The WHY Am I Doing PTR?!?!?

LostPrincessKarleigh · Aug 24, 2013

stevehousse said:
Yes that does help greatly...my kids can't wait to stay at the "toy story" hotel they keep calling it. We made sure to request rooms over there... I just wish they would announce magic bands for my resort already!

I'm waiting for magic bands too!

stevehousse · Aug 26, 2013

A small update as we are 78 days away!

My father in law passed away last week, my wife was never really close to her dad and her parents have been divorced since she was 1.

Just today she found out her dad also had a small life insurance policy that we will be able to get right away!

It's unfortunate about her dad but I'm grateful her and her brothers recieve money out of th deal! This is such a relief as we now dont have to pinch every penny for te next 2 months until our vacation! So relieving!!!

stevehousse · Sep 13, 2013

Update!

We are officially 60 days out and we just completed our online check in! So exciting!

I am a little sad to see that I can't access magic bands yet, but we will see. I've heard rumors its suppose to be live at all resorts Nov 1st but have no real confirmation...

The kids are more excited than ever, all we need to do is buy our Xmas party tickets and we are set!

stevehousse · Sep 21, 2013

Can't sleep...

Seeing how Friday was payday, I was able to make our final payment for our trip and we are now PAID IN FULL!!! So excited!

I am also excited that magic bands have been rolled out to nearly every resort and All Stars is joining the club! Hopefully this means November is looking good for us being able to use them!

We are still working out minor details of our itinerary, but I will post a final one here soon! One detail I will share that we r happy about is that instead of leaving early Monday morning and arriving Tuesday, we are leaving Sunday night and arriving in Orlando Monday evening! We will get a cheap hotel room for the night, and then go to ASMv in the morning, check in, and have a full day at MK with our Chef Mickey ADR we had made way back!

50 more days until we leave!

ginadee · Sep 22, 2013

stevehousse said:
Just got off the phone and we booked our vacation package!!! We are sooo excited! We changed our plans slightly, but just where we are staying! We originally were gonna stay at Port Orleans Riverside, but we did some digging and more number crunching and now are booked at All Star Movie Resort with upgraded dining package, and it saved us over $500 dollars!!! Which is a win for me!

We dont really care where we stay, since we will be doing the parks and we r driving so we won't have to worry about busses! How is All Stars? We were able to get a preferred room and we put in a request for the Toy Story buildings for the boys! (It's their favorite!)

We haven't stayed on property in years and are very excited! We have never seen the "world" for the holidays so that will be a plus!

Funny as I read your first post my reply was going to be that I am booked at POP and paid the difference for the reg dining and it was $200 less. Continued reading and there you go. Awesome! So glad your going. This will be our first time with the dining plan. Cant wait.

stevehousse · Sep 22, 2013

ginadee said:
Funny as I read your first post my reply was going to be that I am booked at POP and paid the difference for the reg dining and it was $200 less. Continued reading and there you go. Awesome! So glad your going. This will be our first time with the dining plan. Cant wait.

It really is worth it to upgrade for that cheap and to stay at a value...I would love to stay at a deluxe but I just can't fork over the price for a place I use just to sleep only! We r usually never in our hotel when we r there! We always have wanted to stay at the Poly, maybe one day...

stevehousse · Sep 25, 2013

So we are 48 days and counting until we head to FL! I was at work and was reading the boards, when I noticed in one of the threads that a lot of people were able to start booking FP+ for the month of November. I texted the DW and asks her to check our account because of what I was reading. I have been checking once a day since we did our online check in btw...(lame I know but I want to really utilize this new thing for our trip)

Low and behold she texted me that is is open and working for our reservation!!! I could not wait till I got home to set everything up!

Once I got home, I immediately changed and got on the laptop and headed to the dreaded Disney website! It's awful! However, I will say that once I started doing the FP+ selections, the site went into light speed an I was shocked how well it was working! Neways, first thing I did was check if we could make band selections...we couldn't yet!

Next was the FP+ part. It worked very well and was quite easy to do. I went ahead and booked everything, really taking into consideration how we tour the parks in general and applying it to our time options as best as we could! There were plenty of options! One thing that did rub me the wrong way was that the site said Peter Pans Flight is down for refurb, and it wouldn't let me book a FP for it. I know that this attraction is suppose to reopen the day we planned to do MK, so I was a little bummed it wouldn't let up pick it. Hopefully it will change closer to our park day and I will be able to switch to it! Fingers crossed!

All in all, the whole process took me a good 30 minutes or so to book and switch times around. However, I will say that after I did everything the only park that gave me planning jitters was DHS! I actually spent an additional 30 minutes trying to plan everything out best I could!!!

The problems with DHS is that the park hours are for 8am-8pm and has early morning extra hours to starting at 8am. We already have an ADR at 8am for Hollywood and Vine. Landon and Declan are both ecstatic about getting to eat breakfast with Jake and Oso!

Right after breakfast, once the park officially opens, we are heading over to sign Landon up for Jedi Training Academy! He is stoked to beat up Darth Vadar

never have done this before and he really wants to do it, but since we will not know what show he will get to be in until we are there, it really makes it difficult to plan our day and FPs!

The other thing that throws a wrench into the plans is seeing shows! The boys both want to see Disney Jr Live really bad, and Landon wants to see Indiana Jones Stunt Show! Not to mention we did a FP+ pick for prefered seating at Fantasmic, which shows at 630 that evening.

On a side note, Landon is turning 5 next week, and has really gotten into a lot of older movies this year that i loved as a kid myself! He loves the Indy and Star Wars movies and video games! He's just growing up way too fast!

So planning this day was very hard and I hope everything works out the way we want it too! I'm sure I will change some stuff around on this day but for now we will see how it goes. If anyone has any suggestions or more information about Jedi Training since we have never done it before, would be greatly appreciated! We do not want to see little mermaid or Beaty and the beast shows because we always watch those when we go! We also do not ride the backlot tour or watch LMA or American Idol...we do not care for those attractions at all!

stevehousse · Sep 25, 2013

UPDATED!!!

This is my younger son Declan! He is so excited to go on the "Buzz and Woody Rides" he calls them! LOL He just turned 2 back in June. He loves Disney movies, his favorite right now is Aladdin and Brave Little Toaster!!! He also loves to watch YouTube videos of wdw rides and shows! He will literally grab your phone outta your hands and ask you to watch rides! So cute...

Here is our full and final itinerary!

Nov 10- leaving work at 7pm, and then heading home to pack up the car. We are planning on leaving at 9pm and are driving straight through! I have insomnia so staying up late driving is nothing for me! I plan to drive till about 4-5am, then waking Megan (DW) so I can try and sleep for a few hours...

Nov 11- We plan to arrive in Orlando in the evening. Arrive at Holiday Inn And then going over to CityWalk at Uni for dinner and to get the boys their Despicable Me and Harry Potter souvenirs! They both areobsessed with these two franchises at the moment! We always like going to CityWalk every trip. Next year, since Landon will be tall enough for more rides, we are planning on going to both Uni parks...

Nov 12- Arrive at All Star Movie Resort around 8am. We are checking in early even if our room most likely won't be ready, but we want to get it out of the way early. We are going straight over to MK for the day. We have FP+ booked for Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and BTMR. We then have a FP+ for BOG lunch at noon, and then dinner ADRs for Chef Mickeys at 805pm.

Nov 13- We have breakfast ADRs for Kona Cafe, a first for us! We will take the monorail over to Epcot for the day. We have FP+ booked for Test Track, Soarin, and Maelstrom. Dinner ADRs at Garden Grill for 6:50pm. This is another first for us! Living with the Land is one of our favorites! We are staying for Illuminations!

Nov 14- We are headed to AK for the day with FP+ booked for Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids. Early lunch at Flame Tree Barbque, and Dinner ADRs at Boma for 6pm, followed my mini golf at Winter Wonderland.

Nov 15- We have a breakfast ADR at Ohana, one of our favorites, at 8am. We will spend the rest of the morning and afternoon back at the resort and then head To DTD around 2 or so to eat at Wolfgang Puck Express and shop. We will be at the MK at 4pm for our very first Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party! We have FP+ booked for Peter Pans Flight, BTMR, and Little Mermaid, then onto all the holiday party fun! Will eat at Casey's Corner for a late dinner.

Nov 16- We have breakfast ADRs at Hollywood and Vine at 8am, and will spend the day at DHS with FP+ booked for TSMM, TOT, and Fantasmic. We will eat dinner at Pizza Planet. We hope to get Landon signed up for Jedi Training for the first time! He is very excited to do it!

Nov 17- check out of All Star Movies in the morning and head back home to Chicago!

TheMouseFan · Sep 25, 2013

@stevehousse Try your magic bands today. I also was able to do my FP+ yesterday, but not our magic bands. I logged on this morning and was able to customize our bands.

stevehousse · Sep 25, 2013

TheMouseFan said:
@stevehousse Try your magic bands today. I also was able to do my FP+ yesterday, but not our magic bands. I logged on this morning and was able to customize our bands.

Thank you for letting me know! I logged on and it didn't show up yet! Then I came back on the boards and found out people had to redo their online check in for the bands to show. I did that very thing and before you know it we were able to customize our bands!!!

Steve- blue
Megan- pink
Landon-yellow
Declan- green

Wait, Declan gets a magic band?!?

At first I was really confused by this...he is only 2 and doesn't require a ticket!?! It also stated that same thing when I went to do our FP selections , that I don't even need to include him because of his age. I really have no idea why it would include him since he's so young, but I'm guessing it might be some sort of glitch??? Speaking of a glitch, late last night I had commented on how well the website did and how fast it actually was when doing all our FP selections. Total opposite for the magic band customizing! It was painfully slow to load the different colors...

O well, anyways Declan liked getting to pick the color of his band this morning and chose his color, "geen" all by himself!

Our bands will be shipping out oct 13! Can't wait to see what these things are all about!

stevehousse · Oct 3, 2013

Today our Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party tickets arrived in the mail! So exciting. I linked the tickets to our MDE account, and it let us book FP+ for this day! Score! The only thing I thought that was odd, was that when it let me pick FP, it was giving me times like I was in the park all day??? I had to manually change all the times so it could be 4-5, 5-6, and 6-7pm??? Strange, but I'm glad we got to do that...I updated the final itinerary to add those FP+ times! With a little over a month to go, we are all becoming so anxious for this trip to come! We are now "patiently" awaiting our Mickey Mail and Magic Bands to come in the mail and we will be set!

stevehousse · Oct 11, 2013

Ok folks! Today was Mickey Mail day! We were all so excited to open it! It just means that we are that much closer to going! Our magic bands will ship in 3 days as well! 30 days to go and we will be on our way!

stevehousse · Oct 15, 2013

So I checked the MDE page yesterday, and it said our magic bands were being customized and ready to ship! Too exciting right!

Well when I woke up this morning I had an email from Disney letting me know the bands have shipped! I go to check the tracking number, well they are out for delivery!?! Our bands have just arrived a few minutes ago! We were do excited to open and try then on!

All poor Declan wants to do is wear his band all day now! He was so sad when I had to take it away. He one of those kids that had secret hiding places stached all over the house, so I know he would hide this somewhere and we would never find it ourselves when we need it...also Landon is excited to use his band on the Disney Infinity game, I guess you get some kind of Dragon for the game? We won't try until Declan is napping. I don't want any band drama from him...lol

26 days left to go! Time is flying by and before you know it we will be in the world!

stevehousse · Oct 15, 2013

A little ironic I just received this about 1/2 hour after my bands arrived this morning...

Mollie_Minnie · Oct 15, 2013

You are soooo lucky to have your magic bands! I have to wait to get them at the resort! We have the same color choice except for the green one (red instead). I'm 33days away!!

stevehousse · Oct 15, 2013

Mollie_Minnie said:
You are soooo lucky to have your magic bands! I have to wait to get them at the resort! We have the same color choice except for the green one (red instead). I'm 33days away!!

Ya my youngest Declan, was crying throughout the day about wanting to wear his band, but he will loose it if I le him. He already took Landon's power cube from the Disney infinity and had it stashed away somehwre and we can't find it

Mollie_Minnie · Oct 17, 2013

Think about your trip and you will find your smile back!

Your less than a month away!

stevehousse · Nov 2, 2013

single digits!!! We have about 8 days left until we leave for the world! Next Sunday is my last day of work and when I get home, we are packing the car and leaving for The World!

So we were hoping that Landon would grow that extra inch before it was time for vacation, but unfortunately it's a no go...so I am switching our FP for EE on our AK day. He really wanted to try it, but understands that he isn't tall enough yet.

No big deal, I kept my FP for Everest( my wife won't ride a ride alone) , and Landon and her switched to Dinosaur. Now I love this ride, so we figured we would just use the baby swap for this ride, so I still get to go on it without waiting...

This week can't go by fast enough! I wish I was leaving tomorrow! The anticipation is killing all of us! Also, we finally found where Declan had stashed Landon's Disney Infinity cube! It was hidden in a Diego pack pack! LOL

stevehousse · Nov 8, 2013

Aaahhhh!!! 2 days left until we leave! How exciting! We are actually finishing all our packing right now as I type this. Trying to get as much done as I can today before I have to work later tonight! The boys have been so excited the last week they have literally been bouncing off the walls making it impossible to get stuff done!

I also received an email today from Disney reminding me to not forget our magic bands! I actually will say that the box the bands in comes in is quite handy! I was able to stash our reservation booklet, our MVMCP tickets and some other print outs I have for FP+ selections and our fp+ lunch at BOG all into that box!

stevehousse · Nov 10, 2013

We just left Chicago for Disney World!

The WHY Am I Doing PTR?!?!?

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