Elizabeth Smith
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 7, 2017
Double Digit Days and Dining Plan Dread (and MORE!)
As I write this, we are merely 96 days away from our upcoming trip and a LOT has happened since my last update. First, my birthday passed in August and now I'm 24. (Woo!) Then my car decided to die on me. (Boo.) And so I bought a new car. (Woo!) Which means we just spend a bunch of money and added a car payment to our monthly bills. (Boo.) So lots of ups and downs in the last month or so. . . (I am both at once).
But!! I am determined to let nothing get in the way of our next trip, which seems to get more and more expensive by the day, in spite of discounts being added to my trip.
To recap: 8 nights at Port Orleans Riverside, King Size bed (briefly, we were upgraded to a Royal Room before I put the kibosh on that needless extra expense), 7 day park hoppers, and Disney Dining Plan????
See, there's the rub. I'm trying to determine if the DDP is really even worth it for us now. It includes alcoholic beverages now, which we don't drink. I know we're really not "paying" for them, but we ARE paying for them. And I know one can order non-alcoholic "specialty" drinks on the DDP, but if I'm being 100% honest... I just want water!! Then, I take into consideration all of the desserts I will be too full to eat and all the appetizers I would rather have, and the fact that I rarely order the most expensive menu items.... And I just can't make it work for me. But the DH wants it... despite my best research and efforts otherwise. And I understand where he is coming from too. I mean, he knows he can have 2 snacks everyday, whereas if we're paying out of pocket, he might hesitate to get that extra rice krispie Mickey head or that churro or that pepper jack pretzel or... Now my mouth is watering. Plus its nice to have the food budget settled 100 days out, verses making decisions in real time. But I just want to save money!!!!
(While we are on the subject of Dining, I did move our Via Napoli reservation up to 5:15 to give us more time to get back to DHS to watch Fantasmic on the 17th.)
Now... Onto crowds....
Last I came to you with a crowd level update, things were generally looking less crowded. Well, things are changing again.
on January 13th, Magic Kingdom is up to a 4.
on January 15th, Magic Kingdom increased to a 4 and Hollywood Studios went from like a 2 to a 7!
on January 16th, Animal Kingdom increase to a 6.
on January 18th, Magic Kingdom increased to a 6.
and January 19th, Animal Kingdom is at a 7.
I have decided not to take much stock in these ratings. They seem to change faster than touring plans can even keep up with. And I want to be clear that I respect touring plans but... information flips around like crazy!
And finally, my feelings so far on planning this trip...
I am not enjoying the planning process as much this time. Of course, last go around, I had to learn the ins and outs of MDE, and of ADRs and FP+... I had no idea what the parks were really laid out like... I would be trying all of the restaurants out for the first time... I don't know. I guess this time around, I don't have as much to obsess over. This time, I'm worried more about the budget, since we didn't give ourselves nearly as much time to save up as last time.
Looking forward to fast pass day, which is coming up a month and 5 days from now on November 13th, I need to get in the mindset of planning now, because I want to make sure that I have my days really organized and prioritized. And I think that I'll enjoy the planning process more as I get closer to that day!