Pre-Trip Eenie...Meenie...Miney...Dough: Booking (and re-booking...and re-booking) our April 2021 Trip ***COMPLETED***

AKA The NeverEnding 'Reservation'​

Hi! My name’s Tom. Welcome to my first-ever (Pre) Trip Report…

To start off, I’d like to thank a few forum members: @Tuvalu , @Darstarr, @fractal , @DisneyGigi , @MickeyCB , @riverside and everyone else who has taken the time to post a trip report (or 2…or 3…). I’ve really enjoyed reading through your very informative (and entertaining!) reports, and was inspired to try my hand at one myself.

 

[k8einwdw]

I'm in! Excellent use of GIFs so far! And you clearly have great taste in television.

 

[riverside]

Isn't it sad how we take so long to get ready for the trips, and then after they are over, it seems like a lifetime ago? And then we want to go again!

Isn’t that the truth?? And they go by way too quick also!!

 

[tommcp516]

The (Pre)Trip Report resumes:

So yesterday was a pretty eventful one for our family: first, Melissa had a medical exam to evaluate her need for continued treatment for her car accident injuries, and then later in the day we found out that we were approved and locked-in for our mortgage refinance.

Yet, one final momentous event still loomed ahead for us in the coming hours which held the most fateful consequences of them all

...the opening of our 60-day dining reservation window.

 

[tommcp516]

Our resort reservation starts on April 3rd, so that meant that our ADR booking window would open up on February 2nd.

As I'm sure most of you already know, online reservations first become available to book beginning at 6 AM EST, but since we live all the way over on the other side of the country that meant that we’d have to be up and ready to go at 3 AM PST.

 

[tommcp516]

Last weekend we sat down in the family room and looked over all of the restaurant options together, and then everyone got to choose one or two of their favorite ones for their wish list. Melissa made a poster board with our daily park schedule, and then we used multi-colored Post-its for our high priority choices on each day. Over the course of the week I kept mulling things over and tinkering with the chart, until I ran out of Post-its fashioned it into a precision work of art.

 

[tommcp516]

Early in the evening Melissa and I had a final huddle to split up the responsibilities for aiming for our highest priority bookings across the several days, and then set our alarm for 2:30 AM. We then took turns mashing the snooze button until 2:55, and finally dragged ourselves downstairs to the office all bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

 

[tommcp516]

The adrenaline definitely started to kick in as we sat there in the glow the computer monitor, fingers poised over our smartphone screens as we breathlessly watched and waited as the clocked ticked down to 3:00:00.

 

[tommcp516]

Finally the magic hour struck, and we each went to work scrambling to snag our most desired reservations. Initially, I wasn’t able to find any available times on the dates we wanted, and I could tell by the string of muttered curse words that were wafting over from Melissa’s direction that she wasn’t having any luck either.

It seemed like all of our hopes for our dining experiences for the week were about to be crushed.

 

[tommcp516]

Luckily, I remembered a suggestion someone had made on a forum about searching for reservations on a web browser using a desktop/laptop, as opposed to going through the app on your phone. Sure enough, plenty of available times started popping up for places we had hoped for, and after we juggled some things around we had all of our dining choices booked for each of the dates we had wanted.

I was also able to snatch up a reservation for Adam to build a lightsaber at Savi’s in GE. And I may or may not have also booked a reservation for myself on our second HS day to build an R2-D2 at the Droid Depot…but if Melissa asks it’s for the kid

 

[tommcp516]

The whole process took about half an hour from start to finish, then we lumbered back upstairs to try to grab a few more hours of sleep before the sun came up.

We wound up with 11 reservations over the course of the first six days of the trip, plus the two Galaxy Edge experiences. Despite my outward exhaustion and lingering drowsiness, inside I was as excited as excited can be:

 

[tommcp516]

My giddiness was somewhat short-lived, as I lay in bed in the growing dusk. I quietly resigned myself to the fact that since we had booked a split-stay with a different resort reservation for the final two days of our trip, I would have to go through this entire twilight routine all over again in five days when our April 8 window opens up on February 7th:

Stay tuned...

 

[tommcp516]

Thoroughly enjoying your report. Can't wait 'till you get there!

Glad you're enjoying it--we can't wait either!

I absolutely loved that resort for so many reasons!! Hopefully I’ll get to them one of these days(got to finish my current TR first!!)
Unfortunately, not only am I already back but I also just finished up a 9 hour work shift. Disney feels like it was already forever ago!
I need to go back

Glad to think there'll be another TR to look forward to at some point after you finish your current one! Hope it's not too long before you get to go back!!

Isn't it sad how we take so long to get ready for the trips, and then after they are over, it seems like a lifetime ago? And then we want to go again!

Yes, if I'm being honest I've been glad to have this trip (and all the planning) to keep me busy during all the extra down-time with staying at home due to Covid. And I'm sure there will be a post-trip adjustment upon our return once we're back outside of the Disney bubble!

 

[tommcp516]

I feel the same way! I need a year inbetwen trips to save up! We stay at beach club every year, but we had stayed at GrandFloridian many years back when the kids were quit small. I love a post earlier about staying at contemporary for the few days scheduled for Magic Kingdom, then moving to Beach Club for rest of trip. My children have never seen contemporary. Only passed through on monorail. We have saved and pinched pennies( literally saved old pennies for coin machines) as well as quarters; and we are ready to go! We are waiting for no/low mask use. Can anyone suggest to me where the best section to say at contemporary? My kids are teenagers and we love walking, but I really could use advice as contemporary has changed so much since my last stay there.
thank you!

I'll certainly let you know about the section of the CR that we'll be staying in (Tower Lake View). They'll be renovating the Tower Park View rooms while we're there, but I'll try to sneak a peak if I can.

If your teenagers love walking and you're trying to pinch pennies, you might consider booking a room in the Garden Wing, which is still part of the CR but in a separate building connected by a walkway. The rooms there are less $$ than the ones in the Tower itself.

 

[cgersic]

The whole process took about half an hour from start to finish, then we lumbered back upstairs to try to grab a few more hours of sleep before the sun came up.

We wound up with 11 reservations over the course of the first six days of the trip, plus the two Galaxy Edge experiences. Despite my outward exhaustion and lingering drowsiness, inside I was as excited as excited can be:

Oh my gosh your gif game is goooood! I'm laughing so hard right now!

 

[NickPytlinski]

this is the best pre-trip i have read.
much needed chuckle for everyone.

 

[tommcp516]

I'm in! Excellent use of GIFs so far! And you clearly have great taste in television.

Thanks! With all of the extra time during Covid, I've been able to binge a LOT of tv

Oh my gosh your gif game is goooood! I'm laughing so hard right now!

Thank you! It's been fun looking through so many funny gifs to find the right ones to post!!

this is the best pre-trip i have read.
much needed chuckle for everyone.

Thanks for the compliment! I know we all could use a laugh these days.

 

[tommcp516]

(Pre) Trip Report Continued-February 7
“Night of the Living Dead—The Sequel”

As promised, here’s how things went with booking the rest of our ADR’s for the second part of our split stay...

 

[tommcp516]

No sooner had my sleep schedule finally returned to normal after all that early morning fun on February 2nd, it was time for Round Two on February 7th. After eleven straight months of quarantining at home, the days of the week have started to blend into one another, so it wasn’t until almost sundown on the 6th that I remembered that I’d need to pull 3 AM duty again in just a few hours.

 

[tommcp516]

Since we were just looking to make reservations for the last two days of the trip, I told my wife that I’d take one for the team and would handle the twilight booking scramble solo this time.

 

[tommcp516]

To avoid waking her up anyways with our obnoxiously loud alarm clock and my typical 20-minute snooze button whack-a-mole routine, I decided to power through and just stay up until 3 AM.