Late July 2017 Split Stay

stevevm

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
I wanted to start this now and go through the planning and then the trip[.

This trip was planned for a year after my youngest daughters back surgery.

Originally we were hoping to do this trip, but we were not sure about her recovery.

In late January, the doctor gave her clearance for almost anything.

So we started figuring out what we wanted to do.

1-When to go and how long?
We decided on July 23-30

2-Where to stay?
Originally we decided on AoA lion King Suites for the entire stay. My oldest daughter is a huge Lion King fan. And we like the 3 beds and 2 bathrooms. We like the dedicated bus and only 1 bus stop.

**Update** After reading about split stays on the Dis Boards, I decided to check on the price difference.
It came out to about $120 per night to stay 2 nights at Contemporary with a Theme Park View. So we now have a split stay--5 Nights AoA Lion King and 2 Nights CR Theme Park.

3-How many days in the parks?
We decided on 8 Total--MK 1 Full Day and 3 half days--EP 1 Full and 1 Half--AK 1 Day--HS 1 Day
 
Next we decided on some of our dining plans. We mostly prefer counter service.
We have done sit down meals in the past, but for this trip, we might do 1.

We did book 2 ADR. We love Be Our Guest for Lunch.

We booked Be our Guest for lunch on our first day.
After reading about the perks of doing BOG for Breakfast we decided on it for our full day at MK.

What I have read..after you eat, you can usually ride 7 Dwarfs before the park opens.
 
Some other things that I found on the DIS Boards so far...

Wine Walk in EPCOT
$20 for 2 wines in each of 3 countries.
France(Aux Vins de France), Germany(Weinkeller) and Italy(Enoreca Castello)

Refill Mugs bought at first resort will continue to work at the second resort for Split Stays.
Tell CM when you purchase about the split stay.

Booking Early ADR breakfast at BOG allows you past the castle early and if you are finished eating early, you can ride 7DMT before the park opens with no wait.
 
Here are some ways we saved on this trip.

1-Disney Visa Rewards Card--$200 statement credit and 2% on purchases--plus some perks at the parks
2-Gift Cards from various points clubs--Hotel, Best Buy, Disney Movie Rewards, Kelloggs and Wal-mart Savings Catcher
3-Sam's Club GC purchase $150 for $143.98 plus I used my Discover Card which at times offers 5% Cash Back.
Save $13.22 on every $150
4-Birthday and Christmas gifts from family and friends

Hoping for a summer discount in the next week or so for additional savings. Hoping for about $840 discount on our trip which should cover our meals and some souvinirs.
 


Right Now our days look like

Sunday July 23-Arrive at AoA around 9:30
Head over to MK ride Small World first(Tradition), Three Fastpasses and 11:15 ADR at BOG then back to AoA to unpack and swim.
Monday July 24 -EMH at AK--Pandora!!--afternoon break then back at dark for more Pandora at night!!
Tuesday July 25-HS Rope Drop-Toy Story-afternoon break then back for Fantasmic(maybe)
Wednesday July 26-Epcot Rope drop-Test Track,Frozen FP(Hopefully) around the world
Thursday July 27-EMH at Epcot-TT(Hopefully 3X before 9)-back to AoA early afternoon to swim and pack for resort move
Friday July 28-Pack Car Early-EMH at MK--move car to Contemporary, unpack, swim and watch Fireworks from our room
Saturday July 29-WALK to MK for early ADR at BOG for breakfast, then early rides on 7DMNT--this is a full day in MK
Sunday July 30-Pack Car then walk to MK ride a couple rides and then drive to Grammy's in South Carolina (8HR)
Monday July 31-Day at the beach--Surfside Beach, SC
Tuesday Aug 1 -Drive Home (10.5 HR)
 
Snow Day here, about 9 inches of snow so far.
Still hoping for a discount, looked at some menus today trying to figure out where we want to eat at Disney
 
Ordered 5 $100 Disney Gift Cards from BJ's Wholesale Club, no membership needed. Paid $474.95 with my Discover Card.
I will get 5% Cash Back for $23.75 back. Total 9% Savings. Not bad at all with very little effort. When they arrive I will use the Disney Gift Card website to combine them into 1 for ease of use. We now have about 85% of our trip paid for with about 4 months to go.
 


Had to take a pause in planning this trip. My daughter is going to study in France for 6 weeks before our WDW trip.
On her last full day in Paris, she is going to Disneyland Paris. Luck her
 
The rest of the summer discounts came out today. No go for us.
I could save $250 on the AoA part of our trip but we would lose our 5 days of counter service meals.
I figure our family of 4 can get at least $50 worth of value out of each counter service meal.
No discount on Theme Park View rooms at Contemporary.

Less than 4 months to go and we only owe $600
 
105 Days To Go
45 Until Fast Pass Booking

Just found out Mission Space will be closed until the day after we leave. Can't complain as of now that is the only ride we can't ride while we are there.
 
We have decided on our lunch places to eat for our trip and 2 dinners.

Day 1 Sunday--Be Our Guest-Lunch--Art of Animation Landscape of Flavors-Dinner
Day 2 Monday--Restaurantasaurous-Lunch--Dinner TBD
Day 3 Tuesday--Backlot-Lunch--Dinner TBD
Day 4 Wednesday--Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie--Dinner TBD
Day 5 Thursday--Liberty Inn--Dinner TBD
Day 6 Friday--Contempo Cafe--Dinner TBD
Day 7 Saturday--BOG Breakfast--Cosmic Ray's Lunch--Columbia Harbour House Dinner
Day 8 Sunday--Sleepy Hollow Lunch--Dinner on the trip home
 
Sorry for not posting in a while.

We were getting my daughter ready to study in France for 6 weeks. She flies out today!! And she gets to go Disneyland Paris while she is there.
She flies back to the US 3 days before we leave for Florida.

And I tore a ligament in my good knee and I get to have knee surgery on June 1, so the doc says I will be fine in about a week, so good to go for Disney.

Since my last post, we have decided to go next summer again, we are doing this to take my parents both 72.
This will be their very first time in Disney. We are going to do a split stay 4 nights with them at the Cabins and probably 4 nights at Port Orleans.
We keep trying to stay at different places every time we go. We are also planning on upgrading our tickets to Annual Pass when we go this year.
 
Booked our Fast Passes on May 24 I was on at 7AM.

Day 1 July 23 MK
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Splash Mountain 12:40 PM - 1:40 PM

Day 2 July 24 AK--Pandora!!
Kali River Rapids 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Kilimanjaro Safaris 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
Avatar Flight of Passage 3:10 PM - 4:10 PM--This was the earliest that I could book and it was the very first Fast Pass that I scheduled--There are 0 Now

Day 3 July 25 HS
Star Tours 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Toy Story Mania! 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
For the First Time in Forever: 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM

Day 4 July 26 Epcot
Meet Disney Character Spot 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Frozen Ever After 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Spaceship Earth 12:50 PM - 1:50 PM

Day 5 July 27 Epcot
Living with the Land 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Spaceship Earth 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Frozen Ever After 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM

Day 6 July 28 MK
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Peter Pan's Flight 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Splash Mountain 11:05 AM - 12:05 PM

Day 7 July 29 MK
Space Mountain 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Big Thunder Mountain 10:05 AM - 11:05 AM
Enchanted Tales with Belle 11:10 AM - 12:10 PM

Day 8 July 30 MK
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Big Thunder Mountain 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Peter Pan's Flight 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM--Just my wife and youngest daughter. She hates Haunted Mansion, not sure why
Haunted Mansion 11:10 AM - 12:10 PM--Myself and my oldest daughter
 
If you noticed there are some big rides not Fast Passed.

Day 2 Pandora(AK)--We are doing EMH(8:00) Rope drop and going straight to Navi River then depending on the wait maybe FOP.
Day 4 Epcot--Test Track at Rope drop and then straight to Soarin (hopefully not to long for Standby)
Day 5 Epcot--EMH (8:00) Test Track at rope drop and if there is still a doable line then again then to Soarin hopefully by 9
Day 6 mk--EMH (8:00) Space Mountain, Buzz & Ariel hopefully by 9 then straight to BTM Frontierland doesn't open until 9
Day 7 MK--We have 8:00 AM BOG, i Have read that when you are done eating, that you can ride 7D before 9 then we will go to Peter Pan
 
I also did online check-in for AoA.

I requested Ground Floor and close to Transportation, I wish there was an option for close to Parking.
That is what I prefer since I am driving form PA and will have my car.

I get to do online check-in for the Contemporary tomorrow.
I am requesting Highest Floor and Odd number Room.

Since our room faces the MK, if you get an odd number room you can watch the fireworks from your bed.
 
Did on-line check in for our contemporary stay.

I also used Touring Plans to make a more specific room request.
Never used them before, hoping for the best.

Now we are considering buying DVC.
If we buy 50 points this year, next summer we could use 50 for 2017+50 for 2018 and borrow 50 from 2019. We could get a week at AKL for us + 4 nights AKL for my parents.

Decisions, Decisions
 
After watching some videos and reading about it, we decided to do Early Morning Magic - Fantasyland. $69 person.

We decided between breakfast & Lunch we would have been $40-$50 already.
So for not a lot more we get those 3 rides unlimited for an hour. I read the record is 7DMT 21 times.

So we are gonna ride as much as we can, then do tommorland at rope drop and then come back at 9:40-9:45 for breakfast.
I read they keep the food out past 10 as long as you are there.

So probably changing our 9:00 fast pass from 7DMT to something else
 
Ok, our Magic Bands have shipped.
We purchased a DVC this week from a reseller
100 points at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
They banked this years points and next summer we can use 300 points.

Our trip is completely paid for now.
We have $700 in Gift Cards for stuff and some meals.
And $1500 to upgrade our tix to annual passes.
We have 20 counter service meals included in our stay.
 
We leave to start our trip in 7.5 Hours!!!

Car is all packed and ready to go

58.5 Hours until we are at Disney
 

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