the other one after booking it, changed it to be for today! Seriously, what on earth was going on with their system this morning?!?! So I quickly modified that one again, and this time it stuck with the correct date.

Right at 7 I called them to see if I could book the cabana and some tours and even dining during our third hotel stay, which in theory ADRs wouldn't open up until this Friday for, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I got through immediately and got the most wonderful CM. I told her I had the split stay, and she said it was no problem, she could override the system and book everything for me for the whole trip! This has NEVER happened, usually they tell me it's not allowed, but this CM was just amazing.

First we tried for the cabana, but it was showing no availability for any dates our whole trip, even at 60+9 and 60+10, which seems wild. So she put me on hold to call someone to find out if those dates have been released, and soon came back to tell me those dates had not been released in the system yet, so while I couldn't book just that moment, neither could anyone else, so not to worry.

We then moved on to book the Up Close with Rhinos and the Behind the Seeds tour, that went through with no issue. Then she was even able to book our dining for the third hotel of the trip, except for V&A which they're not allowed to even touch.

The whole call lasted about 45 minutes, during which she checked on the cabanas multiple times, but nothing came up. She did suggest I call back later to try again, and gave me the number to call for V&A to try to book that.

So at 9, I called DSS to book the Minnie Van airport pickup and check on the cabanas again. Still no luck with the cabana. I will note, if you want to do a cabana and don't care about the resort, the other resorts had TONS of cabana availability, so it seem that YC./BC is the one that books solid super far out, you'd have better luck with say the Contemporary.

At 10, I called V&A to try to book that, but I had to leave a message for them to call me back. I then called the recreation line again to check on the cabanas, and still no luck.

Around 11, I got a call from V&A to book, and I 100% did not expect it to be available, but somehow managed to snag the Chefs table!!!! They said they would email a confirmation to me today, still haven't received it, but hopefully soon.

And now, I'm just done, pre 6 am wake-up and 5 phone calls later, but still no cabana.

We're actually thinking of not doing the cabana now anyways. Our original plan was to try to get the chefs table at V&A, but didn't expect to, and our backup was Monsieur Paul. So we figured we would do a day at the cabana followed by a late dinner. But now that the chefs table was available, the dinner is MUCH earlier, so it would really cut into the cabana time so we'd only use it for like 4 hours, which for paying for a full day just seems like a waste. So yeah, now we think we'll just do a pool day and not bother with the cabana.

So yeah, that was a very long post about bookings, haha! It just was a bit of a rollercoaster, but very successful!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

OMG! Chef's Table!! I've done it twice and you're going to love it!!!! Hurrah for jury duty being postponed. Boo on all the calls, system glitches, and lack of cabana dates but sounds like even with all the rigamarole you're making out pretty well!! So excited for you!!!!!

 

[VAtink]

OMG! Chef's Table!! I've done it twice and you're going to love it!!!! Hurrah for jury duty being postponed. Boo on all the calls, system glitches, and lack of cabana dates but sounds like even with all the rigamarole you're making out pretty well!! So excited for you!!!!!

Haha, yup! We've actually done it before, but 11 years ago, so it's been a while! I'm a bit worried I haven't gotten the confirmation email yet though, they did say I would get it by the end of the day, so I guess I shouldn't worry just yet!

 

[Communicore1991]

Popping in with another RL update! So the jury duty appears to have been resolved, they emailed saying they postponed it for after the trip, so that's good. I just need that to be reflected on their website now for me to fully believe it's been resolved!

This morning was ADR day, although maybe I should have done it yesterday with how easy it was to book for the entire split stay. I was up nice and early to book the stuff for our second hotel stay (our first is only one night which is why I didn't do anything yesterday morning). Got everything we wanted at the time we wanted, even early in the trip, so that was nice and easy.

A bit before 7 I got up again and signed back into MDE to jot down our resort reservation numbers since I know they usually ask for them when you call. While scrolling through our plans I noticed that two of the ADRs I booked were on wrong days! What! So I pull up the confirmation emails I got and saw I had booked them correctly, but somehow the system changed them. Great.

Since it was still a bit before 7, I had time to modify them to the right days, one modified no problem, but the other one after booking it, changed it to be for today! Seriously, what on earth was going on with their system this morning?!?! So I quickly modified that one again, and this time it stuck with the correct date.

Right at 7 I called them to see if I could book the cabana and some tours and even dining during our third hotel stay, which in theory ADRs wouldn't open up until this Friday for, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I got through immediately and got the most wonderful CM. I told her I had the split stay, and she said it was no problem, she could override the system and book everything for me for the whole trip! This has NEVER happened, usually they tell me it's not allowed, but this CM was just amazing.

First we tried for the cabana, but it was showing no availability for any dates our whole trip, even at 60+9 and 60+10, which seems wild. So she put me on hold to call someone to find out if those dates have been released, and soon came back to tell me those dates had not been released in the system yet, so while I couldn't book just that moment, neither could anyone else, so not to worry.

We then moved on to book the Up Close with Rhinos and the Behind the Seeds tour, that went through with no issue. Then she was even able to book our dining for the third hotel of the trip, except for V&A which they're not allowed to even touch.

The whole call lasted about 45 minutes, during which she checked on the cabanas multiple times, but nothing came up. She did suggest I call back later to try again, and gave me the number to call for V&A to try to book that.

So at 9, I called DSS to book the Minnie Van airport pickup and check on the cabanas again. Still no luck with the cabana. I will note, if you want to do a cabana and don't care about the resort, the other resorts had TONS of cabana availability, so it seem that YC./BC is the one that books solid super far out, you'd have better luck with say the Contemporary.

At 10, I called V&A to try to book that, but I had to leave a message for them to call me back. I then called the recreation line again to check on the cabanas, and still no luck.

Around 11, I got a call from V&A to book, and I 100% did not expect it to be available, but somehow managed to snag the Chefs table!!!! They said they would email a confirmation to me today, still haven't received it, but hopefully soon.

And now, I'm just done, pre 6 am wake-up and 5 phone calls later, but still no cabana.

We're actually thinking of not doing the cabana now anyways. Our original plan was to try to get the chefs table at V&A, but didn't expect to, and our backup was Monsieur Paul. So we figured we would do a day at the cabana followed by a late dinner. But now that the chefs table was available, the dinner is MUCH earlier, so it would really cut into the cabana time so we'd only use it for like 4 hours, which for paying for a full day just seems like a waste. So yeah, now we think we'll just do a pool day and not bother with the cabana.

So yeah, that was a very long post about bookings, haha! It just was a bit of a rollercoaster, but very successful!

Wow you really did well for yourself with getting everything you wanted! Can I join you? This trip sounds like it will be great!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

It was a lot but you had quite the successful booking morning!! Yay!!! I can't wait to hear about this trip.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Around 11, I got a call from V&A to book, and I 100% did not expect it to be available, but somehow managed to snag the Chefs table!!!! They said they would email a confirmation to me today, still haven't received it, but hopefully soon.

That's great! Now you don't have to call back again, unless you decide to get the cabana.

 

[VAtink]

Wow you really did well for yourself with getting everything you wanted! Can I join you? This trip sounds like it will be great!

Haha, I'm so excited that we got all the reservations we wanted! We are so excited for this trip!

 

[VAtink]

It was a lot but you had quite the successful booking morning!! Yay!!! I can't wait to hear about this trip.

Yeah, it was oddly stressful. Which is funny since like last week I mentioned how un-stressful ADR day had become! I actually didn't expect to do everything on Tuesday, I fully expected to have to book the rest of the trip tomorrow morning when our third hotel 60 day mark is, so I think it was a mix of stress/excitement/disbelief, and that was too many emotions at once so just knocked me out for the day! So I'm glad that is over and now we just have to wait for this trip to get here!