*** The Official August 2016 Thread! ***

[figmentfan423]

We are driving also going to do it overnight for the first time, hoping the kids will sleep the majority of the time.

We always drive down good old 95 LOL. Get a portable DVD player and lots of Disney movies they're a life saver!

 

[figmentfan423]

This is the most important one to us! 8:00am Crystal Palace is our must do every trip. We are hoping to get it for the last day of our trip. Fingers crossed. Glad to hear you got it!

Thank you it's for our last Disney park day and we made it at 180 days out at 6am. Of course my boys just had to do that one on our last day when I'm booking ADRs one day at a time for time time we're spending in a condo. Insert more bad words here. Teens

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

Thank you it's for our last Disney park day and we made it at 180 days out at 6am. Of course my boys just had to do that one on our last day when I'm booking ADRs one day at a time for time time we're spending in a condo. Insert more bad words here. Teens

Lol ... I have teenage girls. I hear you

 

[Jake & Crew]

Much to the chagrin of my kids I was able to book our return flights on Southwest this week when the schedule opened. We booked our rooms at 7 months (DVC) on January 2nd and booked our flights down that day as well. It was $98 one way leaving at 6:45am non-stop. Decided to book it and wait for Feb 18th to book the return since those dates were not available. My parents and sister jumped on board with my plan.

Thank goodness we did it! By February 18 that same one way flight was $212!

My sister and I hopped on SW the minute they opened and while on the phone with each other she ( and my parents) decided on a 3:25 return non-stop and my husband talked me into the 8pm non-stop the fare was $105 so we all paid $203 round trip! So excited as we have not paid less than $300 the last few trips. Does help we are flying on Tuesdays but the real key was booking when we did. By bedtime on the 18th I checked and my sister/parents return flight was already up $15 per ticket!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

This is the most important one to us! 8:00am Crystal Palace is our must do every trip. We are hoping to get it for the last day of our trip. Fingers crossed. Glad to hear you got it!

We do it on the last morning every trip as well!! Great way to close...

 

[DisPrncess19]

We always drive down good old 95 LOL. Get a portable DVD player and lots of Disney movies they're a life saver!

We did 95 once before kids, we are coming from Jersey. We live in Western Jersey now though so we go through the mountains down 81. It's a little longer but less stressful. We do have the DVD players, but as with anyone they just want to get to Disney. They are 5 and 2.

 

[hsmamainva]

Driving down 95 here, too, from Virginia! We usually stop in SC or GA to break the trip up into 8 hour & 5 hour segments. We HAVE done it all in one day, but that's a lot of car time! The kids would rather spend a night in a hotel with an indoor pool!

 

[figmentfan423]

We did 95 once before kids, we are coming from Jersey. We live in Western Jersey now though so we go through the mountains down 81. It's a little longer but less stressful. We do have the DVD players, but as with anyone they just want to get to Disney. They are 5 and 2.

We did that last trip all the way to SC to avoid a Tropical storm going up 95 and made it to Ga before stopping for the night.. BTW howdy neighbor

 

[think-like-tink]

We are sitting tight at 172 days.

 

[dizneeat]

We are sitting tight at 172 days.

We're right behind you.

 

[dizneeat]

BudgieMama, since you offered to change my dates here are the new ones:
Aug 3 - 6 Bay Lake Tower
Aug 6 - 10 Old Key West
Aug 10 - 14 Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani
Aug 14 - 17 Old Key West
Aug 17 - 18 Bay Lake Tower

Thank you! We are still in the list with Aug 3 - 7 Pop, Aug 7 - 11 Kidani and Aug 11 - 18 OKW.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

We are sitting tight at 172 days.

We're right behind you.

And we are following you dizneeat and think-like-tink Only 177 days for us

 

[DisPrncess19]

Driving down 95 here, too, from Virginia! We usually stop in SC or GA to break the trip up into 8 hour & 5 hour segments. We HAVE done it all in one day, but that's a lot of car time! The kids would rather spend a night in a hotel with an indoor pool!

yes, we did the stop in South Carolina last year when we drove to Florida for a family wedding. This trip we are going with my Best Friend and her daughter so we will have 3 drivers, it's also a surprise trip that the kids don't know about. We are telling them we are going to the beach in Florida, so we are hoping to catch them off guard.

 

[DisPrncess19]

We did that last trip all the way to SC to avoid a Tropical storm going up 95 and made it to Ga before stopping for the night.. BTW howdy neighbor

Howdy! Jersey or PA?

 

[Tomh]

Lot's of North Eastern folks here making the I95 journey. We are from the middle of NY, and also drive down I95.

For us, there is always an overnight stop in South Carolina. We've tried leaving home in the morning, and leaving home EARLY in the morning (2:30am). Last year, we left here at 1:30 in the afternoon, and I was quite surprised at how well it worked out. We got through New Jersey before the evening rush, and by the time we got to D.C. the traffic there had settled down. I95 in Virginia was fine. The ONLY slow ups on the way down were on the belt parkway really. We made it to Manning SC right around 2:00am, grabbed a few hours sleep, and were in Disney by 1:30 in the afternoon.

 

[figmentfan423]

Howdy! Jersey or PA?

Not too far from High Point

 

[DisPrncess19]

Lot's of North Eastern folks here making the I95 journey. We are from the middle of NY, and also drive down I95.

For us, there is always an overnight stop in South Carolina. We've tried leaving home in the morning, and leaving home EARLY in the morning (2:30am). Last year, we left here at 1:30 in the afternoon, and I was quite surprised at how well it worked out. We got through New Jersey before the evening rush, and by the time we got to D.C. the traffic there had settled down. I95 in Virginia was fine. The ONLY slow ups on the way down were on the belt parkway really. We made it to Manning SC right around 2:00am, grabbed a few hours sleep, and were in Disney by 1:30 in the afternoon.

Our game plan is to leave around 5pm on Saturday. Eat an early dinner get on the road, stop and put the kids in the jammies and hope they sleep then until sunrise. Should be an experience, especially since they don't know they are going to Disney. Hoping to arrive in Disney around 11am on Sunday and just have a relaxing pool, rest day. Safe travels to everyone.

 

[Tomh]

Sounds like a plan. I've never tried the overnight drive. It is give or take about 19 hours on the road from here. I'm not terribly sure that I can go quite that long without needing sleep.

Last year, by 2 am I was pretty tired, and very happy to be in Manning where I could get some sleep. I think about the longest I've driven in one shot was from the southern end of Maryland to Florida. We left Glen Burnie Maryland just before 12:00 noon, and got to Orlando at about 2:30 am.

 

[BudgieMama]

Up to date again, I think!!

Hi everyone . Due to changes in state testing dates at my kids' schools and other commitments that require us to remain in town, we moved our planned May trip dates to August 20-27.

Welcome! Do you have somewhere booked? Where are you staying? (I have your dates in the list now!)

We just booked our trip for August 28-Sept 4, staying at Caribbean Beach Resort. It's our second trip as a family, our first was in August of 2014. DH and I had been several times as kids and we had such a great time there with kids of our own. Putting the deposit down is as official as I can be for now, as my work doesn't approve summer time off until April or May, but if I waited, I would have missed out on the 180 day ADR situation. So fingers crossed everything works out, so excited to be going back!

Fingers crossed you get your time off granted!

We'll be there August 16-25. Flights and ADR's booked!

Where are you staying? Your dates are in the list too!

I got one for CP for a pre park opening slot. I think the bottom fell out of my stomach! I refreshed and got it but......... insert lots of bad words LOL

We did CP pre-opening last time, but we have free QSDP this year, so we've opted for a PPO breakfast at Be Our Guest. Got it for our first MK day, at 180+2 days out! YAY!!!

BudgieMama, since you offered to change my dates here are the new ones:
Aug 3 - 6 Bay Lake Tower
Aug 6 - 10 Old Key West
Aug 10 - 14 Animal Kingdom Villas Kidani
Aug 14 - 17 Old Key West
Aug 17 - 18 Bay Lake Tower

Thank you! We are still in the list with Aug 3 - 7 Pop, Aug 7 - 11 Kidani and Aug 11 - 18 OKW.

I think I put all the new ones in and took the old ones out, but let me know if I messed up!!

Can't believe it feels so close now! Time is flying by here, and it feels like I'll be back at WDW in no time at all!!

 

[DisPrncess19]

Sounds like a plan. I've never tried the overnight drive. It is give or take about 19 hours on the road from here. I'm not terribly sure that I can go quite that long without needing sleep.

Last year, by 2 am I was pretty tired, and very happy to be in Manning where I could get some sleep. I think about the longest I've driven in one shot was from the southern end of Maryland to Florida. We left Glen Burnie Maryland just before 12:00 noon, and got to Orlando at about 2:30 am.

Agreed, I like my sleep but there will be 3 drivers so we are going to do shifts of 6 hours each, with stops for potty, food and gas of course. It's about 18 hours from where we are in Jersey. We have time built in should it be to much we can abort and stop either way.