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!

 

[meeskamickey]

I will definately be posting another trip report!

Congrats on your baby too! My wife is so sick right now I hate it! Do u have other kids as well? We would like to have a girl this time since we already have 2 boys who can be quite a handful!

We do have other kids...1 boy and 2 girls. This was our little surprise baby . It would be nice to have another boy. My son says he doesn't know what he'll do if it's another girl!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Congrats on the new baby!! Your plans sound awesome! I just finished writing about the Garden Grill in my TR so I am pleased you all are gonna eat there too! We love it!!

If you can't get BLT, you could also try for Wilderness Lodge? They are usually less than the Contemp rooms and you can rent points there. The boat is very convenient to get to and from MK and we had very good luck with busses there. Or possibly try Boardwalk Villas or Beach Club Villas. A short stroll to Epcot and DHS!

 

[stevehousse]

Congrats on the new baby!! Your plans sound awesome! I just finished writing about the Garden Grill in my TR so I am pleased you all are gonna eat there too! We love it!!

If you can't get BLT, you could also try for Wilderness Lodge? They are usually less than the Contemp rooms and you can rent points there. The boat is very convenient to get to and from MK and we had very good luck with busses there. Or possibly try Boardwalk Villas or Beach Club Villas. A short stroll to Epcot and DHS!

We love garden grill! We were thinking of maybe doing beach club if we couldn't get one of the others we wanted! We do not like the look of the wilderness lodge rooms! We both hate camping so we wouldn't really fit in there! LOL

 

[stevehousse]

So we are really thinking hard about maybe doing Beach Club now! (I know, I know) We still can't decide! LOL The more info I find on Beach Club the more I want to stay there. Tons of restAurants, the incredible Stormalong Bay, which the boys would love, and the closeness of 2 parks!

Please, if anyone has advice for staying there, please let me know how everything is! Rooms, the pool, transportation, restaurants...etc

Now let's see here...first we were gonna do Pop, then changed to Carribean. Now once we knew we would have extra money, it was Grand Floridian Villas. Since the studios are all booked, we are currently deciding between Contemporary and Beach Club! Heck we have always wanted to stay at the Polynesian, but I'm not sure how construction would be at the time we r going, so that's for another trip!!! Help us decide! LOL

Carribean Beach
Contemporary
Beach Club

 

[Maggie Mae]

So exciting!! Congrats on the baby, my sister and I will be there November 5-10, so right before y'all! Have fun!

 

[stevehousse]

So exciting!! Congrats on the baby, my sister and I will be there November 5-10, so right before y'all! Have fun!

Where r u staying?

 

[Maggie Mae]

We are staying at POP, it's my home resort, and I get to share it with my sister for her first trip to the World... I am beyond thrilled!

 

[stevehousse]

We were originally going to stay there but changed our minds...lol

I wanted to stay there just because I hvent yet, but with that said, my wife was not too keen on the theming and look... We have stayed at all the All Stars, however, there wasn't anything at Pop that she found interesting...

 

[stevehousse]

Since free dining has come out for our dates, we r just going to say screw it and stick with Caribbean Beach Resort. The boys really want to use the pirate pool and splash area. I called and upgraded us to a preffered room in North Trinidad! Hope we like it!

 

[LucyK]

I'm happy the Free Dining worked for you. One day I'll bite the bullet and stay somewhere else besides POFQ. CBR is beautiful but not for us right now.

 

[Betsyboo]

Since free dining has come out for our dates, we r just going to say screw it and stick with Caribbean Beach Resort. The boys really want to use the pirate pool and splash area. I called and upgraded us to a preffered room in North Trinidad! Hope we like it!

Hey @stevehousse looks like we'll be at the same place, same time! Ended up moving from POFQ to take advantage of the FD offer. I was reluctant but you can't beat saving some serious $$. It's enough to pay for our MVMCP tix and HDDR. Hopefully we'll get to meet.

 

[stevehousse]

Hey @stevehousse looks like we'll be at the same place, same time! Ended up moving from POFQ to take advantage of the FD offer. I was reluctant but you can't beat saving some serious $$. It's enough to pay for our MVMCP tix and HDDR. Hopefully we'll get to meet.

Have you ever stayed at CBR before? This will be our first time there? We can definatly meet up for a cocktail!

 

[Betsyboo]

Have you ever stayed at CBR before? This will be our first time there? We can definatly meet up for a cocktail!

Yes. First time at CBR. We are in preferred buildings as well. I was very hesitant in moving but I'm enjoying the research into a new resort and the pool and grounds look amazing.

 

[stevehousse]

Yes. First time at CBR. We are in preferred buildings as well. I was very hesitant in moving but I'm enjoying the research into a new resort and the pool and grounds look amazing.

They do! I hope we like staying there! We are also still trying to determine which day to so the Xmas party this year, as my wife had asked me for different options than the itinerary I originally had planned...

 

[Betsyboo]

They do! I hope we like staying there! We are also still trying to determine which day to so the Xmas party this year, as my wife had asked me for different options than the itinerary I originally had planned...

We'll be going either the 10th or the 13th. Can't decide. May also be determined by ADR availability. Trying for LTT on the 13th prior to party time. So whichever works out I guess I'll go with it.

 

[stevehousse]

So with about a week left before making the almighty ADR phone call, we have been updating and finalizing our plans!

Now let's see, you thought we had a hard time picking a resort...try dining! LOL especially since it's free now, we always make the most of it!

My wife wanted to know if I could make any new itineraries up to see different options we had! (Really ) I seriously had like 6 different itineraries "planned" out on paper and after all that, we ended up just sticking to our original plans for the most part! thanks wife...

Yesterday for some reason, she was in a super Disney mood! She hates planning things and usually leaves it all to me. This girl wanted me to add more restaurants and book some of our favorites, but do the opposite dining. (Ex, we always do chef mickeys for dinner, she wants to try breakfast).

We love taking a slower approach now that we have young kids. We all have been so many times it's nice to not do the parks all crazy like we used to when we didn't have them...

So now we have several old favorites and several new experiences, going from 6 ADRs up to 8! I can't wait to call and hopefully get them all! Fingers Crossed!!!

As for the new baby, it is doing well and we get to find out next month what we r having! Also, our delivery date has been set for Oct 15. However with that said, I'm pretty sure the baby will come a week or 2 earlier than that...Landon was a week early, and Declan was 3 weeks early...anything can happen!

We also finalized our plans to do the Xmas Party on Nov 14. This was the same party date we went to last year on that Friday, and it was not a sell out! I'm hoping for the same this year!

My boys seem to be having Disney fever as well lately, as they both have been asking about vacation a lot and have been playing Disneyland Kinect a lot recently! These boys r ready!

I will say that I am a little sad, because if we didnt have to postpone out trip, we would be there right now!!!

Before I go, does anyone have any suggestions or experience with busses at CBR? This is the first trip in years we r flying down and not renting a car, solely relying on Disney busses to get us everywhere! It's been years since we have had to use the busses so I don't know what to expect? Would u say being at a bus stop an hour before we need to be somewhere is enough time? Specifically monorail loop area resorts? 5 of our ADRs this year are at those 3 resorts! And do they still do the character breakfast busses? We will have to get to an early ADR at 8am if all works out!

188 days to go

 

[stevehousse]

We'll be going either the 10th or the 13th. Can't decide. May also be determined by ADR availability. Trying for LTT on the 13th prior to party time. So whichever works out I guess I'll go with it.

Good luck on your ADRs! Hope you get everything!

 

[stevehousse]

Yay on getting your free dining and getting everything together. TRIPLE yay on the healthy baby!!! I feel it, this is a girl. I'm psychic like that

Thank u! We think it might be too because this pregnancy has been a little "off" from when she was prego with the boys! We will find out soon enough!

 

[TaraWdopeyfan]

Congrats on the new baby! I saw you asked about taking a baby to Disney. Well back in 2011 i went to Disney and my youngest was about 2 1/2 months old, it was so easy with her. She slept alot in the stroller and i used my baby bjorn a lot as well. She rode most rides but the mountains of course. I had a lot of people tell me i was crazy for taking her at such a young age but really it was easier with her then our 4yr old at the time. Enjoy your trip!

 

[stevehousse]

Congrats on the new baby! I saw you asked about taking a baby to Disney. Well back in 2011 i went to Disney and my youngest was about 2 1/2 months old, it was so easy with her. She slept alot in the stroller and i used my baby bjorn a lot as well. She rode most rides but the mountains of course. I had a lot of people tell me i was crazy for taking her at such a young age but really it was easier with her then our 4yr old at the time. Enjoy your trip!

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...