Pre-Trip no boys allowed!

I wasn't going to start this quite yet, but I've reached a point in my planning that I need a bit of advice from the experts. So here I am. By experts, I mean people who go more often than once every 3-5 years and know shortcuts and tricks. @Tuvalu @Darstarr @ajrwdwgirl @riverside I know there are many of you, so I apologize for not naming all of you, but these were the names that came to me off the top of my head because I'm reading your TRs often.

The basics:
Who: My daughter (E) and me. My husband isn't a Disney fan and would rather spend the money on a gaming computer, which he did last Summer and told me I should take E on a trip with just the 2 of us because we have a similar travel style and both LOVE Disney and will get a lot more out of it than he or our son would. So...no boys on this trip. Just us girls. There may be appearances from a few other players, but we're not sure yet. My best friend Shasta might join us for a few days, my cousin C and her daughter L might pop in as well, and we'll be staying a couple nights with my friend D.

When: July27 - July 29th at Universal's Endless Summer Dockside Inn and suites
July 29th and 30th with my friend at her home in Kissimmee
July 31-August 14th at Disney's All-Star Music resort

Why?: Because that was the deal. My husband and A both got gaming computers so E and I get a Disney trip. And E is going to be a senior next year, but didn't want to do a graduation trip because she didn't want to be trying to do her senior projects while also planning a Disney trip, because she's a perfectionist and wants to focus on school. So we're doing a trip to celebrate her senior year!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Not sure about the protocol for Behind the Seeds nowadays but Caring for Giants is 60
Days out and I think it is offered every day and a few times a day.

 

[Songbird76]

Not sure about the protocol for Behind the Seeds nowadays but Caring for Giants is 60
Days out and I think it is offered every day and a few times a day.

Thanks! I think you must be right, because I could see the times on the calendar up until 60 days from now. I'll have to look at Behind the seeds to see if it's the same. I would guess it is. I wish they were still doing the Dine with an Imagineer thing!

 

[Laurenciaa]

Thanks! I think you must be right, because I could see the times on the calendar up until 60 days from now. I'll have to look at Behind the seeds to see if it's the same. I would guess it is. I wish they were still doing the Dine with an Imagineer thing!

Did this dining with Imagineer back in 2018, that was indeed awesome!

How many days until it’s WDW-day?

 

[Laurenciaa]

Did this dining with Imagineer back in 2018, that was indeed awesome!

How many days until it’s WDW-day?

Also from what airport are you flight out off? Frankfurt would be the option for me/us being based in Belgium but I really would like some airlines to do direct flights from Schiphol or Zaventem..

 

[Songbird76]

Did this dining with Imagineer back in 2018, that was indeed awesome!

How many days until it’s WDW-day?

How much trouble would I be in if I admitted I haven't counted? I know June 1st is 60 days...that's my ADR day.

 

[Songbird76]

Also from what airport are you flight out off? Frankfurt would be the option for me/us being based in Belgium but I really would like some airlines to do direct flights from Schiphol or Zaventem..

It usually depends on what works best and is cheapest. We've done Dusseldorf and Schiphol. Frankfurt is way too far for us, though we did have a stop there once, which was kind of ridiculous to go from West to East, to go back West again. I prefer Schiphol if possible, because Dusseldorf doesn't let you use the luggage carts outside, so you have to get all your luggage in from the parking to the building, and then you're only allowed to have them for a very brief period. We did dusseldorf when the kids were 2 and 4 and it was a disaster. We had all our suitcases, our carryons, stroller, and car seats, and A was too little to walk from the long-term parking lot. So I had to put him in a stroller and push it with one hand while carrying a suitcase in the other hand. Then when we got inside, DH had to go back to the car to get another load and bring it back. He tried to grab a luggage cart, but they wouldn't let him take it outside. The flight was cheaper than going from Schiphol, but we had a layover at Schiphol, so it was kind of dumb. The flight over was fine, but when we came back, there was some mechanical problem with the plane and they had to get a different plane. By the time they got the new plane, the crew had exceeded their time limit, so then we had to wait for a new crew. Our flight was delayed 7 hours, so we missed our connection from Schiphol to Dusseldorf. Rather than rebooking us onto another flight, there were so many of us who had that same connection that they chartered a bus for us. Normally, luggage is automatically transferred....it goes to your final destination. But because of the missed connection, they made us wait to get our luggage to take it on the bus with us. We waited for an hour and a half, A was crying and I had to walk around with him, singing to him, and finally got him to sleep on my shoulder, E was sleeping in his stroller, we were waiting at the baggage carousel, but then they said one of our suitcases was at another carousel, so DH went to get it. They lost one of the car seats. They said it was at the other carousel, but it wasn't, and the flight attendants told us we couldn't wait any longer, we needed to get on the bus without it. They wouldn't let anyone stop to get anything to eat, because we didn't have time, they had sandwhiches and sodas waiting for us on the bus. We were the last ones on the bus because they lost our car seat, and all the food was gone. So we were starving, had a 3 hour bus trip to dusseldorf with 2 tired and hungry kids, and once we GOT there, we had no way to get anywhere, because we didn't have the required car seat to drive home. So we called my in-laws who met us at a gas station where we got the driver to pull off and unload the kids with them because THEY had carseats for both kids. They took the kids to get food and we got back on the bus to head to Dusseldorf to get our car. It was an eventful and exhausting trip back, and we haven't gone through dusseldorf since.

 

[Songbird76]

Next question: Does All-Star Music have elevators? Should I request a ground floor room just in case? I can do stairs, but sometimes, particularly when I walk a lot, my bursitis flares up and stairs hurt a lot. Disney is a LOT of walking...I imagine by the end of our trip, my hip will be hurting. And even if there are elevators, if the elevator goes down, I don't know if I should risk the stairs...especially with luggage.

 

[Tuvalu]

Next question: Does All-Star Music have elevators? Should I request a ground floor room just in case? I can do stairs, but sometimes, particularly when I walk a lot, my bursitis flares up and stairs hurt a lot. Disney is a LOT of walking...I imagine by the end of our trip, my hip will be hurting. And even if there are elevators, if the elevator goes down, I don't know if I should risk the stairs...especially with luggage.

Yes there are elevators. But you should request ground floor to be more comfortable.

 

[Songbird76]

Yes there are elevators. But you should request ground floor to be more comfortable.

That's kind of what I thought, but this confirms it. Expert says!

 

[Songbird76]

So I tried to get tickets to the Halloween party. I looked it up and the Disney site says you can buy tickets at any ticket window OR by calling the Disney experts at whatever number. So I call the number, it says thank you for calling Disney bla bla bla. After being on hold for 25 MINUTES!, without answering my call, it suddenly stops the hold music and says to stay on the line for a brief survey about my experience today or to hang up if I don't want to participate. EXCUSE ME?? Then of course there is no survey. You have to go to an external site to do the survey. And I have to work in 10 minutes. I have no time to call back right now. I'm so ticked!

 

[Santa Raccoon 77]

I was going to follow along but it says no boys

 

[Swissmiss]

So I tried to get tickets to the Halloween party. I looked it up and the Disney site says you can buy tickets at any ticket window OR by calling the Disney exerts and whatever number. So I call the number, it says thank you for calling Disney bla bla bla. After being on hold for 25 MINUTES!, without answering my call, it suddenly stops the hold music and says to stay on the line for a brief survey about my experience today or to hang up if I don't want to participate. EXCUSE ME?? Then of course there is no survey. You have to go to an external site to do the survey. And I have to work in 10 minutes. I have no time to call back right now. I'm so ticked!

You can buy them online via the US site.

 

[Songbird76]

How do I get to the US site from Europe? Do I need a VPN?

 

[Songbird76]

You can buy them online via the US site.

Thank you thank you thank you!! I had to use a VPN, but it worked and I got them. So, yay!!

 

[Swissmiss]

How do I get to the US site from Europe? Do I need a VPN?

I’ve never had an issue getting to the US site just by typing the URL, but this might be because there is no Swiss WDW site? I am so glad it worked out for you.

We enjoyed our Halloween party but only did rides and no shows. My teen was having a hard time last summer when we were there (she’s had some major anxiety issues) and did leave the party earlier than me because she got a bit overwhelmed by the heat/humidity and crowds.

 

[Songbird76]

I’ve never had an issue getting to the US site just by typing the URL, but this might be because there is no Swiss WDW site? I am so glad it worked out for you.

We enjoyed our Halloween party but only did rides and no shows. My teen was having a hard time last summer when we were there (she’s had some major anxiety issues) and did leave the party earlier than me because she got a bit overwhelmed by the heat/humidity and crowds.

Good to know. E struggles with crowds, but we're usually ok in Disney. We mostly just want to go to check it out. I want to see the parade if they do it, and we have our costumes all figured out, or we wouldn't bother. We wouldn't go if the boys were with us, but we're up for more unique experiences and such. Can you wear costumes the whole day, or only once the party starts?

 

[Songbird76]

Ok, my ADR window hits in less than a month, so here's what we have so far:

July 31st: Wine bar George. We need to hit DS because our booking comes with a gift card for dining and merch, so we'll need to pick it up, most likely. And we'll be coming from my friend Denise's house, and she'll probably still want to spend time with us, but won't have park tickets, so a nice dinner in Disney Springs is a good option. We have park passes for MK.

Aug 1st: nothing planned yet. Park passes for MK. IF 1900 park fare reopens, we'll try for that.
Aug 2nd: San Angel. Park passes for Epcot, and we'll munch on food and wine stuff throughout the day.
Aug 3rd: Late boma breakfast, park passes for AK, and Yak and Yeti dinner
Aug 4th: MK day, dinner at Artist Point. I had to switch it with the 11th, because that's the halloween party, so not a good day to do Artist Point
Aug 5th: 50s Prime Time lunch. HS day, but we don't have much to do at HS, so I don't want ADRs to keep us in the park if we have nothing to do there and want to hop.
Aug 6th: Epcot day, Via Napoli dinner.
Aug 7th: Boma dinner. AK day.
Aug 8th: HS day again....probable Rope drop to catch whatever we didn't get to do at Rope Drop the first HS day. Small lunch at Sci -fi Dine in, and then dinner at Sanaa.
Aug 9th: EP day with lunch at Beaches and Cream, and snacking on food booth stuff. ADR for River Roost so we can see Yeeha Bob.
Aug 10th: MK day, Ohana dinner with hopefully a fireworks view table.
Aug 11th: Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern, and then Halloween Party in the evening!!!
Aug 12th: EP day, snacking on food booth stuff, and 9 dragrons dinner because we do like Chinese food, and it will be different than what we get here.
Aug 13th: Epcot day, no ADRs set.
Aug 14th: Departure day, no tickets. Probably visit Disney Springs in the morning. MIGHT make an ADR for homecomin', but probably not.

Somewhere in there, we also want to go to Fort Wilderness for their campfire sing-along and s'mores. Anyone been there? Do they do that every night?

 

[Swissmiss]

Good to know. E struggles with crowds, but we're usually ok in Disney. We mostly just want to go to check it out. I want to see the parade if they do it, and we have our costumes all figured out, or we wouldn't bother. We wouldn't go if the boys were with us, but we're up for more unique experiences and such. Can you wear costumes the whole day, or only once the party starts?

We ended up going just in time for the party, so I don’t know the answer about costumes all day. I hope your costumes are “weather appropriate“ - even in the evening it was really warm.

 

[Songbird76]

We ended up going just in time for the party, so I don’t know the answer about costumes all day. I hope your costumes are “weather appropriate“ - even in the evening it was really warm.

Yep. The costumes are lightweight dresses. We should be fine.

 

[Songbird76]

The balance on our vacation is now paid off, so we're set. 88 days, according to the CM I talked to. The only thing left is to make ADRs on June first. We may have to tweak the artist point one... I'm not sure how hard it will be to get. I'll make sure we have a backup plan. But other than that, we're set. I requested a ground floor room. Anyone else have suggestions about which rooms are best at All-Star Music? Is there more than one bus stop?