Pre-Trip We are family...I got all my cousins with me

I was going to wait to start a pre-trip report since we haven't even booked yet, but we're GOING to, and part of the hold up is waiting to hear when the rest of the family wants to go and can, and who will be with us. So...details will change as I get them. For now:
Who: My family of 4, consisting of DH (Mark), myself (Susan), DD (E) who will be 13, and DS (A) who will be 11.

My brother and his family, consisting of Him (J) and his Husband (also J, so I will collectively call them JJ) and their daughter (N) who will be 6, and also possibly his in-laws...(brother in-law and parents-in-law) All from Wyoming So, JJ, N, the parents-in-law D and S, and their other son R. My brother is paying for them to go because they have done a LOT for our family. They are amazing people and I am so excited to get to share this with them. I think they will be hooked. If nothing else, they will love the nightlife. But they have treated me like a daughter from day one....like I come with the package, and they helped us out so much last year when my dad died, and they are just so much fun. I don't think I have any pictures of them unless it's from drag queen bingo. Nope...but I raided my brother's pictures and here's one of their family at Mount Rushmore. Granny S must be taking the picture.

And My family plus JJ and N at the Mammoth site in South Dakota)

And also my cousins. My cousin has kids my age, all with their own families, so if everyone in their family comes there are like....13 of them? My cousin and his girlfriend, together known as Jimger, his oldest son B and his 2 boys and possibly a new girlfriend....I think his oldest will be 9, and youngest maybe 7?, his daughter C and her boyfriend and daughter who will be...,8? and then his youngest M and his wife and 2 girls....the oldest will I think be 12, and the youngest maybe 5 or 6? From Iowa and Illinois (Picture is my family, JJ and N, Jimger, C and her daughter L at Mount Rushmore before my 4 went to Disney in 2016)

When: July 20th 2019 for 2 weeks at Disney, and then probably a week in Orlando doing Universal, and other places. (varying depending on who) My kids' last day of school is July 19th, so the 20th is the earliest possible date for us to arrive. 2 or 3 of the cousins are teachers and have to be back in Mid August, so we can't go very late. My brother's family will be there for 1 week.

Where: My family and my brother's will be at CBR, the cousins are looking at Airbnb. My family will also be doing a 4 or 5 night package at Universal for Harry Potter, and then some other places we need to look into. The rest, I have no idea if they are just thinking Disney or a bit of everything.

Why: Well, why not? Basically, we have the money to go again, so we're booking and my cousin's daughter C found out we were going and she was semi-planning as well, but didn't have a timeline and mentioned we should coordinate. Jimger both quit smoking this past year after a health scare, and are wanting to celebrate with a trip to Disney, but none of them have been there since I was around 9 or 10 I guess. So they are a bit out of touch with what it's like now. And if the whole famn damily is getting together, we want my brother's family to be there too. The added bonus being my brother-in-law's birthday and my brother and his husband's anniversary both at the end of July, which we could celebrate at Disney.
So, we could have anywhere between 4 and 25 peolple. The good news is, I only really have to do ALL the planning for my 4. But, the rest have either never been to Disney, or haven't been there in decades (Pre- MGM and AK) and really have no clue about what it is like now. So I am going to be the go-to person, which is why I started this pre-trip now. HELP!!!!!!!
My brother hasn't been since he was 14 I think? Maybe even longer. But he's in his 40s now.

Spoiler: Problem solved, but I'll leave this here for posterity.

His husband and family are dragging their feet because it's expensive. They have never been there and can't imagine it being worth the price tag. So, he's asking me for ways to save money. So....since they are all American, they can't use the deal I get over here in Europe. So...how do you all save the most money? Is it cheaper to stay off property or rent DVC points? How about the campgrounds? Are there rooms that sleep 6 at any of the resorts or would they need 2 rooms? I've been trying to do a Disney trip with my brother since 2010 and he always backs out because of the money. So I need money saving tips and any incentive that shows how much value you actually get for that money. GO!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We did the Wild Bill show at DLP that you suggested and we LOVED it. It was one of our favorite things of the trip, and we did that for our arrival night as well....it set the tone for a great trip. And I think that's a similar idea to the Hoop Dee Doo show...which is why I was thinking it would be great for arrival night.

Both hooo de and buffalo bills are great shows. I agree it would be a fantastic thing to do on arrival day, as long as it works out with flights. But if it doesn’t work out in atrival day I would live to see you fit it in somewhere in your trip.

 

[Songbird76]

Both hooo de and buffalo bills are great shows. I agree it would be a fantastic thing to do on arrival day, as long as it works out with flights. But if it doesn’t work out in atrival day I would live to see you fit it in somewhere in your trip.

Oh, it will be in there somewhere. Everything I listed is something that we will be doing. It's just a matter of figuring out when to do what. But things like....1900 park fare....we have a breakfast AND a dinner for that, so we'll have breakfast there one day, and we'll go somewhere else for dinner and probably not need to use any counter service credits that day. But then somewhere later, we'll use 2 or 3 CS in a day and no TS. Like....we have no Animal Kingdom TS plans, but lots of counter service. And in Epcot, we have a lot of TS plans, but not so many CS plans. So we'll do Garden Grill breakfast and then do maybe Teppan Edo dinner and just snack in between. But we definitely will be doing Hoop Dee Doo.

 

[Songbird76]

Well....ADR day is certainly an adventure! I have not yet booked Hoop Dee Doo for 2 reasons. 1, it's not going to work for arrival night, so I need to figure out where to put it. And 2, I do not have a valid credit card that I can make charges to at the moment. I'm hoping to get that resolved this afternoon, but it was already an exercise in futility to try to make ADRs online as it kept rejecting my cards and I kept calling the card companies to figure out why it was rejecting. One is probably because the card expires while we're on our trip and they don't send out new cards until 3 months before, which would be fine if it would still let me use the card to hold the reservation, but it won't. So that card had to be canceled completely and a NEW account set up and a card is being expidited, but won't make it here until next week. But if they just sent a new card for the old account now, apparently it would be treated like a lost or stolen card and would just have the same expiration date that's on it now, which wouldn't help me. So, that card had to be canceled in order to get a new one...next week.
Card #2, I'm still dealing with my dad's estate, which I THOUGHT we had all the credit card and bank stuff done 2 years ago when I left the US....I was wrong.
Card #3 I apparently never activated. I have now, but Dutch credit cards are attached to your bank account...you can't spend more than you have, and we don't have the money in our account yet to pay for hoop-dee-doo. It's fine to hold a reservation, but I have to pay for Hoop in advance, so I have to wait until I get card #1 next week, or I get card #2 resolved.
Card #4 is actually my husband's and worked for ONE transaction, and then nothing afterwards.

So I have learned my lesson. Always call the dining line and let THEM make your reservations for you. It's much faster, and they can get the times you want.

We tried to book our flights last night, which is when we discovered card #2 is not working, and I have to contact the bank, which does not open until this afternoon my time. BUT, that's also when we realized Hoop Dee Doo is not going to work for our arrival night. I'm super bummed. It would have been perfect....get right into the fun, have entertainment without having to use park tickets for a partial day. But, there are no flights that leave late enough on the Friday, so we can't leave until Saturday and then we don't arrive until 8:40 p.m. The kids both have school on Friday the 19th of July, and while DS always gets out at 12:30 on Fridays, we don't know what time DD gets out, but it could be as late as 3:00pm. Assuming 3:00, the EARLIEST we could get to the airport is 5pm, and since you have to be there about 3-4 hours before your flight leaves, we can't leave until at LEAST 9:00pm. And we can't find any flights that leave after something like 1pm. Even if we try flying from Dusseldorf instead of Amsterdam, it doesn't work and it's way more expensive. So...we just aren't going to be able to be there before evening on the 20th.

My brother and my cousin have not gotten back to me on ANYTHING regarding dining. I sent them a list of places for which we were planning to make ADRs with the request that they let me know which ones they want to do too, so I could make reservations for the whole party. My cousin still doesn't have lodging OR tickets. I booked my brother's lodging myself, so I know he HAS it...but he hasn't set up a My Disney Experience account or anything. Not knowing if my cousin is still planning to come or not, I did not include her in ADRs. I DID include my brother's family up through the 27th, which is their check-out day. If he doesn't want to join us, it's easier to reduce the number than it is to increase it. So I just went ahead and made the reservations for his family with ours.
So here's the itinerary so far:

Arrive July 20th in the evening and check in.

July 21st, Epcot day. Not sure what time the park will open, but the only reservation I could get at Bon Voyage Breakfast for a large group was 9:10 am. Not ideal, but we'll deal.
Then a 7:00pm Biergarten dinner.

July 22nd
10:55 Boma breakfast. We can rope drop the park, then go to a late breakfast as the park gets busier and hotter.

July 23rd
10:25 am 1900 Park Fare breakfast Rope drop MK, then head to breakfast.
6:35 pm Whispering Canyon Early enough that we can make it back for fireworks if we want to.

July 24th
Hollywood Studios with 11:35 am lunch at 50s Prime Time

July 25th
Waterpark day, my BIL's birthday, 6:35 pm dinner at 1900 Park Fare for us. I've offered to take my niece that evening so my brother and his husband can have a date night for BIL's birthday, so they might make other reservations, but I've not heard back, so I don't know.

July 26th
AK day....maybe. This may end up being a split up day. My brother thinks my niece will want to spend more time at AK than anywhere else, but my family doesn't really like AK. We'd rather spend our time anywhere else, and since we already have one AK day scheduled, and my bro can also go on the 20th before we arrive, I don't want to go to AK if I don't have to. We'll see how fastpasses for FOP go, and maybe rope drop Navi River...that's about it for our must dos there because we've not seen them yet. DH wants to do EE, but for the rest, there's nothing we would mind skipping. I'd kind of like to see Rivers of light, since it was pushed back on our last trip and didn't end up being shown while we were there.

July 27th
Rope drop Epcot to do either TT or Soarin' (I will do Soarin' either way). Lunch at Akershus at 11:55am
Dinner will be at Via Napoli, but I don't have a flight schedule for my Brother's bunch, so I don't know if they will still be there at Dinner or not. I had to make 2 reservations because they don't have tables for 10. So 7:30 pm for 4 people and for 6 people....I'll have to cancel the 6 person if they end up leaving before, which I kind of think they will.

July 28th
Magic Kingdom day with Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern at 12:05

July 29th
Epcot with a Garden Grill breakfast at 9:30am and Dinner at Teppan Edo, which I hope I don't regret. That's at 6 so we can be done before any evening show that might be going on...not sure if Illuminations will still be there or not.

July 30th
Lunch at Be Our Guest at 12:30, Dinner at 'Ohana at 8:15...I THINK that's about right for a fireworks view table, but I could be wrong. Anyone with some experience here?

July 31st
I have this as a Disney Springs Day, so probably Homecomin' dinner....ADR to be made tomorrow

August 1st
Not sure...to be determined

August 2nd
Epcot day with Beaches and Cream just for Ice Cream.

August 3rd
Check out day...Hollywood Studios with a Mama Melrose dinner with Fantasmic Dining Package.
Check in at the Double Tree at Seaworld

August 4th -6th....relax, swim, shop the outlets....whatever.

August 7th, check out of Double tree and check in at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios.
August 11th, check out and fly home.

 

[Tuvalu]

Just a head’s up about your ‘Ohana ADR ~ Happily Ever After will be at 9:15 pm so you should still be in the restaurant at that time, BUT there are very few tables with a “fireworks view.” And not all tables next to windows overlook Cinderella Castle with a decent fireworks view. The best fireworks view from inside the Great Ceremonial House is from the windows on the second floor lobby, outside the restaurant. Just wanted you to keep your expectations in check.

 

[Songbird76]

Just a head’s up about your ‘Ohana ADR ~ Happily Ever After will be at 9:15 pm so you should still be in the restaurant at that time, BUT there are very few tables with a “fireworks view.” And not all tables next to windows overlook Cinderella Castle with a decent fireworks view. The best fireworks view from inside the Great Ceremonial House is from the windows on the second floor lobby, outside the restaurant. Just wanted you to keep your expectations in check.

That's good to know, thank you! I guess we'll just let them know we're willing to wait for a fireworks view table and if it works out, it works out. If not, we still get dinner there. I wanted to make it late enough that we'd actually be HUNGRY by that time, but not so late that we'd have trouble getting back to CBR after dinner, since we'd have to get to a park first and THEN fight the crowds departing in droves. Seeing the fireworks would just be a side benefit.

 

[krisri18]

That's a whole lotta ADRs!!!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Well....ADR day is certainly an adventure! I have not yet booked Hoop Dee Doo for 2 reasons. 1, it's not going to work for arrival night, so I need to figure out where to put it. And 2, I do not have a valid credit card that I can make charges to at the moment. I'm hoping to get that resolved this afternoon, but it was already an exercise in futility to try to make ADRs online as it kept rejecting my cards and I kept calling the card companies to figure out why it was rejecting. One is probably because the card expires while we're on our trip and they don't send out new cards until 3 months before, which would be fine if it would still let me use the card to hold the reservation, but it won't. So that card had to be canceled completely and a NEW account set up and a card is being expidited, but won't make it here until next week. But if they just sent a new card for the old account now, apparently it would be treated like a lost or stolen card and would just have the same expiration date that's on it now, which wouldn't help me. So, that card had to be canceled in order to get a new one...next week.
Card #2, I'm still dealing with my dad's estate, which I THOUGHT we had all the credit card and bank stuff done 2 years ago when I left the US....I was wrong.
Card #3 I apparently never activated. I have now, but Dutch credit cards are attached to your bank account...you can't spend more than you have, and we don't have the money in our account yet to pay for hoop-dee-doo. It's fine to hold a reservation, but I have to pay for Hoop in advance, so I have to wait until I get card #1 next week, or I get card #2 resolved.
Card #4 is actually my husband's and worked for ONE transaction, and then nothing afterwards.

So I have learned my lesson. Always call the dining line and let THEM make your reservations for you. It's much faster, and they can get the times you want.

We tried to book our flights last night, which is when we discovered card #2 is not working, and I have to contact the bank, which does not open until this afternoon my time. BUT, that's also when we realized Hoop Dee Doo is not going to work for our arrival night. I'm super bummed. It would have been perfect....get right into the fun, have entertainment without having to use park tickets for a partial day. But, there are no flights that leave late enough on the Friday, so we can't leave until Saturday and then we don't arrive until 8:40 p.m. The kids both have school on Friday the 19th of July, and while DS always gets out at 12:30 on Fridays, we don't know what time DD gets out, but it could be as late as 3:00pm. Assuming 3:00, the EARLIEST we could get to the airport is 5pm, and since you have to be there about 3-4 hours before your flight leaves, we can't leave until at LEAST 9:00pm. And we can't find any flights that leave after something like 1pm. Even if we try flying from Dusseldorf instead of Amsterdam, it doesn't work and it's way more expensive. So...we just aren't going to be able to be there before evening on the 20th.

My brother and my cousin have not gotten back to me on ANYTHING regarding dining. I sent them a list of places for which we were planning to make ADRs with the request that they let me know which ones they want to do too, so I could make reservations for the whole party. My cousin still doesn't have lodging OR tickets. I booked my brother's lodging myself, so I know he HAS it...but he hasn't set up a My Disney Experience account or anything. Not knowing if my cousin is still planning to come or not, I did not include her in ADRs. I DID include my brother's family up through the 27th, which is their check-out day. If he doesn't want to join us, it's easier to reduce the number than it is to increase it. So I just went ahead and made the reservations for his family with ours.
So here's the itinerary so far:

Arrive July 20th in the evening and check in.

July 21st, Epcot day. Not sure what time the park will open, but the only reservation I could get at Bon Voyage Breakfast for a large group was 9:10 am. Not ideal, but we'll deal.
Then a 7:00pm Biergarten dinner.

July 22nd
10:55 Boma breakfast. We can rope drop the park, then go to a late breakfast as the park gets busier and hotter.

July 23rd
10:25 am 1900 Park Fare breakfast Rope drop MK, then head to breakfast.
6:35 pm Whispering Canyon Early enough that we can make it back for fireworks if we want to.

July 24th
Hollywood Studios with 11:35 am lunch at 50s Prime Time

July 25th
Waterpark day, my BIL's birthday, 6:35 pm dinner at 1900 Park Fare for us. I've offered to take my niece that evening so my brother and his husband can have a date night for BIL's birthday, so they might make other reservations, but I've not heard back, so I don't know.

July 26th
AK day....maybe. This may end up being a split up day. My brother thinks my niece will want to spend more time at AK than anywhere else, but my family doesn't really like AK. We'd rather spend our time anywhere else, and since we already have one AK day scheduled, and my bro can also go on the 20th before we arrive, I don't want to go to AK if I don't have to. We'll see how fastpasses for FOP go, and maybe rope drop Navi River...that's about it for our must dos there because we've not seen them yet. DH wants to do EE, but for the rest, there's nothing we would mind skipping. I'd kind of like to see Rivers of light, since it was pushed back on our last trip and didn't end up being shown while we were there.

July 27th
Rope drop Epcot to do either TT or Soarin' (I will do Soarin' either way). Lunch at Akershus at 11:55am
Dinner will be at Via Napoli, but I don't have a flight schedule for my Brother's bunch, so I don't know if they will still be there at Dinner or not. I had to make 2 reservations because they don't have tables for 10. So 7:30 pm for 4 people and for 6 people....I'll have to cancel the 6 person if they end up leaving before, which I kind of think they will.

July 28th
Magic Kingdom day with Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern at 12:05

July 29th
Epcot with a Garden Grill breakfast at 9:30am and Dinner at Teppan Edo, which I hope I don't regret. That's at 6 so we can be done before any evening show that might be going on...not sure if Illuminations will still be there or not.

July 30th
Lunch at Be Our Guest at 12:30, Dinner at 'Ohana at 8:15...I THINK that's about right for a fireworks view table, but I could be wrong. Anyone with some experience here?

July 31st
I have this as a Disney Springs Day, so probably Homecomin' dinner....ADR to be made tomorrow

August 1st
Not sure...to be determined

August 2nd
Epcot day with Beaches and Cream just for Ice Cream.

August 3rd
Check out day...Hollywood Studios with a Mama Melrose dinner with Fantasmic Dining Package.
Check in at the Double Tree at Seaworld

August 4th -6th....relax, swim, shop the outlets....whatever.

August 7th, check out of Double tree and check in at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios.
August 11th, check out and fly home.

I love your itinerary! It is really hard to plan for extended family on a trip. I did that once. It was NOT fun.

 

[Songbird76]

That's a whole lotta ADRs!!!

Yeah, we wouldn't do that many, but we have the free dining deal...well, we would get free QS, but we upgrade to regular dining so we can do character meals and such. Since we're staying for 2 weeks, we have 14 TS credits. We also do a couple like Beaches and Cream where we don't eat a full meal there, but it's so small, you kind of need an ADR. So we end up with a LOT of ADRs. I know a lot of people don't like to be that tied down, or to take that much time out of the parks, but it works for us. 2 weeks gives us time to slow down and really enjoy ourselves and still do everything we want to do. Not everyone has that luxury. But especially with DS...we have to have down time and not do too much or he will get overwhelmed and melt down. And he has to have the schedule pretty defined...he needs to know what he's going to eat each night. At home I have a white board and I fill it out every week with all our schedules and with what we're eating every night. If I don't do that, he get's anxious and can't sleep, or will have meltdowns, etc. When we're on vacation, obviously I can't take the whiteboard with me, but he still needs to be able to see where/what we are going to eat. He's already a bit upset about 50s Prime Time because he thinks they are going to make him stand in the corner if he puts his elbows on the table, and they didn't even do that last time because I told them to go light on the theming with him. But he knows that's one of the things they sometimes do to people, so he's worried about it. We have to have the structure so he can process it and be prepared for what's coming. Like I said, it works for our family, but I know a lot of people look at that list and think "Oh my goodness, I could never do that!"

 

[Songbird76]

I love your itinerary! It is really hard to plan for extended family on a trip. I did that once. It was NOT fun.

Well really, I'm not supposed to be doing all the planning. We're all supposed to kind of be helping each other out, but C's brothers are dragging their feet, so they might not be coming and I think my she is hoping that they will change their minds, so she keeps waiting to book things in case they suddenly decide to join. But if she's not careful she's going to miss out on everything because all the ADRs will be gone. They were planning to stay off property with the whole group, but if her brothers don't go, they only have a group of 5 and could stay on property and have free dining. But that deal only lasts a couple more weeks, so I was hoping she'd have booked by now.
I told my brother I can't make his fastpasses for him....he's not made an account, so I can't link his reservations to mine. And I don't want to do all his planning and then leave my cousin out because she's the only one not staying on property. And I don't want to decide for them when they have to go where....We're all going to need time apart from each other, too. (we love each other, but we can get on each others' nerves) So I don't want to just add their reservations onto my account. I want him to make his own account and decide for himself what fastpasses he wants for his family. I'm happy to advise him, but I don't want that stress all on me that I am constantly worried about whether they are having a good time or not, because then I don't get to have a good time. For the most part, I want my niece to have a blast, and I want my kids to get to share their love of Disney with her. My daughter has been wanting to do Disney with N for YEARS, and she's sooooo excited about it. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have worked so hard on the ADR list. I would have just made the ones for my 4 and let JJ learn the hard way. But I don't think the kids should be the ones to pay the price for my brother's lack of planning.
Wow....that sounds really mean, doesn't it?

 

[krisri18]

Yeah, we wouldn't do that many, but we have the free dining deal...well, we would get free QS, but we upgrade to regular dining so we can do character meals and such. Since we're staying for 2 weeks, we have 14 TS credits. We also do a couple like Beaches and Cream where we don't eat a full meal there, but it's so small, you kind of need an ADR. So we end up with a LOT of ADRs. I know a lot of people don't like to be that tied down, or to take that much time out of the parks, but it works for us. 2 weeks gives us time to slow down and really enjoy ourselves and still do everything we want to do. Not everyone has that luxury. But especially with DS...we have to have down time and not do too much or he will get overwhelmed and melt down. And he has to have the schedule pretty defined...he needs to know what he's going to eat each night. At home I have a white board and I fill it out every week with all our schedules and with what we're eating every night. If I don't do that, he get's anxious and can't sleep, or will have meltdowns, etc. When we're on vacation, obviously I can't take the whiteboard with me, but he still needs to be able to see where/what we are going to eat. He's already a bit upset about 50s Prime Time because he thinks they are going to make him stand in the corner if he puts his elbows on the table, and they didn't even do that last time because I told them to go light on the theming with him. But he knows that's one of the things they sometimes do to people, so he's worried about it. We have to have the structure so he can process it and be prepared for what's coming. Like I said, it works for our family, but I know a lot of people look at that list and think "Oh my goodness, I could never do that!"

Do what works for your family, I'm impressed that you coordinated all of that. Hope your extended family gets on board soon!

 

[Songbird76]

I got my Homecomin' ADR for July 31st. Yay! I changed my mind about when to do the Fantasmic Dining package. I had it on the 3rd, which is our checkout day, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do it that late because we're going to have to transfer to an off property hotel, rent a car, etc...So since I had nothing filled in for August 1st, and I had kind of penciled in a water park day there, I thought we could do a dinner that night and watch Fantasmic after we're done at the water parks, if that's what we decide to do.

Then we're going to do an 'Ohana breakfast out of pocket on August 2nd. I have that as a probable Epcot day, but we can do a breakfast there, then just have ice cream at Beaches and cream later in the day. I remember last time, we had unused credits because DS doesn't eat everywhere, and if DD and I share at Whispering Canyon and maybe 50s Prime time, we'll still get plenty to eat and we'll have a couple of credits left over so we won't have to pay as much out of pocket for the 'Ohana breakfast. Is that a crazy plan?

 

[Figgy1]

I got my Homecomin' ADR for July 31st. Yay! I changed my mind about when to do the Fantasmic Dining package. I had it on the 3rd, which is our checkout day, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do it that late because we're going to have to transfer to an off property hotel, rent a car, etc...So since I had nothing filled in for August 1st, and I had kind of penciled in a water park day there, I thought we could do a dinner that night and watch Fantasmic after we're done at the water parks, if that's what we decide to do.

Then we're going to do an 'Ohana breakfast out of pocket on August 2nd. I have that as a probable Epcot day, but we can do a breakfast there, then just have ice cream at Beaches and cream later in the day. I remember last time, we had unused credits because DS doesn't eat everywhere, and if DD and I share at Whispering Canyon and maybe 50s Prime time, we'll still get plenty to eat and we'll have a couple of credits left over so we won't have to pay as much out of pocket for the 'Ohana breakfast. Is that a crazy plan?

Congrats! Just a word of warning you can't share the skillets at WCC but can share the a la carte items off the menu

 

[Songbird76]

Congrats! Just a word of warning you can't share the skillets at WCC but can share the a la carte items off the menu

Yep, I knew that, but I wasn't planning on doing a skillet this time. I know last time DD got the steak, but I don't think she liked it. We'll have to see when we get there, but we are going more for the atmosphere than we are the food. But we have a lot of buffets that we will have to use credits for, so the only things we can really share are at Whispering Canyon, Homecomin', and 50s Prime time.

 

[Songbird76]

Well, we had to make a few changes. I didn't realize the dining package is only offered at Mama Melrose for lunch, so I made the latest ADR possible for that, which is 3:00pm. I also decided to move it to August 1st, since we had nothing planned for that day, and on the 3rd, we'll need to rent a car, check out, check in at Double tree, etc...so we decided to keep that day more free of obligations.

I booked Hoop Dee Doo for July 26th....my brother's last night there. I don't know if they will want to go with us, and I obviously didn't get tickets for his family since you actually do have to pay in advance for that one, but then at least if he DOES want to do that, we'll be able to go at the same time. I booked the later showing....not sure which one will be busiest, but last time I booked all our ADRs around 5 or 6 pm and we were never really that hungry. So this time I'm booking some later and we can always get a snack to tide us over.

So:
July 21st
-Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al forno at 9:10
-Biergarten dinner at 7:00pm

July 22nd
-Boma breakfast 10:55 am

July 23rd
-Supercalifragilistic breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at 10:25am
-Whispering Canyon dinner at 6:35pm

July 24th
-50s Prime Time lunch at 11:35 am

July 25th
-Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner at 1900 Park Fare at 6:35pm

July 26th
- Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue at 8:30pm

July 27th
-Princess Storybook dining at Akershus at 11:55am
-Via Napoli (out of pocket) at 7:30pm

July 28th
-Liberty Tree Tavern lunch at 12:05pm

July 29th
-Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast Breakfast at 9:30am
-Teppan Edo at 6:00pm (please do NOT let me get beaned in between the eyes or get soaked in hot soup!!)

July 30th
-Be Our Guest Lunch at 12:30pm
-'Ohana dinner at 8:15pm, hopefully with a fireworks view table if it works out.

July 31st
-Homecomin' at 5:30pm

August 1st
-Sci-Fi Dine In Theater (out of pocket, appetizers and drinks) at 11:00am
-Fantasmic Dining package at Mama Melrose at 3:00pm

August 2nd
-Best Friends Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at 'Ohana at 9:45am
-Beaches and Cream (out of pocket, just ice cream) at 3:10pm


So that's it for ADRs. Whew.
DD and I worked on ears today. We have a lot of them put together minus the bows now. We got DD's Carrot ears made, but not put together, and got my Haunted Mansion ears made but not put together. DD is working on the skulls for Carrots, but she has the swords done. We need to put the Brave ears together, but we've got all the components made. Now we need to make bows for Belle, Mulan, Cinderella, Elsa, the Rainbow hearts....here's what we have so far:

not pictured: My Haunted Mansion ears, DD's lady and the tramp ears, though the red and white checkered bow is there, Elsa, and we also want to make Anna ones, and another set of Little Mermaid ones.

As with our DLP trip, we probably won't keep them all. I do love my Carrot ones, so I'll probably keep those, and DD's HM ones rock...the rest, we'll probably try to find good homes for. As much as I love them, they WILL take a lot of room in the suitcase, so I don't know we'll want to bring them back with us. We'll be giving some to whatever little girls end up coming with our family....my niece, and C's daughter, and if C's brother M comes, he has 2 girls as well. So we'll see.

But if you are in the parks in Late July or Early August and you see a pair of homemade ears you recognize, you can come say hi! (Or run away fast, whichever you prefer. Though you have our dining itinerary, so you know how to avoid us or find us anyway!)

 

[Songbird76]

Updated Disney crafts:
DD's Minnie Mouse dress and the cupcake she made, just for fun

And our completed ears and a close up of the Brave ears so you can see the theming because we didn't have them done when I took this picture 2 days ago:

These are just the ones we have done now. I am making one more pair of Frozen ones....I don't like the one in the picture. The ears are too big and don't stay up, so I have smaller ones sewn and I just need to stuff them and cover a band and put them together. We also have homemade lady and the tramp TsumTsums, and Winnie and Piglet, so those will become ears soon, and we realized today that we don't have Tiana ones made. I'd also like to make Anna ones, but I don't have material that's really her style....we'll have to see. And we have 2 pairs of Haunted Mansion themes, and 2 pairs of Carrots themes, since those are our favorite rides and we both want a pair. Oh....and I'm making another pair of Little Mermaid ones, because DD's turned out so cute, I wanted a pair, too.

So that's it so far! Next project will be the autograph books. And we also want to get skins for our magic bands....I know the one site is Magicyourband, but I looked at another and don't remember the name of it. Where do you all do that?

 

[Songbird76]

Update:
Biergarten dinner has been changed to 6:40 because my cousins, who are now ALL coming, but the week before us, and just staying long enough to see us and then leaving, decided they want to have a dinner with all of us. I had the Biergarten ADR for 10 of us at 7pm, but with all my cousins, it's 23 people, and they didn't have an ADR to accommodate the other 13 at 7, but they could accommodate us all at 6:40. So, that will be fun. And now, it will actually be only 20 of us because my brother's in-laws are not coming now. His FIL couldn't get time off work, and the rest of the family is starting a new business and can't take vacation then.

So, we arrive July 20th in the evening, no idea when my brother's family gets there as they have JUST decided to fly and haven't booked flights. But my cousins will already be there, but do not have park hopper tickets. They will make the 21st their Epcot day so we can go to Biergarten together that night. They leave on the 22nd, and then it's just my brother's family and mine until the 27th? Or 28th....now I need to check that. And then it's just my 4 for the 2nd week, and for Universal. But my best friend is moving back to the US from Australia just before our trip and she might come visit while we're at Universal, but it will be just her and her daughter and a lot less stress involved because I don't have to do any planning for that.

I paid my balance on Wednesday, so we're good to go.

 

[Songbird76]

You guys, I am so so so ticked off! I hope it can be fixed, but the last CM I talked to was an incompetent twit!! A few weeks ago, I started paying off all the balances on the bookings for our trip this summer, because I needed to do it in smaller payments as I have a $5000 limit on my card. The balance was due yesterday for all 3 reservations, one of which was canceled as my brother's in-laws can't come now.
So, 2 weeks ago, when I tried to make a payment on my brother's booking, the CM told me that because of the new privacy laws, I needed permission from the lead guest on the booking to make any changes, including payments. I said I thought it was weird about payments, because if someone calls and wants to pay for my vacation, I'm not going to say no! But I understood about the privacy laws, and she gave me an email address and phone number for the lead guest to give permission. The email had to come from the account associated with the booking, which is MY email, for all of them, and obviously that wouldn't work since I'm here and they are not and I'm NOT giving out my password so they can log in as me to send the email. But the gal said "I could never encourage you to do something against the privacy laws, but the email does need to come with a typed signature from the email address on the booking." hint hint....so I got permission from both my brother and R to send emails from my account in their names giving me permission to make changes, including payments and in R's case, cancelations to the booking, and I sent the emails and got confirmation that they had noted the permission on the bookings.
Wednesday, I called to pay off my brother's and cancel R's. When I called, the gal asked what I needed and I said I needed to cancel one, and pay the balance of another. She asked me which I needed to cancel, I gave her the invoice number, she asked for the lead guest's name and I gave her all the information, and then she tells me "Well due to the new privacy laws, I would need to get an email from the lead guest on the booking authorizing you...." and I said "Which you have." and she says "If I could just finish...I would need to get an email from the lead guest giving permission to make changes, or to cancel the booking. Only the lead guest can cancel the booking, using the email on file which is <insert my email addres>." I told her I had had him send an email giving me permission to make changes, including cancelations." Only the lead guest can cancel, using the email address listed on the booking. So I said ok, I'll have him email, so I guess I just need to make a payment on the other reservation. She asked for the invoice number, verified the name on the booking, the address on file, email, etc....asked how much I wanted to pay, I said the whole balance, which she read off and it was definitely my brother's, because it was the cheaper of the two because his 3rd person in the room is a 6 year old and R's third person was an adult, so there was the extra adult charge. So I know it was the correct booking that I paid off in full. I got the email with a new invoice, which I forwarded to my brother without looking at. I immediately sent an email canceling R's reservation and received a confirmation email that they received the email.
Now today, I get an email that my brother's balance is overdue. How can that be....I paid it off Wednesday!? I check my credit card online...the payment went through....and I got the invoice! I go look up the invoice....it was for R's booking! She credited the payment to the wrong booking!!! And now I'm in default on my brother's, and I already wrote to cancel R's....so now I don't know how I can fix it! The cast member was not very helpful in the first place...she seemed impatient like she just wanted the call to be over and didn't particularly want to be talking to me.
So, I called as soon as they opened and got disconnected 3 times. I called, got a very nice CM who said no problem, she could transfer the funds to the correct reservation, and then I got a busy signal...disconnected. So I hung up, tried again....different CM, but also very nice and helpful, got all the booking info for both reservations pulled up, and then I got a busy signal....disconnected again. So I called a third time, got a very nice CM, explained I had been disconnected each time, asked her to call me back if it happened again, gave her my number. I explain the situation, she says she needs to put me on hold while she speaks with a supervisor, I get the Disney hold music. Yay!!! It worked....and then beep beep beep...disconnected AGAIN. I hung up and waited for the call back. That was more than an hour ago. So I finally just sent an email explaining the situation, AND the calls I had made today, begging them to help me. I was nice and polite in the email, so hopefully they will get back to me fast and we can get it resolved. I don't want to have to tell my niece that she doesn't get to go to Disney because the cast member who took the payment was an idiot.

 

[Swissmiss]

Hope it all gets sorted. It’s good to know about the privacy law issues, which sound like this is because you book though one of the European websites, as I am the one to make the reservations for my family and my sister’s family (and make some of the payments) but I always use the US site and had no issues making them or changing them in February and April of this year. At least in our case I associate her email with her reservation so even if this were to start happening with the US site, getting an email sent from her wouldn’t be an issue.

 

[Songbird76]

Hope it all gets sorted. It’s good to know about the privacy law issues, which sound like this is because you book though one of the European websites, as I am the one to make the reservations for my family and my sister’s family (and make some of the payments) but I always use the US site and had no issues making them or changing them in February and April of this year. At least in our case I associate her email with her reservation so even if this were to start happening with the US site, getting an email sent from her wouldn’t be an issue.

But in order to get the European deals, you have to go through the European website. My computer won't even let me access the American website. It automatically kicks me over to the European one. But my brother lives in the US, so he was not eligible for the deal I got through the UK site, as it's only for European residents. So I had to do the bookings and use my address, and it was just easier for me to handle it. But they changed the privacy law after I made the bookings. The first gal I spoke with said Christmas was difficult because there were a lot of grandparents wanting to give a Disney Trip as a gift and had a hard time because of these laws.

I did get it all sorted out. I kept calling back and managed to get the same person 3 times, so she knew the situation and forwarded my call to the Care team, and the guy there had been informed of the connection problems, so he worked fast. Supposedly it's all done now, though I'm still waiting for the updated invoice.

 

[Swissmiss]

In order to access one of the other websites you usually have to “force” the change to that website (on the top in lighter blue text it will tell you which website you are on and from there you can change it). I have this same issue with the DLP website, as I like to look at prices in EUR in order to better compare with offsite hotels but it often defaults to a different country.