Summertime, and the livin' is easy...a July/August 2021PTR Updated 4/9

[MrsSLF]

Warning: This is looooooooooong​

Hi everyone!

I’ve never made a TR, nonetheless a PTR before, but I love reading them. They’re literally the thing I peruse the most on the DIS, besides searching answers to my random questions. I find that, even in a non-pandemic year, I get the winter doldrums and the only thing that generally gets me through is thinking of and planning our summer vacation. This year is especially important since we had two amazing vacations last year cancelled due to the pandemic and we’re going to try and make up for it this summer. I am a teacher so traveling any other time of the year is more of a challenge but we’re used to WDW during the summer, as that’s when we visit most often. So who’s going on this trip?

Me: Hi, I’m Stephanie!

​

I am the coordinator of all family vacations in our house. I love planning and researching for a vacation about as much as I love going on vacation. I’m a history teacher by day and a travel planner by night. Or day. Or weekends. Or whenever I have a free moment. I like making lists the old-fashioned way and color-coding plans and basically being neurotic about planning! I have lived all over the country and, as a result, have visited both the Land and the World many times throughout my life. A sore spot is that my family was supposed to have our first visit to DLR last summer but we all know how that went...Anyhow, I love all things Disney and could spend all the days in the parks without any downtime but that would make my better half very grumpy. Le sigh.

Favorite Park: toss-up between HS and MK
Favorite Ride: toss-up between HM and RnRC
Favorite Resort: the Poly
Favorite Snack: Dole Whip

DH: Bryan


(I somehow have zero recent pictures of him by himself...)​

Bryan is the reluctant participant, at times, in my shenanigans. Bryan was not able to visit WDW as a kid except for once and it was not necessarily memorable for him. He’s in sales and loves his career. His first real trip to WDW was our daughter’s first trip at 2 and he’s been hooked ever since (albeit, not as much as me). He enjoys a nice relaxing day at the pool and is definitely more of a resort person than a park person. He has, however, agreed to not be grumpy this trip and I’m going to hold him to it.

Favorite Park: HS
Favorite Ride: ROTR
Favorite Resort: the Poly and it’s not even close for him
Favorite Snack: most things sweet

DD: Emma

​

Emma loves all things Disney! She’s my park-hopping sidekick! Whenever my DH is wiped out, Emma is always up to take an evening trip to a park. Emma is very fortunate in that she has been to WDW 6 times since turning 2. We don’t live close to the parks but try to go at least once a year (Emma and I would go more times a year but, again, balance with my DH). Emma is an outgoing 3rd grader that needs social time but is thriving in spite of a lack of peer contact (we’re virtual). She is also a year-round swimmer and I’d say her best stroke is the butterfly, which always amazes me because of its difficulty.

Favorite Park: AK
Favorite Ride: “all of them”
Favorite Resort: the Poly and the BC (it’s definitely SAB)
Favorite Snack: Dole Whip

Tentative Plans:​

As of right now, we’re going to make this a looooooooong vacation/road trip. I would probably be okay flying down to Florida but my DH is a bit more hesitant (and we’ve got flight credits from last summer...le sigh). So, instead, we’re going to make this a long road trip/vacation with a couple of stops to meet up with friends and family.

Friday, July 23rd: travel day
We plan to drive down to Savannah and meet friends for the weekend. Whenever we drive, we always stay in Savannah because we love it as a destination versus some random pitstop on our road trips. I also have an affinity for Georgia because I went to college there.

Saturday, July 24th- Monday, July 26th: Savannah
I don’t have much of an idea for what we’re going to do but am excited to see friends and relax in what will probably be awful humidity and heat. <shrugging emoji>

Monday, July 26th: travel day
I’m thinking we will leave Monday morning, the 26th, to travel down to Florida. We’re going to visit my in-laws for a few days and enjoy more relaxation, delicious home-cooked meals, and lazy days in their pool. It should only take 5-6 hours or so to get to their house near Tampa.

Tuesday, July 26th-Friday, July 30th: more in-law time
See above.

Friday, July 30th: travel day
We will leave early and head to a new to us resort: Boardwalk Villas! I lucked out with an amazing 1 bedroom rental because of a points-for-rent post in a group I’m in on FB! Score! We were going to stay at BC and simply pay rack rates since there was no DVC availability but my daughter also really wanted to try out Boardwalk because of the creepy clown slide (spoiler alert: the creepy clown is no more but she will love it anyway because it’s a new to her slide and pool). I think this will be a resort day. We’re only staying here for a few days because the bulk of our trip will be spent at our favorite resort.

Saturday, July 31st: Park day
Still playing around with which park to attend but we’re definitely going to take advantage of the location while staying at BWV so it’ll either be EPCOT or HS. If EPCOT, we’d probably do a half-day and maybe spend more time at the pool. I’m also planning on park hoppers for our trip.

Sunday, August 1st: Park day
Same as above, it will either be EPCOT or HS. I plan on planning out based on crowd calendar estimates, though I know they’re probably even less accurate now with everything that’s going on and the changes. Luckily, we’re regulars so if things feel too crowded, we’ll just adapt. We’re excited to ride the new MMRR and the new Ratatouille ride and we should have a lot of time over the course of our trip to do that. Of course, we will attempt (or I will since I’m the master planner) to get a boarding group for ROTR, which I feel confident that we will be able to do.

Monday, August 2nd: Park day/resort transfer
This is the day we will leave the EPCOT resort area behind and head to our favorite resort: the Poly! I can’t wait for regular visits to Pineapple Lanai for Dole Whips! We rented points for the week to stay in a studio, our favorite room on property. It’s such a perfect fit for our family of 3.

Tuesday, August 3rd: Park day
No clue which park we’re going to visit this day, stay tuned!

Wednesday, August 4th: Resort/pool day
We love the Lava Pool and I know my family will be itching for a relaxing day the poo, especially my DH and DD.

Thursday, August 5th: Park day
No clue again, stay tuned!

Friday, August 6th: Park day
It’s like a broken record…

Saturday, August 7th: Park day/resort day
Maybe half a day at a park and time at the pool.

Sunday, August 8th: Park day
Again, no clue yet…

Monday, August 9th: Travel day
Time to head home and while I’m usually sad to leave, we will have been gone from home for over two weeks so I’m sure I will be ready to be home.

Phew, that’s a lot! If you’ve read through this entire post, you’re a champion and I commend you! Fun planning ahead and while I don’t expect people to follow along or anything, I look forward to being able to put everything in my head in writing because reading, thinking, and writing about a vacation brings me joy right now.

-Stephanie

 

[MrsSLF]

Table of Contents
July 23rd: Travel Day
Travel Day Update!
Park Reservations Anxiety!​

 

[MrsSLF]

July 23rd: Travel Day​

I’m going to try to be less verbose this time around as that introduction post was a novel. So, we live about 9 hours away from Savannah and can always successfully drive it in a day---even with the inevitable traffic of our region (DMV). Because we see driving as an integral part of the fun, we will get started early to make our way down to Savannah. DD will be bored about 30 minutes into the trip, so that’s also always fun. We haven’t locked down our accommodations for Savannah yet because we’re still ironing out the plans with our friends that are going to meet us down there (2 couples with small children, both live in Atlanta). In the past, we’ve been able to use DH’s Hilton points to stay for free but we all know 2020 was not the year of travel, business, or otherwise. Ugh. We stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Savannah Historic District/Riverfront a few years ago and I’m not opposed to staying there again. We only stayed for one night but it has a lovely rooftop pool that I would gladly take advantage of. Outside of that, I don’t know what else to do in Savannah with young children (my DD is the oldest and there’s a considerable gap in ages). Suggestions? I’ve only really spent a lot of time in Savannah as an adult, unencumbered by children.

Source: Hilton​

I know for sure that we will definitely go and eat at our favorite BBQ restaurant, Wiley’s Championship BBQ. Absolutely delicious and a can’t miss for us when we’re in Savannah. The only other thing up in the air is if we’ll stay until Monday or leave Sunday when our friends leave.

Wiley's, 2018


Wiley's, 2018​

Any suggestions for Savannah that you find to be can’t miss?

 

[suse66]

Joining in! I am heading down (hopefully) August 7th. I am a kindergarten educator and like you, mostly travel in the summer or spring break. I am going with my oldest to celebrate his 21st! I was intrigued by your mention of Savannah as I was supposed to heading there (and Hilton Head Island) on March 13th but sadly our border is still closed so travel is a no go for now. I hope both our summer travel dreams come true!

PS....Your daughter is adorable! Love her name, Emma is one of my faves and we would have used it if we hadn't have had all boys!

 

[disny_luvr]

Hi! We’ll be in Disney the same time as your family! We arrive August 1st for a 13-night stay at the Beach Club. We are planing on splitting our stay with the Poly, too. I just haven’t booked it yet because I’m worried that the resort side won’t open on time. I’m going to see how things pan out over the next few months before I make changes to our current reservation.

On a side note, on our last Disney trip in the summer of 2018 we drove and stopped in Savannah on our trip down. We also stayed at the Homewood Suites and loved the rooftop pool. I don’t have any suggestions because we were only there one night. We toured the waterfront area and just walked around the town. It’s so beautiful! We did drive out to Tybee Island. That might be an idea.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[RollTideinMD]

Following along from the DMV area too!

 

[MrsSLF]

Joining in! I am heading down (hopefully) August 7th. I am a kindergarten educator and like you, mostly travel in the summer or spring break. I am going with my oldest to celebrate his 21st! I was intrigued by your mention of Savannah as I was supposed to heading there (and Hilton Head Island) on March 13th but sadly our border is still closed so travel is a no go for now. I hope both our summer travel dreams come true!

PS....Your daughter is adorable! Love her name, Emma is one of my faves and we would have used it if we hadn't have had all boys!

Welcome! Our border is still largely closed and I was vying for a trip to Disney for SB but could not get my husband on board. It's a good thing since I would have had to quarantine, per state rules (even though I'm fully vaccinated now), for 10 days. Fingers crossed your hopefully for an August trip becomes a definitely!

I love visiting Savannah but realize I've never really visited the city for more than a day or two with a child so we're going to have to figure out stuff to keep everyone occupied.

And thank you! We picked Emma before realizing it was the most popular girl name in her birth year, lol! I couldn't imagine her having any other name, though.

 

[MrsSLF]

Hi! We’ll be in Disney the same time as your family! We arrive August 1st for a 13-night stay at the Beach Club. We are planing on splitting our stay with the Poly, too. I just haven’t booked it yet because I’m worried that the resort side won’t open on time. I’m going to see how things pan out over the next few months before I make changes to our current reservation.

On a side note, on our last Disney trip in the summer of 2018 we drove and stopped in Savannah on our trip down. We also stayed at the Homewood Suites and loved the rooftop pool. I don’t have any suggestions because we were only there one night. We toured the waterfront area and just walked around the town. It’s so beautiful! We did drive out to Tybee Island. That might be an idea.

My daughter and I were fans of BC but my husband less so (I'm not sure what's wrong with him, lol). We're looking forward to trying a new to us resort with BWV and I'm so excited to be in the EPCOT resort area for a few days before moving to the Poly.

And small world about your stay at the Homewood Suites in Savannah! It really is a lovely hotel though I think we're looking into possible house rental options since we have friends that are *hopefully* meeting us. I think Tybee sounds like a great idea for a way to spend some time.

 

[MrsSLF]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for following along! I have to get my thoughts organized but look forward to adding more to our PTR.

Following along from the DMV area too!

Hey, neighbor! I knew that locals would know what DMV meant.

 

[CTDisneygal]

I am so happy to have stumbled upon your PTR! We have almost identical travel dates and are also visiting with family and friends prior to the Disney portion of our trip. Our youngest, a 2nd grader, will be with us for this trip. Looking forward to your report

 

[MrsSLF]

I am so happy to have stumbled upon your PTR! We have almost identical travel dates and are also visiting with family and friends prior to the Disney portion of our trip. Our youngest, a 2nd grader, will be with us for this trip. Looking forward to your report

That's awesome! Our daughter is currently in 3rd grade...can't believe I am about to have a 4th grader. Now I need to get my mojo back and start writing this PTR again! Blasted teaching and building reopening preparations.

 

[Bama Mom]

Following along. My trip is in less than two weeks so I am filling my time reading TRs and PTRs since there isn't a lot more planning I can do.

 

[MrsSLF]

Travel Day Update!​

It has been a while since I’ve updated this PTR as I had grandiose plans to knock out posts quickly when I had free time but then I thought to myself, “what free time?” Anyhow, the last time I posted on this PTR I mentioned the tentative plans for our travel day and that my best friends were hopefully going to be joining us for the weekend. Well, that is still the plan and it got even better because instead of renting hotel rooms, we’re going to share a house and carriage house in Savannah instead! The other awesome update is that all of the adults will also be fully vaccinated before our trip to Savannah! So exciting!


So now we have lodging (booked it last week) for Savannah and loose plans for what we will do while we’re in Savannah including lots of hanging out at the house and playing games. The only bummer for my daughter is that she is the oldest kid by a lot but she, thankfully, adores young kids so I am sure she will try to help keep them company (there will be a 2.5-year-old, 18-month-old, and an infant).




I’m just excited to see my best friends and spend time together with them plus that our husbands are all friends, too (because of us, obviously). A few photos of our rental!





I seriously cannot wait for this part of our epic family vacation!

 

[MrsSLF]

Park Reservations Anxiety!​

I’m the type of person that worries about getting somewhere on time if there is a limited number of seats or a limited number of preferred seats. Staking out where to sit in a movie theater during the opening weekend of a big movie would lead me to convince my husband that we needed to arrive at least an hour early. No joke. When movie theaters began to move towards reserved seating (pre-Covid), I was sold! In fact, you couldn’t pay me to see a movie in a theater without advanced seating because it wasn’t worth my internal anxiety battles for the perfect seat.

So what’s the point of all of this? Park reservations. Park reservations over the last couple of weeks have caused me this type of pre-Covid, no holds bar fight for the perfect seat (or park reservation) anxiety attack. Let me show why:



So why would this cause me anxiety? Because we hadn’t purchased our tickets yet as I was still going back and forth about the number of park days and if we should get PH or not. Seeing the ever-shrinking possibilities for visiting DHS, in particular, in June forced me to be decisive this week and finally order our tickets.



We opted for non-PH 9-day tickets though I’m still torn about adding PH when we get there in July because my DD and I love to hop! My DH? Not so much. What do you think? Should we add PH to our tickets? Stick with one park a day?

I guess a lot of this will probably hinge on park hours once we get closer, though I have to believe that they will get extended because it’s summer but nothing makes much sense anymore.

Oh, and probably my second favorite thing I learned last week was that we would finally be at WDW during a festival I’ve been dying to attend: Food and Wine!!! I’m so excited because the normal timing of the festival is generally very hard for us due to our schedules so I am excited to get to partake this year! That might be worth the PH alone!



Next up, my crazy park reservation plan...

 

[disny_luvr]

Your rental in Savannah looks beautiful!

I say go for the park hoppers. We love to park hop and I can’t imagine going on a trip to Disney and not hoping to another park at night.

We are stoked about Food & Wine, too!

 

[MrsSLF]

Your rental in Savannah looks beautiful!

I say go for the park hoppers. We love to park hop and I can’t imagine going on a trip to Disney and not hoping to another park at night.

We are stoked about Food & Wine, too!

I think you're right about the park hoppers.

I also can't believe I haven't updated this in almost 3 months! Man, how time flies! Will try and update today.

 

[rlk]

Hi,
Your trip sounds so fun!
We are staying at the BWV for the first time too. I really think you will be happy to have park hoppers, especially with the Food & Wine Festival going on during your stay.