Pre-Trip The Make Up Your Freakin Minds Already Pre-Trip Report!!!

Hello again all! I'm back with my official pre-trip report thread! It seems quite a few of us will be down in the world in Nov at the same time and love reading everyone's plans! My traveling party consists of myself, Steve, my wife Megan, and our 2 boys, Landon (6) and Declan (3). More on that travel party to come!

Declan and Landon

Currently we are booked at Caribbean Beach Resort with 5 day park tickets and the regular dining plan, Nov 11-18th.

So why can't we make up our freakin minds already about this??? LOL Our trip has been ever changing since we decided to go again. Lots of different factors came into play.

I originally booked for May at Pop Century. However, with a nice screw up from my new job I started last year, they screwed up my taxes and I wasn't getting back what I normally get because of it! Bummer. My Tax money had to go toward our big move! We r moving in May to our first house! So exciting! But I need some our tax money to furnish the house. Because of this we changed and moved our trip to November.

I changed our dates to Nov 11-18th. Which was fine for us because it's the same week we went last year and we had so much fun experiencing Xmas time in the world for the first time!

However, since we figured free dining would be at that time again, we actually decided to switch resorts to stay at Caribbean Beach Resort. It would literally mKe the trip about $60 bucks more to stay at Caribbean with free dining as opposed to staying at Pop and upgrading and payingthe difference for the regular dining plan!

Now to add more chaos to my story, my wife's father past away several months ago, and we are awaiting money from that situation to come our way. If we do end up getting that money in time, we want to try and rent points and stay at Grand Floridian Villas!

I stayed at the GF 3 times a kid. Lots of favorite memories of my trips r from staying at that resort! However with prices the way they are, this I probably the only time I would be able to afford to stay here! So fingers crossed on that whole ordeal! It would be so cool to stay there again! Not to mention the rooms at the GFV are just beautiful looking!

One last thing for now, our travel party...it actually is a great thing that we decided to switch our dates around because we can officially announce that we are having another baby!!! Baby will be here beginning of October!

Did I say that correctly? Am I seriously going to Disney World with a 1 month old!?! Sounds crazy to me but it'll be so much fun! We will be happy with either, but we do want to have a girl since we already have 2 boys! Who wouldn't want to dress up their little baby girl as a princess!!!

Stay tuned and join me on this wild ride of my ever changing planning of a Disney trip!

PS: this is why I go to Disney and take my kids as much as I do, moments like this one that just melts your heart!

 

[TaraWdopeyfan]

Tank u for telling me of your experience! Now the big question I have is the busses. Will they make me fold the stroller and hold the baby carrier in my lap or floor, or can I keep her wheeled in the stroller? Also did u go on pirates with the baby? That's the only ride I am a little weary of because of the drop, maelstrom too...

On the busses they will make you fold up the stroller, that's when the bjorn came in really handy cause i had her strapped in the front of me.When we took the boat for PO to DTD they let us keep the baby in the stroller and of course on the monorail but all busses made us fold the stroller up. We also decided to rent a stroller from Kingdom Stroller a double due to our middle child being small and not able to keep up with us. As for the rides yes we took her on Pirates and Maelstrom, she actually slept thru the rides every time. The only ride we didn't feel comfortable putting her on was the Astro Orbitor, my husband rode it first with our oldest and then when he got off he said it was a little too fast and didnt' feel comfortable with me taking the baby on it so she sat out with daddy while i took our middle child on. Hope this helps.

 

[stevehousse]

On the busses they will make you fold up the stroller, that's when the bjorn came in really handy cause i had her strapped in the front of me.When we took the boat for PO to DTD they let us keep the baby in the stroller and of course on the monorail but all busses made us fold the stroller up. We also decided to rent a stroller from Kingdom Stroller a double due to our middle child being small and not able to keep up with us. As for the rides yes we took her on Pirates and Maelstrom, she actually slept thru the rides every time. The only ride we didn't feel comfortable putting her on was the Astro Orbitor, my husband rode it first with our oldest and then when he got off he said it was a little too fast and didnt' feel comfortable with me taking the baby on it so she sat out with daddy while i took our middle child on. Hope this helps.

Thank u! I wasn't sure about the stroller thing...we will have 2 strollers as my 3 year old will need one. I also have a 6 year old who doesn't need a stroller anymore.

Idk, maybe we should buy a double stroller???

 

[TaraWdopeyfan]

Thank u! I wasn't sure about the stroller thing...we will have 2 strollers as my 3 year old will need one. I also have a 6 year old who doesn't need a stroller anymore.

Idk, maybe we should buy a double stroller???

We only needed the double stroller when we were at Disney so we choose to just rent, we did go to BabysRUs to look at the strollers when we decided to rent for the trip. Just to get an idea of what the strollers looked like. If my girls were closer in age i would have gotten one but i knew outside of Disney I wouldn't need a double. I would check out the Kingdom Strollers website they list the differnt types you can rent.

 

[mrdrift]

Great plans for the up coming trip. Will be waiting to hear and see pictures about your trip especially around the time of year you are going.

 

[stevehousse]

Great plans for the up coming trip. Will be waiting to hear and see pictures about your trip especially around the time of year you are going.

Thanks! I can't wait to make my ADRs next week! We have several new places we r trying and I can't wait!

 

[mrdrift]

It will be fantastic to read about your ADR plans and experiences. You have chosen many places that my family wants to try.

 

[stevehousse]

It will be fantastic to read about your ADR plans and experiences. You have chosen many places that my family wants to try.

We wnt bak and added 2 more TS restaurants! Can't wait to finally reveal then all next Thursday! We changed a few, and some of our "favorite", we decided to do te opposite for (ie breakfast instead of dinner!)

 

[TinkandCrew]

I'm sad my trip is over and miss all of the planning excitement. I will re-live everything through your report! If you would like to take an extra family of five with you, just let me know!

 

[stevehousse]

I'm sad my trip is over and miss all of the planning excitement. I will re-live everything through your report! If you would like to take an extra family of five with you, just let me know!

If I win the lottery I'll give u a call!

 

[stevehousse]

So tomorrow morning is the big ADR day! Omg I don't want to wake up so early! LOL

So just to clarify, I live in IL, I can start making ADRs at 6am central time??? Or is it 5am for online and 6am for calling? Sorry but the last trip we took we booked late and it was well after the 180 day mark...I haven't gotten to make ADRS at 180 since 3 trips ago!

 

[LucyK]

Can't help you with the timezone thing but I want to say good luck! I hope you get all your favorites and at the times you need.

Are you trying for BOG?

 

[stevehousse]

Can't help you with the timezone thing but I want to say good luck! I hope you get all your favorites and at the times you need.

Are you trying for BOG?

No we r gonna do lunch at BOG like last year...gonna get a FP for it!

 

[LucyK]

No we r gonna do lunch at BOG like last year...gonna get a FP for it!

I hope we can get a FP+ as well. If we don't it's no big deal since we're used to eat after 1PM and lines are really small by then.

 

[stevehousse]

What a morning! Wow I hope I never have to do that again!

I woke up at 5am this morning so I could start accessing the ADRs online. guess what, It wasn't working! Shocker! A multi billion dollar company should be able to have a website that actually works! I was able to search for tables, and of course the times I wanted would pop up! I would click the time and...it just keeps reloading the various restaurant home pages! WTH

So I said screw it, I'm calling at 6am. I laid back down for a good half hour and dialed the Disney reservation number at 601am...guess what happened next?

I was on hold for over an hour! I assumed since the online wouldn't work more people than usual would be calling! It was early, I was tired, I was getting upset that all the ADRs would be gone by the time they finally answered my call! I was making myself stress so much I had 3 cigarettes while I was on hold! I was fuming...LOL

Once I got through, I was able to get everything I wanted to get! There were a few times that I didn't like but took them anyway! I'm holding out on trying to find a better time for Chef Mickey Breakfast! I will be stalking for a better time since the one we got is so frickin early!

This is what we got!

Tuesday Nov 11
-Shutters 655pm
---this is new for us! We wanted to try some new places this trip and the menu looked great!

Wednesday Nov 12
-Chef Mickey's 720am
--that'll be me trying to eat and function so early! We r not super early morning people and our first MK day was gonna be the only "early" day for us! I was hoping for an 8am, but like I said I will stalk the website for a better time! We always do dinner here every visit, and never have done breakfast!

-The Plaza Restaurant 430pm
--this is another new place for us this year! I originally had other dinner plans for this day but could only get that place on a different day, so it was a last minute addition!

Thursday Nov 13
- Kona Cafe 10am
--this was our favorite new place we tried on our last trip so we had to do it again! I'm drooling thinking of the Somoa dish...yum!

-Garden Grill 535pm
--another family favorite of ours! They have the best character interaction I think out of any character meal!

Friday Nov 14
-no ADRs scheduled, however we r looking to get a late lunch FP for Be Our Guest lunch, and most likely Casey's corner for late dinner sometime during the Xmas party!

Saturday Nov 15
-Yachtsman's Steakhouse 6pm
--another new place for us and I was most looking forward to having the 28oz Porterhouse steak!

Sunday Nov 16
-Hollywood and Vine 930am
--this is the boys favorite! They r excited to see the newly added Doc Mcstuffins and their favorite, Jake!

Monday Nov 17
-'Ohana 520pm
--Ohana has been the one restaurant that we have always eaten at for breakfast! This is our first year trying dinner! I can't wait!

So there we have it! So glad to get that over with! The last 3 trips I have taken I was past my 180 days and was always able to get everything I want! Today made me worried about crowd levels because it was so difficult to get exact times I wanted! It didn't help that the website wasn't working, which means more people had to call!

If anyone has any suggestions for potentially replacing Citricos, please offer up any suggestions...but with that said, my wife will not dine at Boma, Sanaa, Grand Floridian Cafe, 1900 Park Faire, or Yachtmans Steakhouse! (Which the later was my original replacement, but she said no!) I hate picky eaters!

We have dined already at Sanaa and Boma. We both didn't like Sanaa and She didn't like Boma but I loved it!

Good luck to everyone else for this week!

 

[stevehousse]

Glad you (mostly) got what you wanted. I'm also going to try to get Kona breakfast. I'm just thinking that Tonga Toast and I are going to need to meet.

Also, Chef Mickey's is usually a tradition for us for breakfast. It's fantastic.

Good to hear at breakfast at Chef Mickeys! Kona is so good! You will love it! I highly suggest whoever is in your party u all order something different for everyone to kind of try...amazing food!

I really wanted Ohana on our first MK day or our arrival day, but it was all full with only 930 available both days! Way too late for us! But we still got it and it works for our schedule so yay!

 

[stevehousse]

Ok mini update! We decide to cancel Citricos and I talke my wife into Yachtsmans Steakhouse! Too excited! She originally didn't want to dine there because she didn't like sauce that came with one of the dishes! That's it? I told her she can get it without sauce or something else I'm sure! She also loved the Mickey puzzles the kids get for dessert!

We r also planning on hanging around the boardwalk after dinner and r gonna get the kitchen sink in Mickey pants! I think I will be so stuffed this day because I get to have my 28oz porterhouse steak! Bring it on!

 

[LucyK]

Great choices! I want to try Citricos some other other, the menu does look good.

The website situation is absurd! I don't understand how such a huge company can have a website so badly coded.

 

[stevehousse]

Great choices! I want to try Citricos some other other, the menu does look good.

The website situation is absurd! I don't understand how such a huge company can have a website so badly coded.

It's just awful isn't it!

 

[stevehousse]

One last dining update, because you know we can never make up our minds...LOL

Sadly my wife asked me to cancel The Wave reservation and just wants to stay at the hotel mostly when we get there, maybe do DTD right away and then go back to the resort for swimming and dinner at Shutters!

I updated my ADRS this in the previous posting to reflect our changes!

 

[stevehousse]

"Seriously, you want to change this again?" I said...


My wife's deceased fathers house just sold! Which means we will be getting our $$$ a lot sooner than we thought!

My wife asked me if we could change our plans and add my youngest sister to join us!?! Te thought was awesome and I said, hold on let me check...

I was shocked most of the free dining was gone already! Isn't this promotion running for a few more months?

It'll be expesive to add her because of having to switch to a new resort. We r even thinking of switching to POR and just paying for dining maybe??? We really don't know what to do! My wife suggested staying at Grand Floridian which still has free dining rooms available too? I want to stay there so bad again!

So things might be changing again! I can't even believe I am saying that...let's see what happens???

Does anyone know if they "hold" more rooms for free dining for people trying to reserve more towards the end of the promo? Does anyone think they will release room discounts for Nov?