Are we crazy? A first-timer's Disneymoon!!

[Araminta18]

Dude, I did the exact same thing for my trip last year--originally booked at All Star Sports, and then switched to Pop! I liked it, though some of the bus lines got a bit long--but there were no giant tour groups or anything there like I saw in some of the All Star lines! I'm sure you'll love it. We did splurge for a preferred room close to the bus stop in the 50s; if you check out touring plans they have pictures of the views from each room and that can help you pick which room/section might be the best for you guys.

 

[Sailormoon2]

we'll be staying at the Grand Floridian!

Pop Century appeals to me the most and with the fact that the rooms are renovated

Pop is the ONLY value resort I have stayed at, and only considered it because of the Renovations (I am a bit of a "pretty princess". LOL). So let me tell you those rooms are fantastic!! I would stay there again in a heart beat!! So much storage space, and bright and clean presentation!!

The resort is quite large, but honestly I didn't find it an issue getting to/from the main building and buses. I stayed in the 70s and was running Dopey (4 races in 4 days) so if anyone should have had an issue walking it would have been me, but I didn't, so I wouldn't really stress about locale.

 

[Sparklysoph]

Dude, I did the exact same thing for my trip last year--originally booked at All Star Sports, and then switched to Pop! I liked it, though some of the bus lines got a bit long--but there were no giant tour groups or anything there like I saw in some of the All Star lines! I'm sure you'll love it. We did splurge for a preferred room close to the bus stop in the 50s; if you check out touring plans they have pictures of the views from each room and that can help you pick which room/section might be the best for you guys.

Oh good, it's not just me with resort indecision! So glad you liked it, I feel really good about the switch and have already been on touring plans checking out the views!

 

[Sparklysoph]

Pop is the ONLY value resort I have stayed at, and only considered it because of the Renovations (I am a bit of a "pretty princess". LOL). So let me tell you those rooms are fantastic!! I would stay there again in a heart beat!! So much storage space, and bright and clean presentation!!

The resort is quite large, but honestly I didn't find it an issue getting to/from the main building and buses. I stayed in the 70s and was running Dopey (4 races in 4 days) so if anyone should have had an issue walking it would have been me, but I didn't, so I wouldn't really stress about locale.

Yay, that makes me feel even better about my decision! I was just not that enthused about staying at one of the All Stars but Pop looks like fun. The renovated rooms were definitely a BIG reason for the switch - they look so much nicer than the dated old rooms at the All Stars. I'm definitely going to need to look at the maps and touring plans to figure out the best room to request but good to know you don't think it will be too much of an issue, even if we end up in the far reaches of the resort!

 

[Sparklysoph]

Hello everyone!

It's been a little while but there have been some updates so I wanted to check-in!

First things first...we booked our flights!!

Yay! That was the one thing that I kept checking and checking. The price was way more than I originally wanted to pay but according to the Hopper app, prices aren't going down between now and when we leave so we decided to just go ahead and book so I could stop thinking about it!

Now last time I wrote, I was mulling over arriving on the Friday or the Saturday. When I first looked at flights, the Saturday flights were way cheaper so that's what I based all our plans on. But I missed those great prices and now the Friday and Saturday flights are about the same. So...I decided to book on Friday! I feel good about this decision. The flight is pretty early on Friday morning and we get into Orlando at about 10:30am. This means we can take Friday to just relax, visit Disney Springs and ease ourselves in.

My original plan had us arriving around the same time on Saturday but we would have had to spend that afternoon/evening in a park and basically jump right in. I'm really happy that we'll have that first day to have a low-key time, I think we'll be tired because Andrei's Dad and his family are only flying back to Europe on the Thursday so between having them to stay and all the wedding festivities, we'll have had a very busy couple of weeks.

So we are flying in on Friday and that also means that we get a full park day on Saturday, hurrah! We haven't totally decided which park to do in the morning (Magic Kingdom will be in the evening so that we can see Happily ever after). I'm leaning towards Hollywood Studios and then having a later start on our Hollywood Studios day on the Wednesday but am not 100% on that. Looking at our schedule, I'm also a bit worried that we don't have enough Magic Kingdom time planned but it's hard with the halloween parties.

The only other thing I have to consider now that we're arriving a day earlier is a hotel for that first night. Of course, there is no availability in our room category for the Friday night at POP. We can upgrade to a pool view for the entire stay for about $210 USD. Not terrible considering that includes an extra night but I'm not really bothered about the pool view anyway. We can book a standard room as a separate booking for that one night but we can't get the Enchanted Escape rate so that one night ends up at around the same price as upgrading for the whole week so that's definitely not worth it. I would love to not spend too much more...I'm not sure whether to just keep waiting and hope I can get a standard room added to my existing reservation or maybe just book a room at Disney Springs...but to be honest I'm not sure we'll save that much and then we also can't use magical express. I really don't know. I'm going to ponder it for a few days. Please let me know if you have any bright ideas or insight!

I do have more honeymoon (but not Disney related) news which I will continue in the next post! I still also have to tell you about my ADRs! Although they've changed several times and probably will again!

 

[Sparklysoph]

In my first post, I said that our original plan was to spend the first week at Disney and the second week in Mexico. This was all planned, I had chosen a swanky resort and that was that...but then we kept reading news reports about crime in Mexico and then the explosions on the passengers boats in Playa del Carmen happened and the travel advisories made us a little nervous. The hotel we had chosen wasn't near Playa del Carmen and wasn't that close to Cancun either so I thought it would be fine. I'm a little more gung-ho about these kinds of things anyway but A is a bit more cautious. I figured because we were off the beaten path, it would be fine but then I read some recent reviews and a couple of them casually mentioned a shoot out that occurred on the beach of our resort in Playa Mujeres. That was kind of the final straw and while I would still love to visit Mexico, I'm not sure that now is the right time for us.

So with Mexico off the table, we had to decide what to do. We went through several options and narrowed it down to the following:

1) Stay at Disney the whole two weeks and have a few resort days and rent a car to do some non-disney day trips, as well as a day or two at Universal, mostly to see Harry Potter as we are both huge fans.

2) Stay at Disney the whole two weeks but do a 3 or 4 night cruise during the middle weekend from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas.

3) Stay at Disney for the first week as planned and do an all-inclusive somewhere other than Mexico for the second week.

I did hours of research, crunched the numbers and presented my findings to Andrei (can you tell I'm actually a giant nerd?) and of course, he really wanted to do the most expensive option!

So what did we decide to do?

JAMAICA!!

While I would have been happy with options 1 or 2, Andrei really wanted to spend that second week in a luxurious resort, lying on the beach, with a constant supply of food and drink at our fingertips and who am I to argue with that?

I think having that second week for just pure relaxation, especially after Disney, will be SO nice and I'm actually really looking forward to it. The resort looks gorgeous and has amazing reviews and now that it's booked, I'm almost as excited for that week as I am for the Disney week....Almost. We don't plan to leave the resort and will just sleep, read, eat, drink and relax.

So we are basically all booked for both parts of the honeymoon! I have been pondering the dining plan but I don't think it makes sense for us. I should probably crunch some numbers to 100% confirm but I think I've pretty much decided that we'll pay out of pocket. Would love to know your thoughts on that as well and what's worked for you.

Next up, I will finally talk about ADRs!

 

[Sailormoon2]

1. I would totally take the POP "upgrade" to pool view across the whole holiday, it gets the booking done, and you're not constantly looking and hoping for something to open up.
2. How awesome that you are going to Jamaica!!

 

[Araminta18]

Jamaica!!!!! How awesome!

I would probably do the Pop "upgrade", but that's just me. No real insight to provide. And sometimes the pool can be loud during the day?

So we are basically all booked for both parts of the honeymoon! I have been pondering the dining plan but I don't think it makes sense for us. I should probably crunch some numbers to 100% confirm but I think I've pretty much decided that we'll pay out of pocket. Would love to know your thoughts on that as well and what's worked for you.

We're not doing the dining plan--we did it the first trip 'cause I was entranced by the convenience of it, but honestly I found it to be more trouble than its worth. Trying to make sure we maximized it, and then being locked into the app + entree + dessert, and then not sure how to handle upgrades to the entree, or other weird orders... We about broke even, but I decided for this trip I'd rather just save up the money and then I definitely have the freedom to order whatever I want (or not order, if I don't want dessert at QS places which I usually don't... ). And the free refillable mugs were great, except for the part where we were too exhausted each night to make the trek back to the food court to refill them (and you can't fill them up at the parks, only at the resorts). THAT BEING SAID, the dining plan now includes alcohol, so that may save you money (we don't drink so I didn't factor that in at all). But overall, if you save up the money beforehand and just decide that you've saved the money up already and you're not going to worry about the price, you've already got the same "convenience" as the dining plan.

 

[Sailormoon2]

For the dinning plan it is really important to do your research. Look at the menus to all the restaurants you would like to go to and assess what you would most likely order, on a normal day, without going out of your way to maximize value.

I have found the following website helpful for getting a good ball park of costs-although it doesn't factor for alcohol.
https://www.distripplanner.com/

 

[Sparklysoph]

1. I would totally take the POP "upgrade" to pool view across the whole holiday, it gets the booking done, and you're not constantly looking and hoping for something to open up.
2. How awesome that you are going to Jamaica!!

I think you're right about the POP upgrade. It takes away a level of stress by staying in the same hotel and room for the whole time. I will have to bite the bullet and book it!

For the dinning plan it is really important to do your research. Look at the menus to all the restaurants you would like to go to and assess what you would most likely order, on a normal day, without going out of your way to maximize value.

I have found the following website helpful for getting a good ball park of costs-although it doesn't factor for alcohol.
https://www.distripplanner.com/

Ooh thanks for the tip about that website, I haven't been on there in all my planning! I've now done a budget of what I think we'll spend and still can't figure out if it makes sense! I still have some number crunching to do!!

 

[Sparklysoph]

Jamaica!!!!! How awesome!

I would probably do the Pop "upgrade", but that's just me. No real insight to provide. And sometimes the pool can be loud during the day?


We're not doing the dining plan--we did it the first trip 'cause I was entranced by the convenience of it, but honestly I found it to be more trouble than its worth. Trying to make sure we maximized it, and then being locked into the app + entree + dessert, and then not sure how to handle upgrades to the entree, or other weird orders... We about broke even, but I decided for this trip I'd rather just save up the money and then I definitely have the freedom to order whatever I want (or not order, if I don't want dessert at QS places which I usually don't... ). And the free refillable mugs were great, except for the part where we were too exhausted each night to make the trek back to the food court to refill them (and you can't fill them up at the parks, only at the resorts). THAT BEING SAID, the dining plan now includes alcohol, so that may save you money (we don't drink so I didn't factor that in at all). But overall, if you save up the money beforehand and just decide that you've saved the money up already and you're not going to worry about the price, you've already got the same "convenience" as the dining plan.

Yes I think I'm leaning towards just doing the POP upgrade and forgetting about it!

I still have some number crunching to do but I think I am leaning towards not doing the dining plan. I'm not sure it will save us much and I think I like the idea of the flexibility of paying oop and ordering exactly what we want and are hungry for at the time. Having said that, I love the all-inclusive convenience and may well change my mind before we leave but we'll see!

I'm going to do a post on my ADRs now, so maybe that will make things clear!

 

[Sparklysoph]

Ok so let's finally talk about my ADRS! I feel like it was SO long ago that I booked these but it was sometime back in April. At the time, I was booked at Disney Springs and so couldn't book everything at once, I had to get up really early each morning and try and get what I wanted for the corresponding day.

I'm actually a morning person and am usually awake pretty early anyway but when you HAVE to be up, it seems like a chore! I managed to get everything I wanted except a dinner at Be Our Guest and a dinner at Ohana. Through the magic of Touring Plans Reservation Finder, I was able to get both of those relatively quickly, which just felt like I was part of some fabulous secret club! Seriously, if you're finding it hard to get the reservation you want, that reservation finder is like magic!

So there are several restaurants I knew we wanted to try. I am SO excited for the food (I've mentioned this before but having been on a pre-wedding Keto diet, I am looking forward to all the carbs). I have changed a few of our ADR's since my initial booking and I have no doubt that there will be more changes to come! There are a couple of my current bookings that I am questioning and a couple I want to try but haven't booked. It's so hard...I want to eat EVERYWHERE!

Let's start at the beginning! A reminder that I'm planning a mid-day break each day, even if we're planning on spending the day and night at the same park!

FRIDAY
We will arrive on the Friday in the morning and take the Magical Express to POP. My plan is that we drop our bags and head to Disney Springs, have a look around, probably do a bit of pre-holiday shopping and have a light-ish lunch. I'm thinking Earl of Sandwich because it's pretty cheap and looks delicious. I really want to try Homecomin' but given that we'll be having a large meal in the evening, I'm trying to be sensible. Eurgh. However, there may also be a Sprinkles cupcake involved at some point...

We'll then head back to the hotel, hopefully check into our room, maybe wander around the resort a bit (or have a nap!) and get ready for dinner, which at the moment (and this is one of the ones I'm questioning) is booked for Sanaa! After not eating bread for so long, that bread service is calling to me!! Having said that, Andrei isn't in love with Indian food; he doesn't hate it, it's just not his first choice. I showed him the menu and he saw the steak and duck options and was confident he could find something he would like! I'm a little more adventurous and the menu looks great to me! Having said that, I'm not sure if this is the best first night meal? I like the idea of the location and seeing the animals but I'm wondering if booking somewhere that I know Andrei (and I) will love would be a better choice to kick off our honeymoon? Having binged on all of the amazing dining reports by @chunkymonkey, I think that Yachtsman Steakhouse looks amazing and am pondering whether to switch our first night to this. If we do, I have actually already booked Sanaa later in the week as an alternative option but I'll get to that. Would love to hear your thoughts.

SATURDAY

Our first day in the parks! This is the extra morning that we've gained by flying in a day early. I'm not 100% set on our morning plans but I think we may go to Hollywood Studios. I think we'll grab breakfast at the hotel. Either in the food court or I'll do a garden grocer order and have some basic granola bars or something that we can have in the morning or bring with us to keep us going on mornings where I don't have breakfast planned. Andrei doesn't like to eat early and doesn't usually have breakfast during the week (he's a big weekend brunch fan... but aren't we all!) so I'm not too worried about this. I have a light lunch/snack tentatively planned at Baseline Taphouse and if we're hungry it will be snacks or maybe a shared quick service lunch. We'll head back to the resort in the afternoon and then go to Magic Kingdom. It's going to be super busy because it's one of the few nights that week that has no Halloween party, so I'm prepared for it to be a bit of a nightmare. It was important that we went this night though because it's one of our only opportunities to see Happily Ever After and also to have dinner at...Be our Guest! This was always on my must-visit list but the breakfasts don't look appealing to me and I heard terrible reviews of dinner so had decided we would probably have lunch here. When they announced the prix-fixe menu, it seemed much more up our street and I'm hoping that it gets good reviews once it starts in July. We have an early-ish dinner so we can catch Happily Ever After!

SUNDAY

This day we will be at Animal Kingdom. I have a breakfast reservation at Tusker House. This is one of the ones I'm considering cancelling. The food looks great but we're not into characters and I know we're paying a premium for that character experience. I'm also a bit worried that with this, Sanaa and Yak and Yeti, we're a bit heavily skewed into the African/Indian food which Andrei doesn't love. If I do end up cancelling, I don't really have a back-up plan, I think we might do a lunch at Satuli Canteen or maybe drinks and nibbles at Nomad lounge. Thoughts on Tusker House? It looks so nice but I'm debating on whether it's a must-do for us this trip...

The other reason I'm debating doing a buffet brunch is because we have dinner at...Ohana and I think two AYCTE meals in one day may be a lot... there is over 10 hours between the reservations though so we may be ok! I'm so excited for this dinner! I keep reading reviews that aren't very good which is a bit worrying but I'm hoping we have a good experience.

MONDAY

Monday we'll be at Epcot all day. Breakfast will be at the hotel and then we have an early lunch reservation at Biergarten. This is another one I'm really looking forward to! The atmosphere looks super fun and I think Andrei will be a big fan of the food and definitely the beer!

I'm not mentioning the communal dining to him because that is so not his scene haha. I think the food and drink will be worth it though.

After our midday break, we'll head back to Epcot and the plan for dinner is just to drink and snack around the world!

TUESDAY

This day I have no ADRs planned! We'll be at Magic Kingdom in the morning and none of the table service restaurants really appealed so I'm planning on a quick service lunch at Columbia Harbour House. Then in the evening we'll be back at Epcot because they have EMH until 11pm and so for dinner we'll be drinking and snacking around the world again!

WEDNESDAY

I think we'll have a bit of a relaxed morning and not head to the park for rope drop as we'll have had a late-ish night at Epcot the night before, so breakfast will probably be at the resort food court. Today will be our full Hollywood Studios day. I have a Sci-Fi dine-in lunch reservation in the early afternoon. This is another one I think looks super fun. I know the food isn't meant to be fantastic but the atmosphere looks awesome and if we stick to burgers and fries, I think we'll be fine. The reason I went for a later lunch is because I'm planning on the Star Wars dessert party that evening! I don't have any other dinner reservation and I'm hoping that with the savoury options and desserts, we'll be ok. Those of you who have done this, do you think if we eat at 2pm, we'll be ok not eating until the party and having that as our dinner?

THURSDAY

Today we're planning on being at Epcot in the morning and we have a breakfast reservation at Garden Grill! This breakfast looks delicious and the rotating restaurant looks like a nice experience. I know this is a character meal but Chip and Dale seem fun and it's not too expensive. After our midday break, we'll be heading to Animal Kingdom and right now I have two reservations made: An early dinner at Yak and Yeti and a later dinner at Sanaa. My thinking is that if I cancel the Sanaa dinner on our first night, I'll keep the Sanaa reservation and if I don't, I'll keep Yak and Yeti. Thoughts?

FRIDAY

Our last day! I'm not 100% sure of our park plans but I feel like we're lacking time at Magic Kingdom so that's what I have pencilled in for this day. If we do this, it will be a quick service lunch somewhere. In the afternoon/evening, we'll head to Disney Springs and I'm planning on booking the VOID Star Wars VR experience as a surprise for Andrei as he's a big Star Wars fan and he likes VR so it's a win-win! I have a dinner reservation at Raglan Road which seems like a fun last night dinner.

SATURDAY

Right now I have a 9am breakfast reservation at Boma, as I've heard the breakfast is amazing. I think this might be a bit ambitious though as our flight to Jamaica is at 2:30, so I think Magical Express will pick us up at 11:30? This seems like kind of a rush so I imagine I will cancel this and we'll just do a food court breakfast at the resort. Thoughts on this? Would be great to keep the reservation but I HATE rushing and I am a stickler for being on time so I don't want to add any unnecessary stress!

Phew so that's it. Anyone still here? This turned into a novel! I would love to hear your thoughts about our reservations and whether anything looks off or we're missing anything that we should definitely do.

 

[Sailormoon2]

is booked for Sanaa

This is my all time favourite restaurant on property. But I also love Indian. You could always just go for the bread service and animal views.

Thoughts on Tusker House? It looks so nice but I'm debating on whether it's a must-do for us this trip...

This is my most favourite breakfast on property (although I am trying Boma for the first time in August, so that may change). There are so many food options that you won't feel like this is particularly indian/african at all. At least I don't, but then I have an adventurous palette.
I have been twice with people who weren't "into characters" and they had a blast.
But I hear you on it being pricey so...

we have a breakfast reservation at Garden Grill!

You may want to stick with the one (cheaper) character meal. If you do that I would move your Boma adr to the day that you were going to AK, if it is a 9am opening. Then you could Uber to Boma and then take the short bus from there to the park.

 

[Sparklysoph]

You may want to stick with the one (cheaper) character meal. If you do that I would move your Boma adr to the day that you were going to AK, if it is a 9am opening. Then you could Uber to Boma and then take the short bus from there to the park.

I think you're right about only doing one character meal and that is a great idea about Boma! I will have to look into it and see what's available! My only worry with that is that my fiancé doesn't like to eat too early and I'm not sure he'll appreciate a PPO breakfast...he might just have to suck it up haha!

 

[Araminta18]

I'm actually a morning person and am usually awake pretty early anyway but when you HAVE to be up, it seems like a chore! I managed to get everything I wanted except a dinner at Be Our Guest and a dinner at Ohana. Through the magic of Touring Plans Reservation Finder, I was able to get both of those relatively quickly, which just felt like I was part of some fabulous secret club! Seriously, if you're finding it hard to get the reservation you want, that reservation finder is like magic!

SO TRUE! That ADR finder is the best. I am such a fan--it got me Cinderella's Royal Table and BOG when I booked like 4 weeks ahead of time.

However, there may also be a Sprinkles cupcake involved at some point...

Do it! Apparently they have frosting shots?! I want to do that, since the frosting is always the best part of the cupcake for me

get ready for dinner, which at the moment (and this is one of the ones I'm questioning) is booked for Sanaa! After not eating bread for so long, that bread service is calling to me!! Having said that, Andrei isn't in love with Indian food; he doesn't hate it, it's just not his first choice. I showed him the menu and he saw the steak and duck options and was confident he could find something he would like! I'm a little more adventurous and the menu looks great to me! Having said that, I'm not sure if this is the best first night meal?

So, I've never eaten there, but that bread service is why I'm booking it. It looks SO GOOD! And if Andrei is confident he can find something he'll like, I say go for it. But you also don't want an ADR that you're worrying about, so... *shrugs*

t was important that we went this night though because it's one of our only opportunities to see Happily Ever After and also to have dinner at...Be our Guest! This was always on my must-visit list but the breakfasts don't look appealing to me and I heard terrible reviews of dinner so had decided we would probably have lunch here. When they announced the prix-fixe menu, it seemed much more up our street and I'm hoping that it gets good reviews once it starts in July. We have an early-ish dinner so we can catch Happily Ever After!

Dinner always gets such crap reviews, but I've loved it every single time. I'm very curious about the new menu, but I'm sure you'll love it. And even if not, that ambiance alone is worth it. And we're doing the same thing--early dinner so we can catch HEA!

An early dinner at Yak and Yeti and a later dinner at Sanaa. My thinking is that if I cancel the Sanaa dinner on our first night, I'll keep the Sanaa reservation and if I don't, I'll keep Yak and Yeti. Thoughts?

Yak n Yeti is really good too.... just tossing that out there!

 

[Raeven]

Having binged on all of the amazing dining reports by @chunkymonkey, I think that Yachtsman Steakhouse looks amazing and am pondering whether to switch our first night to this.

Yachtsman is so good! I'd definitely go with that and do Sanaa later.

If I do end up cancelling, I don't really have a back-up plan, I think we might do a lunch at Satuli Canteen or maybe drinks and nibbles at Nomad lounge. Thoughts on Tusker House? It looks so nice but I'm debating on whether it's a must-do for us this trip...

I do enjoy Tusker House, but if you don't care about the characters I'd do Nomad Lounge/Satuli Canteen they have a lot of good choices, but if you're looking for something similar to TH without characters, Boma is really good too.

do you think if we eat at 2pm, we'll be ok not eating until the party and having that as our dinner?

Yeah, at least for us that dessert party was more like another meal.

An early dinner at Yak and Yeti and a later dinner at Sanaa. My thinking is that if I cancel the Sanaa dinner on our first night, I'll keep the Sanaa reservation and if I don't, I'll keep Yak and Yeti. Thoughts?

Yeah, if you decide to keep Sanaa on the other day I say do both, they're both good restaurants. If you can only do one I'd pick Sanaa though.

 

[Sparklysoph]

SO TRUE! That ADR finder is the best. I am such a fan--it got me Cinderella's Royal Table and BOG when I booked like 4 weeks ahead of time.

It is so amazing! I was upset when I couldn't get BOG and Ohana and I was so thrilled when I managed to get reservations through it so easily! It really takes away the worry of not getting what you want!

So, I've never eaten there, but that bread service is why I'm booking it. It looks SO GOOD! And if Andrei is confident he can find something he'll like, I say go for it. But you also don't want an ADR that you're worrying about, so... *shrugs*

The Bread service is what is selling it to me! I think I might go for Yachtsman for the first night and do Sanaa instead of Yak and Yeti on our animal kingdom day...maybe...I'm still not 100% decided!!

Dinner always gets such crap reviews, but I've loved it every single time. I'm very curious about the new menu, but I'm sure you'll love it. And even if not, that ambiance alone is worth it. And we're doing the same thing--early dinner so we can catch HEA!

BOG was definitely a must do for me, I'm so excited and I'm really hoping that they step their game up with the new dinner and that it's fitting of the beautiful surroundings!

 

[Sparklysoph]

Yachtsman is so good! I'd definitely go with that and do Sanaa later.

I really think I'm leaning towards this! It seems like a perfect first night dinner to celebrate our honeymoon!

I do enjoy Tusker House, but if you don't care about the characters I'd do Nomad Lounge/Satuli Canteen they have a lot of good choices, but if you're looking for something similar to TH without characters, Boma is really good too.

I feel like I might cancel Tusker House and have a re-think. Or I might just keep it for now and decide closer to the time. It's so hard. I have FOMO and want to try everything!

Yeah, at least for us that dessert party was more like another meal.

Oh good, thanks for confirming! I figured as there's some savoury options too, we'll be fine if we just have a late-ish lunch.

 

[Sparklysoph]

A brief hotel update!

Last time I left you I was trying to decide what to do for the night of our arrival, as far as the hotel. I've been checking pretty much everyday to see if I can just book that Friday night as a standalone booking or extend our original booking to include the Friday night.

What I've found is that if I added in that Friday night to our original booking, we suddenly had to upgrade our room for the entire trip and while the upgrade earlier this week was to a standard pool view room, which wasn't a huge difference, the only thing available now was a preferred room, which added on more than I wanted to pay.

So then I looked at just booking Friday night as a separate booking but until today, that wasn't even an option. When I searched today, I could get Friday night by itself but it was a preferred room, which came to about $190USD. Not terrible and it is just for one night and then we would keep our original booking intact. I almost went ahead and booked but for some reason I checked to see what was available for both Friday and Saturday night. Well with those dates, I was able to get a standard pool view room for both nights for a cheaper rate.

So what I have done is booked Friday and Saturday night as a new booking in a standard pool view room. Then I modified our original booking and now I have us checking in on the Sunday instead of the Saturday. When I did the Disney math, it was cheaper (although not by much!) to make a new room booking for Friday and Saturday in a standard pool view and make our original check in date one day later than to keep our original booking and just add on the Friday night in a preferred room.

Are you still with me?!

I hope this makes sense! I have been second guessing myself but I think it all makes sense. So we are now at Pop from Friday through to the following Saturday, albeit with two bookings, one for Friday and Saturday night and one from Sunday to Saturday.

I'll still keep looking and see if we can add on that Friday night in a standard room but if we can't I'm just happy to know that we have a hotel for our whole trip!

 

[Sailormoon2]

This totally makes sense, in a weird Disney math kind of way