Pre-trip Quadrilogy - planning 4 at once? No way! WAY! (9/22 - New Trip Report Link - Post 137)

I was really surprised by the prices coming up when I was searching the Universal resorts trying to figure out when we could sneak in another trip with our APs. SO expensive!!! I'm glad they were able to get you an AP price and for the Portofino, at that! It's a gorgeous resort, and the one that got us hooked on the water taxi. lol

Hopefully Beach Club comes through for you. DD should have a great time with her friend able to come along.
 
I was really surprised by the prices coming up when I was searching the Universal resorts trying to figure out when we could sneak in another trip with our APs. SO expensive!!! I'm glad they were able to get you an AP price and for the Portofino, at that! It's a gorgeous resort, and the one that got us hooked on the water taxi. lol

Hopefully Beach Club comes through for you. DD should have a great time with her friend able to come along.

Yeah, we were talking yesterday, and she really, really, really wants to go to Beach Club. So much so that we might consider moving the trip back a week (to our original dates) to that we can get it. However, right now the last 3 days of our trip are available at Beach Club, so I think if that stays the case we may book it, and just try and get the one remaining night on the wait list. (DVC has a LOT of nice advantages - but always being able to get what you want with ease is definitely NOT one of them.)
 
So much so that we might consider moving the trip back a week (to our original dates) to that we can get it.

Would that push you guys over to Labor Day weekend? I can't remember what your exact dates were.
 
Would that push you guys over to Labor Day weekend? I can't remember what your exact dates were.

yes, @franandaj - that would mean we would be there until Labor day weekend. We are trying not to do it, but from a vacation time standpoint it's not really a problem. We were hoping to go the week before so that we have sort of a backup in case there's a hurricane, we could still go down assuming we could get a room. IF we wait untit the week before labor day and things get pushed, then we can't go.
 


With just 5 weeks to go - I just learned something that is rather bothersome.

We knew it would be the Mardi Gras party when we were there. What we didn't know is that during the Mardi Gras parties they have these concerts in Universal Studios. (Well we actually knew that part.) And on days where they have concerts - the BLOCK seasonal passholders from entering US. Only IOA entry is allowed.

So wouldn't you know it - the two nights we are there (Sat and Sun) BOTH nights they have a concert. And both DD and DW have a seasonal pass (I upgraded to preferred pass for the parking & discounts.) This leaves us two options:

1) For the first two of our three days - don't go into US, only IOA.
2) Pay $60 each (+ tax) to upgrade the two passes to power passes.

Both choices suck - on Saturday we are only there for a few hours so that day wouldn't have been so bad, but Sunday is the bulk of our time at Universal, because on Monday we were only planning to go until around maybe 2 PM. With paying to stay on property and for front of the line, I was expecting to get the bulk of BOTH parks done on Sunday.

However, the other option will cost us like $135 extra. Which we are already paying too much for this little excursion. It makes me wish we weren't even going to Universal, I really am learning to dispise Universal. People complain about Disney raking you over the coals, but Universal gets you six ways til Sunday.(Also discovered that after paying $400 a night for my hotel room, I have to pay ANOTHER $20 to park. Even though I have free parking at the resort with my season pass.)

I think in the end it's likely we breakdown and pay the money. We are unlikely to come back for many, many years - so in the end we want to get the most out of the stay. And in the end, the upgrade to APs only cost us about $20 per ticket more than the 4-day pass we bought last year. So if we look at it that way, I suppose it's not too bad. Just more money we have to spend.

So - let me ask you, dear reader - which would use choose to do?
 
So - let me ask you, dear reader - which would use choose to do?

I will start off saying I have never been to US. I am not a fan of big roller coasters or rides with screens which I hear is most of US. If this park is something my family really wanted to do i would back to upgrade. However if it wasn't I would be looking trying to cancel US and just go to WDW.
 
So - let me ask you, dear reader - which would use choose to do?

Ugh. Neither option sounds that great, but I'd probably just only do IOA for the first two days. There isn't a lot at Universal to draw us there, but we still end up going there every so often, but last time we barely spent any time there at all.
 


I will start off saying I have never been to US. I am not a fan of big roller coasters or rides with screens which I hear is most of US. If this park is something my family really wanted to do i would back to upgrade. However if it wasn't I would be looking trying to cancel US and just go to WDW.

That's an interesting choice. Skip it completely! But we did pay extra money to buy APs for this purpose, and while DD doesn't want to ride much, she DOES want to ride Forbidden Journey. (The ride is worth going to Universal once alone.)

Ugh. Neither option sounds that great, but I'd probably just only do IOA for the first two days. There isn't a lot at Universal to draw us there, but we still end up going there every so often, but last time we barely spent any time there at all.

I do agree IOA is the more interesting of the two parks, but there are a few things we want to do in US (Jimmy Fallon, Minions, ET, Simpsons, Gringotts, RRR) The question is if doing them only on the last day will give us enough time. The other thing that makes me think we should pay for the upgrade is that we have FOTL. If we want to do a ride a few times across several days, as opposed to over and over the same day.
 
I would pay for the upgrade so you could use your FOTL pass like you said across several days.
 
The other thing that makes me think we should pay for the upgrade is that we have FOTL. If we want to do a ride a few times across several days, as opposed to over and over the same day.

We also have, like no money, right now. Things have come in so fast that we are cashing in IRAs selling cars and the like so I'm in save money mode.
 
25 days to go! Some minor tweaks to the plan. WDW FINALLY announced the real hours for MK, which includes being open until 11 PM on our 2nd Saturday of the trip. We had plans to eat at Artists Point that night, but had a 7:45 PM ADR, which would prevent going to the park. I suggested to DW we move that up to 5:45 PM, which would allow us to head to the park for a few hours after dinner if we want.

2nd we decided to change our Friday (23rd) ADR at Be Our Guest. The plan had fallen away to go to MK at all that day, and in the end we didn't feel like going to the park just for the one meal, so we instead moved in to eating at Tusker House, which is a place we love but haven't been to in ages.

I don't think anything else is going to change, but I wouldn't have guessed those things. So, here's a quick review of the final plans, or at least what we have booked, direct from my trip spreadsheet.

Saturday 17 - 19: Universal Orlando
18th 6 PM Blue Man Group

Monday, February 19, 2018
Check in at Boardwalk Villa
The Seas with Nemo & Friends 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Spaceship Earth 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Via Napoli 6:50 PM
Test Track 8:05 PM - 9:00 PM

Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Beaches & Cream 1:00 PM
Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular! 2:45 PM - 3:00 PM
Showtime: 3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue 4:10 PM - 5:10 PM
Toy Story Mania! 5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
Fantasmic / Star Wars Spectacular (One or other? Both?) 7 PM / 8 PM

Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Soarin' 2:50 PM - 3:50 PM
Living with the Land 3:50 PM - 4:50 PM
Spaceship Earth 4:55 PM - 5:55 PM
Chefs De France 7:00 PM

Thursday, February 22, 2018
Epcot Character Spot 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Test Track 10:35 AM - 11:35 AM
RELAUNCHED! Mission: SPACE 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Check In to Wilderness Lodge - Boulder Ridge Villas
Whispering CC 5:50 PM
Happily Ever After 8:00 PM

Friday, February 23, 2018
Tusker House 1:45 PM
Festival of the Lion King 3:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Showtime: 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Avatar Flight of Passage 4:45 PM - 5:45 PM
Kilimanjaro Safaris 5:50 PM - 6:50 PM
Rivers of Light 7:15 PM

Saturday, February 24, 2018
Peter Pan's Flight 10:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Artists Point 5:45 PM

Sunday, February 25, 2018
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 10:20 AM - 11:20 AM
Haunted Mansion 11:20 AM - 12:20 PM
Jungle Cruise 12:25 PM - 1:25 PM


On the August Trip side of things - we are moving the trip back to the original dates of August 25th to September 2nd. This is because for whatever reason the DVC resorts seem to be booking up the week before that prior to 7 months, and by moving to August 25th, I was able to get our first priority of Beach Club! For now, I've booked the whole week at Beach Club, but have yet to decide if we are going to spend the first 4 days or the last 4 days there. DD is very excited to stay here with her friend, and we will never complain about the walk to Epcot!
 
We will be at Disney the same time as you, we will also be at AK on 2/23 afternoon/evening! Sounds like some good plans. We are staying at BLT for the first time.
 
We will be at Disney the same time as you, we will also be at AK on 2/23 afternoon/evening! Sounds like some good plans. We are staying at BLT for the first time.

Hey, I stopped over to your PTR. Looks like AK on the 23rd is are only overlap, but if you want to have a quick DISmeet for a photo or something, let me know.
 
Looks like all your plans are comong together nicely. In August we'll be gone from property by the time you get there, we're looking at leaving around 9AM on the 25th. We'll be back by noon or earlier on the 1st. Right now talk is to get lunch at the Springs while we wait for our room to be ready. We haven't made any more plans than that.
 
Looks like all your plans are comong together nicely. In August we'll be gone from property by the time you get there, we're looking at leaving around 9AM on the 25th. We'll be back by noon or earlier on the 1st. Right now talk is to get lunch at the Springs while we wait for our room to be ready. We haven't made any more plans than that.

OK. Hopefully we can at least meet up to say Hi. With two teens we may see how flexible we can be.
 
Dates are settled in for August. Since the kids want to do MNSSHP, and with our dates moved to the last week of August, we are expecting a Tuesday night party, so we decided we will move between resorts on Tuesday before the party. So we will have 3 nights at AKV and 5 nights at BCV. These are the two resorts the DD wanted to go to with BFF. (I would've gone for Poly/BC or maybe if I could've snagged it Grand Floridian/BC.) I can't blame her for wanting to show off AKV - she said it's her favorite resort, and I think we all agree on that. I even booked us into a Savannah View, since it's such a nice treat to be able to see the animals.

The bump to the last week of August has me torn. I liked the idea of getting down a week early to still have labor day off at home. I liked the idea of a "cushion" in case a hurricane struck at the start of our trip, and we could postpone if need be. What's nice about this I guess is we will still come home on Sunday - since the kids start school on Tuesday I don't want to push too far, so hopefully we'll still be able to get decent flights.

I feel like I'm bragging - but it has me so excited I had to share...having three trips reserved at the same time is definitely a first for us. Seeing them all in the system together makes me feel so blessed that we get to spend so much time in our happy place this year. Just 19 days until the first trip (OK 2nd trip) begins.


DVC bookings.png
 
To me you are not bragging. I won't be back to WDW for a few more years. I love reading pre-trip reports and trip reports as i kind of live though all of you that get to go. I also get to see how others tour the parks to give us ideas on things we can change.
 
To me you are not bragging. I won't be back to WDW for a few more years. I love reading pre-trip reports and trip reports as i kind of live though all of you that get to go. I also get to see how others tour the parks to give us ideas on things we can change.

Well, thanks for the comments.

Our style has changed a lot over the years - however, I still have such a hard time "holding back" from park time. We used to go-go-go and then have to take a day off to recover. Nowadays, I tend to go a little slower every day, and then not really have a break day. A lot of time we spend 3-5 hours in the park in the morning, then take a long afternoon break, and head back to the parks around dinner time. We've always used rope drop and FP+ to avoid lines, but now because we keep going back, we don't sweat missing things like we used to. We usually have a few days where we pass on rope drop, and just hit the parks for a few hours mid-day as well. We ended up skipping Flights of Passage in November because I couldn't get a FP+, and we were going to try morning EMH - but said "screw it I don't want to get up that early".

That said, I still plan the hell out of a trip - it's just the pace of the plan that has slowed. I also tend to iterate the heck out of things. The last week or so, I've been going round in circles on our August trip, trying to come up with a base structure I like. The two days we have for water parks is throwing me off.
 
Not a brag at all! That's super exciting!! I'm enjoying reliving WDW through others right now because with our vacation plans set through Spring of next year, I don't think we will make it back to WDW until 2020 at the earliest.
 
Not a brag at all! That's super exciting!! I'm enjoying reliving WDW through others right now because with our vacation plans set through Spring of next year, I don't think we will make it back to WDW until 2020 at the earliest.

Yeah - I'm worried that we might not be back until 2020...though we are thinking DLR in 2019 so I guess that will have to do.
 

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