adear11
DisDad #800
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2015
Hi All, and welcome to my first ever Pre-Trip report. I've gotta say, this is really rather intimidating. Having read through a bunch of trip reports, I see that there are some very creative and funny people around here, but, alas, I'm afraid I'm not one of them. However, we'll give it the old college try and see what happens.
I think it is customary to give some form of an introduction to start these off, so here goes...
Introductions
I'm Adam, the dad. I have a DW, Amanda, DD(6), and DS(4). My wife and I made a trip to WDW as part of a work conference for me in 2014. We each had previously been on one other trip before we got together. For my kids, this will be their first ever trip to WDW. To say they are excited would be an understatement in the extreme. I ordered a WDW Vacation Planning DVD, and they watch it usually 3-4 times a week.
Backstory
Now for a teensy bit of backstory for this trip. As I said previously, my wife and I took a trip in 2014 as part of a business trip with my company. As my kids at the time were 5 and 3, and the trip was late June, we didn't feel that our kids would fully appreciate Florida weather at that time. Also, the part of the trip that I could participate in was very short. The conference lasts 4 days, and my wife and I went down 3 days early. That would have left my wife alone with both kids. So with all those circumstances, the kids begrudgingly stayed home with the promise that they would get to go on the next trip.
So, after a year off, the company is going back to WDW in 2016. We started planning this trip to be a tag onto the company trip. We were going to go down a few days early and have a mini vacation before my conference started. However, the more we talked about it, the longer we wanted the vacation part to be. So after a fair bit of thought, we decided to separate the two events - family vacation and conference. We decided that we would move the family vacation part to a cooler, less crowded time. So we are going April 4, 2016 - April 12, 2016. Nine days and eight nights at the Beach Club Resort! And as a bonus I get to take two trips just a couple of months apart...Score two points for me!
The Trip
Alright. So, we're booked for 04/04/2016 - 04/12/2016. I present you now with my preliminary, rough schedule for a trip. This is still very much up in the air, and I'm still trying to work out what ADRs we need.
Day 1 - Arrival Day
Based on Delta's currently published scheduled, our trip begins with a 6:00am flight out of JAN with a ~2 hour layover in ATL. This puts us on the ground at MCO at 12:25. With deplaning 4 people, potty breaks, and depending on how busy Magical Express is, I'm anticipating being at the resort by ~2:30 at the latest. Does that sound about right? I'm back and forth about what to do with the afternoon. Do we just veg out at SAB for the afternoon, or try to hit a park with FP in the afternoon? My initial thoughts were to try to score some late afternoon FPs for A&E meet-and-greet at MK to try to go ahead an knock those off the list. And if not that, get an evening ADR at Mexico (La Hacienda de San Angel) and then catch Illuminations. I'm still up in the air about this day, so I'd appreciate some input
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (crowd level 7 according to touringplans.com crowd forcast calendar)
My goal is to score ADRs for CRT around 8. Yes, I'm aware that is like finding a unicorn that "produces" rainbows, but we'll see how it goes.
**The rest of the day is TBD right now.**
Day 3 and 4 - Epcot (CL2 and CL3)
According to touringplans.com, forecasted crowd levels are 2 and 3 for these two days respectively. So, we're going to hit Epcot these days. We'll start day 3 with either an ADR at
Akershus or Cape May for breakfast. From there it isn't clear yet other than, on Day 4, we'll leave Epcot a little after lunch, take a break, then the kids will go to the Sandcastle Club, and mom and dad will go to ADR at California Grill to eat and catch Wishes
Day 5 - Resort Day
This is going to be our main break day. We'll have spent three days in the parks so we'll need a day to sleep in and rest. The only "hard" plan for this day is an ADR for T-REX and some quality time in the Lego store at DTD.
Day 6 and 7 - AK and HS
I'm not sure what order we are going to do these two parks, I do know that whatever day we do HS, we will do a Fantasmic Dinner Package, probably at the Hollywood Brown Derby.
Day 8 - Back to MK
We're absolutely going to do two days in MK. In order to make sure the kids take as much magic home with them as they can, we decided to split the MK days and bookend the trip with it. We may or may not see Wishes on the first day, but we will absolutely see it this day. It will be a wonderful close to the trip. I'm thinking that we may try to do CP before rope drop, but we might decide to just do QS or eat at our room.
Day 9 - Departure Day
Our flight out of MCO, as of right now, departs at 4:30. So we should have time to do any last minute park things. We might try to be at HS at rope drop and get in one last ride on Toy Story Mania, RnR, and TOT. I'm also going to secure earlish morning FP for A&E. This will probably be the first one I get when my window opens. I'll get it first, and then start working my way back towards the front of the trip to see if I can get it earlier, but this will be my fallback if I can't get it any other way. Given the length of my trip, I think I have a good shot at getting a FP we can make on the last day. About 1:00 that afternoon, we take a ferry or monorail to the TTC, and catch a cab back to BC to pick up our stuff at bell services, and then take the cab to MCO. I figured this would be the quickest way to get back to BC instead of waiting on the bus.
And there you have it. This is my rough, eight months out trip plan. I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts.
I think it is customary to give some form of an introduction to start these off, so here goes...
Introductions
I'm Adam, the dad. I have a DW, Amanda, DD(6), and DS(4). My wife and I made a trip to WDW as part of a work conference for me in 2014. We each had previously been on one other trip before we got together. For my kids, this will be their first ever trip to WDW. To say they are excited would be an understatement in the extreme. I ordered a WDW Vacation Planning DVD, and they watch it usually 3-4 times a week.
Backstory
Now for a teensy bit of backstory for this trip. As I said previously, my wife and I took a trip in 2014 as part of a business trip with my company. As my kids at the time were 5 and 3, and the trip was late June, we didn't feel that our kids would fully appreciate Florida weather at that time. Also, the part of the trip that I could participate in was very short. The conference lasts 4 days, and my wife and I went down 3 days early. That would have left my wife alone with both kids. So with all those circumstances, the kids begrudgingly stayed home with the promise that they would get to go on the next trip.
So, after a year off, the company is going back to WDW in 2016. We started planning this trip to be a tag onto the company trip. We were going to go down a few days early and have a mini vacation before my conference started. However, the more we talked about it, the longer we wanted the vacation part to be. So after a fair bit of thought, we decided to separate the two events - family vacation and conference. We decided that we would move the family vacation part to a cooler, less crowded time. So we are going April 4, 2016 - April 12, 2016. Nine days and eight nights at the Beach Club Resort! And as a bonus I get to take two trips just a couple of months apart...Score two points for me!
The Trip
Alright. So, we're booked for 04/04/2016 - 04/12/2016. I present you now with my preliminary, rough schedule for a trip. This is still very much up in the air, and I'm still trying to work out what ADRs we need.
Day 1 - Arrival Day
Based on Delta's currently published scheduled, our trip begins with a 6:00am flight out of JAN with a ~2 hour layover in ATL. This puts us on the ground at MCO at 12:25. With deplaning 4 people, potty breaks, and depending on how busy Magical Express is, I'm anticipating being at the resort by ~2:30 at the latest. Does that sound about right? I'm back and forth about what to do with the afternoon. Do we just veg out at SAB for the afternoon, or try to hit a park with FP in the afternoon? My initial thoughts were to try to score some late afternoon FPs for A&E meet-and-greet at MK to try to go ahead an knock those off the list. And if not that, get an evening ADR at Mexico (La Hacienda de San Angel) and then catch Illuminations. I'm still up in the air about this day, so I'd appreciate some input
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (crowd level 7 according to touringplans.com crowd forcast calendar)
My goal is to score ADRs for CRT around 8. Yes, I'm aware that is like finding a unicorn that "produces" rainbows, but we'll see how it goes.
**The rest of the day is TBD right now.**
Day 3 and 4 - Epcot (CL2 and CL3)
According to touringplans.com, forecasted crowd levels are 2 and 3 for these two days respectively. So, we're going to hit Epcot these days. We'll start day 3 with either an ADR at
Akershus or Cape May for breakfast. From there it isn't clear yet other than, on Day 4, we'll leave Epcot a little after lunch, take a break, then the kids will go to the Sandcastle Club, and mom and dad will go to ADR at California Grill to eat and catch Wishes
Day 5 - Resort Day
This is going to be our main break day. We'll have spent three days in the parks so we'll need a day to sleep in and rest. The only "hard" plan for this day is an ADR for T-REX and some quality time in the Lego store at DTD.
Day 6 and 7 - AK and HS
I'm not sure what order we are going to do these two parks, I do know that whatever day we do HS, we will do a Fantasmic Dinner Package, probably at the Hollywood Brown Derby.
Day 8 - Back to MK
We're absolutely going to do two days in MK. In order to make sure the kids take as much magic home with them as they can, we decided to split the MK days and bookend the trip with it. We may or may not see Wishes on the first day, but we will absolutely see it this day. It will be a wonderful close to the trip. I'm thinking that we may try to do CP before rope drop, but we might decide to just do QS or eat at our room.
Day 9 - Departure Day
Our flight out of MCO, as of right now, departs at 4:30. So we should have time to do any last minute park things. We might try to be at HS at rope drop and get in one last ride on Toy Story Mania, RnR, and TOT. I'm also going to secure earlish morning FP for A&E. This will probably be the first one I get when my window opens. I'll get it first, and then start working my way back towards the front of the trip to see if I can get it earlier, but this will be my fallback if I can't get it any other way. Given the length of my trip, I think I have a good shot at getting a FP we can make on the last day. About 1:00 that afternoon, we take a ferry or monorail to the TTC, and catch a cab back to BC to pick up our stuff at bell services, and then take the cab to MCO. I figured this would be the quickest way to get back to BC instead of waiting on the bus.
And there you have it. This is my rough, eight months out trip plan. I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts.
