Carla1183
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2016
Writing this up in hopes that I'll chase away my post-trip blues updating it in 2 weeks with the post-trip details!
Who we are!
I'm the mom, traveling with my husband, 6 year old daughter, and 4 year old son. I finally talked my husband into this trip by telling him "This will be the last year she might possibly still believe they are legit princesses!"
Here's a shot of my family, and then the kiddos at Halloween in all of their Halloween Descendants glory
Our trip!
We're going November 14-20, after a year of planning! When I convinced husband to say yes last November, he said we could go in January. I quickly realized we were already about 40 days out and i panicked and asked for a year to plan.
I'm a researcher by nature and got sucked in hard to the forums and research. This board has been a God-send! If I could have only 2 resources it would have been this board and Touring Plans (I won't choose just one and you can't make me!).
I've spent the last year forcing the kids to watch about every Disney movie under the sun so they know some characters!
Offisite stay!
After hemming and hawing, reading every blog and thread and thinking about our family, we decided to stay offsite at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Partially because the more I could make this a 'budget' trip, the more likely I think I am to talk my husband into going back! We got a 1 bedroom (so we can have a separately sleeping area from the kids on the pull-out couch) for about $700 for 6 nights. The price difference between that and a WDW resort quickly made the cons list seem less dramatic
As far as I can tell for offsite:
pros: Space/Kitchen/COST!
cons: 30 day FPs (I'll go into more detail, but this became a JOB getting what I wanted!), 180 day day-of meal reservations (again, got what I wanted, but not without some serious stalking!), having to rent a car/pay for parking, No EMH, no dining plan.
All those things aside, so far I am not regretting offisite. Actually kind of looking forward to the flexibility of having a car. But we will see how I feel when we get to reality time!
Let's Eat!
We are fairly casual when it comes to meals, and didn't feel a need to do a ton of character meals for the prices. We wanted to do one big princess meal, and I really wanted a BOG lunch to see the decor and get what's seems to be a pretty good meal for the price for QS. I'm interested to see if I'll wish we had more TS for the break, but the few we did have stressed me out with my Touring Plans because they are so inflexible! Kudos to those of you who put your trips together with 2 planned sit down meals a day!
For reservations we have the following:
Akershus breakfast on our first day. When I was finding a PPO pretty much impossible due to being offsite, I decided to do the latest time we could do and still do breakfast (the breakfast food appeals much more to my simple-taste husband!), so we have a 10:45 on our first day.
Whispering Canyon dinner one night. This looked kind of fun with the silly antics, and the all you can eat BBQ will appeal big time to my husband!
BOG late lunch on our last day. The plan is to go in late and try to get our little ones to hang until fireworks. We'll see!
The rest of our trip we are going to do QS, or eat in the room or Disney Springs if we go in late.
The game plan!
Using the crowd calendars and touring plans as much as possible, I tried to get a good idea of which parks to do which days. I'm an overplanner, so I've got all this planned down to the minute with a TP, BUT I absolutely don't mind being 100% flexible. My kids are 4 and 6, I'm not an idiot, and I won't be dragging them along tapping my watch. We'll add, skip, maneuver however seems right! I just don't want us standing around saying "Where should we go next? I dunno...let's get in this 2 hour line bc we don't know what to do!"
My husband is a teacher and can only take 3 days off school so we have an evening flight and get in about 8pm, so straight to bed!
Day 1 - Epcot - Planning to RD Meet & Greet, then straight to Soarin'. Then maybe either Turtle Talk or Seas if we have time, but we have to put kids in a stroller and take the long walk over to our 10:45 Akershus brunch. after that, I've planned a couple of hours to walk around WS. And by that I mean snack around WS. We are missing F&W (on purpose, for the lower crowds!) but all my notes for WS are basically "snack in france. snack in germany. snack in china. snack in england" ha! We'll then do the rest of future world, we have FPs for Mission Space and Spaceship Earth, lateish in the day because only time I could get FPs for Frozen (after MUCH MDE stalking and refreshing!!) was at 4:20PM. So We'll complete our 1.5 circles of the park back in Norway for that Done around 430, we can either go back to the hotel and grab dinner, order pizza, go play in pool, or whatever! Early bedtime because...
Day 2 - MK - RD at EIGHT AM. Early! but our kids get up at 6 now, so i think we'll live. The crowds are predicted to be low and hoping they are right! We'll get in a lot of the higher profile stuff this day since our only other MK day is on a Sunday, eep! Our "Plan" is done around 4, so we've got wiggle room if we get slowed down, and it's a party night (which we aren't doing) so we can either stay until 6ish to see the lights turned on before we go, or my suggestion for dinner was to take the boat to Poly and play on beach for a little bit and eat at Captain Cook's.
Day 3 - AK - Last day I'm hoping to RD, BUT last minute just this week i somehow stumbled on FOP FPs (2 sets of 2) and I almost cried! It was the ONE thing we were going to put up with just standing in a ridiculous line for. Was hoping to RD it with the panicked crowds, but now we can go a different way! We have a 9a FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris we probably won't even need with everyone running to Pandora, but we will use it anyway Then fitting in Lion King at 10am, then going to our first set of FOP FPs. Grabbing lunch at Satuli and heading over to the boneyard to let kids play for a bit. Then Nemo show, then Asia for or EE FPs, and one of the jungle trails, Kali if kids are in the mood, pretty much going to follow their lead for the afternoon. Then we have 4p second set of FOP FPs, we'll do that and then head out the park, dinner that night at Whispering Canyon.
Day 4 - HS - None of us are star wars people at all! So we are planning a half day this day in the afternoon. Sleeping in, maybe playing in the pool, maybe lunch at Disney Springs if kids want to (A Beaches and Cream would have been fun here but I just thought of that idea this week!). Going in about 1. FPs for TSM, Under the Sea, and Frozen Sing Along in the first 3 hours, thinking if kids love TSM maybe we'll be able to snag second set of FPs. Eating QS somewhere in park (I know, it's all terrible!) and staying for Fantasmic! Kids are Descendants/Villain obssessed so this is the only thing I could come up with for Maleficent!
Day 5 - last day! MK - my "plan" doesn't start until our 1:45 BOG lunch so we can chill and go in late again. Afternoon FPs for Enchanted Tales with Belle, 7DMT (like FOP I had to stalk like a crazy person to get these at 5am one morning!), and and Little Mermaid. Trying to use FPs and take it easy during heat of the day because I'm expecting this to be our most crowded day. Then hoping crowds die off a little to do Splash Mountain (that will just be reopening while we are there!), and a few other things on that side of the park before we park our booties in front of Casey's and wait for fireworks on our last night.
The prep!
So a year of planning! That included timing, tons of resort research deciding where to stay. Meal planning for 180 days, FP planning at 30 days, and then continually FP checking 8-10x a day for the last few weeks until I think we FINALLY got everything we want! I'm assuming this would have been easier if we'd been able to book FPs at 60 days, but who knows! We did end up getting everything we wanted, just had to be a little flexible on times!
We are having Dizzy Dolphin deliver groceries to our hotel, and using Kingdom Strollers for a double stroller. I've been using AliExpress for outfits, light up toys, ponchos, etc to bring with us. We are loosely theming our outfits each day, I'll share pics with the final trip reports!
So now - all of you experienced planners may laugh at me! I know you guys are all planners too, so you understand the detail and hours I've poured into this But I promise I really do know every little detail of our Touring Plan won't take exactly the time it says, and kids will inevitably want to stop and play right when we are supposed to be commando-style-touring. I'm really excited to see how it all plays out!
Who we are!
I'm the mom, traveling with my husband, 6 year old daughter, and 4 year old son. I finally talked my husband into this trip by telling him "This will be the last year she might possibly still believe they are legit princesses!"
Here's a shot of my family, and then the kiddos at Halloween in all of their Halloween Descendants glory
Our trip!
We're going November 14-20, after a year of planning! When I convinced husband to say yes last November, he said we could go in January. I quickly realized we were already about 40 days out and i panicked and asked for a year to plan.
I'm a researcher by nature and got sucked in hard to the forums and research. This board has been a God-send! If I could have only 2 resources it would have been this board and Touring Plans (I won't choose just one and you can't make me!).
I've spent the last year forcing the kids to watch about every Disney movie under the sun so they know some characters!
Offisite stay!
After hemming and hawing, reading every blog and thread and thinking about our family, we decided to stay offsite at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Partially because the more I could make this a 'budget' trip, the more likely I think I am to talk my husband into going back! We got a 1 bedroom (so we can have a separately sleeping area from the kids on the pull-out couch) for about $700 for 6 nights. The price difference between that and a WDW resort quickly made the cons list seem less dramatic
As far as I can tell for offsite:
pros: Space/Kitchen/COST!
cons: 30 day FPs (I'll go into more detail, but this became a JOB getting what I wanted!), 180 day day-of meal reservations (again, got what I wanted, but not without some serious stalking!), having to rent a car/pay for parking, No EMH, no dining plan.
All those things aside, so far I am not regretting offisite. Actually kind of looking forward to the flexibility of having a car. But we will see how I feel when we get to reality time!
Let's Eat!
We are fairly casual when it comes to meals, and didn't feel a need to do a ton of character meals for the prices. We wanted to do one big princess meal, and I really wanted a BOG lunch to see the decor and get what's seems to be a pretty good meal for the price for QS. I'm interested to see if I'll wish we had more TS for the break, but the few we did have stressed me out with my Touring Plans because they are so inflexible! Kudos to those of you who put your trips together with 2 planned sit down meals a day!
For reservations we have the following:
Akershus breakfast on our first day. When I was finding a PPO pretty much impossible due to being offsite, I decided to do the latest time we could do and still do breakfast (the breakfast food appeals much more to my simple-taste husband!), so we have a 10:45 on our first day.
Whispering Canyon dinner one night. This looked kind of fun with the silly antics, and the all you can eat BBQ will appeal big time to my husband!
BOG late lunch on our last day. The plan is to go in late and try to get our little ones to hang until fireworks. We'll see!
The rest of our trip we are going to do QS, or eat in the room or Disney Springs if we go in late.
The game plan!
Using the crowd calendars and touring plans as much as possible, I tried to get a good idea of which parks to do which days. I'm an overplanner, so I've got all this planned down to the minute with a TP, BUT I absolutely don't mind being 100% flexible. My kids are 4 and 6, I'm not an idiot, and I won't be dragging them along tapping my watch. We'll add, skip, maneuver however seems right! I just don't want us standing around saying "Where should we go next? I dunno...let's get in this 2 hour line bc we don't know what to do!"
My husband is a teacher and can only take 3 days off school so we have an evening flight and get in about 8pm, so straight to bed!
Day 1 - Epcot - Planning to RD Meet & Greet, then straight to Soarin'. Then maybe either Turtle Talk or Seas if we have time, but we have to put kids in a stroller and take the long walk over to our 10:45 Akershus brunch. after that, I've planned a couple of hours to walk around WS. And by that I mean snack around WS. We are missing F&W (on purpose, for the lower crowds!) but all my notes for WS are basically "snack in france. snack in germany. snack in china. snack in england" ha! We'll then do the rest of future world, we have FPs for Mission Space and Spaceship Earth, lateish in the day because only time I could get FPs for Frozen (after MUCH MDE stalking and refreshing!!) was at 4:20PM. So We'll complete our 1.5 circles of the park back in Norway for that
Done around 430, we can either go back to the hotel and grab dinner, order pizza, go play in pool, or whatever! Early bedtime because...Day 2 - MK - RD at EIGHT AM. Early! but our kids get up at 6 now, so i think we'll live. The crowds are predicted to be low and hoping they are right! We'll get in a lot of the higher profile stuff this day since our only other MK day is on a Sunday, eep! Our "Plan" is done around 4, so we've got wiggle room if we get slowed down, and it's a party night (which we aren't doing) so we can either stay until 6ish to see the lights turned on before we go, or my suggestion for dinner was to take the boat to Poly and play on beach for a little bit and eat at Captain Cook's.
Day 3 - AK - Last day I'm hoping to RD, BUT last minute just this week i somehow stumbled on FOP FPs (2 sets of 2) and I almost cried! It was the ONE thing we were going to put up with just standing in a ridiculous line for. Was hoping to RD it with the panicked crowds, but now we can go a different way!
We have a 9a FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris we probably won't even need with everyone running to Pandora, but we will use it anyway Then fitting in Lion King at 10am, then going to our first set of FOP FPs. Grabbing lunch at Satuli and heading over to the boneyard to let kids play for a bit. Then Nemo show, then Asia for or EE FPs, and one of the jungle trails, Kali if kids are in the mood, pretty much going to follow their lead for the afternoon. Then we have 4p second set of FOP FPs, we'll do that and then head out the park, dinner that night at Whispering Canyon.Day 4 - HS - None of us are star wars people at all! So we are planning a half day this day in the afternoon. Sleeping in, maybe playing in the pool, maybe lunch at Disney Springs if kids want to (A Beaches and Cream would have been fun here but I just thought of that idea this week!). Going in about 1. FPs for TSM, Under the Sea, and Frozen Sing Along in the first 3 hours, thinking if kids love TSM maybe we'll be able to snag second set of FPs. Eating QS somewhere in park (I know, it's all terrible!) and staying for Fantasmic! Kids are Descendants/Villain obssessed so this is the only thing I could come up with for Maleficent!
Day 5 - last day! MK - my "plan" doesn't start until our 1:45 BOG lunch so we can chill and go in late again. Afternoon FPs for Enchanted Tales with Belle, 7DMT (like FOP I had to stalk like a crazy person to get these at 5am one morning!), and and Little Mermaid. Trying to use FPs and take it easy during heat of the day because I'm expecting this to be our most crowded day. Then hoping crowds die off a little to do Splash Mountain (that will just be reopening while we are there!), and a few other things on that side of the park before we park our booties in front of Casey's and wait for fireworks on our last night.
The prep!
So a year of planning! That included timing, tons of resort research deciding where to stay. Meal planning for 180 days, FP planning at 30 days, and then continually FP checking 8-10x a day for the last few weeks until I think we FINALLY got everything we want! I'm assuming this would have been easier if we'd been able to book FPs at 60 days, but who knows! We did end up getting everything we wanted, just had to be a little flexible on times!
We are having Dizzy Dolphin deliver groceries to our hotel, and using Kingdom Strollers for a double stroller. I've been using AliExpress for outfits, light up toys, ponchos, etc to bring with us. We are loosely theming our outfits each day, I'll share pics with the final trip reports!
So now - all of you experienced planners may laugh at me! I know you guys are all planners too, so you understand the detail and hours I've poured into this
But I promise I really do know every little detail of our Touring Plan won't take exactly the time it says, and kids will inevitably want to stop and play right when we are supposed to be commando-style-touring. I'm really excited to see how it all plays out!
