Hey all…
Figured we’re getting close to the 90 day mark for our upcoming trip, so it’s time for a little PTR.
First the intros (which, if you’ve read any of my previous trip reports, will look pretty much identical to any of those).
There’s my DW Tammy, DD Stephanie, DS Liam and me (Graham).
Some back story
Where to begin….
If you read our last trip report (specifically the last three days of it)), you know that some big changes started happening at work while we were at Disney (here's the link if you are interested in reading it: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...in-between-an-august-2014-trip-report.889324/). For those who didn’t know, a quick recap…
I was working at Tim Hortons (a company that all the Canadians reading this will know about, and a large chunk of US readers in the north of the country will probably know too) at the time our last trip. Near the end of the trip some news was leaked that Burger King was in talks to merge with Tim Hortons. Long story short, before the end of the trip the official announcement came out that Tim Hortons and Burger King would be merging (the merge was completed in early December).
Fast forward to January….I’m sitting in my office on January 27th (just two days shy of my 40th birthday) when the phone rings and I’m asked to come down to one of the vacant offices in the building….I knew what was coming….yup, my position was no longer needed in the new structure of the merged company, and I was let go. Now I’m in no way bitter about this (I was actually in a Tim Hortons the next day buying a coffee (#nohardfeelings)), but it did put any future trips to Disney on hold.
We had booked a trip for August (we are DVC members, so we had booked at our home resort (Saratoga Springs) at the 11 month mark, and we decided not to cancel the reservation for the time being since we had quite a bit of time before we would have to cancel and be able to bank the points).
Anyways….about two days after I was let go I received a message from a friend of mine who I used to work with when I was going for my CPA, and she let me know her husband (who is the VP of Finance at a company), was looking to hire a controller, and that I should go talk to him. A few days later I went out for lunch with him, and about two weeks after that I was offered the job. I took a few weeks off, and started the new job near the end of March. Of course, one of the question I asked before I took the job was if I could have the time off in August for the trip, which I was told would be no problem (I would have taken the job even if they had said no. I mean I like going to Disney but I like being able to pay for my house more).
So what’s happening this year
So we made a few modifications to the original plan we had (mainly because the flights on SouthWest were crazy cheap (We got $115 down and $99 back flying from Buffalo)).
When are we going: August 15th to the 25th
Where are we staying: as mentioned, we had originally booked at Saratoga Springs. However, we never really stay there (we stayed there once several years ago, but we like to try different places). At the 7 month mark we changed to a studio at Wilderness Lodge.
However… Near the end of February the Villas at the Poly opened up for reservations. One of the benefits of being off work was that I had time to sit on the phone and wait to get through. I called member services right at the time it was supposed to open and kept getting a busy signal. Redial..busy signal…repeat. Finally the phone rang…and I was put on hold…then I got disconnected somehow. Redial…busy….repeat. Finally, after about an hour of calling and being on hold I got through. I was pretty excited when they said they had availability for the time we wanted. End result is we are staying 6 days at the Poly in a Lakeview Studio, and then 4 days at Wilderness Lodge.
Anything else happening this year… Like the prior year, it’s our anniversary while we are there (August 22nd – our 17th anniversary).
Also, we’re going to buy our park passes from Undercover Tourist this year. We’ve done some research and feel comfortable using them for the first time (the tickets will be around $100 less than buying through Disney)
In terms of ADRs, here’s what we have right now (which will no doubt change)
Arrival day – nothing booked. Our flights are a bit later in the day so we probably won’t get to the resort until around 7ish
Aug 16 – Rose and Crown for dinner
Aug 17 – Yak and Yeti - we’ve never eaten here at the table service restaurant, but thought it looked good
Aug 18 – Trail’s End for dinner – we really don’t like buffets but this one is relatively cheap
Aug 19 – Sci-Fi for dinner
Aug 20 – Teppan Edo
Aug 21 – 50’s Prime Time
Aug 22 – anniversary day – Lunch at Be Our Guest, Dinner at ‘Ohana (last year we though we’d try a signature restaurant for our anniversary, so we did the Cali Grill. However, we’re not really into that kind of food, and we all love ‘Ohana, so thought that would be a great choice)
Aug 23 – Mama Melrose (another new one for us)
Aug 24 – San Angel Inn (another new one)
Aug 25 – leaving day – breakfast at Whispering Canyon – our flights are at 7:30pm so we’ll have some time in the park
So that’s it for now. If anything changes I’ll update.
Figured we’re getting close to the 90 day mark for our upcoming trip, so it’s time for a little PTR.
First the intros (which, if you’ve read any of my previous trip reports, will look pretty much identical to any of those).
There’s my DW Tammy, DD Stephanie, DS Liam and me (Graham).
Some back story
Where to begin….
If you read our last trip report (specifically the last three days of it)), you know that some big changes started happening at work while we were at Disney (here's the link if you are interested in reading it: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...in-between-an-august-2014-trip-report.889324/). For those who didn’t know, a quick recap…
I was working at Tim Hortons (a company that all the Canadians reading this will know about, and a large chunk of US readers in the north of the country will probably know too) at the time our last trip. Near the end of the trip some news was leaked that Burger King was in talks to merge with Tim Hortons. Long story short, before the end of the trip the official announcement came out that Tim Hortons and Burger King would be merging (the merge was completed in early December).
Fast forward to January….I’m sitting in my office on January 27th (just two days shy of my 40th birthday) when the phone rings and I’m asked to come down to one of the vacant offices in the building….I knew what was coming….yup, my position was no longer needed in the new structure of the merged company, and I was let go. Now I’m in no way bitter about this (I was actually in a Tim Hortons the next day buying a coffee (#nohardfeelings)), but it did put any future trips to Disney on hold.
We had booked a trip for August (we are DVC members, so we had booked at our home resort (Saratoga Springs) at the 11 month mark, and we decided not to cancel the reservation for the time being since we had quite a bit of time before we would have to cancel and be able to bank the points).
Anyways….about two days after I was let go I received a message from a friend of mine who I used to work with when I was going for my CPA, and she let me know her husband (who is the VP of Finance at a company), was looking to hire a controller, and that I should go talk to him. A few days later I went out for lunch with him, and about two weeks after that I was offered the job. I took a few weeks off, and started the new job near the end of March. Of course, one of the question I asked before I took the job was if I could have the time off in August for the trip, which I was told would be no problem (I would have taken the job even if they had said no. I mean I like going to Disney but I like being able to pay for my house more).
So what’s happening this year
So we made a few modifications to the original plan we had (mainly because the flights on SouthWest were crazy cheap (We got $115 down and $99 back flying from Buffalo)).
When are we going: August 15th to the 25th
Where are we staying: as mentioned, we had originally booked at Saratoga Springs. However, we never really stay there (we stayed there once several years ago, but we like to try different places). At the 7 month mark we changed to a studio at Wilderness Lodge.
However… Near the end of February the Villas at the Poly opened up for reservations. One of the benefits of being off work was that I had time to sit on the phone and wait to get through. I called member services right at the time it was supposed to open and kept getting a busy signal. Redial..busy signal…repeat. Finally the phone rang…and I was put on hold…then I got disconnected somehow. Redial…busy….repeat. Finally, after about an hour of calling and being on hold I got through. I was pretty excited when they said they had availability for the time we wanted. End result is we are staying 6 days at the Poly in a Lakeview Studio, and then 4 days at Wilderness Lodge.
Anything else happening this year… Like the prior year, it’s our anniversary while we are there (August 22nd – our 17th anniversary).
Also, we’re going to buy our park passes from Undercover Tourist this year. We’ve done some research and feel comfortable using them for the first time (the tickets will be around $100 less than buying through Disney)
In terms of ADRs, here’s what we have right now (which will no doubt change)
Arrival day – nothing booked. Our flights are a bit later in the day so we probably won’t get to the resort until around 7ish
Aug 16 – Rose and Crown for dinner
Aug 17 – Yak and Yeti - we’ve never eaten here at the table service restaurant, but thought it looked good
Aug 18 – Trail’s End for dinner – we really don’t like buffets but this one is relatively cheap
Aug 19 – Sci-Fi for dinner
Aug 20 – Teppan Edo
Aug 21 – 50’s Prime Time
Aug 22 – anniversary day – Lunch at Be Our Guest, Dinner at ‘Ohana (last year we though we’d try a signature restaurant for our anniversary, so we did the Cali Grill. However, we’re not really into that kind of food, and we all love ‘Ohana, so thought that would be a great choice)
Aug 23 – Mama Melrose (another new one for us)
Aug 24 – San Angel Inn (another new one)
Aug 25 – leaving day – breakfast at Whispering Canyon – our flights are at 7:30pm so we’ll have some time in the park
So that’s it for now. If anything changes I’ll update.
Last edited:
