Update: I am pretty sure we are going to book a preferred room in POR in early Feb. I keep looking at food and I think we're just going to pay OOP for food. Even if we go over what we would have spent with the meal plan, I think we'll still be okay with that and roll the dice. I suspect DS1 and DD or DD and DS2 may prefer to sometimes share an adult entree vs. kid food. DS1 and DD both love sushi, ethnic cuisine, etc. and my kids are kind of foodie, so I'd hate to limit them to kid menu options. I may regret that If stay, play, dine comes out then maybe we'll tweak things or rethink. She said there may also be a RO discount in that time period. Who knows. In any case, it is all within budget and any discounts will be an added bonus. We are going to do 7 nights. We couldn't find many good prices on direct flights, but DH is using miles and we're going to buy 4 tickets and use miles for the 5th, which makes direct only a few dollars more than a single stop flight. We should be able to arrive by like 1:30 to MCO, so I'm hoping til we get on the transportation to the resort, allow for any minor delays, etc. that should be okay. I guess I need to read up on check in (is it 4pm typically? I read but can't recall if that was WBC condos or the resorts at WDW). If we need to kill time, or for dinner that night, I assume we'll just hit Downtown Disney. If we feel compelled to enter the parks I guess we'll add an extra ticket day once we are there?
We have a dinner reservation at Cali Grill for one night when Wishes is going in MK. THat's the only dinner reservations we've set up so far. It is supposed to be a good day to be at MK, so that was just good luck. I am hoping that even though we are pretty far out we can piece together some decent reservations. I just need to figure out where yet. It looks like the first two days of our trip are the best two days for MK. Is it insane to do two days of MK back to back? Maybe I don't need to worry too much about crowd levels and recommended parks since it is a slower time of year based off of the crowd calendars I've looked at. Mostly 3s and 4s.
Thank you so much for the great start. I now have the book on my nook, so that should help with the incessant questions (maybe...).
I hope POR ends up going okay. I am a bit nervous about strollers and buses. Do you think I can lug an Inglesina zippy on there? It folds fast but is not a small fold like a maclaren. I would hate to buy something just for the trip since DS2 is 3.5 and almost never rides in a stroller anymore other than the occasional family walk that is longer, etc.
Thank you, thank you!
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So we've kicked around the idea of a Disney trip for a few months, but nothing serious. DH is suddenly on board. We thought about early Dec 2013 (very short notice) or early Feb. 2014 (still short notice). We have a tremendous amount of flexibility due to the kids being homeschooled, and DH has pretty good flexibility with time off from work. As a result, we could also do something like Sept 2014, Dec 2014, etc. and have more time to plan. Right now my kids are 9, 6, and 3. If we go in Feb. DS2 will still be 3, DS1 will still be 9, and DD will be 7.
That said, I could probably perseverate on the details to a degree that I will drive myself nuts. As a result, I almost think short notice may be better in my case I have not been to Disney other than one trip 30+years ago. Eeek. DH has never been. I have only a bit of familiarity from following discussions casually here and elsewhere.
My kids know the Pixar stuff, have watched limited Disney movies.
Right now I need to make some decisions. This morning DH called to price a suite at AoA (Cars or Lion King? I have no idea what i'm doing other than quickly trying to ballpark things). We are leaning toward just staying at WBC in some ways, but after talking to the agent, DH thinks maybe we should stay on site. Is AoA worth staying on site for, or would you just go WBC? I totally forgot to have DH price out Port Orleans. The AoA decor is making my head hurt looking at it online :/ How does POR compare in price to AoA suites, roughly?
I think we'll do a character meal or two. Since we are closer in than 180 days at this point, breakfasts look tough to get. I'm thinking maybe a late lunch (2pm?) would be easier to get, and the littlest ones will probably be ready to sit down in some AC and I'm sure will be burned out.
THoughts? Seriously, I need some direction and the various boards kind of overwhelm me as I have 1) a short time frame if we proceed with the current thought of going dec. 2013 or feb 2014) and 2)I have zero orientation to even start making sense of some of the various boards. WHen people talk about heading to X gate, etc. I'm completely and utterly clueless.
I am debating just working with a TA to plan things. Will they book out our meals and so forth?
I don't think we'll do a dining plan and will probably pay OOP, although we priced AoA, meal plan, etc. and it was within our budget. We have never been, my kids aren't big on intense rides yet (like they don't really do big rollercoasters yet even though I've tried to persuade them), they are not die hard Disney fans in general (yet).
We'd like to keep it to 4-5K. 4K plus airfare, really.
I looked at crowd level info and it looks like the wk of the first and eighth Feb are pretty calm.
Where would you start?