bettymae1121
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2010
Pre-trip Report, part 2 – and it all started with…a metric ton of planning!
Link to Part 1
Author’s Note: Even though I’m not going to post this pre-trip report until just before our vacation in April 2018, I wrote Parts 1 and 2 in October and November of 2017.
So the reason I titled this trip report “A Whole New World” isn’t because I’m a huge fan of Aladdin. I mean, I like it and all and hey, Robin Williams! Still, not my motivation for the title.
I’ve been to WDW 6 times in my life, 5 of which as an adult who has planned the trip, plus 4 more DLR trips. So I am not a Disney vacation novice.
I’m also a travel agent with 20 years’ experience. Mostly corporate travel and not leisure, but still.
This is a girl who knows how to plan a WDW trip is what I’m saying.
On the other hand, our last trip was May of 2011. The Fantasyland expansion was still under construction and Toy Story Land was still a twinkle in some Disney employee’s eye, thus DHS was still fully functional. Fastpass still involved paper slips and lacked a plus sign. Pandora was just a charm bracelet.
Hell, the Jedi Order still worked for Lucas.
Okay, so things have changed a smidge. Maybe this calls for some research. Off to Amazon to order a certain not-official guide book for my iPad. And I start to read.
and read...
and read some more…
kept reading…
Oh boy.
Advance reservations for rides…SIXTY days in advance? ADR’s at 180? And you’d BETTER be online at 6 AM (Eastern, no less) if you even have a hope of a hard-to-get place like BoG or CRT.
Okay CRT was always a hard gig to score, at least some things stay the same.
Now I’m a Type-A person who likes to plan, hell “planning things” is my profession and how we pay the bills around here. But come on already, really?
But the world (or the World) is not always the way we would have it, so all we can do is roll with it. Still, this was a completely different World than I had been used to back when I planned my first trip in ’98 (and hence the title of this report!). I’m feeling like I spent my whole life learning to dance a perfect Waltz, only to have the orchestra strike up a Tango. Sure it’s still dancing but I don’t really know the steps anymore. It’s almost disorienting. And I get the feeling that if I’m not careful I’m going to trip over my feet and land flat on my face (aaaand that’s enough with the ballroom dancing analogy…).
So at this point it’s the end of September 2017 still (hey, I warned you this was a long pre-trip report!), and I had just gotten the green light from Grumpy for the trip. First order of business, select the week. Go over spring break? Be the responsible parent that keeps her kid in school? LOL, not with those airfares and park crowds. Pull the kid from school it is then. Like Goldilocks, however, I don’t want it too cold (nope to Jan. and Feb.) or too crowded (nixes March and 1st week of April) or too close to the end of school (so May is out). Mid-April’s looking juuuust right!
My first choice was April1 14 for 8 nights, but Dolphin insisted it was sold out some nights that week. I told it that it was crazy, but Dolphin held its ground and wouldn’t let me book. Nuts. So with the 1st choice disqualified, the runner up of April 21 was chosen. 8 nights at the Dolphin using Starwood points for the win!
High airfare? Hotel points? You’re thinking to yourself right now “wait, didn’t she say she’s a travel agent? Don’t you guys travel for free or get crazy huge discounts?”. Due to a quirk of my employment, while I’m an agent I don’t qualify for the usual cards that prove me as such, so alas no travel discounts for me. I used to get free airfare on a specific airline, but that perk dried up about two years ago. So I either pay full freight or cash in points like everyone else.
Anyway, I now have the hotel booked, and just in time too because the 180 day window for my ADR’s is fast approaching. I start a new spreadsheet and start getting organized. I developed this spreadsheet format for the first trip that Grumpy and I took when we were freshly engaged back in ’04, then it was just a way to track “which park what day”, ADR’s, flight info, etc. I’m a very “visual” person and seeing it all laid out in front of me really helps in keeping everything straight and making sure the overall itinerary makes sense. It worked so well that I added the “budget” part to it for our honeymoon in ’05 and I’ve used it ever since.
Not only does it give me the “what park what day” info, but estimated (or actual when pre-paid like CRT) meal costs, and other budgeted amounts for each element of the trip. I also include confirmation numbers where needed (not so much these days with MDX) and make notes to remind myself of things (like the 60 day FP+ date). It’s basically the whole trip in one tidy package. When still in the planning phase I can easily switch around park days and restaurants to figure out what makes sense for us. Then once I decide I like what I have I can use it to keep me organized when making ADRs (and later FP+).
What does this wonderful organizational tool look like so that I may make my own, you ask? Well it’s nothing fancy but it gets the job done. Here’s a screen shot for anyone that’s curious, this is the top half. At this point it has my confirmed ADR times, I’ll add our FP+ times as I get those booked in Feb. 2018.
And here is the shot of the bottom, where you can see the totals:
So once I got the framework of the spreadsheet set up, all that was left was deciding which park, what day and then where to eat. After a lot of back and forth (and forth and back and nattering at Grumpy until he threatened to drop out of the trip and take his own vacation camping in the Andes if I didn’t make up my dang mind already) the above schedule was what I finally settled on. I wanted a lot of time in MK and decent time in Epcot while still getting in full days at both AK and DHS, plus also getting one “pool day” in the middle of the trip. Ideally, I wanted to have dinner at CRT on the first day, and end the trip with MK fireworks the night before we fly home.
We also discovered Kona Café at Poly on our 1st trip (as a couple) in ’04. Loved it so much we ate there several times on that trip, but haven’t managed to get back since (I think I tried last time but couldn’t get an ADR that would work). Since we are staying at Dolphin, I had the idea we’d spend a morning at Epcot then use the monorail to hop to MK and stop at Poly for lunch at Kona along the way. My very first WDW trip at age 7, we stayed at CR and naturally took the monorail. I thought it was the coolest thing in the galaxy. And I know Princess-Jedi Abby will feel the same. So I worked that in as well.
If you are wondering why I didn’t budget breakfast most mornings it’s because I plan on doing a grocery stop and getting food for the room. We aren’t big breakfast eaters to begin with, and even breakfast in the hotel food court is going to eat up more time than we want in the mornings. Nothing wrong with a bowl of cereal or instant oatmeal and a piece of fruit (and for me…coffee. All. The. Coffee.).
Lunches for the most part will be counter-service, with dinner being our sit-down meal for the day (with the exception of our last full day, where that’s reversed). I’ve budgeted by checking the pricing on the menus for each location (adding tax and tips as needed) and gave a generous snack allowance even though I’ll be picking up snacks to carry with us in the parks on the grocery stop. DH is a big eater and never passes a turkey leg stand without stopping, and I’ve been known to partake of a Mickey Bar or two (dozen)…
I also planned on two “special events” and budgeted them separately from meals (since they aren’t meals, technically – although food is involved). First is the Frozen Desert Party, and the second is the Plaza Fireworks Desert Party/Viewing. I mentioned earlier I’ve been to WDW a bunch of times. I’ve waited 60-90 minutes - sometimes longer - for prime viewing/seating for shows.
I’m so over it.
I’d much rather pay (through the nose, as it turns out) for what amounts to a secured spot with at least a decent view than stand/sit around for hours waiting. This time can be spent on better things, like oh I don’t know, rides or shows or character meet and greets. And we did those kinds of waits without a kid in tow. I know my child, she’s a really good kid but even she won’t be that patient. 30 minutes? Sure we can keep her distracted and more or less happy. Longer than that and it’s just annoying and frustrating for all involved (and to those who may be seated around us – you’re welcome!). And we’re planning to do the RoL dinner package at AK for the same reason. Plus the Frozen party at Epcot includes a ride on Frozen Ever After once Illuminations is over, between that, the included alcohol AND the prime viewing spot…
With my spreadsheet completed, all that was left to do was wait a few days until the 180 mark and start booking ADR’s on MDE. The glitch in this plan is that as some of you probably know, while Dolphin (and sister Swan) are on Disney property and get many of the same perks as true Disney resorts, they are in fact owned by Sheraton/Westin and there are some important differences. One of these is that while guests at these hotels do get 180 ADR’s, it’s just that – 180 days. This means that I have to book our ADR’s for 4/22 (and only 4/22) on 10/24. I can’t book beyond 4/22. On 10/25 I could book ADRs for 4/23, and so on. Lucky for me I wanted only 2 truly hard-to-get ADR’s and both for the same day, BoG for lunch and CRT for dinner on our first park day. This meant that 10/24 was the only day I had to get up at Zero Dark Thirty to get online with MDX.
And I did just that, and scored them both. CRT is an hour earlier than I had hoped, but still it’s workable (an early dinner means a late-night snack, right?) The rest of the week I just made each ADR at some point during the day when I had a few minutes, and had zero problems with any of them.
The one exception is the Frozen desert party at Epcot. This party is not held nightly and for whatever reason Disney doesn’t announce dates and open parties for ADRs until well under the 180 mark. So that’s going to have to be carefully watched and booked later down the road.
So at this point there isn’t a whole lot left to do until I’m closer to the 60 day FP+ date (2/20 for those keeping score at home). I do still need to book the airline tickets, just waiting to see if fares will drop a bit first, as well as buy the park passes. And of course, wait for the April Frozen party dates to be announced and opened for booking. Once I secure the FP+ in February I’ll book the town car for both here at home and Orlando, and that will wrap up all the “bookings” I need to do.
Oh and trip insurance. Although at this point the Universe really owes us a solid.
Next up: Pre-trip Report, Part 3 - Park touring plans, and FP+ Moonlight Madness!
Link to Part 1
Author’s Note: Even though I’m not going to post this pre-trip report until just before our vacation in April 2018, I wrote Parts 1 and 2 in October and November of 2017.
So the reason I titled this trip report “A Whole New World” isn’t because I’m a huge fan of Aladdin. I mean, I like it and all and hey, Robin Williams! Still, not my motivation for the title.
I’ve been to WDW 6 times in my life, 5 of which as an adult who has planned the trip, plus 4 more DLR trips. So I am not a Disney vacation novice.
I’m also a travel agent with 20 years’ experience. Mostly corporate travel and not leisure, but still.
This is a girl who knows how to plan a WDW trip is what I’m saying.
On the other hand, our last trip was May of 2011. The Fantasyland expansion was still under construction and Toy Story Land was still a twinkle in some Disney employee’s eye, thus DHS was still fully functional. Fastpass still involved paper slips and lacked a plus sign. Pandora was just a charm bracelet.
Hell, the Jedi Order still worked for Lucas.
Okay, so things have changed a smidge. Maybe this calls for some research. Off to Amazon to order a certain not-official guide book for my iPad. And I start to read.
and read...
and read some more…
kept reading…
Oh boy.
Advance reservations for rides…SIXTY days in advance? ADR’s at 180? And you’d BETTER be online at 6 AM (Eastern, no less) if you even have a hope of a hard-to-get place like BoG or CRT.
Okay CRT was always a hard gig to score, at least some things stay the same.
Now I’m a Type-A person who likes to plan, hell “planning things” is my profession and how we pay the bills around here. But come on already, really?
But the world (or the World) is not always the way we would have it, so all we can do is roll with it. Still, this was a completely different World than I had been used to back when I planned my first trip in ’98 (and hence the title of this report!). I’m feeling like I spent my whole life learning to dance a perfect Waltz, only to have the orchestra strike up a Tango. Sure it’s still dancing but I don’t really know the steps anymore. It’s almost disorienting. And I get the feeling that if I’m not careful I’m going to trip over my feet and land flat on my face (aaaand that’s enough with the ballroom dancing analogy…).
So at this point it’s the end of September 2017 still (hey, I warned you this was a long pre-trip report!), and I had just gotten the green light from Grumpy for the trip. First order of business, select the week. Go over spring break? Be the responsible parent that keeps her kid in school? LOL, not with those airfares and park crowds. Pull the kid from school it is then. Like Goldilocks, however, I don’t want it too cold (nope to Jan. and Feb.) or too crowded (nixes March and 1st week of April) or too close to the end of school (so May is out). Mid-April’s looking juuuust right!
My first choice was April1 14 for 8 nights, but Dolphin insisted it was sold out some nights that week. I told it that it was crazy, but Dolphin held its ground and wouldn’t let me book. Nuts. So with the 1st choice disqualified, the runner up of April 21 was chosen. 8 nights at the Dolphin using Starwood points for the win!
High airfare? Hotel points? You’re thinking to yourself right now “wait, didn’t she say she’s a travel agent? Don’t you guys travel for free or get crazy huge discounts?”. Due to a quirk of my employment, while I’m an agent I don’t qualify for the usual cards that prove me as such, so alas no travel discounts for me. I used to get free airfare on a specific airline, but that perk dried up about two years ago. So I either pay full freight or cash in points like everyone else.
Anyway, I now have the hotel booked, and just in time too because the 180 day window for my ADR’s is fast approaching. I start a new spreadsheet and start getting organized. I developed this spreadsheet format for the first trip that Grumpy and I took when we were freshly engaged back in ’04, then it was just a way to track “which park what day”, ADR’s, flight info, etc. I’m a very “visual” person and seeing it all laid out in front of me really helps in keeping everything straight and making sure the overall itinerary makes sense. It worked so well that I added the “budget” part to it for our honeymoon in ’05 and I’ve used it ever since.
Not only does it give me the “what park what day” info, but estimated (or actual when pre-paid like CRT) meal costs, and other budgeted amounts for each element of the trip. I also include confirmation numbers where needed (not so much these days with MDX) and make notes to remind myself of things (like the 60 day FP+ date). It’s basically the whole trip in one tidy package. When still in the planning phase I can easily switch around park days and restaurants to figure out what makes sense for us. Then once I decide I like what I have I can use it to keep me organized when making ADRs (and later FP+).
What does this wonderful organizational tool look like so that I may make my own, you ask? Well it’s nothing fancy but it gets the job done. Here’s a screen shot for anyone that’s curious, this is the top half. At this point it has my confirmed ADR times, I’ll add our FP+ times as I get those booked in Feb. 2018.
And here is the shot of the bottom, where you can see the totals:
So once I got the framework of the spreadsheet set up, all that was left was deciding which park, what day and then where to eat. After a lot of back and forth (and forth and back and nattering at Grumpy until he threatened to drop out of the trip and take his own vacation camping in the Andes if I didn’t make up my dang mind already) the above schedule was what I finally settled on. I wanted a lot of time in MK and decent time in Epcot while still getting in full days at both AK and DHS, plus also getting one “pool day” in the middle of the trip. Ideally, I wanted to have dinner at CRT on the first day, and end the trip with MK fireworks the night before we fly home.
We also discovered Kona Café at Poly on our 1st trip (as a couple) in ’04. Loved it so much we ate there several times on that trip, but haven’t managed to get back since (I think I tried last time but couldn’t get an ADR that would work). Since we are staying at Dolphin, I had the idea we’d spend a morning at Epcot then use the monorail to hop to MK and stop at Poly for lunch at Kona along the way. My very first WDW trip at age 7, we stayed at CR and naturally took the monorail. I thought it was the coolest thing in the galaxy. And I know Princess-Jedi Abby will feel the same. So I worked that in as well.
If you are wondering why I didn’t budget breakfast most mornings it’s because I plan on doing a grocery stop and getting food for the room. We aren’t big breakfast eaters to begin with, and even breakfast in the hotel food court is going to eat up more time than we want in the mornings. Nothing wrong with a bowl of cereal or instant oatmeal and a piece of fruit (and for me…coffee. All. The. Coffee.).
Lunches for the most part will be counter-service, with dinner being our sit-down meal for the day (with the exception of our last full day, where that’s reversed). I’ve budgeted by checking the pricing on the menus for each location (adding tax and tips as needed) and gave a generous snack allowance even though I’ll be picking up snacks to carry with us in the parks on the grocery stop. DH is a big eater and never passes a turkey leg stand without stopping, and I’ve been known to partake of a Mickey Bar or two (dozen)…
I also planned on two “special events” and budgeted them separately from meals (since they aren’t meals, technically – although food is involved). First is the Frozen Desert Party, and the second is the Plaza Fireworks Desert Party/Viewing. I mentioned earlier I’ve been to WDW a bunch of times. I’ve waited 60-90 minutes - sometimes longer - for prime viewing/seating for shows.
I’m so over it.
I’d much rather pay (through the nose, as it turns out) for what amounts to a secured spot with at least a decent view than stand/sit around for hours waiting. This time can be spent on better things, like oh I don’t know, rides or shows or character meet and greets. And we did those kinds of waits without a kid in tow. I know my child, she’s a really good kid but even she won’t be that patient. 30 minutes? Sure we can keep her distracted and more or less happy. Longer than that and it’s just annoying and frustrating for all involved (and to those who may be seated around us – you’re welcome!). And we’re planning to do the RoL dinner package at AK for the same reason. Plus the Frozen party at Epcot includes a ride on Frozen Ever After once Illuminations is over, between that, the included alcohol AND the prime viewing spot…
With my spreadsheet completed, all that was left to do was wait a few days until the 180 mark and start booking ADR’s on MDE. The glitch in this plan is that as some of you probably know, while Dolphin (and sister Swan) are on Disney property and get many of the same perks as true Disney resorts, they are in fact owned by Sheraton/Westin and there are some important differences. One of these is that while guests at these hotels do get 180 ADR’s, it’s just that – 180 days. This means that I have to book our ADR’s for 4/22 (and only 4/22) on 10/24. I can’t book beyond 4/22. On 10/25 I could book ADRs for 4/23, and so on. Lucky for me I wanted only 2 truly hard-to-get ADR’s and both for the same day, BoG for lunch and CRT for dinner on our first park day. This meant that 10/24 was the only day I had to get up at Zero Dark Thirty to get online with MDX.
And I did just that, and scored them both. CRT is an hour earlier than I had hoped, but still it’s workable (an early dinner means a late-night snack, right?) The rest of the week I just made each ADR at some point during the day when I had a few minutes, and had zero problems with any of them.
The one exception is the Frozen desert party at Epcot. This party is not held nightly and for whatever reason Disney doesn’t announce dates and open parties for ADRs until well under the 180 mark. So that’s going to have to be carefully watched and booked later down the road.
So at this point there isn’t a whole lot left to do until I’m closer to the 60 day FP+ date (2/20 for those keeping score at home). I do still need to book the airline tickets, just waiting to see if fares will drop a bit first, as well as buy the park passes. And of course, wait for the April Frozen party dates to be announced and opened for booking. Once I secure the FP+ in February I’ll book the town car for both here at home and Orlando, and that will wrap up all the “bookings” I need to do.
Oh and trip insurance. Although at this point the Universe really owes us a solid.
Next up: Pre-trip Report, Part 3 - Park touring plans, and FP+ Moonlight Madness!
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