Never say Neverland: Easter '18, May/June '18, July '18, Sept '18, Nov '18 TRs (8/22 UPDATE!)

[kittylady1972]

All I can say today is that it is a good thing I am OCD when it comes to checking trip changes. This morning I was looking into flights because I thought it would be nice to arrive earlier on Friday. I happened to book 5 of us with one reservation and the 6th one (my son) on another...only because he didn't have any credit I was applying to his trip. As you may recall I changed our original flight a little while back to fly out of a closer airport and arrive a little earlier. I did this over the span of several hours one day, as I was able to change his but not the rest of us for some reason. I had to change the other flights later.

As I looked at possibly changing again today...I realized that I had my 19yo son on TOTALLY DIFFERENT FLIGHTS! It wasn't a huge difference...but he would have flown out about an hour after us and arrived about an hour later with a connection. YIKES!

Thankfully I was able to change his with minimal cost but I didn't change anything else. I can't believe I did that!

In other exciting news, I decided to go ahead and buy our MNSSHP tickets for the trip. Since this is our only planned park visit, and we can enter as early as 2pm that day, I also booked FPs for all of us. I couldn't get some of the big rides, but I did book SpaceMt, Jungle Cruise and PoC. I'm really looking forward to seeing the changes for SpaceMt and PoC for the party, so it will be cool to do this early and then later.

I also moved around dining a bit from what is below. Monday we now have dinner at WCC as we most likely won't keep the Saturday dinner unless my cousin and family want to join us. I may try to book Toledo for Saturday instead, but for right now that got moved to Sunday. And Flying Fish has moved to Wednesday. There is also a Tony's reservation during the MNSSHP but I don't know if I'll keep that. I'd prefer to do a big meal before we enter the park and just snack while there to maximize our park/ride time, but even though I have Chef Mickey booked for Tuesday at 1pm I probably won't keep it. Yes I know there is not a lot of love for this place (CM) but it has been a tradition for us since forever and honestly I find brunch/lunch is actually not too bad. Still...it may also get the cut.


FRIDAY: Fly out on a 2pm flight with connection, arrival at MCO around 8pm. Hoping to grab our rental and head directly to Shades of Green and with any luck we can maybe head over to Bay Lake Tower to the TOTW Lounge and catch the late night Halloween fireworks from there (I think they are at 9:30pm and 11:30pm or something like that). I may see if my cousin (who is from Tampa but will be at Disney with his wife and 3 small kids for the weekend) can join us there.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe rent some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON. (And if we didn't get a chance to meet up with my cousin and family Friday night, then this is another night for that...and I even added a few people to our WC reservation just in case)

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. This is a possible day to do Discovery Cove or Universal Studios. Dinner at Flying Fish. Dinner at Toledo.

MONDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge. Dinner at Toledo at CSR. Whispering Canyon Cafe.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Lunch at Chef Mickey's or early dinner at Tony's. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, entering the party at 2pm thanks to our DVC membership.

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at Flying Fish. Maybe Blue Man Group that night?

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 5pm to 7:30pm flight back home...another connection....putting us in just after midnight.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Great plans!!!!! Let me know how Flying Fish is...

 

[Mopedmom1]

Yikes! At 19 your son could handle the flight, but still....

I am happy to see you changed WCC . More than once I have started a post to suggest you change the ADR to after the cocktail event, but always cancelled it figuring you had a reason. Now my OCD brain can rest easier. Lol!

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok so we have a few more plans set now.

I bit the bullet and bought Discovery Cove tickets for Sunday. My 19yo has been working even EXTRA shifts lately to save money for this...but I don't plan on having him pay for it. Kids are getting so old so fast and while we can do these family experiences together I want to do as many of them as we can do.

This change meant a slight change in our volunteer schedule as well. So now Sunday we plan to spend the day at Discovery Cove, mostly relaxing, and then my daughter and I plan to do an 8pm-10pm volunteer shift that night. This may mean we miss Toledo, or at least have to leave it early though. We'll see. After spending all day eating at Discovery Cove I'm not sure Toledo will be in the cards that evening.

Monday we are still debating how smart it is for us to do a 7:15am volunteer shift at GKTW after being there late Sunday night. We'll see. After all, my daughter can come back and sleep, while the adults head off to the 1pm Craft Cocktails event.

So that's it for now. I'm also in the process of helping a few other friends plan SEPTEMBER Disney trips with their families. ((SIGH)) I can't stress enough to them how late this is for planning but how willing I am to help them as much as possible and PLEASE let me. One is my boss's boss and his family and he just told me TODAY about his early September trip with his family (a 3yo and an infant). I spent time at home putting together a bunch of information for him and stressing to get stuff booked VERY VERY SOON!

Ok just have to get through 2 work days this week and then we have a short family trip planned to the beach to visit my aunt for a few days. Kids are really looking forward to this, even though they aren't huge beach people. I can't recall last time I saw my aunt, but it is my mom's only remaining family member and with mom no longer here it's always nice to spend time with her. While mom and her sister were very different people she was so much help in taking care of my mom in her final months and for that I'm eternally grateful.

 

[ariane37]

Um, I can't even keep up with your plans lol

We added a quick adult only August trip a few days ago and are going the 18-21st and doing the SWGE preview, just a little getaway after Steve's mom passed last Friday.
I'm excited about some of the new stuff at MNSSHP and am glad I'm doing it on my work trip in October! And while I've only been to workshops and trainings on Discovery Cove it looks amazing and I've read a few reviews here from people who have gone and all love it. I think the cost will be totally worth it!

 

[kittylady1972]

Um, I can't even keep up with your plans lol

We added a quick adult only August trip a few days ago and are going the 18-21st and doing the SWGE preview, just a little getaway after Steve's mom passed last Friday.
I'm excited about some of the new stuff at MNSSHP and am glad I'm doing it on my work trip in October! And while I've only been to workshops and trainings on Discovery Cove it looks amazing and I've read a few reviews here from people who have gone and all love it. I think the cost will be totally worth it!

Ok first...So sorry about Steve's mom. I must have missed that. My sympathies to all of you.

And wait our trip overlaps? Any chance you want to join us for the Wilderness Lodge Craft Cocktails if there is space on Monday at 1pm? If not then we still must meet somewhere outside the parks at least!

 

[KathyM2]

Your plans sound amazing as always....but...tiring lol!! I loved Discovery Cove so much. We did it when our kids were really little and I'd love to go back now that they could probably get more out of it. Such a beautiful relaxing place!

 

[kittylady1972]

Your plans sound amazing as always....but...tiring lol!! I loved Discovery Cove so much. We did it when our kids were really little and I'd love to go back now that they could probably get more out of it. Such a beautiful relaxing place!

I think our first few days will be okay but Tues Wed Thurs will be a bit crazy.

We did Discovery Cove years ago and enjoyed it. Hoping it will be a nice relaxing day for us. Wish we could fit it in at the end of the trip but this was the consensus. My FIL hasn't done it so hopefully he enjoys it too.

Still need to probably tweak and cancel a few ADRs but I have time.

 

[kittylady1972]

So a quick life update for now. We are headed home after a 4 day trip to Myrtle Beach to spend some time with my aunt. We had a lot of fun, spent two days at the beach, hung at the pool one afternoon for a bit, hit a water park Friday night where we also rode go carts, bumper boats and played mini golf. Some friends drove down from their hotel in NC on Saturday and we had lunch then went to a nearby water area where they had a giant inflatable obstacle course that the kids enjoyed and then a wake park where we watched 4 of the kids attempt to wake board for about two hours. The wake park doesn't use a boat but an automatic pulley system which makes it extra challenging. The kids actually did better than we thought they would there and it was very entertaining to watch...from the deck bar.

Now an 8 hour or so drive home and back to work tomorrow for 4 days this week and 4 days next week then off to Florida. Crazy!

 

[kittylady1972]

So I was trying to figure out when our last trip to Discovery Cove was and I'm so glad I keep my online receipts...because it was June of 2016! That was a trip where we just did Discovery Cove, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Tampa. Sadly for this trip I just don't see us fitting in the other parks so we are limiting this to just Discovery Cove, even though I think we would love to visit BG Tampa again. There just isn't a day to fit that in other than Saturday, and we don't do DC until Sunday. The rest of our week is really pretty set for now.

The only thing I've tweaked a bit are the ADRs at this point. I have a feeling we won't need the WCC for Saturday with my cousin and family...so I dropped it and I'll keep the one we have on Monday after our Craft Cocktails event. I managed to snag a late BOG reservation for during the Halloween Party...but doubt we'll keep that either because it would most likely mean missing the first parade and that's important for us. I think we can still manage the other ADRs though I'm tempted to drop Flying Fish for Wednesday as we may just hang around the Universal Park area and have a meal there instead to make the most of our time in those parks.

So a week from today we'll be doing the crazy SWA checkin and hoping for the best on that one...group A group A group A!! I still need to work out pet sitting logistics which I've been dragging my feet about. I have a nearby friend always willing to get a cat fix so hopefully I can just have her stop in every day and feed my high maintenance cat.

I'm trying not to wish this trip get here too fast because once it ends...well then August and "summer" will be ending soon too. We've done a lot this summer, so I am not disappointed...just want it to last longer.

 

[kittylady1972]

CONFESSION TIME: My stalking isn't limited to Disney (ADRs, rooms, etc.) but the entire travel experience. As such, I'm always stalking my rental vehicle rates and looking for discounts there. Today was no exception...and I've now rebooked our rental for $270 for the week in a large 7-passenger SUV. Originally I had a few bookings, from SUVs to minivans, with the lowest being $304 (started out around $445, then $390 for similar vehicles). I'm pretty happy with this new rate.

Yesterday we also had to make a slight change to our flights for a wedding at Siesta Key in September. That's just a weekend with just DH and myself, but as it turns out we were scheduled to fly back home at 1pm on the DAY OF THE FIRST BALTIMORE RAVENS FOOTBALL GAME of the SEASON!

So since we usually have people over for all of the football games, especially the first one, we had to make a change. This one may hurt a bit, as we now have to fly out of Tampa at 8:50am the day AFTER the wedding...and the airport is just over an hour away...and my DH likes to be there about 2 hours early (though hopefully I can push him to 1.5 hours) and so we will probably have to leave our room close to 6am. The wedding is 6:45pm on Saturday with a reception at a nearby bar. We will just have to try not to make it a late night, but this crowd...well they do like to par-tay. Should be interesting. We should arrive home close to 11:30am so I guess we'll nap on the flight and tell people to bring food because we will have zero time to prep for this one.

Anyway thankfully that change cost us nothing in extra SWA credits, so we are good. I will probably need to do some stalking/modifying of the rental car for that trip also, but I haven't done much with it yet.

We will see how many other tweaks I can make to our trip that begins a WEEK from today! How crazy is that???

 

[kittylady1972]

Just a quick checkin now that we are days away from our next trip. I've made some minor changes and there are still things I'm planning to do but haven't booked yet.

One of those things was determined by a vote to our group. I gave them the choice of Chef Mickey's for lunch (this is a family tradition for us, but pricey of course), the Dessert Party during MNSSHP or the Cruella's Party during MNSSHP. I guess looking at Cruella's, for just a little more you had open access for a few hours to food, more food options (especially savory ones) and prime seating for the 11pm parade. My family unanimously chose the Dessert Party, even though we've done one before it has been years...plus the prime view of the fireworks will be nice without jockeying for a spot like our last trip. That one almost turned ugly as it was Easter week.

So the schedule:

FRIDAY: Fly out on a 2pm flight with connection, arrival at MCO around 8pm. Hoping to grab our rental and head directly to Shades of Green and with any luck we can maybe head over to Bay Lake Tower to the TOTW Lounge and catch the late night Halloween fireworks from there (I think they are at 9:30pm and 11:30pm or something like that). I may see if my cousin (who is from Tampa but will be at Disney with his wife and 3 small kids for the weekend) can join us there.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe rent some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day. I *MIGHT* try to snag a dinner at Flying Fish and then walk around the Boardwalk this evening. Also if we didn't get a chance to meet up with my cousin and family Friday night, then this is another night for that.

SUNDAY: DISCOVERY COVE all day. Dinner at Toledo. DD and I are then doing a 8pm-10pm shift volunteering at GKTW.

MONDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge. Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Head to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party beginning at 2pm. We have Fastpasses from 2pm until 5pm for 3 rides: Space Mt, Jungle Cruise and Pirates. Garden Dessert Party for the evening to view fireworks.

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at Flying Fish. Maybe Blue Man Group that night?

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 5pm to 7:30pm flight back home...another connection....putting us in just after midnight.

Still can't believe we are so close to the end of August. My plan was that tomorrow would be my "work" week Friday, but now I am considering coming in for a few hours in the morning just to save some leave. I could work from 6:30am-9:30am and still be home in time to get ready to go to the airport. It's nice living 15 minutes away from the airport.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

DAY OF THE FIRST BALTIMORE RAVENS FOOTBALL GAME of the SEASON!

I know my Ali will be watching this!!!!!

I haven't done Discovery Cove in years but it was sooooo relaxing and just a great experience! You will have so much fun with your family!

 

[kittylady1972]

I know my Ali will be watching this!!!!!

I haven't done Discovery Cove in years but it was sooooo relaxing and just a great experience! You will have so much fun with your family!

I'm sure Ali will be watching too! Can't wait for football season, but I haven't been following roster changes at all even though there have been a LOT of them.

Yes Discovery Cove was relaxing when we last did it, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm also really looking forward to the Halloween party. Here was the first one we ever attended back in October 2003!

 

[ariane37]

As such, I'm always stalking my rental vehicle rates and looking for discounts there. Today was no exception...and I've now rebooked our rental for $270 for the week in a large 7-passenger SUV. Originally I had a few bookings, from SUVs to minivans, with the lowest being $304 (started out around $445, then $390 for similar vehicles). I'm pretty happy with this new rate.

I do this for clients, it is a good rate! Not quite as fun as looking for better resort rooms/ADR's but still a good feeling when you get a better price
I wish we were able to meet up this trip but sadly I just don't think it's in the cards.......slight change we may run in to the MK on the 20th after 2 and if we do I will let you know! Otherwise have a wonderful trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

So I'm not sure what has happened to me, the eternal procrastinator, but I actually PACKED my suitcase last night...for tomorrow. I'm not even sure how I managed to do it, and I've packed it so well that I can probably even get a few more things in it, like my toiletries, before I have it fully ready to go. Since I'm playing tennis tonight I know my time to pack will be limited, and I am planning on going to work for a few hours tomorrow as well.

I picked DH up from the airport last night as he's been in Seattle since Sunday. How fun for him to get right back on a plane tomorrow huh? He'll most likely work extra long today as well, but he's not working tomorrow so he'll have plenty of time to pack and do all of our pre-trip house preparations.

If you read my previous post, I sent a photo of our very first MNSSHP back in October 2003. Now for your viewing enjoyment, here is the last one we attended in September 2014:


And another one:



Sadly this was the last full trip we all had together...well almost. We would return in November of this same year with my husband's sister and nephew, and then the following July 2015 my MIL wanted one more trip before undergoing surgery for kidney cancer. Unfortunately that trip wasn't nearly as enjoyable, we weren't all staying together and they ended up bringing my nephew with them which my MIL wasn't exactly happy about. We didn't spend a lot of time with them for that one. So this September 2014 trip was just a fun one for all of us.

Although if you look at this photo, maybe not always fun:



This cracks me up as we walk through HS in the rain and my FIL just looks THRILLED!

Thanks to @Jenny Sanders I went ahead and ordered a bunch of disposable ponchos for this upcoming trip. I thought it would be easier than having everyone pack a raincoat or our Disney ponchos (which I've had for years). They are all in my suitcase and ready to go!

According to my DH, my FIL was having some signs yesterday of being sick...ugh! I sure hope he's okay now...I haven't seen him but my kids have lunch with him every week and said on Tuesday he seemed fine.

I'm definitely looking forward to our little trip and even though it isn't as long as I would like I can't wait to have some fun!

 

[kittylady1972]

I do this for clients, it is a good rate! Not quite as fun as looking for better resort rooms/ADR's but still a good feeling when you get a better price
I wish we were able to meet up this trip but sadly I just don't think it's in the cards.......slight change we may run in to the MK on the 20th after 2 and if we do I will let you know! Otherwise have a wonderful trip!

Sad that we'll miss each other again even though we are there at the same time. If you end up in the Disney Springs area or out one night (other than the 20th) maybe we can meet for a drink somewhere OUTSIDE of the parks. I would love to try some new places like the bar at Wilderness Lodge...without the creepy guy of course!

 

[kittylady1972]

Greetings from Shades! It has been a long travel day and yet I'm not too tired...yet. i am sure I will be done soon.

So I put in about 2.5 hours at work today and hopefully things will survive while I'm out. Came home and did some last minute cleaning and got cats all settled for the week and dropped the dog off at the kennel...which wasn't fun as she really hates getting out there and it is a struggle. I did pay for extra playtime and walks and a frosty paw every night though...go dog mom guilt.

We left for the airport around 11:45pm for our 2pm flight. And that getting in the car and going...It wasn't pretty. I don't even recall the details but my husband was his usual yelling self which is typical for vacations, I swear more often than not we start out with him yelling about something and this time it was with my daughter...and then he yelled at me about condoning her behavior which I didn't even think was as bad as he made it out to be. Needless to say this put many of us in a bad mood for most of the beginning of the trip. Sometimes I wonder....well I won't go there.

So flight went out on time and we arrived at Atlanta a bit early...close to 5pm for our 6:20pm flight. Yay. DD and I decided to walk through the airport for a while wine I've never been to the Atlanta airport and wanted to get in some exercise. It is pretty cool and we walked from terminal C to A. Well it wasn't long before we got messages that our flight would be delayed at least an hour due to Fla weather...in fact all flights to FLA were delayed. So this gave us time for a sit down meal and we went to Longhorn Steakhouse in the airport as I love their shrimp appetizer. DD and I hopped the tram back to our terminal for dinner. I decided to start my vacay with a Raspberry Margarita and let me tell you they weren't shy on the alcohol. I was feeling good after that...and my shrimp and salad. Soon enough we were back on track and our flight left about an hour late...not horrible.

Flight to MCO was fine, arrived and got our rental...a Highlander which is what I drive. Arrived at SOG around 9:45pm and DD was hungry so we caught the Shady Shuttle and headed to the Poly while DH and youngest son grabbed some wings and drinks from Magnolias restaurant.

DD was able to get her beloved Chicken Noodle soup and some pineapple at Capt Cooks and I had a Mickey Bar since the Dole Whip window was closed. We caught some of the MK fireworks during our walk over too. We ate and walked back to SOG.

We have changed our potential plans for tomorrow for reasons I'll get into later. There is a good chance we will hit Universal Parks for a few hours tomorrow now.

Ok off to bed!

 

[Mopedmom1]

Glad you made it, but wow, vacationing can sure be a struggle. Hope Saturday is a much better day!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Have a great trip!!!! I can't wait to hear all about it!